Frosted Dreams (NaNoWriMo2020)

Femtien

The girl whirls to face Loki, her golden hair spinning around her in a sheet. Loki laughs at the fear filling her eyes and bares his teeth at her in a grin. She should be afraid, she knows that he knows her plan. She steps closer to Jaak, raising the stick in her hand. She's going to attack Jaak. How can he not see? Loki snarls at the girl.

"Step away from my son!"

Jaak steps in front of the girl, blocking the path Loki's magic could take to reach her. "Leave her alone, Pappa."

"I won't. All she will do is hurt you."

Jaak glares. "The only thing that will hurt me now is you harming her. So leave her alone!"

The girl touches Jaak's shoulder, stepping out from behind him. She glances at Loki and narrows her eyes before she bites her lip, trying to trick Jaak into thinking she's harmless.

"He isn't going to stop, Jaak."

Loki grins savagely. "You're right, I'm not. So how about you just walk over here and we can get this over with. I'll stop you from hurting him, once and for all."

The girl stares at Loki for a few moments before she takes a step forward, gripping the stick in her hands. It's clearly a weapon of some kind, he'll have to get it away from her before she can attack him with it or even worse, attack Jaak. As the girl steps forward, Jaak reaches out to grab her wrist.

"Hika, what are you doing?"

"He isn't going to stop and I don't think we're going to get away this time. You can't travel using your snow again, not with how you reacted, and I doubt he would let us use the Bifrost. You, maybe, but not me. So I have to do this."

Jaak's grip tightens. "But he's going to kill you!"

Hika turns back towards Jaak, keeping one eye on Loki. Her grip tightens on her fire stick, but she doesn't use it. She knows that if she attacks him, Loki would kill her within a heartbeat. He won't let her touch Jaak, not even a hair on his head. Her voice is soft, yet another attempt to make her seem innocent.

"He's going to try to kill me, yes. But he's going to do that no matter what I do. I might as well face him on my terms, when I have a chance to protect myself."

"Let me help you."

She shakes her head. "No."

Jaak looks surprised, but he drops her hand. Hika steps forward, tightening her grip on the stick at her side. The center of it gleams where it peeks through her fingers, lit by the stars high above her head. More stars appear to meet it, the girl's hair shimmering with a dark light. He glares at her.

How dare she force the stars down from the sky! If he looks up, he can see the empty patches of darkness they've been stolen from. He can see them from the corners of his eyes even now, hints of black sky. But he doesn't look, she wants him to do that. If he does, she can attack him or Jaak. He won't fall to her tricks.

Loki moves to send a creeping wave of ice to freeze her in place, but she slashes down with her stick. A sword of flame swipes down, cutting across his ice before it can reach her and burning it away. Loki scowls. Yes, he'll have to get that stick away from her. He lashes out again, but this time with flame of his own, trying to catch her off guard.

It does, for a heartbeat, but she counters him with a whip of burning light that deflects his flame to the side before it curls around his wrists and releases him. The girl has her eyes narrowed in concentration, and Loki can feel a weight around his wrist. He looks down to see bands of light around his skin that burn with white-hot heat, hotter than any flame he's ever touched.

Not only has she forced the stars from their position in the heavens, this girl is forcing them to bend to her very will. He looks up at the sky this time to see that where two familiar stars should be, there is nothing. He lunges for the girl in rage, anger coursing through him at the realisation that she has torn the memory of Jaak's grandfather from the sky to use against Loki himself.

As Loki moves across the snow, already packed from the circling between himself and the star-thieving girl, he glances over at his son to gauge his reaction. Jaak seems to be intent on launching himself into the fight. He is even staring at the girl, he must have realized what she did and is waiting to attack.

Loki looks forward at the girl again, barely feeling the burning at his wrist. He's endured torture before, he won't let this distract him. Not now. He keeps moving, grabbing onto the girl's stick and flinging it far away from her, ignoring the pain in his hand that arises with the action. At the same time, he slams his hand against the deceptively soft skin of her arm and sends a blast of ice into her.

The girl stumbles back, gasping, and a blast of light launches Loki backwards. He can feel his flesh blistering at the heat, turning bright red. He ignores the pain, his body is already healing. It won't matter in only a few moments. Loki stares the girl down, watching her realize that she has lost her only weapon. He smiles to himself, risking a glance at his son. This girl won't be able to hurt him, ever. She's lost now.

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Femtien = fifty-one (Norwegian)

What do you think of this peek into Loki's head? It puts things into a completely different light, doesn't it? What do you think of Hika's choices in this fight? What's going to happen next? Tell me your thoughts!

Happy reading and I'll see you next chapter!

~ Goddess of Fate, signing out