Flightless (LokixReader)

Chapter Eighteen

(A/N: Longer chapter to make up for the shorter ones before... And tbh, I had a ton of fun writing this. Enjoy! Thank you for reading!)

(Your Pov)

You didn't think it would work.

Truly, when Loki described how dragons could sense the amassment of golden treasures, you didn't believe him. You had heard of your kind's protective tendencies, sure. But hoarding? Taking all the precious things to hide and guard and let none come near?

You never wanted to do that.

"Are you sure the dragon will know?" Thor asked his brother for what seemed the fifteen-hundredth time. You admired just how much patience Loki volunteered to demonstrate, a longing filling your chest for the days you spent with your own youth. Flitting about the caves as a fletchling, causing ruckus and mischief, flying above and dodging the reaches of the future's worries. You wanted to hold onto those memories forever.

The magician sighed, "It will see it when it flies past."

And that.

You couldn't help but smirk everytime the princes discussed the cryptid hunters who claimed to see reptilian beasts in the skies here. Humans... Well, you weren't sure how they came up with the idea, but their tradition of hunting the mythical amused you. Even if you were the only dragon on Earth.

Your trio camped beside your bait, staying in eyesight of the mounds of solid sunshine. It glistened and sparkled from every angle as if it were a series of spotlights beaming to the heavens. Loki had definitely thought this plan through, you wouldn't be shy to admit that. Today marked your second day on this hunt. At first the brothers wouldn't dare to speak in fear they may scare off the immortal eldritch beast, but now their nerves had settled to allow such pleasantries to pass the time.

"What do you see?" Loki whispered, as he sat against the bottom of the tree. The mouth of the cave holding your treasures started to rise roughly twenty paces from your hiding place, and your team had taken careful considerations to make sure no other exit left the cavern.

You glanced over to meet his curious gaze. "It's just... so sparkly."

The princes chuckled at your answer, nearly drawing you into their fun. For all that you knew this was a quest leading only to your own destruction, it was... a game. A challenge, a puzzle of cat and mouse that intrigued you every step of the way. Far more interesting than you had first thought when Loki made the deal to drag you along.

"Let's hope it thinks so too." Loki mumbled, giving way to what doubts he held. Even for all his research, nothing could be known for sure until put to the test.

Crunch.

The hunters froze, shifting to return your focus on the cave. To your left crackled the sounds of a creature through the forest underbrush, large enough to snap the fallen branches under its weight. You could see the top of its shadow bob in and out of the sunlit patches from the canopy above, something bulky and almost... Horned.

There are no dragons on Midgard.

A second shadow followed, thinner as it waved back and forth behind the first. The curve of its back, surely. But that would make this... this thing, longer than spaces between the trees, nor even the mouth of the cave from east to west wall.

It couldn't be a dragon. Asgard killed them all. You watched it happen.

And yet... Yet if it was...

Thor summoned his umbrella from where it laid against his own hidey-tree. Loki watched carefully with an icy gaze, something that wanted to mimic Thor's for all that it fell short in curiosity. You glanced between the two who had come here with only one purpose in mind.