A Whole Bunch of Loki's

Deep into the Woods - And I Love, Animal Prologue

(This will be the prologue chapter to both this and FrankenLoki...whenever I finish that.)

It was early morning on Midgard when Loki arrived in the forest.

The leaves and branches still had dew on from the drop in temperature over night and spider webs shone like morbid decorations worthy of Asgard, beautiful, glistening and intricate.

As he stepped over a fallen branch, Loki flipped through the book he had taken from his library back home, mentally cursing himself for being careless and losing his place just before arriving.

He occasionally stumbled over a branch or found himself stepping awkwardly on a small hole in the ground, causing his ankle to twist and sending a short jolt of pain through his leg.

Every now and then he let out a quiet curse or a hiss along with the hint of pain, his teeth gritting in irritation at the repeat occurrence on the unsteady ground.

It wasn't that he wasn't adept to adventure and unknown territory, he was quite often found out with Thor on various escapades, but that didn't make uneven terrain, repetitive jolts of pain and no sense of direction any easier and on that particular day it seemed to be getting on top of his mood.

"All this for some accursed plant only found on Midgard," he grumbled to himself.

Somewhere during his stumbling Loki managed to find stable ground along a well trodden path and relished at not twisting his ankle every other step, not that the discomfort lasted any longer than a couple of seconds, but the repetition wore his usually calm resolve down faster.

He blindly followed the path beneath him, hoping that it'd eventually take him into an area that wasn't just trees hiding more trees so that he could get his bearings and begin to devise an easy way to find the plant he needed and leave.

From somewhere behind him, deep amongst the trees, a loud snap drew his attention, making Loki stop his page flipping and look over his shoulder.

He scanned the surrounding area, his eyes narrowing as he concentrated and waited for another sound.

He didn't have to wait long, for merely seconds later another branch was loudly snapped and rustling came from the bushes surrounding him, as if whatever was out there was racing between the foliage to make him paranoid, panicked and even more disoriented.

Whatever it was, was toying with him.

Loki felt the familiar buzz from his magic as it flared up, both as a means of comfort and protection as he continued down the path in a hurried pace.

Despite how quickly he moved, the unseen thing managed to keep up without a break in its speed and he soon found himself sprinting down the path with the thing close behind.

At one point he found himself at a fork in the path and took this moment to use his talents in illusion to confuse the thing, sending a clone of himself to the left as he ran right.

His heart gradually stopped racing in panic as he reached an empty circular clearing and could neither see nor hear any trace of whatever had been following him.

Taking this brief moment to catch his breath and to stop his chest from aching, Loki walked over to a large rock that sat before him.

The muscles in his legs ached at the relief of sitting down and Loki leant forward and let his head hang to his chest, taking some deep breaths, his lungs aching from the mixture of adrenaline, panic and having to running for his life.

A low grumble caught his attention and Loki lifted his head, his eyes scanning the area once again as he mentally cursed at barely having a second to breathe.

Slowly he stood up again and his hand slowly starting to burn as his magic returned in preparation, his book had long been discarded on the floor of the forest.

From just to his left came a loud rustling of branches and he deftly spun towards the sound, ready to defend himself.

As Loki trained his eye on the shrubbery, waiting for any sign of a physical being so he could send out a warning shot, something collided harshly into his back and threw him down onto the floor none too elegantly.

A grunt left him as he hit the floor and the thing winded him, he'd barely had a moment to grasp what was happening before a heavy weight leant onto his back and a searing hot pain ripped through his shoulder.

His yell of agony echoed in their surrounding area, if not further, and more followed as the thing tore at his clothes and skin, unrelenting and torturous until his world turned black.