Blue Moon| Book 1 | An Avengers fan fiction series| *under editing*

54- Never Smile at a Crocodile (*)

"Thea, if you do not shut up, I will gag you, tie you up, and drag you up that wall."

"How are you going to  tie me up?" I ask sweetly. "You don't have any rope." 

Loki gives me a look that very clearly says he wants to smack me and leave me here to rot for eternity, or perhaps knock me off the side of the path and forge an accident. 

He throws me a dagger perhaps harder than necessary, but I catch it with a flick of my wrist anyway. Loki takes the silver one from his belt and considers the wall, then begins to move upwards, digging the point of the dagger into the wall to steady himself. 

He scales the wall quickly, even with the burden of his scepter, but as his feet press on the rocky holdings, they begin to crumble and shake. It's going to be much harder for me to do this than him, and not only because he's (admittedly) probably stronger than me, but also because the holdings are no longer steady (if you could call them that in the first place). 

Loki scrambles to his feet and looks down at me. "Come on, Thea." 

I cock my head at the wall, considering it. Then, taking a running leap, I dig the emerald dagger into the hard-packed earth, my feet madly scrambling for a holding. I find one, but with a crack, it disintegrates into dust. Crying out, I bring my other hand up, grasping the hilt of the dagger.

I swing my right foot up, and it catches a holding of stone. Pulling myself up in this awkward position is no easy task, but I manage to yank out the dagger and put it in between my teeth. I use my hands now, looking for a place to put them, desperate. 

The holding that is supporting my foot begins to crumble. Panting, I reach up, stretching and grabbing a higher holding just as my foot holding collapses. Before I can slide down, I grab the dagger and use my left hand to pierce the wall with it. I'm now holding onto the dagger with my let hand and the unsteady holding with my right. I look down and wince; I'm at a point now where, if I fall, I will break my leg and more importantly, my neck. 

"I wouldn't put my foot there," says Loki as I try to swing my left leg up onto a holding of stone. "Or there." he adds as I abandon this idea when the stone crumbles and try another holding, which collapses as well. 

"Could...you please shut up... so that I... can concentrate... on getting....up this...damn wall?" I'm panting now, my arms shaking, as they are my only form of support.

"If you insist." I can just imagine him now, leaning back and watching me straggly gleefully. 

Abandoning my legs, I use the dagger to pull myself up a little higher, but I can tell that I need to use my legs soon, because my arm is about to collapse. 

I manage to get close to the top, but that's when the stone beneath me, with a sickening crackle, disintegrates into dust. I reach wildly, but cannot find anything to hold me. 

That's when Loki grabs me and hauls me over the edge, and I fall to the ground, the emerald dagger clattering beside me. "I thought...that you would let me fall and...make me do that....again." 

"I considered it." he says coolly. 

"Gee, thanks." 

Loki lets me catch my breath for about five minutes, and grateful, I take the water flask that Peter had attached to my belt and take several long gulps of the sweet-tasting water.

*

~Nobody's POV~

Natasha and Bruce are having their own difficulties. They got over the wall fine, but they are the first to discover the next of the cave's challenges. There's a clearing in front of them, open and cathedral like. Natasha can clearly see that the seven paths all join here, at the edges of a large pool of emerald-blue water. Squinting, she can see that across the lake, the seven paths continue on in different directions. It's lighter here, thanks to the sunlight streaming through tiny little holes in the stone "ceiling".