Queen of Asgard (NaNoWriMo2018, Completed!)

5: Loki

Even in dreams I couldn't escape my reality. My fingers twitched around the glass. "You're stating the obvious." I wished my mind could be a little more original than this. I was already getting bored.

"It's called politeness but I understand this must be a very difficult time for you." The man, Loki took a sip of his drink.

"Sorry," I said, not sure why I was apologizing to my own mind. "Loki isn't it? Like the Marvel character?"

He frowned. "Yes, though that movie got nothing right. Well besides the fact that I'm dashingly handsome." He smirked at his own joke and I rolled my eyes. How had my sleeping mind created something so conceited? Perhaps it was some unconscious part of me. "But yes, I am very much Loki though your knowledge of who I am is negligible I'm sure. Tell me, what do you know of Norse myths?"

"You're part of my head," I pointed out, taking another sip of the cinnamon-flavored Fireball. "You already know the answer."

"No I don't," Loki replied. "I might be in your dreams, but I don't have access to your thoughts and memories. Only my own. So again, what do you know about the Norse gods?"

I shrugged. I'd taken one mythology class in high school and I'd slept through half of it. It hadn't interested me in the slightest. "Nothing really, I know that the Viking culture worshiped them and something about a place called Valhalla."

Loki pinched the bridge of his nose and shut his eyes. "Fucking All-Father," he groaned. "Okay, long and short-." The dream shifted, the surroundings rippled around us, like water and I frowned as it steadied. "Oh fuck," he cursed again. "Is that on your end or mine?"

"What?"

"Okay it's mine." He set his drink down. "Listen, when you come out of this dream, you're going to know how wrong you've been about it all. Look at your nightstand, read the notebook there, got it? It has everything you'll need to know about Asgard, read it."

I must've absorbed more from that mythology class than I thought. The term certainly sounded like they belonged in mythology. The dream rippled again and Loki got onto his feet. "Okay, he said, downing his drink and getting to his feet. "I've got to run but we'll see each other sooner I'm sure, now, wake up."

He snapped his fingers.

****

I woke up with a cracking sound ringing in my ears. I groaned, squeezing my eyes shut tight, wishing i was back in my dream, however strange it was. It had been my only reprieve from the crushing reality. But try as I might, I was awake, painfully and vividly aware and I knew attempting to sleep right now would be a waste of time. So I sat up, the taste of cinnamon still on my tongue. I then turned towards my nightstand, intending to grab my cell phone and check the time but even as I reached for it, my hand froze and my heart dropped into my stomach as I saw my phone was not alone on the wooden surface.

A thin, emerald green notebook rested near it and on the top, a crystal tumbler full of cinnamon flavored whisky.

"Mother fucker," I swore to myself even as I grabbed the tumbler and drained the last of the contents. The ice even melted. Then I grabbed the notebook as I added 'invading people's dreams, having conversation and bringing items into the real world' to my ever-expanding list of things that were not impossible as I'd once believed.

I flipped open the cover, heart beating hard and slowly in my chest as combination of dread and resolve filled me. I couldn't bury my head in the sand, i couldn't pretend what I'd seen wasn't real and go back to my normal life.

Not while that thing was still out there.

I had to take the plunge, learn more about the impossible things that stood between me and Yuki's murderer and maybe, just maybe there would be some slim hope that I could get justice for her. I flipped open the cover and slanted handwriting greeted me.

Told you that it wasn't a dream, this should be enough to get you started. We'll see each other again soon I'm sure.

- Loki

I turned the page, the paper more threatening than a pipe bomb and more slanted writing greeted me, this time paragraphs worth, at the top of the page, the word Yggdrasil greeted my eyes. I had no idea what that meant, but I had a feeling if I read on, I would learn very quickly, even if I feared the answers. I did fear the answers. I was terrified of all the suddenly impossible things around me that had happened over the course of two days, but I couldn't stop. Yuki's dying face flashed into my mind and my hands tightened, rage and grief twinning inside my body but they didn't render me incapable now. It was fire, fire that burned through fear.

I started to read.

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New chapter! Loki has made his appearance, quite different from the first draft if any of you remember it! Suzume is about to get much deeper into the Norse stories and legends, wonder how many of them will match up to her reality? NaNoWrioMo continues on at a steady pace! As always, COMMENT and VOTE if you can!

Write on! :)