When Darkness Falls - LOKI - Book One (Editing)

20. Shortstack ✓

       Athelia braced herself as she fell harshly from the portal above the clouds. The hard ground buckled into a large hole beneath her feet, and she cringed as the impact vibrated through her body.  She had no idea where she had landed, but as she peered over the edge of the hole, a pair of blue leather blue boots standing on some broken mechanism was all she could see. She stared up at the man above her, the bright sky only allowing a muscular silhouette, but it was enough to cause her to step back. 

      "Where am I?"

      "I think the better question is who are you." Without hesitation, Eiri fabricated between her thin fingers, and she pointed it up at the man.  He held his hands up, signaling to Athelia that he was yet to be a threat, and finally answered her. "You're on Earth.:

     "Earth,' she practically spat, racking her brain. 

      "I take it you've never been here before?" he asked her, taking a step down into the significant dent around her. She held Eiri out in front of her as she took in the mass destruction around her. She had landed in the last place she had ever expected to be, surrounded by people she had no intention of ever meeting, and as she stood slowly.

      Her ears began to ring as his lips moved, and though she could faintly hear what he had been saying, she slowly looked around, finally realizing where she was. She was on Midgard. Jane's home. In all her years, she had never seen a place such as this, and before she could remember the name she had seen on many of Odin's reports, she was jumped from the side.

       "Unhand me," she threatened as she summoned Eiri from the hole in the ground it had fallen in and spun quickly, bringing it up the neck of a man in a sleeveless leather jacket, ignoring the gasps from the oddly dressed people around her.

      "Athelia?"

      She pulled from the grip of her attacker and spun, her blade yet again at another throat as she searched for Freya frantically. This time though, it was the man she had first laid on his, and his blue eyes stared her over as he tried to determine whether she was a friend or a foe.

     "Where is she?" She seethed, fully aware of the arrow pointed at the back of her head.

      The man in blue leaned to the side, giving her a full view of the scene behind him.  

     Freya stood still in the middle of a street, surrounded by hands in the air as panic flooded her face. Athelia stepped forward, ready to rush to her aid, but the blue-eyed man cut her off, holding his hands out in front of him. "Where do you think you're going?" 

      "I suggest you move out of my way, mortal." 

      "Not until you answer some questions." 

     "I am not here to cause any trouble." She said, sizing up her surroundings. It was the first time in her life those words had ever escaped her lips, but for once, she was no hungry for war or destruction. "I just want the girl."

      "The girls not going anywhere." Her head whipped towards a voice hidden behind a red mechanical suit, and with a blink of her eye, she disappeared in front of one warrior and appeared before the other.

     He cursed under his breath before his helmet folded back, revealing a middle-aged mortal with an attitude.

    "Hi. Yes. Hello." He growled at her, rolling his eyes at the blade she had pointed at him. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news here, but your  little friend here just demolished a full square block of New York City."

      Athelia's eyes widened, and she took a step, taking in the destruction that surrounded them. Buildings had been leveled. Cars had been flipped. Children were screaming in the distance. People were bleeding out on the streets. Still, she was confused.  There was no possible way Freya was capable of such destruction. She barely knew how to conjure weapons.