Almost the Heir...

Chapter 14: Injured

Each day came and went. Elena spent every day getting to know her father better.

Today however, she was very bored. She had found some clothes that weren't dresses to her delight.

She sat upside down on the couch in some sort of Asgardian armor that matched her father's.

Having nothing else to do, Elena began to wander the house for what felt like the millionth time.

She was walking down one of the halls when she literally walked into her father.

"Hello." she said in a bored tone.

A brilliant idea came to mind and she jumped at the opportunity to ask.

"Can I go outside? Please!"

"No."

"But I haven't been outdoors in 21 days! That would be the day we met! I swear I won't run off and ditch you! Please!" she begged.

Annoyed with her whining, he gave in.

"Fine. But only with my supervision."

The two made their way to the door. The second that Loki opened the door, Elena was outside.

Her boredom disappeared as she took in her surroundings. They seemed to be living in the middle of the woods.

Loki scanned the area, making sure no one was going to take Elena away from him.

When he looked back at Elena, she was not on the ground where she had been only a moment ago, but in the nearest tree, scrambling across the branches.

He watched in horror as she got higher and higher, and some brittle branches fell beneath her.

He ran to the tree and began to climb after her. Having spent a lot of time in trees as a child, he was quickly catching up with her, but not quite there yet.

"Elena!" he called.

She stopped and looked down at him.

"Come down here!"

Rolling her eyes at his paranoia, she continued climbing.

"Elena! Get down!"

"No! I'm not giving up my freedom that easily!" she responded.

"I am not asking you to give up your freedom! I do not want you to get hurt!" He shouted, getting exasperated.

He began climbing a little faster.

Looking up, Loki's blood ran cold when he saw his daughter leaning out away from the trunk of the tree, holding on with only one hand.

All judgement fled his mind as he began to climb faster and higher.

Finally reaching the limb that Elena had been standing on, he panicked when he saw her sitting on the very end of the limb several yards out.

Holding on with nothing but her legs, Elena smiled as the wind began to blow. From this height, the wind was stronger and blocked out all noise.

Loki watched her as she took a bite out of the apple in her hand. Where had she gotten an apple?

Not thinking anymore of it, he balanced himself and stepped toward her.

Elena was startled when a firm, cold hand grabbed her shoulder.

So startled, that she swung herself on the limb, so that she was hanging upside down still holding on with only her legs.

Without looking to see who had grabbed her, she grabbed the limb with her arms and began to crawl in the direction of the trunk.

She glanced down to see how far down the next branch was. It was several yards below and it was small. She wouldn't have time to escape if she spiraled her way around the tree like she had when she came up.

When she reached the trunk, she took her chances and dropped down to the small branch.

Barely catching the branch with one hand, she hoisted herself up and looked up.

She sighed heavily when she saw it was her father who had grabbed her.

Loki spiraled his way down the tree, but frowned when he ended up lower than Elena.

"Elena, please come down now." he asked.

She shook her head no and folded her arms across her chest.

"Then I'm going to have to make you come down..." he said as he grabbed on to her leg.

She wrapped her arms around the thick tree trunk to keep herself in place. Her father tugged on her leg. Then again, a little bit harder. And a third time, even harder.

On the third time though, Elena lost her balance and fell off the branch, in the opposite direction of Loki.

Elena didn't dare scream. Screaming would only deny her the precious oxygen that would be knocked out of her body when she hit the ground.

Loki watched in horror as she crashed through the branches and eventually hit the ground. Hard.

He quickly climbed back down the tree. Upon reaching bottom, he rushed to his daughter's side.

She cradled her wrist against her body and tried to ignore the fact that her leg was bent out at an unnatural angle. The bone had most definitely shattered upon impact.

Loki tried to pick her up, but she protested with a moan of pure agony.

"I told you to come down," he said softly.

"I don't think right now is the perfect time for the 'I told you so' moment. Besides, none of this would have happened if you weren't so overprotective!" she said through gritted teeth.

"Just pick me up and bring me inside already! Anything's better than laying on the ground right now." she ordered.

Without a word, Loki picked her up. She let out a suppressed scream of more agony as her leg was moved.

Loki raced back inside and gently placed her on her bed.

"Owwwwwwwww...." she moaned.

Not knowing what to do, he conjured up a chair and sat next to her bed.

Once again he was left wishing that he could heal his daughter, but he wasn't a healer and didn't have that kind of magic.

"That. Sucked." she managed to get out between moans.

A/N: hey guys!

I'm not entirely sure I like this chapter, but I needed to write something so...

Just keep reading, more excitement lies ahead.

On a different note: I just got the stupidest fortune out of a fortune cookie.

It said "what lies inside an empty box?"

-fallingleafviolinist

(Best violinist in the nine realms!)