Steel Meets Iron

Chapter 25

Raven woke up in a hole, a hole that showed the night sky illuminated with bright stars and a full moon. The air was cold and she felt weak and dizzy, her body was heavy and stiff. The wind blew sending a chill that transcended her clothes to her bones, a rousing breeze accompanied by the warmth of the earth. She moved to her side and her back ached, she had fallen down a hole, she remembered now, men were chasing her and they had hurt Loki. Bad men in dark brown clothes and olive skin. Had she gotten away? She wasn't in a cage and she heard no voices. She was alone so did that mean she got away? She rolled on her stomach, more pinches of pain, she pushed herself upright and her body yawned in protest. She remembered what Loki had said, what he told her to do if she was alone. She had to go to Asgard and find Thor.

I have to get out, she told herself, I have to get out. I have to get to Asgard and I won't find it if I'm in a hole. I have to keep going. She reached up for the sky, stretching for the open, for the edge of the hole digging her tiny nails in the hard earth. Whimpering through the aches she climbed out the hole rubbing her body along the rough dirt. She pulled herself out dragging herself on the ground, once her feet were clear of the hole she went limp panting on the ground causing dirt to blow into her face.

If you want to live, Marshall had told her, you have to fight for it. That's what the people on the Titanic did, they fought to live. If you want anything you have to fight for it, her Uncle Shane had said. Nothing worthwhile is just handed to you.

Fueled by the advice spoon fed to her since her mother had died Raven stood up wiping the dirt from her face. She wobbled and her feet felt weightless, she stumbled and swooned, her head fuzzy. Nothing looked the same, and it wasn't because it was night. The entire landscape had changed. The trees were in different places, they had different shapes, different colors, the grass was different. Everything was different. Completely different. She pulled out her flashlight from her bag, she brought it just in case. You never know what can happen on an adventure.

Nothing looked similar to the pretty forest Loki had shown her. The trees seemed straggly, twisted with pointy branches, the leaves on the bushes had dark and strange colors, there were no pretty fruits and berries or lush landscape. Everything was sinister, gothic, creepy.

She was not in Alfheim anymore. This she was certain of. So then where was she?

She glanced back at the hole, was it like those pipes in the super Mario games? If she jumped in would she go back to Alfheim? The pretty world with the scary mean. She wouldn't go back, she decided instantly, bad people were looking for her and she refused to walk into a trap. She had to go forward. She had to go forward. She had to go forward. To Asgard.

With her flashlight she ventured into the forest, bravely she walked into the cold night looking for somewhere to sleep. Somewhere that wasn't a hole, just in case it sent her somewhere else. Raven pulled up her hood hiding her face from the icy winds, if it got any colder she would be in trouble. Her teeth were beginning to chatter. It wasn't cold like winter, but it felt like autumn. Deep chills that wiggled under her clothes. The winds kept coming and at one point Raven had to huddle by a tree til it past. It was so cold it hurt.

She was not alone in the forest but she saw nothing except birds, and huge rats. The birds had huge, wide eyes that rarely blinked, some were owls others she had no idea what they were. The birds hooted and squawked, stalking her momentarily. Rats with beady eyes, jagged teeth, hissed and dashed off into the night. Raven heard other sounds too but she saw nothing. It made her search for shelter more urgently. Without shelter she was in deep trouble. It was the rule of the wild, no home, no safety. She also needed the warmth, that was very important. Being warm and safe.

As she crouched by a tree, a howl wailed through the air. She knew what it was the second it crashed through the atmosphere, she had heard it on the National Geographic Channel plenty of times.