Enjoy!
Chapter Fifty-Four
~Thea's POV~
I tear myself away from Loki, determined to wipe my eyes and move on. I can't be bothered by these things if I want to live.
As Thor wipes the blood off his face and hands, I turn my gaze away from the fallen tigress and towards the straight path in front of us. Without looking back, I begin to walk forward. I hear movement behind me, and know that it's Steve.
"Hey, I'm really-"
"Stop saying sorry!" I exclaim, whirling around. "People need to just stop. saying. sorry. Life sucks, okay? I'm over it."
Steve looks at me , then says calmly, "I was going to say I'm glad you're okay."
This shuts me up. "Sorry." I mutter.
"Stop saying sorry," he grins, refastening his shield onto his back, then begins to radio back to everyone that we are fine. My ears are practically blowing up from the tigress's fatal roar, the sound of my screams, and the approximately ten people yelling in my ear.
Thor and Steve stay with us on the path for about two hundred yards, and then the paths branch off again. Loki and I are silent, and I lead the way, walking so quickly that Loki has to walk much faster than normal to keep up with me.
I see more scattered bones around me, but I ignore them, kicking them up with my sneakers and sending them clattering out of my path. Loki doesn't say a word.
That is, until I nearly fall again, thanks to a tight turn. He doesn't catch me, because I balance myself quickly enough, but Loki doesn't let this opportunity pass him up, "So graceful."
I am half a second away from smacking him and leaving him here to rot for eternity, or perhaps knocking him off the side of the path and forging an accident, but the crackling of the radio saves Loki's life.
"Looks like we're going to be moving up," says Steve. "Thor and I have a wall. If you have rope, then use it, but there should be enough holdings to get yourself pulled up."
"Or some of us can just fly up." points out Tony.
"Whatever makes you happy, Stark." says Steve. "Anyway, I'm not sure if the wall is going to be for everyone, but that's my general guess."
Turns out, Steve's right. Loki and I come up to a wall. It looks exactly like a climbing wall in a gym, except for the holders are made of either stone, rocks, or shattered bits of...bone?
"I do not like this." I say, because the wall is nearly straight up- I can see the plateau at the top where the path continues- , about forty feet hight, and very insecure. "I do not like this at all."
"Apologies, kitten, but you do not get a complete say in what we have to do."
"I never get any say." I muter.
"I do not have any rope. You don't happen to-?"
"Of course not, who do you think I am, Mary Poppins?"
"Mary-?"
"Oh shut up." My nerves are going full speed, mostly because climbing is not exactly my forte. "You're going first."
"I'm very aware of it." says Loki.
"So you're actually agreeing with me?"
"Thea, if you do not stop talking, I may have to gag you again."
"I wouldn't let you."
Loki laughs shortly. "Thea, your supposed pluck is very amusing."
"What do you mean supposed? I'm brilliant, we all know tha-"
"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".
"Guys, we're going to need to work this out." says Natasha through the radio. "I've got a miniature lake here, and there's no way around it."
"Oh and Natasha," says Bruce. "There's something else that is going to give us issues."
Natasha turns around, and her mouth opens in horror. Not a hundred yards from her, there are four saltwater crocodiles lounging on the shore of the pool, each at least fifteen feet long.
"Back, back back!" she exclaims, pushing Bruce back into the darkness of the tunnel. Together, they run about fifty yards, which gives Natasha a somewhat better feeling. Catching her breath, she radios, "We also have massive crocodiles to worry about. Anybody got a plan?"
"I've got one." says Tony. "It looks like I'm going to be playing ferry."
"Stark, to get to a point where we all join up, thats bringing us too close to the crocs."
"I'll fly. C'mon Nat, think positively. And...I'm here."
Less than a minute later, Tony has flown to a stop in front of Natasha and Bruce. "All right, who's first?"
*
When Thea hears the news about the saltwater crocodiles, she not only begins to walk slower, but also starts an annoying habit (at least to Loki) of thinking out-loud. "This doesn't make sense! How have these animals gotten inside? The cave is shut, and the only way to get inside, if you happen to navigate through that really scary tunnel, is to use my blood, or my family's blood. But honestly, this isn't making sense. And if they can get in, doesn't that mean other things can get in?! Like the Imeldi? But then why would..."
Loki, of course, had already thought of this possibility an hour ago. He raises his eyes to the ceiling and attempts to stay patient as Thea talks on and on and on and on and on. He knows it's from anxiety, but the sound of her high, nervous voice penetrating through the walls is driving him mad.
Finally, Loki takes matters into his own hands. Stalking forward so that he's walking next to Thea, he claps his hand over her mouth. Her eyes widen, and she tries to shake him off, but he says, "If you do not stop talking, my hand is staying here."
She manages to get free of him, whining, "Why do you hate my voice so much?"
"Thea, anyone would hate that whiny voice if they had to keep hearing it for nearly an hour!"
"Look, Loki, I have to be in your company for more than an hour, so I think we need to learn to compromise."
"Yes, Thea, but I have to be in your company too, so I am still one-upping you. Now please, for the last time, please, stay quiet and must walk."
"I was trying to be logical," she pouts as she trudges forward.
"You can be logical without being an annoying little imp."
"Stop calling me names."
"I will not."
"Is there-"
"Hush Thea, we've reached the pond."
This of course, silences her immediately. She radios Stark, telling him that they've reached the exit of their portal. She peeks out and immediately leaps back, running into a very annoyed Loki. "They're ginormous!" she whispers as she gets a very quick glance at the giant, scaly reptilians.
"Yes, and if I were them, I would pick a particular annoying and clumsy little girl to gobble up for a midnight snack."
Thea glares at him and is about to say something when Tony appears in front of them. He pushes his helmet back, and Thea sees that his eyes are alight with the adventure. "All right kid, you good? We need to hurry, the crocs are getting restless."
Before Thea can protest, Tony has snapped on his helmet, grabbed her around the waist, and taken off. She tries to contain her exclamation of surprise and fear as Tony flies about twenty feet over the crocodiles. She closes her eyes, as the feeling of being flown over a crocodile-infested cave pond is making her dizzy.
There is only one crocodile on this side of the pond, and the beast is about a hundred feet from Thea's tunnel, where Tony drops her.
"Is he going to...?" Thea points in the general direction of the croc.
"Not if you stay still and back inside the tunnel where he can't see you." Tony takes off, zooming across the pond.
Even though she knows she's probably fine, Thea feels much better when Loki arrives (Tony sort of dumps him accidentally-on-purpose). So much better in fact, that she actually hugs Loki in appreciation.
Loki rolls his eyes. "Stop being sentimental, and if you start talking again, I swear I will feed you to the crocodiles."
Sorry it's so short and sucky... have to run
Blue Moon Fact: Keajaiban means Wonder(s) in Indonesia.... so it's literally the Cave of Wonders.... wink, wink, Disney nerds.
VOTE AND COMMENT LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!