"A Secret Place" Loki fanficion--no spoilers this time :)

Here's my 2 AM fanfiction about teenage Loki featuring an original female character as the narrator! Enjoy! :) Not-canon. Got inspired by thinking about Loki feeding scraps to a Jotun beast. He's so cute :). 

A Secret Place….by Sarah B. Priest

“Hey, Ingrid! Hurry up! You can’t catch me!” I can hear my brothers’ calls echoing up and down the halls of the palace, their feet pounding on the cold marble floors. I know that they’ll get caught and scolded by one of the servants, but they’re training to be warriors, so they can get their bearings in any situation. I was never any good at fighting and avoided sparring and training whenever possible. The others liked to go hunting or riding, but to me, the fresh air felt strange, like it was living, breathing, ready to knock me down. Their footsteps are growing fainter now, and it looks like they’ve lost entrance. I breathe a sigh of relief and slip through the door to the library.

          I can hear my own footsteps echoing in the silence of the room, devoid of life or any other persons. But wait, there is someone. In the far corner under a glowing green ball of light, I can make out a slim figure hunched over their studies. The light has a certain ambience to it that I cannot describe in words, but it is truly like nothing I have ever seen inside the library, and certainly not an ordinary lamp.

          I breathe deeply, and call softly across the room, “Who’s there?”

          I hear no reply and query a bit louder, “Who’s there? What is the source of this strange light? Show your face.” A witch, or maybe a foreign traveler lurking in the library. I want to run, but I remain frozen, my eyes transfixed on the light.

          It starts out small first, slowly expanding outward, then bursts into a blinding green flash illuminating the room. Then, as quickly as it came, my mysterious companion and I are plunged back into blackness.

          “I’m terribly sorry.” I can hear his voice now, slick and smooth, with a hint of caution. “But I’m still working on this spell.”

          “Someone turn the lights on.” I can feel the darkness around me. “I feel like you’re going to jump up and stab me!”

          “I need the light to finish my studies, girl. What do you think you’re doing anyway?”

          I shiver as his voice slithers through the room, unsettled. “I’m just getting away from my brothers. I’m—I’m sorry to bother you. I’ll leave now.” I blindly back towards where I think the door is as I can hear him pacing. He suddenly comes to a halt and whispers, “Please, don’t go.”

          Suddenly, the candles along the walls flicker to life, and for the first time I can make out my companion’s face: pale and gaunt, with a hint of a mischievous grin.

          I step back quickly. “Prince Loki?”

          “What did you expect? A frost giant?”

          “I’m sorry—I—” I stammer the words as I fall to my knees.

          “Who are you?” His eyes lock onto me, staring down into the depths of my cold soul. “As much as I do appreciate that you kneel, I shall find it necessary to make proper eye-contact, Miss—” he looks away quickly.

          “Ingrid. And I don’t really do eye contact very well,” I mutter as I try to get up, tripping over my own hands.

          “Miss Ingrid,” he says reaching out his hand, “Neither do I.”

          I can feel my face flush as I reach for his hand. “It’s okay. I’m not going to reach in and stab you!”

          I try to let out a small laugh, but I still feel paralyzed. “It’s just Ingrid.”

          He nods curtly and begins pacing the room again, running his fingers over the well-worn ancient volumes. “Did you say you were running from your brothers? How many are there?”

          “Three of them. Older. They’re training to be warriors. I wasn’t good at fighting, and they tease me about it.”

          “That sounds like Thor, threefold. Except I don’t suppose they’re planning to be kings. I’m trying to show Father that there’s much more to being King than being a good warrior.”          

          “And I’m going to show him the power of the hammer—I mean sword!”

          “Thor? What are you doing in here?”  

          “Prince Thor—”

          As I begin to kneel Thor waves his hand dismissively and turns to his brother. “Father says it’s time for dinner.”

          What little color that was left in Loki’s face drains as he turns to follow Thor to the kitchens. “I will see you again, Miss Ingrid.”

          “It’s just Ingrid. And, probably not. I have a very busy training schedule.”

          “As do I. Meet me in the library at five o’clock tomorrow evening. And the night after that. And—”

          “Loki, we must be going,” I hear Thor say faintly, through my obscured mind. He wants to see me? Why would he want me to come by? Nevermind, I think. I need to get my books and return to my brothers.

***

“I’m deeply sorry. King Odin. Queen Frigga…I am late.” I let out a breath as I sit down at the table between Sif and Loki.

          “Ingrid,” the Queen speaks my name like it is solid gold, a pearl, a blossom, something precious, valuable. “I hear you are here for the fish.”

          I nod, quietly, as some of Thor’s friends, Hogun and Sif had invited my brother and I to dinner with the King and Queen themselves.

          “Servers come around! Let the feast begin!”

---

The conversation is dull as I finish course after course, becoming fuller by the minute, as I glance over at Sif’s plate, then Loki’s. Sif’s is piled high with every sort or meat and vegetables available as she wolfs it down after a long day of sparring. Loki’s plate is empty.

          “Are you sure you don’t want anymore food Loki? Some of mine?” Sif grunts, her mouth full of asparagus and chicken things the size of Thor’s forearm.

          Loki shakes his head and turns back to the plate, blushing. “May I be excused?” Without waiting for an answer, he bolts up and strides out of the dining quarters. I push my chair back and begin to follow but Sif pulls me back, her mouth full of wildberries. “Hold on. Hold on, Miss Ingrid. Where do you think you’re going?”

          “Sif, let her go,” says Queen Frigga dismissively, “I would see to it that someone checks on Loki. He’s been leaving the dinner table a lot lately.”

          I follow quickly behind, as Loki opens an ancient passageway to the winter night. “Where. Were. You?” he hisses, spinning his head around, “Where were you these past three nights in the library?”

          “I—I’m sorry—prince Loki--.”

          “It’s just Loki.  From you anyway. Don’t tell Thor I said that, he might let his guard down,”

          “I—I didn’t know—”

          “Of course, I wanted to see you, Ingrid.” He’s leading me into a dark and secluded part of the woods now, as the Jotun beast in the enclosure rears its head. Sensing my stiffening, he says quietly, “She won’t bite. And neither will I.” He pulls out the meat he had stowed away in his cloak, and I realize that this was all of it.

          “Loki?” I ask quietly as the beast gobbles Loki’s portion of food. “Why weren’t you eating dinner?”      

          He laughs stiffly as he sits down on a particularly flat rock he salvaged. “This is my secret place.”

          “Why weren’t you eating?”      

          “The beast needs it more than I. And besides, I am not Sif.”

          I sit on the rock next to him and whisper. “It’s okay. You can tell me.”

          “I suppose…I just don’t feel hungry anymore. Too much time concentrating on my studies and sorcery. I’m so tired, Ingrid.”

          “You’re tired? Just think what Thor has to do—” I break off suddenly to see that he’s fighting back tears.

          “Thor doesn’t get tired. I’m pretty sure he’s invincible. Anything could happen, and he would just keep on living, like nothing ever happened. I don’t think he has a care in the world.”

          “I’m sure that’s not true, Loki. Everyone has their own problems.”

          “Yeah. But Father has always favored Thor.”        

          “How do you know?”

          “He—Oh, it’s the little things really. Like the time Thor and Sif placed caterpillars in his bed,” he lets out a shaky laugh, “he dismissed them. And when I was late for dinner…”

          “It’s going to be okay, Loki. Don’t ever believe that you can’t be as good as Thor. You’re different. But that’s not a bad thing. Thor reminds me too much of my own brothers. I prefer you.”

          Loki looks up, taken aback. “Really?”

          “And I was just scared the other day in the library. I’m sorry. I’ll be there tomorrow.”

          “You promise?”

          “I promise.”