Homebound: Chapter 3 (Pre Thor Story)

Chapter 3

Before he could start explaining though, a red blast of fire flew towards them. Loki pushed Lucy out of the way, both of them tumbling down the stairs. Looking up, he saw Annar looking at him with intense hatred. The man was much taller than him, even taller than Thor, and looked like he had spent a lot of time strengthening his body. And he apparently had perfected the art of shooting fire from his hands over the past thousand years.

"You've gotten grayer over the years Annar," said Loki standing up and dusting himself off. Annar had indeed aged; his dark hair was starting to go more silver, though he was still in good health.

"And your mouth is as irritating as ever," retorted Annar. Even before Massnordore had tried to take over Asgard, Annar had never liked the younger prince, always pulling tricks and the way he could trick you into saying things that made you sound like an idiot. "Give me the child now."

Loki smirked. "What makes you think that I'm just going to hand her over?" laughing to himself. He was stalling, waiting for his brother to come. 'Where is he? Annar couldn't have done anything too bad to him.' Lucy hid behind him, holding onto the end of his coat. He could feel her shaking and the fear that was consuming her inside. "Tell me, what will you do?" As he said this, castle guards rushed behind him, waiting to see what Loki would tell them to do. Annar cracked a smile. But just as the fire in his palms began to burn, Thor came crashing down with his hammer, knocking the man into the ground.

"Took you long enough," said Loki coming down the steps. But Annar wasn't done yet. He staggered up and threw a plume of fire at Thor, who dodged out of the way, and another at Loki, who used some of his own green flames to shield himself. The guards sprang into action, surrounding Annar with their spears, but Annar blasted two away, sending them flying over the wall. Lucy watched in horror as the two fell and as the wicked man locked eyes with her.

Another fire flare came towards her, but this time she jumped up into the air, dodging it completely. But what she didn't realize was that Annar had hit a pillar, which Lucy was able to catch in mid-air before it hit her, but that distracted her long enough to give Annar time to blast Lucy, sending her flying back. Hitting her head on a piece of rubble, she blacked out, lying in a heap on the ground.

'Perfect,' thought Loki as she glanced back at the girl. His brother wasn't doing the best job of helping, since Annar kept knocking Thor back whenever he attacked. Loki had thought that this would have been simple, after all, Thor was quite the warrior, and he was a master of magic. But Annar had learned a few tricks over the past thousand years, and he had a counter for all of Loki's attacks, whether with magic or brute force.

Loki teleported right behind Annar, attempting to stab him with one of his magic-made daggers, but Annar was too quick and he grabbed the prince by the throat and lifted him off the ground. Gripping into his wrist and forearm, Loki tried to concentrate enough so that he could teleport and squirm away, but the fact that he couldn't breathe and that he could feel his throat bruising didn't help his concentration. Thor gripped his hammer and looked like he wanted to pull Annar's head off, but the man stopped him from doing anything.

"No no no Thor. One more step and I crush his throat." Loki looked at Thor, telling him, 'Don't' with his eyes. With a low snarl, Thor lowered his hammer. "Now, are you ready to co-operate?"

"Why… spoil… the fun?" asked Loki in a raspy voice, since his windpipe was still being constricted. Growling, Annar flung Loki into the ground, stepping on his stomach to pin him to the ground. Fire flamed up in his palms, but just before he was able to strike Loki, a beam of golden energy knocked Annar away and sent him rolling into the courtyard. Thor pulled his brother up, and they both saw that their father, Odin had blasted Annar with his spear Gungnir. The two remaining guards went over, and seeing that he was out cold, dragged him away.

"Excellent timing Father," said Loki, rubbing his neck, a bit sore.

"What happened?" asked Odin, looking at mess in the courtyard. Thor and Loki shared a look.

"Well you see Father, Massnordore's daughter…" but before he finished, Loki remembered Lucy lying unconscious on the palace steps. He pushed past them and went over to the girl, who had a few burns and starches, but what was really predominating was the sight of her hair: what once were long blonde curls was now a short, singed and messy blonde mop. "Father! She needs to go to the Healing Room now!" He looked around, but no one came to help. All of the guards were either too far away, taking care of Annar, or dead, and with no one around to take her, Loki gently scooped up Lucy and headed inside.

"Son!" Loki turned. "How do you know she's not a threat? She is Massnordore's daughter after all."

He looked down at the little girl in his arms, and for the strangest reason, he did see a touch of himself. People were going that she was dangerous, or maybe that she wasn't worth the trouble that was following her. But Loki didn't think that either of those were the case, and he was rarely wrong about things like this. "I just know Father."
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Lucy's eyes opened slowly, as if two ton rocks were covering them. She was lying on a white bed that had the softest sheets she had ever felt. Her head still felt the slightest bit foggy, but all the burns and starches were gone, which didn't surprise her very much, since she never had things like that for very long. Pushing herself up, she was surprised to find that she wasn't wearing her normal clothes. Instead, she was now wearing a tan dress with string lacing lace up the middle and sky blue leggings, and simple brown shoes that looked like ballet slippers. She ran her finger along the laced middle, liking the feel of it. It was like a dress from one of the stories her dad….

"Dad!" she exclaimed, remembered all that had happened. Lucy jumped off the bed and ran to the door, but just before she opened it, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Her hair was almost all gone! It was so much shorter! 'Where did it go?' she thought, but then shook out the thought and flung open the door. Outside the room, she was greeted by a grand hallway, with paintings hanging in the hall and beautiful tapestries. Awestruck, she wandered down the hall, studying the walls, and for a moment forgetting all the craziness that had happened a few hours before.
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"What do you think Konur?" Odin asked. Konur thought for a moment, trying to take in everything. It had been a thousand years since he had seen anything of his brother, and now they had one of his soldiers in chains, and Konur's niece was now staying in the palace, after living on Midgard for the first part of her childhood.

"I don't think she's evil if that what you're asking. For what I've heard, Annar kidnapped her and was planning to use the Bifrost to get back to wherever he came from. She's a child, and though technically she's over a thousand years old, she seems to be very confused as to what is happening."

Odin pondered this. "So what do you suppose we do?"

"Tell her the truth of course."

Nodding, Odin agreed. "Have someone send for her." As he said this, one of the healers entered into the throne room.  Kneeling, he waited to be addressed. "What is it?"

"My king, the girl, she's not in her room," the healer. "I went to see if she had woken up, but when I did… she was gone!"

The king sighed. "These things are never simple." The healer nodded in agreement. "Well, what are you waiting for? Go find her!" The healer scrambled to his feet, bowed and scurried out of the room.

Loki had been watching and listening to all of this from the corner of the throne room, intrigued. After all, he and Konur had been the ones who had hidden Lucy so long ago, though his father hadn't been very pleased about it when he had found out, since Loki wasn't supposed to leave Asgard. But Konur had helped Loki when he was a boy when he was almost snatched by and group of angry trolls, so Loki had helped him hide his niece on Midgard. Now she was back, and who knew for how long. He slipped out of the room without anyone noticing.
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Lucy looked up at the huge painting of a man on a horse and was carrying a large spear. He looks quite powerful, like he could take out a whole army with just a look. She had already seen a few pictures of him, along with a few of a beautiful lady, and one of two teenagers, who she thought were to two that she had run into earlier. She kept walking, and came to a painting of a young boy, with dark black hair and eyes that almost matched hers. He was smiling without his teeth, and he looked like he was thinking of something mischievous.

"You know you have half the castle looking for you." Lucy almost jumped as the voice seemed to come from nowhere. Whirling around, she saw Mr. Loki standing behind her.

"You scared me!" she exclaimed, putting her hands on her hips. Loki raised his eyebrows.

"Oh really? Well, you almost got me killed, so I think we're even."

Lucy's eyes widened. "You almost got killed? I'm sorry!"

It took all Loki had not to laugh. "No harm done. I can see you've healed up quite nicely."

"Oh yeah, I don't have owies for very long. Dad said it was one of the things that made me special," she said, and her face dropped. Loki could see where this was going, and he decided to change directions quickly.

"Well Lucy, my father and your uncle wish to speak with you."

"My uncle? I didn't know I had an uncle!"

"There are a lot of things you don't know. Now, if you'll follow me," he said starting back towards the throne room. Lucy trotted after him and took his hand. This surprised him, since she had just met him and the fact that not many people outside of his family liked him very much, though he was too mischievous, which he thought was ridiculous, given his title.  She looked up at him and gave him a half smile; he returned it.

"What's going to happen Loki?" she asked him.

"I… I don't know. But I think it will turn out for the good." He couldn't think of anything better to say. He had no idea what was going to happen to this little creature. Perhaps Konur would take care of her, or they would send her back to Midgard, if they could find her father. But only after they found and defeated Massnordore, which wasn't going to be easy.

"So, you're the real Loki right?" Lucy asked as they walked to together.

Loki was a bit confused by this question. "Of course I'm the real Loki. Why, are there other Lokis?"

Lucy giggled. "No, I don't think so. But in my book back home, you look like a creep!"

"A creep?"

"Yeah, you know, creepy, kind of scary?"

"Am I scary?" he asked her.

"No," she said smiling. "You seem okay to me."

"You seem 'okay' yourself," he replied smiling back. This girl's happiness was contagious, even though she had already been through so much in her little life. They came up to the large double doors to the throne room, where two guards stood at attention. Silently, they opened the doors, and the two entered into the gigantic golden room. Lucy let go of Loki's hand and gazed around the room. It was even grander than the hallway that she had been wandering around before. That the end of the room two men resided: one sitting on a huge throne and one standing beside him.

"Sire, we still can't find…" The healer stopped short when he saw Lucy. She looked up at him and grinned, and he looked from Loki to her, sighed, and left.

"Lucy." She turned to see the tall man with thinning, sandy blonde hair, who had a large scar across his eye and wore simple armor and was smiling at her. "I am Konur, well; I guess I'm your Uncle Konur." He came down the stairs and met her, putting his hands on her shoulders and studying her. She looked up at him with a quizzical look, and he squeezed her shoulders. "I guess we have a lot to explain."

"Is he the king?" she whispered to Konur, pointing at the man on the throne.

"Yes, that is the Allfather , Odin, King of the Nine Realms."

"Wow." He was a lot smaller than Odin was in her book back home, but he still looked as kingly as she remembered, and now she recognized him from some of the paintings in the hall.

"A thousand years ago," started Odin. "One of my most trusted generals and friend tried to overthrow me and take over Asgard. Many were lost, but after a great struggle, I banished him and his followers out of Asgard to live in solitude."

"Massnordore?" asked Lucy. Odin nodded. "How come he thinks I'm his daughter?"

"Because you are," answered Konur.

"But…"

"When you were a baby, only a few days old, Massnordore tried to take you with him before he was banished. Your mother, Lilia, tried to protect you from him…," Odin stopped for a moment, looking for the right words. "But Massnordore wouldn't have it, and he killed her." Lucy's eyes widened. "But my son Loki, though forbidden," he stressed, looking at his son, who wasn't fazed, "And Konur, who is Massnordore's brother, and your uncle, took you to Midgard, Earth, to hide you from your Father."

"Your 'Dad', the one you has raised you, dug you up in the ices of Norway," said Loki. "He must have been the right one, because the mandrel, the mineral that was protecting you, had a protection spell on it so that no one with bad intentions would find you, which is why Massnordore never found you."

"But, I'm seven! How come I'm not bigger?"

"Because the spell kept you from growing," replied Loki. "And apparently gave you some special powers, though I'm not surprised, since you were surrounded by the stuff for a thousand years."

"I think Dad knew that the mandrel was what made me fly and be able to move things," she said, thinking harder now. "Wait, what happened to my dad? Mr. Adam, I mean Annar, brought me here before I could see what happened!"

The three shared a look. "We can't know for sure," said Odin. Lucy looked to all of them, but no one said anything else. Frustration and confusion swam around in her mind, and she could feel tears boiling up, but she didn't want to cry, not in front of the king and her long lost uncle. Before the water works could spill out though, the doors burst open and two huge guards dragged Annar in, who was heavily bound by chains and ropes. They threw him down and he landed on his knees before Odin.

"Annar, where is your leader?" asked Konur with a stone edged voice.

The man just grinned wickedly, looking at all four of them, and his eyes rested on Lucy. "My general is coming, and there's nothing you can do to stop him."