Chapter 9: Mischief Managed
An hour or two passed. Nevaeh was sitting on the ground with her back pressed against a tree which was the perfect blend of pink and gold. When surrounded by beauty, Nevaeh usually felt at home, but today was different. She heard trees rustle and she looked expectantly towards the sound, but Loki was nowhere to be seen.
Meanwhile, an invisible Loki sat opposite to her on the grass, eating an unusually succulent apple. He took a bite off the partially eaten fruit, and watched her carefully as she lit yet another cigarette. She was moving her foot restlessly and glancing about the trees.
The main reason for Loki pulling this stunt was that he was sure Nevaeh would move along her way, especially because the imaginary bi-frost wasn't far from here, and he had clearly told her so. He had told her where it was located, which was not right, but she didn't know that! She was of the belief that the bi-frost stood below the adjacently close-by hill which was clearly visible from her spot. She could easily complete her lost journey on her own, and Loki was positive that she would leave any minute.
Four hours passed. Loki was amused at the girl's patience; she had done nothing but paced up and down the forest patch, without leaving the spot where Loki had told her to stay. Once she pondered off a bit ahead, but not beyond the reach of Loki's gaze, and she merely brought an apple back with her which she plucked from a near-by tree. Finally, she sat down again,and started tossing the apple with her hand as she leaned across the same tree where she had sat earlier.
Loki was again amused as he saw her shutting her eyes, and yet somehow managing to perfectly catch the apple she was repeatedly tossing in the air. He watched her doing so for about ten minutes without stopping; tossing the apple in the air and catching it with her right hand, keeping her eyes shut all the while.
Loki smiled thinly, then pouted his lips and blew air through his mouth, which made the apple to move ahead in mid-air, and away from Nevaeh's expectant hand which was waiting for it to fall its way. Nevaeh still had her eyes closed.She suddenly sprang on the grass doing a quick summersault to catch the apple before it hit the forest floor. Nevaeh opened her eyes sharply as soon as she caught the apple in mid-air, and stood up,wildly looking around. Loki was looking at her with wide eyes, wondering how the hell she managed to do all that with such speed.
Nevaeh was taking sharp breaths as she stood there holding the apple tightly in her hand. Something had intervened with the apple's fall and she wondered if there was a somewhat curved pull in the gravitational force. Anything can happen on an unfamiliar planet! She sighed and sat down, placing the apple on her bag-pack.
It had been hours since Loki left, and Nevaeh was growing anxious, her feet increasingly restless. In these hours of solitude, she had wondered a thousand reasons for Loki's sudden departure. Nevaeh shook her head lightly and ran a hand over her face. The silence echoing inside the forest was growing intolerable. There were no squirrels, no birds, just her.
Nevaeh lit another cigarette. He is going to come back, she thought. He can't just leave me here! We are friends and I rescued him! And he thinks I am adorable!, thought Nevaeh, although again, with a hint of uncertainty over her last, wild assumption.
Nevaeh had wondered constantly about Loki's abrupt departure and she couldn't understand where he might have gone. She was softly banging her head on the tree she was leaning against and was getting alert whenever she heard trees rustle. Nevaeh took a deep breath, she needed to escape her own twisted, worrisome thoughts of Loki being in danger. She rummaged in her bag-pack and pulled out a book, quickly searching for the bookmark and giving in to the pages.
She was reading doctor who, the pirate loop, and she was lost in his world. She was turning pages, smiling and gasping, as though she wasn't sitting alone on an alien-land, but was in her own home, living just another day on Earth.
Loki watched her silently, now popping grapes in his mouth, as she closed the book and her eyes along with it. She clutched the book tightly, when Loki heard her suddenly gasp in pain.
'Ouch!' yelled Nevaeh. She smacked a hand on her back, a bug had bitten her. Nevaeh felt a little bump rising on her back and she swore out loud. She was rubbing her back with her hand when she noticed the finger-sized yellow bug, lying dead on the ground, its little translucent wings fluttering one last time before going still.
Loki watched her through perplexed eyes as she muttered,'I am so sorry,' to the dirty bug who had just bit her. He was frowning heavily with his hand holding a grape in mid-air, as she stood up. She stomped her foot on the ground in frustration and yelled at the top of her lungs.'AHHHHHHHHHH!'
Loki was surprised that a constant smoker could shrill so loudly without expelling her lungs through her mouth. His eyes turned bulgingly huge with horror as the trunk of the tree she was leaning over a mere moments ago cracked, and had gone completely unnoticed by an angry Nevaeh.
Loki quickly stood up. Nevaeh was sighing heavily when she heard a cracking sound. She distractedly glanced behind her, only to double-back her gaze to watch the tree sway a little.
She was wildly alarmed. 'Oh my God! NOOOOOO! I did not just –murder – an ancient tree!' she cried out-loud, quickly whipping out a black wooden stick from her bag-pack.
Nevaeh placed both her hands in front of her, one of which was holding the stick, giving her a Maestro-like look. The tree's pinkish-gold trunk cracked deeper in the middle, which was about 12 feet high, and was bent at an angle which could make it collapse any second.
Loki was frowning at the wooden stick she was holding in her hand and he narrowed his eyes to take a good look at it.
'Is – is that – is that a –'Loki's barely audible voice faltered as he watched Nevaeh standing in front of the collapsing tree.
Choirmaster Nevaeh was waving her baton in a slow, rotational manner.
Loki watched with bated breath as the humongous tree halted heavily in mid-fall. The tree shook alarmingly as it came to this awkward, abrupt halt, its pink branches swaying back and forth.The partially severed trunk slowly began straightening itself as if something was pulling it from above. With a loud creaking sound, the trunk stood straight on the tree.
Loki noticed that the crack was still as deep as it was before and he knew that the tree would collapse completely if Nevaeh let go of it. She looked up at the tree with her hands still raised, and quickly approached the tree without lowering her stick.
Nevaeh wrapped her free hand around the tree's thick, cracked trunk and leaned her head against it, sighing heavily as she did so. Loki was utterly bewildered at what she was trying to achieve here. He watched with stunned silence as Nevaeh moved her head to touch her forehead to the tree's trunk.
Loki gasped audibly as Nevaeh's forehead began to glow gold as she tightly clutched the tree with one hand, and the stick in the other. He approached her with caution and realised that her hand holding the tree was glowing gold as well, but the stick-hand remained normal. Loki's eyes widened as he saw thin, silvery-golden coloured veils and leaves twirling on the trunk, spreading towards its very top as it glued itself back.
Nevaeh didn't let go of the tree till her forehead stopped glowing completely, at which point she released her grip from the trunk and sank down low, leaning against the tree which was again standing as high and mighty as before.
Loki was shockingly impressed as he analysed the healed tree, which was looking a bit younger than it was supposed to, its leaves glowing wee brighter. He would've applauded if he weren't invisible. Even Loki, with all his power, did not have the ability to heal the wild. People, yes. But, he couldn't do anything like this. His instinctive reaction was to avoid the tree squashing Nevaeh under its collapse, but he never even thought of something like this to happen. Deception does pay off, Loki thought. I would've never gotten a clearer picture about her abilities had I not left her alone in the woods. He was smiling to himself, recalling everything he had discovered, when suddenly Nevaeh burst into tears, making him turn around in surprise.
Loki was confused, she had just performed a glorious deed and yet she was crying like a mere mortal.
'Where – the –h-h-hell – are you, Loki?!'Nevaeh stammered, barely audible, and sobbing.
Loki felt a pang of guilt inside his chest. The reason she wasn't celebrating her marvellous feat was because he hasn't returned yet. Loki quickly whipped around and walked away from her, his guilt vanishing rapidly as doubt slowly took over.
Loki's thoughts were screaming at him, forcing him to face the harsh reality that Nevaeh was adamant on supressing her abilities in front of him, and he was lost for the reason behind her deception. She was capable of levitating a tree and healing it, yet, I never had a clue about the power within her. How?
She was more than capable of reaching the cave by herself, then why act like she needed my assistance, all the while pretending to be a little, lost, mortal girl? She was clearly gifted, yet she was staying back for me. Why? Even my so-called "friends" would've moved along their way till now without even bothering to wait for me, even if I had told them to. I have appeared as a mere Asgardian local to her, or has she suspected that I was something more? Was that why me wanted me to return? Loki clutched his head lightly by his fingers as he watched a tearful Nevaeh wiping her face while trying to halt her sobs.
The only thing holding Loki back from appearing in front of her was his uncertainty over her intentions behind wanting Loki back. In his entire life, majority of the people have preferred Thor over him, including his own father. But it dawned on Loki that Nevaeh has never seen Thor, and hasn't even met anybody other than him and the demons, so he concluded it as a redundant comparison.
That is when Loki quickly looked up, his emerald eyes turning twinkling sharp as mischief crossed his mind, once again. Sure, the girl wanted Loki back right now, for whatever reason, but is only doing so because she has no other option.
Loki was internally comparing Nevaeh to Asgard; when Loki became King, Asgard had no other option but him. He is King now because Thor is banished and he was the last resort. Nevaeh was in an unknown land, where she was friends with a dragon, and apart from that foul creature, Loki was all she had at the moment. If she was in such a desperate need for company then he could easily provide her with an upgrade, which would definitely get her mind off of his departure. Yes… after he'd be done with her, he would definitely be the last thing on her mind, legitimising all his assumptions regarding her. Loki smiled mischievously as he stood up and walked away, leaving her all alone in reality this time.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone