Hey everybody, this is the beginning of my story, A Thousand Lives...
For starters i thought i would just introduce my charecter as i had a whole little bio planned out for her.
Name: Cerridwen Tessa Black (Pronounced: Sair-ee-dwen)
Age: 23 Years Old
Height: Five foot four inches
Likes: Horror Movies, Fantasy Books and Winter
Dislikes: Tea, Coffee, Dogs and Summer
Nicknames: Cerri (Sair-ee), Tess or Tessa
Thats all for now :D I hope you like it :D
Chapter One: A Reader Lives A Thousand Lives
The night air was crisp and cold. Mid-winter in Britain was never the best of seasons. The wind blew ferociously, and the snow fell in thick layers upon the ground. It was only six o'clock, but most were at home, cuddled up in front of the TV, blankets covering their feet and the warm glow of manmade light filtering through the shafts in the curtains. Those who did venture out in the whipping wind had their hoods drawn high over their heads, gloves on their hands and scarves wrapped tightly around their necks. There was always one, however, that did not fear the harshness of the cold. Who ventured from their dwellings with nothing but one layer of clothing and a cardigan wrapped around themselves. They were strange these humans, for they seemed to never fear the bitterness of mid-winter, who never had to battle against the rough winds or the freezing blizzards that assaulted the mainland.
Cerri tightened her red scarf around her neck. She happened to be one of those who could manage the cold. The bitter British winters never bothered her, therefore on that night she donned naught but a thin cardigan over her t-shirt and skinny jeans to cover her legs. Her shoes did nothing against the sogginess of the snow, converse are never good for harsh weathers, but the numbness in her toes was welcoming. Those who passed Cerri gave her fleeting glances. Their eyes betraying their curiosity towards the strange black haired girl with minimal clothing, but Cerri didn't glance at those that passed her. Her eyes were trained to the cobblestones on the ground, to the tracks that were cut into the snow because of walking boots. The small streets were almost empty as Cerri ventured home, the shutters on the old houses were closed tight. The wind howled in the street but Cerri pressed on, ignoring the vicious cries of the wind that echoed around her.
Fordwich, Kent, is around one of the smallest towns that Cerri has ever heard of. It was slightly remote with only around four hundred people living there, there was a small train station that linked it to neighbouring areas, and it was just northeast of Canterbury. It was a homey, close knit community and Cerri adored everything about the town, even if most of the people in it thought her a little odd.
Cerri's home was just above a small bookshop on the outskirts of town. The bookshop, which she owned, was the only one in the town, but business wasn't exactly booming. She barely earned enough money to pay for her monthly rent and food, but somehow she managed to get by. An extra small job at the co-op on the other side of town helped her out a little. That's where she was heading back from, she had a particularly nasty shift, as a rather bitter old man had caused her a great deal of hassle on the tills.
Cerri sighed and turned the corner to the bookshop, it was a rather strange place to have a bookshop, at the end of a rather dull alleyway. That was probably why business wasn't booming, it was rather frightening at night. Cerri glanced up at the small sign above the door which creaked in the wind; the liquid gold of a small light illuminated the words scratched into the wooden sign: Cerridwen's.
Cerri fumbled around in her pocket for the key that fit in the ancient door. She pulled out the small golden key which had an intricate Celtic design twisted into the handle. There was a knack to this door, Cerri had learned it quickly after she had angered a stray dog during her first week owning the book shop. She placed the key in and giggled the handle before turning it.
The latch on the other side of the door clicked and Cerri pushed on the door. The bookshop was dark and Cerri felt along the wall for the light switch. The click and the sudden invasion of light meant that Cerri could finally see where she was going. She closed the door behind her and locked it before pulling the chain latch across the door and shutting the blind. A sudden meow made Cerri jump as she was hanging up her scarf. A small ginger tabby cat wove itself around Cerri's legs and purred loudly.
"Hey, Sokka." Cerri greeted, picking up the small feline and fussing the top of his head between his ears, just the way he liked it.
Cerri walked further into the bookshop and placed Sokka on the desk, she pressed a button on the receiver of her phone and waited as another voice rang throughout the shop.
"Hey, Cerri… It's me, Andy." Cerri rolled her eyes at the voice and began putting books back on the shelf. She had specifically told him not to call her tonight or any night for that matter. "I know you told me not to call, but I didn't mean what I did the other day… She came on to me, not the other way round. I'm the innocent party here, but you just won't listen to me… Anyway, call me when you get this…" The phone beeped, ending the call and Cerri shook her head.
"He just won't take 'it's over' for an answer will he, Sokka?" Said Cerri, she placed a copy of Harry Potter back onto the shelf next to the rest of the series. Sokka mewed in response and Cerri laughed. "Yes, you were right weren't you? You're such a clever cat, Sokka."
Talking to Sokka was mostly what she did these days, she had no real company in the shop apart from the occasional buyers that came by, and her friends lived on the other side of the village so she only got to see them occasionally on the weekends. Sokka was truly her best friend, and although that was probably considered sad Cerri had always said she would rather be a happy old woman in a house with ninety cats than a bitter old married woman with a terrible husband.
Dinner that night was nothing special. The kitchen was a small room in the back of the shop, it was big enough for a cooker, small freezer and cabinets for her plates and cutlery, but other than that it was nothing grand at all. Cerri indulged in nothing more than a two pound beef hot-pot that she had brought home from her job. Sokka was quite fond of beef, so she dropped a few pieces on the floor for him after she had finished. After she had finished her tea, if it could even be called that, she poured herself a mug of hot lemonade as tea and coffee didn't suit her tastes, and walked back through the bookshop to find a story she could get lost in.
Cerri smirked and pulled a book off of a large oak shelf towards the front of the shop. She would no doubt get halfway through it before she went to bed. 'The Pledge,' it seemed an appealing title, although she was sure she had already read it, there was no harm in re-reading it again. Cerri whistled for Sokka and he followed her through the back and up the stairs to her sanctuary.
Cerri's bedroom was nothing special either; it had a single bed with plain covers, a small chest of draws upon which sat a mirror; the windows were tall with long draping curtains on either side which overlooked a small garden that backed out onto a wood. A small wooden table stood on the other side of Cerri's bed upon which sat an orange lamp. It was one of the many items in the house that seemed vastly out of place, the brightness, in contrast to the dull walls and dark mahogany wood floor, made it seem like a small child had placed it upon the table, not a twenty-three year old woman. Cerri crossed the room and drew the curtains, before pulling back the covers on her bed and turning up the radiator. She changed into a simple nightgown and pulled a pair of black socks over her feet. By the time she had finished changing; Sokka was already curled up in the warmth of her bed, his tale twitching in sleep. Cerri turned off the light and clambered into the bed next to Sokka; she then turned on the out of place orange lamp and opened 'The Pledge.'
The bed sheets that encased Cerri were dreadfully itchy; it seemed no matter how many times she washed the damned things that she could not get the itch to simply go away. Cerri shuffled under the covers and turned the page of her book. Cerri was certain that she had read this book before, the characters seemed so similar, but then again any character in any book seemed familiar to Cerri. She had grown up with books, she piled books around her in the most dreadful of her days and relished in their company on lonely winter nights such as this. As well as Sokka, books were her most treasured of companions, she lived a thousand lives beneath their tattered pages. She was everything from a pirate to a wizard and everything that could be thought of in between. Books were her sanctuary, her second home when she thought she never had one. A place where someone understood her, and even if they weren't real she felt like the characters were always there with her, helping her, their words that flowed off the page came into her life every day, they inspired and awed her, books were truly the most magical creation in the whole universe.
Cerri was at least two-hundred and twelve pages through her book when her eyes drooped closed and she fell into the sleep that had wanted to take her for at least three hours now. She turned in the pits of sleep; even then she didn't wake Sokka who had curled up on the pillow next to her, his tail thumped in rhythm. Turning again, the book fell from the sheets onto the floor with a loud thud. Cerri jumped, her sudden movements alerting Sokka whose ears pricked at the noise.
Cerri rubbed her eyes and rolled them before glancing at the clock. Four-thirty, she groaned and rolled over so she could reach the book that had ever so rudely woken her from her sleep. Her hands just closed around the spine of the book when a bright white light lit up the bedroom. Cerri jumped again, and whilst trying to untangle herself from the sheets, fell onto the mahogany floor with a much louder thud than the book. Sokka hissed as the light dimmed.
Cerri glanced back at her companion and then to the window, with curiosity weighing heavy on her mind she crossed the room to the widow where she flung back the curtains. Cerri looked out at the sky; it was completely blackened apart from the brilliant whiteness of the light that was falling rapidly from the sky. A shooting star… and it was heading right towards the woods. Cerri turned and pulled on her boots that were shoved untidily under her bed. She then headed to the closet and pulled on her rather long black coat that reached below her knees.
Sokka hissed again, his tail was twitching uneasily at the intentions of his master. Cerri only rolled her eyes at him. "Don't be so uptight, Sokka." She said, pulling a torch out of the draws underneath her mirror. She glanced back at the window as the light from the star receded behind the cover of the trees. Sokka's tail twitched and he narrowed his eyes at her.
"Are you coming then?" She asked, turning to face the rigid tabby who was now watching her through slits. "Oh come on you silly thing, it's an adventure." Cerri could almost picture him rolling his eyes at her as he jumped from his place on the bed and trotted over to stand next to her.
"It doesn't take much to convince you, does it?" She said with a smirk before she departed from her room and closed the door behind her.
Cerri flicked on her torch as she walked out into the darkness of her small garden. The squeal of fighting fox cubs could be heard in the distance and the wind whipped at her exposed skin. Cerri drew her coat closer around her and unlocked the gate at the back of the garden. The ancient wooden gate creaked as she opened it, and once more as it shut behind her.
The trees of the wood stood tall in the distance, their shadows cast an even greater darkness on the small dirt track that lead off into the darkness. Cerri pointed the torch out in front of her, the silvery light allowing her to trace the direction of the path exactly. No matter how much she wanted to she would not allow herself to stray from the path into the woods, this was not Hansel and Gretel and she definitely didn't have any breadcrumbs to show her the way home, although it may have been a good idea…
"Stay close, Sokka." She whispered, "I don't want to lose you in here." Almost to reassure his master Sokka brushed himself up against her boot.
Cerri's boots crunched on the ground as twigs snapped under her weight. Sokka's ears would twitch every time an owl hooted or a rabbit skittered amongst the undergrowth. Cerri's eyes were darting about almost as much as the felines, but she was not as edgy as her companion, these woods held nothing to fear. No, her eyes were darting around for the star, the source of such a brilliant light that she thought she would never gaze upon anything as beautiful in the rest of her life. The wind whipped Cerri's hair around her face, and she cursed not wearing her red scarf as the wind was nipping horridly at her neck.
A loud shriek from above made Cerri jump for she had not been expecting it, but upon craning her neck towards a tree she saw a crow crying towards the sky. Sokka padded on, unfazed by the sudden noise. Cerri buttoned up the top button on her coat and turned around, her torch shinning a little beam of light into the bushes. She sighed when she saw no sign of the star, or anything in fact to suggest that a star had even fallen in the woods. She glanced down, seeking her feline companion but she twisted and stretched her torch as far as it could go when she could no longer see him.
"Sokka," She hissed, agitated because she had specifically told him not to wander off as he could get lost. "Sokka… Sokka where are you?" She asked walking deeper into the woods.
Small paw prints in the snow alerted Cerri to the whereabouts of her cat. She immediately cursed herself for not looking at the ground and searching for prints in the first place. Sokka's tracks carried on for a while, they kept to the path, never straying. Another set of tracks covered Sokka's and Cerri recognised them as rabbit tracks, her companions however, veered off into the undergrowth. "Sokka, come back here." Cerri glanced around her and cursed before pushing through the branches that the tracks had disappeared behind. Right now, breadcrumbs didn't seem like a bad idea at all.
The pine leaves scratched at Cerri's face as she travelled further into the woods and the trees began to spread out as Cerri pushed past the last of the pine leaves that blocked her way. She had never before been this deep into the woods, and therefore had never seen the clearing that the dimming white light had fallen into. Cerri laughed and picked up her pace. Sokka was standing just at the edge of the clearing; his tail was twitching anxiously as Cerri approached.
"You clever cat," She said, scratching between his ears as a small reward. "Come on then, let's see this star."
The pair advanced, human and cat, together making footprints in the snow towards the dimming light of the newly fallen star. The light was dimming, it was not as brilliantly white as it had once been but it was still bright. Cerri could clearly see a large shadow outlined in the glow. Blimey, how big was this star? Cerri placed her torch in her pocket as the light continued to die down, as she reached it there was nothing more than a dim glow.
Cerri glanced down at the marks that were burned into the ground beneath it, they were strange rune patterns that Cerri had never seen before in her life, she then glanced back to the star. But what she saw was not a star, it was in fact a man. Cerri stepped back her hand going instinctively to her mouth, Sokka hissed violently at the person lying sprawled in the snow. He wore a cloak with dark green fabric trimmed around the edges, his trousers were completely black and his boots were laced to his shins. Although Cerri had glanced upon this man only once, she knew exactly who he was, and that alone made her recoil a little further away.
"Bloody hell," She said, quoting the oh-so-famous words of Ron Weasley. "Loki?"
Imprisonment was never a good thing. When he was imprisoned by The Other after he had fell through the darkness after his little fight with Thor on the bifrost he had never liked it. Now, as he sat and waited in his darkened cell, deep in the core of Asgard, for his punishment, he wanted nothing more than to tare those responsible for this limb from limb. Those accursed Avengers… The fools who bested him and stopped his triumph on earth. Them and that great green beast who had smashed him across the floor of Stark tower. Who did they think they were? He was above them; he was a God, no matter how disgraced and hated. He was above all of them, those pathetic humans who needed to be ruled.
He cursed the muzzle that he had been placed in before his return to Asgard. He could have easily persuaded the guards that stood outside to set him free with his esteemed silver tongue. But of course, the mighty Thor had already thought of that possibility, and now he was chained and muzzled, awaiting his judgement that he assumed would be nothing lighter than death. Death would be better than being stuck in this ridiculous prison for the rest of his exceedingly long life.
Loki's green eyes flashed as the door to his cell opened and the guard walked in, he was yanked roughly to his feet and pulled from the cell. "It is time to face your judgement, trickster." He said harshly.
Loki was walked down the corridors towards the great throne room where his judgement would be passed. His death would be quick he assumed, an easy, simple beheading like most traitors got. But as the great doors to the throne room opened something in the back of his mind told him that his sentence might be much worse than death itself.
Odin sat at the front of the throne room. He was flanked on either side by people from the council, many he knew, many he despised. Thor stood to the left of Odin, Frigga next to him. Loki was not surprised to find Sif and the warriors three there as well. Loki was brought to his knees in front of them. He cursed his shackles as he would have easily killed the man who had caused him to kneel in front of the Allfather. Loki could almost see the glee written on Sif's features. Oh, how he hated her.
Odin stood and Loki kept his gaze strong as he stared right up at him. "Loki Odinsson," Loki suppressed a growl. He was not of the house of Odin, he had nothing to do with Odin or Frigga or his once brother, Thor. They were not his family; he had no family, or none that he cared for anyway. "I had hoped that you would have learned something from what you had done, the lives you have ruined and the cities you have destroyed."
Frigga was clutching onto Thor's arm as her husband spoke, she looked like she was going to burst into tears at any moment. Thor stared on, his gaze unwavering but there were also tears in his eyes.
"At the express decision of myself and my council we have concluded that a sentence of death would release you from the burdens that you have placed upon this world and Midgard. Therefore, I now strip you of your powers, of your magic and I sentence you to banishment upon the very world that you wished to enslave, until such a time that you learn compassion for this world and others and repent for what you have done."
Frigga barely bit back a sob and Loki's eyes wavered. He had expected death and nothing less than death. This sentence, as he had suspected, was worse than death. Banishment on Midgard with his powers stripped from him, his magic taken from his clutches. He glanced down at the floor as he couldn't stop the anger burning in his eyes as his father said the words that would seal his fate.
"I, Odin Allfather, cast you out…"
The bright light engulfed Loki, and he was sent spiralling at a rate that he couldn't comprehend to the very planet that he wanted to enslave. He could see naught but the blackness of the inside of his eyelids. He felt his magic draining from him, the shackles coming loose from his wrists and the muzzle disintegrating from his mouth, yet he did not open his eyes.
The impact on the ground was hard, as soon as he had connected with the floor he felt the consciousness fade from him, returning only with subtle flashes of light for the briefest of moments before it would fade from him again. He heard rustling from around him, but he kept his eyes closed, partly because he didn't want to open them and partly because he simply just couldn't open them.
"Bloody hell…" It was a female, Loki knew that much, the scuffling grew quicker as he realised this stupid human must be moving closer to him. Loki's head pounded as he tried to force his eyes open to see the person who was failing to be quiet. "Loki?" He shuddered involuntarily as his mind gave out and a horrible darkness engulfed him once more.