1 – Pearl Garden

"You are hereby banished from Asgard, Loki Odinson…" the All father said to him, and it is the last word he heard of his father's voice before he is sent swirling down the Asgard's rainbow bridge.

He fell to the earth with a loud thud, and he groaned from the strange feeling it sent up the back of his spine. It was pain, and he is bleeding.

He chuckles. So this is pain, he thought to himself, and spits out the blood in his mouth. It's blue in color, but it changes to red after it hit the ground.

I am becoming human… Loki thought to himself. He tested his powers, and it sparked a little before dying down. I am powerless…

He walked out of the place and finds himself in a small village. His clothes are mundane clothes, simple and rough, like a potato sack. He is barefooted, and he is dirty. He needed a bath, but where to find a grand bathhouse fit for a prince?

Oh, he forgotten… he has been banished… now he is just a mundane human…

A powerless human.

For months, he roamed the streets. Over time, his godly aura disappears, and he started to feel hungry. He searches for food, and found them.

But they need this thing called 'money' and 'gold' to buy food... Gold? Wasn't gold something that is used for accessories? Don't they use cash? Dollars? Yen? Or whatever it is that the human world uses?

Unless...

Unless he is not in the human world.

He looked around him, and finds himself staring into those strange people. Their auras felt different. Unlike those of a human, and vibrates with a very strange vibe. He did not like it.

It made him feel... strange.

He roams the street, and sometimes, he would eat the food thrown out from the restaurants, leftovers of those people who had dined inside the restaurants. He ate them, and he would hide his face behind his hair. He did not want anyone to recognize him. Not in this state anyway.

Sometimes, he would cried himself to sleep by the back alleys. His sleeping place is everywhere, so long as there is a few boxes and newspapers. He is barefooted, and his foot would be frozen cold by the time he woke up in the morning.

And that is the time when he would go out again to search for some food.

Long gone is his pride for food. He is hungry. And if he ever wanted to gain back his powers and go back to Asgard, he would have to make do with whatever he could do with for the moment. And for now, it is food. And a safe place to sleep for the night.

There is a boy in the streets. Just like him, the boy is barefooted, and is dressed in boy had the brightest green eyes, and has pale skin and red lips.

Despite having lost his powers, Loki can still sense things and otherworldly things with his senses. The boy is not human.

Not human.

Then what is he?

The boy would held out his hand, and sometimes, by passers would drop a dime or a gold piece in his hand. And over time, he begun to learn.

He would squat down by the roadside, and hide his face behind his now long and dirty hair. He would stretch out his hand, and passersby would drop money in his hand. It is not much, but it will do...

Then, as he stood by the opposite road, a lady dressed in a red cloak came by to him and offered him a loaf of bread. The boy grabbed the bread and wolfed it down. He swallowed and salivated at the sight of the bread.

"What is your name, child?" the lady asks the boy. The boy munches on the bread and looks up at the lady.

"M-Michael…" the boy said to her. "Michael Fray, my lady... thank you… for the bread…"

The lady squats down and pulls down her hood. She has shining black hair, and fair rosy skin. Her lips are painted in red color, the same color with her red cloak, and in her hair, braids after braids of rose pearls decorated her hair in heaps of French braids.

She is beautiful.

"Where is your parent's, child?" the lady asks him in a bell-like tone. So sweet, like honey, and that scent…

Loki took a deep breath.

It was lilies.

He salivated again. It smelled so soft, gentle and delicious.

Yummy.

"Where do you live?" the lady asks him. "Do you have a home to go back to?"

The boy shakes his head. "My parents died… the war craft dropped a bomb… my house disappears in a flash… I usually just sleep in the back alley, but there are dogs there, so I just sleep here by the roadside…"

The boy shuffles his legs shyly, and the lady took out a handkerchief and wipes his dirty face.

"Do you want to come home with me?" the lady asks him. The boy's eyes brightened rapidly.

"Really!?" the boy said excitedly.

"I am Phaedra… Phaedra Sterling," the lady said to him, and held out her hand for him to hold. The boy reaches out to her, and is saved by her. "I am Duchess of Memphis. I watch over the histories of the world, and write them in great volumes. I am also the Ambassador of the great Kingdom of Avice, the kingdom of forever and of eternity. You will come and live with me in my Pearl Garden, which is the most beautiful mansion in the whole world, even more beautiful than the Palace of the Great King, the Golden Palace, and I will care for you…"

The boy started too wept sadly. Phaedra squatted down and wipes his tears away.

"Why ever do you cry, boy?"

"I… I am happy… I am happy, my lady… you saved me… you saved me… waaaaaaa!" the boy cried, and Phaedra smiles.

Phaedra turns around and smiles at a man dressed in a butler outfit.

"William," she calls the butler, and the butler places his hand on his chest and bows to her. She smiles, and turns around to look at the other person who is loitering on the streets in rags.

Him.

She looked at him straight into his eyes, and walks to him. He quickly squatted down, and looked at the ground.

He raised his hand up into the air, begging for money from by passers, hiding his face behind his long hair. And soon, the red cloak of the lady came and blocked his view.

Like the boy, she offered him bread and a bottle of what seemed like juice. His stupid instinct had his arms stretched and grabbed the food from her hand, and he gobbles them down quickly in the hopes that this is not just a dream.

It is winter time. The snow fell hard, and for the first time ever, he felt cold. His bare feet is almost frozen with the snow, and he kept shuffling his legs from left to right, like the little beggar boy.

The little beggar boy.

And he himself is also a beggar now…

His long hair fell in dirty gunk, and it covers his face. His fair skin is riddled with dirt, and he is dressed in rags. In rags! He is a prince, and yet he is dressed in rags!

Then he felt something warm draped on him. She had draped her red cloak on him, and she had does it by upturning her cloak, and the insides of her cloak are black in color. She herself is dressed in a thin dark blue dress with lace that covers her shoulders that trails down to her wrist in a wide long sleeve. Looking up with his mouth full of bread, the beautiful lady had squatted down and wrapped both of her arms around her and stares at him with a soft and gentle smile on her red lips.

Her beautiful red lips.

And oh, those gorgeous set of silvery eyes…

Silvery eyes, with a hint of emerald green and gold flecks around her irises.

So beautiful…

He smacked the thoughts away from his mind.

"What is your name?" Phaedra asks him and wiped a bread crumb from the corner of his lips. He balked, and she withdrew her hand. "Are you alone? Do you have a home to stay?"

He shakes his head. He continues to eat the bread and drank the juice quickly. He choked on the juice, and he coughed violently.

"Slowly, slowly…" the lady said to him, patting him on his back to ease his discomfort.

"What is your name?" she asks again, and gently tries to lift him up by his hand. He stood up, and he follows her to her car waiting nearby. The boy is in there too, and the boy is waiting for her to come back to the car. Her butler is waiting, and he is opening the door for her.

"…Loki…" he said to her, and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Loki?" she said to him, her eyes wide with surprise and curiosity. "Loki? As in the God of Mischief? Loki Odinson?"

He ponders on telling her the truth, but the Allfather have sealed his abilities to speak of his status and his real identity to the world. The word is stuck in his mouth, and he couldn't speak.

"Just Loki…" he said to her after a while, and she smiles.

"Well, Just Loki," she said to him. "I am Phaedra Sterling. I will bring you home with me, and you shall stay with me henceforth."

She leads him to the limousine waiting at the side of the road, and into the car they go.

The ride is long and quiet. Loki looks out of the window in fascination. He had never seen such beautiful display of trees before. The trees stretch long and wide, and it lines up the small road that leads to where the lady had said is her mansion.

Snow fell heavily, and soon, they arrive. The lady ushers the boy and Loki into her mansion, and there, Loki looks around his surroundings.

Everywhere, there are pearls that decorate the walls and the pillars. Huge dark pearls, and purple and pink and white pearls. It is beautiful.

And it is warm.

So very warm.

"Welcome to the Pearl Garden…" she said to them with a smile, and leads them to the lobby. There, another butler is waiting for them.

"He is Sebastian. He will take care of you from now on…." Phaedra said to them, and Sebastian leads them up to the stairs.

There, Loki and the boy are given a bath and clothes to wear. After they have finished dressing up, the butler leads them back down the stairs to meet her in the dining room.

"My, you boys look rather good after a good bath and after you're done dressing up…" she said to them, and patted the tables beside her. "Come here," she said to them with a gentle smile. "Sit with me. We are going to have dinner together…"

Dinner is served, and Loki ate to his fill that day. He gobbles up the food as much as he can, and so does the boy, Michael. Phaedra smiles at them, and pushes her plate of food to Loki.

"You can have mine. I can't eat that much anyway…" she said to him with a smile, and cross her hand and places her chin on her hand.

Loki gobbles up the food, and finishes up everything with the boy, Michael.

Then the great door burst and in came two little twin boys.

"Phaedra!" they exclaims happily. Phaedra stood up and hugs her brothers.

"Oh, you are back… how is school?" she asks them, and they giggles at her.

"I assume it is good then!? Alright, here, let me introduce to you. This is Michael, and that is Loki…"

"Hello Michael, Loki…" both of them chimed, and they giggle up at them.

"They are my twin brothers, Peter and Edward. Be nice to Loki and Michael now, alright?" she said to them, and they giggles up at her.

William leads the boy up to their room, and came back down to lead Loki and Michael to their room.

"The night is late… go to your room to rest now, alright?" Phaedra said to Michael and Loki, and leads them out of the dining hall. "I shall be retiring to my chamber as well. Rest well. We have an early day tomorrow… goodnight…"

With that, she disappears down the hall into a grand golden door. Loki stares at her incredulously.

Here he is, in the great mansion of the Pearl Garden. He had heard of the magnificent Pearl Garden from passersby, and is told to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. It truly is, now that he came to admire it. Every corner of it is decorated in bright shining pearls, and the walls are painted in a soft romantic rose pink color, with a hint of golden sheen on it.

He couldn't believe his luck. He had been roaming the street for months, and here he is, in the grand mansion of the Pearl Garden, and being fed food and given clothes and shoes to wear. He did not felt pity at all from her, but a sincere heart to help out those who needed her.

Somehow, he is grateful to her. Were it not of her, he might have died of starvation out there in the streets. As a prince, how could he die as a beggar?

As a prince, how could he accept help from a mere human?

But he could sense that she is not human.

No, not entirely.

Then what is she?

He will find out someday.