Chapter One

A long time ago, a male nature elemental slept with a female woman. He had disguised himself as a mortal man so that she would accept him into her bed. In the morning, he left the woman and never saw her again. Nine months pass, and she gives birth to a baby girl. However, her child's skin was a light shade of green. Startled and confused, as she held her, the child's skin started turning to a "normal" shade. The Mother thought that maybe she had just imagined the skin colour. She named her Lilah.

As the child grew, she started showing signs that perhaps she wasn't completely human. Nature seemed to thrive in her presence. And as she grew older, it only seemed to get worse. Lilah began to learn how to help things grow. Soon people in their village began to notice and started to become wary of the strange child.

One day, when Lilah was 13 an older boy had started to insult her because of her gifts. Insulted and angered by the boys words, vines shot up from the ground and grabbed the boy, lifting him up in the air. Still not in complete control of her powers, the vines wrapped around the boys neck and strangled him. Shocked by what she had done, the vines dropped his lifeless body to the ground. People soon found her by the body, and framed her murderer. Lilah tried to tell them it had been an accident, but none of them listened to her pleas. They consulted the Gods and she was banished to another realm. A barren wasteland. Not even her Mother had tried to save her. She had judged her a murderer just like everyone else.

When she had arrived to her new "home", Lilah had laid on the ground for days, crying. Why couldn't her Mother just love her for who she was? Why had she cast her out like this? But she decided to take advantage of her new home, and for years she harnessed her powers, gaining control. Soon the realm was not a barren wasteland, but a lush green realm. She learned that her voice could heal and soothe when she sang. The realm attracted animals and living things, but none like herself. She was alone. Sometimes she did not mind, but other times she craved some attention.

In her solitude, she learned respect for living things. She promised herself that she would never judge another as harshly as her Mother had.

Thor and Loki returned to Asgard with the Tesseract. The mask stayed on Loki as Thor and many guards escorted the war criminal to their Father, Odin. The Tesseract was put back where it belonged, so no one could touch it. The security was tripled upon it. The further away from the Tesseract Loki was, the better. Not just because he could not be trusted with it, but Loki now knew that it had been controlling him, contorting his mind to its will. Though it would take a long time for his mind to be completely his own again.

As they were brought before Thor's Father, Loki had expected that he would be executed. Loki had already accepted his sentence within his mind. Maybe then this torture and madness could end.

As Loki stood before his 'Father' and 'Mother', he could not help but wish that circumstances were different. Couldn't Odin see that he'd only wanted him to accept him for who he was, and be equal to his Brother. But he knew that was never going to happen, so he may as well accept that he had lost.

But his death sentence never came, instead his Father sentenced him to banishment. Another realm? Which one? Odin used the Tesseract to teleport him to this 'other realm' without even a goodbye or when his banishment might end.

Loki landed roughly in a large field. He rose from the ground, anger and frustration coursing through him. "Why not just kill me Father?!" he shouted to the sky, "Why prolong this torment?!" He let out a scream of fury. He needed to let off some steam, so he began to destroy a lot around him. His Jötunn powers froze a lot of the forestation around him.

Too lost in his rage, Loki didn't notice that something was healing the damage he'd wrought. When he turned around, he saw that a woman was kneeling on the ground, her hands deep into the earth. Enraged that some sort of nymph was trying to fix his irritation, he stormed over to her. Loki grabbed the small woman by her wrists, wrenching her from her spot in the dirt.

"ENOUGH!" Loki shouts at her. The woman looks up at him, confused. Their eyes meet and he feels an electric type of shock shoot through his body. She had golden brown eyes, swirling like liquid honey. Wild, auburn locks framed her delicate oval face, her plump red lips parted in surprise. She was small, but her body curved in all the places that appealed to his male desire.

Loki shook himself from his stupor and threw the woman back to the ground. Usually he would have killed her for disturbing him, and she'd had the courage to try and heal his destruction. Finding that his anger had dissipated a bit, he briskly walked from the startled woman to find his own solace.

Lilah watched from her spot on the ground as the strange man stormed away from her. Her heart was still pounding in her chest. What had been that tremor that had pass between them? It had raised goosebumps on her skin, and made her pulse quicken, her eyes dilate. Those emerald eyes seemed to have pierced into her very soul. Eyes that portrayed torment and pain. She had wanted to reach out and try to soothe his hurt, but knew that this fuming man would not have welcomed it.

How did he get here? Why was he here? And most importantly, who was this beautiful man?

For the rest of the day, Lilah did not see or hear from the outsider. At night she went back to her home. There were some castle ruins that she had made into her home. As she settled in for the night, she couldn't help but wonder if the foreigner had found some shelter. Her eyes closed and she dreamed of glittering emerald eyes and a mischievous grin.