A tall figure wandered through the brush. He –for it was indeed a man- walked at a slow, leisurely pace. Each footstep seemed measured and decided as though he knew where he wanted to go. Yet there was a gentleness about his manner that suggested he was not in a hurry to reach his destination.
The man's dark hair brushes his shoulders and touched his pale cheek as a soft, cool breeze blew through the clearing and brought a smattering of ripples to the surface of the otherwise mirror-like pond which lay in the center.
The man's right hand moves slowly, as he palmed a small object. A shell of some sort. It wasn't muddy or dirty in any way. Indeed, it seemed as though he cared for this object greatly, or, in the least, he saw more value in it than just the abandoned home of a Midguardian mollusk.
The shell was a light pink with an almost golden hue around its spiny crown. As it curled inward toward its shaded insides it turned a deep velvety looking mauve.
Suddenly the figure stopped. His forest green tunic whispering around his slim frame as the breeze picked up once more. He stared into the lapping water at his feet, thinking.
Suddenly, with a jerking movement that seemed almost against the man's will, he brought the shell to his lips and blew gently into its tapered tip. No sound came out. There was a soft whistle of air as his icy breath flowed through the inner workings of the shell, and then nothing.
He frowned then. His midnight brows drawing together as he looked down at the trinket in his hand.
"You fool," he admonished himself fiercely. "You've fallen for your own trick."
Indeed, it was strange that the god of mischief would find himself wandering the banks of a pond with the shell he'd given his brother not a day before. He had told Thor that to summon a mermaid all one would have to do was take ten steps off the grassy plains into the brush and when ones toes touched the water, blow thrice into the shell and wait.
Thor, the gullible twit, had tromped of immediately for his prize. The merfolk of Midguard had always entrapped the smaller mind and imagination of Loki's warrior brother. But what had been Loki's surprise when Thor returned not two hours later, sopping wet and exclaiming between curses that he no longer wanted a mermaid bride.
"She is no lady, brother! That mer-creature is a menace. I nearly drowned! I will have her head!"
Loki's interest had been piqued. IT seemed that Thor had actually summoned a mermaid. What Loki had intended to be a wild-goose-chase turned into reality!
While he brother soaked away his fury in the bath, Loki stole into his brother's chambers and retrieved the shell, deciding to have a look for himself.
Now he stood, his boots an inch deep in the soft wet mud at the pond's edge, blowing into a shell like a child, hoping to see a mermaid.
Deep below the surface of the ocean, slept a woman. She had a fine bed of colorful coral and a soft covering made of the finest sea plants. Her hair floated around her gently as the tiny slits on her neck –her gills- opened and closed slowly, peacefully. Her ears, delicate fanned extensions which resembled the fins of a lionfish, flicked once in a while at the sub-marine sounds that echoed through the sea at odd intervals.
Suddenly she jerked up, her tailfin untucking from its curled position around her body as she rose in the water, her eyes and ears trained on the cave where the sound came from. She had heard this sound only once before, and when she had gone to investigate a yellow headed land-brute had tried to kill her. She shuddered at the memory of his hard, dry hands grasping onto her smooth water-accustomed skin. She still had res abrasions where the roughness of his palms had rubbed and aggravated her sensitive arms.
She was wary of that sound now. The soft, lovely whistle of the flute-shell. It was an instrument only played by the mer-people. The larger shells were used as war-horns, but the smaller, daintier ones were used for pleasurable sounds. A light shiver ran down the length of her aquatic body as the beautiful sound stopped. She wanted to hear it again. Perhaps…perhaps it wouldn't hurt to take a chance and see who held the instrument? It might not be the yellow man…it might be a mer-man!
Slowly she slid through the water, her body slipping and sliding through the cave opening until she saw the surface above her. IT was a small surface, nothing like her ocean. She could taste the water through her gills. It lacked the comforting salty taste to which she was so accustomed. She had heard of fresh water pockets, yet this was the first she had ever seen of one. The water even looked different!
Holding lightly to a slimy rock to anchor herself, the mermaid looked up through the gently undulating surface and saw a man! Another one…but different than the yellow land-man.
This one was smaller. He was not so broad nor so hairy! He had sleek black hair and a handsome chiseled face. His eyes flashed changing from blue to green, much like the sea she so loved. His hands did not look rough and meaty. They were slender and graceful as his fingers closed gently around the shell-whistle that had called her. He was dressed in the strangest garb. It covered nearly all of his person. Though, with little water up there, the land-creatures must protect their skins somehow, she thought.
He had no tail, but those strange split appendages the land-men had. They stood upright, and would ambulate around on them constantly.
Her ears flicked lightly as she heard him speak. His voice was nothing like the yellow-man. His was soft, graceful. It felt like cool water slipping over her ears. It called to her as much as the shell-whistle had.
Slowly she ascended though the water until her head broke the surface.
Loki closed his hand about the shell once more, planning to throw it to the depths where it belonged.
"Show Thor to make a fool of me!" he said slowly, his eyes full of mischief and revenge. "He will learn his lesson."
As he drew back his arm, the ripples began anew on the pond. Yet, the air was still.
He paused watching in fascination as a woman's face appeared on the surface of the pond. Her eyes fixed on him, her hair plastered to her damp forehead.
They stared at each other, one with wonder and one with disbelief.
"Speak again?"
The voice that reached the young god's ears was soft and small and perhaps a little garbled. He looked down at the woman, his cold heart beating wildly.
"And what, fair maiden, would you have me say?" he said smoothly, not betraying a single iota of his excitement as he stood staring down at her.
She gave a little shiver and he saw a great golden fin breach the surface of the water.
Loki smirked inwardly. Perhaps his 'Silver tongue' was more of a gift that he had even imagined.
"Why do you play the shell-whistle but for a moment?" she enquired, moving closer until she rested just behind a rock at the shoreline. She was so close that if Loki bent down he could brush his fingers through her damp, silky hair.
Loki looked puzzled and held up the shell. "This? It does not make a sound, my dear."
She held out a hand, slick from the water and pale from the dark environment she lived in. "I show you…come!" she beckoned.
The god kept his face quite neutral as he leaned down to place the shell in her palm. But within his mind quickly followed his racing heart as she watched her shining eyes and soft smile.
Suddenly a cold, wet hand closed around his wrist. "Come!" she beckoned once more, ignoring the offer of the shell.
Almost as though he had no control Loki slowly sat on the rock. He slipped his boots from his feet and the thin shirt over his head before wading into the cool water up to his waist. He could go no further without being completely submerged as the pond had a very deep drop off about four feet in.
She was directly in front of him, now. All he could see was her beautiful face and enticing eyes. Suspicion entered him and he tasted the air for magic, but found none. She had no secret power…she enticed him all on her own. Somehow this excited him even further.
She tugged gently on his wrist leading him to the drop off. "Come?"
He smiled at her and stepped off the edge into the dark, deep abyss in the center of the pond allowing himself to sink into the water with the exotic creature he had summoned. She was called to him and now he was called to her.
They floated together beneath the surface for a moment. Loki watched in fascination as the little gills on the sides of her neck opened and closed allowing her to breath. Her skin was smooth and almost pearlescent, especially where it blended with the glistening scales on her slender, yet muscular tail.
The god's eyes slid slowly along her figure. She was a marvel to him!
Her human-like features extended down to where her hips lie where scales slowly crept from that point down growing larger until they tapered off toward the tail. Her tail was a large fan of translucent gold skin and was almost as broad as his arm span.
The sun filtered through the water casting her in a glistening dappled light. She was the most beautiful creature that he had ever seen.
"Blow now, land-man!" Where her voice had once been slight and frail, it was powerful and beautiful. Loki could not believe his ears.
And so, enraptured by his delightful mermaid he had little choice but to obey. He lifted the shell to his lips once more and blew through the tip.
An unearthly sound filled the water around them. It was high, higher than any pitch Loki had ever heard, yet it had such an ethereal beauty that he wished it was the only sound he ever heard.
He had once, in his youth, read a book about mermaids. It spoke of a siren song, a sound that would call any man who heard it to his death. He knew now that this was such a sound. Yet, to hear it, the man would have to have been under water already. It did not sound above the waves.
Suddenly to his horror, the last of his breath faded and he was forced to surface. Forced to stop sharing the beautiful sound with his beautiful creature.
But she seemed unperturbed. She surfaced with him and smiled.
"See?" she warbled in her air-voice.
He smiled at her. "Indeed, you were correct. It was simply beautiful…" He paused a moment wondering if he could continue. "Like...you," he whispered finally, leaning close so his cool breath ghosted over her webbed ear.
She blushed! Loki found he was quite proud of such a feat. Perhaps it was nothing compared to his brother's warrior deeds or the magical might of his mother, but he had triumphed where even Thor had failed. He had found a mermaid and he had made her blush!
This thought emboldened him further and he slowly reached out and took her shoulders. He felt her shudder once more and paused. "Did I hurt you?" he asked with more gentleness than he realized he could possess.
She shook her head and looked up at him with her shining eyes a small smile on her lips. "You are not like the Yellow-man," she replied.
Loki threw back his head and laughed. "Yellow man? You mean Thor? Certainly I am quite the opposite," He chuckled. "Tell me, dear, what did you do to him?"
She looked terribly sheepish and her tail whisked back and forth behind her in an agitated manner. "I might….have pulled him in the lake…and I threw the shell at his head…"
Loki could not control his mirth and his normally somber features split into a wide grin. "I believe we were meant for each other, you and I," he replied thoughtfully.
She blushed once more. "But you are of the land and I of the water…how-?"
Loki smirked before he quickly ducked his head and captured her lips with his own. "Well make it work," he breathed watching her eyes. His smile widened further when her blush grew and she grasped his hands in her own.
"Good," She warbled, before copying his actions, and placing a feather light kiss on his lips.
He gathered her gently in his arms, his fingers itching to touch her smooth skin and he nuzzled her neck gently. "What is your name?"
He felt nothing less than shock when her smooth, scaled tail coiled itself around one of his legs. He bit back another grin at her obvious display of affection. Love certainly didn't take long, did it?
"What I am called you cannot pronounce in your land-tongue," She replied with little remorse.
He watched her thoughtfully. "Try me…I am not all that I appear."
Slowly she pulled herself out of the water and whispered in his ear. It was now Loki's turn to shiver as the ancient sound of her native tongue fell on his ears. It sounded like ancient magic and the sea itself. It was beautiful.
"I am Loki of Asguard…" he muttered in reply, his name which he had always been proud of, now felt inadequate to his own ears.
She smiled. "Loki, it is a fitting name."
He leaned down pressing his lips to hers once more. It took effort to pull away. He wanted to be with her…forever. She was his siren. And he? He was the unwitting man who fell into her enticing arms. And he loved her for it.
"Yes," he mused. "Perhaps it is…" He held her gently marveling at the strange creature that had caught his heart.
He knew then, he would love no one else.
A/N: Hello everyone! This is a Valentines Day one-shot I wrote for the Secret Cupid event at the Loki_Hiddleston club on Deviantart! Just a fluffy little thing about mermaids! YAY! Hope you enjoy! Happy Valentines Day, all!
