Loki didn't like to think of how long he had been in his prison, and he knew if he wasn't the 'son' of Odin he would have never of been released. His entire family was desperate to rekindle their relationship. Odin had attempted to spend time with his son, but Loki never showed up to any of their bonding dates. Then there was Thor was almost seemed to jump through hoops. Thor would show up and attempt to drag his brother off anywhere he could think of. The only one Loki even enjoyed minimal amount of time around was his mother.
Loki was bitter; everyone knew it and everyone talked about it. He would huff and scowl when he heard their words, knowing that none of them would have been brave enough to say anything to him if he still had his powers.
Although powerful, Odin was not one for original ideas. Where Loki lacked Thor's brawn, he gained an intelligence his brother didn't have. But although his brother didn't have his wit, he had something else that Loki didn't. That was love, and the ability to feel compassion for others.
This is where Odin believed his son could be saved, if Loki could feel the same kind of love Thor had for Jane, then he too could be saved. Loki of course thought this was the most ridiculous thing he ever heard. He was not capable of such a useless feeling.
But unlike Thor, Loki could not be banished to earth. It had been made very clear that if Loki ever stepped foot on earth again, that his life would be ended. Instead his lonely brother wandered the halls of their home, playing tricks on people he despised. Which was everyone.
There was a woman in particular he liked to prank, solely because she was a grumpy old woman who was often very verbal about her thoughts of him. He had played many of pranks on her, and every single prank he pulled got the reaction he wanted.
In his cockiness and arrogance he never once suspected that his pranks would befall someone he hadn't intended him to harm. This was odd because even if his pranks had missed his intended target, he was very happy anyway.
This person was a young maiden named Adisa. Loki was unsure of what Adisa did; in fact most people were unsure what her purpose was. She stayed out of their way, and that was all anyone really cared about.
Adisa was a young girl when she had met an ill fate. He remembered his mother once telling him, that the young girl had met a man with powerful magic and he thought her so ugly inside that he took away her ability to see any beauty. Adisa was blind.
At the time both Loki and his brother had been chilled to the bone by the story. This feeling was not for the young girl, but powerful magical men who punished the deserving. It had painted a picture for many young children, and Adisa was made an example of. Wither or not the story was true.
Most people assumed that the story was true and that Adisa had learned her lesson. There was no trace of what monster she once was, but this didn't stop the mixed reaction she got. Some people pitied her, and some despised her.
Loki had no feelings towards her either way, his once overwhelming fear he had of her as a child now gone. But once the bucket of cloudy liquid (that was some odd creatures urine) fell on the young Adisa had he realised he had done something very wrong. The blind girl had a look of horror on her face, and as the smell quickly hit her nose, did it finally hit her had happened. Then unlike most people he had pranked, she sat on the floor and begun to cry.
Awful; truly awful is how he felt. Her soft cries didn't go unnoticed, and the old cow he wanted to trick came bustling down the hallway towards her, with even more women behind her.
"That good for nothing man!" The old woman snapped, grabbing Adisa's arms in attempts to help her up. Other women rushed around her, covering their noses in disgust. They took no time helping the girl onto her feet, and without a second thought they started to drag the girl away.
It was only after they left that he shifted from his hiding place a deep frown on his face. He didn't like the feeling that started to rise in his chest, it was something he was unaccustomed too and he didn't wish to feel it at all. So Loki had decided that he would try to forget the young woman.
It seemed to work for only a short period of time, but it seemed that the more he tried to ignore the existence of Adisa the more he saw her. She was often walking around unaccompanied, or sitting on a bench. He quickly grew aggravated by the sight of her.
A part of him wanted to walk up to her and violently shake her. Then there was another part of him noticed how sad she looked, and how lonely. Lonely just like him he would ponder. Before he would grow angry again, and talk himself out of 'thoughts of weakness'.
On a cold night Loki had slowly walked towards a small garden on the east side of the castle. The garden was tiny in comparison to the others that he had been in. He had quickly discovered that the only reason why this particular garden even existed was because of the view.
The view could be seen on the other side of a four-foot wall, and it not only showed the wonderful sky but the vast drop of a cliff and the icy waters below. There was something about how the swirling waters and rocks meeting the sky that made this small garden one of the most beautiful.
Strolling into the garden his hand reached up and grabbed a fist full of flowers. Ripping them from the tree he tossed the twigs away into another bush as he freed them from the flower. His intentions was to sit on the wall and toss peddles into the icy waters. Just like he had done as a child, but they were quickly interrupted when he looked forward to see a girl sitting in his place.
The sight of someone else sitting on his wall surprised him, but seeing Adisa sitting on his wall angered him. His fingers curled around the flower, destroying what little delicacy was left. The destruction of his flower hadn't done anything to help his anger.
"What are you doing?" He snapped, his face twisted in rage. The girl didn't jump like he thought she would, but he figured she heard him coming into the garden. He had read once, the blind often had better hearing to make up for their lack of sight.
It was strange not to see someone tilt their head in his direction. She couldn't see him, so she had no need to look at him. He watched her body for any type of movement other than breathing but saw none.
"Tell me, if I were to fall. Would there be any chance I would live?" She asked, her voice wasn't at all that special. Not that he expected anything from her.
"Of course not, you would be obliterated if you jumped." He hissed. How could the girl ask such a stupid question, his mind was wheeling with thoughts and anger. Jumping from any ledge from Asgard was a death sentence, why would this one be any different?
"Good." She said, the statement confused him; he had no idea what it meant until she rocked herself forward. Using the palms of her hands she attempted to push herself off the wall and over the ledge.
Loki had never moved so fast in his life as he did at that moment. His heart instantly started to beat like a drum and his chest twisted up into all sorts of knots. Each one of those knots a different feeling of panic and fear.
His fingers dug into her upper arms and as she struggled to get away from him he gained control of the situation. He somehow managed to pull her off of the ledge and back to the safety of the garden.
She had just begun to squirm in anger when he dropped her onto the cold hard stone walk way. She landed on her bottom, and in her blind panic tried to scramble back to her feet. Her dress and blindness made it quite difficult for her.
"What do you think you are doing?" Loki snarled, he could feel his lips curling in anger. His long locks had fallen into his face, and in one swift sweep his long fingers placed the strands back into their proper place.
"I think you and I both know what I am doing." She said finally pushing herself off the ground and standing straight. Her hands remained in front of her for a second as she made sure she regained her balance.
"Killing yourself is illegal!" Loki hissed, his fingers grabbed her upper arm and he found himself dragging her away from the ledge. He was unaware that the reason he did so was so she couldn't attempt to jump again. He was still too angry to process what was going on.
"Only, if you survive. Which I, do not intend to do!" She stomped her heals into the slippery rocks, trying to stop him from dragging her anywhere. Loki was a trained warrior so her attempt to stop him was of course useless. Loki continued to drag her until they were a good distance away from the garden, and until he was satisfied that she would have great difficulty finding her way back.
Her words boiled over in his head. Although he himself had thrown himself off the Rainbow bridge ages ago, he could understand why someone would want to kill themselves. But he unlike this woman had seen that there was a way out, and although at the time he didn't see it he did now.
"I should take you to the All father, and tell him what you attempted to do. He would do away with you; throw you in a dark cell until you learned your lesson." He didn't know what else to say to the girl, his mind was still spinning. She twisted her body away from him, finally releasing his hold on her.
"Good, then there I will find a stone and slit my…" Loki couldn't let her finish, he grabbed her digging his fingers into both of her upper arms. She gasped not expecting such a violent interaction.
"Whatever answer you are looking for through death is not there. That, I can assure you. If you ever attempt to do something like that again, I will give you a fate worse than death." A look of surprise crossed her features, he could tell that she was having some sort of inner turmoil. Adisa thought the man could easily be bluffing but she knew better than that. This man, whoever he was, was completely serious.
Adisa may have been blind, but there were a lot of things she could see that others couldn't. Loki released his grip on her arms, his fingers painfully stiff. He had enough of her at this point and turned around sharply, walking off into some dark corner of the castle.
Loki kept his word, and kept a very close eye on her. It took a few days to get over the anger he felt towards the young girl. He would have stopped watching her a lot sooner if he was disgusted by her. But as the days turned into weeks he found himself curious.
First it was the way she walked around the castle, he discovered after some time that she would count her steps. She had counted out everything, and if she was interrupted she would often instantly be lost. Then there were other parts of the castle, like the gardens where she had them memorised. There she didn't need to count her steps. He found this amazing and very clever.
While he watched her he discovered something else about Adisa. Much like himself people had many different reactions to her. Most of which was enough to make his blood boil.
People would often shove her aside, ignore her, say horrible things to her and sometimes throw things at her. He watched a group of boys grab her, throwing her over their shoulder as the carried her off. They would drag her off to somewhere in the castle and just leave her there confused. It would take her hours to find her way home.
Then there was her family.
Loki was surprised that he had recognised her family, they were nobles but not ones he had ever talked to. She had a Mother, Father and older sister. Both of her parents seemed to only fuss over Adisa's older sister. Like himself, Adisa was left to be ignored. Adisa's sister had recently been engaged, and it seemed to be the talk of the family.
Adisa couldn't see it, but her mother would always worriedly look at her youngest daughter. Obvious doubts that she too would one day be married crossing her mind and Loki could understand why. Who would want a blind wife? She couldn't cook, sew, or clean much of anything. She could never teach her children to read, or write. She would be completely useless. He figured this was partly the reason why her family never brought her to any of the feasts at the castle.
After another long day of avoiding all of his family he strolled into a large garden. The sun had already set and the only thing lighting up the garden was a few glow slugs and the moon which was hanging low in the night's sky.
The garden would have been disturbingly silent if his sensitive hearing couldn't pick up sniffling. Sniffling was such an odd sound for him to hear, and at first he had thought it was some creature stuck in the bush.
He wasn't surprised to see he was wrong, because he seemed to be wrong a lot lately. The sound was not a small creature, but Adisa who was curled up on the ground her face in her hands. He felt his body shift away from her, and he was almost way too quick to leave her there crying on the ground. But there was something inside of him that stopped him.
He didn't want to know what this something was, and if anything the idea of him helping anyone was disgusting. If anyone where to see him, he would surely be the next rumour.
There was no one to see them, and Adisa was blind. She wouldn't know who he was unless he told her. This was the only reason he had decided to help her, that and because he felt bad for her.
"Adisa?" he frowned never hearing such a softness in his voice before. It sounded so strange too him, and he swallowed harshly.
"What?" She answered, her face still covered by her hands. Loki had to remind himself that she had no need to look at him; it was uncomfortable to talk to someone who didn't have to look at him.
"What are you doing?" He asked, the question was indeed a bad question because she was quick to snap back at him.
"I'm crying! What does it LOOK like I'm doing." His face almost cracked into a smile. Adisa huffed in irritation and tried to push herself off the ground, finally pulling her hands away from her face.
She struggled for a moment sitting up trying to get herself balanced on the ground then like she had forgotten what she was doing stood there. Loki watched her with interest, frustration crossing her features.
He had seen the same look before, when she was lost and it became all too clear to him that she was indeed lost. There was no doubt in his mind that the group of boys had been behind her current position.
"Come, I'll take you home." He said reaching forward to grasp her elbow. He half expected a look of fear to cross her face. A normal woman would be weary of a stranger walking her home, but a blind woman shouldn't let anyone walk her home. There was no way that she could point out an accuser.
To him that meant she had still given up on life. It was sad to see how a woman as pretty as she had given up on life entirely. He could see that she had so much to give, if someone just gave her the chance. He thought that maybe if someone had given him a chance that he wouldn't have lived in darkness so long, and no one should live in the darkness he did.
Adisa didn't question how he knew where she lived; instead she gave him a sad nod and walked into the front gate of her home. Her feet stopped only for a second so she could step over a large crack that would have tripped anyone who didn't know it was there. He was sure she had fallen over that a lot, and he wouldn't be surprised if she knew where every crack was in Asgard.
That night after he watched from the garden he slipped through the shadows to a large tree in the middle of Asgard. In this tree most of Odin's ravens slept, and sat during the day.
Loki could feel their little eyes on him, and he knew if he was caught sneaking into the Raven Forest he would be in a lot of trouble. To risk this for her was insanity. But some where between walking from her home, to his rooms an idea popped into his head. He could use her blindness to his advantage, he would lie to her. Pretend to be someone else, and hopefully she could truly see him. He could finally have someone in his life that understood him. Some one who could...
Loki stopped his thoughts before they could go any farther, and scanned the tree until he found a smaller raven with naked patches of skin. This is the Raven he chose.
He could have chosen an adult, but then it would be much harder for the creature to bond with Adisa. By choosing a young raven he was ensuring that Adisa would have a friend. Loki knew there was no way that she would open up to just anyone, he had to find a way for her to open up just a little before he could make any kind of impact on her.
"I have a job for you." He whispered to the Raven that tilted its head in confusion. He knew of course that the raven knew what he was saying, where as if the raven where to talk to him he wouldn't have a clue.
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