"You have to concentrate, Agni."
The girl with platinum blonde hair bit her teeth together, as she pressed her eyes shut tighter.
"Think of it; and only it."
She tried. She tried so hard, but her father couldn't see it. He didn't understand it - Agni tried so hard. But she couldn't do it.
She let out a frustrated breath, before collapsing to the floor from the exhaustion. Behind her, her father Hephaestus snorted, and shook his head as he continued to walk in a small circle slowly around Agni. They were in the middle of a dark room, (the training room, as they would call it) that had small fire pits thrown around it in random places, slowly burning on the ground.
"I don't think you understand what's at stake here, my dear." Her father spoke.
"I do understand, father." Agni said ashamedly, her gaze on the ground.
"Do you, really?" Hephaestus asked, stopping, and now Agni lifted her gaze up to him.
"Yes." Agni said.
"What are you, then?"
Agni was quiet for a moment, just looking at her father, before answering. She knew that this was a trick question. She knew that he knew she knew. And she also knew, that he wanted her to say it just so he could tell her that she was failing at being it.
"I am a Princess." Agni said.
"Of...?" Hephaestus asked.
"Princess of Muspelheim." Agni mumbled.
"And whose daughter are you?" Hephaestus asked.
"Yours," Agni said automatically, thinking it was kind of a stupid question.
"Whose daughter are you?!" Hephaestus raised his voice.
"The fire-God's and Goddess'es." Agni answered correctly, fast.
"Yes." Hephaestus nodded. "So that makes you..."
Agni sighed.
"A princess. Of the realm of fire." She mumbled, staring down.
"Exactly." Hephaestus said, continuing to walk in the circle, his hands behind his back. "So what should you be able to do?"
"...I should be able to control, and cause fire." Agni said.
"And how are we doing there, hm?" Hephaestus raised his brows.
Agni didn't say anything, just let her gaze drop down.
"Agni..." Her father sighed. "This can't go on like this."
The room was quiet apart from the sizzling sound of the fire.
"One day I will not be here anymore — and you're gonna have to take over, as my only child. You're gonna have to take care of Muspelheim. You're gonna have to prevent bad things from happening; keep them locked, protect your people. You're gonna have to rule; with a King; and how is a Queen that can not handle her fire — supposed to rule a realm made of it?!" Hephaestus spat.
"I can control it, it's just-" Agni started.
"It's just what?" Hephaestus raised his brows.
"You're forcing me to go further, when I know I'm not ready!" Agni blurted out as she jumped up.
"When you're not ready-?" Hephaestus spat, taken aback. "My child - you don't get to decide that. I do. Once you come of age-"
"But what if I don't want to be a queen?!" Agni blurted out.
Hephaestus raised his brows.
"Excuse me?" He asked.
"What if I don't want to be a queen-?" Agni asked again. "What if I want to travel? See the universe, father! Visit the other realms-"
"Silence!" Hephaestus growled, his entire surroundings bursting up in flames.
Agni flinched as she stepped back a little.
"You will become queen." Hephaestus spat, starting to march towards Agni, who backed out in same pace. "You will become queen, Agni. It is your birthright."
Agni looked at him, fury boiling inside her as she clenched her jaw. She was sick of this; of her father throwing her around like a puppet, telling her what to do. Controlling her.
"I think we're done here today." The Princess then just snapped and turned around, starting to walk towards the big hall doors, leaving her father stand there alone. Her father, who just stared after his daughter silently with a clench of his jaw, and a small, disappointed shake of his head.
Agni stepped out of the big black doors and entered a white, wide, very clean hallway of the palace. The floor was shiny and made of white marble, and on the walls there were golden details and portraits of the previous rulers and important Muspelheim history characters hanging inside big, golden frames. The girl's gaze slid lazily from photo to photo as she snorted quietly.
"One day your photo will hang from these walls," her father would say every time they walked these halls together.
But what if she didn't want it to?
She'd always wanted to explore. Travel. See the other realms; maybe even Midgard. But her father had never let her. Never, in her 1,018 years of life. So naturally; Agni was bored. She was bored of never leaving this realm. Of never leaving this palace! It was like Agni was a prisoner in her own realm. Born to rule. Destined to watch over Muspelheim. To marry someone she didn't actually love, (someone chosen by her father,) only to continue the legacy of "Great Rulers". To have her photo framed on The Wall some day.
Whenever Agni wasn't practicing her skills of fire (which recently seemed to be the only thing she was doing these days, anyway), she was daydreaming of the day she'd finally get out. When she would escape. Of the day she would at last get to meet that that tall, dark, handsome stranger — just the kind that was in all the books her mother used to read to her as a child — her own Prince. How he would drop in from another realm to save her, to take her away to a new place. Show her all the things she'd been missing out on all these years.
But the possibility of any of that ever happening was really only the slightest; and Agni knew that there was no chance her father would ever let her out. Not after what happened with her mother.
So there she was; having to settle for her fate. To become the "Queen of Muspelheim" . The fate, that was written for her the second she got born.
She dragged herself further on the hallway, hips swaying naturally as the high-heel ankle-boots made of red latex knocked on the floor on every step.
She glanced in from the big window that showed the hall that kept "The Great Treasure" locked inside it. "The Great Treasure", a.k.a; the fiery sword made by Hephaestus himself. Agni was meant to just glance in once, then continue, but as she had gotten one step past the window, she realized there was something awry with the picture she'd just seen.
So she took one step back with a frown as she took another look in; and there, right by the sword, she definitely did see something that didn't belong there.
A boy.
Hi! Sooooo - this was the first chapter of my Marvel universe story.
First of all; so I know that Agni is actually the name of an Hindu Fire God, but it was the only fitting name I could find for the character without coming up with a completely own one (and I simply just couldn't do that because I started to like the sound of 'Agni' too much, lol.) Also, I know that in the Original-Actual-Marvel-Universe Surtur rules Muspelheim, but not in this alternate universe, he he! He is still, however, connected to the realm but not in charge (stay tuned for more information ;-D ... Which brings me to my next point; )
If you think you'd be interested in finding out what's going to happen next, please follow and maybe even review!
And as a last note, I'd like to point out that english isn't my mother-language, so... I apologize for any possible grammar mistakes.