Chapter 1.

She ran as fast as her injured leg would allow, limping through the field with tears streaming down her face. One eye was swelling horribly, and the bruises under the stinking, torn and dirty shift she wore ached with each beat of her heart. Fear drove her forward though, and she limped into a cluster of trees. She was running for her life, and running toward freedom. Monsters pursuing behind her as she ran.

Floria stumbled over a tree root, crying out in pain as her bare toes connected with the hard surface. Her lice infested golden brown hair flying about her as she fell down the hill, her wrist connecting with a crack against the soil. Her body rolling until down the incline until she came to a flat place and she looked up, over her sat a man on a horse. She whimpered, her body aching and hope leaving her as she trembled and curled into a ball. She tried to crawl away, find any mode of escape, but her wrist crumpled painfully under her and he legs would no longer hold her undernourished and starved frame.

She heard the man dismount his horse, felt hands on her aching ribs and she cried out in pain at the contact. She was turned, and her amber brown eyes met a set if emerald green ones. She trembled, her breath passing through her teeth and lips in ragged gasps. Her vision faded, and she managed one word before she fainted.

"Help." She whispered, her head falling back and darkness claiming her.

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Loki rode back to the castle, enjoying his first week of freedom after spending fifty years in the dungeon for his crimes. His midnight black horse Neverwhere, enjoying the slow pace after he had ridden her so hard and far. Her gait relaxed, and he listened for birdsong as he ducked under a branch. His thoughts were his own, and it was rare that anyone spoke to him anymore around the castle. He was not bothered by it however, for there was nothing to talk about to them that interested him.

He thought he heard a cry in the woods beside the road, breaking the peace and he stopped the gorgeous beast with a tug of the reins. His ears scanning for further sound, a crashing in the underbrush got his attention and he saw a blur of dirty white and golden brown tumbling toward the road in front of him.

The girl came to a rest on the road, her dazed, fear filled expression as she saw he and his horse regard her with interest. She was bare footed, her body covered in a torn rag of a shift, and her hair tangled and dirty. She cried out, trying to crawl away in fear and she whimpered in pain as her wrist collapsed under her. He watched her, her tears falling from golden brown eyes and her bruised cheek and eye taking something from her. But yet he saw her state and pitied her, she curled into a ball and trembled like an injured deer.

He adjusted his green riding cloak, and slipped from the horse as she collapsed into the dirt after trying to flee and approached her slowly. He pitied the girl further as he approached, seeing how starved she was. He knelt in the dirt next to her, his black, gloved hands gently gripping her sides and she whimpered in pain. He felt her ribs through the fabric, and cringed at how thin she was. She whimpered in fear again as he turned her across his leather covered lap. She cried out, the birds hearing her and answering in kind.

"Help." She whimpered, shivering with pain and her eyes closed and he feared the girl dead. He lay her on the road, the awful smelling garment on her filling his nose with the stench and he assessed her injuries.

Her knees were scraped, her left foot was swollen and heavily bruised, and she had scrapes around her wrists from ropes or cuffs of some kind. She also had a broken wrist from the looks oh her swollen right hand, she also had a heavily bruised eye from a beating. He whipped his cloak off, using a knife to cut it into strips and make splints for her wrist and leg. He worked fast, fearing the girl had further injuries he could not see, and carefully lifted the alarmingly light girl in his arms. A bronze collar around her neck, got his attention and he would have to examine it later but it told him much.

"Bastard Slave Traders." He growled under his breath, and wrapped the girl in the remains of his cloak to keep her warm. She most likely came from Vanenheim, where the practice of slave trading was legal and escaped to Asgard for sanctuary. The practice outlawed in Asgard by Odin over two thousand years ago, many ran to beg for their freedom here.

He set her in the saddle, mounting behind her and laying her across his legs as he urged the horse to run. He cradled her close, and hoped that he could get her some aid before Valhalla claimed another innocent life.

Neverwhere carried them easily, and in no time he entered the city. He took the girl and carried her through the doors to the infirmary. The Healers shocked to see the Dark Prince enter, and even more shocked at the girl he carried.

"Who is she? What happened to her?" A plump, gray haired Healer said and helped him lay her on a table. She began immediately assessing the poor girl's wounds, and lice crawled from her hair to the woman's shock.

"She will need bathing, and something more to wear. Something clean." Loki said and threw some coins on the table. "I will wait and take her somewhere safe to heal when you are done. Say nothing, and I will pay you handsomely."

"Yes My Prince." The Healer said beginning to work to help the girl. He walked back into the noonday sun, looking at the high clouds and waited for them to finish their tasks. A young Appretence Healer with firey red hair approached him, a bit of bronze metal in her hands and he scowled at it.

"We cut this off her, it looks like a Slave Collar. Her innocence is still intact, but it looks as if she were destined for the auctions, and not yet sold." The red haired girl said and tried not to cry. "The scans show she is of age recently, possibly seven hundred years old Sir."

He took the collar, the stamp of a Noble house marked on It, and a number. She was catalogued like a piece of cattle to his disghust, and Loki wrapped it in a piece of cloth before he slipped it into his pocket. He heard the women behind him gasp and he turned, seeing them take the girl away to be washed. He frowned at the red haired girl, knowing that the poor thing on the table would be frightened when she woke. Perhaps to the point if lashing out, or trying to run.

"That is seventeen in Mortal years?" He asked the girl, and she shook her head.

"Ninteen Sir, she would be nineteen on Midgard." She replied, and he thought about what he should tell Frigga about her.

"I need to send a message to Queen Frigga, do you have pen and paper that I may make use of. I will need her to help me with the girl later, and I want her taken to my Chambers when you are done."

"Yes My Prince, we have those items for you." The girl said and ran to get him what he requested. He sat at a desk, a Paige coming and he gave the boy the letter and the collar with strict instructions to deliver them to Frigga only. The boy left in a run, heading toward the castle and he saw the old Healer approach.

"She is ready. The wrist is sprained, but her ankle was broken, possibly crushed to make it easier for animals to eat her. She is starved and in need of nutrition, and her eye is bruised but not damaged. She has been beaten, and the poor girl has a slight fever." She said and gave him a phial of a potion. "Give her two drops of this in morning and night, it tastes awful, but it will ease her pain, should she have any."

"Thank you. I will take her now, I ask discretion." Loki said and the woman nodded, she understood that there was a need for secrets in this matter and did not show any sign of gossiping. He stood and walked through to a bed, and found the newly bathed and bandaged girl wearing a white, cotton shift and her hair shining in thick, caramel ribbon waves around her face. He looked down at her, sadness for her running through him and he carefully lifted her to take the short walk to the castle. He entered through a side door, and walked to his chambers in silence.

He opened his doors using magic, and used the same to turn down his bed. He lay her on it, covering her after with the blankets and turned to see Frigga sitting by the fire. She held the remains of the collar in her hand and took soft steps to the girl, her eyes filled with gentle compassion for her.

"Poor girl, let her sleep tonight and give her plenty in the morning. Do you know her name?" Frigga asked him and he shook his head.

"No. I found her as described in my letter, Odin needs to find who did this to her. She did not ask to be beaten and starved nearly to death." Loki said and Frigga regarded her younger son with interest.

"I will show him this, and tell him of your deeds." Frigga said and sighed. "Where will you sleep?"

"On the chaise." Loki said, adding a log to the fire and picking up a book he had been reading. "When she heals, you may take her as a Handmaiden, I am sure she will be a good addition to your household."

"We will see, let her decide." Frigga said and walked to the door to leave. "I will tell Odin about her, and return in the morning."

"Rest well... Frigga." Loki said, and she frowned at he calling her by her name. She smiled again at him, and nodded her head.

"You did well, I am proud of you for being so kind to this unfortunate girl. Goodnight." She said and he glanced up from his book as she left the room. He looked back at the girl on the bed, her chest rising and falling with her breathing and he went back to his reading, the fire crackling away next to him.