*UPDATED*
~.II.~
A few centuries later…
Caris ran as fast as she could. She didn't dare glance over her shoulder to see if anyone was still following her for fear of losing her footing. A loud, primal roar gave her proof enough that she was not alone. She could feel the ground tremble as the creature neared her, catching her scent. Cursing to herself repeatedly, she began to search frantically for some way to get the creature off of her trail. Her feet were beginning to fail her as the rumbling earth knocked her rhythmic steps off beat.
The sound of thunder reached her ears she stopped, laughing breathlessly as she looked to the sky. Thor appeared like a rocket, shooting overhead and behind her. The bildshnipe let out another roar that rattled her chest as it came into view between the trees. Before it could reach any further, Thor hit the enormous creature full-throttle, right between the eyes.
"Caris!" Loki called, appearing through the brush. He drew Caris's attention away from the bildshnipe. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," she panted. "I think Thor got this one."
As if to prove her wrong, Thor came flying in the opposite direction. Caris and Loki looked at one another in a panic as they realized Thor was not powering his flight. Another chest rattling roar indicated that Thor had only agitated the creature.
"Run!" Loki immediately grabbed Caris's arm, the pair pressing forward towards the city with the bildshnipe in hot was no sign of Thor anywhere, nor another route away from the creature that launched him. They were headed straight for the immaculate, royal city of Asgard.
"I hope you have a plan to get out of this, Loki!" she shouted as they fled.
"ME? I'm not the one who woke the damned creature," Loki growled, slightly annoyed.
"Now's not the time for blame! Do you have a plan or not?"
Loki looked around, the gears in his mind working speedily to form some sort of escape. The city was visible now between what little trees were left before a drop in the landscape. Not only a drop, but a cliff.
"Yes," he grinned, but Caris didn't appreciate the all too joyous gleam in his eyes. She knew what that entailed. They reached the end of the trees when he grabbed her hand. "When I say jump-"
"Are you mad?!"
"JUMP!" She followed his command against her better judgement who at the time hadn't had the time to come into play. She only realized how horrible a plan it had been as they were plummeting towards the shimmering waters hundreds of feet below them. Only a second seemed to pass between her feet hitting the water and her head resurfacing with a large gasp. As she treaded water, she quickly located Loki and looked back up to the cliff where the bildshnipe deafeningly proclaimed its dominance once more.
"That went well," Loki remarked, earning a glare from his friend.
"Well, lucky for us you think quick on your feet," Caris began to swim towards the city.
"Perhaps we are just lucky," he followed her. "Hopefully we'll be lucky enough my father didn't hear that disgusting creature."
The 'disgusting creature' watched them as they swam to the shore. Bildshnipe were mindless creatures, but they had an unforgiving temper. Though he did not have the scales nor the antlers, Thor could have easily been mistaken for this beast at times. Once he had regained his bearings from being tossed through the air like an empty sack, he returned with a fierce vengeance. The beast ran the length of the cliff as he spotted his target, swinging his hammer, Mjolnir.
"What the hell is he doing?" Caris stood drenched on the shore, staring after Thor as he squared off with the bildshnipe once more.
"He can't just walk away," Loki sighed. Once Thor had his mind made up, there was no changing it. There were no exceptions Loki and Caris had found, and they'd tried nearly everything throughout the years.
"Come on!" Caris dragged Loki, this time towards the fight. They were both waterlogged and there was no way they'd make it before Thor reached the beast, but Caris knew he couldn't take it on alone. They had to do something, or at least they would try.
Overhead on the cliff, Thor crashed into the great bildshnipe with more force than his last blow. It shook off his strike and lashed out in retaliation, swinging its enormous antlers threateningly in his direction. He dodged it, having learned from their first go around. Hammer and hoof flew at one another as their battle found a rhythm. Caris hoped they could climb to reach them before the rhythm was broken, for whomsoever broke it would most likely reign victorious. They couldn't let that be the bildshnipe.
As they ran, Loki tried to focus his magic to create a copy of his brother that flew around the beast in an attempt to confuse it. Almost instantly, an antler sliced through the apparition, banishing it from view. Loki made another attempt as they grew closer, but it was squelched once more. At that point, they were in close enough range that the fierce beast realized the Asgardian that was so annoyingly buzzing around it was not alone. Caris and Loki had managed to reach the fight right when Caris's fears were confirmed. The bildshnipe's energy surged at the sight of the pair and inspired an extra blow Thor had not anticipated. Once more, he was knocked out of the sky, landing somewhere unbeknownst to the remaining fighters. The beast set its sights on its new targets.
"It's your turn to come up with a plan," Loki stated with dry sarcasm. Caris ignored him. The scaly creature before them lowered its vast rack and reared back, readying to charge. She watched its muscles churn as it lunged forward. The beast had stopped falling for Loki's tricks, locking onto their scents. It took a leap when it neared them, lowering its head even further as it took aim. Running was no longer an option, this thing would not stop. They truthfully had no options until Thor returned- if Thor returned.
Thor was the strength of the three. It wasn't that Loki and Caris weren't capable in a fight. They were actually very skilled combatants. However in most cases they were equipped with weapons and their opponent was not a behemoth that didn't flinch at their attacks or ignore their tricks. They were fast and agile in their attacks, whereas Thor just went for brute force. Yet now because of his combat tactics, Thor was out of the battle.
As the beast neared, the pair in front of it split, giving one of them a chance to make an attack from behind. Caris ran, realizing she remained the target. She glanced over her shoulder warily, hoping to see some sign of Loki. When it started bucking, she knew. When she turned, she saw a very unamused Loki latched onto the base of one of the bildshnipe's antlers. As it bucked, it shook the ground even more than when it ran. It closed in on where Caris stood, trampling trees around it like grass. Loki couldn't control the beast, it only did the opposite of what he urged. Caris was backed into a large tree, not wanting to take her eyes from the creature. It managed to shake Loki off and he fell to the ground. The next thing she saw was a large hoof about the size of her torso heading straight for her.
She felt all of her energy pulse to her hands as she threw her arms up in front of her, perhaps as some sort of buffer. Squeezing her eyes shut, she screamed and prepared for impact. An impact that never came.
The creature let loose an injured and frightened sound, but it was moving away from her, quickly. Her eyes shot open in confusion and she saw the bildshnipe flying through the air like it had sent Thor. She looked everywhere for the warrior, but he was nowhere in sight. Only Loki stood, staring at her in awe. She looked at her hands as if there was something wrong, looking for some flaw. Had she done that?
"I didn't know you could do that!" Loki exclaimed as he limped to her side.
"I didn't either," she continued to examine her hands until a loud, ground rumbling crash brought her back to the fight. She and Loki shared a wide-eyed gaze as they both reached the realization that the crash of the fallen beast was within the city.
Thor, Caris, and Loki all stood silent and sullen, each of them staring at the floor, anticipation eating away at them. The three were mess. Thor was covered in dirt and bits of grass from his being thrown- twice. Caris and Loki were still in the final stages of drying, their hair in disarray and parts of their once impeccable clothing were now ripped and torn. They all flinched as the door of the great hall opened with an angered bang. The frustration in the footsteps that followed only heightened the trio's anxiety.
"You three," Odin appeared in front of them, his face bright red. "What in the nine realms did you think you were doing?"
"Father-" Loki started.
"Silence!" the All-Father seethed. He began quietly, but as his rage increased, so did his volume. "You three managed to not only wake a bildshnipe in the middle of its hibernation, you leveled three structures with it!"
He paced in front of the three who remained quiet, awaiting their punishment.
"You three beg for responsibility, the ability to command, a chance to have conquests of your own, and yet you repeatedly show me that you are not ready. That you are still just children," Thor and Loki's jaws tightened at their father's words.
They had grown considerably, the three of them. It had been centuries, after all. The princes had both become tall and considerably handsome in their own ways. Thor seemed to be one giant muscle; his arms and legs were massive appendages that Caris would often joke were as big as she was. His face favored their father, appearing to be a much younger version of the king with his eyesight was still intact. Loki was still greatly contrasted when compared with his brother. His figure, though a great deal more muscular than he was as a child, maintained its slender shape. His jawline and cheekbones had defined themselves to give him a more regal appearance. There was no mistaking the brothers were royalty. Caris, even, had proved herself wrong all those years ago when she first came to Asgard. She had looked at herself and saw someone who was pretending to be a princess. Her looks developed over the years and with many years of being in the company of nobility, she'd grown to be something of a noble herself. She'd become beautiful, though unconventionally so. She still kept an odd look about her, but that added to her intrigue.
They'd grown up with one another from children to adults, yet Odin failed to see it. Instead, he saw the disheveled children they'd started out as.
"You three are not ready," Odin reiterated. This was their punishment, to condemn them as children until they could prove to him they were otherwise. They would not get their moment of glory like the King of Asgard, at least, not for a while. They all knew this without him saying it explicitly. The disappointment that dripped from his voice was unmistakable.
"Father, if you would give us a chance-" Thor started.
"I've given you plenty of chances!" Odin boomed. "And you throw them back in my face every time. What would you have me do?"
"Things like this happen because we are not challenged," Thor bickered, Caris and Loki shot him a glance as if to try and quiet him. He paid them no attention.
"Your challenge stands before you each day!" Odin shouted. "Yet you meet it with immaturity as if it were a game. You so desperately wish to be king, but you chose to ignore what that title entails."
"I know what it means to be king!" Thor flared his nostrils.
"No. You. Don't," Odin sent a chilling glare into his son's eyes. He retired to his throne as he wished not to quarrel with his firstborn anymore, knowing it would do no good for anyone. Thor opened his mouth to retaliate against his father's harsh words, but Caris stepped in.
"I apologize, my king, for my actions and the grievances they've caused both you and the good people of Asgard," Caris spoke up dutifully. Odin's eye watched her as she confessed, as did his sons. "I am responsible for both the awakening of the beast and it's destruction of Asgard's structures."
"You would have me believe that this was your doing?" the king was in disbelief.
"Yes, my king. I implore you, do not punish your sons for coming to my aid. I do not know my own power," she reported in a level tone. Odin and Thor looked at her with confusion, frowning at her small stature and trying to imagine her raising a massive bildshnipe over her. Loki would have done the same, had he not bore witness to the event.
"You mean to tell me you now have the strength of Thor?" Odin almost scoffed at his ward.
"In a manner, perhaps," she remained vague, not quite knowing what had happened herself. Loki met her eye, indicating it would be best the All-Father knew. Caris nodded in agreement.
"She never touched the beast, and yet she threw it in the midst of the chaos," as Loki explained, Odin's eye widened.
The king sat silent for a moment.
"Is this all that occurred?" he asked quickly.
"Yes, my king, the wakening of the beast was a... misunderstanding," Caris didn't exactly want to tell the king she had enraged the bildshnipe by playing with her young as she slept. It would only make her seem more like a child in his eyes.
"Go, I must think on what you have said," he waved his hand to dismiss them, as he was already pulled into deep thought. They filed out of the great throne room, silently, until the door was shut behind them. The trio was alone in the hallway, save a few guards.
"You definitely have beat me in the power of persuasion, at least with him," Loki sounded envious, but also proud. "I don't even know what exactly happened in there."
"I don't understand a lot of what happened today," Caris felt the king's reaction was strange. She felt odd, like something was awry. Her gaze returned to her hands, examining them as if she'd never seen them there more she could do that she didn't know about? How could an ability just sprout up out of nowhere? She'd been in peril before, but no such thing had happened in her defense. She wished she could have asked the man who left her here, but she hadn't seen him since. She'd stopped asking about him a short time after. Perhaps he didn't even have the answers she was looking for.
"Caris, are you well?" Loki asked as the brothers wore the same concern on their faces.
"She's paler than you, brother," Thor stated, not meaning offense to anyone, but stating a mere fact.
"I'm fine, a little wary from all the excitement, but I'll be alright," she offered a smile. There was a pain in her head that had begun sometime through all of the events of the day, but she was unsure when exactly it started. The pain demanded her attention in this dull moment. She ignored it, surely it was nothing to concern herself with.
"While he deliberates with himself about our punishment, I do believe I'm going to clean myself up," Caris sighed, looking down at herself. "A dip in the sea just doesn't cut it."
AN: Hey there, thank you for all of the alerts! I appreciate it and I hope you all are enjoying it so far.
Within the next few chapters, I'm planning to explore more of the relationships between the characters and go into a bit more detail about Caris and her roots. This one was to establish that the trio has grown physically and emotionally with one another and are no longer children.
Thank you again, review if you wish, and I hope to see you tomorrow! :)
