A/N: Sorry it's taken forever ^^; got really caught up with work and university stuff, buttt next parts up now finally,
Peace out!
Silver hair was a blur to the servants that walked the halls, one getting in the way was knocked to the floor by the running Goddess. She'd being excused from the preparations thirty minutes before her meeting with Odin.
Never before had Valkaife had so much fury around her that she just wanted to release. All her friends had voted for Loki, knowing her personal feelings towards the God of Mischief. She wouldn't even be able to focus on the ceremony with him as her partner. How could she? There was no doubt he'd pull something on her big night. The last ceremony when Sif had dragged her to sit with he and Thor, she'd had a simple salad. She'd glanced away once and the next moment there was maggots and severed mouse heads in her food. All an illusion of course but it had affected her in more ways than one.
It wouldn't be so bad if the event wasn't so important. Everyone before her had shown their sons and daughters off perfectly. Everyone would be watching them to see who would act first in bringing the other down. Though Orethina and her loyal Druid tutor that came – Algaro, had said numerous times that she needed to put the past behind her, she never had a reason to…until now.
The day was too important for her not to have a word with Loki. Since she would be spending the entire day tomorrow with him as ordered it would give her a chance to bargain with the God of Mischief. She would have to find something to bargain with though.
She had soon curled up on the chair she had once sat nervous in before Eir had collected her. With a wave of her hand she's could feel the chair shifting as nature bloomed from the wooden chair, a layer of moss, vines and grasses growing from the wood and surrounding the girl that was too close to tears. She refused to let them drop, blinking rapidly to rid everything. She wouldn't let any more fall for the Prince she so disliked.
She shouldn't be using magic, though when her emotions ran wild as they currently were, the natural magic she held couldn't help but be set loose. It was something she'd never revealed to Orethina, something she couldn't tell anybody. Who needed a Goddess that could lose control of their abilities when their emotions ran wild?
A knock sounded and the door opened. Valkaife paid no attention to it, though on instinct her magic swarmed and protected her more. Nature worked for Valkaife, never against. It would never betray her.
"Go away," Valkaife commanded, not bothering to look behind her.
25 minutes until Odin. She needed the time alone.
"I was sent to collect you."
"Loki," Valkaife snapped, vines pulsing thicker as she recognised the tone. "Is there any point in facing Odin now? You ruin everything."
"I overheard you talking with Lady Eir," he paced the outer edge of the room, very aware of the magic that filled the air, familiar yet so unfamiliar to him at the same time. He knew not what Valkaife was doing currently. She was unpredictable in her state. It was obvious to him that she felt betrayal from her friends and elders. They all knew of her distaste towards Loki and Loki could not blame her. She was too much of an easy target. Though did she think she was the only one subjected to his mischief? Loki was sure he had done far worse to Lady Sif and Fandral.
"Why were you sent here?" Valkaife sighed, not wanting to hear anything from Loki. He was a manipulative little prick with that silver tongue of his.
"That matters not, we have time. You told Lady Eir you could not keep in the form Odin most wishes you to use," Loki came into the range of her vision finally, receiving a tentative glare instantly.
"I have more forms I can use than just that," she was on the defensive instantly, ready to lash out at Loki should she need to.
She almost did when he took a carefully placed step forward towards her. She gave a warning lash, using one of the vines as a whip which cracked the air upon snapping back.
"My mother only wished for me to collect you to escort you to the gardens. I am here to aid first," Loki took a smaller step forward, this time without any warning strike at all coming his way.
"Your aid is given to hinder," Valkaife spoke personally. He had given his aid, especially to Thor on so many occasions. She kept her distance, not accepting anything from him.
"I've done my research," Loki was careful as he took a step closer. "On the Druid's and magic. It is said Druid's cannot possess magic."
"We cannot."
"You can though, you were tested for magic, you-"
"None of my kind can harness magic. When I was tested it would have been the flow of life from nature."
"No. It was magic, it is magic that allows for so much more than just what your kind can do. It flows with that natural magic your kind have. That is why you are of Asgard, it is why you were gifted with more than just the blood of your kind. Realise that and I think you'll be stronger."
His words felt true to her, but Loki could tell her it was raining when she was under bright sunshine and he'd be able to make her believe it. She calmed though, magic drawing back as she did and that which protected her drew back into the wood, leaving only the soft bed of moss and grass behind with vines coiling around the chair.
Loki took his chance to draw closer, not trusting the shift that could possibly happen. He managed to draw in front of her though and pull her gaze to him.
"It's too little too late, even if that was true," Valkaife sighed.
"You tell nobody about this," Loki snapped, offering his hand out.
She attempted and failed to raise an eyebrow which only made Loki smirk slightly. With very tentative movement she took his hand, expecting to be pulled up, thought she got the complete opposite and gasped instantly when she realised just what was happening.
The deal was set, already taking place. Valkaife gazed around the open gardens, finding Thor and Loki. He used his illusions as an alibi, the only thing she would need to do in return was to not make a scene as she had when finding out Loki was her partner for the ceremony. This had to work for her though, and she needed to get rid of the energy she had quickly.
Loki had given her a lot ofl the magic he had possessed in order for her to stick in the form Odin had asked. She had eyed Eir carefully. Eir knew how little Valkaife could stay in the form and held worry. Valkaife held worry for another reason. Her magic could be unpredictable at times, not fully in control. She held too much power and her veins strained with what she had taken.
There was a promise to follow, which lessened the debt. She would teach him the magic that was nature, that was, if he could possess such a thing. Eir was the closest that ever came, she had little control but her healing had a great link to nature.
"Valkaife," Odin faced her as she lowered onto one knee.
"Allfather," Valkaife gazed up. "My King."
"It is my understanding that some of your forms could bring down the palace walls due to needing freedom to move. Should any damage be done out here at your hand, I will take into account during the demonstration. I trust you can put everything back to how it once was."
She smiled, nodding and instantly twisted her wrist, using magic in a completely different way as she begun the demonstration before Odin had moved from the area. She would assist him though, using the much loved vines she allowed them to fashion in their own way, moss growing from sections of the vines as she scooped up a startled Odin and fashioned into a chair.
"Have a seat my King," Valkaife beamed, well aware that some guards had taken up arms at her actions, though they had soon being lowered upon realisation that she meant no harm.
Frigga gave her an encouraging glance and with a final glance at Eir, she inhaled and began shifting into the green and silver dragon form, the form slightly larger than she'd previously used due to the extensive magic she had coiling around the natural magic she gained from nature.
Flexing her wings, Valkaife was timid at flight, she had tried once and never even lifted off the ground. She stretched as far as her wings would allow before giving some powerful thrusts downwards and giving a small jump into the air, using the powerful muscles of her hind legs to push her upwards.
Her eyes had closed and she continued her powerful beats, not realising until she opened her eyes how high she'd gone. Changing the beats of her wings, she lowered herself in the air, feeling her lungs building before she released a breath of fire.
Something changed though whilst she was in the air. It was as if something else had been holding her up and not the heavy beating of her wings. Whatever had cut off, sent her altitude lowered at a slow speed. She beat her wings frantically but she could not gain height.
What was happening? She panicked instantly, not understanding how it could happen. Almost as soon as it came on, it was gone and she had free flight again. She was in a panicked state though and chose to land whilst she still had control. What she didn't see, nor feel was Loki weakening as he helped her flight with what magic he had left.
She landed and shifted to a smaller form of a bird she'd used briefly in her fights with Loki. One she could have free flight with and flew around, testing her wings. Already she could feel that the magic she'd received off Loki had gone in the two minutes she was in the dragon form for.
She shifted again to a wolf, the first form she had mastered, keeping to the colour scheme to her of silver fur with black as its counterpart on the shift. She could use magic most freely in her wolf form and did so, where she ran plants would grow of the more lethal nature, venom and poisons dripping from their thorns and sizzling the ground upon impact. She tracked the more deadly plants very carefully, knowing a small graze from one of the venomous ones could be very deadly to anyone and would take a lot of help from Eir to heal.
Satisfied with what she had done in her wolf form, she retracted all that she had conjured up from, shifting once more to her dragon form, using the fire breath of that form to remove any lasting poison and venom from the ground.
Once convinced that nothing bad could happen from the leaked poisons and venoms, she returned to her natural form and regrew the grass she'd burned out.
She experimented with more shifts for Odin and more magic to bend all nature to her will before she wound down and wiped the sweat off her brow. She knelt once more before Odin and awaited him to speak.
It would seem she would be waiting a while and she allowed the opportunity to catch her breath and return to her steady breathing.
"A little bird tells me you have a form not yet ready, though it would be one to greatly aid should you master it," Odin spoke to her.
"Algaro?" Valkaife couldn't help but question. That was the only Druid that had permission to fly to her and instruct her. The only Druid she knew that had the form of a small bird.
"The form?"
"It is that of the legendary Phoenix," she answered. "Though I already have the Dragon form almost fully mastered for my fire attribute form. It was a form I learned had a great affliction with healing. In the book of forms it is said a master of the shifting arts spent almost three hundred years under the life tree, Yggdrasil, before he mastered his first and only form. It was said nobody has achieved such a feat since. Legend of the Druid's or not, it is a form I am currently focussing greatly on, for it is written that the tears of a Phoenix can heal anything. That is a great advantage surely."
"Can you attempt the shift today?" Odin questioned and from the look in his lone eye, he expected that today she would do it.
"I am weary, my greatest form can weaken me. Today was the first I have took flight in such a large form. I cannot say I will be able to finish the shift before I grow weak. Shifting for the first time requires a lot of both magic's. Our bodies are memories of all forms. It only takes one shift and it is easier the more you shift. The first form I took was a wolf, that now takes nothing at all to shift into. I could do it for the rest of my life and still never run loose of magic."
"You are to be the Lifebinder. Are you able to do which was predicted of you?" Odin questioned.
"Draw natural magic. Yes. Even now I am once more growing stronger. Being here alone is revitalising me. I can try the shift, I know the wings of the phoenix from past attempts," she explained, starting the shift as was required.
First shifts were always painful and she used a lot of magic to rid the pain usually. She couldn't afford it this time and it showed on her expression the pain of her bones changings, new bones growing where needed and muscles changing. The process was slow for a first shift and it was her arms that changed into wings first, bright colours of gold and red, the very opposite of what colours Valkaife was known for. Her neck greatly shifted, the breathing haggard as her neck changed shape rapidly. Where skin once lay, feathers slowly began sprouting, matching the golden colours and the red of the grown wings. It was a gruesome look when her face distorted to grow into the face of the legendary bird.
It became too much though and Valkaife stopped the shift, retreated all growing magic and gasped when she returned to her natural form.
Eir stood when Valkaife fell to her hands and knees, catching her breath but Odin was fast to stand also and stop her with an outstretched hand.
"I thank you greatly Valkaife. Not once has any bore witness to a first shift. It is told when Druid's are learning a form it is in private and nobody can witness the changing."
"It is the first time in front of any," Valkaife responded rather breathlessly.
"I thank you. You may leave and rest," Odin dismissed her.
On shaky legs, Valkaife stood and left the gardens. If she had the energy, she would shift to a bird and fly to her room. Having attempted a first time shift into such a creature, it had drained every bit of magic and energy she had remaining.
She never made it to her room and instead collapsed in one of the halls, her eyes fluttering closed as sleep was allowed to take over.