I'm a little disappointed that nobody will comment... :( Come on peoples! If you have time to read this story, then you can take 30 seconds and comment! 30 seconds! :D I do hope you like this chapter. I've been thinking of this scene for a while. Have fun reading!
Terezah was running. Faster. Faster. She pushed her legs to go faster. Her lungs burned and her muscles ached. She had to get home before her step-father. She burst through the back door and bolted down to her room in the basement. Her heart sunk. There was her step-father, standing in the middle of her room. "You're two minutes late!" He screamed at her. She tried to duck as he swung his hand at her, but he was too fast. He slapped her in the face. The force knocked her down to the floor. She felt his foot come down on her stomach. He called her not-so-nice names and picked her up. He threw her at the wall and she hit her head. She didn't know what she had done wrong. She silently cursed herself as he came upon her. He dragged her to her feet by her hair. She screamed at the pain of being held by her hair. "Such horrid looking hair! You need a haircut!" She was filled with dread as he dragged her up the stairs by her beautiful long silver hair. He held her up in the air by her hair and pulled out his sword. She felt as the blade sawed through her hair. She dropped to the floor and her step-father held a handful of her silver hair. "Much better! Now get out of my sight!" He yelled and kicked her in the ribs. Terezah stumbled to her feet and ran down to her room. She looked in her small, cracked hand mirror and started to sob. Her hair was just above shoulder length and uneven. She curled into a ball and sobbed.
Terezah woke up with a jolt. She was breathing heavily, cold sweat running down her neck. She felt tears run down her face. Loki burst into the reading room. "What happened?!" He asked urgently. "What do you mean?" Terezah asked, trying to cover her face so he couldn't see her crying.
"I heard you scream…" Loki trailed off. She looked up at the shirtless Loki looming over her.
"Just a dream." She said, trying to avoid any other questions. Loki sighed.
"Are you ever going to stop lying to me?" He asked irritated. Terezah looked back down at the floor and more tears fell from her eyes. "Might as well tell Thor and Odin also…" She muttered.
"…Why?" Loki asked confused.
"Your mother knows, and now you're going to know…" She trailed off. She had to trust him at some point. She couldn't keep covering her past up. The nightmares were getting worse and more often. Loki sat down next to her. "You can tell me…" He said looking into her golden eyes. She nodded.
"I… have dreams about… my past…." She started. She didn't know how to tell him. How could she trust the God of Mischief? She looked at Loki who was staring at her intently. "They're about my mother's death… and some of the things my step-father did to me…. sometimes it's about other things…" She looked down at her hands.
"What happened to your mother?" Loki asked. Terezah fought back tears.
"My step-father killed her." She said through gritted teeth.
"Oh…" Loki said.
"I couldn't stop him! I hid in the corner like a coward as he drove the knife through her heart!" She couldn't help it. Anger had scarred her heart. Loki looked down at the floor as well.
"How old were you?" He asked quietly.
"Ten…"
There was absolute silence for a couple minutes. Then Loki spoke up, "Tell me exactly what happened in your dream." Terezah snapped her gaze towards him. She let more tears spill out of her eyes.
"It was when I was about eight. My mother had remarried when I was about seven. The first year was fine, but his true personality started to come out. Anyways…" she paused and tried to swallow the lump in her throat. "My step-father made me walk home from school, which was almost a three hour walk away. If I didn't get home before him, he would beat me. This time, I got home two minutes after he did. He started beating me like usual, but this time he picked me up by my hair and decided it was time for a haircut…" Her voice started to break. She hated the man so much. "He pulled out his sword and sliced off my hair…" She said and looked at Loki.
"What about your mother? Did she not try to stop him?" Loki asked.
Terezah remembered her mother, beaten and bruised. Her golden eyes had lost their life-filled shimmer. "My step-father locked her in her room. He beat her more than he did me. She died saving me…" Her voice trailed off and she couldn't help it anymore. She started to sob. She buried her face in her hands.
Loki didn't know what to do. He had listened to her story, slightly shocked at how horrible her life had been. She now sat there sobbing and he wasn't doing anything. He placed a hand on her back. He didn't know what else he could do to comfort her. She then did something he never would have expected. She threw her arms around his neck and sobbed into his shoulder. It took a minute before he wrapped his arms around the shaking form. He almost felt sorry for her. He didn't understand how she could blame herself for the death of her mother. She had only been ten years old.
Finally she pulled away from him and wiped the tears away from her eyes. "Sorry…" She whispered. To be honest, he had enjoyed the embrace. "It's fine." He said and smiled warmly at her. He glanced at the scar on her shoulder. He now had an idea where it came from.
They sat there in silence for a few more minutes. "Well… we both need to get some sleep. Thanks for the talk." She said, returning to her tougher self. "If you tell a soul, I'll kill you." she said simply and looked him in the eyes. "Especially if you tell The Goddess of Love and Beauty." She said in a mock tone. Loki chuckled. "I won't tell anyone… especially her." He said. She looked him in the eyes.
Loki stood up and left the reading room. He laid back on his bed and closed his eyes, trying to fall asleep. He couldn't get Terezah's disturbing story out of his mind. Who would do such a thing to a child? He asked himself. He pictured a small dark elf child getting beaten ruthlessly by a large dark elf man. He tried to quiet his roaming thoughts so he could sleep, but he couldn't. He had wondered for months where she had gotten the scar and why she had nightmares. Now that he knew at least some of her story, he couldn't stop thinking about it. She had probably become an assassin for that reason: So nobody could push her around. Finally he drifted off to sleep, thinking about how she had turned to him for comfort.
He woke up to someone shaking him. He opened his eyes. "Lokitty! Good morning!" Freya said. She was sitting on his bed. "How did you get in here?" He asked.
"I have my ways." She said with a smirk. His eyes darted to his reading room's door. It was wide open and Terezah was gone. He sat up and looked at the sky through his balcony. The sky was just turning a light purple. The sun hadn't even risen yet.
"Why are we up so early?" He asked.
"So we can sneak out before the rat wakes up!" Freya said happily. Loki smirked. Terezah was gone, which meant she was watching their conversation from some hiding place. "I want to sleep!" Loki said and dropped his head back to his pillow.
Freya glared at him. "Get up now!" She said with a little more force.
"We don't have to avoid her. I could just tell her to stay out of sight. She wouldn't bother us…" Loki said and then yawned.
"No! I don't want someone watching us!" She said angrily.
"I don't get why you are so against Terezah!"
"She is a dark elf! A DARK ELF! She is probably manipulating you! Lokitty, she is horrible!"
Loki was losing patience. He really didn't want to do anything but go back to sleep. He guessed it was still five in the morning. He usually got up at seven. "I don't want to get up right now! I'm not going anywhere with you until past seven!" Loki said and then put a pillow over his face.
"Fine!" She huffed. "Be that way! Eventually, you'll see that I'm right about the rat!" She stormed out of his room.
Loki sighed in relief and pulled the pillow off his face. Directly above him was the dark elf they had been talking about, staring him in the eyes. "Good morning! I didn't know you got up so early…" She said looking slightly confused.
"I don't." Loki said glumly.
"I was just getting breakfast. I passed Freya in the hall… she looked pretty angry." Terezah said with a chuckle.
"You get up this early?" Loki asked. He started to feel more awake.
"Yeah. I only need like five hours of sleep." She said.
So she hadn't heard their conversation. He still couldn't believe she got up at five in the morning. "Why do you get up at five though? You don't have to start guarding me until I get up."
"You are up… usually I go and practice archery, but since you're awake, I get to guard you now."
Loki sighed and pulled the covers off. He sat up. It was time to start his day. Terezah left the room and waited outside for him, while he got dressed. She walked with him to the dining hall. As he got there, he saw Freya. "Oh! So you'll get up for her and not me?!" She asked, starting to turn red with anger.
"No. I couldn't go back to sleep so I decided to get up." Freya seemed to calm down. "I'll get you a plate of food." She said with a sly smile. Loki sat down at the table in the middle of the room and Terezah sat by him. Freya got him a plate of food with her back to him. "So… what boring prince stuff are you going to do today?" Terezah asked him with a grin.
"I was thinking of reading about Svartalfheim. It sounds like an interesting place…" He replied and watched Freya bring him a plate of food and a drink. Nobody had seen her slip some food poisoning into Loki's drink. She set the plate of food and drink in front of him. "Enjoy your breakfast. I have to travel back to my father's house today. He needs me." Freya said as she left the room.
"Why read about it when you can ask a person who's lived there?" Terezah asked him while he drank his water. Something was different… it tasted a little strange. It was probably nothing. He started eating his food and talking to Terezah about Svartalfheim when he started feeling sick.
"Are you alright?" Terezah asked him.
"Yeah…" He said nodding his head. She placed a hand on his forehead.
"You have a fever. You should go lay down." Loki started to feel dizzy as he stood up. He lost his balance and almost fell. He felt Terezah slide her arm around his waist and put his arm over her shoulder. "I'll help you…" she said. They started walking back to his room. He laid down on his bed and fell asleep. When he woke up, he felt a cold wet rag on his face.
He tried to sit up, but someone pushed him back down. He was shirtless and Terezah was sitting on his bed next to him. "You have a massive fever. You've been asleep for a couple hours. It's almost noon." She said and put the rag in a bucket. She pulled it back out and ringed the water out of it. She put the cool rag on his bare chest. The rag felt amazing.
She lifted his head and held a cup of water up to his lips. He felt so weak. He sipped at the water and she lowered his head back down onto the pillow. It felt boiling hot in the room. He was sweating and had a huge headache. His head started pounding. He groaned. She put the cold rag on his face again. He looked up at her. In her golden eyes, he saw worry. He watched her golden eyes as she caressed his face with the cool rag. His eyes closed and he fell asleep again.
After Terezah had helped Loki back to his room, she took off his armor and undershirt. He was boiling hot at this point. He was groaning and sweating. She left him on his bed as she went back to the kitchens to fetch a cold pail of water. When she got there, she saw a maid taking his plate and cup away. "Wait!" She said to the maid who was going into the kitchens. She recognized the maid as the same one who had been feeding her soup when she had woken from her coma. The maid looked at her with frightened eyes, but stopped walking.
"Can I see that cup?" She asked the lady who shyly gave her the cup. Terezah raised the cup to her nose and sniffed it. "Vasa Lirva…" She muttered as she recognized the smell of a food poisoner. People had tried to poison the Queen of the Dark Elves, so she had learned the smells and tastes of many different poisons. This particular one was called Vasa Lirva. The maid looked at her confused. "Oh yeah… sorry about throwing a dagger at you when I woke up… I forgot where I was for a moment." The maid nodded in understanding.
"Do you know where I could get a pail of cold water?" She asked the maid.
"Yes. I'll get you one." The maid said.
"Oh! Could you get me a rag too?"
The maid just nodded and went into the kitchen. Terezah waited for a few minutes before she came back out again. She handed Terezah the pail of cold water and a rag. "Thanks!" Terezah said as she took the bucket and rag.
She quickly walked back to Loki's chambers. His face was flushed and when she felt his head again, his fever had risen. Somebody had poisoned his drink. The last one to touch his food had been Freya, but she couldn't see why Freya would poison her lover. She sat on the bed next to Loki and dipped the rag in the water. The water was indeed very cold. She put the rag on his forehead. At least he isn't vomiting. She thought to herself as she watched the sleeping prince.
She continued to put the rag in the cold water and back on his forehead and sometimes chest. She did this all day. He had only woken up once. He was clearly delirious. He mumbled stuff in his sleep and groaned. She would occasionally tip his head up and allow water to trickle into his mouth. She had to keep him hydrated. She sat by his side all day and tended to him. It was well into the night and she was feeling exhausted. She replaced the rag again and watched him. He had at least stopped groaning and his fever had gone down a little.
It was a little past midnight when he finally woke up. He sat up and looked at her. She touched his forehead again and his fever had now gone down quite a bit. He must be getting over it. "Have I been asleep all day?" Loki asked. Terezah nodded. "I went back to the kitchens to get a pail of cold water and this rag. Well, nobody usually gets sick that fast, so I went back and smelled your drink. When I was serving the queen, sometimes people would try to poison her and it is easiest to do that in the drink. Anyways, I smelled you drink and someone put a food poison known as Vasa Lirva where I come from…" Loki just looked at her. "Interesting…" He said.
"You look exhausted. I feel a lot better now. Go get some sleep." He said to her. Terezah didn't want to leave him unprotected, so she slept in the reading room.
Loki couldn't believe she had been by his side all day. Nobody but his mother had ever done that for him. He watched her as she fell asleep. She left the door to the reading room open in case he needed anything. She was absolutely beautiful. He stopped himself from thinking this. He was already courting Freya. Now he understood why she was jealous. He laid back down in bed. He remembered her hands wiping the cold rag on his face. She looked as if she actually cared. He fell asleep again.
Loki woke up slightly startled. He looked over at the door to the reading room which was still open. The sun was peeking above the horizon, lighting up the room. Terezah was still asleep, her back to him. He was now wide awake. He got up and changed into some armor. He was wondering if he should wake Terezah up. She would probably panic if he was gone when she woke up. He decided he'd wait for her to wake. He didn't want her rampaging through the palace looking for him. He smiled at the thought of her storming though the halls.
