"Oh-!" Agni spoke, staring at herself from the mirror. "What a surprise! You came back!"
She fixed her posture, and then gasped.
"It's you!" She now said. "I didn't think you'd actually come back..."
"Prince Loki..." Agni said his name in a jokingly low tone. Then she acted casual. "How's Asgard?"
She stared at herself for another moment, before letting out a groan.
"What are you doing...?" She mumbled.
Then she begun to hear screaming.
Agni frowned as she rushed out of her room, and started to walk towards the sound.
The louder the screams got, the faster she begun to go; until the screams were just behind the door.
And Agni counted one plus one.
Her jaw dropped as her eyes widened, and she slammed herself towards the door.
"Celtera!" She screamed, smacking her fists against the door.
She tried the handle, but it wouldn't open.
Then she tried to burn her way through the door, but it wouldn't melt.
"Agni."
She turned around, tears glistening in her eyes as she looked at her father.
Hephaestus looked back at her, his face expressionless.
Agni breathed out as she shook her head slowly.
"How could you?" She asked, her voice shaky.
"Why would you do it?!" She then screamed, running towards her father. "She didn't do anything wrong!"
Hephaestus held his hand out and shot fire towards Agni, the girl backing out and falling to the floor, looking at the man with watery eyes.
"Leave it be, Agni." Hephaestus said, calmly. "Go to your room."
Celtera's screams could still be heard behind the door.
Agni stared at Hephaestus, not wanting to believe what was happening.
"How do you live with yourself?" Agni whispered, a single tear rolling down her cheek.
Hephaestus didn't say a word.
"How do you live with yourself?!" Agni now screamed, jumping back up.
She threw a fireball towards her father, who simply catched it with his hand.
"Agni, calm yourself." Hephaestus warned.
"No!" Agni sobbed. "I hate you!"
The King clenched his jaw.
"I wish you weren't my father," Agni shook her head, more and more tears spilling out from her eyes. "You're a monster."
Hephaestus looked at her for a moment, without saying a word.
"Maybe," He then answered.
Agni bit her teeth together, trying to control her tears.
"But at least I am powerful." Hephaestus spat. "Being naive will never grant you power."
Agni was silent as she looked at her father, before spatting out her next words.
"I don't wanna sit on a throne built from the bones of the weaker." Agni whispered.
Hephaestus looked at her, and then walked close to her, leaning down.
"Then you'll never sit on one." He growled. "Because you're weak."
Agni looked at him in the eye, still gritting her teeth.
"I am not weak." She growled back.
"GUARDS!" Hephaestus then suddenly shouted, not breaking eye contact with Agni.
"Yes, King?" They appeared immediately.
"Let's see if my daughter's words have any truth behind them." Hephaestus said.
Agni frowned slightly.
"Sir…?" The guards asked.
"Throw her in." Hephaestus said.
Now Agni's frown broke as her eyes widened.
"In…?" The guards were confused.
"Yes." Hephaestus said. "To the room."
Now he turned his gaze away from Agni as he turned around.
"But, King-?"
"Do as I say!" Hephaestus growled loudly, and the guards rushed to Agni.
"Father-!" Agni blurted out as the guards grabbed her by the shoulders. "Father-! Are you serious?!"
Hephaestus turned around.
"You swore you weren't weak." Hephaestus said. "Prove me wrong."
"How?!" Agni shouted.
Hephaestus was quiet for a couple of seconds, looking at the guards dragging his daughter towards the big door.
"Kill the dragon." He said.
Agni's jaw dropped, and then the door was pulled open, Agni was thrown in, and the door slammed shut in front of her.
Her eyes widened as she stared at the door, the burning flames of the room starting to dance their way towards her.
Slowly she turned around, and looked around herself. The room itself was entirely white marble, but the flames were painting it shades of yellow and orange. On the floor, Agni saw the skeletons and skulls of anyone who'd ever entered the room; and never left it. She breathed heavily, not being able to turn her eyes away from the view, even though she could feel her chest tightening from fear and disgust by every second passing by.
Outside the room, Hephaestus only looked at the door for a couple more seconds, before he turned around just like that, and marched away.
The guards glanced at each other worriedly.
Agni took a deep breath, before she walked a little more further in to the room.
"You can do this." She said to herself. "You can do this. It's a dragon. It blows out fire — so do you. You're only… a trillion times smaller. But you do the exact same thing. How bad can it be-?"
Then the dragon stepped out from behind one of the piles of skeletons, and roared at Agni, fire coming out.
Agni's jaw dropped as she started to back out naturally.
"Bad," She blurted out. "It can be bad. Bad bad bad-"
The dragon roared again, trying to roast Agni, who screamed, pointing her arms towards the dragon and shooting fireballs, but they didn't do anything but anger the creature. It started to roam towards Agni, who started to run away from it, jumping over the skeletons.
The creature shrieked again, more fire coming out, and Agni hid behind a large pile.
"You can do this," She repeated to herself. "You're not weak. You are not weak."
Then her eyes focused on the body right in front of her, where the flesh hadn't melted off completely.
It was Celtera.
Agni's breath got stuck in her throat, and her eyes widened.
The dragon roared again, tearing a pile near Agni apart with its claws.
"Not weak." Agni gritted her teeth, before she jumped out from behind the pile.
"Hey!" Agni shouted at the dragon, and caught it's attention immediately. It roared at Agni, who roared back, before she jumped on top of one of the piles. The dragon begun to chase her, as Agni ran further, jumping from pile to another.
"Catch me if you can!" Agni shouted, aiming fireballs at the dragon now and then.
She was looking for a rib sharp enough.
Big enough.
Agni knew that there had been multiple types of creatures in this room; not only human-sized.
And finally she found it. An orc's rib.
Agni turned around, her hair flipping dramatically as she smirked at the creature, grabbing the ribs from the ground.
"Come on, Big Girl." She snapped, and the dragon started to fly towards Agni.
The Princess jumped down from the pile, and as the dragon leaned down to try and roast her, Agni screamed, and jumped in the air, aiming both of the ribs forwards; and shoving them into the dragon's eyes.
The creature shrieked out in pain, throwing itself around, and as it lifted it's front-leg, it threw Agni across the air, her body flying through a pile of skeletons before she dropped to the ground, sliding and rolling further on it. Quickly she pulled herself together, and turned around, glaring at the dragon.
She jumped up, and grabbed another rib, her teeth grit in a grin, and she was ready to run towards the creature again;
But then she stopped.
She looked at the way it was screaming in agony, throwing it's head around, desperately trying to get the ribs out of it's bleeding eyes.
And the grip Agni had around the rib loosened. It fell to the ground as her eyes began to water.
"What have I done—?" She breathed out.
The dragon kept on crying out.
Agni begun to walk towards it, slowly.
"Hey," She called.
The dragon shrieked, blowing out fire but in the complete opposite direction of Agni, since it couldn't see.
"I'm sorry," Agni said. "I am so, so sorry."
She approached the creature with careful steps, her hands held out alertedly, but not planning to attack.
"Let me help you." She now spoke.
The dragon stopped, starting to breathe slowly, as if it was listening to Agni.
And it was.
"I'll help you." Agni said. "I won't hurt you. No more."
The dragon was observing the situation through it's other senses, like hearing; not making a move.
"Shhhh," Agni shushed, trying to calm it down more. "It's okay. I won't hurt you. We're the same. Okay?"
Slowly, the dragon begun to lean down, till it was lying down on the ground on all fours.
Agni's breath got stuck in her throat by how moved she was by the dragon's actions; it had completely trusted her.
Carefully Agni now grabbed the other rib in it's eye, and the dragon grunted.
"This is gonna sting, a little bit." Agni mumbled, before she ripped the rib out.
The dragon shrieked in pain, and fast, Agni pulled the other one out so it wouldn't have time to process.
She backed out quickly as the dragon threw itself around again.
"Hey!" Agni called. "It's okay! It's okay!"
And slowly but steadily, the dragon began to calm down again.
"Hey," Agni said again, softly now, as she began to approach the creature again. "It's okay."
And then carefully she started to pet it's head. At first the dragon flinched, but then it relaxed, leaning itself against Agni's hand, that was tiny compared to the dragon's size.
"You're okay now," Agni reassured, stroking it's scaly skin gently. "No one's gonna hurt you anymore."
And then it hit Agni.
Her father had made this dragon a slave, too. It was put in to this room; never let out; leaving it no other options but to destroy anyone who came in through those doors, taking it's frustration and sadness out on them.
Then the dragon softly nudged it's head against Agni's hand, and her lips parted, as it sounded like the dragon let out a sound similar to a cat's purr.
"You deserve more," Agni said, shaking her head. "More than this. Dragons are beautiful creatures. You shouldn't be locked in here."
The dragon was silent.
"I'm gonna get you out of here." Agni said.
Then she started to hurry to the other side of the room, where she remembers seeing ladders.
She started to climb them up, the dragon now letting out a roar — but it wasn't an angry roar. It was a confused, lonely, scared roar.
"Hold on!" Agni called.
She climbed the ladders all the way up, and then looked at the hook hanging from the ceiling.
She bit her lip, before throwing herself in the air towards the hook; and managed to grab it; and slowly the ceiling begun to open, revealing the outside of Muspelheim.
The dragon started to move towards the sound curiously, and Agni dropped herself down with a grunt as she landed on her feet.
She watched the creature smell the air.
"You're free," Agni spoke. "Go. Go, before the guards come. They'll kill you."
The dragon turned it's blind head down towards Agni, and even though it couldn't see anymore, it looked like it was staring at the girl.
And then it nudged her softly; before it turned it's head away, and started to fly up, out of the palace.
Agni looked at it go, a wide smile rising up to her lips.
The dragon's enormous wings flapped as it rose higher and higher, and then begun to fly away, further.
Then the doors swung open, the guards marching in among Hephaestus.
Agni threw her head around, looking at her father dead in the eye.
"What did you do?" Hephaestus breathed out. His gaze went from Agni to the open ceiling, and then down to the two bloody ribs on the ground.
"What was right." Agni answered, starting to walk towards her father now, who was gaping at her.
Agni stopped right in front of him.
"I am not your puppet." She spoke, decisive.
Hephaestus stared at her for a while.
"I hope you enjoyed that." He then said.
"I did." Agni answered immediately.
"Good." The King said. "Cause this is your room now."
Agni's jaw dropped, as Hephaestus threw his arms up, and the ceiling begun to slide close, the hook falling off to the ground.
"You think you can outweigh me?!" Hephaestus raised his voice.
Then he snapped his head towards Agni, his eyes filled with fury, and he didn't even bat a lash as he set Agni on fire, just like that.
The girl screamed in agony, Hephaestus and the guards leaving the room - leaving her like that.
Agni had never burst on fire before. She knew it was something she would be capable of eventually, one day. It was supposed to be a part of her powers; but force-burning was never a good thing.
As soon as the door shut, the flames did too, and Agni fell to her knees.
Her skin was black and burnt, but fast it began to heal back to it's regular tone, as the girl sobbed.
"Not…" She grit her teeth as she spoke to herself. "...Weak."