Author's Note: Hello everyone! Just a friendly note letting you know that I probably won't be updating for about a week. I am getting to go home for Christmas so my attentions will be on my family. I still love you all though so never fear, I shall be back! Snow White Queen I love reading your reviews regardless of their length! Hey Sigyn managed to get to Loki for a second, that is longer than many people can boast! A Nice Person I also really enjoy Loki's mischievous side. It really allows you to feel for him when those angsty moments hit because you are reminded that he is not naturally a brooding type personality. There are more pranks on the way, but maybe not all of them end up like they are supposed to.
Loki took in a deep gulp of air as he broke the surface of the water. Thor never ceased to be amused with pulling him under in a sneak attack. Loki had managed to wriggle free pretty quickly this time and swim to safety. Thor came up right after Loki, his growing hair falling in his face.
"You're tough to keep hold of!" Thor pronounced with a laugh.
"Not all of us can fight our way out, some of us have to learn how not to get caught in the first place." Loki pointed out.
"Tell me Loki, you know Sigyn the best, why does she always read while we swim?" Fandral asked.
"She just prefers not to swim." Loki replied.
"Does she not know how to swim? If not, I would be more than willing to teach her." Fandral stated.
The jealousy that only Sigyn seemed to ignite in him rose up yet again.
"She knows perfectly well how to swim." He snapped.
"Someone's touchy…" Sif remarked.
"Do you have a claim on her that I should know about?" Fandral asked while wiggling his eyebrow in an annoying fashion.
"None whatsoever." Loki replied perhaps a little too quickly.
"Well then you won't mind having a little fun with her." Sif remarked unexpectedly.
"Depending on the fun." He replied a bit out of sorts.
"Sigyn really shouldn't miss out on all the excitement we are having, but since we can't convince her to join us maybe we can just throw her in." Sif suggested.
Thor and the Warrior's Three quickly agreed that Sif's idea would be fun, but something in the back of Loki's mind was nagging at him not to go along with it. Regardless of his reservations, Loki was chosen to distract Sigyn so that Thor could sneak up behind her and pick her up. Loki pointed out that Thor would have a difficult time sneaking up on Sigyn, and suggested that he just come speak with her under the pretense of needing a snack. Loki knew Sigyn kept apples in her saddlebag for Roan, but that she would give one to Thor if he asked for it. Thor would be able to snatch her when she stood up to go over to Roan. The brothers made their way to Sigyn, and she looked up from her book.
"Do you still have any apples, or have you given them all to Roan?" Loki asked as they approached.
Sigyn smiled.
"I still have a couple, why?"
Thor gave her a sheepish grin.
"I am a bit hungry…" he explained.
Sigyn laughed at the elder Prince's proclamation and closed her book.
"Let me fetch one for you." She offered.
She set the book down next to her and stood to go fetch the fruit. Thor swiftly wrapped his arm around her waist and swept her off of her feet. Loki smirked as Sigyn began to protest, but there was no way for her to wriggle out of Thor's grasp. He was far too strong for her to overpower. Once he was at the edge of the lake, Thor leapt into the air with Sigyn clutching wildly to him. Loki sauntered up to the edge of the water laughing along with Sif and the Warriors Three as Thor and Sigyn disappeared into the lake. He tapped his foot impatiently waiting for his brother and Sigyn to resurface again, and he imagined the scolding he would receive the moment her head broke the surface of the water. His amusement soon turned to worry however, when neither of them came up for air. Sensing trouble, Loki dove into the lake. He opened his eyes underwater to see what had become of Thor and Sigyn, but it was far too murky to see anything. He resurfaced quickly and noticed that Sif and the Warriors Three were beginning to look panicked as well. Moments later Thor and Sigyn resurfaced. Thor was holding his jaw as if someone had struck it and Sigyn swam as quickly as possible to the edge of the lake. She pulled herself out and buried her head into the grass. Her shoulders began to shudder as her body quivered uncontrollably. Loki was the first one to reach the shore, and he placed his hands on her shoulders to try to calm her. She was sobbing violently and clutching at the grass with her hands. The rest of the group threw Loki confused and worried looks hoping he could answer their unspoken question, but he had no idea what was wrong.
"Sigyn… Sigyn, its ok… what's the matter…Sigyn?"
She began mumbling something over and over between the sobs that Loki could barely make out.
"It's my fault…"
Loki tried to pull Sigyn up so he could hear her better, but she merely clutched his arm and buried her head into his bicep.
"What's your fault?" Loki asked gently as he began to brush her wet hair off her face.
"Iounn…"
She continued to mutter the name, and her body began to shake once more.
"Who is Iounn?" He asked softly.
"My sister." She whispered almost inaudibly.
"Sigyn, your sister's name is Frida." Loki reminded her.
"Loki."
Loki looked up to Thor who had spoken. The look on Thor's face spoke a sadness that Loki didn't understand.
"Iounn was her sister." Thor explained.
Loki's heart sunk into his stomach. He had never spoken to Sigyn about her siblings that had passed away. He had never known any of them personally, and it wasn't a topic he thought Sigyn would enjoy discussing. Loki was able to pry Sigyn off of his arm, and pulled her into his chest. She wrapped her arms tightly around his waist and her tears mixed with the lake water that was still dripping from him.
"What happened?" He asked.
"She died." She managed to reply.
"How?" He pressed.
Sigyn shook her head 'no,' but Loki wasn't about to let the topic go.
"Sigyn you can tell me. I know you may not want to talk about it, but it will help you. Trust me…" It was as close to begging as he had ever come.
Sigyn didn't say anything at first, but her voice was almost imperceptible when she did begin her story.
"We were so stupid… I had wanted to go swimming, but mother said that we couldn't go by ourselves that late at night. She and father were to dine with a neighbor that evening so she promised to take us the next morning. I begged and begged Frida to take us anyway, and she finally agreed that we would sneak out after the maid had seen us to bed. We thought it was so exciting, slipping away from the house under the cover of darkness… everything began so innocently. We splashed about merrily for a time, but then Frida began to tease me that I couldn't swim as deeply as she or Iounn could. I was determined to prove her wrong so I dove under the water resolute on reaching the bottom of the lake if I could. It was pitch black so I couldn't see anything, and there was something about the lake that we didn't know. Though not the deepest lake in the area, it is one people tend to avoid because of the thick Hydrilla at its bottom. I discovered this fact when it was too late. I had reached the bottom of the lake, but I got entangled in the plants. The more I struggled the more it seemed to grab hold. I don't know when Frida and Iouun dove down to try and find me, but it was Iounn who eventually did. She was somehow able to untangle me from the stuff and sent me swimming to the surface. When I reached the top Frida pulled me to the shore where I started coughing up water. She kept waiting for Iounn to come up as well, but she never did. Frida began to frantically search the depths for her without any success. She continued looking for at least fifteen minutes while I stumbled back home to get help. My parents, the neighbors, and the servants came to the lake as quickly as possible. When we reached it Frida was still trying to find Iounn. She was exhausted from her search, but she refused to give up. My father had to drag her out of the lake kicking and screaming. By this point we knew that there was no way Iounn could have survived being submerged for so long. The men searched the lake for her body, and they were able to retrieve it around dawn. Both Frida and I were there when it was brought to the surface… 'It was an accident…' 'There was nothing you could have done…' that's what everyone kept telling me, but I knew better. It was my fault. If I hadn't begged Frida to take us to the lake against mother's wishes, if I hadn't been so determined that I could do everything my older sisters could do, if I hadn't been so stupid as to get caught up in the Hydrilla… that is how she died… Iounn had gotten hopelessly caught in the damned plant while trying to free me from it. I killed her… she died because of me…"
Silence reigned after Sigyn finished speaking. She had stopped crying, but she still clutched to Loki as if the lake would try to pull her in again if she let go. There was visible guilt etched on the faces of Thor and his friends, and Loki knew that it was mirrored on his as well. Sigyn didn't swim not because she couldn't, but because it scared her.
"Sigyn, believe me, if I had known I never would have let them throw you in." Loki supplicated.
Sigyn nodded her head against him in understanding, but that wasn't enough for Loki. He needed to hear it from her mouth that she believed him. Her breathing was reaching a steady pace so he dared to lift her chin up. While her face turned upwards, her eyes stayed glued to his shoulder.
"Sigyn look at me…please."
The 'please' brought her eyes up to meet his, and Loki almost gasped in awe of their color. Normally Sigyn's eyes were a blue-green shade, but all her tears had caused them to turn almost teal. Loki put aside his momentary wonderment to address the problem at hand.
"I truly would never play a trick on you if I knew that it would cause you such pain." He reiterated.
Sigyn gave him a weak smile. She must have sensed his need for a verbal response because this time she graced him with one.
"I know."
"Perhaps we should head back to the palace early and take supper there." Thor offered.
Loki looked down to Sigyn in deference, and she nodded. She released her hold on him so she could stand up, and everyone headed back to their mounts. Loki was relieved that Sigyn looked a little more like herself once she had mounted Roan, though he could sense that she was still shaken despite her calm exterior. The ride to the palace was quick and Frigga was there to greet them when they left the stables.
"You all are back early." She noted.
"We weren't expecting you to be waiting on us." Thor replied while going in to hug his mother.
Frigga smiled, but stopped Thor before he could wrap his arms around her.
"You smell like lake water darling, your affection can wait till after you've taken a bath." She noted.
Thor smiled mischievously, but knew better than to go against his mother.
"I saw you ride in and I thought I would see what brought you home so early." She explained once she was sure Thor was not going to hug her.
"We decided that we would prefer to take supper here in the palace." Loki explained.
"Not dressed like that you won't." Frigga replied while raising her eyebrow disapprovingly. "You and the boys go bathe in you and Thor's bath chambers, the girls can use mine."
Loki and the others bowed to the Queen. He and Thor led the way to their chambers, while Sif and Sigyn followed his mother.
"Well that was an exciting day." Fandral commented once the women were long out of ear reach.
Loki scowled. "You say that as if it were a good thing."
"Not at all," Fandral argued, "I am just stating it as a fact."
"Why didn't you warn us about Sigyn's sister?" Volstagg asked Loki.
Volstagg's remark caused Loki's blood to boil. Of course all of this would be considered his fault. How quickly they forgot that the entire idea had been Sif's, and that he had been loathe to take part in it from the start. It was Thor that came to his defense however.
"There was no way Loki could have known. It was a well-known fact that Iounn's death had been an accident, but even I didn't know that she had drowned." Thor pointed out.
Thor's defense cooled Loki's anger a little, and he was finally able to ask the question that was burning on his tongue.
"What happened? Why were you and Sigyn underwater for so long?"
Thor explained that once they were underwater Sigyn's protesting had turned to panic. She had begun to lash out against him. He had thought it odd at the time, but after hearing how she had almost drowned by getting caught in the Hydrilla Thor assumed that her reaction was from being constrained by him. He had swum to the surface with her in tow as fast as possible; it just hadn't been very fast because of her constant battling against him. It would have been more prudent for Thor to let her go so she could swim to the surface by herself, and eventually he did when she accidentally struck him across the jaw.
Never in his short friendship with Sigyn had Loki imagined her as someone who could be frightened to tears, but it just went to show that her playful exterior hid a girl who was truly in pain. She hid her scars with a smile.
