Author's Note: I should have split this into two chapters, but I didn't. Oh well. Caitreylove Now it wouldn't be fun for me to give you all the fun things in one chapter! Yes, Loki and children… that should be an interesting combination. Sigyn is going to have her hands full I imagine.
Loki wasn't sure what to do. He had intended on leaving before Sigyn started her story for the children, but now he found himself trapped. Two of the boys had thought his legs looked like a good place to prop themselves up, and one of the girls had claimed his lap as her seat. He considered displacing the three children so he could make an escape, but watching the little girl wiggle into a more comfortable position changed his mind. The kids weren't so bad as long as they weren't crying. The second any single one of them started crying however, Loki was getting out of there. Sigyn had a niece so she could handle their tears on her own. He caught Sigyn glancing his way as she told her story, and though she didn't laugh outright, he could see the amusement sparkling in her eyes. Apparently she found his current position as the children's makeshift settee to be funny. Loki took in the sight of Sigyn looking so happy with relish. He had brought about that happiness. Sure it was inadvertent, but he didn't care. He had made her happy.
Loki leaned back on his hands and the girl in his lap gave a little grunt of protest. She wiggled around for a moment in an attempt to get comfortable, and sighed when she was happy once more. Loki didn't really listen to the story as much as he just listened to the sound of Sigyn's voice. She would make dramatic and silly faces to go along with the tale, which earned her giggles and gasps from the children. Loki knew when the story finally reached its climax because the boy that had propped himself against his right knee unconsciously grabbed on to his pant leg. The children all leaned forward in earnest, as Sigyn's voice got softer and softer. It began to fade entirely as Loki regarded her. Her mouth was moving, but he might as well have been deaf. Sigyn's eyes unexpectedly met his, and her mouth moved. She looked at him expectantly, and all the children turned to look up to him.
Had he missed something?
Sigyn's mouth moved again, and Loki was fairly sure she was saying his name.
"Hmmm?" He asked.
"I asked you what you thought might happen next." Sigyn repeated.
"Oh, well I don't know. You are the one telling the story after all…" Loki covered.
Sigyn raised her eyebrow, and Loki knew that he had gotten caught not paying attention.
"I think someone hasn't been paying attention." Sigyn noted.
"Of course I have." He lied.
Sigyn wasn't buying it, but she apparently didn't want to call a Prince a liar in front of the children so she responded with…
"Then perhaps you are just not able to follow the plot?"
A couple of the children giggled, and Loki decided to go along with it.
"Yes, that is most assuredly the problem. You see, I thought that Snorri…"
"Kori." Sigyn corrected.
"Yes, of course, Kori… I thought that Kori was the one taken by the monster, and that Embla had to save him."
The girl sitting in Loki's lap turned to look up at him as if he were crazy.
"That's not right at all! She isn't saving him!"
"Oh, so he is saving her?" Loki asked.
"No! They are saving Tófa." She replied.
"Tófa? Who in the Nine Realms is Tófa?" Loki inquired.
"The girl Kori loves." One of the other girls explained.
"But I thought Kori loves Embla…"
"No, Embla loves Kori. Kori loves Tófa." The same girl answered.
"Well this is certainly confusing, but he will obviously be with Embla by the end." Loki remarked.
"I fear not." Sigyn interjected, bringing everyone's attention back to her. "As I was saying before we had to catch Prince Loki back up, Kori and Embla found themselves facing the giant beast. The fight was long and tiring. In the midst of the fray Kori was disarmed, and as he went to retrieve his weapon the monster attacked him. Embla was able to interceded before the monster could strike Kori, but was struck herself. Kori retrieved his sword and fought the creature valiantly to protect his wounded friend. He was finally able to slay the monster, and as the beast took its final breath Kori ran to his friend's side. When he reached Embla however, he found her staring blankly into space. She had died before he could defeat the monster. Kori freed Tófa, and returned to the city with Embla's body. She was given a warrior's funeral, as was only proper, and Kori mourned the loss of his friend. He never did know of the love she had held for him because she had never had the courage to tell him. He and Tófa were eventually wed, and they lived together in happiness for many years. Upon her death, Embla's spirit ascended to the heavens. It is said that for her sacrifice she was made into one of the brightest and most beautiful stars so that she could always watch over the man she loved."
Sigyn's captive audience looked at her almost disbelievingly, Loki included. That certainly hadn't been the ending he would have expected in a children's story.
"So he never knew that she loved him?" One of the girls finally asked.
"He never knew." Sigyn confirmed.
"How could he not know!?" Another girl asked. "It was so obvious that she cared for him!"
"Was it though?" Sigyn returned. "You knew she loved him because I told you, but if I hadn't told you would you have been able to determine her love for him based on her actions alone?"
The children thought about it a minute before one of the boys spoke up.
"But she died for him! Surely that would have been enough to prove that she loved him."
"It is true that she died for him, but she was a warrior and his friend. Wouldn't you be willing to die for your friends?"
The children went silent once more, and that is when Loki heard the sniffling. He looked down at the little girl in his lap, and sure enough the sniffles were coming from her. A crying child was sitting in his lap… great. This was Loki's cue to get out, but as he looked down at the little girl he felt his resolve to escape leave him. She sat there wiping the tears from her eyes, but each tear she wiped away was simply replaced with a new one. Loki summoned up his courage and turned the child to face him.
"It's ok sweetheart…" He tried to encourage, "it is just a story."
"But it is so sad." The child managed to get out in between her sniffles.
Loki looked to Sigyn for a little help, but she just gave him a little half-smile. She was going to make him handle this situation on his own.
"Yes, it is sad," He began, "but it could have been different."
"How?" She asked quietly.
"Well…Embla could have told Kori that she loved him…"
"But she still would have died." The little girl pointed out.
"Yes, she still might have died, but she would have died without any regrets, which is better than dying with them don't you think?"
"I guess so." The child conceded.
Silence took hold for a moment before one of the other children asked Sigyn to tell another story. Sigyn let out a sigh.
"I fear I am a little worn out to tell another story…" She stated.
The children began to plead for another story, but Sigyn was resolute.
"I fear I only had the energy for one story this evening, but perhaps you might be able to convince Prince Loki to tell one." She suggested.
Loki shot Sigyn a panicked look as all the children turned their hopeful little faces to look at him. She wanted him to tell the children a story? He didn't know anything about telling children stories. Was he supposed to just make something up? Sigyn gave a little encouraging nod, and Loki took in a deep breath. How difficult could this really be? Children were easily entertained, right? If he could just get a story started then the rest would come naturally, but the problem was that he didn't know how to start. He looked at his audience again and an idea struck him. Telling a story was all good and well for Sigyn, but Loki knew that he wasn't nearly as good a storyteller as she was. It would take something a bit more for him to keep the kids attention, and he knew just what that bit more was.
"I could try to tell one, but I fear that it wouldn't be nearly as good as Sigyn's..."
The children took this as a 'no,' and Loki could read the disappointment in their eyes.
"unless…"
They all perked up a little at that.
"I had a little help."
"We could help." The little boy who had been leaning against Loki's left leg offered.
Loki pretended to contemplate the boy's offer for a moment, and other kids quickly agreed with the boy's offer of help.
"Well… what should our story be about then?" Loki queried.
"Elves!"
"Bilgesnipe!"
"Food!"
"Did someone just suggest food?" Loki wondered to himself.
Honestly, children were so strange.
The dozen children that were sitting there continued to throw out ideas, and after about ten minutes they had finally decided on the premise of the story. A princess gets kidnapped, monsters, Elves, but sadly no food. It had a little bit of everything, and was going to make absolutely no sense, but that was probably best considering Loki's idea was to let them act it out, and it was likely to turn into chaos anyways.
"So who will be who?" Loki asked.
"What do you mean who will be who?" Sigyn asked.
"They promised to help me tell the story, so they are going to act it out for me."
"With you!" The girl in his lap corrected.
"Ummm yes, of course, with me." Loki amended somewhat reluctantly.
"Oooh I want to be one of the warriors!" One of the boys shouted.
"Me too!"
"I want to be a warrior too though!"
"There is no reason why we can't have three warriors." Loki interceded before the three boys could get into a tussle over it.
"I want to be the AllFather!" The boy at Loki's left stated.
"Very well." Loki conceded.
"Can I be the ruler of the Alfar!?" One of the girls asked.
"No, a girl can't be a ruler, besides I want to be the ruler of the Alfar!" The boy at Loki's right knee interjected.
"Of course a woman can be a ruler," Sigyn interposed, "but if you wish to rule too, then you will just have to be the Queen and King of the Alfar."
The little girl stuck her tongue out at the boy, and he returned the gesture. Loki couldn't help but notice however, that he turned a slight shade of pink when the girl looked away from him. Lofn raised her hand, as if in class, to ask a question.
"If a girl can be a ruler, can she also be a warrior?"
"Yes, Lady Sif is a warrior." Loki pointed out.
"So can I be one?" She asked.
"Me too!" The eldest girl chimed in.
"Very well, we shall add two fierce female warriors to the company." Loki stated.
"Can I be a bird!?" One of the other girls asked.
"Ummm yes?" Loki replied, not quite sure how that was going to fit in at all.
"We want to be the monsters!" Another girl stated while pointing at her twin sister.
"Monsters?" Loki queried.
"Yes, monsters."
"Which ones specifically?" He pressed.
"All of them!"
That didn't really answer his question, but he figured they were going to have a random bird flying around so what harm could a few random monsters do? Loki looked down at the girl still sitting in his lap who had been rather quiet through this process.
"And who would you like to be? Are you going to be the bad guy?"
The girl smiled up at him.
"No, you are!" She said happily.
All the other children quickly agreed that him being the villain was a good idea, so Loki agreed. He was used to being the villain anyways since Thor had always made him be the bad guy when they played games growing up. Ah the downsides of being the younger brother.
"So what are you going to be?" Loki asked the girl in his lap.
"Your minion!" She stated excitedly.
"My minion?" He repeated. "Wouldn't you rather be a princess or something like that?"
"No, I want to be your minion." She answered firmly.
Loki shrugged. If she wanted to be his minion he wasn't going to stop her.
"And what of Lady Sigyn? Who does she wish to be in our little story?" Loki asked.
Sigyn smiled.
"I wish to be your attentive audience." She replied.
All of the children immediately protested this idea, and insisted that she take a role in their story.
"She should be a Valkyrie!"
"No, she should be a warrior too!"
"Can she be a cook?"
"There we go with the food thing again…" Loki mused silently.
The children threw out several more ideas, but it was one of the boys that came up with the winning idea.
"She should be the Alfar Princess that gets kidnapped!" He suggested excitedly.
"Yes!" The little girl who was going to be the Alfar Queen agreed. "That way we can go to the AllFather for help, and he can send his warriors to save her."
"I can be her pet bird that escapes and leads the warriors to her location!" Bird-girl, which Loki was going to officially refer to her as, added.
"But they have to fight off scary monsters to get to her!" One of the twins pointed out while making the scariest face she could.
"Very good." Loki commended. "We have a story and we have our players, so what could we be missing?"
"Props!" One of the children shouted.
"Yes, we can't defeat a monster without swords." One of the boys pointed out.
"A good observation." Loki remarked. "My five warriors go find a stick, quickly."
The five set off and returned in no time to show Loki their weapons.
"Hmmm not bad, but I think we can do better." He stated.
With a wave of his hand the sticks transformed themselves into little swords, which earned gasps of amazement from the children. It was only an enchantment of course, he hadn't actually changed the sticks into real swords, but the kids were impressed nonetheless. He then created crowns for his three rulers, and turned Sigyn's crown of flowers into a tiara as well. Having finished the props, it was time to start the story.
"One night when everyone in Alfheim and Asgard was asleep a dak magician and his minion went to kidnap the beautiful princess of Alfheim."
"Wait! We have to tuck her into bed first!" The "Queen" of Alfheim protested.
"Of course." Loki conceded.
The little girl went over to Sigyn.
"Time for bed daughter."
"But I'm not sleepy!" Sigyn protested.
"No arguing young lady, or I will get your father in here."
"Daddy would let me stay up!" Sigyn replied.
The little girl placed her hands on her hips and frowned.
"No, he wouldn't, would you?" She asked her pretend husband.
"Of course not! Go to bed silly!" He answered.
"That is some good parenting…" Loki laughed to himself in amusement.
Sigyn relented and finally lay down to go to "sleep." All the other children followed suit except the little girl in his lap, but those pretending to sleep kept one eye open to watch Loki and his little companion as he narrated.
"Once everyone was soundly asleep the magician and his minion snuck into the palace to kidnap the princess."
The little girl stood from Loki's lap and ran over to where Sigyn was lying down and Loki followed. He didn't feel comfortable with the idea of grabbing Sigyn so he took the little bird-girl into his arms instead.
"The magician's minion took the princess, and the magician snagged her pet bird before it could begin tweeting to alert guards to their intrusion."
The little girl grabbed Sigyn's hand and "pulled" her up from the ground. Sigyn opened her mouth to call out for help, but Loki spoke first.
"To keep the princess from calling out for help, the magician used a spell that silenced her voice."
Sigyn shut her mouth, and let Loki's little minion pull her over a little ways away from the other children.
"The magician locked the princess and her pet bird in an enchanted prison in a mysterious land."
Loki sat a giggling bird-girl down under a small tree and his minion led Sigyn there as well. Sigyn sat down by bird-girl, and Loki created a magical handcuff that chained Sigyn's wrist to the base of the tree. Sigyn gave him a disapproving look, but Loki just shrugged his shoulders.
"The magician chained the princess with a magical handcuff, and he entrusted the key to his most trusted minion." Loki narrated as he created a magical key and handed it to the little girl.
"After that, the magician and his minion leave to plan their next move. The clever princess, though robbed or her voice and mobility, is able to open the small window that offered her some light in her cell to free her pet bird." Sigyn mentioned.
Bird-girl quickly "flew" back over to the "Queen" and "King" of Alfheim and began to poke them to "wake" them up. The story progressed quite naturally from there. Loki took a seat next to Sigyn and watched as the children quickly took over the storytelling. He couldn't help but smile as they acted out the story. He was right, most of their choices didn't make any sense, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves despite that fact.
"Was this really necessary?" Sigyn asked while holding her chained hand up and giving her cuff a little jingle.
"Of course, they would have argued that the princess could have just walked out of her cell if I hadn't cuffed you."
Loki and Sigyn turned their attention back to the children at play. The "King" and "Queen" of Alfheim were currently arguing with the "AllFather," Bird-girl was chasing Loki's minion around trying to get the key, and the five warriors were trying to fight the monster twins who just wouldn't seem to die.
"They seem to be enjoying themselves." Sigyn remarked with a smile.
"Yes, they do."
"This was a good idea." She complimented.
"I do have them occasionally believe it or not."
They watched in silence for a good twenty minutes before the warriors finally managed to slay the monsters for the tenth time.
"Looks like I'm next." Loki remarked before standing up.
"Try not to take your defeat too personally." Sigyn teased.
"I never do, I am too used to it by now." Loki replied.
Sigyn smiled at the remark, but Loki could tell it was a sad sort of smile. He threw her a small smile before turning to face his attackers. The five of them obviously had some common sense, because they hadn't waited for him to turn before they jumped on him. He was able to keep his feet for some time despite their clambering all over them, but the "King", "Queen", and "AllFather" finally decided to join in the tussle too, and he couldn't support the weight of all eight of them. Loki hit the ground none too gently, but his attackers didn't seem to notice. He could hear Sigyn giggling at him as he rolled around with the children on the ground. The twins soon joined the pile while bird-girl finally caught up to his minion.
"I got the key!" She proclaimed happily.
"Now we can free the princess!" One of the boys yelled in triumph.
Loki expected the children to jump off of him immediately to go to Sigyn's aid, but they all looked at him expectantly instead.
"What?" He finally asked.
"You haven't surrendered." One of the girls pointed out.
"I have to surrender? I thought you had killed me?" Loki replied.
"We can't kill you! You have to lead us to the princess, and we want this story to be a happy one." The same girl explained.
"I see… in that case I surrender." He answered.
The children got off of him and bird-girl handed him the key to Sigyn's cuff. Loki led the little band over to where Sigyn was still sitting under the little tree and knelt down beside her.
"The battle won, the warriors forced the magician to lead them to the princess that he had so cruelly kept captive, and forced him to release her and return her voice." He narrated as he slipped the key into the cuff.
There was a little click, and the cuff fell away from Sigyn's wrist and disappeared before it could hit the ground.
"The princess was finally freed, and the warrior's returned her safely back to her home on Alfheim…"
"But not before the dark magician kissed her!" Lofn interjected, much to Loki's shock.
"Before the dark magician did what?!" Loki asked, certain that he had mis-heard her.
"Before he kissed her. That's why he kidnapped her after all." Lofn explained.
"He kidnapped the princess to kiss her?" Loki queried disbelievingly.
"No, he kidnapped her because he was afraid that she wouldn't want to be with him." One of the twins answered.
Loki rubbed his temple. This was not a plot twist he had expected.
"Very well, the dark magician kissed the princess before disappearing in time to avoid capture and imprisonment." He finished.
"That's not how it ends!" The other twin exclaimed.
"Then how, may I ask, does it end?"
Goodness children were demanding…
"First you have to kiss her." The eldest girl determined.
Panic overtook Loki. Surely they weren't serious about this… as he looked at the children however, he determined that they were very serious about this. They looked at him eagerly, but they didn't understand that Loki couldn't kiss Sigyn. They didn't know what he had once done to her. They weren't aware that there was a reason he hadn't touched her at all this evening. There was no way they could understand why it was impossible for him to kiss her though he wanted to desperately.
"Hurry up silly!" Lofn finally pressed.
Loki knelt by Sigyn and looked her deeply in the eyes. Surely there was a way for him to fake this. The thought of actually kissing her crossed his mind as he leaned in, but he pushed the desire to the back of his mind and kissed her on the cheek as planned.
"That doesn't count!" Lofn protested.
"I fear it will have to. You are all too young to see the real thing." Loki determined.
"But…"
Loki raised his hand to stop any debate, and returned to narrating the story.
"The dark magician kissed the princess before returning her to her parents and disappearing to avoid capture. The end."
"Not the end!" One of the twins reminded him. "The magician and his minion disappeared and the princess returned to her family, but then the princess was sad."
"The princess was sad?" Sigyn asked.
"Yes, the princess was sad because she missed the magician."
"She missed the magician? Why did she miss the magician?" Loki inquired.
"Because she was in love with him." Lofn replied.
Sigyn and Loki looked at each other quickly before Loki shook his head at the children.
"The princess can't be in love with the magician. He kidnapped her remember?"
"So?" Bird-girl said.
"So she can't fall in love with the man who imprisoned her." Sigyn determined.
"Well she wasn't in love with him at first." One of the boys pointed out. "She hated him at first, but after a few months…"
"A few months?!" Loki interjected.
"Yes, a few months." the boy reiterated as if Loki was stupid for not realizing that the magician had imprisoned the princess for that long. "After a few months though, she got really sick and the magician nursed her back to health."
"That is when she fell in love with him." One of the twins noted.
"So she falls in love with him even though he has stolen her voice and has chained her in a prison cell?" Sigyn asked skeptically.
"Well he visits her, and he always comes with a snack." The other twin pointed out.
Loki was fairly certain that if snacks fixed relationships he would have tried it long ago.
Sigyn laughed and shook her head.
"That is not really how love works." She informed them.
"For our story it is!" Loki's little minion stated happily.
Loki sighed. He and Sigyn's logic wasn't going to win this debate. The children were determined that the princess and the magician fall in love so they might as well go with it.
"Very well, the princess misses the magician because she has fallen in love with him. How does the story end from there?"
The kids looked at one another for a few moments.
"We don't know…" The eldest girl finally admitted. "We'll finish it and tell you later."
O joy, a cliffhanger.
