Ok people, I hope you enjoyed the last chapter and are looking forward to more by me. A special shout out to watergoddesskasey for being my second reviewer. And I hope all of you are at least laughing on the inside as I argue with Loki before and after every new chapter.

Loki: *glares at 666Silvermoon* I'm still angry at you for what you did to me. Was it really necessary for me to be mauled by a bear?

666Silvermoon: *sighs angrily* For the last time, yes! You're just lucky mountain lions don't live in New York or I would've made one of those attack you! Now stop whining, sit down, and shut up before I introduce you to duct tape the hard way!

Loki: *glares and softly growls but doesn't speak as he sits down in the chair behind him*

666Silvermoon: *rubs her temples in agitation and mutters* For a guy as hot as you, you have a shitty personality.

Diana: *leans towards 666Silvermoon and whispers behind her hand* Is he always like that?

666Silvermoon: Unfortunately, yes. Now then, can I please start with the chapter? *glares pointedly at Loki*

Loki: *glares back but doesn't say anything*

Good, on with the chapter!

Chapter 4

Loki stared at the woman before him incredulously, not believing what she just said. "Wh-what?" he almost stuttered, his confusion so blatant.

She just looks at him patiently, her pale blue eyes staring into his green ones without fear. A red rag of some sort covers her hair from his sight, but a few blood red curls escape its confines to frame her heart shaped face. A pair of thin, dark scars mars her otherwise flawless pale skin, one going vertically over her left eye, and the other going diagonally across her left cheek, both about the size of his thumb. Her eyebrows are a darker red then her hair, and they slightly arch over her eyes and are neatly groomed. Her eyelashes are long enough to almost brush her slightly prominent cheekbones as she blinks. All in all, he estimates that she's relatively attractive, by mortal standards at least.

He struggles to sit up, wincing as he jars his leg and almost pushes the woman away as she stands up and moves closer to help him. "I can sit up myself woman; I have no need for help from you." He sneered at her, his eyes burning with disdain towards her.

Her eyes slightly narrow and an eyebrow arches before she extravagantly bows to him. "If the lord wishes it, then it must be done no doubt. Would you like me to fluff your pillows for you as well Sire?" Her voice, slightly lilting with an edge of huskiness and a hint of an accent he can't place, is dripping with sarcasm.

His anger rises at her impudence, but before he can say anything she goes back to cleaning the dried and slightly wet blood from his leg, causing him to hiss in pain as the rag rubs against his wounds.

"Can't you be any more careful?!" He almost yelled, his anger rising with his pain.

She looks up at him, her eyes staring into his with a spark of anger in them. "Maybe if you asked nicely I would, but since you're acting like a right bloody asshole, no. I don't think I will." Her voice drips with barely concealed venom as she continues to clean his leg.

He stares at her gob-smacked, because no one had ever talked to him like that before. He soon regains his speech ability though. "How dare you! I am the heir to the throne of Asgard and I demand to be treated like it! I will not have an impudent quim like you treat me with such disrespect!" His voice was raised and he knew he was letting his temper get the best of him, but he was in the pain and he was confused so he wasn't thinking clearly.

She says nothing in reply; instead she finished cleaning up his leg and cleaned out his feet before opening a kit sitting next to her. She takes out some bandages, a spool of thread, and a thin silver needle. She threads the needle carefully after wiping it down with a bit of white cloth smelling of alcohol, and looks up at him.

"Would you like something to hold between your teeth while I stitch you back up, or are you accustomed enough to pain? Judging by your reaction to me cleaning your leg of blood, I think not." Her voice is even enough sounding, but he can't help but think she was mocking him, so he stayed silent and simply glared at her with every bit of venom he had in order to show that he still thought himself superior.

She said nothing after that, and simply started to stitch up the bites the creature left. He clenched his jaws against the pain, but he couldn't stop small grunts from escaping his throat every now and again. He was thankful when she finished the last neat row of stitches and started covering them up in bandages, along with the slight cuts on his feet. "You may think you're the heir to the throne of Asgard Loki, but you're not in Asgard. You're in upstate New York. I'm guessing you are also not immortal anymore, nor do you possess any magic, otherwise you would not have been attacked by a bear and sustained these wounds. You are just as mortal as I am, so I will not treat you like a higher power, but I will treat you as an equal." She said all of this in the time it took her to bandage him up and gather her supplies up. As she stood in the doorway to the room he was in, she looked back at him, her eyes softer than they were earlier.

"I will not turn you in to the authorities, not until I know the full reason on why you are here. Now, I must tend to my horse Apollo, and then I will make us something to eat. Remember, I could have easily let the bear maul you to death, but instead I intervened. Try and remember that." She says this evenly, and then turns and leaves the room, softly closing the door behind her.

Loki is dumbfounded. He can't believe that that woman just spoke to him like that, and wasn't intimidated by him at all. She obviously knew of him, maybe even knew what he had done a year ago. And yet she treated him, almost kindly, except when he snapped at her. Then she snapped right back, but in a more controlled manner, almost like she didn't care that he thought himself above her. He felt his anger waning, slightly, and his intrigue climbing.

He didn't know how to take her kindness, seeing it had been so long since he had been treated as fairly as this, so he did the only thing he could; he pushed it away and focused on something else. He smirked as he thought that solving the puzzle of what made this "Diana" tick might actually be a little fun. And when he cracked the code, he'd take great pleasure in using whatever hidden secrets he'd find against her, of that he was certain.

Diana's P.O.V

I was silently fuming as I walked out of my house. How dare he! Spoiled, pompous asshole. I can't believe I'm actually caring for him and allowing him to stay in my house! I chastised myself as I grabbed Apollo's reigns as he stood by my front steps and lead him back to the stables and to his stall. "Curse my damn curiosity and my penchant for taking in abandoned things." I muttered under my breath as I untack Apollo and rub him down with a rubber curry comb.

I sighed and shook my head as I hooked up Apollo's navy blue bridle around his head, and he gently nuzzled his nose against my cheek. I smiled slightly and patted his nose before setting some oats into his bucket and leaving his stall, closing the door behind me. I checked up on the other horses that currently weren't in the field before heading back to my house. I headed upstairs to my own personnel bathroom and cleaned up before changing out of my riding clothes and into a pair of white sneakers, a white off the shoulder top and sapphire blue cotton capris before heading back downstairs. I took my bandanna off and shook out my mane of red curls and headed to the kitchen, before stopping in the doorway as a thought came to me. What do Asgardians even eat? I was thoughtful on what to make, but decided a light meal would be best for the both of us, at least to hold us till dinner since it was still early off in the afternoon. Plus, I didn't think Loki would be able to handle anything extremely heavy from how skinny he was.

I decided on making a small fruit salad of cherries, grapes, orange slices, apple slices, blackberries and raspberries for the two of us with some bread I had make earlier in the week with a bit of homemade jam from a neighbor a few miles down the road.I set the bowl of fruit salad, the slices of bread and a bit of the jam, along with two smaller bowls and a serving spoon, a knife and two forks before putting it on a wooden platter and carrying it to the guest room I situated Loki in. I knocked on the door, because I didn't know what he was doing in there. I heard a slight "You may enter," before I opened the door and stepped inside, to the sight of Loki with his legs over the side of the bed as he tried to stand up.

"Hey now, you're not strong enough to stand on your own." I gently chastised him as I set down the platter of food on the walnut dresser before going to his side. He glared at me and tried standing on his own anyways and tried to walk, but his leg twitched and gave out on him before he could take two steps. Luckily I caught him before he could face plant onto the push carpet and helped him back onto the bed. "I don't need your help woman!" He spat at me as he yanked his arms from my grasp and sat heavily back on the bed. I clenched my jaw but I kept my temper in check. "Maybe not, but your leg is still too damaged to walk on it, and your feet must hurt, since you were walking barefoot through these woods; the ground isn't known for being soft." My voice was even toned as I spoke, and I stood and retrieved the tray of food I made up before setting it on the bed. "I made a light lunch. The fruits are fresh, just got them yesterday, and I made the bread myself. The jam is made from blueberries, blackberries and raspberries by a neighbor of mine. It's rather good." I spooned some of the salad into one of the smaller bowls and held it out to Loki.

He looked at me confused, like he didn't know why I was doing this. I didn't look away from him, keeping my expression even as I kept the bowl held out to him, until finally he took it from my hands, along with the fork I passed him. I spread some of the jam on a slice of bread and pass it to him as well before I spoon my own serving of fruit salad into my bowl and serve myself some of the bread before silently starting to eat. Every now and then my eyes would go up to watch Loki as he ate. His movements are ever methodical and slower than my own, almost like he was having trouble eating. It only confirmed my suspicions that wherever he's been for the last year or so, he was at least partially starved. That set my blood boiling because no human deserved to be starved, but I pushed down my anger. By the time I had finished my food, he had barely consumed half of his salad but at least he had eaten all of his bread.

I saw he didn't want to eat anymore so I set his and my own bowl back onto the tray and picked it up as I stood. When I got to the door I stopped and looked back at him. "If you want you can take a nap until dinner, or you can look through the channels on the TV. I personally suggest the nap, seeing as how you look like you haven't gotten much sleep. I assure you Loki, you are safe here as long as you cause no harm to me, my animals and any visitors I have in the future. You have my word as a Sullivan." With that said I stepped out of the room, closing the door behind me and headed to the kitchen, where my three cats were nosing about in the kitchen, looking for their food.

Cleo, my lilac pointed Siamese queen with blue eyes was pacing in a circle around her food bowl, while my silver tabby Maine Coon tom Atlas was simply waiting for me, his yellow eyes patient as he flicked his tail back and forth to the amusement and apparent delight of the newest addition to our household, a spunky ginger tom kitten barely six months old by the name of Kona with one green eye and one blue. I softly laughed as I put a handful of food into each of their bowls and scratched each one behind the ears as they began eating. I put away the leftover fruit and brought Kida and Taboo in from outside and got them bowls of their own food, Taboo diving right in to his food while Kida ate at her more sedate pace.

I went outside and headed to the stables, feeding all the horses that were in their stalls and putting food in the stalls that housed the rest of my horses before getting a lead rope and bringing in the six that were out in the field and leading each one to their respective stalls. I had about 12 horses, with six mares, four stallions and two geldings, and I loved every single one of them. I had saved each one from a cruel or a neglectful owner, and retrained them and gained their trust. My first one was one of my geldings, a silver dapple Thoroughbred by the name of Commander. I and my mother saved him from a cruel owner about ten years ago that had trail raced him to the point of exhaustion, so he now has bad lungs and is unable to do anything more strenuous than light trail riding. My most recent one is a pretty little palomino quarter horse I named Goldenrod I saved under half a year ago that had a very neglectful owner that barely fed her more than half of what a horse her size is supposed to get. Her weight has steadily climbed back up to where it's supposed to be, but I'm still having some trouble with getting her use to humans.

I sighed softly as I brought in the last horse, my six year old chestnut Arabian stallion with four white socks by the name of Ace of Diamonds, for the white diamond on his forehead, or just Ace for short. I double checked to make sure all my horses had food and water before heading back up to the house.

As I entered the kitchen I saw that all of my pets' food dishes were empty, so I washed the dishes and soon went into the living room and turned on the TV, low volume in case my house guest was asleep. My animals followed me and sat around or near me, my dogs at my feet and my cats on my dove grey sectional couch with me; Cleo in my lap, Atlas curled up against my side and Kona sitting on the arm of the couch. I flicked through the channels till I got to an old Disney movie and soon relaxed.

Back to Third Person, With Loki

Loki looked around the room once more after Diana left, taking the leftover food with her. He had to admit to himself that bread and the jam was quite good, and the fruit salad wasn't half bad, even if he didn't know the kind of Midgardian fruits were in it. He inspected the pale blue walls and looked over the furniture; a pale brown chest of drawers with a mirror attached atop it and a nightstand made of the same type of wood set up against the bed, which was reasonably sized and soft, with a dark blue blanket and medium blue pillows, which were also soft as he propped himself up against them.

He looked out the window that the wall the bed was set up against had, and saw through the sheer white curtains that he was on the bottom floor of this house, and that there was a long wooden building about ten yards from the next house. He figured those were the stables that housed the horse that the Diana was riding, Apollo she called him.

A few minutes later he saw Diana exit the front door and head toward the stables, where she stayed for a little while before exiting, a black lead rope in her hands. He watched her walk past the window's border, before reappearing a minute later, leading a brown horse with big patches of white along its neck and rump with two full white back legs. She brought it inside the stables and soon exited them again, going outside of the window's border again, and when she entered it again she was leading a brown horse with a white face that stopped just before its ears, blue eyes and a white rump with brown spots. She repeated this process with four more horse; a white one with black spots covering its entire body, a large reddish brown one with black legs and a rather short tail, a mostly white one with dark grey legs stopping just above the knee, and a delicate looking brown one with a neck with a high arch and was stepping highly with white socked feet. How many other horses were there, Loki wondered. The horses he saw were rather impressive specimens he supposed. They had healthy coats, good gaits, and bright and intelligent eyes.

Diana finally exited the stables for the last time and headed back inside, and he heard what he figured was a TV coming on. Loki yawned softly, the food he had earlier fully filling his stomach for the first time in months and making him tired, his encounter with the bear not exactly a walk in a park either.

He maneuvered back to lie down on the bed, the pillows soft under his head as he relaxed. He supposed that a nap didn't sound too bad, but he just hoped that Diana kept her word and didn't turn him in to the authorities, but he would be more surprised if she didn't. To him, mortals would do anything to gain prestige or fortune. However, he supposed that a few hours of rest would bring him at least a little peace, in case she did call the authorities on him. That was Loki's last thought before his own heartbeat and the sound of the TV in the living room lulled him into a deep sleep.

And that is the end of chapter four! I hope you all enjoyed it and will post reviews on what you think of it. I do enjoy people telling me how I'm doing you know.

Loki: *is sitting in a chair pouting because the author has rejected his request on somehow giving him his magic back*

666Silvermoon: *looks over at Loki* Oh for the Pete's sake, stop glaring would ya? It's not the cutest look on you.

Loki: *looks at the author and glares at her harder*

Diana: *shrugs* I don't know, the pout looked cute to me.

666Silvermoon: Maybe, but he has no right to pout. He should just be patient like the rest of us.

Anyway, read and review please!