Sifki Week, Day 3- On the Battlefield
In which Loki learns Sif is not amused by his tricks and why that should worry him.
The heat was overwhelming; it was all Loki could think of besides the battle raging around him. As he dispatched another fire demon with a well-aimed dagger, the trickster prince idly made plans to make himself scarce the next time a battle on Muspelheim arouse.
A noise behind him caused him to whirl around, his hands glowing with green magic in preparation for an incoming attack. Instead he came face to face with a smirking Sif who playfully batted his hands away with her double-bladed staff.
"A bit on edge are we, my prince?" she asked teasingly, twirling her staff with a flourish before resting one sharp tip on the ground, the area clear of enemies for the moment. "You look positively exhausted," Sif noted, her eyes roaming his figure and her smirk widening as she took in his disheveled form. He looked much the worse for wear, the heat seeming to take a greater toll on the prince than on her.
Loki took in the warrior woman's appearance, noting how her wild, unbound hair seemed to match the wild glint in her eyes. Her silver armor shone in the light of the fires that seemed to perpetually burn all around the realm, a surprisingly small amount of her red and silver armor covered in blood and ash.
"Yes, well, we can't all be the Goddess of War, now can we?" he replied, taking her somewhat relaxed posture as a sign that he could clean himself up a bit. He settled for brushing off some of the accumulated blood and grime with his hands, conserving his magic for the future battles they would surely be engaging in before the day was out, not that you could tell when it was day or night on the world of fire, the sky always a dark red hue. He grimaced as he compared the amount of filth on his leather armor to hers, finding Sif to be relatively clean in comparison.
Sif chuckled as she moved around him to the demon he had felled earlier, pulling out his dagger and tossing it back to him, the slight fumbling of his catch Loki blamed on exhaustion. "I suppose not," she said, looking around them, searching for the next fight, he was sure. "If only you could kill them with your mischief," Sif teased before she suddenly moved back to his side, raising her staff as she noted movement off to their left, her stance losing its carefree quality.
A large snake-like demon appeared from behind the rocky outcropping, its skin black as coal with cracks of glowing red running through it like veins. Loki wasn't sure if the creature was actually made of fire, but he had noted the way the blood of the first one he had killed had burned through his cape, prompting him to remove it early on in the battle. The God of Mischief surged forward, passing Sif and ignoring her cry of protest, dodging the fangs of the creature as he made his way close to its weak underbelly. He had almost made it when the snake lashed its tail around, crashing into him.
Sif had been close behind the foolhardy prince after he had run passed her, headlong into danger. She gracefully dodged the tail, hundreds of years of practice making the move look effortless, letting out a choked cry as the tail hit the prince, and then promptly continued on straight through the now shimmering image of him. Sif whipped her head back as green bolts of magic flew passed her, hitting the exposed belly of the beast, causing liquid fire to leak from its insides, and she noted with both relief and anger that Loki was still safe, right where he had been before the monster appeared. She vowed to wipe that smirk from his face as soon as the demon fell.
Before Loki could finish it off, Sif ran forward and leapt into the air, pushing off of the beast's tail and thrusting her staff blade into its neck as she landed on its back. Loki could see the smoke rising from the soles of her boots as the hot flesh of the snake demon seared the leather, a splatter of its lava-like blood burning a small group of holes in her leather leggings. Sif did not even grimace at the pain as she twisted the blade deeper into the creature until it fell, thrashing to the earth in its death throes.
When the demon ceased to move, Sif raised her eyes to meet his, her stare causing the prince to swallow, his throat suddenly dry; surely just from the heat, of course. She brushed a strand of hair from her face before she pulled her blade from the beast, never dropping her gaze once as she jumped down and stalked back over to him.
"Of all the ridiculous, foolish, impudent things you have done, Loki Odinson-" she began, her voice rising in volume at each word, her stance deadly as she reached him.
"I was just giving you a demonstration of how deadly my mischief could actually be," he interrupted, holding his hands out in a placating gesture, grinning at her in that way that always infuriated her for some unknown reason.
"I'll show you deadly!" she assured him, closing the gap between them, stopping when she was but a hairsbreadth away, her nose practically touching his own.
Loki's breath caught and his heart began to race. He wasn't sure if it was from fear or something… else. The mischievous prince waited with bated breath for Sif to do something, knowing better than to move. She only continued to glare into his eyes, time seeming to come to a halt as he remained still as the stones around them. Loki could swear he saw something flicker in her eyes for a moment, but it was gone before he could identify it, and then all he could focus on was the burning of his leg.
He stumbled backwards, looking down at the rather large hole that was now burned up the side of his pants, his skin red with a slight burn. Loki looked back up at Sif in confusion and saw the warrior smiling at him, holding her staff vertically in front of her, twisting it in her hand so that the blade spun clockwise before her. Loki found his gaze drawn to the glinting blade and realized how oddly clean it seemed to be straight after a battle. He looked to the ground and noticed the other blade was clean as well. Sif raised her eyebrows as her smirk grew, causing him to realize what had happened. She had wiped her blade off on his pants as they had been locked in their staring contest, letting the acid-like blood burn through the leather. On purpose!
Before he could begin on the list of obscenities running through his head, Sif spoke out, "Perhaps next time you will restrict your use of mischief to the enemy, hmm?" the glint in her eyes assuring him that she was quite serious, despite her more lighthearted tone.
At Loki's answering glare she sighed. "You know I am sworn to protect the royal family, Loki. There is no need to make my life more difficult and to try and shave years off of it due to worry, just for a simple trick," Sif said tiredly, her shoulders dropping slightly. "And besides, you play enough jokes on us all when we are not in the midst of battle, do you not? Surely you can refrain for a short while," she added, giving him a small smile to try and lighten the mood once more.
Loki felt guilty at her words. It was never his intention to cause her worry, though he found it oddly pleasing to know that she did. "Forgive me, Sif, I meant no harm. I promise to keep my mischief to a minimum," he assured her, returning her smile.
Sif rolled her eyes. "If only I could believe you, Silvertongue," she said, shaking her head at the way he grinned at the moniker. She opened her mouth to continue their banter when she heard a rumbling from all around them. Loki noticed it as well, turning his head in an effort to pinpoint a source.
From all around them a horde of demons appeared from the rocks, surrounding the two Asgardians. Sif and Loki moved together, standing back to back, preparing to face the onslaught. Loki found it quite reassuring to have Sif at his back, literally.
"Looks like we're in for a fun time," he said wryly, pulling out a pair of daggers.
Sif grinned behind him, relishing in the impending battle, anticipation flowing through her veins. "Try to keep your fun contained this time, my prince," she called, eying the approaching demons eagerly.
"Of course, my lady," Loki answered, and she could almost picture him bowing if they had not been surrounded by foes.
Sif laughed at him, readying her staff.
The two remained back-to-back as the demons attacked, guarding each other and warding off many deadly blows as they fought, magic and steel creating a deadly combination. Sif would never tell Loki, of course, but she found herself glad that she had caught up with the younger prince in her search for her comrades, having been separated during the heat of battle.
As yet another out of the seemingly endless waves of demons fell to her blade, having been distracted by a projection of the prince that had appeared behind it as she could feel the real Loki still pressed against her back, Sif had to admit that his tricks did come in handy; but not to him of course.