(Author Note: Sorry to say, I'm rooting for the dragon in this chapter. ;) *The events of this chapter take place well before the first Thor movie.)

Chapter 3: Loki Saves Thor's Butt Again

Lilith glanced up in panic as she heard the scraping of talons on stone, but continued to push Thor with all her might towards the exit. As usual, Thor was being uncooperative about said escape plan and was trying to get a better look at their fast approaching doom. Lilith was quite a bit smaller than him and once he got his first glimpse of the dragon she was unable to move him a hair farther.

The dragon's long golden snout slowly dipped over the edge of the cavern's wall. Its thin coal black, forked tongue flicking in and out as it scented their intrusion and its hatchlings blood. Thor raised his axe in preparation to fight. Fierce green eyes turned on them in outrage and nostrils glowed with the promise of fire. The ring of spines around its head were puffed out in anger to form something akin to a lion's mane. The distinct lack of horns atop its head proved her to be the hatchlings' mother. Wasn't that just great! In Lilith's experience, mothers were much more likely to care about their offspring than fathers.

As if to punctuate her thoughts the dragon arched her swan like neck high above them and released a high pitched, ear piercing roar that knocked Lilith flat on her back. For several terrifying moments she was unable to move a single muscle as she watched in horror as the beasts huge front talons scraped across stone in the dragon's descent from the cavern wall. Each claw easily as long as one of the hatchlings were tall, they trailed gashes in the stone as the dragon slid down. She gasped, trying to refill her lungs with air. Turning her head she could see that Thor's companions had escaped, but Thor had not been so lucky. Like her, Thor had been thrown back by the dragon's cry and from what she could tell his head had had an unfortunate collision with the wall on the way down. Blood trickled down from hair and pooled beside his ear.

Finally her fight or flight instincts kicked in with a resounding RUN. She leapt to her feet and ran toward Thor, who was still lying prone on the cavern floor, unconscious. Using her magic to shift and straighten her arms, she half dragged, half carried Thor to the narrow gap in the nest wall. Glancing back Lilith could see that the dragon was crouched above the nest with her snout bowed toward her hatchlings, her quick tongue cleaning the blood from their wounded hides. For a moment Lilith stared in amazement. It was astounding how such a large beast could be so gentle in caring for something so much smaller than itself.

Thankful the dragon cared more for its children than it did about the intruders, Lilith managed to drag Thor through the opening and into the labyrinth beyond. She turned, ready to order one of the Neanderthals to carry Thor to safety, but was startled to see no one was there. Those idiots! The spineless brutes had panicked and left them to die.

Turning back to Thor she could feel the driving need to run too, but she would never leave him. Realizing that she would never be able to drag him out of here by herself, she used her magic to levitate him. Something she had only recently learned to do and only with small objects. Concentrating with all her might, he slowly began to rise off the ground. Straining with the effort she grabbed ahold of his collar and began to pull him down the path. After a few steps his legs began to sag, then his right arm, then his whole right side, until finally she could hold out no longer.

Her power snapped back to her with the sting of a rubber band slapping back to a wrist. She winced in pain as her magic gave out and again when Thor fell face first into the dirt, his head bouncing with the impact. She slumped against a wall exhausted. She had hardly managed to move him down three earthen passages. From what she remembered of their journey here there were 22 different turns they still needed to make before they could exit the labyrinth and that was not counting all the dead ends they ran into on the way here.

As she slid down the wall in defeat her hands brushed something sharp, cutting one of her fingers. She looked down to see a large, curved sheet of gold beside her. It was a piece of eggshell longer than she was tall. Looking down into her golden reflection she had a wonderful idea. She jumped to her feet to drag the shell to lay next to Thor. Carefully she rolled him onto the eggshell trying to keep the edge from cutting him, with only minimal success. Once he was laid flat on his back in the middle of the shell she checked him over for damage. Most of the cuts were minor, but one particularly sharp point had caught him on his shin and was bleeding badly. Ripping the hem of her tunic she bandaged his leg as best as she could, but her magic did not include healing.

As she tied the last knot in the fabric around his calf Thor stirred and began to groan. She dashed to his head, clasping her hands over his mouth to stifle the noise but it was too late. The dragon's head snapped up, its black tongue flashing in and out trying to pinpoint their location. Quickly she used the levitation charm again, this time focusing on the eggshell which proved to be easier to float, because it was not flexible and thus could not flop about. Quietly she grabbed the edge and began to push it down the path rolling her feet from heel to toe to avoid making any noise.

It didn't matter though, because the dragon could scent the blood in the air. Both from Thor's leg and from the eggshell biting into her hands. The dragons piercing green eyes narrowed in our direction as it found the source of the scent. Its massive wings rose, each wing tip touching the opposite sides of the cavern before plunging down in a torrent of wind to lift the dragon's full weight into the air. The sight of the dragon sailing towards them was finally enough to break her control. She took off running down hall after hall of the maze in a frenzy looking for any way out, the eggshell cutting deeper into her hands with each step.

She was so focused on running that she didn't look to see where the dragon landed, but she definitely felt the impact. The ground shook and the walls on either side of her began to crumble, pouring piles of dirt atop her head and blinding her eyes. She swiped at her eyes and continued to run until she ran headlong into a collapsed section of path causing the shell to shatter and Thor to tumble unceremoniously to the ground. She collapsed beside him clutching at her abdomen, where a shard had lodged itself between her ribs.

She didn't know how long she had blacked out, but the blood stain around her hand had spread too much for it to have been the eye blink she had first thought. Thor knelt beside her, the concern wrinkling his brow making him look like a fearful child. He had removed the shrapnel from her side and his hands flickered with a dim light as he touched her. She flinched and the unpleasant scent of burning flesh wafted past her nose. She groaned and tried to squirm away, but a sudden jolt shot through her system.

Thor winced and said, "Sorry. I'm not very good at this."

Lilith shook as she strained to sit up. "What are you trying to do anyway?" she asked.

"Stop the bleeding?"

"You're not sure?" Lilith asked, rolling her eyes.

He chuckled as he helped her to her feet. The earth shook beneath her, the tremors causing sharp pain to throb through her side. Looking up she could see the crest of spines atop the dragon's head as it nosed through the rubble nearby.

Pushing Thor behind her, she furiously whispered, "How long was I out! You should have gotten yourself out of here when you had the chance."

"I could not just leave an injured comrade behind. Your only here because of me anyway. Besides, it doesn't look like you left me when I was hurt either." He grabbed her wrist and held her palm up for her to see. There were deep scores in each of her palms from grasping the eggshell she had used to carry him.

She dismissively wiped her bloody palms on her leggings and pulled away from him embarrassed. Looking at their surroundings in dismay she realized that the only path they had left led them straight towards the dragon. With sore, shaking hands she grasped Thor's fingers and looked into his blue eyes. "I'll distract the dragon, while you make a run for it. Go straight down the path and take the second right. That should lead you to exit." Lilith's hands shook as she squeezed his hand before releasing him and giving his shoulders a shove. He looked back at her determinedly before turning and running in the direction instructed.

As she watched him go, she steadied herself before reaching to her belt and removing a vial. Cradling the delicate glass in one hand and using the other to pull herself up onto the rubble of the collapsed wall, she stood tall and faced the dragon as it lifted its massive head to glower at her. Its nostrils alight with the beginnings of ignition. Its mouth gaping to reveal sharp incisors, each at the ready to impale her at any moment. The dragon sent forth a guttural growl, its throat lit with flames, but before it could incinerate her she heft the vial into its gullet. With a mighty bang the flames ignited the explosive causing the dragon to stumble, crushing more walls beneath its feet.

Lilith leapt down from her perch to take advantage of the distraction and run for her life. As she reached the path she had told Thor to take, she glanced back to see if the Dragon was closing in. To her surprise the dragon's attention was no longer on her, but focused somewhere near its feet. The dragon growled, stomping its foot and destroying the walls that obstructed her view.

There on the dragon's back claw was Thor with his axe lodged between two scales on its toe. His biceps were flexed in strain as he attempted to pull the axe back out. Her heart sank as she saw the dragon's lips pull back in a snarl, its mighty jaws opening in preparation to strike.

Abandoning any hope of escape, she ran towards Thor. Leaping up to grabbing him by the shoulders, she used her full weight to drag him into the dirt with her. The dragon's jaws snapped shut just above them with a sickening crack, clamping down on its own leg. She leapt to her feet dragging Thor by the arm as they charged towards the exit, but before they could escape the dragon swung around, its tale sending them flying.

When she awoke again Thor lay beside her battered and unconscious in the dust. They were only a few feet from the crevice that would lead them to safety, but the dragon had already closed in. It towered above them, neck arched back in preparation to strike and its mouth burning with flames ready to engulf them. In desperation she flung her own body in front of Thor's unconsciousness one, throwing every ounce of magic she had at the dragon. Chaos erupted from her soul, fleeing her body like madness incarnate and flinging the dragon away from them. It crashed into the distant wall of the cavern sliding back to the earth with a cascade of stones that shook the earth.

Sagging from expending all her energy, Lilith still managed to drag Thor through the crevasse and onto the cliff ledge before her body gave out and darkness fogged her mind.

The first thing she remembered as she struggled back to consciousness was the buzzing of angry voices. Not a particularly new concept but disconcerting nonetheless. She stirred slightly but her eyelids felt paralyzed. The voices became clearer until she recognized Volstagg's booming voice, "Gods! How long has he been deceiving us?"

Then Fandral's disgusted voice, "To think I had fancied her!"

Thor's voice finally broke through then, "I admit his game was treacherous, but he did manage to help me out of a tight spot."

"Why do you keep defending him!" yelled Sif. "All he ever does is deceive you and lead you to ruin."

"Did you see how he hung back during the battle? I bet he knew they weren't wyvern from the start!" shouted Hogun.

Finally Lilith managed to open her eyes to see what they were all yelling about. Thor stood before her, his back to her as he faced off with his four companions. Confused she glanced at their surroundings and found that they were now at the base of the mountain next to a stream of cool mountain water. She leaned down to cup some water to her parched lips, but froze when she saw her reflection. Gods! The force of her magic must have drained her entirely, shattering her illusions. Loki slumped back against a tree and watched the other's warily.

Sif stared down Thor with fury in her eyes. "Well if you won't turn him in then I will", she proclaimed, stalking off into the trees. The others following close at her heels. Before he took off after his friends, Thor turned back to Loki. Crouching beside him he said, "Don't worry brother, I will talk them down. I can be very persuasive." and with a wink Thor ran after the others. Alone again, Loki leaned wearily on his tree and lapsed back into fitful sleep.

(Author Note: See explanation on how Loki became Lilith in the next chapter!)