Chapter XII: Were You Ready?
A/N: Again, apologies on the longer wait; RL has been quite a pain these past few weeks, with my mom winding up in the hospital again. Thanks go out to theicemenace for her beta work. Enjoy the update! SSD
Loki noticed Hanna walking in relatively quickly. The pattern of armor she was wearing looked familiar, but he could not quite place where he had seen before. She was also obviously nervous, as this was something she had never done before nor had she ever expected to do.
The fact that Hanna had a suit of armor that would fit her, on this short of notice, was surprising, even by the standards of Asgard.
Unless someone had seen a possibility of his apprentice needing said armor. Loki had an idea of who may have set the making of the armor in motion, but did not think it was necessary to question it, as it was convenient.
###
As Loki kept an eye on Hanna surreptitiously, he was getting the feeling that she was up to something. He had seen her talking with some of the local soldiers.
Not that he was too concerned about any of the soldiers trying anything. Even if they were to disregard him, the wrath of Hanna's father, and what he could and would more than likely inflict on anyone who even tried anything they should not, would be more than enough to protect her.
Loki smirked though. Hanna would likely send any man up in flames if they tried anything she did not want them to do. And she would likely be able to make it look like an accident.
###
Hanna smirked when she saw the bubbling pits that she had suspected she would find when she had heard some of the local troops mentioned pits that smelled like burning plants.
Pitch was highly flammable. And the Nabassu hated fire. This was a perfect trick.
She should have enough time to set this up and then get back before Loki noticed her absence.
###
"At last. You have finally let her out," Fandral drawled.
Loki could hear the leer in the warrior's voice. Without thinking, he said, "If you are thinking of trying to lure her into your bed, don't."
As soon as those words left his mouth, Loki immediately regretted them, as Fandral would likely interpret the statement incorrectly.
Which he did, when Fandral snickered, "Why? You want to keep her for yourself, Silvertongue?"
"My apprentice does not need distractions of that sort, from anyone." Getting up from where he had been sitting, Loki continued, "If you will excuse me, I have preparations I need to attend to. I'm sure you have some of your own."
Loki stalked off. Getting back to the topic of the previous conversation, where the devil was Hanna?
###
Loki had been looking everywhere Hanna could possibly be, his temper getting shorter and shorter when every soldier told him that they had not seen her.
A few moments later, Loki sensed a familiar presence slipping back into the camp from the northwest. He had her now, and she was going to get it!
###
Hanna made her way back towards the central part of the camp. She felt quite pleased with herself, for setting up that trap.
As she passed by a tent, a strong hand grabbed her upper arm and yanked her inside.
Hanna nearly set the person on fire, before she realized that it was Loki and he appeared to be quite irritated with her at the moment.
"Where the devil have you been and what were you doing? I've been looking everywhere for you," he snarled with unexpected venom. Not even allowing her a chance to cut in, Loki continued with, "You were supposed to stay where I could see you."
Finally Hanna was able to get a word in, saying,
"You seemed busy. I figured I was in the way."
Trying to get ahold of himself, Loki softly snarled, "While we are here, I do not want you leaving my sight again. No matter what I am doing, I don't want you going more than a few feet away from me, especially in a war camp!"
Hanna was getting really tired of his ever changing behavior towards her: indifferent one moment then being overprotective the next. She'd had enough, so she hissed back,
"I am not a child whose every move needs to be watched. I can take care of myself when I have to. I'm only thirty years younger than you!"
Ever since Fandral had needled him earlier, Loki had been feeling like the slightest thing would set him off.
"If you feel as if I am treating you like a child, perhaps you should stop acting like one!" Loki snarled.
Hanna's eyes flashed dangerously. Loki supposed that one day; he might actually be concerned when his apprentice gave him a look like that.
What did catch him off guard was the slap Hanna bestowed upon him, her eyes blazing.
It was a much harder slap than the one that she had given him last year. It would seem that her training had given her some stronger muscles.
"That was not the slap of a child," Loki thought ruefully. To keep up the pretense of extreme anger (he was still quite angry with Hanna for sneaking off), he growled, "Do not touch me like that again."
With a mocking bow, (she thought he deserved the slap) Hanna replied, "If it pleases your Highness." She took a breath before continuing in the same tone as she left, "Just so you know, I'm going back to my tent." She stalked off without another word or glance backwards.
###
Loki had done something to peeve his apprentice, that much Sif could tell by the fact that the girl was studiously ignoring any kind of possible eye contact with him.
Unable to contain her curiosity any longer, Sif turned to the dark haired prince and asked, "What did you do?" whilst motioning her eyes towards Hanna.
"What makes you think that it was I who did anything?" Loki replied archly.
"Because you're you," Sif shot back.
Before Loki could make a reply that would more than likely be inappropriate, Thor stepped in saying, "Since you two are so eager to fight with words, then fighting with your weapons will not be so difficult. We do have enemies to fight, and we need to form up the troops. Come on."
Settling for giving each other dirty looks, Sif followed Thor dutifully outside of the tent.
Turning to Hanna for one final instruction, Loki finally managed to get her to make eye contact with him. Once it was held, he said, "If I tell you to run, you run like Karnilla herself was chasing you. Do you understand?"
Despite her peevishness with him Hanna nodded. Beyond her little trick, she did not want to attract any kind of attention.
Hanna just wanted to make it through the day without getting herself hurt or worse dead.
Her trick would have to wait for the right moment. Set it off too soon and the death stealers would recover from it. Set it off too late… Hanna did not want to even think of the alternative if that happened.
###
Hanna looked around at the troops she was standing behind. These were some of the more experienced troops, so there was a less likely chance of there being problems. This particular bit of protectiveness on Loki's part did not bother Hanna. In fact, she appreciated it.
Though she wondered whether his desire to keep her safe was entirely motivated by concern. She would not be entirely surprised if at some point either her brother or her cousin Sven had threatened him with various forms of bodily harm.
###
Hanna was looking at the Nabassu in their camp. Somehow Loki had talked Thor into making a sneak attack.
She had also heard a few of the troops complaining about sneaking around like cowards, when they should just meet the death stealers in an open field before a senior sergeant told them to be quiet. Their enemy had sharp ears so any kind of unnecessary noise could lead to a potentially disastrous outcome.
Hanna then saw the signal for the attack to start.
"So it begins."
###
After recovering from the initial surprise, the Nabassu regrouped respectfully well. Not as good as they could have, but still much better than Thor woulud have liked.
"I can work with this."
Thor took a brief moment to take stock of where his brother was. Not too surprisingly, Loki was somewhere on the field where he could keep an eye on his apprentice.
Before he could think on it any further, a squad of death stealers decided to try and jump him, so Thor did not have time to think about it any further.
###
As it was turning out, that despite the sneak attack, the forces were a lot more evenly matched than initially thought. There was nothing that either side had to tip the battle in their favor. Hanna then remembered her trick. As coincidence would have it, she was quite close to the pits of pitch.
A crooked grin crossed her face. The time was perfect. Hanna ignited the pitch, and once it was aflame, she began directing it towards the death stealers, herding them towards the swords of the Einherjar.
###
Loki saw that the death stealers seemed to be running from something. As he got a better look, a wall of fire was herding them towards the blades of soldiers. It had the look of a pitch fuelled fire. The ones who fell were quickly engulfed by flames.
Pausing for a moment, Thor asked, "Is that a trick of yours, Loki?"
Suddenly it all fell into place. Hanna's talking with the local soldiers and then disappearing for over an hour. She had found some pitch pits and was putting them to good use.
"It is not my work," Loki replied with a grin. "Come on brother,
As the rest of the Einherjar mopped up what was left of the Nabassu force that had managed to evade her trick, Hanna took stock of herself, to see if she was wounded in any way.
When she ran her hand along her left side, Hanna winced. It seemed that some her ribs were cracked, if not outright broken. Then she tried taking a step forward, which she immediately regretted as blinding pain shot up her left leg. Hanna was barely able to stand. She managed to hobble over to a tree stump to sit.
"Yep. My leg is definitely broken," Hanna thought ruefully. "I will not be able to move quickly."
But she should be able to move, albeit gingerly.
Hanna was trying to get up on her feet before hearing,
"That was a neat trick. I was not even expecting it," Loki drawled. He was behind her.
"No one was supposed to expect it. Not even you," Hanna replied tightly. The pain in her ribs was minor compared to her leg. It was taking nearly everything she had to not be moaning in agony. She hoped that Loki would not notice.
###
Loki could tell that his apprentice was trying to conceal something from him. With this in mind, he looked her up and down.
Almost immediately Loki noticed that Hanna was leaning heavily on her right leg, avoiding putting any kind of her weight on her left leg.
"Are you injured," Loki asked. If he knew his apprentice at all, she would likely deny it. He moved to a place where he would be facing her.
"I am fine," Hanna replied. She did not want to hear anything from him about not being careful. She had done her honest best to not get injured.
Undeceived, Loki ordered, "Then come along now. We need to get back to the camp." When Hanna tried that, she would have fallen to the ground, had Loki not moved to catch her.
"You have a broken leg and cracked ribs, correct? Do not lie to me."
This time Hanna nodded, unbending her pride. "We probably should make a splint of some sort, so I can-" Hanna's statement was cut off when Loki suddenly picked her up, carrying her in his arms in a manner so that she had to put her arm around his neck for stability.
"Put me down, you-"
Before she could continue, Loki cut her off saying, "This takes less time. Do not try to give me burns or I will drop you and I promise that will not be pleasant with that leg of yours. Do you understand me?"
Hanna was still less than thrilled with how he was carrying her.
A/N 2: Here is the second chapter of the arc. Virtual cookies to whoever notices the line from Lord of the Rings. Please tell me what you all think! SSD