Chapter XIII: Tempest
A/N: Extreme apologies for the lack of updates. It was a combination of things, chief among them moving to a different state halfway across the country and then moving back. Thanks go out to theicemenace for her beta work. Here is the first update of 2015. It's well worth the wait! Enjoy! SSD
Hanna was cooperating while he was carrying her, which was a miracle in of itself. It seemed that in certain things, she still did not feel entirely comfortable with him doing. It was a good thing that she was not that heavy, even in the armor.
"Why did you fight me carrying you?"
She was silent for a moment, before replying, "I have never been carried like that by anyone outside of my family. And even then, it was not a common occurrence."
They were nearly back at the camp when they both heard someone drawl, "Well this looks interesting." It was Fandral.
Hanna could hear the leer in the blonde fighter's voice, but Loki spoke first, sounding like he had heard that from the other man already, "This is not what it looks like. She's hurt and needs healing." With that Loki edged past Fandral and quickly found an empty tent.
###
As Loki put her down on the cot, Hanna hissed in pain. After making sure she was completely on the cot, he told her,
"I'm going to find a free healer. Don't move," he ordered.
"It's not like I can move anyway," Hanna shot back. Of course he was already out of the tent before she finished.
Now that she was lying still, Hanna could not ignore the sheer amount of pain she was in due to her leg. At least the bone was not sticking out of her skin. Which was a very good thing.
Her leg was incredibly itchy. If she did not do something about it quickly, she felt like she would go mad.
Hanna began to move so she could rub her leg, but before she could do anything about it, she heard a voice "Don't even think about it"
Turning her head, she saw a healer standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips. Of course as Hanna did that, a jolt of pain seared across her ribs. She was lucky that she did not pass out.
"Lay back down and do not move, I need to examine your leg properly."
Hanna obediently laid back down. But the pain was starting to get to her, making the desire to squirm nigh on impossible to resist. She could not help it, so Hanna shifted slightly.
"I said to stay still," the healer tried to sooth her, as the left leg was examined.
Hanna was trying not to cry out, so she growled, "You try not moving with a broken leg." The healer ignored her comment, no doubt used to patients making statements like that.
Taking another breath, Hanna asked, "When can I get something for the pain?"
Standing up, the healer said, "It won't be much longer. I need to go discuss your injuries with Prince Loki. I will be back shortly."
Hanna stifled a groan. That was all well and good, but what did it do about the pain she was in?
###
Loki was in the command tent when the healer who had been attending to Hanna came in and inclined her head towards him as was appropriate.
He turned to the healer, and asked, "What is the final diagnosis, Jara?"
"As was previously suspected, your apprentice has a broken leg along with three cracked ribs. Those will be easy enough to heal quickly," Jara paused, "Her leg however, is another story."
"It was not a compound fracture when I saw it last. Has it become worse?" Loki asked, with a deceptive air of calmness.
Quickly, before he assumed she had done something wrong, Jara continued, "It is quite a bad break, though it was a clean one. It will just take slightly longer to heal. Also it might be best if she were knocked out for the trip back to Asgard. She's also in quite a bit of pain. I said I would get her something for it."
Waving her off, Loki said, "I will handle that. I'm sure you have other patients to attend to."
Bowing slightly Jara left. Loki was going to have a little bit of fun, and actually help Hanna in process, though she likely would not appreciate it!
###
Several minutes later, Hanna heard the flap of the tent open, and snarled, "About damn time you showed up!" She was in too much pain to be polite.
"I'm impressed. You were anxiously awaiting me?" It was Loki, not the healer and she could hear the grin he had on his face.
Hanna rolled her eyes. This was not what she had in mind. She almost missed him telling her, "Here, have something to drink." Hanna could tell by the smell that it was winter wine.
Narrowing her eyes at what she saw as a possible in road to mischief, Hanna told him, "You drink it first, then I will drink as much of it as you want me to."
"Ah, but winter wine is not my drink of choice. This for you."
Hanna took it, but did not drink it right away. She was still looking at him suspiciously.
Getting exasperated, Loki said, "There is nothing in that drink which will cause you any kind of harm. Drink it!" He ordered.
Figuring that the sooner she drank it, the sooner Loki would leave, Hanna drained the cup. Blinking a few times, Hanna looked up at him with bleary eyes. Though Loki could tell that she had realized that he'd put something in the drink before she slipped into unconsciousness.
Jara slipped in a short time later and put a splint on his apprentice's leg. Soon they would be leaving for Asgard. Hanna would not wake up for a long time after that.
###
A few days later…
Waking up came slowly to Hanna. Instead of the splitting pain she had felt in her leg, it was now more of a dull ache. She then remembered the last thing she did: drinking a cup of winter wine that Loki had given her. It had to have been laced with something that would knock her out.
"I'm going to kill him!" Hanna groaned.
"I would strongly advise against it."
Turning towards the voice, Hanna was shocked to see her father sitting on a chair in the room.
"What are you doing here?" She asked.
"You know I visit Asgard once a year for diplomatic purposes. How is your leg?" Sven had already been fully appraised of the circumstances surrounding his daughter's injury.
Hanna tried moving her leg, it was in a splint of some sort. A jolt of pain suddenly shot up and down it, different from the dull ache of a few moments earlier. She bit the inside of her cheeks to keep from crying out.
Noticing this, Sven started to get up saying, "I'll go get Jara. You need something for the pain."
"I'll be fine, father. It only hurts when I move."
"There is no shame in taking medication for the pain when you need it. And you clearly need it."
Before he left Hanna remarked with a smile, "It's good to see you. I've missed seeing you on a daily basis."
"I've missed you as well. You are still getting the pain medication. We'll catch up some more later." With that her father slipped out.
###
Shortly after her father left, Hanna had the sudden feeling that she was being watched. There was only one person who would do this.
"Were you listening to the whole conversation, or did I actually get to have a private conversation with my father?"
"I only came in at the end." Loki came around and took her father's chair, brushing past the end of her bed, where her leg was resting. She suppressed a hiss at the pain. "How's the leg?"
Hanna was stunned. Loki was in one of his caring moods. She answered, "About as well as can be expected. It only hurts when I move. Or when someone bumps into it." Hanna motioned with her eyes downward at the leg that had hit her on accident.
Her father found them talking and just observed, with the healer coming in a short time later. It looked like Hanna would not miss the victory feast, though would not be able to take part in the dancing.
###
Sven was watching his daughter during the feast celebrating the victory over the Nabassu. Hanna had been put out when the healer had told her no dancing on her leg. He had given some thought to leaving one of his guards on Asgard to help around, even though there were people that would do that here. Sven would just feel much better if it were someone he knew personally. It would likely be Alarik, whom Hanna also knew as well.
He had also heard of how Loki had carried her back to the base camp from the battle. Knowing his daughter as he did, Sven had the feeling that she had not liked being carried in such a manner. Even if there had been no other alternative as the mischievous prince had told him. Hanna did not contradict Loki, however she did roll her eyes.
The way the two of them interacted seemed to be strange. Sven had been able to ascertain as much during his short stay. Sometimes the prince seemed to not care about what Hanna got up to. Other times the prince was so protective that his daughter could scarcely take a step without Loki knowing about it a short time later.
Most saw it as a teacher watching over his student. Sven knew it to be that, along with something else that Loki himself did not even know about yet.
It was well known that Jotuns could be quite possessive of someone or something they perceived as "theirs".
Sven hoped that would not cause any problems in the future.
As if it were yesterday, Sven suddenly remembered involving his late wife Illona. She'd had a precognitive vision involving Hanna before she died.
He had just finished watching his beloved wife soothe their youngest daughter after she'd had a nightmare. Once Hanna had fallen asleep, Illona got up to smooth Hanna's hair away from her face one last time before she froze and her eyes glazed a bit. Illona was having one of her precognitive visions.
Sven had long since learned better than to distract her. There was nothing to do but wait it out. Once Illona stepped away from Hanna, he knew that the event was over and she would soon be able to discuss it.
He handed her a cup of wine, since she did not have the taste for mead and waited for Illona to speak. She always needed a short period of time to think through what she saw and relax.
A few moments later, she nodded to him that she was ready for him to start asking questions.
"What did you see?" he asked.
Taking a breath, Illona started, "I saw Hanna, full grown. She's beautiful Sven."
Sven smiled again before asking, "What was she doing?"
"She was dancing with someone while wearing a silvery white dress. I did not see his face." Illona was less than thrilled about that, even though this level of detail in one of her visions was uncommon to say the least.
"That's okay, you seem to be seeing a lot clearly. Could you see anything about who she was dancing with?" Sven continued, knowing that she did not want to dwell on what she could not see.
"I saw that he was tall and had hair as dark as her own. I could see Hanna's face. Her emotions towards him were conflicted at minimum," Illona trailed off. Sven believed that she was done, before she suddenly murmured, "He is not Aesir or Vanir."
That was something which got Sven's attention quickly. "What was he then?" he asked sharply.
"I could not say. And before you ask, and I know this will be uncomfortable for you to hear, but the main emotion I saw in Hanna's eyes was love. But their relationship seems to be incredibly complicated."
Back to the present…
Illona could have been referring to an elf or even a mortal on Midgard. Or she could have gotten it wrong in its entirety. Visions could easily be wrong. And they were wrong more often than not.
Sven had to tell himself that. It was the only way he could stay sane and not put a stop to Hanna's apprenticeship to Loki.
###
It was well into the night when Hanna finally made it back to her quarters. Even though she had not danced, she still found ways to enjoy herself. It had involved a considerable amount of winter wine. Though she felt really good at the moment, Hanna had a very bad feeling that she would be feeling horrible the following morning.
"Good thing that Loki gave me tomorrow off from lessons…"
Suddenly her hands sheathed themselves in the blue flame with the ever present green flickers at the thought of enigmatic younger Asgardian prince. This was also not the first time that this had occurred when Hanna's thoughts had gone down this road.
"A woman would have to be dead for a very long time to not notice him. I am nothing special in that regard. Besides, no one has ever looked at me with my lighter haired sisters standing next to me…."
Hanna had drunk too much mead and winter wine to continue her thoughts in that arena. As soon as she put her head on the pillow, Hanna was asleep.
###
Sure enough, Hanna felt like her head had been stomped on by a herd of bilgesnipe the following morning.
Groaning, she rolled over with her hand hitting the hilt of a sword she had never seen before.
It was a hand and a half sword. The make of it seemed to be a mixture of both the Asgardian style and the style of her part of Vanaheim.
Grappling around, Hanna found a piece of paper. On it was, in a spidery script,
"It would seem that you need one of these that was made specifically for you. You'll probably need it."
Scrambling out of bed, Hanna drew the sword. The heft was perfect for her as was the length, though it was on the shorter side for a hand and a half sword to accommodate her height.
"Or lack thereof," Hanna thought ruefully. Even though she was used to most everyone else being taller than her, it did not mean it was something she liked.
Hanna looked across the hilt, the engravings looking like gusts of wind in a storm.
"Oväder. This is the name for this sword."
It was time to make her destiny. Whatever came at her, she would be ready for it. Hanna refused think of the visions from a few months ago.
A/N 2: Finally the buildup of the story is done. It took me a lot longer than I would have liked, but this should be worth it! As for who gave her the sword, I'll leave it to you readers to decide for yourselves. This is the final chapter of the buildup. The next chapter will start the part where it follows the first Thor movie. The word in Finnish means Tempest or Storm. Enjoy and please tell me what you think! SSD