Rescue - 3

Nevaeh walked briskly in the woods, looking for any clues, any hints that might lead her to Loki. She was furious; if she had accompanied him to whatever the hell he was planning in the first place, he would've been safe. It was all her fault!

Nevaeh had no success in finding anything for nearly half an hour, now. 'Loki!' she called, again and again, as though expecting him to jump out from the bushes. She was feeling disgruntled, and wondered how quickly she would've found Loki if her Master were here.

She concluded that her voice may not be loud enough to be heard across the dense cover of trees. She quickly picked a high tree and climbed over it, holding on to branches and weightlessly pulling herself up, not pausing till she was above everything.

'LOKI!' she yelled twice. 'Are you there? Can you hear me?'

No response.

She slowly climbed back down, only to watch three odd looking orange-y creatures with several little horns on their heads, and about 4 feet tall, discussing frantically among each other. She let go of the branch she was holding onto and landed on the ground with a thud, making all of them jump in surprise and draw weapons that looked like mini-swords as they turned around to face her.

'Hello there,' she said smilingly, honouring her startling, sudden appearance, and straightening her knees after her landing.

'Are you the mortal?' one of them asked Nevaeh in a grubby voice.

'Sure. Who are you guys again?'she asked slowly. She realised that they had little wings on their backs. They again started discussing something amongst themselves. Nevaeh cleared her throat.

'Loki told us to give you this. He said 'tis – your way back home,' the one standing closest to her said in a gruff voice. He handed her a metallic, spherical device with random holes on its surface which was glowing a hint of green from the inside. She quickly took it in her palm. The device suddenly began glowing a pale blue, tingling slightly on her fingers, and she looked confusedly back and forth at them, blinking rapidly.

'Where is – Loki? What – the – hell is this shiny shit? Are you kidding me?'Nevaeh asked wildly, waving her arms in a frustrated manner.

'We do not care for your language, and Loki is in our debt now. He don't go with you no more!' the creature standing in the middle said, pointing a stubby finger at her.

'Excuse me? What do you mean? Are you holding him against his will? What do you want from him?' she asked quickly.

'We want his head! He offered his life for the device, and we will end him soon!' they said.

'You will take me to him,' Nevaeh ordered them, raising her chin up a little.

'If you are thinking about saving him then we will have your head too!' one of them said, and the others cheered.

'I am not planning on rescuing anybody. I just need to talk to him!' said Nevaeh, sounding genuine.

'Mortal, we will kill you! We spare no one other than our own!' he said threateningly.

'I understand, now take me to him.' she commanded.

As they walked briskly through the road, Nevaeh noticed that all three of them were exactly the same. No difference whatsoever. Even their armour was exactly the same. They were walking with that kind of aloof attitude as though nothing can hurt them or maybe they thought of Nevaeh as a flower child, incapable of hurting anybody.

After walking for about twenty minutes, they came near a cleared patch of land. She could make out several huts neatly built close to one another at a distance. She wondered if Loki was inside one of those.

Taking a look around, she soon horribly gasped.

There he was, at a distance, both his arms tied up at his sides with metal chains on two poles. He was barely moving.

Fury fumed inside of her. What was he thinking getting beaten up like that for a lousy, useless device that they did not need?

Nevaeh whipped around and swiftly waved the stick over her head, sending a blast towards the ignorant, carefree creatures accompanying her, knocking all of them out cold on the forest. They didn't even put up a fight! She hastily ran towards Loki.

'Oh my god! Loki! Look at me!'Nevaeh cried, shaking him by the shoulders. His head swayed a little. He moaned in pain and looked at her through unfocused, barely opened eyes. He had three vague cuts on his face, and his nose was slightly bleeding.

'Nevaeh? What – what are you doing here?' he asked weakly, his voice barely audible. 'Why didn't you go home? Didn't they give you the device?'

'Loki – I wasn't going to leave you here to – to die – just for returning home! Of course, I came back for you! What were you thinking before doing all this?' she fumed, setting him free from the chains. She looked around and noticed that none of those creatures were to be seen, and the one's she had knocked out had straight away disappeared.

'"Have our heads,"' scoffed Nevaeh, rolling her eyes.

Nevaeh helped Loki up and placed his hand over her shoulder. She started walking, supporting a limping Loki.

'Are you feeling okay?' she asked him, getting a little crushed under his weight.

'Uh-huh' he grunted.

Nevaeh had so many questions for him, but clearly Loki was in no state to answer them, so she kept quiet and just tried to make him feel better, deciding that she would kill him for abandoning her later. The ground beneath them rumbled making Loki open his eyes properly for the first time.

They looked around. 'That doesn't sound good.' said Nevaeh. 'How did you lose the device?' asked Loki glancing about in the woods. He genuinely had no idea about the slightly shaking ground beneath them.

'I didn't lose it! I just came back for you!' she sapped, getting quickly irritated.

'Well, then, what are you waiting for? It's a teleportation device! Just place the co-ordinates and you will get home!' said Loki, loosening his grasp from her shoulder and leaning on a tree for support.

'I am not leaving you here!' she said disbelievingly. You are hurt and were about to be killed! It is getting dark! The ground beneath us is rumbling! For God's sake, how can I leave you here like this?'

The trees shook behind them, making Loki jump in surprise. He looked at her for a long moment, acting to be not quite sure.

'Loki – this isn't a movie! Stop pausing for dramatic effect! Let's move!' she said, handing him the device with the co-ordinates set in.

Loki quickly read the numbers. Nevaeh looked behind Loki's back and gasped. Loki whipped around; this was not what he had expected. A huge brownish-black lindworm had spotted them. Loki despised lindworms more than he did dragons. It began flapping its useless little wings in aggression, and took charge in their direction.

Nevaeh was gaping at the creature with an open mouth, wondering if she could befriend this one as well. Loki hastily grabbed her elbow with the device lying uselessly inside his pocket and snapped his fingers behind her back. His chest glowed a hint of green closely followed by them getting enveloped by a greenish grey fog-like outburst and their figures vanished in thin air.

They came out on the other end and turned around in their spot, only to find a huge wooden table loaded with food, and what seemed like an extremely attractive yet dishevelled couple sitting far away from it on a couch, holding hands as though preventing each other from breaking into pieces. They looked at the sudden appearance and hastily got up. The lady shrieked in happiness while the man said nothing. He was intently glaring at Loki, simultaneously looking relieved at the same time.

'Hello there. Mum, Dad,' Nevaeh said quietly, making an apologetic face.