"Asgard"

Nevaeh was woken up by her parents' excitedly happy faces which were very eager on stepping their feet on Asgard. They told her to get dressed quickly but her sleep was wholly broken when they informed her that Loki was already up and fully prepared for their trip. She quickly jumped in the shower and got dressed, all the while wondering where Loki was going to find an old and wise master, who was capable of lying and acting at the same time. Nevaeh had lied to her parents about everything and her worst fear was all of them unravelling in her face. But Loki was confident regarding his plan, about which she knew nothing and blind faith was not one of her strongest suits. Feeling anxious, she sat on the couch and lit a cigarette.

'Loki?' she whispered, barely audible. A green glint appeared near her door. Loki suddenly came walking towards her, and sat down next to her on the couch.

'Did you sleep well?' he asked and she nodded.

'What are you doing?' Nevaeh asked cautiously.

'Umm – I am sitting next to you,' he said.

'No. I mean – you. The real you. What is the real you doing?' she asked, making him a tad annoyed.

'Your parents are up and about. We should get going – pretty soon, in – about – uhh – twenty minutes,' finished Loki with a suspiciously calculative expression on his face.

'He told me –'Nevaeh paused after receiving a sharp look from Loki and continued, 'you – you told me it would be only three to four hours. It's been six and a half already. You left at four am and now it's 10.30.'

'I – I – I – was – I miscalculated,' he said, heavily stuttering.

'You never miscalculate. You don't usually stammer either,' she said frowningly.

'Can we talk about something important for a change? Something like, do you really expect to meet Master Yoda when we arrive on Asgard?' asked Loki.

Nevaeh gasped slowly as she stared at him with a hint of disapproval in her eyes. 'I dreamt about that! You tried to invade my dreams?'

'I didn't really have to try. They were screaming at me! You are not a peaceful sleeper, are you?' he asked laughingly.

'Don't try to change the subject! It's unfair that you can see my dreams and I cannot see yours.'

'Who said you cannot? Patience, little one, you will learn more than you wish for,' he said, immediately turning her frown upside-down. Loki suddenly closed his eyes. They started flickering inside his shut lids. He stayed the same way for a whole minute before opening them again.

'Alright, change of plans. We are leaving in a few minutes with your parents and we will use my device to teleport to our location,' Loki said in a business like tone.

'But that is exactly what we planned,' Nevaeh said, when suddenly realisation hit her. 'You mean he is not coming back?'

'I am he!' snapped Loki, 'and no, we are leaving—'

'But why isn't the original Loki coming back? He specifically told me he will be back and we will leave together,' Nevaeh said in a suspicious tone, as though this new Loki was somehow going behind the original Loki's back to do some mischief of his own.

'Stop referring to me in third person! I am sitting right here!' he snapped.

'This is ridiculous; so you are coming with us and he will meet us on Asgard as well? Why is he staying there? We don't need two Lokis!'

'There will not be two Lokis, there shall only be one, which shall be me,' he said pointedly.

'He is disguising himself as the master, isn't he?' she hushed quietly.

'I am! Yes!'

'That was his big plan? Disguising himself as some master?' scoffed Nevaeh.

'My plan! And I do not appreciate your tone! It is a brilliant plan!' he snapped.

'If this doesn't work out, I will kill you,' she said.

'Oh, so now it's me? Lucky me!' Loki said scathingly.

There was a sharp knock on the door and her parents once again entered the room with excited expression all over their faces, smiling at her and a now-standing-Loki. 'Come on – we don't want to get late now,' Ariel chirped.

'Why? It's not like there is going to be traffic,' Nevaeh taunted, but she stood-up nonetheless. "Loki" showed them the device sitting on Nevaeh's palm with "Asgard's" coordinates which still had the same green glow emitting from within it and after thrilled, approving nods from her parents, she quickly pressed the button and they all were gleaming-ly teleported on a grassy surface.

They were standing on a huge, open stretch of evenly grassy land which was echoing with laughter and clashing of swords of distant youths; some were duelling, while the others were simply cherishing each other's company. There were children running all about. Elderly people were sitting peacefully in a grassy nook near a flowing spring. Nevaeh was lost for how Loki managed to find such huge mass of people so quickly, but didn't ask any questions.

'I do admit I am a little anxious after returning such late,' Loki said, faking nervousness as Ariel clicked her tongue.

'You will make it up to them,' she said.

'This place is a beauty,' Samuel said as they slowly strolled ahead towards all the far away activity.

There were innumerable trees but these weren't the same shade as they have been on Asgard. These were more greenish blue, than pink and gold. Nevaeh was stunned with silence as she stared ahead at so many people at once, wondering who Loki might be, while walking between her mother and the other Loki.

'Hey, you,' Nevaeh whispered urgently in Loki's ear and he frowningly glanced at her, 'where is he? My Loki? How am I supposed to know who he is?' she whispered frantically.

'Girl, I am your Loki!' Loki snapped in a whisper, 'you are really starting to annoy me!'

'Well, I am not much fond of this you either,' she said, gesturing a hand towards his entire body. 'Why can't you just tell me where he is?'

'What are you talking about?' Ariel asked glancing behind at them.

'Nothing!' they chorused.

Loki glanced at her parents who were visibly bursting with curiosity as they happily trotted onwards. He could feel the tide of questions rising inside their minds and he quickly prepared himself to answer them all, as cunningly as a fox would. A few kids were playing with little shields a short distance away. A little girl glanced at them walking their way, only to dramatically double back her glance at them.

'Who are the kid actors?' whispered Nevaeh, but jumped a little when the girl suddenly shrieked in happiness.

'Master Loki! Master Loki!' she cried happily, running towards them as Loki went ahead and laughingly embraced her. There were audible little gasps and shrieks of happiness echoing throughout the air as more kids joined his side and people turned around in joy as they approached them.

'Yes, it is me,' said a smiling Loki. 'I have returned.'

'We thought you were lost! We went looking for you!' the little girl said as he picked her up.

'Did you, now?'

Nevaeh scoffed lightly as she witnessed the magnitude of Loki's magic mixed with his imagination. She quickly looked at her parents who were lovingly smiling at the visibly overwhelmed people being thrilled by Loki's return.

'Oh, Loki! You have returned to us!' said an elderly lady who came trotting towards him and embraced him lovingly. 'We were worried sick! We heard how you sacrificed yourself to those nasty creatures to get a girl home to safety,' she cried in happiness. 'Always making us proud, our Loki.'

Nevaeh was trying hard to suppress a chuckle as she looked at the theatrical events happening in front of her.

'Is this her? Yes, I heard she is strikingly beautiful' the lady said happily, taking a look at Nevaeh and smiling through her wrinkly cheeks.

'May I ask who mentioned her to be beautiful?' asked a polite Samuel.

Nevaeh's stomach curled, but the lady didn't halt a second in between her responses as though they were well rehearsed. 'The dragon did! He kept going on about how she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen! And kind, so kind, just like our Loki,' she said exaggeratedly, getting a little misty.

'Of course! Silly me! The dragon told her!' Samuel said, laughing heartily and slapping a hand over his head while hugely rolling his eyes and scoffing, apparently getting influenced by the over-dramatic behaviour of others.

Ariel patted him on the back and nodded towards little kids at a distance who were trying to turn a useless rock into a plant. Nevaeh watched them getting completely engrossed as they stared at them, shifting their eyes back and forth at everything.

Loki was looking at them with a thin smile on his face and he suddenly cleared his throat loudly. 'Lady Mish, can you please alert Master Mage of our arrival? We wish to discuss some matters with him,' Loki said importantly.

'Is everything alright, my child?' she asked being utterly worried all of a sudden, her wrinkly eyes filling with deep concern.

'Incredibly so. Young Nevaeh here is pondering over the idea of learning and mastering—'Loki was saying when the lady clapped her hands together in happiness.

'Oh! That is lovely! I shall alert the Master at once!' she said, and hurriedly left, trotting towards a distant huge dome-like structure.

'Loki, your people are so kind,' cooed Ariel, 'and everything looks just splendid! Sweetie, we should plant more trees on Earth,' she added, entangling her arm in Samuel's as they slowly walked ahead and Nevaeh followed them.

'Sure, we should—'Samuel was saying but Ariel interrupted him. 'No, we really need to get to it immediately. I mean, look at the beauty, the peace—'Nevaeh heard her mother go on about nature when Loki suddenly held her hand, making her halt in mid-track.

'Oh my God! Loki, it's you,' Nevaeh hushed happily, glancing at Loki through overly bright eyes as he frowned and she kissed him on the nose, making him smile a little.

'Little one, you need to make sure that your parents don't try and touch me anytime soon. I am sorry, I have to go,' Loki said urgently as she pouted. He cupped her cheeks and kissed her on the forehead just before his touch vanished and she was staring at the other Loki again who quickly smiled at her.

'It's you,' Nevaeh said rather coldly, eyeing him up and down, making him shift his feet a bit uncomfortably.

'Hi,' Loki said, gesturing her to walk ahead with him to catch up with her parents who were chuckling and strolling through the place as though they were walking in a regular, everyday garden.

'Is he shape-shifting into the Master now?' Nevaeh asked quietly after a few moments. Loki made an exasperated clicking sound, moving ahead and leaving her alone to catch up with her parents. Nevaeh hastily held Loki's arm in order to stop him but it passed right through a blink of green and he sharply turned to glare at her in wild frustration.

'Nevaeh, control your lunatic behaviour for once! I cannot afford any mistakes! Your hand just went through mine! What if they had seen it?' he hissed urgently. For the first time, Nevaeh actually felt like the other Loki had a working brain inside his non-existent head.

'Loki? Nev? You should really drink this! It's so refreshing!' Samuel's voice called out.

Nevaeh quickly glanced at her parents, soon letting out an audible gasp as she heard Loki chuckle in the background. The replenishing drinks placed neatly on a metal tray were brought to her parents by an alleged servant with a horrifyingly familiar face. Nevaeh shot Loki an exasperated look as she opened her mouth wide in shock.

'Oh, Loki. You didn't! You are so horrible!' Nevaeh hissed, and she was about to smack his head by her hand but quickly stopped herself from doing so, being sure that it would pass through a gleaming Loki and raise suspicions. She sighed and moved ahead towards her parents who were talking to Thor, the servant. He was wearing raggedy clothes. His tunic had a few holes in it and his hair were matted with dirt and tied back in a ponytail. Nevaeh ran a hand over her forehead as she witnessed the disturbing transformation of the Prince of Asgard into a person who was speaking awfully broken English as though he were an illiterate.

'Then Loki come between, and he save my life. I will indebted for his forever, but he never hears a word of 'tis,' they heard Thor say bowing his head a little as they joined her parents.

'Every life is important,' Loki let out a humble laugh. 'No matter how menial,' he added in an inaudible mutter.