The Dawn Of Something New

After appearing inside Daniel's living room, Loki had taken Nevaeh, who was still unconscious, in his arms and had teleported the two of them inside her bedroom. She was shifting her head from time to time but wasn't waking up. All the thin, red lines had disappeared from her forehead. She was looking just as normal as when she had previously been inside this room with him.

Placing her down on the bed, Loki twisted his wrist and held out his palm; the tiara emerged in his hand looking just as withered since the moment Loki had snatched it away from her head. Loki felt like snapping it in, two but he knew that Nevaeh would find it suspicious if her tiara suddenly vanished from the top of her head. He loosened his grip on the tiara to clutch the Norn stone between his fingers.

Loki immediately started murmuring under his breath and twirling it inside his fingers. Soon, he let go of it while it kept hovering in midair. The deep, frozen-looking cuts inside the stone began reversing to their original gleam. The stone shone a red with sharp, thin sparks. The tiara vibrated as though coming back to life and sat on Loki's palm looking as perfect as before.

Now that her tiara was fixed, there was only one thing left to do, and this nightmare would be over. Loki placed his index fingers on Nevaeh's temple. He took in a deep breath. Her head shifted a little but he kept her still. One by one, the memories of a normal, pseudo evening began forming themselves in Nevaeh's mind; a quiet farewell dinner with her parents, taking a stroll through the city, gazing at the ocean through her terrace with Loki by her side, and how under the starry night they had professed their love for each other.

The moment he was done inserting those memories, Loki quietly went into his room. Despite the evening's events not being his fault, he couldn't help but feel guilty over the same. Even after punishing Daniel, there wasn't really much satisfaction to gain from it. Loki tried hard to keep his guilt ridden thoughts aside and to sleep for a while. Tomorrow was a big day. He'd been waiting for it for what felt like an eternity.

Soon the dawn settled, the day broke, and their journey did indeed begun despite the unfortunate events that had occurred the previous night. Loki had barely slept at all. The entire night his mind was refusing to ignore what he had done, no matter how necessarily. Nevaeh, on the other hand, had slept quite peacefully, especially because she did not possess any guilt ridden thoughts inside her conscience. She was feeling ecstatic since she'd opened her eyes, although she did feel as if she were suffering from a mild hangover despite of not having enough alcohol the previous night during dinner. Nevertheless, their most awaited journey had finally begun.

Loki had shape-shifted into Odin and had arrived bright and early to escort the pair to Nevaeh's new magic school. Irrelevant of the fact that their previous night had been useless when it came to packing her stuff properly, Loki had taken it upon himself to hastily shove everything she might need in his emergency space. After bidding farewell to her parents for a thousandth time and after even more kisses from them they finally teleported from the Queens' Nest. 

As soon as they reached the other side, Nevaeh excitedly looked around.

They were standing on a cliff side, atop a huge mountain. Trees were rustling in the wind above their heads. The sound of gushing water made Nevaeh walk a few steps ahead and peak over the edge of the cliff. Nothing but a vast stretch of ocean was visible from above. Odin's body rippled in a glint of green and he was shape-shifted back into his old, gorgeous self, while the illusion of Loki disappeared completely. 

'Where are we? Are we going to stay here?' Nevaeh asked, wondering if Loki either wanted them to live on this cliff or underwater, and she was fine by either. 

'No, not here,' Loki said. 'This is merely where we begin our journey.' He stretched out his hand to hold hers and looked into her almond-shaped eyes. 'I know a lot has happened in the past, but let's mark this moment as a new beginning for both of us. Let's forget every bad thing that has happened before and move ahead,' Loki paused, realizing that he was trying to ease his own burning mind during his little opening speech and he quickly shifted his thoughts away from the negativity. 'I wanted nothing more than for us to be together, and now finally, we are heading there. Now, I have not forgotten our very first purpose for moving away. But this is the first time in my life that my happiness has overpowered my sense of accomplishment,' he finished. 

Nevaeh kissed the back of his hand followed by a hug. 'I have not forgotten about our mission either. I am bursting with so many questions that I want to ask you, but they can wait. Also, I don't understand why we had to stop here,' she said as she let go of him. 

'That is because I had something in mind.' Loki held out both his palms. Nevaeh was about to hold them again, assuming they were outstretched for her, when two carved, gold goblets embossed with green appeared in his open palms. She took them into her own slightly raised hands, as if she knew that they were about to appear and was intending to grab them in the first place. 

Loki then twirled his index finger in an upward motion. The goblets vibrated in the merest as she held them and were instantly filled with brimming, slightly pink water which had a few silver petals infused in them. 'It is an Asgardian potion which is said to provide good luck to anyone for whom it is made. It's just a silly tradition, but travellers are known to drink it before commencing their journeys,' he said. 

'Oh, Loki, that is so thoughtful,' she smiled. They clinked their goblets and sipped deeply. Keeping aside the earthly fragrance, it tasted similar to sweet water. As soon as they finished their drinks he vanished the goblets and flicked his finger in the air, which slowly showered the same silver petals above their heads. Nevaeh laughed in surprise, but instantly took Loki by the hand. He began twirling her around with his other hand gently pressed behind her back. She twirled one last time before halting to rest a hand on his chest. 'Well, we are definitely off to a phenomenal start.' 

Loki smirked, wondering what she might say in about five minutes. 'And it will get better,' he said, breaking apart from her. 'Now, close your nostrils for about seven seconds,' Loki said, suddenly adopting a business-like voice, as if it were a perfectly normal thing to ask for.

He stretched out his left palm once again and began twirling his finger over it. A greyish fog like substance started slowly revolving inside his palm like a minuscule tornado. Nevaeh instantly pinched her nose without asking any questions, counting the seconds in her mind. As soon as she opened her nose, Loki stopped twirling his finger. The greyish fog settled and Loki blew it by his lips. The fog smoothly entered her nose, which she couldn't help but breathe in deep. 

'That was a breathing enhancement. Lung coverage and what not,' Loki explained, but it didn't make much sense to her at the moment. 

'I feel normal,' she said.

'You are supposed to,' Loki said.

He again held out his palm. A small, perfume-like bottle appeared inside his hand which had a semi-thick, bluish liquid inside it. Loki gestured her to turn around as she kept staring at him with a thin frown over her face. 

'May I ask?' she said, before doing as she was told. Loki gathered her hair and put it ahead to reveal the back of her neck. He pressed the nozzle of the glass bottle over it and slapped a hand on her neck as soon as he sprayed it. 

'Ow!' Nevaeh yelped. 'What are you doing?'

'Apologies,' Loki said as she faced him again. 'That was necessary.' 

'First of all, what was that?' she asked slowly.

'SPF,' Loki said. 'The slap was so that it would spread itself all over you without needing any assistance.' 

'Does SPF mean the same thing on Asgard as it does on Earth?' she asked, bewildered. Loki nodded silently. 'It's blue!' she added laughingly, as if that were against the laws of nature. 

'It's a concentrated form. Appropriate for right now.' Loki slapped a bit on the back of his own neck. Protecting his godly skin was one of his priorities. 'As to why we need SPF, all things in good time.' 

Loki removed the chain from his neck, his green Norn stone dangling over it like the beautiful pendant that he had fashioned it into. Nevaeh wanted to ask why he was taking it off, but another highly related question suddenly clicked in her mind. 'Oh, I forgot to ask! Where is my tiara?' 

'I took it off yesterday night when you were sleeping. I have warned you not to wear the Norn at all times. I have no idea how you managed to conceal it in the first place, but we can get to that later,' Loki said as he held his own Norn stone in his palm. 'As for now, I want you to wield mine.'

Nevaeh pouted in confusion, but figured Loki was doing everything that was needed for their further journey. He fastened the Norn stone around her neck. She instantly felt a surge of chilly energy rush through her veins for a few seconds. 'Again, may I ask why?' she asked. 

'I want you to make a prediction,' Loki said simply.

'What?' Nevaeh was astonished. 'Right now?'

'No. When I tell you to,' Loki said.

'But Loki, we have never done anything of such sort! I don't know how,' she said. 

'It's not that complicated. All you have to do is to focus on what you want to predict, but you should really, really wish to find that out or else it won't work. If you manage that, the Norn will do the rest,' Loki explained.

'What do you want me to predict? And when? And why?' she asked, still not understanding the point of it all.

'You just have to predict the next minute. I will give you a cue for your prediction,' Loki said quickly. 'Just one minute ahead into the future. One minute.' He held out one finger to make it crystal clear. 'As for why I want you to do that, it's to gain some familiarity with the sorcery of predictions which would make our future tasks easier. Do not ask me the details. Not so soon.' 

'But I don't know how!' she repeated.

'That's the beauty of it! Look, there is no pressure! It's just a harmless experiment. I will give you a cue and you focus hard on what might happen in the next minute. Exactly one minute. If it works, then the experiment succeeds. If not then, ah, well, we don't have anything to lose, do we? Like I said, no pressure,' Loki shrugged airily. 

'Fine, we can try,' Neveah said slowly.

'Now, one last thing before we begin. Give me your wand.' 

'Why? It's not like you need it!' Nevaeh protested.

'Right now, neither do you. Trust me,' he flexed his fingers to gesture her into giving her wand. She did. 

'Good,' he smiled, a bit surprised that she was obeying him without any questions. 

'Wait. How are we going to teleport now? You usually use your Norn!' she said suddenly. 

'We are not going to teleport again,' Loki said.

He brushed his clothes, which glowed green for a second before disappearing from his upper body. Loki shook his head to straighten his hair a little. 

'We are going to make out instead?' Nevaeh asked, staring at Loki. 'Got it. Come here.' 

'Ehehehe,' Loki chuckled, stopping her hand from grabbing him. 'I fear that would have to wait as well.' 

'Then, let me guess. You want us to swim till our destination,' she said. 

'That is literally not possible,' Loki said. He gestured her to move a tad behind and give him some room. He bent a little in his knees and curved his back just to straighten himself again. 

She quickly did so. 'Then how are we going to get there?' she asked. She didn't have to wait for an answer for long. 

Loki's back glowed green so brightly that the brightness began spreading further away from his back and arms and into the air around. Nevaeh gasped pleasantly in surprise. The green glow slowly began fading from his back, shifting from his sides to reveal something surreal. Huge greenish-silver feathers, long and sleek, were clustered together to form the most enormously beautiful wings she had ever seen. 'We are going to fly,' Loki grinned.