ARE YOU GUYS READY???????
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Currently watching The Winter Soldier and so excited to post this!

If any of you are ever curious, there is a link to my Pinterest page on my profile. If you explore a little bit, then you will see all sorts of character goodies. :)

Dedicated to one awesome dude.

Enjoy this prologue! ;)

~Prologue~

The room is made of twisted tree roots that rise and fill up the ceiling and fall around haphazardly. Silver smoke wafts through the air in trickles, and exotic fragrances and spices permeate the surroundings. Moss and ivy tangles together on the ceiling and down the wooden columns, across the shelves littered with jars and glasses filled with herbs and feathers and bones. A boa constrictor hangs from the rafters, tasting the air with its flickering tongue, and a white leopard with bright blue eyes and a silver headdress prowls in circles, its long tail trailing the ground. It bares its teeth, its hackles raised. It is obviously agitated.

A woman walks out from a beaded curtain, holding a vase. She is tall, and is wearing a flowing white dress tied with a rope around her waist. Her ringleted blonde hair seems to glow, and piercing blue eyes shine out from her pale face. But her blue eyes, usually so bright, are now drawn and tired, and surrounded by darkening rims.

When she sees who is standing at the doorway, she drops the vase, which shatters on the ground.

"You weren't expecting me, were you?" asks Loki, walking forward out of the shadows. He ignores the leopard, which growls at him, and leans against the water-filled basin, "How fascinating."

Myrinea's voice is calm, "Why are you here? Did the spell you requested not succeed?"

"It succeeded," says Loki, "But my entire plan has not unfolded."

A sly smile creeps across Myrinea's face, "It's your daughter, isn't it? She has been less than cooperative."

Loki's green eyes are steely as he looks at her, "Thea is vigorously headstrong. But she will come around." He pauses, "You know why I'm here. Now, you're just stalling."

Myrinea looks up at him steadily.

"Give it to me," he says.

She keeps her blue eyes on him, and then walks to one of the shelves. Leaning down, she takes out a transparent blue glass bottle and holds it up to the light. It seems to sparkle.

Myrinea strokes the leopard's soft white fur with one finger and then straightens up. Her eyes drawn, she walks up to Loki and proffers the bottle to him. Smirking, he takes it from her and holds it up to the light, inspecting it.

"This will work, yes?" asks Loki, and narrows his eyes at her. Myrinea may be tall, but Loki is still taller, and he looks down at her.

Myrinea's nostrils flare slightly, and her eyes widen, the first sign of fear that she has shown, "Yes, of course it will."

"It will not harm her?"

Myrinea's voice is steady again, "The only harm that will come to her will be from you."

Loki snarls, but then retains his cool demeanor. He pockets the bottle, and then looks back at the prophetess, "Your help has been most illuminating. But you are hiding something from me. What is it?"

Myrinea smiles.

Loki takes out a dagger and points it at her pale neck, "What is it?"

The leopard growls and stalks towards Loki.

"I will ask you one last time," says Loki through gritted teeth, "What are you not telling me."

She is still smiling brightly, the kind of smile that represents cunning and wit, "As long as you are determined to crush her, Thea will keep fighting you. She burned your journal. She will burn right through your patience."

"Thea is a thirteen year old girl," says Loki, "I frankly have more to fear from her dog."

"You know that's not true. You say she is headstrong, and that is true. But she gets that headstrong mind, that stubbornness, and that fire from her father. The two of you will have to face one another at some time very soon- and neither of you will like the result."

Loki growls, "I have a hard time believing that Thea can beat me."

"Perhaps not, but she will wear you down. She will wear you down, her companion and she will-"

Loki grabs her throat, "Her companion? You vile lier, someone else knows about the spell!"

Myrinea smirks.

"You vowed that no one else would know! That was a staple to our agreement!"

"I am so much more fond of Thea than I am of you," says Myrinea, "Why would I not give an innocent child an opportunity such as the one I have given her?"

Loki slams Myrinea across the face, and the prophetess stumbles.

"Who is it!?" roars Loki.

The leopard growls and leaps. Loki swings around, and the dagger cuts into the beast's body. The great cat yowls and collapses to the ground, broken pieces of its silver headdress sparkling in its blood. It's dead.

Myrinea wails at the sight of her fallen companion, but Loki doesn't give her an opportunity to grieve. He seizes her and slams her against one of the shelves, sending ingredients toppling, crashing onto the ground, "WHO IS IT?"

"I will never tell you," she hisses, cold determination in her eyes.

The dagger pierces Myrinea's side.

"I know you won't," says Loki quietly.

Myrinea gasps and falls to the ground, clutching the air around her.

"Does Thea know about this rogue companion?" asks Loki.

The prophetess gags, and blood spills from her cracking lips. But she manages to say, "N-no."

And so with that lie, Myrinea gives one last gift to Thea.

Loki curls his lip at her and turns away, holding out the bottle and looking at it with a gaze of half-fondness, half-elation.

A choked noise from behind him causes him to turn around and look at the fallen prophetess, lying like a fallen angel, her blonde curls swirling around her, the blood staining her white dress crimson.

"If you...do this to her..." gasps Myrinea, "Then you...you will lose her...forever."

"I think I'll make that call."

"Forever... is a long time, Loki," she gags.

And then, she is dead.

whoops. Darn it, Loki. Great start you're onto there. 

Please VOTE and COMMENT! <3

Love, Sierra