The Lost Asgardian (Loki)

Entry 7)Bait

"The Bird and the Worm" by The Used
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Waking up, I felt sore. The pain only progressed the longer I remained still on the cold floor. My position sprawled on the ground was awkward and made me feel uncoordinated. Blinking my eyes open did nothing to adjust me to the light, simply because there was only dim candlelight illuminating the room. I was on a chestnut brown colored cobblestone flooring and there was a pile of straw in the corner of the room. A rusty bucket that smelled suspiciously like urine sat a few feet away from me.

Strangely, a packed suitcase of mind was sitting on the pile of straw. A rusted yet sturdy-looking door was across the room. Instinct told me to go for it, until I realized I simply could not. As soon as I stood and took a step, a thick chain holding onto my ankle made me unable to do so. That was when I started to panic.

No amount of jingling the chain keeping me in place could move me. It was then, looking in on the moonlight streaming in, did I realize I either completely lost my mind for real, or everything that happened the night before was plenty real. A talking cat was a man, and the Greek goddess known as Artemis kidnapped me. Blinking rapidly and even closing my eyes tightly did nothing. That only seemed to reinforce the idea that whatever was happening here and now was, in fact, real.

"HELP!" I shouted before immediately regretting it. If someone actually locked me in a dungeon with nothing more but a suitcase and a rusty pot, obviously they weren't going to be coming to my aid. Almost immediately, however, someone was at the door, looking through the bars.

The gruff-looking man spoke swiftly in a foreign tongue, glaring at me all the while. "W-what's going on...? W-where am I??" I asked, trying once more to jingle my strong cuff off of me. After that, the beefy man grunted before he unlocked the door. Coming into the room, he took wide strides before ultimately whacking me across the face with a mighty hand. I immediately went down, my body seeming too small and frail to take such a bad hit to the cheek. "What was that for..."

I regretted asking immediately. The man proceeded to give me a sharp kick to the gut before the new arrival hissed threatening words. The new male arrival spoke fast and angrily in another language before coming over and throwing the man away from me. It was only after he released another ugly angry rant that the man stopped advancing. He seemed to want to defend himself before the man named Thorn dismissed him. After the man had fully left the room, Thorn turned to me. "My apologies, Lady Sigyn."

"There was that name again. The one I've dreamed about for years. Sigyn. Sigyn. Sigyn. If not for the fact that people in my dreams and nightmares say it so often, I probably wouldn't know how to pronounce the name if I was reading it on paper. Just for my own amusement, I'll write how it's pronounced. SEE-gan. Like Keegan but with an S. There were so many things wrong with this strange scenario, but the only one I could focus on was the painful cuff holding my ankle. "Where am I...?'

"In a dungeon, m'lady."
Well, that part I had already figured out all on my own. Still, light, nervous sarcasm escaped me. "Oh, of course. Why didn't I just immediately assume I was in a dungeon...?' I prattled off, nervously laughing as I feared my insanity has reached an all-time high.

"I do not know. Twas an obvious assessment given the dreary atmosphere along with the chain holding you down," the man replied, a light grin on his lips. Was this sarcasm as well? Strangely, I couldn't be certain, he sounded serious. "You are most probably wondering why you are here," the man stated quietly.

"Oh no, of course not. I was just wondering when room service was coming cause' I'm hungry," I snipped back, once again trying and failing to wiggle my chain cuff off me. I had no idea where this small course of bravery was coming from. I was currently sprawled on the hard floor of a dungeon while being chained to a wall. Sassing my abductors was probably not the best course of action.

"Here, allow me," Thorn muttered, appearing by my side within a blink of speed. He easily removed the cuff with his bare hands by breaking it. I wanted to start screaming and cowering in fear, but I was still tired and feeling lackadaisical.
Instead, I just wiggled my now-free ankle. 'Where am I?'
"The dwelling dungeons for those on trial."
"Am I on trial?"
"Oh Vahalla no. You are simply here because Lady Artemis does not believe you deserve better chambers."
"Ain't she a nice hostess," I muttered under my breath.
"The dungeons are a fitting place for a failure such as yourself," Artemis sniffed, suddenly standing in the threshold of the doorway. She glared at me as if I were the most disgusting thing to ever walk the face of the world. For a moment, I dared to look behind me in case there was someone else she was casting such a dirty look to. There wasn't. The petite woman with the fairy-like features was glaring at me exclusively. Without skipping a beat, I turned to face Thorn. "I guess I shouldn't hold my breath on that room service, huh...?"
"You, little Asgardian, are the key to making it so the blue devil holds a weakness!" Artemis declared a little too gruffly.

"Am I supposed to understand what that means?"
"She does not remember Asgard, Artemis," Thorn said stiffly, his eyes narrowed at the only other female in the room besides myself. She remembers very little of her time..."
"Then spend your own time recapturing her memories of her past life," Artemis snapped in retort. "We have dawdled long enough in finding her. Now that she is our prisoner, my father will see to it to use her as a decent bargaining chip."