Captive - Loki Fanfiction

Chapter 17

"Irene Deer, if you don't come here and wash the dishes now, I will personally toss you into the arena!"

The quiet, grey, hazy morning silence was broken. Murmuring groggily, I lifted my head off the sweaty pillow of my bed and watched a meager trickle of grey light shine through the gap of the tent. Outside, I could recognize Victoria's voice yelling. It seemed she was scolding someone, perhaps a serving-child or one of the in-trainings.

"Boy. No one can get any sleep around here."

Annoyed to have been roused from my sleep, I took a few sips of water and then, massaging my temples, sat up in my bed, trying not to move my ankle too much. It had been a week and half since I had twisted my ankle and I was still healing from the injury. I was still attending training but I had been in so much pain after trying to join a wrestling exercise that Brutus had insisted I only attend sessions that didn't require me to do any physical movement. I had even missed the June Moon Feast because I had preferred to relax in my tent to give my ankle a break. I maneuvered myself out of bed and limped across the tent, shivering violently. The mornings were getting colder as summer was slowly dragging into the cooler autumn months. I pulled on the thick tunic I had discarded the night before, quietly so I wouldn't disturb Loki who I could still hear breathing heavily behind the curtains of his bed, still swathed in slumber. I went outside, tying my hair back into a tight ponytail. A small black-haired girl was standing near my tent under a big red cedar tree, Victoria hovering over her. I felt a pang of sympathy for the kid; she looked bewildered and scared. Her brown sack-like tunic hung off her bony shoulders where two knife-sharp collarbones showed through her pale, veiny skin. Her eyes were big and bloodshot.

"You wander off once more, Irene and believe me, I'll tie you to the nearest tree!" was snapping Victoria. "You hear me?" The girl nodded hurriedly, mumbling what sound like a slurred apology. Neither of them had noticed me standing nearby, hidden by the shadow of the tree. "Now go and join the other kids in the kitchen," Victoria grunted. She was wearing her armour again and was looking tired. The girl fled and I stepped forward into the light.

"Hi," I said.

"Oh. Hi." Victoria looked up wearily.

"Having trouble?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, Irene. She's a handful."

"What class is she? Warrior or in-training?"

"Neither. She's a serving-girl."

I was surprised. The girl looked at least nine or ten. Most of the serving-children were under eight. Normally, she would be an in-training.

"Realm traveller?"

"Yes. Orphan from what the soldiers told me. There was a patrol travelling through the Realms and they found her wandering alone. Starving. She thinks she was born here and that I'm her mother. She's confused."

"In these times, everybody is." I blinked, a bit put off by Victoria's sarcastic comments while she described the girl's unhappy background.

A look of alarm fell over Victoria's face. "No, no, no. You don't understand. She has a confused brain. She's sick. Simple-minded. What one might call dumb."

I stiffened, caught off guard by the revelation. "She's mentally ill you mean?" I muttered.

"Yeah," said Victoria with a mournful sigh. "I didn't expect anything like this when Björn first gave me this job. I'm not very patient and she keeps disappearing. Nothing works. I can't make her stay. And I don't understand her. She speaks a few words of Norse but that's it. Otherwise she just slurs."

"It's cruel," I muttered to Victoria. "So cruel. To be born like that. It's cruel and unfair."

"I know."