Dousing the candle, she knelt in the mud letting the tears flow down her face.
“Oh, Loki, what am I supposed to do? Tomorrow I am to marry a man that I do not love. I know it’s foolish to think of love, but father says that I have always been the fool. I know what you would do, if you were me. You turn into a fish or a bird and fly far away from here. I wish that I could do that too. Oh, Loki, if you’re there, please, help me.”
She wasn’t sure what she expected, even as the words left her lips. Yet she felt no fear as the roll of thunder that rumbled through the sky began to reverberate through the earth, causing the very trees around her to tremble. When she opened her eyes, a man was standing before her.
He was exactly as she had imagined, with untamed curls of fiery red and a face that was all angles. Even his ears came to a point at the tips, like the citizens of Alfheim in her mother’s stories. He was dressed simply in plain trousers and a sturdy linen shirt, but the way he carried himself gave evidence to his station in life.
His blue eyes bored into hers. “Hello, Sig. I have heard your pleas, and I have taken pity on you. Because of the diligence you have shown me throughout the years, I will reward you. If you truly wish to escape your fiance, then come. Come with me, and all of Asgard shall be yours.” The long, tapered fingers of his hand were extended in welcome.
Sig stared at him, mouth open. She closed her mouth. Then opened it again. A thousand arguments rushed to her mind. Didn’t she have so much to live for? So much to stay for? There was her mother and her father. And her oldest brother’s wife was expecting their first child at the end of summer. Then she closed her mouth again. Hadn’t she already made her choice when she left the house that night?
Smiling, yet trembling inside and out, she slipped her hand into the grasp of the god. He smiled in return, revealing a set of perfect white teeth. Then, he leaned down to kiss her. Slowly, they began to melt away. Where the pair had been was left only the dank darkness of the forest and a forgotten pile of stones erected to a lonely god.
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