“Freya took us outside her palace and courtyard. There are other palaces, so I say we go knock on one of the doors and hope to find someone pleasant and willing to talk,” Bjørn replied.
“Could we sleep first? I’m exhausted and now that we have this place to ourselves and have full bellies, I think I could get a full night’s sleep,” Hilde yawned.
The sun had been lowering while they had been talking. No one knew what time of day it was or how many days they had sojourned, but Hilde’s suggestion triggered something in Ingrid and exhaustion replaced her desire to do anything else.
“I think I saw some comfy beds inside. Even though the palace is humongous, I probably could find them again,” Bjørn suggested.
“Do you think we could find our clothes too? I don’t want to wander outside this smooth ground without shoes. I doubt the rest of Asgard has such nice surfaces,” Stein added.
“Where do you think she put our stuff?” Ingrid asked.
“I don’t know if it matters, but I do think the boys look pretty in their dresses,” Hilde teased.
“They’re togas, not dresses,” Bjørn scowled at Hilde.
“Anyway, I don’t think our clothes exist any longer. They stunk, so she probably burned them or something. We can worry about proper traveling clothes and shoes after we sleep,” Hilde suggested.
They all agreed with Hilde and followed Bjørn as he tried to find the rooms he had discovered before the feast. After searching the large corridors of the palace for about an hour, they found bedrooms with luxurious beds. None of them thought they could sleep on something so soft, since all their lives they were accustomed to straw beds, but sleep soon took over, proving them wrong.
Chapter 14
Ingrid had a confusing dream. In the vision she was the girl Zoey that Stein had talked about remembering. She was a shy girl who didn’t like herself. That part seemed totally similar to Ingrid’s point of view, but the world had all the conveniences she had only heard rumors of in Tuntre.
She was sitting in front of a super bright square thing that she called a laptop screen, and she was pressing down on these black squares with letters on them to create words that appeared on the screen. She hit the keys quickly, so she knew this was something she had done before. She also knew this wasn’t magic but rather something normal from the world she really came from.
“What ya working on?” A strange boy with dark blonde hair and striking blue eyes approached Zoey.
“School work,” she whispered, but she wasn’t sure why this cute boy would talk to her.
“Hi, I’m Loki. I know it’s a strange name, but my parents had a thing for Norse mythology.”
Zoey knew she should be quiet before the librarian hushed them, but this boy was paying attention to her. No boy ever paid attention to her, other than her best friend Harlee’s boyfriend, Brian, and that was only as a favor to his girlfriend.
“We should be careful; the librarian is kinda strict. She’ll tell us to be quiet or kick us out.”
“Ok, so why don’t you let me take you out for some ice cream or something, and you can tell me your name.”
Zoey wanted to scream excitedly as her heart raced. She said what first came to her mind, “Sure!”
She put her laptop into her bag, along with the other books she had sprawled out on the table. Loki even took the bag from her to carry it for her. She thought he was a true gentleman, even though those really didn’t exist in high school. Brian never carried Harlee’s bags for her.
The ice cream place was across the street from the public library and it served regular food also. Since it was so close to the high school, it was a normal hang out for teenagers. Zoey walked next to Loki in silence and was thankful they didn’t have to go far. The ice cream place happened to be where Harlee and Brian were on their date, so as soon as Harlee saw them, she got up from her table and asked, “Hey Zoe, who’s this?”
“Loki, this is my friend Harlee. That’s her boyfriend, Brian, sitting over there. Loki and I just met in the library and we wanted to talk. You know how picky Miss Rathbone is about noise, so we came here.”
Zoey immediately worried that Loki would become infatuated with her friend instead of her. Harlee had coal black hair and perfect skin. She was absolutely beautiful. Zoey had to deal with acne on a regular basis, and she wasn’t sure her makeup adequately covered the zit she had on her forehead. Harlee also had the kind of personality to win over anyone. She was the only popular cheerleader who didn’t ridicule Zoey. She was kind to everyone. Maybe Harlee was loyal to Zoey because they had been friends since elementary school. They remained close even though Zoey couldn’t make the cheerleading squad and none of the other cheerleaders liked her hanging out with the team.
“I need to get back to Brian, but Zoe, we’re going to talk tonight after my date.” Harlee looked at Zoey as if she had a million questions then she looked at Loki and said, “It was nice meeting you, Loki. By the way, that’s a weird name.” Harlee walked away, and Zoey looked to see if Loki was checking out her butt, like most guys did. He didn’t, and that made Zoey feel hopeful.
“Just like Harlee to speak her mind. She has very little filter,” Zoey giggled nervously.
“No worries, I’m used to it here. Where I come from, it isn’t considered such a strange name.”
“Where are you from?”
“Norway, but enough about me. Is your name Zoe or Zoey?”
“Oh, it’s Zoey. Sorry, I should have told you that. Harlee likes to shorten it.”
“So how old are you? I’m going to start school tomorrow, and I didn’t know if we may end up in the same classes together.”
“I’m seventeen. How old are you?”
“I’m eighteen, but we should still be in the same grade, right?”
“Oh yeah, I’ll turn eighteen next month. We might even be in the same classes, depending on which ones you’re taking.”
Loki smiled at her, which made Zoey’s insides turn mushy. “I’m going to be honest. When I saw you at the library typing away so rapidly, I thought perhaps you were writing a story. That’s what interested me about you. I’m a writer too, and I wanted to find a fellow author in the making so we can pick each other’s brains and maybe co-write together. Of course, it helped that you are pretty too.”
Zoey knew that her face was probably a bright shade of red because it had heated up ten degrees. “Yes, I was actually working on a book, but my laptop is so old it keeps locking up and the file I used got corrupted and erased right off my hard drive. I was trying to rewrite what I remembered from my previous manuscript when you interrupted me. I saved it on the cloud just in case. I can be such a dummy sometimes. I should have saved it in multiple places in the first place. Oops, I’m rambling.”
Loki laughed, “No worries. I’m glad you have more than one sentence to say at a time. I was a little concerned at first with your short responses.”
A boy with the exact same colored eyes as Loki showed up at their table. He had onyx colored hair and was super adorable. Zoey wondered if he was related to Loki in some way, because of their eyes.
“Hey, I’m Stein. I saw my brother over here with the prettiest girl in the room and I thought I better meet her.” Stein winked, and Zoey thought she was hallucinating. Two cute boys complimenting her must mean the world was coming to an end or that they lost a bet of some kind.
“Hey bro, I met her first. Hands off!” Loki scowled at Stein.
“I’m not touching her, but she isn’t your property. Zoey, I warn you ahead of time, my brother can be a little possessive with his girlfriends.”
“Oh, we just met, we aren’t – ” Zoey cleared her throat.
“Now I’ve embarrassed you. I’m sorry.” Stein looked sincere in his apology.
“Great! Now she’ll go back to being shy again,” Loki rebuked his brother.
A loud pounding on the door woke Ingrid from her dream. She realized she had recognized everyone in the vision exce
pt for Loki. Ingrid was still a little groggy and bewildered, but the pounding persisted.
“Come in already,” Ingrid said with a grumpy tone.
“It’s about time. I almost just barged in, but then I thought I better not in case Stein decided to join you last night.” Hilde winked.
“What are you talking about? I don’t do stuff like that and you know it.” Ingrid didn’t understand why Hilde thought Stein and her would have hooked up, but still, she felt her face flush.
“I saw how close you two were in the cave, like maybe you had been kissing. I didn’t have a chance to say anything before now. Anyway, the reason I woke you up is because of my bizarro dream. It was like someone had taken the fog off my memories.”
“I dreamt too, and it was exactly the same way with me. You and Bjørn were in the dream, but your names were different.”
“Yes! I’m Harlee and Bjørn is Brian! Did you see anyone else in your dream?”
“I saw Stein, but his name was the same, and then he had a brother, Lo – ”
“Loki!” Hilde blurted before Ingrid could get the word out.
“Yes, but you woke me up before I could get past meeting the brothers.” Ingrid frowned at Hilde.
Her friend gave a contrite smile. “Sorry, I was just too excited so I had to share the news with you. Do you think those are memories instead of just dreams?”
“I do – even though it sounds totally crazy, because of something Stein had told me.”
“Stein had told you what?” Bjørn barged into the room, causing the girls to scream from fright.
“Freya’s gown, you did it again! Stop sneaking up on us,” Hilde scolded.
“I didn’t try to, but the door was open so I figured I didn’t have to knock. What were you two chirping about in here?”
“Chirping? We’re not birds, and by the way, I think you’re supposed to be my boyfriend,” Hilde proclaimed matter-of-factly.
Ingrid didn’t understand how Hilde could be so accepting of a dream being real memories when she doubted so many things. Her own dream felt like a memory, but Hilde, the skeptic, didn’t normally buy into things so quickly.
“I know! You’re my girlfriend, and that’s what I came in here to tell you. Now I understand why every time I’m around you I get the urge to kiss you. We’ve actually kissed multiple times – if my dream was a real memory.”
Ingrid had flashes of Bjørn and Hilde making out in the front seat of his car while she tried to turn invisible. She knew somehow that it was a memory, and not a dream, because that wasn’t in her night vision. Ingrid’s mind flooded with snippets of those memories and she began filling overwhelmed. It was jarring to think about two worlds that didn’t belong together in her mind.
Stein knocked on the slightly opened door and poked his head around the corner. “Good, you’re all here.”
Bjørn and Hilde were looking at each other intensely as if they were reliving every kiss from their former lives. The heat they were putting off was making Ingrid uncomfortable. They seemed to be trying to act like friends from Tuntre while denying their obvious attraction they had for each other in another world.
“Did everyone dream last night?” Stein questioned.
In unison the group said, “Yes.”
“Then your memories are coming back. Do you all know who you are and why we’re here?” Stein continued.
“My dreams only revealed that you are Loki’s brother, as well as the true identities of the rest of us. I wasn’t able to get past the first time I met Loki. You had interrupted our date and introduced yourself to me, but then I got rudely awoken by Hilde, or should I call her Harlee?”
“Sorry, I was just so happy and frightened by what I found out last night in my sleep. I was feeling all kinds of crazy things after I realized why I feel so attracted to Bjørn all the time. So why did our memories come back now?” Hilde asked.
“I don’t think we are in Loki’s magical book any longer so he couldn’t keep our memories from us here. We left Tuntre and found the portal he was looking for to reach Valhalla. Although, I don’t think the Freya we met is exactly the real queen of Asgard,” Stein replied.
“Wait a minute, I’m kinda freaking out here. I didn’t get all my memories back to know what in Odin’s beard you’re talking about. Please explain what you mean by Valhalla, a magical book, and Asgard. I still have more of Bjørn’s memories than Brian’s so I know about the Viking myths, but I don’t think you’re talking about gods and goddesses, are you?”
“Maybe we should all share what we dreamt about last night, and then I can fill in the blanks. My memories have been mostly restored,” Stein suggested.
They sat on the bed Ingrid had slept in and each shared their night visions. All of them had the exact same dream except for Stein; he had seen what led him to meet Zoey and Loki at the ice cream parlor.
“Loki and I are from another universe called Valhalla – a place outside your dimension, a place that humans can never reach by normal methods. Even if the people of Earth knew Valhalla existed, they would not be able to go there without help from my people. Like your universe, Valhalla has several planets. Asgard is the one I came from where Freya is queen and Odin is king. Thor has his own planet. I only mention him because humans like to fantasize about Thor the most. That being said, Loki was banished from Asgard and was sent to Earth. When Odin exiled Loki, he assumed the capabilities he had on Asgard wouldn’t exist on Earth. Odin had counted on that supposition, because he wanted Loki to be like any human without the ability to return to Valhalla.”
“Woa! So are you a god or an alien?” Bjørn asked.
Stein laughed, “I’m not a god, but legends of my people who came to visit the ancient Norse tribes created the Viking religion. They, of course, didn’t stay on Earth, and my people put up safeguards so that no one would be able to enter Earth from Valhalla, or vice versa, without going through the Bifrost Bridge portal. Since we have different technology that may appear supernatural to a human and time moves slower on Earth, we didn’t think it was wise to have our citizens mingle. A year on Earth is only a second in Valhalla, and that alone could cause issues. Odin assumed Loki wouldn’t be able to return to Valhalla because he would have to pass through Bifrost and guards are posted there at all times to stop him from entering our world.”
“Were you banished to Earth also?” Ingrid asked.
“No, I came here to be with my brother. Yes, he was a trickster and some of his pranks caused a lot of problems, but he didn’t mean to kill Odin’s nephew, Balder. I think that’s why his punishment was banishment rather than death, because Odin knew Loki was more mischievous than evil. I came with him to keep an eye on him and to stop him from getting into trouble while he adjusted to his new life.”
“You did a superb job of that,” Hilde said sarcastically.
“I know, and I’m sorry. I didn’t realize – and evidently, neither did Odin – that Loki had taken a special device from Asgard with him to Earth. It is a machine similar to your world’s virtual reality invention, but much farther advanced. We call it the story transporter.”
“I’m still not sure how that explains why we’re here,” Ingrid interjected.
“Loki used the story transporter to put you all here in this fantasy world, to create a portal to Valhalla. Somehow he has it figured out how he will trick the gatekeepers at the Bifrost Bridge to let him go back home. The only thing I recall is that he used Ingrid’s fears to feed the story transporter to create this world and somehow it will take us to the portal. I’m just not sure how he is going to get it all to work the way he needs it to.”
“Is the story transporter the magical book you referred to earlier?” Ingrid asked.
“Yes. When your laptop broke and he gave you a new one to use for your stories, he was actually giving you the story transporter. The things you wrote created Tuntre. You must have put you and your friends in the story, because they’re here.”
Ingrid sighed
, “I did, but I changed our names to be more Nordic since the story takes place in Norway. Does that mean the monsters I thought I had conjured up in the Beyond just before they had appeared were actually invented in the book I was writing?”
“Probably I never got to read the story, but when I discovered what Loki had done, he added me to your novel and transported me into this world also. I wrote that strange tome Hilde found in the depository with your name in it because I managed to maintain my memories long enough to write a message to you. I had hoped if you found it and started to look for my brother that you would eventually figure out the truth. Then you and your friends would find me so we could determine a way out of this virtual world.”
Ingrid felt so many questions storming her mind, but first, she had to know about Stein’s true feelings. “What about the kiss you remembered we shared? Was that real? Loki asked me out on that date in my dream before I met you, so how would I have ended up with you instead of him?”
“Loki left a wife behind in Asgard, but when I saw him with you, I didn’t know if he had given up on ever seeing her again. Once I got to know you more, I realized that I liked you a lot. Loki didn’t have any issues with me dating you, and that gave me cause to wonder what his true motives for approaching you were in the first place. It took me awhile to decipher Loki’s plan, but when I discovered what he wanted with you, I realized I needed to try to keep you away from him. The problem was that you wanted to be an author, and he made you feel like that was possible. You didn’t have many successes in high school, so writing became very important to you. I tried to get you to write without Loki’s help, but he manipulated you into thinking that you needed him. By the time I realized that he had brought the story transporter from our world, you had already begun using it.”
“Why did Loki need me to use that thing? Why couldn’t he have written his own story and put strangers in this virtual world?”
“I’m not sure yet, but as I mentioned before, I think he has figured out a way to use us to get into Valhalla.”
The Web of Loki Page 11