Creepy Cave

'It's a minuscule cave,' Loki said, strolling around the structure's edges and beckoning him further.

'I thought it was a mountain, or a hill,' Daniel admitted.

Loki took a sharp right turn and disappeared out of sight. Daniel noticed that there was an about twelve feet wide opening between the rocky surface. It was unnoticeable due to the absence of any source of light within it. Daniel entered the cave behind Loki having half a mind of sneaking away from him behind his back and making a run for his life.

'Don't even think about it, boy,' Loki's bored voice echoed lazily in the enclosed tunnel. He didn't even pause and turn around to see if Daniel was following him inside the cave.

Daniel couldn't help but shudder. The inside of the cave was somehow even darker than the outside. After a few steps, Daniel couldn't see the ground beneath his feet let alone what was in front of him, but Loki was walking so perfectly as if he were a cat with night vision, or a person with night vision goggles, or just a God who can see everything, thought Daniel.

SPLAT!

Loki frowningly turned around to see Daniel rubbing his eyes and face. 'Oh, my apologies, I forget that humans have mundane restrictions, such as not being able to see in blinding, pitch-darkness,' Loki said genuinely. He humbly stretched out his palm in front of his chest.

Loki's palm erupted in flames; the normal, non-voodoo flame, not the drugging kind he had conjured for Nevaeh. The cave was filled with flickering yellow light. Daniel blinked around to see the source of the same.

He gasped, 'dude, your hand is on fire!'

Loki chuckled, 'yes, dude, on purpose.'

Daniel realised that the cave was swarming with stalactites and stalagmites, and one had smacked him squarely on the face. 'Move along, now. We are almost there.' Loki started walking ahead with his hand moving at his side as though it was perfectly normal for it to be on fire.

Daniel reluctantly moved his legs and followed him. Sure enough, within three minutes, the narrow tunnel of the cave ended in a circular area which was about as big as Daniel's entire apartment. It was the oddest thing he had ever seen. Daniel couldn't understand what task he had to perform to complete his penance in an area like this.

The place was just as murky and mouldy as the rest of the cave, but it was perfectly cylindrical and quite spacious. It had one battered looking chair next to a small wooden table, an equally battered looking bed and three large metallic barrels inside it. Loki turned in the room, gazing around and gesturing Daniel to do the same by his ablaze hand.

'After I shielded Nevaeh's sleeping quarters, I stopped by here, to arrange all of this,' Loki said, proudly looking around the circular place. The fire crackling in his palm was making the place bathe in dim yellow light, giving it a creepier look.

'With all your power, you needed two hours to get this – this stuff here?' Daniel was so confused. He had literally seen Loki carrying him, relocating him and redecorating a chair at the same time within five seconds.

Loki gestured him to take a seat on the chair. Daniel quickly did so, eager to reach the part where Loki finally reveals his punishment, as though it were an undesirable gift of some sort.

Loki stood in front of him, right in the middle of the spherical room. He cleared his throat loudly, a thin smile spreading over his face. Loki rubbed his palms together and the flame started vanishing slowly from his hand, emitting a few frictional sparks as it did so.

Loki spread his arms wide in grandeur under the fading flames of his hands. 'It took me two hours to do this.' he slowly started moving his hand upwards as though motioning someone to raise a curtain.

The flames vanished. They were surrounded by mind numbing darkness.

The entire circular room began rippling from the roots. It slowly started changing its appearance from the bottom like some bizarre upside-down green waterfall. Loki kept raising both his hands slowly, cherishingly, as the dark, murky walls began filling themselves in colours, twisting and blending amongst each other. The whole room was bathed in dazzling light. Everything was a blurry blend of dramatic shades. Daniel watched with bated breath as the very ground under his feet changed in greenish ripples to form a rainbow of some sort. Colours were flying, stars were creating themselves under a constellation. Every beautiful aspect of this surreal sight was gently colliding within each other, merging to turn into something far bigger, and amidst all the breathtaking magic stood Loki, with a grin as wide as his opened arms.

The shifting and rippling came to an end.

Loki relaxed his hands to look at a gaping Daniel, who couldn't understand if this was a punishment or just a show off session of Loki's capabilities. Daniel stood up from his chair.

His feet were standing on a rainbow-bridge, beneath which was a vast, roaring ocean. Right in front of him stood a glorious palace made of gold. He recognized it in an instant because he had seen Nevaeh point repeatedly at its picture in the book.

'This is – this is the palace of your planet, right?' Daniel asked, but he realised that Loki had already turned around to stare at the palace himself.

'Not just the palace. It was my home,' Loki whispered, 'It's beautiful isn't it? I haven't seen it since the night I left. I had asked Nevaeh to come stay with me, and I am sure she would've agreed to it at some point. It's fascinating how drastically my future has changed. The last time I was home on Asgard, I wished to destroy that race of monsters, rule Asgard as the righteous king, and she would've been with me the whole time after.'

Daniel blinked rapidly towards Asgard's palace and dizzily spun atop the rainbow bridge to realise that there was a huge spherical ball at a distance behind them. He hadn't realised the structure before. It was the bi-frost.

'Wait, where did the stuff go? The chair and everything?' Daniel took a whole view of the scenery, because that's what it was. There no longer was a room. 'We are not in that cave anymore, are we? Did you bring me on your planet?'

Loki didn't even have to raise a finger. He merely tore his gaze away from the palace to glance back once. The chair appeared a little ahead of the bridge and before the bi-frost dome. It looked oddly disturbing as it sat on the beautifully fluctuating bridge. Daniel took a few shaky steps, but sank low on the chair nevertheless.

'I still don't understand my punishment,' Daniel said finally. Despite the lack of any lethal weapons or anything else that was capable of snatching away his life, taking in the creepy surroundings under consideration Daniel knew his punishment was something truly terrible. He just hoped to get this over with soon and go home in one piece.