lt_safe_house | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Time: March 4, 2003
Place: A bus and Tadfield Manor
Status: Public (The Sphinx, Loki) - Complete
Summary: The Sphinx stops for lunch

The Sphinx took a better position on the back seat of the bus. She eyed the humans who were entering and leaving with feigned disinterest. They smelled delicious, but some instinct of theirs apparently started screaming and jumping the moment they saw her, and kept them quite a distance away from her. Of course, that also meant that the seats close to her were all empty, giving her plenty of space, and she wasn’t completely unhappy with that.

When the bus was moving again she stared out of the window and took in the open countryside and the clear sky. Had it not been for her suitcase, she would have flown. As it was, she had to make do with the bus. She had considered getting a car, once, but then had decided against it. It was much easier to disappear without having something like that to worry about.

The Sphinx was a bit unsure of where she should go.. Humans were easy to fool, but other gods posed more of a problem, and she was almost certain it was a god who after her this time. It was nothing too obvious, nothing she could be absolutely sure about, but it always paid to be careful.

By the time the bus reached Lower Tadfield, the Sphinx was thoroughly bored with the landscape, and watching the other passengers was making her increasingly hungry. She stretched her limbs and got out of the bus, and her departure was followed by barely audible sighs of relief.

In all likelihood, she later thought, it had been her worry about her supernatural pursuer rather than a coincidence that had drawn her towards the hotel. In any case, it wasn’t much later that she was standing outside the Tadfield Manor, debating whether she should enter or not. There was the wonderful smell of cooking meat in the air, though, and in the end her hunger won over her suspicious mind.

The Sphinx walked into the hall and let her nose guide her to the direction of the restaurant. Once there, she dropped her heavy suitcase on the floor and sat down in the corner table. The menu had a decent selection of meat dishes. She ordered some beef, told the waiter to leave out chips and salad and settled into her chair to wait for the food to be served.

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"I'll take the chips and salad then," Loki informed the waiter and slid into the seat across from the stranger as if he'd been invited. "And some vegetables to go with it. Whichever you have on hand will be fine."

"Not much of a fan of the greens?" he asked once the waiter had left their table. "You should try then occasionally, they're good for you."

He wasn't sure who or what this woman was. She didn't quite feel like a human or a god. His curiosity had probably gotten him into more trouble in his long life than his pranks, but then how dangerous could it be to get to know this new guest?

“I’m not a rabbit”, the Sphinx said. “I don’t eat rabbit food.” The man set her senses off. Not a human… maybe he was the one who had been stalking her?

“But what would you care about my eating habits? I don’t know you. Have you been here for long?”

"No, but you are human, or appear to be at least," Loki explained. "Humans are omnivorous and therefore need the rabbit food as well as the wolf food."

"Just passing on some good advice I got from a doctor once. It's served me well, so I suppose it will be good for others, too." He considered for a moment whether to introduce himself or just answer the actual question, then settled for the later. He still didn't know who she was, so why should he give her the advantage? "A couple of days. They offered me a free room, so I thought I might as well stay for awhile."

“Appearances can be deceitful”, the Sphinx said, but relaxed a bit. Whether the man was telling the truth should be easy enough to check, and if he had indeed been here for a little while, he was certainly not here because of her.

“Free rooms, you said? Well, that’s interesting. Is the food here any good?”

"Oh, you're a shape-changer then?" He hadn't tried his shape-changing ability since shortly after his arrival in England. It had become too draining as he grew weaker and weaker. Now that his strength was returning, though, it might be fun again.

"Yes, free rooms in return for not using our powers to harm the people here, or the town," he confirmed. "And I like the food, but then I eat a lot of rabbit food." He winked at her.

”Perhaps.” She glanced at the kitchen door, but the cook was apparently taking his time. Well, she thought, she might as well entertain herself with the conversation while they waited.

“So”, she said and leaned forward, smiling, “who might you be?”

"Well, if perhaps, someone here were able to turn into a horse, someone else might perhaps feel like racing with her someday," Loki suggested. If she was going to insist on being vague of course ...

"I might be a god," he said with another wink. "Who are you?"

“I think a horse might be inclined to be afraid of a predator”, the Sphinx replied. “A god, then? I guessed you might be. Do you happen to have a name?”

She paused for a little while to think how she should reply that.

“I’m a sphinx”, she said at last. “I fear I was never given a more specific name.”

So she couldn't change into anything she liked then. Good to know.

A sphinx?

"I'd love to see you in your true shape someday, then," Loki inclined his head to her. "I've seen pictures and statues, of course, but they can't capture the true elegance of a living being."

"My name is Loki, if that means anything to you. I have others, if you prefer, but Loki is the real one."

“I think I may have heard of you”, the Sphinx said. “You are… Norse, aren’t you?” She narrowed her eyes.

“I also recall that you were imprisoned, once. One’s bound to wonder… how did you get out?”

"Yep, Norse god of chaos, not fire as some would have you believe," Loki confirmed. "Though their belief has given me some control over fire, so I probably should be grateful."

He shuddered at the memories of the dark cave and the poison, his exhausted wife his only company.

"My ... brother freed me. Turns out he actually missed me after all." He smirked trying to hide how much it had meant to him.

“Well. Wasn’t that good for you, then. Any idea how he did that?” She found herself hoping that this would be it: a clue, finally, as to how she could break into a prison, too.

"I think he changed into a mouse to sneak in and then it was just a matter of removing the bonds and slipping back out as mice. ... The snake gave us some creepy looks, though," Loki explained. "Wouldn't have liked the result, if she'd actually swallowed one of us, but of course she couldn't know that."

“Ah. That’s too bad”, the Sphinx said. She sighed.

“See, it might be said that a relative of mine is held in a prison of sorts as well. But I do not think there is any brother that could free him, and if there is any opening at all, I don’t know about it.” And so this was a dead end, too, just like all the other options that had, at some point, looked even slightly promising.

"Well, you don't need to be a brother, I'm sure," Loki tried to console here as he once again remembered the darkness, the pain and the sheer boredom.

"And there probably is an opening somewhere, there usually are several, but they might be small. Can your relative shape-change? Into something really small, I mean."

“If there was a way out, do you think he would have stayed in his prison?” The Sphinx glared at Loki.

“And I don’t think he can change the way he is.. He was able to talk with almost anything, that much I recall.” She snorted. “Not of much use to him, that ability.”

"He might be tied up," Loki explained. "Though, if he can't change, that wouldn't be necessary, of course."

He hesitated for a moment. Should he really get involved? This had nothing to do with his pantheon or country.

"Look, if you can tell me exactly where he is kept, I can probably slip in and at least take a look around. Once we know the exact situation we might be able to come up with a better plan. I'm good at planning." He grinned. Heck, who cared what he should do? This would be fun.

The Sphinx considered the offer for a moment, and was just about the speak when the waiter returned with their meal. The Sphinx poked at her meat with a fork. The meat juice smelled delicious.

“I just might know where he is”, she said, and took a bite of the beef. “But the place could well be guarded. And what exactly is in it for you, anyway?” In her experience, people always wanted something back. And even if he was willing to do exactly as he had said, the Sphinx doubted it would be of much help. Certainly, if getting in contact with her grandfather was that easy, someone would have done so a long time ago.

"Ah, green beans," Loki smiled. "My favourite."

The combination of chips and green beans might seem just a little bit unusual, but was quite tasty, he decided. Of course compared to the only foods that had once been available in the Scandinavian winters just about everything served these days was delicious. Norse gods weren't picky.

"A challenge, some potential fun," he suggested making the list up as he was talking. "Maybe a favour owed? Besides, I need to get back on the horse, haven't actually used my shape-shifting in years what with having to pose as human all the time."

He wasn't going to admit to being week in front of her. "I might need a few weeks of practise first, though. To make sure I'm used to all the forms I might need again."

"A favour", the Sphinx said in between bites. "Of course." She hadn't really been expecting anything else.

"Take your time", she added. "I'm not going anywhere for a little while." She had to figure out who was after her, first.

"Excellent. So what can you turn into?" Loki asked between bites. It wasn't entirely curiosity, or a wish to make conversation. Perhaps they could use her form in the rescue mission - and besides once he was sure he could handle transforming having a companion to play with would be nice. There didn't seem to be a lot of pets around here.

“What can I turn into? Isn’t that a rather personal question?” The Sphinx glared. “I might just as well ask the same of you. But, if you insist on knowing, well… I can be a human. Like you must have noticed, if you were paying any attention. And I can take some other forms as well.” She smiled, now. “Rest assured, none of them are particularly small. Or peaceful.”

"Well," Loki said with a smile. "I believe I've already revealed I can turn into a horse and a mouse. There are others you could easily find out, such as a trout and a hawk."

No, he wasn't going to give away everything, but then she hadn't even asked the right question. As long as she thought he was as limited as she was, he was fine with that.

“And you could easily find out what shapes I can take”, the Sphinx responded, “if only you thought about it a bit. I am a sphinx, after all. A Greek sphinx. I think even a Norse god would know what a Greek sphinx looks like.”

“In fact”, the Sphinx added, after taking another bite of the meat, “if you do figure out what forms I can take on your own, I will pay for the lunch.”

Unfortunately Loki was not much of a sphinx expert and hadn't realised until now that there were significant differences between Greek and Egyptian ones. She had given something away by saying forms, though.

"Well, as you say the human form is obvious and the sphinx form can be assumed," he summed up. "It's only logical that your third form is a lion."

“That is correct”, the Sphix said. “Very good. I see you have some brains.” She smiled after that, but then took a more serious expression again. “The answer is still not complete, though. I will wait. We will see if you figure it out.”

She had never meant the guessing game to be difficult or all that serious, and she did not really mind losing it, since the stages weren’t high.

"So," said Loki slowly. "You have another form. And it isn't a herbivore or small. We've established that. Another big predator like the lion wouldn't make sense, though..."

Loki trailed off as if thinking, or maybe just to take another bite of food, but he kept his eyes on the Sphinx the whole time. He didn't have a clue what the answer was, so he'd have to talk his way through until he could read it out of her reactions.

“Size, of course, being relative”, the Sphinx said. She smiled back at him, her expression enigmatic. “In case you don’t know the answer, I’m afraid the lunch is on you.”

"Ah, but I haven't answered yet," Loki returned with a wink. "I'm just thinking out loud."

Size so ... No, she was trying to mislead him.

"So the lion gives you the ability to run and climb and hunt big animals," he continued. "But there are things it can't do and it would make a lot of sense to have another form that can. I find my trout very useful for swimming for example, though most people consider a shape that is tied to the water undesirable. Of course not all swimmers are as useles on land as fish ..."

Another pause, another forkful of green beans and chips.

The Sphinx kept silent, and her smile and stare remained unchanged. She was good at watching things, unmoving, for long periods of time.

"And then," Loki continued. "There's shapes that can fly. Those are very useful in escaping ground bound enemies and getting places fast."

Bite, chew.

The Sphinx merely continued smiling and waiting. She knew better than to give away clues.

"There are shapes that can move underground, but they are small and if you had one, you probably wouldn't need me."

Still not a twitch. Loki had never met anyone quite this unreadable before.

"Of course there's also shapes that can be useful in specific weather. The lion prefers it hot, so you might want something that deals better with the cold."

Nothing.

"You're from Greece, though, which is a very hot place. You were probably never meant to come even this far north."

Had she turned into a statue?

"So, I'd say it's a bird," Loki concluded outwardly confident. Either that or a sea creature, he was pretty sure. All those Greek islands required you to either swim or fly.

The god could reason, at least. That was something, even though his chain of thought appeared to be based on the false assumption that she had chosen her shapes. She had not; it was the way she had been born, just like her mother had been born with the heads of a lion and a goat and with a serpent for a tail.

"So, is that your final answer, then?" the Sphinx asked. "If it is, I should inform you that it is too unspecific for me to accept. I will also not accept 'mammal' or 'fish'. Or 'animal', for that matter."

Well, that was finally a result. At least Loki assumed, that she'd just have said wrong, if it wasn't a bird.

"A large bird, I'd assume," he hedged. "And probably something that actually lives in Greece so you wouldn't attract too much attention."

"Are you going to give a specific answer or not?" the Sphinx asked. "If you find yourself unable to do so, then we will say you gave up... and pay for the food."

Loki shrugged. He didn't mind paying for the meal. It was a chance to trick the waiter out of some much need money. Not being able to read the Sphinx irked him, though, and she was getting pushy.

"You want a specific answer? Fine," he said with a just slightly nasty grin. "I think a vulture suits you best."

The Sphinx grinned, too, although her expression was more smug than nasty. "You answer is incorrect", she said. "So, you lose." It had been a while since she had last played a game like this, and it was getting her in a rather good mood, enough so that she didn't even mind getting called a vulture.

So, now she wasn't even going to tell him the answer? Well, that wasn't done.

"Oh no," Loki laughed. "Not until you prove I was wrong." He leaned forward challengingly. "Show me."

The demand got the Sphinx glaring again. Then she pulled back and had to smile.

“I like you”, she said, “so I take that as a joke. And, perhaps at some point, I will. Someday when I’m not wearing my favourite dress.” And someday when the waiter was not watching her, as well. It wouldn’t do to forget something like that.

The Sphinx took a last sip of her drink and stood up. “I think that for now, though, the lunch is done. Unless you have something else in mind…?”

"Oh, I wouldn't mind you taking off the dress at all," Loki said with a wink.

He wasn't really serious, but thought he was putting on a good show. There'd been times when he would have seriously tried to make a pass whether he found female attractive or not, but since his treatment. Well, she could have been the most attractive woman in the world and Loki would probably have turned her down. It might be cowardly not to want to think of the possible side effects of the therapy, but Loki just didn't want to know.

“Of course you wouldn’t”, the Sphinx said. She walked to the restaurant door, but glanced back just before leaving and smiled. “However, you might mind getting your throat full of claws.” With that, she left to find herself a room.

Loki laughed. She was a spirited one, reminded him of his children.

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