Immense paws would strike the terra underfoot with barely a trace of sound, the wintry goddess near floating above the snow blanketed terra. As she placed a paw upon the surface of the lake, a few lights would collect themselves underfoot. Cherry nose would lower from it's massive height to test the safety of the strange incandescence. Why was she always so drawn to places with strange lights? The question posed itself without an answer, so she abandoned it and stepped onto the ice. Tough pads kept the ice from damaging her paws, allowing her to focus her attention on the magnificence around her. Towering pillars of ice stood atop the ice, whirling and creating a maze of warped mirrors. As she passed among the myriad of imposing stalagmites of frozen liquid, her features were warped into alien facades. Powerful muscles rippled as she strode across the frosted surface like the divine spirit she was named after. Soft raspberry optics drank in the scenery, her own frozen form flitting through the crystalline columns like she belonged there.
Long tail would occasionally sweep across her tall heels as she meandered amongst the frozen stanchions, her mood neither dark nor light. Rosen flanks rose and fell in perfect rhythm as she strolled, pale silver tresses shimmering across her body through the refracted light created by the surrounding ice. Tal audits captured the few sounds that invaded the area, mostly the trilling of chilly songbirds. The sound of pawsteps behind her also caught her attention, silken lyrics floating from her regal maw. "How long did you plan to follow me before saying anything?" She would inquire, voice like the falling of snow in a blizzard, her tone mockingly accusing as she slowly turned to face a stranger. A brow would raise quizzically as garnet gaze would fix upon the features of the strange wolf, orbs glittering with mirth as she awaited an answer.

image by Luisiana

His curiosity had pulled him to the northern part of the lands, where he had heard there was a lake of immense beauty. A lake that boasted natural ice formations in addition to the even more unusual light show that took place beneath the surface. This claim had led him all the way here, his black fur fluffed slightly against the icy wind that belied the more balmy spring weather of the southern territories. There, just ahead: the ice formations that had been spoken of so highly to him. He studied them from a short distance, green eyes narrowed against the chill. But what was that? A flash of movement among the pillars, a pale wolf gliding between them as though ice made flesh. Interest piqued, Loki set off after, barely taking a moment to admire the way the ice glowed under his dark paws despite the fact that he'd come here for that very thing. He could look at glowing ice any time; this was a much more fleeting opportunity, the chance for some mischief. He padded after the other wolf, stalking as though hunting a skittish deer. Following at a distance, slipping around the ice formations, paws as silent as he could make them, he slowly closed the distance, until... The wolf before him spoke, her words drifting back the short distance to him. Loki's ears and tails drooped a little in disappointed indignation. How had she heard him? He'd been as silent as he knew how to be. But the female was turning to face him, and Loki was quick to replace the disappointment with a casually sly expression, as though he'd been planning on this all along. "Your powers of observation fail to astound me. I was wondering when you would notice me," he claimed smoothly. "And now that you have, lovely, I can finally observe you more closely." His head and tail were set at an arrogantly jaunty angle as he sauntered closer to the pale, rose-eyed woman. A little clumsier than his usual, but she'd caught him off guard. He would need to remedy that. "Speech"

The snarky expression on his face annoyed her slightly, his comment on her ability to notice him behind her forcing her to bite down a growl. He spoke slyly, holding himself as though he were her superior as he padded forward. What was she, a piece of livestock? "It's quite rude not to introduce yourself when you meet someone, you know." Cold lyrics would reply, garnet orbs glinting with annoyance.
She had a definite height and weight advantage over this man, and she was going to make sure he realized that. As he came ever closer, she continued to tilt her chin down to look at his face, ruby optics fixed upon his own acidic orbs as he approached. Tall cherry tinted audits would flick to capture the sounds of songbirds as he approached, but she remained entirely focussed upon him. Long tail would remain hanging at her hocks, the need to assert her dominance not yet presenting itself. Regal cranium was held high above that of the ebony man, and she knew he would not enjoy that, since most men didn't. The thought of pissing off this arrogant ass was quite appealing.

image by Luisiana

Moving closer to the female had his expression going blank with surprise for a moment. She was damned tall, quite unexpectedly so, towering over him by half a foot or so. For a moment it was disconcertingly like being in the presence of Zafira the cougar - the pale woman so much larger than he, with the strength and grace of a natural-born hunter, so far out of his league that it felt sacrilegious to even be considering admiring her sleek form. The feeling passed with a sharp shake of his head. This was no monster cat; this was just an oversized wolf female, and he was even irritated more by his initial reaction to the wolf's size than he was by the very fact that she dwarfed him. He tilted his head to look up at her, allowing a faintly amused smile playing over his muzzle. "My, aren't you the tall one?" he murmured to her. His green eyes narrowed playfully at her. "Or is it just that I shrank and didn't realize?" His tail flicked behind him as he circled the female. "A bit hypocritical, to call me rude for that when you have not given me a name. But since you asked..." He turned to face her again, acid-green gaze fixed on hers. A mocking bow, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Loki Hr??vitnisson, fair lady, at your every service." The laughing quirk of his brow made it clear exactly what he was implying. "Speech"

The man commented on her height, soon coming to quip that it was possible he simply shrank. Was this another play on females being inferior? She wondered to herself, but allowed a soft grin to play at her features despite herself. He pointed out her hypocrisy, but still indulged her and introduced himself. When his name met her tall rosen audits a broad grin teased up the corners of her cherry lips and she chuckled. "It appears my mother was not the only one who named her children that way. My name's Skadi." The gladatrix with a pale silver pelt chuckled, realizing the irony of their situation. Seating herself calmly, long silken banner resting flush with one of her haunches. Scarred forelimbs would catch refracted light for a brief moment as her pose was shifted, displaying for the attentive eye the marks she had received for ignoring her mother's orders. She put to memory his offer, though doubted she would ever call him up on it. Sleeping around just wasn't her style, though it seemed it was for just about everyone else in the family. Who knew, maybe as she grew and realized what a drag life was in general, she would seek out this dark man and take him up on the offer. Maybe. "It's a pleasure to meet you Loki, it seems destiny decided to play a game with us." She chuckled, beating the tip of her rosy banner upon the frozen terra underfoot a few times.
What were the odds of such a meeting taking place? The man appeared not to have changed in demeanor, she was simply more at ease knowing they were both from similar families, where the mother's apparently had a sense of humor in naming them. Let me guess, his father's name is Laufey and his mother's name is Farbauti. She thought to herself, inwardly laughing at her own pessimism. A soft grin played at her features, ruby gaze glittering with amusement. Based on the legends, he would either react by running away, or be very pissed off. Either way it would end with a lot of laughter on her part, unless he knew nothing of the legends, or simply wasn't much of a believer in them. Most likely he didn't give a shit, since most didn't want to play those games and have a laugh about these things. If he mentioned children, the woman would most likely fall apart with laughter, simply because with her luvk one of them would be named Fenrir. Soft raspberry gaze sparkling with mirth, the pale silvery giantess would keep her attention on the man. Oh the irony of it all...

image by Luisiana

Loki's presentation of his name drew a grin from the female, and when she gave her name in return he understood why. Skadi, the name the old myths gave as the female who had put a venomous snake overtop his namesake to drip acid on his him. Charming. A wry smile rose unbidden. "It's an unfortunate tradition in my father's family," he groaned. "My two littermates were named Thor and Hati, so at least I had some company in my misery. No doubt Thor has fathered a gang of little brats by this time and carried on the naming tradition, the fool." Come to think of it he and Hati might have a few bastards out there somewhere, though he couldn't see Hati as being the fatherly type - truth be told, more the insane-rapist type - and Loki's past lovers had never confronted him about any such thing. Hm. He twitched an ear in mild displeasure when she spoke about fate. "My future is of my own making, nothing so nebulous as 'fate'. But it is, indeed, a great pleasure to meet one so lovely as yourself." He seated himself as well, the tip of his silky tail flicking like an indolent cat. His eyes glinted at her playfully. "But perhaps, to be safe, I should avoid snakes with you around." "Speech"

His unconscious reaction to grin only broadened her own, enjoying the moment as it took a positive turn. He explained the reasonings for his name was a tradition carried on by his father, and he had brothers named Hati and Thor, strangely enough. His snarky remark about his foolish brother brought a soft chuckle bubbling from her chest, a sound reminiscent of collected snow dropping from the branch. "And what about you, mischief, have you fathered an immense snake, half corpse, giant wolf, and mothered an eight legged horse?" She would chuckle, beating her tail upon the ground a few times, nearly beside herself with mirth.
His compliment would meet her tall rosy audits, and she would grin, silken lyrics falling from her cherry lips with a hint of sarcasm. "Thank you, you're not too shabby yourself." Frosty vocals would murmur, a short giggle following unceremoniously behind. She was warming up to this man, despite herself, he had a sense of humor, despite the obvious misgivings of their situation. As he mentioned snakes, she could not help bursting into a bout of laughter. As the throes of raucous joy subsided, she would shake her head slowly, beating the tip of her tail upon the icy ground lightly. "There is no doubt in my mind you will have no trouble involving snakes and me, I have never been too fond of them, after one attempted to strangle me in my sleep as a child." She chuckled, lifting a massive paw and waving it from side to side a few times before putting it back down. The memory was not a fond one, but an ironic one.

Broad cranium would tilt to the side a touch as she regarded the man before her, garnet orbs narrowing as she looked him over, a sly grin teasing at the corners of her cherry lips. "What about you, you got any contradictions to the legends in ya?" She asked, chuckling a bit. She was feeling quite lighthearted, since the situation itself was reason enough to laugh. Truly there was nothing more strange than two made enemies by names somewhat enjoying each others company, and if there was she had yet to find it. Were there any meetings that could possibly top this? Doubtful, at least not in her past, maybe in her future.

image by Luisiana

"To the best of my knowledge I've fathered nothing," he disclaimed, then added, straight-faced but with a laughing gleam in his eye, "I can't vouch for the second." Speaking with this female, this Skadi, Loki was more at ease and playful than he'd been in a while. Even as a pup he'd been bitter, always second-best, never good enough to impress his father, always doing something wrong. After a while it seemed the only way to get attention was through negative attention, pulling pranks, taunting, flaunting his arrogance like a shield. It wasn't often that his playful, mischievous side was able to surface in a positive manner, but this Skadi was almost actively encouraging it. Quite frankly, it had Loki a little unsettled. She didn't react to anything the way he'd expect, seemingly dismissing his advances and ignoring his arrogance but at the same time responding to his playfulness in kind. Her sassy demeanor, giving as good as she got - better, if Loki were one to admit when he'd been one-upped - and not taking any of his crap... Something told him to be wary of this female. Still, Loki couldn't stop himself from being himself. "Ah, sweet Skadi, I am nothing like my namesake, nothing at all. Why, a sweeter, more innocent pup there never was. Positively angelic, I'm told," he claimed, adopting a look of such innocence that it was absolutely devilish. "And I'm so very, very humble." Talk like this

His sarcasm brought a chuckle from her cherry lips, the way he admitted he could have possibly mothered an eight legged horse tickling her mind quite nicely. It had been some time since she'd had so much fun, even her siblings had been a touch sour at many an occasion. When he mentioned that he had been a child of pure innocence, and even now he was ever so humble, the dame fair burst into laughter. Throes of mirth shuddered through her rosy flanks as she laughed at the white faced lie that had escaped the dark male's lips. "If you're a humble man, then I'm Queen of the world." She quipped sarcastically, fixing Loki with a ruby gaze shimmering with mirth. She knew that was a lie, and was not afraid to call him out on it. Thick banner would beat upon the frozen terra once, twice, three times as she kept her eyes on the man, watching his face for reactions.

Slowly a sly grin would creep onto her face and play at her sharp features, watching him take in her response with glittering garnet pools. "So, are you gonna tell me the truth? Or should we continue onto some other topic?" She asked him with a chuckle, thoroughly enjoying this conversation. So far they had been having a veiled battle of wits, which was becoming quite fun and interesting. However, at this point she was curious to see how he reacted to confrontation, albeit a joking confrontation.

"This be Talking"

Loki grinned, clearly unrepentant, and bowed low. "Your most royal highness," he murmured facetiously. Straightening again, his green eyes met her pink ones, a cynical half-smile tugging at his mouth. "I have always found truth to be much less interesting than fiction, and rather inconvenient," he told her candidly. "Unless it gets you something you want which, in my experience, is a rare thing indeed." Another mercurial change of mood, his pessimistic expression melting into a cheerful smile as though it had never been. "Of course in this case, the truth rather flatters me, so I must admit I resemble my namesake more rather than less." "Speech"

His sarcasm brought a chuckle from the lips of the giantess, cherry optics rolling upwards in response. Surely if he was nothing like his namesake, that would be a lie. His response was accompanied by a grin, speaking like one would expect someone with that name to speak. "The truth isn't always the best thing to present, I agree." She replied, wintry lyrics smooth and without a hint of a lie. Her opinions on the matter were similar, but she wasn't as fluid a liar as the ebony coated man before her. His cheerful mood swing was a quick thing, quite an interesting change to watch. When he spoke again, the rosen she wolf chuckled again. "Modesty is not in your nature, is it?" She asked, though the question itself was more rhetorical than anything.



"This be Talking"