Tony

‘Ello, ev’ryone. In spite of the protests I received from some of you last week, I decided to go ahead and skip Steve and move on to Loki and Tony. I’m sure you won’t mind… If you’re new, I suggest you check out past posts here.

Tony opened his eyes slowly, blinking away sand. If only the dream was true. If only he was back at home, with Pepper and a steak. Or even a Big Mac.

Instead, he was here with Loki and sand. Natasha was a big plus, but…

He sat up. Where was Natasha? He scrambled to his feet, accidentally kicking Loki’s arm as he stood. Loki flew up, ready to tackle Tony, who threw his arms up and scrambled backwards. Loki took a deep breath. “Has no one ever told you not to suddenly wake a sleeping Asgardian?”

Tony ran a hand through his sand-filled hair. “I thought that was just Thor. I now know better. It was completely an accident. Have you seen Natasha?”

Loki rubbed his forehead. “I have not. She may have simply gone for a walk.”

Tony shook his head. “Not after everything that happened.” Although she might be just trying to make them nervous. But she would be crazy if she was doing that. “We should check in the forest, make sure she’s not laying around somewhere, unconscious.”

Loki looked at him skeptically. “Last time we went in the forest, you came out unconscious.”

Tony nodded. “Exactly. Let’s go.”

Tony was pretty sure Loki didn’t follow his reasoning, but he wasn’t sure he understood it himself, so he didn’t bother to explain. They had only gone a little ways when they found a small spot of blood on the forest floor. Loki bent down, studying the leaves. “It seems she was fighting someone.”

Something tapped Tony’s shoulder, and he spun around, distracted. He didn’t see anything, but there was a suspicious looking vine hanging down. He reached out slowly, slowly, and grabbed it. Suddenly it yanked him up off his feet. “Help!” he yelped, grabbing onto a nearby branch for dear life.

Loki yanked on his feet, breaking the vine, and they tumbled into a heap on the forest floor. They scrambled to their feet and dashed madly for the beach.

“What. Was. That?” Tony panted, gazing back at the forest. He froze. One of the trees was moving, coming towards them, like a human slogging through thick, waist-high mud. Another tree started moving, then another.

Loki grabbed Tony’s arm. “I think we should run,” he said calmly.

“I wish I had an axe,” Tony groaned. He stumbled back through the sand and felt his heel hit something hard as it sank into the wet sand. “Hey! Maybe there’s something here. Maybe it’s an axe, or a blowtorch, or something…” He fell to his knees and started digging frantically through the sand.

“The current would prevent anything useful from landing here. We need to–” Loki stopped. Tony slowly pulled his hand away from the object as a wave fully uncovered it. Loki sucked in a breath. “Is that…”

Tony’s voice was quiet. “Cap’s shield.”

Thanks to erinkenobi2893 and sarahtps for both contributing ideas to the post unintentionally. 😉 Like to get a bag of trail mix, comment for shawarma.