Tallulah wrinkled her nose. "I don't want to believe there was swamp water in my lagoon," she grumbled in disgust. Her lagoon was such a beautiful place, wonderfully maintained with clean beaches and water as clear as glass. Swamp water had no place there.
"It would make sense to find water from a body that corresponds to a water body in our worlds since that's the kind of magic that brought us here. What do you guys think? And Max. Would you know how we could get back since you only visit this place?"
Something about this situation felt off to Loki, but he couldn't put his finger on what. Instead, he pushed the thought away and focused on all of the other questions everyone else had asked. If Max hadn't already been bombarded with them, he might have asked a question or two, too.
"That's a lot of questions," Max said, the same cheerful yet calm expression on her face. She glanced at the four of them, her gaze lingering on each for a few moments before moving onto the next. It was the kind of look that made it seem like someone was staring into your soul - sometimes literally.
"It doesn't rip any holes into the multiverse," Max said, giving Alex a reassuring smile. "I know that for certain. Traveling between space and time can be complicated, but it doesn't go against the natural order."
Her gaze traveled over to Kiirion.
"There's isn't a way to reverse it," she said. "No one can coax the swamp to go back to a place - it has to go there of its own free will."
"So we're stuck here?" Loki asked. Getting stuck in a swamp wasn't how he had planned to spend his eternity, but he supposed it could have been worse - at least he could still use his magic here and be himself.
Max shook her head.
"I can send you back to where you came from," she said. "I'm well-versed in traveling. All you have to do is ask, I can send you back where you came from."
"I don't have much to do back home. I think it's time for a fresh start." Alex looked at Loki. He seemed sad. He looked away before Loki could look back.
Kiirion was surprised at how easy that was. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he'd been expecting a riddle, a test, or some kind of battle before they would just be allowed to go home. He hummed quietly to himself in mild surprise.
He was curious, of course, how Max had become so versed in such powerful teleporting spells, but he didn't think that would be something she'd share.
That, and he did want to go home. This was interesting, to say the least, but he found comfort in the familiarity his home had to offer. And he was a little old for things like this... not the socializing, but traveling between worlds. He'd been trying to settle down.
"I do have things to return to," he said, gaze flicking to Loki. He hoped Loki would be alright, the poor boy. Sure, he was a half-god, but he was still a boy.
Tallulah's fins swayed in the water as she considered the offer. She had a lot of questions yet to be answered, but Kate was waiting back home. She'd probably already gotten back from that little adventure she'd had planned for the afternoon.
"I'm sorry," she said, "but I can't let you stay here. This place is like a refugee for different animals and beings across the multiverse - and most of them aren't comfortable with humans. If you want, I could send you to a different reality instead of your own. I just can't let you stay here."
She turned to Loki, giving him a questioning look - he was the only one who hadn't given a response yet.
Loki nodded.
"I'd like to go back to my home," he said. He didn't really have a home, but he knew that he had things he had to finish back on the world he had come from. When Max gave a nod - as she had with Kiirion and Tallulah - he snapped his fingers and changed his appearance again.
It wouldn't do him any good to look like Loki when he popped back; he had to look like Colt again.
Max explained to Alex about the reality he would end up in, and everything he needed to do to fit in. Loki was barely paying attention. He was watching movement on the very edge of where they were - it looked like some of the swamp's inhabitants were starting to filter back into that section of the swamp. None of them were close enough for Loki to actually make them out; all he saw was movement out of the very corner of his eye.
And then Max sent them to the realities they belonged in, one by one.
Soon, only Loki was left. Max hadn't done much to send the others away; she had just uttered the words to a spell that sounded too simple for something like this. She started to say the words to send Loki away, too, but seemed to notice the look that suddenly came over his face.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"Did someone beside you used to live here?" he asked. He gestured back in the direction of the cabin. "We found a cabin earlier - it was covered in dust, so it must not have been used for awhile."
"Oh," she said. She shook her head. "No, it's just me. It's been awhile since I visited the swamp, so it must have become a little dusty."
She gave him a warm smile.
"I was planning on going to the cabin after this, actually," she said.
Loki stared at her.
...If she was the one who made the cabin, then...
His eyes widened as the question he should have asked from the start dawned on him. Just who was Max? But before he could get the question out, Max had spoken the spell - almost as if she knew exactly what he had been thinking.
And then he found himself back by the stream he had been at before, as if he had never left it.
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