"Wow, this was only written like three months ago and already I feel like cringing while reading it. Not that dislike any of these scenes in particular, but the writing is a bit sloppy. I'll polish it up whenever I finally get around to posting this story properly." -Casey
They
were nearly a mile from the palace grounds now, but there was ice covering the
streets even here. Sif wobbled with the effort of running over it, but Loki
slid as if there wasn’t anything more natural in the world. He spun around to
face Sif, who banged into a wall with the sudden stop.
“The
gates are completely incased in ice!” the prince cried. “How are we supposed to
enter unseen?”
Sif
steadied herself did her best to cover up her frustration as she replied,
“You’re the one that’s always sneaking out of the palace! Think of something!”
Loki
turned back to the great mountain of ice looming before them and watched as the
sun glimmered off it like crystal. He drew his hand in front of his face to
shield his eyes from the sun and then his palm began to glow with a faint
light. He then knelt down and put his hand to the slippery streets. The ice
beneath him dissipated into nothing more than a cool mist.
“Follow
me!” he commanded as he darted across the streets again with Sif stumbling
after him.
Loki
brought them to a waterway at the edge of the palace into which the falls on
either side of the front gate emptied. He placed his hands on the frozen and it
too dissolved into mist. Sif coughed upon breathing in the cold air and decided
to step back and stand watch for any giants.
“So,
you feel like sharing your devious plan?” she asked. “You’re not planning on
melting your way all the way to the front gate, are you?”
“This
watercourse leads right up to an exhaust vent overlooking the reliquary,” Loki
informed her. “The Jotuns most likely attacked the palace to retrieve the
Casket of Eternal Winters from there.”
“Then
that should be the last place we try to enter!” Sif protested.
“No,
it’s perfect,” Loki assured her. “It will be the first place they showed up and
thus the last place to find them now.”
Another
scream echoed in the distance and Sif held her sword at the ready. “Just be
quick about it, your highness,” she sighed. “My sword has never been tested
against a Jotun.”
***
Loki
was hardly listening to the stable girl anymore. He was focused entirely on
melting a long narrow tunnel through the ice and up to the vent. He was halfway
through now. Another moment and they’d be able to climb inside.
A
loud growl sounded from above them. A frost giant was running down the side of
the palace of ice, leaving large cracks in the ice like footprints in the snow.
Loki lost his concentration as the giant bared down on them, a huge dagger of
ice in its hands. Sif spun around with her sword and caught the beast in the
calf, tripping him. The giant fell to one knee, but quickly swiped the girl
aside with a single blow.
Loki
watched in horror as she was flung through the air and then smashed through an
ice covered wall.
“Sif!”
he called, but he didn’t have time to wait for an answer. The frost giant
grabbed a hold of him and hoisted him up like a rag doll.
“Hello,
Prince Loki,” the monster breathed, his red eyes narrowing as a twisted smile
came over his face.
Loki
held his hand to the sky and in a flash of green light a small dagger appeared
in it. He thrust the blade into the giant’s wrist, causing it to drop him down
the hole he’d been making.
Loki
had to crouch down to fit, but he ran as fast as he could down the tunnel of
ice. The giant could be seen through the frost above him like a rippling
shadow. The monster’s fist came crashing through the thick ceiling of ice, just
behind Loki. He ran on as the beast crashed through it yet again and again,
each time just a bit closer. Then the creature’s fist smashed through the
tunnel before him, blocking his path.
Loki
was seized by his arm, a cold chill tingling up his arm. He was drawn halfway
out of the tunnel, staring up into the giant’s red eyes, when Sif leap forward
and stabbed her sword through the monster’s neck.
“Go,
Loki!” she called as the boy dropped back down under the ice. He hurried down
the tunnel again, having to melt handholds in the walls as the passageway
slopped up towards the palace.
Loki
finally made it through the vent into the grand dome that housed the reliquary.
It was even colder in here than it had been outside, but he hardly took notice
of it as he dropped down onto the pathway that lead to the treasure chamber.
As he
had suspected, there were signs of a struggle. There were three dead guards
lying beside fallen relics and broken stone. The Casket was gone as well, for
it no longer stood atop its pedestal. Loki quickly ascended the stairs that
lead up into the palace.
His
home was hardly recognizable. There were pillars of frost perturbing from the floor
to the ceiling and shimmering walls where there shouldn’t have been any. Loki
cloaked himself in shadows, making it nearly impossible for anyone to lay their
eyes upon him, and he proceeded up towards the throne room. As he stalked the
halls, he ran across many giants that were roaming the halls. They tore through
walls and smashed apart furniture almost as if they were looking for something.
Loki
soon found himself in the grand hall with his father’s throne just beyond two
great golden doors that had been smashed inwards.
The
wall of ice in the doorway was so think that Loki couldn’t see through to the
other side. He waved his hand over it and it began to evaporate into a thick
cloud of mist. A figure appeared through the ice and haze, causing Loki to halt
abruptly in his advancement. The figure stood impossibly tall, pacing the
throne room slowly with loud echoing footsteps. Loki stepped back into the fog,
obscuring his view of the creature and hopefully its view of him.
“This
does not concern you, Odinson,” echoed the giant’s deep gravelly voice. “I come
to reclaim what is mine.”
“You
dare to attack my father?!” cut in the roaring voice of a young boy. “Release
him or I shall kill you where you stand!”
“Thor…”
Loki whispered under his breath. He scanned the sketchy view of the throne room
through the ice and could just make out the small figure of his brother not ten
feet from the frost giant.
Loki
pressed his hand against the wall of ice again and then withdraws it timidly.
He bit his bottom lip and ran his hands anxiously through his hair.
“And
so it has come to this,” the giant grumbled. “Odinson for Laufyson.”
With
a loud hissing sound a beam of light shot from the giant’s hands towards Thor.
He must have had mijonir with him, for he rolled aside and then flung something
at the giant, knocking him off balance. Loki pressed his forehead against the
glass, trying desperately to see what was happening through the frost.
Another
beam shot from the Jotun’s hands and then a bolt of lightning lit up the room.
The small boy charged forward, but was then knocked aside by a simple swat of
the frost giant’s hand. Loki felt the wall between them buckle as his brother
was slammed against the other side of it. The giant came to stand over the boy
and to form a long knife of ice in his hand.
Loki
dug his hands into the wall, cracking it at his finger tips, and then he
punched through it, sending shattering piece of ice towards the frost giant
with his magic. The mighty Jotun was knocked to the ground and the Casket fell
from his hands.
Loki
hardly took time to regard the giant and instead went right to his brother’s
side. Thor was lying on the ground, mijonir at his side, frost matted on his
eyebrows and in his hair.
“Thor!”
Loki cried, kneeling down to take his brother in his arms and shake him.
“Brother, wake up!”
He
was still breathing, but Loki could feel the slightest trickle of blood on the
back of the boy’s head.
“Loki…”
hissed a voice from the rubble. The giant climbed up out of the ice and took up
the Casket again, smiling with satisfaction. “So it is true that you have grown
strong in your time on Asgard. I suppose it is fortunate that you did not
perish in the ruins of Jutonhiem.”
Loki’s
gaze went beyond the giant to the all-father, standing before his throne,
scepter in hand, but frozen solid. “Father!” Loki called, getting to his feet
and staring up at the Juton between them apprehensively. “This is an act of
war!” Loki announced, his words brave, but his eyes wet with tears. “All Jutons
shall suffer for this unprovoked attack!”
“It
is war,” the giant agreed. “And I’m afraid that you shall be the first of the
Jutons to suffer, Prince Loki. The truth can be a painful thing.”
The
giant began to step forward, letting the Casket hang loosely in one hand.
“Stay
back!” Loki commanded, standing his ground as he conjured a short dagger in his
hand. The giant didn’t attack though, he simply lashed out and seized Loki by
his entire forearm, squeezing until he dropped his dagger with a cry of pain.
“I am
Laufey,” the giant drawled. “King of Jutonhiem and conqueror of many realms.”
Loki
stared up at the monster in disgust before the giant shoved Loki’s own hand
into his face. To the boy’s astonishment, his hand had become the same strange
shade of blue as Laufey’s. Not only that, but there were strange markings on
the back of his hand, much like the ones running across the King’s face.
“Loki?”
moaned Thor from beside him. Loki glanced back at his brother, who was staring,
not at his hand, but directly into his face as if he hardly recognized him.
Loki put his other hand to his face and he could now feel the same marks across
it and he realized that his other hand was blue as well.
“And you, Loki,”
Laufey continued at last. “You are my son, stolen from me nearly four hundred
years ago; Loki Laufeyson, Prince of Jutonhiem.”
Characters (C) Marvel Studios/Marvel Comics
Story (C) SuperheroGeek13
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