fossilised | Jotunheimr

Thor was silent, allowing Loki to speak as long as was needed without interruption. He had settled beside the place that they were to make camp for the evening, though Loki would likely be willing to fly him the file ten miles or so. He thought it best that they stay away from the palace tower.

A long sigh escaped him as he sat, arms reclining on his knee before he nodded shallowly at Loki.

“I had not thought they would have distrusted me so.” He was used to be embraced.

"Because you did not stop to think. Why should they trust you? Your father laid waste to their lands, left their children a legacy of death. They have never met you personally, they do not know that you have both the malice and the brains of a lap dog."

Such lessons could not be learned overnight, and they might never be learned since Thor had lived so long in arrogant ignorance, and he would return to that once he had left Loki's sight.

"You must stop looking to others so blindly and begin to think for yourself. A King has advisors, but in the end it must be his own decision on any matter, be it trade or war."

“I have agreed to your lessons but not to your insults,” Thor snapped. “Surely this isn’t the only way you know to be?” What he once found charming, he now did not. The context had changed and in a way, Thor himself had as well.

He still took what Loki said to heart, just the same. If he was to truly find himself worthy of helping these people, he needed to understand a foreign mindset. Thor was simply at odds with himself and with all he had been taught before. The lessons of Asgard translated poorly to those on Jotunheim.

They ate as Loki continued to point out his faults and Thor found it much easier to get threw them while gnawing on bone.

These were all very hard lessons, and he was as mentally exhausted as he had been physically so as they settled into their bedrolls. A storm from the north would set upon them not long after and Thor woke to blankets of fresh snow burying camp.

There was a boyish joy, so different from the night before, in digging himself out of it. And perhaps a snow ball or two lobbed Loki’s way when the Jotun burst through to the surface as well.

Loki's lessons came with insults, as did his friendship and even his affection. It was just part of who he was and he respected someone more if they could tease him back, for flyting was one of his favourite pasttimes, though few would challenge him to it since he took his majority.

He popped up out of the snow and immediately got another face full of the stuff, spluttering before allowing ice to form along his forearms with a wicked sort of grin.

"Ah, Odinson, that was not a wise move. Do you truly wish to challenge a Jotnar Fyri in the realm of ice and snow battles? He gestured and a snowball the size of Thor's head rose out of the ground behind him and slammed towards the back of his head."

As he laughed and formed another ball of snow, Thor found himself buried under a mound himself and struggled out through the top. His hair was damp, ice clinging to the fine spun gold that looked as though it had an aversion to combs. He threw his second ball just after and it pelted Loki in the chest.

It had been a long while since he had a snowball fight and while Loki immediately won, Thor proved himself tenacious and got a few licks in before Loki had him utterly exhausted and laying on his back in the remains of last night’s camp.

The Thunderer panted and while Loki probably was not raised with the idea that a person that looked like Thor could be attractive, he certainly looked it now with red cheeks and reclining in ruggedly disheveled repose.

Loki could find all manner of creature attractive, and he certainly had no aversion to Thor's form, but he wanted the Thunderer to be desperate with want for him. He wanted Thor on his knees in supplication, begging to be allowed to take Loki to his furs, and that would not be done by jumping him here in the snow.

He simply offered a bright smile in return, though before he could speak that smile turned to a gasp of pain, as he was struck in the side of the head with a projectile weapon. Not dead, but dazed, he lay on his side in the snow as what looked like four Aesir appeared over the snow ridge.

Volstagg, Hogun, Fandral, and Sif whooped in victory as they found their lost prince and friend, hurrying towards him. Hogun, sensible as always, remained back to check if the oddly small Giant was dead or not, tip of his long knife at a blue throat.

"Thor! We have looked for you for days, finally we have found you!"

It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye, flashed through Thor’s head, something his father told him once, tongue and cheek, tapping on the gold plate over his missing eye. He blinked like the world was moving in perpetual slow motion, a trick surely of the sorcerer himself, but Loki was not getting up and the illusions of his friends were leaving foot prints in the slow.

Thor fought his way up to his feet, anger causing the perpetually dark sky to darken further and crack with purple static. He didn’t notice, rushing to stave Hogun off by idiotically grabbing the blade with his hand.

Two weeks before and this wouldn’t have mattered. Thor was far more easily damaged now and the steel sliced straight through his palm with a gleeful abandon. Snow, bright red and blossoming, dotted the snow as he put himself between Loki and his startled friends.

“I have been banished here Where else would I be? How did Heimdall allow you through?”

Sif looked more appalled than the rest. “Thor, what are you doing—. You’re bleeding—“

“Go home. All of you. Immediately,” he roared. “You are going to start another war before I have a chance to keep my promises here.”

Hogun twisted his blade free as soon as Thor grabbed it, keeping the sharp edge away from his already injured friend. He did not threaten the Jotnar again, though he kept his eyes narrowed suspiciously as the blue-skinned devil got to his feet and stood behind Thor's shoulder with crimson eyes glittering.

"What is this treason, Odinson?" Loki hissed, making sure that his words could be heard by the other Aesir who had come. "You alone have been granted guestrites, their presence could spark the war that Helblindi wants."

Sif scowled at the Jotun, but Fandral stepped forward with a confused and slightly puppyish look on his face.

"My friend, we had to come for you. The All-Father has been too harsh and it was a grand adventure to find one of the secret ways here, of the sort we always have. We will bring you home where you belong, not out here among the monsters."

Perhaps Thor would hear the echo of who he had been only weeks hence in Fandral's words. A band of privileged Aesir, led by the prince, who thought nothing of consequences as long as they got their adventure and larks.

Thor’s hand was thrust out, blood leaving a mark every time he moved it. He turned his head only slightly, not glancing at Loki, but his posture certainly would relay aggression. Had he not just said he feared that very thing? Loki seemed as if to say that this was his fault. It was not. He’d never expected anyone to come for him, least of those four members of his friend group who ought to have known that coming here the last time had landed them all in trouble with the All-Father.

“Where do you wish to rescue me to, Fandral? Heimdall sees all. The All-Father would know immediately if I broke his exile. I am less prisoner in this Realm then they are to my father. They are less monstrous than Odin had been when he came to wipe them out and ensure the slow demise of their people. I am here for a reason, Fandral. Take the Warriors Three and the Lady Sif and leave before you are captured and killed for attacking and harming their fyri and prince.”

Fandral, however, pressed. “Fyri? You have been charmed, Thor. You have been seduced by magic. How can you say these things against your Realm? Against your own Father?”

Thor balled his hands into fists and blood ran up the grooves between his fingers. “I have come to learn many things while here and that includes knowing that my father sent me here to learn truths about a people he wronged so I will not make his same mistakes. But I will do more than that. I am going to save these people you call monsters. And I am going to save you too. Heimdall!”

"Listen to yourself, Thor."

That was Sif, she stepped forward as Thor ranted and placed her hand on his arm, half beseeching and half commanding. "There are not magic users among the Frost Giants, and you cannot possibly think that your father has wronged them. They are Frost Giants, and they have done something to--"

She was cut off by the scream of the Bifrost as it opened, Heimdall hearing the call of his prince and turning his gaze down to see the errant wanderers. He could not direct the flow so specifically to grab just them, so both Thor and Loki would find themselves gathered up in the flow as well.

When the world coalesced again, Loki immediately went into a battle crouch with ice forming along his forearms. He looked out of place among the gold and warmth of Asgard, even just in the Observatory, like a caged exotic bird. Heimdall's golden eyes turned to Thor, his words soft.

"I am sorry, my prince, but I think it best that you give witness to your father on these events. Should your banishment recommence after that time, I will return you to Jotunheim."

"And I?" Loki spat, though it barely hid the fear beneath for having found himself suddenly in a nest of vipers. "Am I to be returned to my home? You have no right to bring me here, Watcher."

Thor was one hundred percent sure that he was going to have to fight everyone at once. Heimdall turned golden eyes upon him, however, and Thor nodded in his direction. Now was not the time to fight, and for that, Thor was grateful. He was starting to feel as weak as he was and that sensation only caused him more pain in the end. He was given a strip of cloth from Heimdall’s own under tunic and he wrapped it thrice around his hand to stave off some of the bleeding.

“I would prefer you to stay on Asgard for the All-Father to question, Prince Loki,” Heimdall addressed the other with reverance all royalty ought to be given. “But perhaps your form would better match those of this Realm lest more trouble fall.”

“You have my promise of guestrights,” Thor chimed in. “I will see you offered all the same protections and favours as I have been offered as well in your home.” That might not make Loki feel much better. Thor was barely tolerated.

"I am not ashamed of what I am, and I will not dishonour my Kyn by wearing the skin of the Aesir. Though we may hope for peace one day, I do not think my dam would recover well from knowing I had hidden my heritage to blend in with the All-Father's get."

Loki did, however, finish his words by turning into the giant gryfhawk that he could become and perched himself on Thor's shoulder, though with the size of him, almost as big as the prince himself, it looked ludicrous and a little like the great bird would carry off the prince as prey.

Volstagg gaped aloud at the sight of such a transformation, while Sif and Fandral already had their weapons half up again already before Heimdall admonished them.

"Do not make your crimes worse. Go now to your chambers and await audience."

Immediately weighed down by the giant bird, Thor had to brace himself on the wall. “Can you not become more manageable?” Surely Loki could shrink! He couldn’t possibly carry a giant gryfhawk through the streets of Asgard, paraded in front of the people like that. They had to know he was exiled. They would find the raptor clinging to his shoulder almost impossibly interesting. Considering how it was about to snap his head off of his neck!

Heimdall had Hogun rush to bring the horses to spare Thor the journey back on foot in the meantime, though the Vanir did not appear to want to leave the strange spectical.

A shapeshifter on Jotunheim? It seems inpossible that monsters could be so tapped into Yggdrassil.

The gryfhawk somehow managed to make a sound that was almost a huff of frustration, before he shrunk again into a creature that Thor likely would not recognise as it was native to the shorebound regions of Jotunheim. It was about a foot long and covered in pure white soft fur, with ten stubby little legs and sharp teeth, sinuous and long like a snake crossed with a ferret.

He swarmed down Thor's arm to wrap around his waist like a live belt, much to the chagrin of Sif who found that her fingers itched for the knives at her belt, only Heimdall's presence keeping her in check.

"Thor-- Thor, you must get that thing off you, it has your mind bewitched. See how it coils around you like chains."

“Like a snake,” Thor said…in a way that was not going to make Sif feel any better. Not with the way he was so obviously carrying on by lightly petting a creature he knew to be a person…but he couldn’t help himself. He really just loved snakes. Who could resist giving them a hug? Even if they were covered in fluffy fur? “Sif, cease this. You know nothing. No one on Asgard does. I do not blame you for this, I was as blind as you until I saw the damage done and understood the ways the All-Father had used to gain control of all the Realms.”

Saying such things made Thor turn abruptly to Heimdall. Here was a person, finally, who could give him the answers he so needed.

“You… You knew my sister.”

Well that caused Sif to quiet down, her eyes shifting to look at Heimdall as well, both brows arched exquisitely over her brow. The Guardian of the Bifrost showed little emotion. “I did. And I assisted in sending her to Hel.”

“Hela is not your sister, Thor,” Fandral said before backing that down a little. “Is she?”

“Her taste in bloodshed and power took over your father’s mind,” Heimdall said stone-faced. “It briefly maddened him and he agreed to many things on her behalf. Including the damnation of Jotunheim.”

“Why did he not just return the Casket when he banished her?” Thor demanded.

“For fear that the Jotnar would rise up and he would have to smite them all. But ask this of the All-Father. His reasoning may well be his own.”

It was an odd sensation to be petted, most people knew enough to keep their hands to themselves when confronted with a shapeshifter in another form, only his youngest sibb, Bylestir, regularly petted the feathers or fur that he covered himself in. For Thor to do it felt strangely intimate, and a shiver went through his body.

He had not known whether to expect honest answers, but it seemed the watcher was to be commended for his grasp on the truth. He did not deny that Jotunheim had been decimated unfairly, nor that Odin had been bloodthirsty in doing so. Good. Vindication. Though it still did not excuse the All-Father's actions or his subsequent inaction while Jotunheim slowly decayed over a millennia.

"I can say no more," Heimdall intoned as Hogun returned with the mounts. "These are deep subjects and should be discussed with the King. Go now to him, I will be watching."

"Thor..." Fandral looked whey-faced at the idea that Hel's guardian was actually a banished Aesir royal, but he was stopped from saying anything else by Volstagg, who just put a hand on his arm and then bowed his head respectfully to Thor.

It was rare that Odin and the All-Mother took a private audience. There were no servants, no vassals and no advisors waiting for the group that rode through the city, ignoring the calls for Prince Thor and the cheers for his return home. Loki, from his position as a belt, would get a good view of the glittering, golden capital. This was the opposite of his home Realm, the day to his night, the prosperity to his decline. This would be his if he managed to get his way, if he could get to Thor through that idiot demeanor of his. The throne room was nothing short of marvelous, better than even the city itself, though the All-Father and All-Mother seemed so small as compared to Laufey and Farbauti at the head of their kingdom.

Frigga waited, impatiently it seemed, as five strode into the throne room, Thor first, Sif directly behind him to his left, and the other three bringing up the rear. It was how they always came, her son and his fast friends, especially when they were in trouble.

“Where is the foreign prince?” Odin asked, as if he did not know, and his queen took the step forward she’d been wanting to do since they arrived and spoke in a tongue like the ice itself, a language Thor had grown used to, to the snake around his middle. “Child of L:aufey, you are safe here.”

Asgard was both awe-inspiring and disgusting to Loki's eyes. The opulence, when he had seen people in the streets that obviously had little, was disgraceful. But there were colours here that he had never even imagined, such verdant greens, such brilliant golds, it was like being in Valhalla itself.

Oh, what he could do for his people with even a tenth of this wealth and power.

He flowed down to the ground when Queen Frigga spoke to him and assumed his natural form. It was strange to stand here, for the first time, in a room built for his proportions. He was as tall as Thor, if not so muscled, and so he was finally in a place where everything had been built with his height in mind. It was strange, very strange.

"My dam will know I am missing before long, he would not have allowed me to wander with the Odinson without eyes on me, if I am not returned within a short time, I fear war will be inevitable. It may be anyway. Your son knows precious little, and charged into Utgard without hesitation. That you, with such power and position, should raise this ignorant pup and allow him to be so unready at his majority, is a damning show on the blood of Odin's House."

Not the wisest, perhaps, to insult his hosts, but he was a son of Laufey and he would not cower before the man who had broken his homeland. He would stand tall, proud, and speak as actually befit a child of royalty.

“Your spirit is exciting, but in this case, you would do well to temper that the smallest bit,” Frigga warned Loki, almost feeling the ire from Odin as he narrowed one eye. Of course he could speak the Jotun tongue, or at least understand it. He required some magic to align his vocal cords directly, though the All-Mother’s magic was innate and without seeming limit.

She offered her hand to Loki, not for him to kiss, but to take. She wished to discuss many things with him, out of earshot of the men and Sif. Her gossamer gowns were soft, a gray-speckles flourish of silks somewhat akin to the snow of her own Realm. It cast a lovely blueish glow upon her skin.

”Walk with me? You will miss nothing of the reprimand. You will likely hear it on the balcony. My son can not hold his temper and enjoys very much to shout.”

Thor, still feeling protective, opened and shut his mouth at his mother butting in on his-- Err.. Guide. “Mother—”

“We will speak soon, Thor. I would rather speak with the lady Loki.” She had no problem with the binary gender of the Jotnar.

Loki did not trust this realm or any in it. Much as Thor had here, he had been raised with histories and tales of the brutality and untrustworthiness of the Aesir. But he had little choice, he was alone here in Odin All-Father's court, and if he wished to live to see any of his plans take form then he would need to play their game.

More than that, now that he was here, he could feel it. Hear it. The Casket called to him in whispered song, a siren's plea to come and find her, to feel her power as he had always been intended for. It took effort to focus on Frigga as he followed her out to the balcony, still within sight of Thor and the others.

"You speak our tongue fairly well, All-Mother, though with an accent I have not heard before. Tell me what you wish to speak with me about?"

“I am not a new student to your language, though I fear that I might augment my throat to allow me better able to speak it.” Sighs and whispers and the crackling of snow on branches was not easy to emulate. “I merely wish to warn you about my son, out of the range of my husband’s hearing. I have been watching you both.”

And this might be where Loki’s plans would have fallen apart if not for the smile of the All-Mother.

“He is difficult on his best days. Impossible on his worst. I hope you may guide him, as is your role? Towards being the All-Father we all need. For the sake of your Realm. For the sake of Vanaheim. For all of the Realms, my dear. I have dreamed about you many times. I have seen you as my child. And perhaps that will be possible again, by proxy.”

There was something about her that resonated with Loki, as if he knew on a soul-deep level that she could be trusted, something that reminded him of his sire. But he was no barn to fall blindly into partnership with a Vanir he had just met, especially not one married to Odin Kynkiller.

He hesitated before he spoke, choosing his words with care.

"I cannot deny that I would like to know Thor better, and I do not fear his difficult nature, but you speak of futures that would be fraught with difficulty. Even had the All-Father's daughter tricked him into the war and harming our people, the decision to allow our realm to suffer for a thousand years is his and has no defence. I may only be one Jotnar on your soil, but I am here where none of my forebears have stood for thousands of years, and I do it as the representative of my people. Return what has been stolen from us, and then talks of a future that might be peaceful for us both can begin."

A bold move, but how could he not? Thor was a prize, yes, but he was nothing without the return of the Casket.

“That is our intention,” Frigga said, back to All-Speak. She did not doubt her ability to communicate in the tongue of Jotunheim, but she wanted to be fully clear here. “Though you will of course understand that there are factions that would seek war. We must know your heart before we can gift you hat which will save your people so that it will indeed be used to save your people and not out of retaliation.”

She was pushing it with Loki, who was but a child a few centuries younger than her own son. She knew that harsher realities could breed both excess of maturity and resentment and she needed to know which came first.

“Thor’s heart caused him to rush to Utgard. He seeks not only war, but also peace. You protected him from many things. Including your brother. I did not hear the words you said, having only viewed the incident briefly, but by tone... well we should not feel the need to lie to one another, yes? Not when we both are children of Yggdrasil. I will be recommending that Thor return to Jotunheim with you to continue his lessons. And I would ask that you reflect on the ruler you need to be so that the Casket will bring peace to all Realms.”

Loki smiled, razor sharp, and raised his own voice to match hers in the All-Speak so that they could be heard clearly. His tone of voice was carefully light, not angry or bitter, but making a clear point.

"You must forgive me, All-Mother, I fear our customs are different. Where I come from, a child is taught not to steal, and to apologise for the wrongs they have done, so that forgiveness may come and the incident forgotten. Not to pretend that something stolen can be gifted back with conditions, as though the one who rightfully owns it does not have claim to it, and not offer a word of apology."

He held her gaze with his own, blood red eyes firm and proud, though not twisted with the bitter anger that other versions of himself had possessed. Here he was just refusing to bend to what he knew was wrong.

"I tell you this now, not because I desire revenge, but because I desire peace. There will never be peace if Asgard does not own what it has done. Jotunheim has suffered wrongly, been harmed wrongly, and been maligned to the other realms wrongly for far too long. We deserve justice. Laufey-King may be ruler of a broken realm, but he is still a King, and he will not grovel for scraps. If there is ever to be a chance of peace, Odin All-Father must acknowledge before all the realms his crimes, beg forgiveness, and return what has been stolen. No conditions, no skirting around such things. There are those who will want revenge, yes, but many of us just long for peace and a return to prosperity in our realm. We can have that, and a friendship between our peoples, but it must be done right."

“I will say this kindly because you are young and because you have lived only in a world wanting of hope. You have yet to learn the art of politics and that is what this is. I say this not to be unkind but to help you understand that nothing is fair. It is impossible for there to be genuine balance.”

She did not care for Loki’s tone and she did not feel much fondness for him other than her dreams portraying those feelings and for her desire to connect to others who could tap into the blood of the world tree.

“The price your people paid will never be apologised for. Your dam understands this. He also understands that the Casket is a price that will be paid not for you and not for your people, but for the fealty Jotunheim will show to Asgard as all Realms do. Do not be cross at this. Or school your face not to show it.”

She was very stern, but also kind in her way.

“Retribution will come not through Odin but by his son.”

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