PROLOGUE:
"At the beginning of my reign as King of Asgard we faced the threat of universal conquest by an overly ambitious, arrogantly proud and warlike race. They fully intended to plunder the wealth of, and enslave, every one of the nine realms before spreading out to all the other worlds in the cosmos. I, and the warriors of Asgard, defeated them in a long and bloody battle. Afterwards I imprisoned them and sealed them away until their time of punishment should be over."
COMETH THE HOUR,
COMETH THE GOD,
COMETH RAGNAROK
The guards snapped to attention when they heard the tap of the spiked end of Gungnir as the Allfather walked past them in the prison corridor inspecting each cell as he went. Odin stopped to enter a cell at the end of the hallway, which held only one occupant who was sitting dejectedly in the center of it. The prisoner, dressed in tattered and ragged clothing didn't look up.
"How are we feeling today?" The Allfather coldly smiled, as a bright gold and green light traveled over his body revealing that it was Loki hiding behind an illusion. The younger man's shoulder length black hair was draped over and curled about the wolf haired collar of his gray winter over coat as he stood over the form of what was once the mighty King of Asgard and Loki's adopted father, Odin.
Odin's only reply to his tormentor was to slowly look up at his mad son with an eye nearly devoid of any emotion. The old man knew why his son was here, to siphon more of his life force from him and to torment him with news of Thor and his human consort.
"Why do you not kill me?" Odin groaned lowering his head into his manacled hands. "What more could you take from me?"
"I will take everything that is mine by the lawful right of blood succession as the son of the Queens of TWO realms!"
Odin's head snapped up to gaze in surprise at Loki who sneered back at him.
"Yes, I now know who my birth mother was; Freya, Queen of Alfheim" Loki answered the unspoken question. "It took me quite some time, but, I did eventually find it in the Chronicles of the Kings. Tell me, did your first wife, the lady Bertha, ever forgive you for pandering her twin children, Freyr and Freya, off like cheap trinkets?"
"What I did, I did to bring peace to the realm and to end needless blood shed…"
"What you did was send my mother off, like one of your prized brood bitches, to be covered by a MONSTER!" Loki slammed Gungnir's point into the cell floor with a snarl of rage, he screamed back indignantly as he made his skin turn blue and his eyes red while he knelt down in front of his captive, and seizing Odin by the throat he forced him to look into his Jotun face and then roared. "Are you satisfied with the outcome of your political machinations old man? Have I lived up to your expectations?" With a low growl Loki moved his glaring, angry face closer to his stepfather's as he continued, "Especially since I am the monster YOU created?"
A greenish light glowed from Loki's right hand as he held onto his adopted father's neck. A light that traveled up the younger man's arm till it covered his whole body and Odin seemed to shrivel even more until Loki released him, throwing him to the floor.
"I haven't killed you outright because you're responsible for the deaths of both my mothers and you fully deserve to rot in this dungeon before you rot in hell."
Slowly Loki's skin changed back to pink and his eyes to hazel as he straightened to his full heighth, Gungnir held firmly in his right hand. "You needn't worry about Asgard, or your precious Thor for that matter, as he is more useful to me as a live guardian and protector of all the realms. After all, he did save my life on Svartalfheim. So with your idiotic son at MY side, I will usher in a new Golden Age that will last for generations of MY descendants as they sit the throne of Asgard FOREVER."
Loki turned to leave, and then stopped to glance back at Odin with a sarcastic smile. "All things considered, if you hadn't brought me back as a hostage so long ago, to raise me as your son, that moron you fathered would've destroyed everything you created in a war with Jotunheim, or, any one of the other nine realms" a bright greenish gold light enveloped Loki's body and once again he was transformed into the Allfather. "By saving my life you saved Asgard, and, preserved the throne for me and for that I thank you."
Loki/Odin walked down a hallway through the palace living quarters as guards first bowed their heads then snapped to attention as the Allfather passed them until he came to the late Queen Frigga's rooms.
"I do not wish to be disturbed" Loki/Odin commanded as he unlocked the doors and strode into the room as the guards closed the doors behind him. As he locked the doors, Loki cast a spell of concealment over himself as he shifted back to his own form. Looking about Frigga's antechamber sadness flowed up from his heart as tears began to well up in his eyes. He had ordered his mother's rooms sealed and forbade anyone but himself to enter it. Loki walked around the circular pond that still bubbled calmly and quietly as he entered her bedroom. All of her personal items: perfume, combs, make-up, and jewelry remained where Frigga had left them on the day she had been murdered by the Kursed.
Tears slowly trickled down his cheeks as he approached Frigga's bed as memories of the times when, as a young child, he would run to this room during severe night storms and she would comfort him, or how she would bring him to her bed to care for him while he was ill. Never would he forget the time when he, and the young Lady Amora, had been taken hostage by the Norn Queen Karnilla or how savagely she and Frigga fought over him, for him. By sword and dagger he learned just how much his adopted mother loved him that not only was she willing to die for him, but to kill for him as well. With each tear that escaped from his eyes another memory of the only mother he'd ever known would rise up till he could no longer stand under sorrow's crushing weight. His right hand slid down Gungnir as his legs collapsed under him while he wept uncontrollably.
Gasping from the draining emotional release, Loki raised his head and hands as if in supplication as he conjured an image of his adopted mother to appear before him looking as she did from the last time he saw her alive. His eyes were red from crying and tears had made tracks down his face as he struggled to force words from his throat.
"I…I avenged you. I destroyed the monster that killed you, and…the monster that allowed you to die, rots in the dungeons…" he lost the ability to speak as his grief overcame him. "I'm sorry, so sorry…I could have saved you…" he pleaded with the image, "I would have saved you if I had been there…because you were right…you are my mother."
Loki reached up to embrace the image of Frigga, but when his hands touched it, it faded from his sight, leaving him alone with his grief. When he managed to bring himself under control, Loki grasped Gungnir and shakily got to his feet. Looking about Frigga's bedroom he wiped the tears from his face with his left hand and then slowly walked back out to the antechamber, to the pond where he stopped to wash his face. The sun was beginning to rise and he must go to the throne room, after all he was the KING of Asgard and there were judgments to make and a kingdom to rule. Which he would rule in HER honor as it was his mother that put him on the throne. It was Frigga who gave him Gungnir, who told him that it was his, by right of blood succession, and that Asgard was his.
"I will make you proud of me mother, for I will be a greater King than Odin ever was or Thor ever could be." He composed himself with a deep breath, shifted back to Odin's form and exited Frigga's quarters.
The stars shone brightly in the Asgardian night sky, each one watched over by Heimdall as he stood guard at the portal of the Bifrost. This watch would be a quiet one as the universe seemed to be at peace and even the war-like blue skinned Kree appeared to be in between skirmishes with their hereditary enemies, the Skrull. Heimdall watched as a Kree Dreadnought used asteroids for target practice to train raw recruits in the art of warfare. Smaller, one manned craft poured out of the Dreadnought to twist, whirl and spin through the asteroid belt destroying smaller space debris as they flew through it. The guardian of the Bifrost watched as the smaller ships began to circle and surround like a swarm of angry hornets, an asteroid roughly the size of Midgard's moon, before open firing upon it with torpedoes and blasters. Pieces of the huge rock flew in every direction as the Kree recruits whittled it down in size while others blasted its debris into dust. This is when Heimdall noticed a large crevice was beginning to form on the asteroid's surface, one that lengthened as it widened, till the entire rock split apart revealing a huge, massive, horned creature whose long tail whipped about wildly and it had cruel looking talons for hands and feet as it emerged from the asteroid's heart.
Alarmed, the gatekeeper sent word of this monster's appearance back to the palace, back to the Allfather, as he watched it effortlessly destroy, not just the single manned ships, but the Kree Dreadnaught as well. The guard raced away as fast as his feet could carry him to the palace gates where breathlessly, he relayed to the guards there of the creature's existence and one entry way guard quickly turned to sprint to the throne room.
The guard found Loki/Odin upon his throne listening to the council of the elderly Vizier as to the matter of Norn raiders attacking several Asgardian villages and farms in the western boarders and how to broach the subject with the proud and strong willed Queen of Nornheim, Karnilla.
"My king" the guard shouted hoarsely, "Heimdall has seen a creature of great strength and savagery…"
"And why would the gatekeeper deem this worthy of my attention?" An annoyed Loki/Odin cut the guard off sharply.
"He says it heads for Asgard my King!" The guard wheezed.
"Send for Thor" Loki/Odin commanded calmly "and have my son Tyr ready a company of Einherjar to meet this beast and destroy it."
"Yes my liege" the guard bowed before his King then quickly exited to carry out his Liege's order.
"Send for my son Balder, my old friend" Loki/Odin ordered the Vizier. "I will send him to speak with Karnilla about these raiders as he is the only Asgardian who won't get his throat slit the moment he sets foot on Nornheim."
"Yes my King" the Vizier bowed to leave but Loki/Odin stopped him.
"Before you leave, I would crave a boon from you and your daughter, the Lady Amora."
"A favor from me…and my daughter my Liege?" The Vizier's bushy eyebrows rose heavenwards as he looked at his Lord with some confusion.
"Yes old friend, I seek your permission for your daughter's hand in marriage, if she will take this old man for a husband" Loki/Odin continued. "I find myself in the precarious position of being without a Queen and an heir to my throne since Thor has abdicated his right to it, and none of my older sons has the right of succession anymore since their mother divorced me. I need a Queen with courage and cunning who can give me an heir, and, I know of no one else who has had the benefit of your great wisdom."
"I shall send for her at once my Lord" the Vizier bowed again.
"Good, the two of you shall meet me in the hall of records in the library where we can speak privately of these things" Loki/Odin smiled as he dismissed his councilor with a thought of what Amora's face would be like upon hearing of his request.
His mind was all a whirl with the alien strangeness of this massive place that Jane called "a Mall". It seemed to have no end of market places that sold women's clothing, children's clothes, men's clothing, shoes, cooking utensils, jewelry, and things he had no idea what possible use mortals had for them. Dressed in a light golden brown corduroy jacket, a blue t-shirt and jeans, Thor walked alongside Jane, (also in jeans with a denim jacket, a white t-shirt and grey tennies) carrying several bags filled with various clothing items she had purchased for him. As she had explained he needed what she called "street clothes" in order to avoid causing a riot by something Darcy called "fan girls" whenever he went anywhere with Jane now that she was taking time off from speaking engagements to visit with her mother again. The only instance that proved to be an incredible embarrassment was when Jane tried to get him to decide whether he was a "boxer" or "briefs" type of guy.
"Don't you think I have enough street clothes now?" He said with more than a little weariness in his voice, "We've been at this market place nearly the whole day. Is there no place to rest…" his stomach growled at him so that he added "…and eat?"
Jane stopped in her tracks and taking out her cell phone from her tan vinyl purse, she glanced at the time on its screen "Well I guess we could call it a day as you should have enough clothes for a week. So let's head for my mom's car and go home for dinner."
He smiled with relief at her as the two of them started for the exit doors as his stomach rumbled again. When they walked out of the mall doors they had to dodge cars, and a bus, to get to where Jane parked her mother's newly repaired and repainted red station wagon. Squeezing the car's alarm button to turn it off, Jane opened the driver's side door and flipped the electronic locks open so the Asgardian Prince could place his bags in the back seat. He had to struggle to get the shopping bags into the car, but when Thor did get them inside, he heard people gasping and exclaiming with disbelief. He turned to see what was causing the commotion and saw people pointing up at the sky and some were using their mobile phones to take photos or videos of dark swirling clouds that were forming above them.
"Thor is that…" Jane barely got the words out of her mouth when the Thunder god became enveloped in bright multicolored light and he, as well as nearly the right side of the car parked next to them and practically the entire left side of her mother's car, just disappeared.
Jane reached into her purse and took her cell phone out to speed dial her mother, who was going to have to call her auto insurance company…again.
"Holy mother of God!" a red haired man with a thick Irish accent, dressed in an old green jumper and blue jeans and carrying a sack from a men's store in his right hand, cried out as he spotted what was left of his vehicle. "What happened to me car?"
Both Thor and Heimdall had to dodge auto wreckage when the son of Odin landed on the Bifrost platform, "Why have I been taken from Midgard?"
"The Allfather has summoned you to deal with a creature that destroyed a Kree dreadnaught and now approaches Asgard" Heimdall replied. "He awaits you in the throne room."
"What kind of creature?" Thor inquired of the gatekeeper.
"Unknown" Heimdall replied, "But its savagery is horrifying, and, it is without pity."
A thrall from the palace stables stood outside the Bifrost with a chestnut gelding for the Thunder god, to hasten his way to the Allfather. As Thor strode to his mount, he realized he'd have to change clothes and when his foot reached the left stirrup he remembered that Mjolnir was still on Midgard, in Jane's bedroom, at her mother's house. With a sigh Thor mounted his steed and turned it to gallop towards the palace while holding his right hand out to summon Mjolnir.
Nanna was in near hysterics after the servant of the Vizier informed Balder that Odin had summoned his third oldest son from his first wife, the Lady Bertha, to the throne room as he was going to be sent to Nornheim to speak with Queen Karnilla. Try as he might, the blond wavy haired man could not settle his wife down no matter how many times he protested that he did love her truly.
"So you claim, but to that witch you run whenever she calls" Nanna screamed with her Vanir heart breaking, "I hear you on those nights, when you speak her name in your sleep, and the things you say to her."
Balder's eyes cast themselves downward to the floor as his beloved wife was right. Karnilla often came to him in his night dreams and he felt helpless to resist her, yet he had, so far, because his love for Nanna was strong despite his wife's gnawing doubts.
"I must answer the call of the Allfather my love" he looked her in the eyes and sighed resignedly "I cannot disobey the order of my father, the King, but, I will return before the sun sets in the sky."
He went to embrace his weeping wife but she turned her back on him and wordlessly walked into their bedroom with her head in her hands. Slowly Balder turned and walked out of his chambers as there was nothing left to say, nothing that would ease Nanna's pain or give reassurance of his faithfulness.
When he was at S.H.I.E.L.D., before the incident with Loki and the Chitari and before the whole Hydra mess, Dr. Erik Selvig had been given computer codes to gain access to the Hubble telescope and he was sitting at the outdoor roof top patio table with his lap top scrolling through the latest images of a large nebula that intertwined through several star systems. NASA had yet to name the nebula but Selvig knew he was looking at a branch of Yggdrasil, the tree of the worlds. Darcy popped her head out of the patio door and asked if he wanted any tea? She was making tea, or rather Ian her intern, was making tea, and would he like some of those digestive cookie things? She heard a grunt from him which she took for a yes and popped back into the kitchen to boss her intern around.
No sooner had Darcy shut the door when Mew mah went flying through the wall of Jane's bedroom, made a ninety degree turn to the left, before it could hit her while she shrieked in fear, to exit through the patio window, narrowly missing Selvig while showering him with broken glass, as the Uru hammer made another ninety degree turn, this time straight up, to quickly disappear in the afternoon skies of London.
When Thor reined in his horse at the palace entrance he was greeted by his oldest half-brother, Tyr, leading a large group of men out the doors. "Greetings brother, why are you and your men armed so and where are you headed?"
"The Allfather has ordered us to slay this beast before it reaches Asgard. I lead a company of men to a world called N'as-Keroth where Heimdall believes it will land next."
"Land, does the creature fly some sort of craft?" Thor asked his face mirrored his bafflement.
"No" Tyr replied hastily. "It leaps from one world to another using Yggdrasil to speed its way."
"Leaps?" Thor sputtered with amazement as he dismounted and handed the reins over to a collared thrall.
"Yes leaps, and with incredible strength" Tyr voiced his urgency as he started to head for the Bifrost, "and it leaves death and destruction wherever it lands."
Thor took only a moment to watch his brother's departure then he headed for the throne room. He would change into battle garb after speaking with his father.
When Thor reached the throne room he saw his father speaking to a worried looking young man with wavy light blond hair that was longer than it looked. Dressed in chain mail and his battle armor and in his familiar ermine furred cape, Balder, called the brave by many, was being exhorted by Odin to do his duty "…for the good of Asgard" with a hand of comfort and trust upon the Thunder god's half–brother's shoulder.
"Now go my son, and return quickly with Karnilla's answer."
"Yes Allfather" Balder saluted Loki/Odin with his arm across his chest as he turned to leave but Thor could see that Balder was not happy about this assignment and for good reason. His wife, Nanna, would not be overly enthused about her husband being sent to Nornheim. It was well known the Queen of Nornheim was a powerful witch and her twin passions were her hatred of Odin and her raging desire for Balder. Many felt that Karnilla had placed a powerful love spell upon him, a spell so great that not even the Allfather could break it, and, it would one day prove to be Balder's destruction.
"Is this my son that approaches my throne?" Loki/Odin looked on his brother with curiosity as he spoke with mild sarcasm.
"Yes father, I was on Midgard when Heimdall brought me back" he apologized for his appearance "and I thought it better to see you first, to find out the nature of this threat before changing for battle."
"The nature of this threat before us is not completely known" Loki/Odin replied. "I wish you and the Warriors Three to join Tyr, and, if this creature proves to be a deadly threat to the realm, then slay it."
"Yes father" Thor's right hand formed a fist and he saluted Loki/Odin with his arm across his chest as he bowed his head and backed up and turned away to head for his quarters to change.
"My son!" Loki/Odin called out to him and the Thunder god halted and half turned to face his father, "Be careful, as I do not wish to lose another son."
"I will father" Thor answered back as he then walked out of the throne room.
Silently Loki hoped in his heart that his brother would return safely as, other than Frigga and Balder, Thor was the only one who truly seemed to have cared about him in all of Asgard. Everyone else thought Loki to be a clown to be ignored, a fool to be humiliated, or a threat to be destroyed.
With the help of a thrall, Thor quickly changed into battle armor while another thrall, the child of the first servant, held his winged helmet. Donning his helmet, Thor sent the elder thrall to inform his friends to meet him at the Bifrost as quickly as they could and to the child, he ordered him to go to the stables and have them ready a fresh horse for him and to bring it to the palace entrance. Bowing low both thralls left Thor's quarters on their respective errands as their Prince wondered silently if Mjolnir would arrive in time or would he have to wait for it as he exited his chambers.
When Thor reached the outer doors of the main entrance to the palace he heard the familiar high pitched, metallic hum of Mjolnir as it rushed towards him. Extending his right hand over his head, the son of Odin caught hold of his prized war hammer as it crackled with electricity. Now let this beast beware as the Uru hammer was once more in his grasp. His favorite white stallion was led up to him as he slipped Mjolnir's handle into a leather loop on his belt and gathering up the reins he mounted his horse and rode off towards the Rainbow Bridge and the Bifrost.
Sif was the last one to join Thor at the Bifrost and Heimdall explained to her and the Warriors Three about the creature. "It has not yet landed on N'as-Keroth and I will set you down approximately where it will land" Heimdall paused and with a hard gaze continued, "but be warned, this beast shows absolutely no mercy to its victims."
"If it shows no mercy" Thor replied, "it shall receive none."
With that said Heimdall shoved down on his sword and activated the Bifrost as lightning flashed up to strike the ceiling and walls of the inner dome. The dome began to spin as the Bifrost portal began to rotate into place and when it locked onto N'as-Keroth the multicolored light sucked them through it and fired all the warriors towards the planet.
They landed on a crowded street in what seemed to be a major city with tall, slender built dog-like inhabitants who scattered in shock, fear and surprise at the arrival of the Asgardians. Females clutched their young to themselves and fled from the area as the males formed in groups snarling at the strange new arrivals.
"We are of Asgard" Thor proclaimed to the people around him, to try to reassure them that they meant them no harm, "we have come to halt the advancement of a heartless creature before it can do further damage."
Before Thor could explain further a fireball appeared in the sky and streaking downwards crashed not far from where they had landed. The force of the crash knocked everyone off their feet and damaged the surrounding buildings which cracked, crumbled and split apart dropping debris all around burying many people.
"Tyr, you and the Einherjar try to help these people. We will go to the crash site." Signaling the others to follow him, Thor sprinted off.
What they found was a kilometer wide crater that seemed to be a mile deep that billowed smoke and dust and the bottom glowed like a miniature red sun. The heat that radiated from the bottom made the Asgardians recoil back.
"Can you see anything?" Volstagg shouted over the din of the screams of frightened, wounded and mourning natives.
"No!" Fandral yelled back.
"We must get these people back" Sif called out as she helped an elderly dog-like man to his feet and turned him over to a younger male. Thor and Volstagg were removing heavy debris that had fallen on a group of people as the Einherjar rejoined them to help, while Hogun and Fandral cleared many more of them away from the crater site when a loud, deep growl could be heard to come from out of the crater.
A dull crunching thud preceded severe ground tremors that made it difficult to stand and the sounds became louder while the tremors worsened. The Asgardians backed away from the crater as a monstrous shape emerged.
It rose up to its full height and glared down at the Asgardians and then roared at them. "Asgardians, how good of you to save me the trouble of having to wait till I reach Asgard before killing you."
"Any dying here monster will be done by you" Thor replied as he withdrew Mjolnir from his belt as his friends and the Einherjar prepared for the creature to strike.
"Fools, Mangog has no time for the likes of you!" leaning down the monster ripped up a huge section of pavement, hoisted it above its head and with no effort at all, flung it at the assembled Asgardians.
Heimdall put him and his bay stallion down a kilometer east of Karnilla's great hall and Balder sighed in trepidation when his eyes set on it. Any moment now the area would be crawling with brutish Norn warriors and he drew his sword as he cued his horse to move forward towards her hall. He had not guessed wrong as a company of Norns bore down upon him with weapons at the ready howling at the top of their lungs. With a leg cue Balder made his horse rise up on its hind legs and strike out at the Norns with its front hooves who then backed away as they moved to surround him.
"I am Balder of Asgard you knaves" with another leg cue he made his steed hop on its hind legs while still in a rearing position and the Norns scattered in order to avoid the thrashing fore hooves, "the likes of you could never defeat this son of Odin and long has it been since my blade has drunk Norn blood."
A handful of Norn spearmen attempted to unhorse Balder but his blade sliced through the wooden shafts of their spears and he cued his horse, which jumped straight up and lashed out with both fore and hind legs which caught some of them off guard and knocked them to the ground, two of them never to rise again. This enraged the remaining Norns who screamed like animals and they charged him with no care as to how skillfully Balder used both sword and his steed to injure or kill them until a deep booming voice cried "HALT YOU FOOLS!"
All stopped and turned to face a giant of a Norn, a commander of ten legions, with a long, horizontal and jagged scar upon his savage face. "Kill this Asgardian and our Queen will take great delight in personally torturing you to a long, slow and agonizing death."
"I see you remember me, though it has been an age since I was here last Balthar" Balder gave a grim half smile as he remembered striking the Norn while trying to save young Loki and Amora from him. "That pleases me as I have not forgotten you, or the promise we made back then, but there is a greater concern for you to dwell on as our two realms may be in danger of open warfare unless I can confer with her majesty Karnilla."
"I would welcome open warfare with Asgard, if only to cleave you in two with my axe" the Norn Commander snarled at him, "even if it meant a death more horrid than any devised by Hela herself at the hands of my Queen, but for now, you will follow me."
The lesser Norn warriors made way for Balder as he kicked his horse to follow the Legion Commander to the hall of their Queen.
Loki/Odin left the throne room early as he'd grown weary of the mewling gad-a-bouts that never seemed to get enough of his attention for insipid and petty ambitions or desires. Thankfully he'd only have to sit the throne three days each week to hear cases and make judgments on their near constant bleatings. The raiders on their western boarders, whether they were Norns or not, puzzled him and he made his way to the hall of records in the great library of Asgard which contained all the Chronicles of not only the Kings of Asgard, but also of its many heroes as well as the histories of all nine realms. Loki/Odin ordered books about, and maps, of the western border villages and towns with their surrounding farmlands to be brought to him. The keepers of the library bowed and quickly went looking for the requested material. Loki/Odin commanded a very large and long mahogany table to be cleared off, and to bring wine with three glasses, as thralls quickly started gathering up the books scattered upon it in obedience to his directive.
When the last unwanted book was taken off the table, Loki/Odin sat down in a tall backed mahogany chair. The chair's arm rests were arms of dragons and each chair leg ended in a dragon's claw. The back of the chair was fashioned into two carved dragons in knot work fashion whose snarling heads butted up against each other. The librarians brought him three books that dealt with the history of the settlements along the western border. Taking the first book brought to him Loki/Odin began to scan through the pages to find, hopefully, just what these raiders wanted. These raiders were an annoyance to him as they killed everyone who could not out run them, so they weren't coming for slaves. They butchered and left the carcasses of every beast that couldn't be evacuated, and burned all the crops so they came not for food. They put everything else to the torch so they came not for booty and they left just as fast as they came, picking up whatever dead among them, so they came not to invade and conquer. Why, why, what was there about these villages and farms that they bothered to go through so much trouble for? There had to be a logical reason, but he could not see it and that proved to be a great irritant to him.
Maps of the western boarders were brought to him as the Vizier and the Lady Amora entered the Hall of Records and he gasped inwardly, upon spying Amora, as her beauty never failed to invoke a sense of awe in him. If it were not for the incident on Nornheim, that brought them together in the first place, would she even have bothered with the ignored Loki, hidden in the shadow of his brother? Dressed in a green gown that closely formed around her body and draped with a gold and green cape that was pinned to her right shoulder and left hip with two gold brooches. Her shining golden hair was graced by a golden tiara of metallic flames that melted into twisted knot work which disappeared into her hair above her ears. Oh yes indeed, Amora would make an excellent Queen for him he thought as he barely stopped himself from smiling as he watched her and her father walk towards his table.
"My King" Amora curtsied before him as her father bowed his head before Loki/Odin "my father says you have a proposition you'd like to ask me."
"More of a proposal you might say" Loki/Odin stood up from his chair and moved around the table, while a thrall brought in a tray with a pitcher of wine and three crystal glasses and set them down on the table across from the chair Loki/Odin had just risen from. Loki/Odin took Amora's hand in his, "A proposal of marriage my dear if both you and your father are agreeable to it."
Releasing her hand and turning about Loki/Odin reached for the pitcher and poured into all three glasses blood-red wine, one of which he handed to the Vizier and one of which he slyly dropped a small amount of red powder from a hidden compartment in the large gold ring he wore and hoped Amora didn't see him twist it around his finger to his palm. This glass he gave to Amora.
"Marriage my Lord…I don't know what to say."
"I would hope Yes would be your answer, but take your time to think upon this my Lady and when you are certain, then give me your answer" Loki/Odin raised his glass to his chief subjects and drank, smiling inwardly as Amora drank her wine and then he turned to the Vizier. "Now my Lord Vizier we have much to go through to ferret out the true reason for these raids on our western boarders."
"I take my leave father" Amora gently kissed her father's hairy cheek and smiled sweetly at him as she set her empty glass on the table, "so do not be overly long with work today as I shall be very wroth with you if you do."
As she left the two of them Loki pondered over the only difference between himself and the Lady Amora, she adored her father, even doted upon him, while he himself despised Odin and for good reason. All the misery of his young life could be laid at Odin's feet; perhaps the old bastard should have left him on Jotunheim to die.
Asgardians scattered in all directions to avoid the hurled section of pavement the beast threw at them but a handful of Einherjar were not so fortunate to avoid it and were buried under it. With a roar Thor held Mjolnir skyward and a bolt of lightning struck the hammer which he then directed towards Mangog and to Thor's amazement it had no effect on the creature. Tyr ordered his archers to let loose their arrows at the beast but their shafts bounced off its hide serving to only enrage it more.
With a deafening bellow the monster strode through the Asgardians as if they were wheat and both its fists and its tail a reaper's scythe. Sword, spear, arrow none had any effect on the beast, and not even blows from Mjolnir seem to damage it. Mangog caught Thor a devastating blow with his tail which sent the son of Odin flying into a building nearly a quarter of a mile away which then collapsed upon the Thunder god burying him.
"Thor!" Sif screamed as she ran to the Thunder god. So terrified that he might be slain she paid no heed to the monster that now reached for her. Catching the Lady Sif unawares with his clawed hand the brute squeezed until the sickening sound of bones cracking and her shriek of pain made him toss her away like so much rubbish.
"Sif!" Fandral cried out as he slashed at the creature's leg with his cutlass while he ducked under its fist to reach his fallen companion and cradle her head in his arms. Mercifully she was unconscious as he scooped her up in his arms to move her away from the battle as he dodged the fiend's fists and tail. A metallic hum went sailing over his blond head as Mjolnir struck the beast in the face and Fandral laughed as the son of Odin rejoined the fight.
"I will waste no more time on you insects, to Asgard I go, to destroy it and take my revenge against Odin for imprisoning me nearly four millennium ago" and with that said Mangog gathered himself together and leaped into the air to disappear from their sights.
"Sif, how is she?" enquired the bloodied and worried Thunder god of Fandral.
"Unconscious, but I do not know the full extent of her injuries. We must get her to the healing room and quickly."
"Tyr as well" Volstagg spoke up as he and Hogun half carried the eldest son of Odin between themselves to where their companions stood.
"What of the company of men that came with us?" Thor asked of his elder brother.
"That I cannot say, but many are dead I fear and whomever is yet still alive may be buried under much rubble" Tyr grimaced in pain. "There will have to be healers sent here to find them and bring them back home."
Thor shook his head in agreement and sighed as he looked skyward and shouted, "Heimdall!"
No sooner was his name spoken than a swirl of clouds appeared over the Asgardians and a light of many colors snatched them upwards towards home.
"The history of the western boarder starts with your Grandfather Buri and the first colonists of Asgard" the Vizier pointed out in the first volume concerning the mountainous west. "Legend has it that Buri fought a monstrous dragon that could not be killed so instead he transformed it into stone and created the mountain range known…"
"…As the Dragon's back." Loki/Odin finished for the older man as he used his hand to bring up a three dimensional image of the mountain range from the largest of the maps that were laid before him in order to study it more closely. He remembered Frigga often telling him the story as a child.
"Yes and the colonists called these three ridges, which created these three valleys, the claws of the dragon. The water from melting snow runs down each of these ridges which created the fjord that surrounds the northern most valley; the rivers and springs that intersect through the middle valley and feeds the large lake which sits in the midst of the third valley."
"Have there been any reports of these raiders befouling the waters?" Loki/Odin asked as he maneuvered the map with a wave of his right hand to view another portion of the western border.
"No my Liege"
"Odd" he scowled, "they destroy everything else but not the water. Why, what makes the water so valuable that it is the only thing spared?"
It was at this moment that an Einherjar guard burst into the hall of records and ran to his king "My King, forgive me, but Thor and Tyr have returned from N'as-Keroth!"
"Why have they not come to report to me themselves?" Loki/Odin growled at this interruption.
"They are in the room of healing my Lord for Tyr is gravely injured…"
Loki/Odin wasted no time in leaving the hall as he hurried to the healing room to see for himself what Tyr's condition was, and Thor's as well.
