Hi, everybody. Sorry for not updating sooner. I've been very busy, and I will probably be for some time. But R&R, and inspire me to leave my work every now and then in order to write :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Thor, Loki, Fandral, Volstagg, Sif, Frigga and Odin Allfather, I hold no rights to the Marvel characterizations. This is done for fun and love of the movies, and I do not make money out of it.

+++ Chapter 3: The Monster in the Basement+++

(### Asgard, 2012 ###)

'Nothing?' Loki asked. 'He won't allow me any tools? None at all? Not even the rat-tails?'

'He thinks you might use them for other purposes than exorcising your "guest",' Frigga said. She was back in image, sadly watching her bad news upset her imprisoned son.

'I might gather some magic ingredients and catalysts in any other dungeon,' Loki said. 'There's usually some moss to be found, and spiders, and bugs.' He slammed his fist into a wall that was not pure, crackling energy. 'But in here, there's not even moldy bread. How am I going to separate the creature from its magical source?'' He sat in his reading chair and massaged his temples.

'Odin Allfather was generous, allowing you to remain in command of your powers of illusion,' Frigga said. 'He is not prepared to make any more concessions.'

'Some concession, indeed,' Loki said bitterly. 'I'd assume there's enough talk as it is, with the younger prince of Asgard sentenced to spend his life in prison. The mighty king couldn't afford revealing my true form to the public just now.'

The locus amoenus spoke up, 'But are you not glad this secret no longer exists?' He fell silent, waiting for the clatter to die down. 'I don't mind if you fling your tin cup at me, Jotun. Fling all you like and can lay your hands on. I cannot be hurt in this manner.'

Loki stood again and looked about. Where his gaze fell, things started to rattle and move: books, chairs, candle holders...

'Loki, please, stop.' Frigga said over the rising noise. 'If the guards hear, I'll have to leave. Who knows, when I could come back...'

The noise ceased. The only thing still swaying softly was Loki himself. He staggered over to the wall.

'You're tired,' Frigga commented.

'I cannot go on like this.' Loki sat with his back against the wall, weaving the fingers of his left hand through his dark hair. 'I haven't slept properly for days. Every time I doze off, I feel that oppressive demonical presence. Routines of controlling my magical perception seem useless.'

'I will try and talk to - '

Loki interrupted her, 'But it's no use. The king will not listen!'

'Let me finish,' Frigga said with mild reproach. 'I was about to say that I will talk to your brother.'

Loki's eyes flashed angrily, 'Leave Thor out of this!'

'Why? He is your brother.'

'He's not!'

'Well, someone who was close enough to you to care, then.'

'He will not care now!'

'I will not fight with you over this.' Frigga's image started to flicker at the edges.

Loki stood at to the energy grid, 'Mother! Mother, no! I do not want his help. I do not need - '

'Good-bye for now, Loki.'

'No, wait!' Loki raised his hand and got too close to the restraining energy wall. Sparks leapt over, and he clutched his arm to his chest, hissing. It was amazing, the amount of pain caused by something you would have controled easily. In your former life that was no condemned to the misery of this cell... this company...

'I could have told you this would happen,' the locus amoenus said. 'But what can I say - I'm into things unexpected and unheard-of, and this was way too obvious.'

(### Asgard, almost 1,000 years ago###)

The bed was moving.

The sensation took some time to sink in and register. Which meant that the bed had been moving for quite a longer time, until it actually managed to rouse him.

When it did, Loki started, 'Hhhm? What?' Lifting his head, he hit something soft, not heavy – his blanket. It was draped over his head. 'Thor? You there?'

The bed shook even more. Something flopped down beside Loki; another heavy body. Someone on the other side of the blanket groaned, and another voice ground a curse between clenched teeth. The blanket was lifted, and Thor crawled in, cheerfully.

'Of course I'm here, Loki. You're in my bed, after all.'

'Your bed?' Loki asked, confused.

'Don't you remember? You came over to sleep in my bed. Because there's a monster under yours.'

Memory returned to Loki like a cold slap to his face, 'There really is, Thor. It's called a "locus amoenus", and it - ' Loki blinked. 'You were in my room, were you not? You talked to it?' Uneasy, he tried to gauge his brother's emotions in the dusk, 'Did you give it your marbles?'

'Talked to it, yes. But I didn't give away anything.'

'Have you - have you told father?' Loki asked anxiously.

'No. Why would I?' Thor seemed genuinely puzzled.

Loki shifted into "contrited-little-brother" mode. He had no particular reason, but it was what he'd prepared himself to do, and he was feeling too drowsy to redispose, 'I'm sorry. Really, I am. I didn't want things to come to this - '

Miraculously, Thor still was not upset. 'I know, Loki. But it can wait. Let's talk about it tomorrow; make some plans...'

'Are you stroking my hair?' Although Loki was drifting off again, he still managed to squint at his brother suspiciously.

'What if I am?' Thor asked in his best "patronizing-big-brother" tone of voice.

'You never stroke my hair, except when you're up to something and want me to fall asleep. So you can sneak out with the others,' Loki told him.

'I never knew you noticed.' Thor was baffled.

Loki shrugged, yawning.

'Alright.' Thor opted for frontal attack. 'We are up to something, Sif, Fandral, Volstagg and I. And this time, you're part of it, too.'

Instantly, a cunning gleam came into Loki's eyes, 'Really? When do we start?'

'Soon. Now, go to sleep. You cannot join us like this.'

'But you won't sneak out on me this time? You will wait for me? Promise?'

'We could not succeed without you,' Thor stated firmly. 'But you must sleep now. - Mother will not let you come, if you don't.'

'Oh,' Loki said, snuggling back into the mattress. 'Oh yes, so then... thass fine...I s'pose...'

The cunning was gone again; the dark-haired prince was only a boy now, and proud that he should be part of some of the older kids' schemes. That Thor had asked him.

Thor did not even feel very guilty. A general had to base his decisions on necessity, not the fear of enraged siblings ratting on them to their parents. Slowly, he released his breath and counted to ten. 'Alright, let's move.'

'First, you get off there,' Fandral said. 'It's hard enough, carrying your brother through half of Asgard like this. But only royal order could make me haul you along, too.'

Careful not to wake his brother again, Thor slid to the floor. It was never easy to sneak out or up on Loki now, since he had mastered that magical-senses-trick. So, in order to abduct him, the friends, without much fuss, had lifted Thor's mattress out of the bedstead. Loki continued to sleep as they carried him through the corridors, hidden under his blanket and too far under the influence of Eir's medicine to be alarmed by their distant mumbling.

And if it had not been for Volstagg tripping, everything would have worked out neatly.

Thor joined the boy who was strong enough to handle the front end of the mattress all on his own. Fandral and Sif took on the weight of the foot end. It had been their groaning and cursing when Thor jumped onto the mattress alongside Loki that had almost brought desaster to their endeavor.

'Let's get going,' Thor ordered in a hushed voice. 'In step, if you please.'

(### Asgard, 2012###)

'Marbles, mother?' Thor was flabbergasted. 'You mean the bag of glass toys I was so proud of as a boy?'

'Raise your arms sideways, sir, please,' said the servant who was mending the damage from yesterday's battle on Thor's breast plate. Thor lifted his arms until they were in line with his shoulders. The servant, an aged and merited butler to the House of Aesir, eagerly set to work on the leather straps.

Frigga, who was present not as an image but in person, nodded, 'Yes, my son, the very same. Is it still in your possession?'

'Well, it sure is no longer under my pillow at night as it used to be.' Thor scratched his head and earned a stern look from the old servant.

'On the prince's wish, the prince's belongings of childhood days were stowed away in a trunk,' the old man volunteered.

'A trunk?' asked Thor, lowering his arms. The servant sighed and moved his awl to indicate that he meant to continue sewing. Only when Thor raised his arms again, did the man speak again, 'It was locked with iron bands, sealed and spelled, and taken to the attic in one of the western towers. I shall provide the key in a minute, if my prince wishes to go there...'

Surprised, Thor looked at his mother, 'This place truly is what humans of earth call "a museum".'

'This time, it comes as a blessing.' Frigga felt utterly relieved. There had been a time when she was sure nothing could ever come between her sons and severe the strong bond of brotherly friendship. Now, she was not sure anymore. Even imprisoned, with nothing to hope for save his sibling's mercy, Loki had nothing left for Thor but scorn. And whatever feelings Thor might still harbour for his brother, he had buried them deep within and piled on layers of duty and hard warrior's work.

'Do not judge prematurely,' Thor said now, as if in response to her private thoughts.

'Thor! Your brother needs your help!'

'So I understand, and also that you wish me to comply,' Thor said. 'I will not even pretend that running errands for Loki ranks very high among my priorities these days. But that was not the reason for my cautioning words, mother. I remember giving some of my toys away to Fandral, the Lady Sif, Volstagg...'

Frigga's heart sank, 'What can we do? That abominable demon wants them all.'

Thor sighed, 'Since I would not wish to turn down my mother's request, there is but one thing to do: I will ask my friends.'

(### Asgard, almost 1,000 years ago###)

Loki needed to go to the bathroom. At first he simply refused to wake up, but the urge was building fast. He shifted his weight to take pressure off his bladder. The result was unsatisfactory and short-lived. The need returned, and this time it would no longer be ignored.

That was what you got from drinking so much water and so many potions before falling asleep!

Feeling curiously wrung out, Loki cracked open his eyes.

And opened them wide with surprise.

This wasn't Thor's room, he was lying in. This was a cold, damp dungeon, lit by a lantern that sat on the floor in front of him. The walls were naked stone, pock-marked with the traces of the hammers and chisels that had carved this room from Asgard's foundation - centuries, maybe millennia ago. The ceiling was stone, too, and allowing for just enough headroom for a man to stand. There were walls to three sides of the roughly rectangular chamber...

'No, seriously, Thor,' Loki sat up. Just ahead, beyond the lantern's light, there was an exit. A tunnel, black and scary.

He was not usually one to be easily frightened. But this time Thor had done it, he really had!

'You gotta be kidding me.' Loki's voice sounded thin and small in his ears.

Ahead, darkness continued to gape like a monster yawning at the boy.

Shy away all you like, but you will still enter my shadows, it seemed to say. There's no other way back to Asgard's bright halls, the lightless hole said.

Loki was smart enough to know this to be as true as the fact that sometimes he just felt like murdering his brother. Nothing very sophisticated or stealthy. Just take control of the Destroyer and make it march over Thor. Make it look so it might pass for an accident...

Then turn around, give a sneer and a damn, and march again.

(### Asgard, 2012###)

'The toy marbles you gave me?' Fandral said. 'Of course I still have them.'

Thor heaved a sigh. The first steps of his quest had turned out more effective than he had dared hope. He had found Sif and the Warriors Three in the tavern where they usually gathered after a long day in the training grounds. They occupied their usual table and offered him the seat he usually took when joining them. The occasions when he was free to do so had gotten rare, lately. Still, his seat was there, waiting for him.

They had given him more than just wary looks as he told them Loki was in a fix and needed his brother's help. They were polite enough not to comment at once: that he must have lost his marbles in the idiomatic way, and they would not assist him in this, unless he should explicitly order them to.

However, this was a mess, and Thor was not going to order them to join him in it . So, after finishing his story and most of his goblet of mead, he waited for them to speak up.

At first, no one would take the word.

Then, Hogun said, 'Locus amoenus. My people are familiar with this kind of spirit. Our druids demarcate their abodes 'verboten'. No one is allowed to go near those haunted places. Those who do anyway are known to fall prey to stark madness not even the druids know how to cure.'

'Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Hogun. But Loki is currently sharing his prison cell with such a spirit,' Fandral pointed out.

'Well, methinks our trickster's sanity has been found wanting before,' Volstagg said comfortably.

'He was one of us, once,' Sif said. 'My judgement on Loki has significantly changed since those days. But even though I no longer think Loki worthy of the name of "friend", I do hope that I, the Lady Sif, valkyre and first of Asgard's female warriors, live up to this title of honour. Count on me, Thor.'

Thor felt a rush of gratitude at her words. Before he could speak up, though, Fandral presented him eight shining marbles in his palm.

'You've actually got them with you?' Thor asked, perplexed.

'You gave them to me in the aftermath of my first fight as a knight of Asgard,' Fandral said. 'The gift was due to some kind of jest-wager we had agreed on beforehand; I do not even remember the conditions. But I've carried them under my harness ever since, as some kind of talisman.'

Thor felt deeply touched, 'I cannot take them away from your then, friend. That would be too much asked of someone so considerate and loyal.'

'Yet, you will need all the good luck you can get.' Fandral put the marbles in the bag he had kept them in and held it out to Thor. 'Because judging from the others' looks, their tokens of times long past will not be unearthed as easily.'

(### Asgard, almost 1,000 years ago###)

Carrying the lantern, Loki wandered the tunnels under the great palace of Asgard. He still hoped to find a quick way out. He was cold, and he was angry. How far would his stupid brother and his nitwit friends enter this vast maze of trapdoors and mine collapse, anyway? He had immediately thought of marking his way, but no piece of chalk or singed wood to do it with. So he formed a sign of pebbles at each forking or crossroads, or he scratched the floor with a stone. After all, there was no one down here but him.

Or so he believed.

Until he turned a corner and met the stranger.

The man was a middle-aged Asgardian by appearance, and dressed like a mine worker. He stood in front of a boulder like he was contemplating the obstacle that blocked the tunnel. He stepped closer and pushed. He clawed at the stone and tried to pull.

He stood again, thinking.

Loki's magical sense screamed. He crabbed backwards, trying to slip around the corner unnoticed...

'How are things up there in the castle, lad?' the man asked.

Loki stopped. Like so often, his common sense and curiosity warred in the face of danger. Just as usual, Loki used the time while they did to get in some questions of his own. He would be the first to agree that, for a one-hundred-and-eight-year-old, he was leading a risky life. Still, he asked, 'You're a ghost, aren't you?'

'Is it finished, the royal family's bright home, the palace of Asgard? How fares King We?'

'He's been dead for centuries,' Loki said.

'So am I, then,' said the ghost evenly. 'Who is king now?'

'Odin, who is called "Allfather" by the people of the nine realms...'

'Odin,' mused the ghost, as if he were in vain trying to place that name. 'Say, can you deliver a message to the king? From Georn, his predecessor's master tunneler? Tell him I shall need a dozen strong men with pickaxes, ropes and a set of pulleys, to clear this tunnel.'

'Why do you need to clear it?' asked Loki.

The answer came promptly, 'Because I must.'

'I read that some of the cursed are forever bound to some place or task. Are you cursed, Georn?'

The ghost turned to Loki for the first time, as if surprised to hear his own name spoken. His face was of skin, but his eyes were empty, black sockets. Still, they seemed to fasten on the lantern, spell-bound. 'That's a - light you have there...'

Loki took a step backward.

'I never see light now - ' The ghost rushed forward with a sudden, great leap that a living body could not have imitated. Pale fingers clawed for the lantern.

Loki screeched in shock and bolted for the corner. The ghost screamed after him to stay, to not go away. No, not after him.

After the lantern.

Loki ran until the howling, clamoring voice was lost in the distance. He turned the last corners in an almost calm mind again. It was probably alright, even sensible, to be scared, if someone wanted to steal your lantern in a labyrinth of lightless catacombs. But how long could you remain in a state of shock? He never managed for longer than necessary to let the extra energy help him fight his way out.

Sitting with with back against a wall, he remembered the ghost calling out to him. Ordering him to stop, beseeching him to deliever the message. Men. Pickaxes. A hoist. To clear the tunnel, you hear me, boy?

Only then, Loki realized that on his mad flight he had forgotten to mark his way.

He was lost.

And while his thoughts filled with the dread of possible consequences, a smaller part of his mind wondered, whether the Destroyer could be made to tap-dance. On Thor.

Looking like it was purely coincidential.

The rope fastened to Thor's foot unwound slowly. The Warriors Two plus One watched in apprehension. Their leader was completey gone from sight, crawling under Loki's bed and commenting on dust, lost toys and spiders, dead or alive, that he encountered on his way.

'Thanks for bringing the gleaming stone, Fandral,' said Sif just to ease the tension. 'Thor couldn't have used a real torch under the bed.'

'My pleasure,' the blond boy said. 'I just hope no one breaks their legs feeling their way to the restroom on the southern wall now.'

'Don't worry,' Thor said from out of the dark. 'Whatever comes of this, remember that you acted in the best interest of Asgard's royal family.'

'What if Loki's lantern winks out, and he breaks his legs, down there?' Volstagg asked. 'Will that count as having been in the best interest of Asgard's royal family? Just wondering...'

'No, that would count as royal stupidity,' Thor decided. 'Loki is of royal blood, but not stupid, therefore he'll be fine.'

Fandral leaned forward. 'Do you see anything yet, Thor?'

Thor crawled again, his friends could tell by the rope uncoiling. 'I've got to reach – farther to the back – '

'Be careful,' warned Sif.

'Uh, Thor?' said Volstagg.

'I can see something now.' Thor crawled towards the shadow that seemed to condense in front of him. 'Hey, you? Are you the locus amoenus?'

'Thor,' said Volstagg portentously. ' I really think you should come out...'

'Not now, Volstagg.' Fascinated, Thor watched the shadow form that looked like a man sitting with his elbows on his knees and his face in his hand. It had to be an illusion, though. There was not enough space under the bed for a man-sized creature to sit. As he gazed, the apparition raised its "head" and turned to him. Blue. The embodiment of Loki's fear was blue-skinned. With red eyes.

'A Jotun!' Thor reached for the wooden sword he had brought in case something like this should -

'THOR ODINSON!' Odin Allfather boomed, forcefully driving his Staff of Power on the floor. 'GET OUT! NOW!'

Thor had started up at his father's first word, hitting his head. See? He had known the bed was not that far up as the spirit wanted to make him believe. Now, he wriggled backwards, moving on his elbows as quickly as possible. Someone pulled the safety line on his foot, so he went sliding on his stomach rather than crawling. His last impression of the spirit Jotun were the creature's red eyes, the look on its face. As if it meant to call out to him, one blue-skinned hand reaching out pleadingly.

Then, Asgard's crown prince sat on the floor in front of the bed and looked up at his father, the king. Thor could not remember his father looking so angry before.

Now he's going to banish me, he thought, and then, defiantly, But why? I didn't do anything! It is all Loki's fault -

'Father - '

'Out of the way, Thor,' Odin said. Thor scooted away sideways. His father stood before the bed.

'Leave this place, spirit!' the king commanded.

'I am here on rightful purpose,' the locus amoenus claimed. 'I have a bargain with Loki, the second prince of Asgard. A secret to be told - a secret that would shake the kingdom were it to be known - and at the cheap price of a bag of toys.'

'Were the knowledge apt to shake the roots of the world tree, and the price as cheap as a bag of mouse shit,' Odin said. 'It would still not lie within Loki's power to strike a bargain with those marbles that belong to his brother. And it is above your station to delay an order given by Odin Allfather.' He banged his staff onto the floor again, and the stone itself quaked.

'I am not spoiling for a fight,' the locus amoenus said. 'But I will return to claim my due, Odin Allfather. The day the light of your one eye no longer shines benignly on your son shall be the day I turn my sight back on him.'

'If that hour should ever arrive, Loki will be strong and skilled enough to do with you as I do now,' Odin said, holding his spell. But there was no reply. The spirit had left. While Odin Allfather made sure it was not a stratagem on his opponent's part, Thor's friends gathered round their leader. Sif removed the rope, while the boys marveled at the dust in their friend's hair, the bruised elbows and the lump on his head where he had bumped it.

'You called out "Jotun", Thor,' Fandral said, 'What have you seen?'

Thor gave his report of the hunched thing and how it had viciously reached out for him. He illustrated his story with expansive movements imitating the wielding of a weapon, 'So, I took my sword, and I would have chopped it up, and - '

'But why would Loki secretly harbour thoughts of frost giants?' asked Sif. 'Because that's what we're talking about, aren't we? Something that used to be on Loki's mind and that he, somehow, no longer thinks of?'

'Not quite, young lady,' said Odin. He seemed to be choking on his words. 'A locus amoenus will show the onlooker the face of a deep-rooted, hidden fear.'

The information caused a new need for discussion among the friends.

'Loki is afraid of frost giants?' Volstagg said. 'Well, it does make sense, I guess. What with him being so small, and all...'

'But that's not a big deal,' Fandral said. 'I was afraid of monsters, too, when I was smaller.'

'Volstagg was referring to size, not age,' Sif said.

'So was I.' Fandral shrugged.

'Anyway,' said Thor, re-taking the floor he never left for very long anyway. 'I guess that means we're done here, so let's get Loki out of the tunn-ehhh...' His eyes flickered up to his father.

The king's good eye flashed. 'Thor Odinson! Were you about to say that you and your bunch of friends marooned Odin Allfather's younger son in the tunnels under Asgard to force him to face his most secret fears?'

'Er...not quite, father,' Thor said, unwittingly trying to control the slipping situation by employing his father's own words. 'We thought he might remember what it was the demon wanted him to remember. So he would come up with something useful to drive the spirit away.' Thor looked at the window, the night outside, and added airily, 'But he was sound asleep when we left him there. With any luck, he hasn't even noticed yet.'

'Of course, with any less luck, he's stumbling through the dark, screaming,' Volstagg said darkly.

+++End of Chapter 3+++