"First I was furious and disappointed in you for running away with Loki but I had been blinded by rage. Your mother brought me back to my senses. I see now that this particular punishment had been wrong. I get the feeling that you will be a much wiser king than I ever was, my son. So I heard that Loki was not with you, when you returned to us. What happened?"

"Thank you, father, for these kind words and for your forgiveness. Loki and I had an argument and I told him to journey on alone, if he hated me as much as he claimed. And so we separated."

"I see. What was the argument about? Why did he say that he hated you?"

"It has something to do with the dreams you sent him, I suppose.

Loki is confused.

He does not know what or who he is and to whom he belongs.

His skin changed its color into ice-blue and his eyes were red.

Showing me this, he asked me to tell him, what I thought he was.

But I had no answer.

So he got angry even though I told him, that it didn't matter to me what he was.

He would always be my brother. But he got even madder at me. He thinks of himself as an abomination, a monstrosity and I wasn't able to convince him otherwise."

"Oh, Thor, I am truly sorry. I realize now that I have done much more damage than I had feared. You are right. The dreams are to blame for his confusion and his mental pain." "Is there something I can do, father?"

"We'll see. But first of all we have to find him again. Go to Heimdall and tell him to look for Loki."

Thor almost ran all the way to the gatekeeper. They had to be quick. Who knew what Loki would do in his current state? The fate of the little birds crossed his mind again and now Thor was truly running.

"Thor, I am glad to find you well. But why are you running?"

"Oh, mighty Heimdall, I need your help", Thor said trying not to stumble upon the words. He was in a hurry and wanted to have said everything already. There was a strange feeling starting to rise inside of him. Loki was up to something, he was sure of it.

"You have to locate my brother Loki. We need to find him as fast as we can."

"Alright", Heimdall nodded and then he started gazing into the infinity of the universe. Into every world, around every corner, into every abyss, no matter how deep and Thor waited. He stood right next to him and tried to scrape together all the patience he could find.

After a few minutes, Heimdall turned to him and said: "It was odd. I needed more time than usual to locate Loki. Somehow he was invisible to me but then he appeared again."

"Where is he then?"

"He is in Midgard."

"What? Again? And you are not mistaken?"

Heimdall raised one eyebrow in bewilderment: "I am never mistaken."

"Of course, I am sorry. It is just so…I don't know…What does he want in Midgard? The Tesseract is locked up here, in Asgard and it is far from save for him to be on that world. The people there know him and if S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Avengers hear that he is there, they'll hunt him down."

"Should I send you to Midgard?" Heimdall asked. But Thor negated it. He had to talk to Odin first.

"Go immediately", were his words after his son had explained everything. "Whatever Loki is up to, it can't be good and I fear that I am to blame for his actions. Be careful, Thor."