Thirty minutes later, Loki perched on a branch directly above Thor. He smirked, listening for Fandral's quiet footsteps off to his right. Obviously Fandral saw him; now, it was only a matter of time before he alerted Thor and the chase really began.
"Loki! I will find you, monstrous Jotun!" Despite the tone, Thor was grinning playfully as he searched the nearby bushes in the clearing.
Fandral stepped out of the bushes to Loki's right. His eyes flicked upwards and he met Loki's gaze. Loki tensed as Fandral pointed at him and Thor turned, following Fandral's finger.
"He's up there!" Fandral said. Thor grinned and set off to attempt to catch Loki.
"I will catch you, Jotun! You can't hide from me!"
Despite Loki's dissatisfaction with being the Jotun all the time, he smiled and jumped from branch to branch. Thor and Fandral followed beneath, waiting for the perfect opportunity to leap up and catch him.
Loki heard a satisfied "Aha!" from behind him. He switched direction, instead jumping upwards-out of their reach-and perching on a branch above Thor and Fandral. He turned backwards and saw Thor holding something in his left hand. His right hand came up and pulled something, then he pinched the small, black something between his fingers and glanced up at Loki, running towards him, a smug grin on his face.
Curious, Loki decided to take a risk. He leapt to the branches behind him when they both glanced away, then swung nimbly down, his feet landing silently on the grass. He stayed behind the tree, listening intently. He could almost feel when Thor glanced up and couldn't find Loki. He suppressed his laughter as he heard them crash around, looking for him.
"Where'd he go? He can't have gone far!" Thor threw aside a branch as he looked in a bush. Loki, mere feet away, ducked the branch and watched as it landed heavily on the ground a few feet away.
He decided to move, then got a much better idea and almost laughed out loud. He glanced to the side; Thor, satisfied with the fact that Loki wasn't in the bush, left the bush and went further away. Loki grabbed the branch above him and swung up to it. He returned to his earlier position, on the exact same branch, before he had jumped down.
"What are you doing? I've been right here the whole time!" he said calmly. Thor and Fandral both froze and their heads snapped to him. Fandral shook his head in disbelief and Thor's mouth dropped open. Loki laughed at their expressions.
Suddenly, Loki froze. Something crashed in the bushes nearby; he spun to the direction of the noise and watched as Volstagg came hurtling out of the undergrowth. He fell, tumbling head over heels before landing face-up directly below Loki, who cocked his head like a cat and stared down at Volstagg.
"Nice for you to drop by," he commented dryly. Volstagg grinned and rolled over, then stood up.
"Found you!" he said. Fandral walked up behind him.
"Yes, all three of us found him, Volstagg. The question is, can we catch him? We've been trying for the last ten minutes. It hasn't worked very well, as you can see," Fandral explained.
Thor ran up to them with another small black thing pinched between his fingers. He held it out to Fandral and Volstagg, who turned to him. "I know how we can get him down!"
Loki listened to their scheming. He laughed. "Thor, if I'm up here and you're down there, that's not going to work. Chasing me with a harvest fly won't do much except give me more incentive to run away."
Thor whispered in Fandral's and Volstagg's ear, and they both ran off. Loki waited, amused, until they came back. Fandral carried two wood stumps and Volstagg held two harvest flies pinched between his fingers.
Loki was interested now. He hated harvest flies; Thor always chased him around with them. They were completely harmless to Asgardians, but he still hated having them crawl on his skin. It was creepy and they were often used against him.
Loki thought about leaving now-he had an easy path to the next tree-but he decided to wait out Thor's plan. He watched as Fandral put the stumps around the tree and Volstagg held Thor's fly. Fandral climbed up on one stump and began to climb the tree. Halfway up, Volstagg handed Fandral a harvest fly.
Too late, Loki realized what their plan was. His path to the next tree was blocked by Fandral and there wasn't another tree he could jump to without touching the ground. Plus, Fandral was getting too close and Thor was beginning his ascent up the stump.
Loki moved quickly, going to the lowest branch and jumping down as fast as possible. He started sprinting for the other trees. Volstagg followed and Thor leapt down from the stump. They gave chase, holding their flies out in front of them and laughing.
Loki turned around and started running backwards. Thor and Volstagg kept going. He sidestepped them as they passed, their momentum too fast to slow down quickly, and he began to sprint to the side, his head still turned to keep track of Thor and Volstagg, when he heard an "Ah!" and arms wrapped around him.
Loki's head snapped around and he met Sif's gaze. He twisted out of her grasp just as he felt her arms tighten in realization of who he was. She growled in frustration as he darted away, tried to give chase, and stopped short as Thor and Volstagg barreled in front of her, their arms held out in front of them. She glanced to her left and saw Fandral in close pursuit. He slowed as he saw her.
"Grab a harvest fly. They're chasing him with them. We can surround him. He hates them," he explained, out of breath. Sif nodded and he started running again.
Sif was no stranger to disabling the flies. Out of all of them, Loki was the only one that didn't like to touch them. She was about to set off to find a fly when Hogun appeared and held a fly out to her. She smiled and took it, then they glanced at each other and began running after everyone else.
Fifteen minutes later, Loki stood, panting, surrounded by Thor, Sif, Volstagg, Hogun, and Fandral, who all held out tiny harvest flies pinched between their fingers towards him. He raised his hands in surrender.
"All right, you've caught me! I surrender!" Loki stated, grinning. He laughed as all five tackled him and he went down in a tangle of limbs.
"Hey, that's my arm!" Sif yelled.
Fandral drew his arm back sheepishly. "Sorry."
Sif grinned and seized his upper arm, then pulled him away from the pile and pinned him down face-first into the grass with his arm twisted up his back. Fandral, despite his slight hiss of pain, started laughing.
"Hey!" he protested. "I didn't do anything!"
"You're a boy!" Sif proclaimed. Then, her grin turned wicked. She used her other arm to point down at Fandral. "He's a traitor! He helped the Jotun escape!"
"Hey! No I didn-" Fandral was cut short as Thor launched himself off of Loki and, with a loud battle cry through his broad smile, he descended on Fandral, delivering multitudes of light punches all along his back around his arm and Sif's hand.
Fandral started laughing uncontrollably and squirming. "Thor, that's more like a massage than an attack! Stop it! That tickles! Thor!"
"I shall not have mercy on the traitor!" Thor stated grandly. "Volstagg, help me!"
Volstagg came off Loki, who was also squirming beneath him and Hogun as he was tickled ruthlessly, and sat near Fandral's head. He reached down and Sif let go of Fandral's arm, only for Volstagg's massive hands to pin them down. Then, Sif sat on Fandral's legs.
"Now my prey is caught!" Thor yelled. He began tickling Fandral, who started writhing, but couldn't get anywhere. Hogun soon joined in and Loki stood up. He gave a mischievous smile and tapped on Thor's shoulder.
Thor turned. "Loki, have you come to help us punish the traitor?"
Loki shook his head. "No, I've come to give you advice on how to do it better."
Thor tilted his head. "And how's that?"
Loki whispered in his ear and Thor started grinning with playful wickedness.
Fandral yelped as Sif found his most ticklish spot.
"You're going to regret this!"
"That's a bit hard to believe right now, Fandral," Sif laughed as Fandral struggled uselessly against Hogun, Volstagg, and Thor. Loki tackled Fandral through a gap in their bodies and he attacked him with more tickling. Fandral shouted out in indignation, only to devolve into laughter.
"Stop it, my sides hurt! My cheeks hurt, for Odin's sake! Thor, stop it!"
"No mercy!" Thor declared grandly, and renewed his efforts.
Fandral groaned., but he grinned broadly.