Chapter 11

When they dismounted, they left their horses a few feet from the entrance of the Bifrost where Heimdall was waiting for them.

"Good evening Consul Sora… Loki," he greeted.

Sora was so distracted by the fact that the Gatekeeper knew her name, she missed the strange tone in which he greeted Loki. It was said that the Gatekeeper saw all things in this realm and beyond- all things he turned his gaze to anyhow. To Sora, it would seem that the rumors were right.

"Good evening, Heimdall," Sora said, smiling politely to the man in the golden armor.

"Gatekeeper," Loki greeted, trying not to sound confrontational. He and Heimdall had never gotten along, for the Gatekeeper always distrusted his mischievous nature and Loki resented the man's gift of universal sight.

"When you reach Jotenhiem, be on your guard at all times. There are far more dangers lurking on the ice planet than mere Jotens. And remember, if your reentry into Asgard poses a threat to this realm, I will keep the Bifrost closed and you will perish in the dark wasteland of Jotenhiem."

Sora nodded and smiled a bit taken aback before replying, "That's highly reassuring. We shall be extra careful not to do or touch anything out of the ordinary."

With a friendly nod to Heimdall, she left the two men on the platform to go and stand in front of the opening of the Bifrost. She was readier than she'd ever be and would rather get the traveling part over with as soon as possible. Loki couldn't help but smirk at her response. He was beginning to see that the politician was not at all lacking in a sense of humor; which he was rather pleased by.

Seeing that Sora got to the edge of the Bifrost safely, Heimdall turned his attention to Loki then. "Protect her well," He told him, giving him a stern look of warning. His amber eyes bore into his green ones in a moment of suspended time before he turned and plunged his sword into the opening of the Bifrost.

"You can be assured that I will," Loki answered shortly, confused as to why he was being given such a distrusting look. His intentions were purely good- it was insulting that the Gatekeeper would automatically assume otherwise.

Loki walked down the platform to join Sora at the opening of the Bifrost. Stopping next to her, he clasped his hands in front of him and looked over at her. She was staring out at the endless sea of stars that stretched out before them. The first time Loki had ever looked out on this very same view, he felt that he was standing on the precipice of the universe. Loki was informed beforehand that this would be the first time that Mara would travel through the Bifrost; and if he wasn't the stiffness in her body certainly was telling. He expected that she was beginning to have a few doubts about this particular mode of transportation now that they were being surrounded by white lightning.

"Are you nervous?" He asked, gazing over at her.

Loki's question pulled Sora from her mind's musings then. "No of course not," She answered, trying her best to keep her voice from wavering. Still, she could not fool Loki who cracked a smile at her response.

"It'll be alright," he told her. "Trust me, I've done this many times before."

Sora nodded and swallowed hard at the sight of the Bifrost warming up around them. She could feel the hum of the rainbow bridge come to life beneath her feet as the portal began spinning at a pace that was too fast for her eyes to track. She wanted to reach out to him, to cling onto his hand for reassurance, but clenched her sweaty palms instead, her gaze locked on the vast universe before them.

"How many times have you been to Jotenhiem?" She asked, hoping that being conversational would quell her rapid nerves.

Loki thought on this question a moment before tentatively answering, "This will be my first."

Sora shot him an anxious glance, opening her mouth to say something but as she did the two of them were suddenly thrown out into space on the current of the Bifrost. Shafts of blinding light engulfed them as they hurled through the universe, the stars surrounding them barely visible in the multicolored spectrum they traveled on. Suddenly Sora's whole body was jarred from their sudden landing.

The next breath that Sora drew into her lungs was ice-cold and hard. When she opened her eyes, which were drawn to the ground, she saw Loki's feet next to hers, both of them covered in snow. Looking up, she gazed at the treacherous landscape of crumbling ice that spanned out before them for miles. It was hard to believe that any sort of living creature could actually survive in this frozen wasteland and she was suddenly weary of meeting anything that did.

"So this is Jotenhiem," Loki breathed next to her. He too was looking around at the mysterious realm before them. It was a place he had only heard of in legends.

"May I have one of your daggers?" Sora asked him calmly, masking her fear as she straitened up her stance.

"Be my guest," Loki said, handing her the golden weapon from his arm gaunt. He felt better giving her some form of protection. "I was surprised you didn't take anything from the armory," he said looking over at her now with the same concerned gaze he often gave her. He could already tell that this planet was no place for someone like her.

Sora bent down and sheathed the dagger in the top of her boot. "I wouldn't know how to use any of it even if I did," she admitted. "I'm a warrior of words, not of weapons."

"I suppose it is lucky I am both," he said, ushering her forward as they began to walk through the icy caverns. His statement, although somewhat arrogant, had made Sora feel somewhat better about their current predicament.

The further they walked away from the opening of the Bifrost, the more rugged the terrain became. Loki would find a path for them through the icy ruins of the war-torn city. Sora wondered silently to herself if all of this decay was a result of Asgard withholding the Jotens' casket from them. Perhaps their hatred for the Asgardians manifested out of this form of subjugation. If that was the case, the solutions to this problem seemed insurmountable.

Following Loki as he climbed over a large collapsed column blocking their path, Sora got to the top and looked down the other side and found it was going to take a pretty significant jump to get down there, at least for her small frame.

Seeing Sora's hesitation, Loki offered her his hand so he could ease some of the force of her fall. Sora paused for a moment, looking at this seemingly innocent gesture with some foolish embarrassment, before slipping her cold fingers into his. Taking a breath, she jumped down to the ground below. Loki caught her around the waist with his other hand in order to steady her. Their eyes met briefly before Loki stepped aside, releasing her.

Sora politely thanked him, her cheeks more than likely red form the encounter. Luckily, it was cold out so they were already red to begin with. She tried to ignore the sudden heat she had felt in their touch and in their glance, but now every time she looked over at him she was reminded of it. Yet Sora needed to push such thoughts from her mind. He was a prince of Asgard and she was a politician. Their mere friendship was dangerous enough much less the idea of them having something more. Realizing that she had fallen behind her companion in her musings, Sora quickly caught up and from that point on tried to keep her focus on the road.

"We have yet to have seen anyone," Loki observed, his green eyes scanning the ruins around them as he continued forward. "It's not exactly comforting."

"It is very strange," Sora agreed, folding her arms inside her cloak for warmth. "The war must have done more damage to the Jotens than we had thought," she concluded, her heart becoming heavy in her chest. She knew Asgard had taken punitive measures to make sure Jotenhiem never tried to invade Midgard again but she had not known that they were this harsh. She wished the other consuls could see what Jotenhiem had been reduced to. Maybe then they would see the necessity of an alliance. Asgard could no longer be responsible for the suppression of an entire realm.

PLEASE REVIEW! Please continue to feed the author ;) I love to hear from you guys!