Author's Notes: Not a very long chapter, but hopefully it will be somewhat entertaining.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, worlds, things, etc. Too bad, that would be fun. :) But alas, 'tis not meant to be. :'(
The storm picked up not long agter the warriors stopped to rest. Only a few were sleeping. Loki still slept, and Thor stayed by his side.
Snow covered the icy ground with a fresh blanket. The very air they breathed felt like ice in their lungs. And the wind blew the snow about so violently that it was impossible to see more than just a few inches in any direction.
The warriors huddled together in an attempt to keep warm. Not wanting to have to wake Loki up to move over witht he others, Thor stayed off the the side and away from the group. He was freezing. He had no hope of sleep tonight. To keep the cold from getting to him, Thor would have to get up and walk around the encampment from time to time, careful not to get lost in the blinding snow. He though Loki was lucky to be asleep and unaware of the intense cold.
But Loki would not have counted himself as fortunate. His sleeo was troubled, and he was pinfully aware of how cold it was. He dreamt of frost giants, likely in the time of the war which had occured not too long ago. It was vived as if he had really seen it, yet dark and twisted as if seen by the terrified mind of a small child. In his mind's eye, the war raged on, and a dark figure approached him. Once it stood towering over him, it reached out to him...
Loki woke up, shivering from cold mixed with something else. It was not exactly fear, but something about his dream bothered him greatly. He could not get it off his mind. He tried to stand but was so cold that he could not force his limbs to move correctly. The best he could manage was a sitting position for the time being. He would have to find a way to warm himself enough to be able to move properly before he could stand.
But then something shocked his dream from his mind for him altogether. Rather than it being because of his walking around, his mind was cleared by a sight before him that worried him far more. His handds were beginning to turn blue, and while he could not see his legs beneath his clothes, he was sure they were blue now as well. As the blueness appeared, the frozen feeling disappeared. But rather than being relieved that he was no longer cold, Loki was more concerned at the sudden change.
He had heard rumors of warriors who had gone into Jotunheim ill prepared for storms such as what they endured now. Some of these warriors he was told of had required much healing upon returning to Asgard, not because of injuries or wounds expected of a warrior, but due to the extreme cold. The cold had frozen and deadened their skin to the point they had lost feeling and movement in arms and legs. They called it frostbite. If his options were to be cold or to have frostbite...he would much rather have been cold.
In his worry, he did not even realize that unlike in those stories, he was still able to move just fine. He did not notice that he actually had normal feeling and was not numb as the rumored warriors had been. His sleepy mind had panicked and had not looked past the color.
He stayed turned away from the warriors so they would not be able to see what was happening. Loki focused his magic on getting rid of the blueness and hoped any other problems would just be fixed along with it. He did not know what he was doing, but he had to try something. But this seemed to work well enough. The blue faded, and he once again felt the sharp chill of the air.
Calmer now, Loki looked around to be sure no one had seen anything. But no one was paying him any attention. He could see Thor walking back this way, but with the snow still falling so densely, there was no way he could have seen anything from that far away.
His magic having used up all of the strength he had managed to regain with his sleep. Loki lay back down int he snow to rest some more whilst he still could. This time he was extra careful to wrap himself within his cloak as well as he could. He really did not want to have a repeat of this incident...
Author's Notes: I couldn't resist adding in some sort of reference to Loki's frost giantness. But since he can't know anything about it yet, I had to try to pass it off as frostbite in his mind. But now I keep thinking about a frost giant with frost bite...poor thing.