Lead Me Back to Normalcy
A/N: How 'bout something a little more uplifting? Yes?
A half-truth is a whole lie.
Chapter Nine: And We're off to See the … Jotun Maid?
Thor opened his eyes to find himself in a different room. Well, room would be an understatement; it was more like a grand hall, similar to that of his father's throne room in size. The interior walls were of hard, black rock, and were covered in ornamental pelts that ranged from the deepest of blacks, to the richest of whites, and to the most warm of browns. Elegantly crafted weapons hung beneath each pelt, resting on a mantel made of ice. Above the pelts, near the ceiling, crackled the fire that lit the room with its warm touch. The ceiling itself was work of art. All the constellations that could be seen on Jotunheim were carved into the hard rock with precision. Hues of gold branched off of Jotunheim in eight different directions to the other realms; silver leaves sprouted from the gold, looking as if they cushioned each realm.
"Admiring the ceiling?" The voice was feminine but deep … and full of winter's harsh cold. With a groan, Thor rolled his head to the side, wincing at the stiffness in his neck. Well, it wasn't just his neck. His whole body was stiff, tired, and weak. Thor was face to face at the feet of a frost giant. Moving his blue eyes up, he saw that she easily stood, twelve, thirteen, fifteen, maybe sixteen feet tall, but from his angle, he wasn't able to tell for sure. She wore a war skirt that was similar to what Laufey had worn. From her waist hung a large, intimidating hunting knife. Next to it dangled a pouched of arrows. The giantess' chest was bare, exposing her large breasts to the cold. Only a single, silver string fell across her chest. It took him a minute to recognize it as that of a bow.
"My eyes are up here, son of Odin," she criticized. He raised his eyes higher to see a rather young face looking down upon him. Her face was soft, heart-shaped, and complete with large, full lips. He supposed that if she weren't blue and miles taller than he, Thor might have considered her beautiful, but the red eyes… They were just creepy and so unnatural, alien looking. The fact that she had no hair either, just a baldhead only made her that much more alien to him. She annoyingly huffed at him. "Are you going to stay on the ground?" There was no patience in her voice.
"No," Thor grunted irritatingly. Slowly, painfully he mustered enough strength to raise himself onto his legs. For a moment his vision went black as he wobbled on his two feet like a newborn deer. With a few blinks, Thor found steady ground. He looked to the giantess, finally able to grasp her fierce, seventeen feet size. He felt like a dwarf next to her, especially without his beloved hammer hanging loyally by his side. Thor straightened himself to appear larger before the woman. "Where is Sigyn?" he asked quickly. Unmistakably—well, maybe a little bit on purpose—Thor's voice came off pissed.
As if he had slapped the giantess across the face, she flinched. "My daughter is fine, Thor," she chided. "I gave her a drink to help her sleep since she is tormented by Loki in her dreams. The poor thing… She is worse than a babe, crying when she wakes, having to be force fed, and generally useless." Skadi let out a heavy sigh. "I have not seen her this bad since when she was young." The giantess looked to Thor with a gaze nothing short of hate. "I would ask what happened in Asgard to upset my daughter so much, but I already know." Her voice ended with a chilling whisper. Skadi's red eyes rested upon Thor with unkindness. "I would have thought my daughter to be smarter than to mingle with your kind a second time."
Thor's lip quivered as he held back a growl. "You need not worry, Lady Skadi," he assured through clenched teeth. "Sigyn does not trust me."
The giantess laughed. She turned her back to Thor as she strode towards a large, ebon' wolf pelt. Beneath was an equally black blade on a long, slender, two-handed sword meant for an Aesir. The giantess' fingers gently fluttered over the golden hilt. "Why should she, Thor?" she mocked. "The Aesir have only caused her grief from the beginning of her life. I suppose she continues to mingle with your breed in hopes of changing that image etched into her memory. That is the cause of her grief—that I was right in the end."
"Right about what?" Thor questioned bitterly. "That the Aesir are just, brave, proud, strong—"
"And stupid," she cut off angrily. "Ignorant, and cruel." She casted her vicious eyes upon Thor again, and he felt a bitterly strong chill lick the back of his spine. There was something unstable about the giantess, like a wolf about to pounce, the snow upon the mountain about to fall, the sword ready to strike him down. "Yet, like a babe, she has yet to learn that no matter how many times you touch the fire, it shall sear your skin always."
"Are you here to criticize my heritage or to speak of business, Lady Skadi?" Thor asked curtly. He kept his chest to her, not trust his back to the giantess. His stomach grew into more knots as she turned her head away from him. Her body language, much like Loki, was unreadable without a face to place the emotions. "I will not stand for my people, my forefathers, my heritage to be mocked."
She chuckled again at him, like he was a boy. Then Skadi sighed, her mood drastically changing from one of force and anger to despair … and regret? "I have heard from Huginn and Muninn that it was you who stopped Loki. For that, I owe you my life and the life of my daughter." With ease, she lifted up the sword to the tree engraved on the ceiling. The sword seemed so small in the hands of the giantess. He watched she traced the path from the world of never ending ice to Asgard. "She has told me, in between her nightmares and sobs, that you have been good to her, Thor. She claims, that you are different than the other Aesir—you love a mortal?"
He barely nodded. "Her name is Jane Foster," Thor answered with neither glee nor somberness. "She hails from Midgard."
He saw the tiniest of empathetic looks from the giantess when he spoke of his beloved Jane. "My marriage ended because neither Njord nor I could give up our homelands, so we parted; even though we loved each other dearly. It becomes hard to love someone when she or he is very far away, Thor. Impossible really … until I saw how much love was still in my daughter's tears for Loki. Even though years have passed, she believes him to lie on the other side, she continues to love him as if he never harmed her, never left her … as if he's still coming back. Do believe Jane does the same for you, Thor? Is she as loyal as the goddess of fidelity?"
He was silent; his lips pulled into a deep scowl. From what Heimdall had told him, Jane still searched for his image in the stars every night, but Heimdall never said it was out of love that she searched for him. The guard never specified why she looked for him, only that she looked. "I can only hope she waits for me as I wait for her," Thor answered. "If she does not, I shall understand her reasons. If she does—" His eyes were alit with a sparkle in them. He recalled Jane's soft mouth upon his, the taste of blood, sand, sadness, and hope. A smile tugged at the edges of his full lips. Thor's heart skipped a beat at the possibility of holding her in his arms again, kissing her in the sand, and laying her to bed. "I will be elated."
Skadi's eyes smirked with danger. "Can you imagine having to endure that waiting, unsure of whether your love still loves you not once, not twice, but many, many times?"
He had a hard time swallowing down a bitter pill. "No," Thor breathed as he felt the dagger slide further into his heart. He bowed his head to his chest. "Once is enough… To go through it more than once would be an unusual and cruel punishment."
"Loki has left my daughter many, many times; sometimes for seasons on end, Thor," Skadi told in a rather omniscient voice. "She has endured this pain many times over because he could never stay in one place. Njord thought it best for Sigyn to remain in one place so she would have stability, but her stability never came from being in one place—it came from being with one person." She lowered the sword, flipped it around, and held out the hilt to Thor. "As much as he undeserving of her as he is, Loki was that stable force in her life. She needs that, Thor."
Thor lifted his head, noticing the worry lines that were being carved into the giantess' youthful face. "What are you wanting me to do, Lady Skadi?" he asked. He gripped the hilt of the sword tightly. The giantess let go, watching as Thor twisted the weapon around with ease and skill of many centuries of fighting.
"Loki lives," Skadi breathed heavily. Thor felt the breath knocked out of him. "I saw him limping off into the distance when he came through the bifrost. He disappeared into one of the caverns and was never seen again. I assume has gone to Midgard because that is where your woman is. So you must go there because he is the only one within the nine realms who will know how to fix my daughter so that she may be well again." Thor's eyes were wide, his mouth parted with no words, and his brain numb to all actions but listening. "I will aid you to Midgard, but on the condition you will protect my daughter from your brother.
"So swear upon that sword given unto me by your father that you will do so, Thor Odinson. Swear to me that you will protect my daughter." The giantess looked to him, and he looked to her with unsure eyes. Anxiety poured through him. Loki lived? Then why in Odin's name had he not returned home? Then a flash of rage came through him quickly and only lasted a second, but it was a second long enough that he felt his muscles tense. If Loki had dared to lay a hand on Jane... Then Thor fell to his knees, holding his upper body up by gripping the sword.
"I will swear only because I promised Sigyn I would aid her in her recovery to becoming well again," Thor spoke, making his point clear to the giantess. Though Sigyn had sworn she did not trust him, he would not allow that to break his oath. "I swear to protect your daughter."
"Swear you will become that stable force in her life while on Midgard?"
"I swear."
"Swear, that if need be and called upon, you will kill your brother, Loki Odinson, should he dare harm my daughter?" the giantess asked, her voice turning a dangerous cold.
Thor stared the giantess in the eyes, matching her strong gaze. He shook his head before rising. "I cannot do that mi'lady," he replied in a strained voice. "Loki may not be my brother by blood, but that does not mean I regard him as anything less than a blood brother." He stood tall and puffed out his chest as the giantess eyed him angrily.
"Even though he lied to you about your mother? Your father?" Skadi retorted. "Even though he would've slain you to rule Asgard? Even though he is evil?" She saw the slightest come through the god in an insecure blink. She leaped at the opportunity like a hungry wolf. "Loki is an evil god of lies, deception, and black magic. He cares for no one but himself. Sigyn is living proof of that."
Thor heard an audible crack inside his chest and echo off the inside of his skull. A warm feeling washed through his body, delivering relief and strength to his sullen bones. From the source came hotter liquid and only enhanced the heat flowing inside of him. "My brother is not the god of evil," he growled through to clenched teeth. "He is mischievous, yes, but everything he does, he does for a reason. He is the one to bring about change. Not just any change mind you, but needed change. My brother, he is the greatest King's fool to ever live, Lady Skadi.
"As a king's fool, he makes us laugh at our own expense, envious of his wit and charm, and is the only one who can speak the truth without losing his head. His silver tongue makes him invaluable to any king wise enough to realize this. He single handedly kept the Vanir and Aesir from going to war a second time. He has always looked after the good of Asgard and her people. Loki has, if not always, been a much better prospect for being the king of Asgard than I." Thor's voice was straining from the intensity of the heat rolling through him. The pent of energy begged, pleaded, and screamed for release. His sharp actions of walking around the giantess as he spoke gave away his dangerous attitude. "He has been nothing but good to Sigyn. She would not have loved him otherwise. If what you say is true, Lady Skadi, then the reason she still loves him so dearly is because he was so good to her."
The giantess whipped her head away from the sight of Thor. "You feel that strongly for your brother?" she stated rhetorically. She sneered at the their bond before laughing hysterically. Thor was beyond irate at her rudeness. She quelled her laugh as she noticed his hand wrapping around the hilt of the sword. The room became ominously quiet. Skadi took a deep breath as she recovered from her hard laugh. "I must say, perhaps you are more suited for each other than what I first thought. After all, if it weren't for the fact that Balder is dead, he would have casted you aside like he did Loki because of your blood."
"My blood?" Thor questioned.
"Of course," Skadi answered aloofly. "It is the reason Sigyn has only stayed around you this long. It is the only reason she ever showed herself to Loki in the first place."
"What's that suppose to mean?" he asked bitterly; his aggravation only grew as she continued to suggest the answer vaguely.
"You are truly thick-headed, aren't you?" she bit back viciously. "The only reason Sigyn ever came out of the bushes when Loki strolled through Njord's garden was because she knew he wasn't Aesir—er, full Aesir. She knew him to be different, like her, so she showed herself to him. Look, he isn't Aesir at all! He's a Jotun! What a cruel prank the universe has played upon him!" She chuckled too happily for Thor's taste. "Though she distrusts you, Thor, she continues to hang about you like a puppy because you are not full Aesir. In the mind, just like Loki, you are full Aesir; beyond that, you are not. Just like Sigyn, you are Jotun underneath your Aesir skin."
"I am the son of Odin—"
"That you are!" Skadi interjected. "But you are not the son of Frigga. No, you look nothing like her. I'm sure others have told you that too, no?" Thor's eyes were narrowing upon the giantess. "I'm sure people told you, you looked like your father, only because they didn't know what your mother looked like, but I do. I can say that you have your mother's skin in your iris, Thor. You have her strength no doubt!" Skadi pushed open the doors that led out of her throne room and to the grand ice halls. "Just like Loki, he failed to tell you of your heritage. Not that it really surprises me considering Odin is the greatest god of deceit, more so than Loki. Think about it… Odin was able to keep the secret of Loki's heritage from Frigga, from you, and from Loki himself. Would it really surprise you if he kept the secret of you being a half-breed? After all, you would've been considered a disgrace, just like my daughter was when she was but a wee babe."
The giantess straightened herself, standing on edge as always. The fire's light in her red eyes seemed, daemonic in nature and as changing as the seasons. "Now, go comfort my daughter, knowing that you two are the same vile offspring of a union that is damned by all. Take the hallway to the left, then another left, and the door at the end of the corridor. You'll have a lot to talk about with her, Thor Jordson," Skadi ended. She turned her back to him one last time before disappearing into the rock wall like it were water.