Dark and Frozen Wasteland

Without stopping, Thor, the Warriors Three, Sif and I made our way towards where the horses were kept outside the Palace of Valaskjalf. No one seemed to ask what we were doing, which was handy, but is still couldn't help asking myself the same thing. Why was I going? I had no reason to, other than to watch us all get defeated. As long as it is obvious that Thor disobeyed Father, then we—I will have no other reason to stay. Quickly, I approached a guard that was standing outside the stables and warned him about what we were doing. He hardly seemed to be listening, and just nodded, continuing along with his conversation with the guard next to him once I walked away. I felt anger rise within me, but I pushed it down once again. Why couldn't a single person take my position as the KING'S SON seriously for one second?
Not to my surprise, no one had noticed that I had left, and I just sighed to myself and mounted on the horse. We all rode through the common streets of Asgard, and I looked at some of the people, just minding their own business. It felt good to feel like I was above someone, for once, instead of being looked down on like I was in the Palace. The way the people on the streets looked at us—whether it was with admiration, fear, excitement, pride—it was…exhilarating, almost. Like I was finally getting the respect I had always deserved.

As we neared the Rainbow Bridge, I saw the Bifröst come into view. It was a dimensional energy that allows one to travel instantaneously within the entirety of the Nine Realms. It was stationed on the very edge of Asgard, where the water flowed off the side of our planet. Some time ago our family would travel down to planets such as Midgard—Earth—to be praised as Gods. It was how I earned my fitting title as the God of Mischief.
I looked down on the Bridge to see a flash of rainbow colours run by as we travelled quickly across it, and water rushed by on either side of it. Soon, we got closer, and I could start to see the outline of the Gatekeeper, Heimdall, waiting for us. Personally, I absolutely despised him. Heimdall had the power to see and hear anything and everything that is happening in all of the Nine Realms. So, because of this fact, it made it increasingly difficult to hide a few Frost Giants from the view the all-seeing Gatekeeper. Honestly, I thought it was a bit of an invasion of privacy, but no one else saw that.
We dismounted our horses and walked up to Heimdall, who was standing in front of the Bifröst with his hands on Hofund, the Bifröst Sword, with the tip of the blade resting on the ground. I quickly sped up my pace to get ahead of the others, seizing the chance to prove myself. "I can handle this," I said to Thor, smirking and approaching the Gatekeeper. As usual, he had his fancy pure golden armour on, which was a little over the top in my opinion. I, however, had changed into something more lowkey, still in green and gold, but a little less excessive.
"Good Heimdall," I said, coming to a stop in front of him. "I—"
"You aren't dressed warmly enough," he said before I could even get another word out. Of course.
"I'm sorry?" I said, resisting the desire to hit him.
"You really think you can deceive me?" He asked, sounding quite bored, which only added more salt to the wound. I smiled, chuckling.
"You must be mistaken, we—"
"Enough!" Thor yelled stepping up in front of me. I froze, trying to keep my expression from becoming to hurt. Because it did hurt, whether I wanted to admit it or not, it did, and I hated being undermined, and this was probably my only chance to be useful, and Thor stepped on my moment, once again, because he was just so much better than me at everything. I knew it wasn't as big a deal as it felt, and I hated myself for feeling like it was, but it happened all the goddamn time and I was over it.
"Heimdall, may we pass?" Thor asked bluntly. I already knew he was going to let us go through. Everyone listened to him.
"Never had an enemy of Asgard slipped my watch until this day," he spoke seriously, sounding way more interested when he was speaking to Thor. Maybe I was just imagining it. "I wish to know how that happened," he continued.
"Then tell no one where we have gone until we return, understand?" Thor demanded, walking straight past Heimdall into the Bifröst. I stood still, chewing the inside of my cheek as the others walked past me, looking at the ground.
"What happened?" Volstagg asked as he came past me. "Silver tongue turn to lead?" Fandral and him laughed together, and I watched them walk after Thor, fighting the tears out of my eyes. Gods, why did this bother me so much!? It was insulting that's why! An insult to my title and my skills. If they knew what I was really capable of, then they would be cowering in fear instead of mocking me.
"Get me off this bridge before it cracks under your girth," I muttered at Volstagg, even though he didn't hear me, and I followed my "friends" into the Bifröst.
It was a grand, circular room stationed at the end of the Bridge, with a large point like a horn on top of it. Like almost everything else in Asgard, it too was almost fully gold, and perfectly clean and shiny in the sun. On the inside was a podium with a shaft about a metre tall on top of it; that was where the Sword went, which, when inserted, gave Heimdall full access to all the Realms. Directly in front of the podium, on the other end of the room, was a sort of tunnel which was open to the view of the stars, where, once the Bifröst was activated, we would walk through to our destination—Jotunheim.
The walls of this circular golden room were covered in smooth, intricately designed cogs with pretty little patterns on them, large and small. We all faced the tunnel, Thor in front, obviously, but I wasn't far behind. I was also the only one who didn't have a weapon.
Heimdall inserted Hofund into the shaft and immediately white sparks of lightning projected out of the shaft—or the Sword, it was hard to tell—and hit the cogs on the walls and roof of the room. Underneath us, something heaved and spun, getting jumpstarted by the electricity, and I could feel the vibrations from it whirling around through my feet. The outside shell of the dome spun quickly around us, the open space at the end of the tunnel becoming a blur. As the spinning and whirring sped up, the horn on the top of the dome went down in front of the tunnel, getting ready to teleport us somewhere. The sides of the horn opened up.
"Be warned," the Gatekeeper said, "I will honour my oath to protect Asgard as its Keeper. If your return should endanger the safety of this realm, the Bifröst will remain closed."
Okay, so that was new. I looked back at Heimdall. He was prepared to leave both the princes of Asgard plus the highly respected warriors and a Lady stranded on the frozen wasteland if it risks bringing a few Jötuns in!? I don't know if it's just me, but that sounded like a pretty ridiculous thing to do.
"Couldn't you just leave the bridge open?" Volstagg asked. I felt myself wanting to roll my eyes at him. If he could leave it open, then he would leave it open. Simple.
"To leave the bridge open would unleash the full power of the Bifröst and destroy Jotunheim with you upon it," Heimdall replied. Huh, so that was something I didn't know. Interesting… I'll keep that noted.
With a few more words from Thor, the Gatekeeper twisted the Bifröst Sword in its shaft and immediately the six of us were pulled into the tunnel. Every single colour you could think of flashed before my eyes as we tore through the expanse in between the branches of Yggdrasil—the World Tree. In a few more moments, I could start to see our destination through the flashing colours, and in a cloud of smoke, we landed on Jotunheim.
Already, before I even had a proper look around, I could feel the misery radiating off of this place. The sky was dark, the ground was grey, the rocks were black and crumbling. I could see why the Jötuns were such monstrous creatures—this place could make anyone turn to the dark side. Once the smoke cleared properly, I looked around at the scene. We were standing on a cliff, a very steep one at that, and there was a large gap on the other side of which was a wider, sturdier block of land. It was covered in a layer of ice, and blocky stone columns rose out of the ground in random places, like maybe there used to be a Palace or something of the likes around here, but it was now reduced to ruins.
If I looked closer at the columns, then I could see more detailed patterns carved into them, and it didn't actually look too bad. Surrounding both pieces of land—the one we were standing on and the one with the columns—was vast emptiness. Just canyons and colossal holes that went on for miles. Falling would certainly mean death. Perhaps there was once a sea that filled the emptiness, but for now, there was nothing.
I could see the others taking in the sight of the ruined structures, just like I was. But Hogan—one of the Warriors Three—he felt what I had felt. A great darkness and evil that was willing us to leave. "We shouldn't be here," he muttered. I totally agreed.
Thor, seemingly completely ignoring every warning the Gods were giving us, proceeded to walk forward, and everyone else did in suit, as we made our way up onto the second piece of land. There was an eerie quiet about it all, which was broken by the collapsing of one of the columns. It was loud but ultimately deafened by the surrounding quite. As we continued to wander around, I felt a peculiar familiarity wash over my senses, but I couldn't place it. I didn't know this land at all, but there was something almost recognisable about it. Light snow began to fall, twisting and turning in the wind, but it didn't feel cold to me. It felt more…normal, which was concerning.
Once we got deeper into the area, I could start to make out more ruined buildings. I could see walls, maybe houses, lots more random columns, and more indecipherable things that had once been great. Our path got rockier, and I could see the others getting cold. Weirdly, I still felt fine. I told myself I was just adapting quickly, but I knew that it was something deeper than that.
Finally, we found a palace. It was smaller, darker in colour, and not as grand as Asgard's, but it was intact, at least, which probably meant someone was still there. I felt eyes on me, but the quite was too loud, and there was literally no other soul in sight.
"Where are they?" Sif said softly, looking concerned. I was wondering the exact same thing.
"Hiding," my brother replied definitely, staring up at the palace. "As cowards always do." Literally moments after Thor had said that, a raspy, strangely low voice rang out.
"You have come a long way to die, Asgardians."

I assumed this was Laufey, and again, I felt an unnerving wave of déjà vu. I shivered.
"I am Thor Odinson!" Thor yelled to the air. Laufey was still nowhere to be seen. The voice promptly told us he knew who we were, which wasn't surprising. My brother wasn't exactly discreet.

"How did your people get into Asgard?" Thor exclaimed, looking up at the palace. After a long moment, the voice rang out again.

"The house of Odin is full of traitors," Laufey replied slowly. I hid a smile. Yes, it was.

"Don't you dare dishonour my father's name!" Thor yelled. Finally, King Laufey emerged, rising up out of a crevice in between columns."

"You father is a murderer and a thief!"

I felt my heart beat faster as I took in his sight. He was massive, bigger than I could have imagined. Blue, with darker markings etched over his body, with dark red eyes. Why did this all feel so familiar!?

"And why did all of you petty Asgardians come here?" Laufey continued. "To make peace? Don't try to fool me—you long for battle. You crave it." He looked directly at Thor. "You are nothing but a boy… trying to prove himself a man. A man strong enough to take on a race."

Thor rolled his eyes, but I knew his patience was wearing thin. I internally cursed that guard. We should be gone by now if he had done his job right.

"Well, this boy," he said, "has grown tired of your mockery." As they had been speaking, more Jötuns had emerged from the shadows, long, sharp, ice-y pointed spears covering their hands. Thor looked around and noticed them too. There were… lots… many more than we had predicted. We weren't gonna make it out of here alive. I came up from behind Thor and whispered in his ear.

"Brother, stop and think. Look around you. We are outnumbered—"

"Know your place, Loki," he said angrily, cutting me off, as usual. I sighed quietly.

"You know not what your foolish actions have now unleashed," said Laufey. "Leave this realm now, while I still allow it." His voice was full of hatred, and he walked towards us, towering over our tiny little bodies. I looked at him, fear pumping through my chest. Every single inch of me was screaming to use my magic, run away, hide, do anything, but I was frozen, standing close to my brother, as the thing we were taught to be scared of stood over us. Thor wasn't going to back down, so I needed to do something, say something. I mustered up some courage and opened my mouth.

"We will accept… your most gracious offer." Thor looked back at me, his mouth hanging open slightly. Laufey was still looking at him, like I hadn't even said anything, and I tugged slightly on my brother's arm. He shook me off and I slowly turned around, still keeping an eye on the Jötunn. Thor, obviously with great restraint, followed in suit and soon all of eyes were now walking back to a clear space to use the Bifröst.

"Run back home, little princess," Laufey muttered.

"Dammit," I swore under my breath, knowing there was no going back now. Thor chuckled and grabbed his hammer tighter before turning around and smashing it into the king's face, sending him flying backwards into the rocks. The rest of the Giants stepped forward towards us, and Thor started fighting them without hesitation, as did everyone else. I wasn't a fighter, I wasn't very good, as I had always been told, but really, all option was gone now, so I spawned a dagger and threw it at an incoming Jötunn, and he roared in rage as it shattered his ice spike.

As Thor and the others fought with more up-close brutality, I just kept them from coming near me. These ones weren't as large as Laufey was, but they were still a good two feet taller than me, and it would be hard to fight them up close. I broke their weapons, I threw daggers into their faces, and it worked, they kept back, until more started crowding in, and it was becoming harder. Wider, more meatier Frost Giants were brought into the mix, and Thor looked like he was thoroughly enjoying the challenge. Me on the other hand, was somehow sweating in the cold, and definitely struggling to keep them at bay.

I heard a loud roar come from behind me, and I turned around to see a bigger Giant running at me. He was a lighter shade of blue. I stumbled toward the edge of a cliff, before turning myself invisible and separating from my illusion. To the Jötunn, I was just standing stupidly at the edge of the precipice, looking terrified, but my real invisible self crept behind a column and watched as the Frost Giant fell through my illusion and tumbled down the cliff. Smiling to myself, I wrenched my wrist and the projection fell. fell. I'd like to see Thor try and do that.

From the other side of the battle, I heard what sounded like Volstagg roar in pain. I looked over to see him kill a Giant, but there was an open smoking patch on his arm. "Don't let them touch you!" He yelled. Right, so they must have some kind of frostbite ability. That's handy. More crowded towards me and I swiftly killed them, but it was starting to get overwhelming. I lunged forward and created another dagger, aggressively stabbing the creature in the chest, but as he fell to his knees—only now matching my height—he grabbed onto my arm. The armour and gloves covering my hand quickly fell away, revealing my bare, trembling, blue forearm. Starting at the Jötuns touch, my skin turned progressively bluer, the same dark markings as the Giants swirling about on my arm. Horrified, I turned my hand over and saw the same was happening to the other side. It didn't hurt either—it felt… natural. It felt good, which terrified me even more. The Frost Giant looked at me, and I met his eyes. He was just as confused as I was.
With a grunt, I twisted the dagger deeper into him and he fell, but I didn't even care about that. I stared at my arm as the blue hue faded from it, giving me back my normal pale skin again. Okay, what the Hel was that!? Am I a Frost Giant!? What is going on? Tears sprung back into my eyes and I tore my gaze away from it. No, it couldn't be possible—it wasn't possible. I am the son of Odin. I'm Asgardian—surely?

My thoughts were broken with a scream from Fandral, and I snapped my head up towards the noise. He had been stabbed through shoulder by icicle spikes that a Jötunn had made come out of the ground. Yet another thing I didn't know they could do. If I was of their blood, could I do the same? I pushed that thought back down and threw a dagger at the throat of Giant who hurt Fandral, which then made me feel a little guilty. Was I killing my own people?
Sif and Volstagg helped Fandral out of the ice, and yelled to my brother, who was still easily fighting the Jötuns. "Thor, we must go!"

Thor knocked back two more Giants with his hammer. "Then go!" He yelled, clearly not planning on stopping, despite the fact that we were losing very quickly. I saw Laufey watch this with horror and rage on his face. Should I be feeling the same? Am I feeling the same? He held is hand out and the ground to the left on my shined and cracked as it travelled to what looked a statue. The ice frozen around the statue crackled and a bright red eye appeared and blinked. It was not a statue. We were screwed.

The beast moved and ran forward, shaking off all the extra ice. It was massive, 20 times the size of Laufey, and had wicked looking tusks, teeth, and claws. It could rip me apart like paper. I sprinted, Fandral on Volstagg's back, Sif and Hogun still fighting off extra Giants. Thor, on the other hand, didn't even seem to notice what was happening and kept fighting anyway.

The monster ran on all four legs towards us at a frighteningly fast speed. Once it got close enough, I forced a column down behind us with my mind, blocking the path of the beast. It literally did not a single thing—the creature just smashed through it like it was nothing and continued after us. What in the world was that guard doing!? Why didn't Odin know we were here yet!? It flung its massively oversized tail at Sif, who froze as the spikes on the end of the tail hit the space around her.
I looked back; Thor was still being useless fighting the Jötuns at the Palace instead of helping us. What the Hel were we supposed to do against a giant Frost Beast? My brother must have summoned lightning with his hammer because it struck the ground where he was, and everything—the ground, the buildings, the Giants—went flying backwards. I watched in horror as the earth from that point onwards collapsed in on itself. Yes, it was killing the Frost Giants, but it was still spreading, and soon the ground where the rest of us where standing would fall, and we would die.

We started running again, and the beast still followed, the imploding ground caught up to it, and he ended up falling too. We outran the quake, and reached the end of the land before it could catch up to us. "Heimdall!" Somone—Volstagg, I think—shouted. "Open the bridge!"

I waited for a few moments. Nothing happened. No light, no rainbow, no Bifröst. Suddenly, the Frost Beast claw came back up from the edge of the cliff. Of course he wasn't dead. I could never be that lucky. We backed up as it climbed back up onto the semi-steady ground, feeling even more terrified than before as it roared at us. It crept closer, slowly, and we backed away, equally slowly. I felt my hands shaking, sweating once again in the cold. We were going to die.

It reared up onto its back legs and opened its mouth when Thor flew through its mouth and shot out of the back of its throat. Yes, he can fly. The beast cried out and fell backwards, tumbling off of the cliff. Thor landed in its place, looking proud before he realised what was coming. Somehow, even more Frost Giants were running toward us. I didn't even know there were this many before Odin slaughtered most of them, let alone after. Once again, my body was crying run, hide, use your magic, but once again I was frozen, unable to move or do anything. But finally, an explosion of light came out of the sky and a rainbow stream of colour hit the ground in front of us, revealing Odin on his eight-legged horse Sleipnir, spear in hand.