Eight – A Horned Frost Giant

[Loki]

Loki came to still cradled against a Frost Giant's chest. What had changed was that they were no longer outside. The wind that had torn at his clothes before was noticeably absent, and his carrier's footsteps echoed dully.

When he cautiously lifted his head, he was greeted by the sight of walls made of solid ice.

"Do you wish to walk, Dragar?"

It took Loki a moment to understand that the Jotun had addressed him.

"What?"

The giant frowned down at him.

"I could set you down?"

The 'or I could drop you' was clearly implied. Lacking much of an alternative, Loki nodded.

Once he was back on his own feet, he could see that they were inside what must once have been a palace. There were high archways and geometrical etchings everywhere, and in some places, the tattered remnants of banners and tapestries still clung to the icy walls. Tilting his head back, Loki saw that the only light was coming trough a gaping hole in the roof. Despite the poor illumination, he could see all the cracks and imperfections of the walls, and count the lines of the etchings.

"They see in the dark, for Jötnar are creatures of night and shadow."

The memory was startling in its clarity, the voice of his nursemaid recounting tales as clear as it had been when she sat next to him at his bedside during his childhood.

"Where are we?"

The question left his lips unbidden and for a moment he wished that he could snatch the words back.

What does it matter where we are.

Laufey turned around, his eyes glinting like hot coals in the dull light.

"Isrát. The palace of Jotunheim. The old palace, where my family lives."

"The glorious luxury of a great realm."

Laufey didn't so much as flinch at the insult. He just turned around and continued walking, catching up to his soldiers and forcing Loki into a run least he be left behind.

Loki didn't know how long they had walked through the ruined palace. All the walls and corridors looked the same save for the occasional pane-less window showing a view of ice and snow and a few caved in walls. He only knew that at one point Laufey's soldiers had left, leaving him alone with the Jotun king. They passed a row of curtain-covered archways, a hallway filled with destroyed ice sculptures and a large room that might once have been a banquet hall before they finally emerged into an open courtyard.

It almost looked like a mockery of Valaskjálf, a fountain standing in the middle of a perfectly round space, ornate benches and statues dotting the rest of the space in a symmetrical arrangement. Only that where there were gold and alabaster stone in Asgard, here there was nothing but ice and a few blocks of rough pale stone.

They crossed the courtyard in silence, entering a hallway once they reached its end. Loki could see a few curtains on one side, the other decorated with even more carvings.

Laufey paused in front of the largest archway at the end of the hall. It was covered by the hide of some large animal.

"Come meet your family."

With that the Jotun king stepped through the fur curtain, not looking back to see if Loki followed him.

Loki stood in front of the covered archway, hands clutching his cape. He had no name for the feeling inside his chest. It was not fear, but it wasn't not fear either.

He could run. He could, he was alone in the corridor.

But where would he go?

Suddenly, the hide covering the archway was drawn aside. Loki jumped, hand flying to one of his hidden daggers and seidr gathering in his palms.

A blue face peeked out from behind the fur curtain.

It took the space of a few breaths for Loki to identify the creature as another Frost Giant. He had never seen one like this before.

He wondered for a moment if this was what their females looked like, horned and with hair on their heads. Then the Jotun stepped in front of the curtain, showing his flat chest, and he dismissed the thought.

"Will you not come inside? It's draughty in the hallway."

Loki blinked, once.

"Who are you?"

The Jotun tilted his head.

"I am Byleistr. Your younger sibling. I like your helmet."

"What?"

"Your helmet. I like the horns. They make you look taller. But isn't all the metal cold around your head?"

Loki blinked again, thrown.

"It's enchanted."

"Oh! Of course. You have magic!"

Loki could have sworn the creature actually sounded delighted.

"I...yes."

Byleistr bared his teeth at him. Loki instinctively took a step back, raising his dagger. The Jotun closed his mouth, frowning.

"You don't need that."

"Stay away from me!"

Byleistr raised his hands.

"I just want you to come inside. I won't hurt you!"

Loki resisted the urge to laugh. This was absurd.

"What do you want from me?"

"I told you. I want you to come inside. It's draughty out here."

"If I come with you, what happens?"

"Well. You'd be out of the draught. And you could meet the rest of your family?"

"You monsters are not my kin!"

Byleistr tilted his head again. It was an odd, tentative gesture for a giant.

"But you ralr say we are."

Something like annoyance crept into Loki's mind, momentarily breaking through his anger.

His what now?

"My what now?"

"Your ralr. Your...ah, clan markings?" Byleistr gestured. "The lines on your skin."

Suddenly, the Jotun was right up in Loki's space. Before he could so much as raise his dagger or send forth a scrap of magic, his helmet was whipped off and a cool blue finger touched his face, his vision obstructed by Byleistr's hand.

"This one, on your forehead. It's just like darí Fárbauti's. A sorcerer sickle. And these here" The finger was poked into his cheek. "are like Laufey's. Hail streaks."

"Unhand me, you foul creature. Or I will burn your hand off your arm."

Byleistr all but snatched his hand back.

"I didn't do anything to you."

Sudden and unbidden, Loki felt his eyes stinging. Wrath swept through him, making him light-headed.

"You! You did not have to do a thing, you worthless beast! Your sire DID ENOUGH!"

He threw his dagger at the Jotun, who dodged it by a hair's breadth, red eyes wide in surprise.

"Hey!"

"I want nothing to do with you! Or your whole disgusting race! Just GET AWAY FROM ME!"

The Frost Giant was backing up hastily, the ice under his bare feet cracking as if responding to his distress.

"Hey, hey. You're frightened, I understand that. But don't..."

"I AM NOT FRIGHTENED OF ANY OF YOU!"

Byleistr waved his hands as if warding off some unseen evil.

"It wouldn't matter if you were! It's normal to be afraid. You're all alone in a strange place. I would be frightened too."

Loki advanced on the Jotun, heedless of the beast's larger size, green mage-fire crackling around his hands. The giant's back hit the corridor's wall. He had the thing backed into a corner now.

"I am not frightened of you, monster."

"Alright, alright! But I am frightened of you!"

Loki froze.

"Look." Byleistr raised one of his hands, slowly. A thin blade made of ice sprouted from his fingers. When he closed them into a fist, it shattered.

"You have magic and you know how to use it. I only have a little bit of Ice, and I can't even make a proper sword with it yet. Why would you be afraid of me?"

There was a small eternity where the both of them just stood there, the only sound in the hallway their heavy breathing. Mage-fire flames whipped around Loki's hand.

He looked at Byleistr. Truly looked, trying to see past the face of a beast. He couldn't. But even faced with features that were more creature than man, one thing was plain to see.

The Jotun was terrified, backed into a wall and looking impossibly small despite his size, gaze fixed on Loki's hands. Horns and teeth and a giant's height, and the Frost Giant looked no more threatening than a mouse.

A mouse sat in front of a rather large cat, at that.

"You are afraid of me."

Loki could hear the disbelief in his own voice. It seemed Byleistr could, too.

"Well yes! You're holding fire, for Ymir's sake!"

Loki looked down at his hands. It was true. While he had not been paying attention, the mage-flames around his fingers had transformed into true fire.

His fingers were still blue and rigged like a Frost Giant's.

You are a Frost Giant, you dimwitted idiot.

All of a sudden, laughter welled up inside his chest. Loki clapped a still flame-wreathed hand over his mouth.

"Don't do that! You'll hurt yourself!"

Byleistr sprang forward, making as if to grab Loki's wrist before he remembered the fire. He stilled, a bewildered look on his face.

"You're not burning. How are you not burning? How do you do that?"

He looked honestly confused. A strangled chuckle slipped past Loki's lips. Byleistr frowned.

"What's so funny?"

"I. You. This!" Loki gestured with his hand. This was beyond absurd. "I'm a Frost Giant. Holding fire!" He giggled again, helplessly. "Odin's beard, a Frost Giant holding fire. The Norns are weeping."

Byleistr looked completely lost. Loki bent over, sides heaving with barely repressed laughter.

He barely even noticed the Jotun stepping towards the archway, drawing the curtain aside.

"Darí Laufey, darí Fárbauti. Helblindi. I think you can come out now. He's laughing."

Loki just laughed harder.

A/N: Whew, this chapter was an emotional rollercoaster. It seems that for Loki, hysteria has set in now that the first shock has passed. Hope you enjoyed, concrit is always appreciated and reviews are love.

[Side note: Technically, Loki is misgendering Byleistr in this chapter, which makes perfect sense given his ignorance about how Jotun genders work. A Frost Giant's 'neutral' (rudnar) form looks a lot like "upper half male, lower half female" only without the rounded hips of a woman and less angular than most men. Loki just assumed that 'no breasts' means male, which is not how it works.]