Your Majesty - Loki x OC

38: Cold.

FREYJA

The first thing that struck me was how otherworldly cold it was on Jotenheim.

As the portal shut behind us, I briefly considered jumping back through it and telling someone else to go instead.

A relentless, biting wind tore at my clothing and my unbound hair, whipping strands of it against my face. The cold in the air was like tiny needles on my skin. It was the kind of all consuming cold that ate at your bones and made you wish you could peel off every nerve in your body.

Suddenly I wasn't so upset with Loki for changing my boots.

In fact, the only parts of my body that didn't feel chilled were my feet and the hand that Loki was holding.

"This is a pleasant place." I remarked dryly, surveying the landscape. It was barren and very desolate, more so than any place I had ever seen. Everything seemed to be made of rock. An outcropping here, a mountain there, a glorified pile of pebbles off that way. Only a few trees dotted the landscape, and every single one of them was bare of leaves and clearly had been dead for a loooooong time.

The only thing, in fact, that indicated that any sort of civilization existed in this dismal place was the castle looming in the distance, if 'castle ' was even a good word for it. It more resembled a fortress that had been stepped on by a remarkably large foot. Even the ground was broken and jagged.

I released Loki's hand and pointed at the structure, which sat silently less than a mile away. "Why is part of it destroyed?" When I spoke, my breath turned into a small cloud that was immediately sucked away by the wind.

"Eh, funny story." He chuckled, running a hand through his sleek, black hair. "That may or may not have been where I released the power of the bifrost on Jotenheim."

"That would explain it." I squinted my eyes to try and see it more clearly through the perpetual gloom that hung over the planet like a curtain. "Do you suppose anyone is still there?"

"I hope so." He cracked his knuckles and readjusted the bag on his shoulder. "Otherwise things may become very, very complicated. Shall we?"

"We shall." I replied as he set off in the direction of the castle. I lingered for a few seconds. The thought of seeing a Frost Giant up close and personal was daunting at best, and downright frightening at worst. But I had a job to do, and I wasn't about to let that stop me.

For about the first hundred paces we traveled, the ground was more or less even, and Loki and I could traverse it with no difficulty. But after that we reached the scarred ground impacted by the blast radius, and suddenly a casual stroll looked more like a vertical rock climb.

"Why did you want to try and destroy Jotenheim, again?" I wondered out loud as I stared at the dauntingly steep rubble pile we would have to climb over.

Loki shrugged. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

I hung my head and sighed. "This is dreadful. 'Go to Jotenheim,' They said. 'It will be fun,' They said." I stretched my arms up and found a hand hold in a chunk of rock, using it to haul myself up. The material was freezing cold and burned my fingers, but I held fast.

"Option two is we stay cooped up in The Mountain Hold and wait for someone else to do this for us." Loki pointed out, climbing up behind me as I planted my boot against the rock and dragged myself further away from the ground.