A Whole Bunch of Loki's

Like That One Story...-Beauty and the Beast AU - JotunLoki

Loki looked around with a frown of discomfort.

He'd never ventured this far before alone and was beginning to feel unsettled, but he was hopelessly lost and with night falling fast he knew that he had to find shelter in case the unfamiliar weather conditions shifted drastically.

The weather where he was from stayed near enough consistent, it wasn't like Jotunheim was often afflicted with burning sun or heavy rain, it was always icy and cold and that was how the young Frost Giant liked it.

Here was completely different.

The sky that he could see through the browning leaves on the trees was overcast and dark grey, heavy with rain and a disturbing silence that was broken occasionally by distant rumbles of thunder.

It was unlike Loki to be so nervous, but having never travelled too far beyond his own realm he had never experienced an environment such as this one and didn't know what to expect.

Of course, he had read about the many different realms out there in his many books, however, travelling to one was completely different.

He wasn't sure what kind of creatures to expect, so far in his time of walking he'd come across mostly small animals that seemed unimposing, if anything he was the more intimidating one amongst all his encounters, but there was always that chance of coming across something much more threatening.

It wasn't as if he could blend into his surrounding either.

If his height didn't make it difficult for him to hide within his surroundings, then his blue skin with its intricate natural engravements and red eyes surely did.

Another low growl from the sky made him look up, just in time for a slew of raindrops that managed to slip between the branches to hit him in the face.

He let out a loaded sigh and tucked himself further into the furred coat he took from home, trying his best to over his otherwise exposed torso.

The flickering fire from the lantern he was carrying seemed dangerously close to burning out and he was already losing light fast, just like his hope.

Loki continued to trudge through the forest, the floor beneath his booted feet getting damper as the rain hit the mud and as it began to loosen up, he found that occasionally his foot would slip out from beneath him and almost send him sprawling over.

This made him step a little more carefully, but unfortunately slowed him down that little bit more.

He'd lost track of how many times his feet had slid out from underneath him when he finally stumbled upon somewhere that looked at least temporarily habitable.

Barely thirty feet in front of him stood a tall and beautiful, but sadly severely abandoned and unkept manor.

There were many components and floors to the manor that stood in front of him, it reminded him of a monarch's home in the stories he'd been told as a child.

To each side of the main building was another separate tower with two more behind those and it was all topped off with dangerous spikes, everything about the place screamed that it should be left alone.

The bricks and wood of the grand building looked like they were losing their colour, at least from what he could see from amongst the green vines that wound themselves all over both the bricks and the garden, but even the plant life seemed to be a duller green and looked more lifeless than anything botanical thing should be.

Spreading out for what could have been miles before the manor was a garden, also untrimmed and overgrowing with plants that looked wilted but triumphant in their take over of the home.

On the other side of the gates he could see a grey stone path that was cracked and overtaken by weeds, clearly no one had walked down it for years.

Truth be told, with how grand it was, he was amazed that he hadn't noticed it from miles away, at least until he got closer and noticed that there was a glamour of magic around the rusted iron gates

"Strange," he murmured to himself, running his hand along the barrier only visible to him and feeling the vibrations of the magic against his fingertips, "but easy to break."

He chuckled to himself and began to focus his seiðr on breaking the magic, not for one moment stopping to think if this was really a good idea nor contemplate why such a barrier would be put up in the first place.

Was it to keep something out or to trap something in?

All Loki cared about was shelter and food in his moment of desperation, not that he expected any edible food to be in such a run-down manor but there were still a few bits in the pack he had resting against his hip.

It took no time for the magic to dissolve, much to Loki's surprise and gratefulness, and he hastily pushed the gates open.

Stepping into the garden, he ignored the horrid squeak that came from the gate's hinges and made his way down the path, stamping on, swiping and kicking the plants until he reached the dark wood of the front door that was as tall as he was.

He'd been so focused on getting through the mass of plants that he failed to notice the shadowed figure that loomed in one of the upper windows, staring down at the Jotun with a displeased sneer.