Blues and Heavy Metal

Chapter 1

"Loki! Loki where are you?" the young Aesir called. Huffing in annoyance, he looked down one branch of the underground corridor he faced, then the other. "Aargh," he opined, scuffling a hand through short blond hair. "Loki, mother is calling us for supper! Brother!" Thor scrunched up his face determinedly. He would find his brother.

Picking a corridor, he wandered down it. "Loooookiiiii! Loooo-hmph!"

"Shh!" Loki hissed, hand clamped over his over-loud brother's mouth. He glanced quickly out into the corridor, then dragged Thor further into the darkened alcove.

"Brother, this is no time for games," Thor huffed, only to have Loki shush him again.

"Would you be quiet? I have discovered something."

"What? Is it a monster? Is it hiding down here? We should kill it-!"

"Shhh! It might be a monster, and no you can't kill it," Loki glared. "Not yet, anyway. He comes down here every week. And disappears into a passage that doesn't exist."

"Huh?"

"A spy, brother. I think someone is spying on Asgard." Even Loki couldn't keep the excitement from his voice as peered intently back down the way Thor had come. True, they were yet only children, but they were princes of Asgard also, fated to protect Asgard and all who lived here. ...And if he could uncover a spy, see where the man went and reveal him to Father…

Loki was good with a sword, but Thor was better. Loki was good at archery, but Thor was better. Always, his brother outshone him. But this, this was Loki's chance to be better.

Footsteps echoed softly down the corridor, and even Thor fell silent, wide-eyed and wondering as he looked at Loki, who nodded, feeling a reckless grin on his face.

A man that could have been one of any of the hundreds of unobtrusive servants walked confidently past, stride purposeful and sure.

He glanced behind him as he walked, and the brothers pressed themselves back into the darkness, fortunately deep and murky, for the lower corridors are generally ill-lit.

The Aesir glanced further down the corridor then simply turned and walked into, no, through the wall.

Thor gasped softly, then slipped past Loki and arrowed straight to where the wall wasn't.

Loki gaped in surprise. Surely even Thor couldn't mean to- but he did. He had! What if the man caught Thor? Loki raced forward, flinging himself at the wall with arms braced for impact. Instead he bumped into his idiotic older brother, who had stopped just inside the dank passage. They could still hear the servant/spy somewhere ahead of them.

He hadn't heard them, good. Loki gripped Thor's arm and tried to pull him out, but the idiot only grabbed Loki's wrist in turn and started dragging them after the spy. Loki could have put up a struggle, but that would make noise, which was a bad idea.

Slowly the steps ahead of them got quieter and quieter as the spy outpaced them. Loki glanced around them, taking in the passage. It was cold, and dank. The floor was tilted slightly downward, and the walls were close together, narrowing further as they descended, leaning in and down. There was a light, faint and cool, that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere.

White started to plume out in front of the brothers as it grew colder, and now the walls and floor started to give way to bare earth, packed hard and frozen. Roots wound through here and there, and the passage closed around them claustrophobically until they almost had to twist sideways to make it through.

The spy's footsteps had gone silent, leaving them only with their own breathing and the distant, lonely howl of wind.

Still they walked, down and down. The warm palace corridor was a distant memory as Loki felt Thor start to shiver.

Finally they reached the mouth of the passage. Beyond lay ice and snow, and a howling wind like a ravenous wolf that whipped away any traces of the spy they had been following. Frozen cliffs and shattered buildings thrust jagged edges at the dark sky as the two boys stared disbelievingly at the world they found themselves in.

"W-where-?" Thor asked, dumbfounded.

Loki's brain jolted into action. This was never Asgard. That left a few options, but somehow he knew, bone-deep. "Jotunheim. We're in Jotunheim."