Loki's foot slipped sideways. He crumpled onto the water-soaked dirt, rolling twice before the momentum from his leap through the portal was exhausted.

'Close the portal,' Baugi hissed into Loki's ear as he pulled Loki to his feet.

Yes, obviously.

Loki flung out his hands. Tossing aside the care he had taken in creating the portal, he worked through the spell as quickly as he physically could and then pooled the sum of his magic at the pulsing opening between the realms. To his satisfaction, the portal blinked shut.

Less satisfactory, his knees shook and acid rushed into his mouth - an ominous warning about the consequences of over-exertion.

'Baugi, I need a minute.'

The frost giant grabbed Loki's shoulder, his grip sure to leave finger-shaped bruises across Loki's skin. 'Keep your sword at the ready.'

Loki followed the line of Baugi's gaze and groaned. The easiest way to manage a hostile intrusion was to prevent it happening and Tyr wasn't a total dullard. He had left a formidable group of Einherjar guarding the portal from this side. A trio of low-ranked soldiers, probably watch-keepers, were already advancing towards Loki and Baugi, and more men were emerging from the Asgardian camp sprawled across the field to the east.

'Good morning,' Loki said in the most cordial tone he could manage.

'Identify yourself! What's your business here?' one of the watch-keepers shot back. 'What's the frost gi -'

'It's the traitor!' the man next to him shouted.

Baugi broke into a sprint, half-dragging Loki after him and fled south into the thick forest. The snow was melting, water dripped from the branches above and the ground underfoot was a foul, brown muck. With every step, Loki's feet seemed to sink deeper. This trek would have been hard work even if he hadn't been exhausted already.

'Keep up!' Baugi barked out. 'Can't you hear them?'

Loki didn't have a breath to spare for a reply, but he certainly heard the Einherjari soldiers and the arrows they sent after them. The situation seemed unwinnable. Even if Baugi and Loki were to move swiftly enough for the Asgardians to lose sight of them, the soldiers would follow their tracks. With the mud on the ground, each step was so clear, a blind man would find them with ease.

Perhaps it'd be better to get caught, recuperate and escape later?

No, the first thing they'll do is take us back to Asgard.

Baugi grabbed Loki's shirt front. 'Move your bloody feet!'

'Trying!' Loki spat back. 'You realise I'm shor -'

Baugi leaped forward, pulling Loki after him. For a long moment there was no ground beneath them, then they landed into an ice-cold creek. Loki gulped for air. The creek-bed was rocky and the water temperature stole what little there had been left in his lungs. Baugi, however, wasn't about to indulge Loki. Once more, he dragged him to his feet.

They followed the creek down the deep ravine that years of snow-melt and landslides had gouged into the hill. Men shouted to each other above and behind them. Baugi's strategy didn't seem particularly intelligent. The Einherjar could follow them along the edge ravine and pick them off with their bows.

'Here.' Baugi slammed Loki into the side of the ravine.

Holding Loki in place with one hand, he scouted the cliff face with the other, then pressed into it. Loki slid backwards as a door swung open behind him. He managed to catch himself this time.

'We'll be safe in here,' Baugi muttered as he slid the door shut and left them in utter darkness.

Loki didn't care. He felt around for a solid wall to lean against and rested there until he caught his breath.

Baugi meanwhile rummaged about. After several barely comprehensible swear-words, Baugi fell silent and light burst out of his hand. Loki squinted. It was some sort of crystal lamp. The light had a cold, green tinge to it, but it illuminated the space around them well enough.

'Where are we?' Loki asked.

'Let's move away from the entrance,' Baugi said. 'In case they hear us from the other side.'

Loki nodded and followed Baugi down the tunnel. The ceiling was high enough for Baugi to stand upright and the walls wide enough apart for two people to walk abreast. For all the mud and water outside, in here the air was dry and the mud their passage left behind was the only sign of contamination from the outside world.

'What's the matter with you?' Baugi asked.

Loki shrugged. 'Your legs are longer than mine.'

'There's that, yes. Except, you didn't look right before we had to run either.'

'I threw far more than I needed to into the spell to close the portal. If you remember, I screwed up that spell the last time I attempted it, I wanted to make sure I got it right this time. Well, it worked, I guess.'

'Do you -'

'I'll be fine in a few minutes,' Loki said. 'What is this tunnel?'

Baugi scrunched up his nose. 'This is part of a network of tunnels that run under Jotunheim. I expect this is why Asgardian soldiers have been having such a hard time here. It's not easy to fight an enemy who can sneak up behind your back.'

'Will this tunnel take us to Utgard?'

'One of the tunnels will.'

'Then lead on.'

'First, turn back,' Baugi replied. 'You do us no favours in this form.'

Loki had to concede the point to Baugi. The Einherjar thought Loki a traitor and seeing him on Jotunheim in the company of a frost giant would have only reinforced that belief. And should the frost giants catch him, they would probably kill him before he had a chance to explain himself. They were at war with Asgard after all.

And it will take some of the strain off.

Loki let the concealment over his skin drop, but abused what reserves remained within him to cloak himself in a replica of the armour worn by the frost giants Helblindi had led into Asgard.

'Passable?' Loki glanced up at Baugi.

'You look ridiculous. No Bradi would wear a warrior's armour.'

'My father's from a warrior clan, is he not?'

Baugi scoffed. 'Yes, but you take after your mother.'

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The condescension in his tone was so palpable, he might as well have patted Loki over the head like he was an errant child. Loki swept his hand up and his clothes reverted to the casual tunic and trousers he had worn back in the cell. Without the filth he had picked up in the brief period of time he had spent in Jotunheim, of course. He kept the warrior's fur-lined boots too. This was Jotunheim, it was only a matter of time until they had to trudge through a muddy field or a half-frozen swamp.

'Let's keep moving,' Loki said.

They walked for a long while, barely exchanging a word. Loki eventually felt better, but he struggled to tell how much time had passed, how far they had travelled or how deep underground they were. Their path seemed to slope up for several hundred metres then would start to slope down. The walls were bare, save for the symbols painted beside each path whenever there was a fork. There was some code to them, but Loki couldn't make sense of it and Baugi refused to explain.

At a four-way fork, Baugi jerked to a stop.

'Are we lost?' Loki asked.

'No.' Baugi motioned for Loki to stay put and ducked into the leftmost passage. Just as Loki became concerned the frost giant had abandoned him in this underground maze, Baugi reappeared with a small, wooden chest in his hands. 'Care for some food?'

'I won't say no.'

Baugi flipped open the lid and pulled out two small packs wrapped in thin cloth. He threw one to Loki and kept the other for himself, then re-stowed the chest in whichever crevice he had found it. Once Loki unwrapped the cloth, he found a few pieces of half-frozen jerky and two biscuits so hard Loki suspected only Mjolnir would be able to break them.

As they resumed their trudge, Loki picked out about a third of the jerky and tried to heat it up. The end result was tolerable, but the jerky acquired a sour aftertaste - an inevitable result of contaminating good food with magic.

Baugi seemed to be attempting to soften his biscuit by sucking on it, but with little success. He pulled the biscuit away from his mouth and glared at it. 'They used to have better food stored in these boxes, but the rangers kept stealing it for themselves.'

'It must be a dull job to keep these tunnels resupplied,' Loki replied.

'Better that than actually digging out these tunnels.' With a crack that made Loki's teeth hurt, Baugi bit through the biscuit and chewed it. 'What will happen to the woman who helped us back in your palace?'

'That was Frigga, the Queen of Asgard. She'll probably be confined to her quarters again and placed under heavier guard than before. It's her co-conspirators I would worry about more; they don't have the security her rank offers her.'

'She was the woman who raised you?'

'She's my mother, yes.'

'Your real mother was a creature of magic, so too is this Frigga. The Norns play strange games sometimes,' Baugi said.

Loki frowned. 'Did you know my birth mother?'

'Never met her.'

'How do you even know who she was? You seem very certain about my parentage.'

Baugi turned to look directly at Loki. 'You are a strange one. Although I said you take after your mother, that's not wholly true. Your stature and your magic certainly point towards the Bradi, but your clan markings are almost replicate Laufey's. It's rare to see a child's markings to so heavily favour one parent.'

'And from that we can extrapolate the truth easily enough.'

'Everyone here knows the story of Laufey's lost bastard child.' Baugi chuckled, startling Loki a little. 'You lied back on Asgard. The reveal of your heritage wasn't news to you. When you came to question me, you trailed off on what I thought was an odd tangent, asking about Laufey's old lover. But the tangent is only natural if you already knew about your father and were seeking your mother.'

'I wasn't seeking anyone. My questions were pertinent to my concerns about the security of Asgard and its people.'

'Every abandoned child seeks his mother.'

Loki glared at him. 'Yes, just like everyone enjoys being patronised.'

Baugi snickered. 'You and Byleistr would get along.' A moment later, he added, 'Byleistr's your older half-brother, from Laufey's first wife. Your half-sisters would eat you alive though.'

Loki knotted his brows. 'I'd heard of Byleistr, but I didn't know I had half-sisters.'

Not on the Jotunn side of the family anyway.

'Perhaps you'll meet them before the day's end.'

'I would like that, I think.' Loki replied. 'What about Helblindi? Do you think we would've enjoyed each other's company?'

Baugi kicked a stray rock on the ground, sending it skittering further down the tunnel. 'I doubt it. Laufey remarried out of political necessity, his affections were and, I suspect, remain with your mother. He never had much patience for Helblindi's mother nor for Helblindi. It wasn't the boy's fault either, it was you Laufey wanted, not him.'

'Fathers can be cruel,' Loki said quietly.

Baugi, it turned out, knew a lot about the many cruelties a father could inflict on his children and had no reservations about sharing his knowledge with Loki. After a few of Baugi's tales, he found himself feeling both profoundly sorry for his little half-brother and certain that had the Norns ever thrown them together, they would have quickly learned to understand each other.

Probably realising how dark his tales were, Baugi began to pluck happier times from his memories. First, he spoke only of Laufey's family and life in the Great Hall of Utgard, but eventually, he turned to reminisce about his young daughter, Barra. She had been the younger of the twins Baugi's wife had borne four winters back and the only one to survive. Few twins born on Jotunheim lived to see their first birthday.

He fell silent only when the tunnel began to climb sharply.

'Where are we now?' Loki asked.

'We approach Utgard,' Baugi responded. 'So, what's the plan to free your brother?'

Loki bit his lip, then smiled mirthlessly. 'Ah, Thor. Nearly forgot about him.'

'And what part am I to play? That is the favour you would ask of me, isn't it?'

'No. You saved my skin from the Einherjar, you've fed me, you've led me through these tunnels. Once we reach my father's house, I will consider your debt to me more than paid in full. I'll muddle through from there on my own.'

'I doubt you'll get far,' Baugi replied. 'But I do appreciate the chance to see my daughter again.'

'I'm sure she's missed you.'

Baugi's lip pressed into a thin line, however, no response came. At the next fork, he gestured toward the second passage from the right, then moved in to walk a few paces ahead of Loki. They were at their journey's end now. The air here was less stale and the tunnel had been carved with greater care. Every once in a while Loki even spotted faint remnants of old carvings.

'Who approaches?' a raspy baritone called out far ahead of them.

'Baugi Gillingson! I was one of Prince Helblindi's men.'

Pieces of plate armour groaned as they slid against each other, then an aged frost giant emerged from some side passage ahead of them, carrying a light identical to the one in Baugi's hand.

He peered at Baugi with narrowed eyes. 'Aren't you supposed to be dead, like your prince?'

'I was captured and held prisoner on Asgard. This one helped me escape,' Baugi replied, motioning back over his shoulder to Loki.

'And what's his name?'

Before Baugi could respond on his behalf, Loki nudged him aside and stepped forward.

Time to shine.

'I'm Loki Laufeyson,' he said. 'I wish to speak to my father.'

The guard's face twisted with incomprehension and his eyes flicked back to Baugi. 'Is he a tad... er, not quite all there?'

'Not as far as I can tell. Will you look at the boy properly? He's Laufey's all right.'

'Right... I never had patience for family dramatics. I'll send out a message to the Great Hall, they'll sort all this out over there,' the guard replied. 'Follow me. You'll wait at my station in the meantime.'

Once they were in the passageway the guard had emerged from, the tunnel turned into a long staircase. The steps had been carved to suit someone of Baugi's size, not Loki's, which made his climb awkward. He was glad when they reached the guard station. The narrow room had been carved into a cliff and the grey stone walls left unpolished, but its occupants had done their best to make the rough space comfortable. Fire simmered in the small fireplace and dice lay in neat rows in the centre of the table.

'Stay here,' the guard said, then threw open the front door. He descended a few steps, called out to someone, then shut the door behind him.

Loki leaned to look through the arrowslit that served as the station's window. The guard was conversing with two other frost giants dressed in the same style of armour, but bearing different insignia on their upper arms. Behind them stood a rabble of old buildings and further back, smoke drifted high into the cloudless sky.

'Laufeyson?' Baugi said.

'It has a better ring to it than Odinson. You've got to appreciate the alliteration.'

'And your adoptive mother? Your brother? You seemed quite fond of them when we were back on Asgard.'

Loki whipped around to face him. 'I don't have the words to describe the affection I have for her, but she's the sole person I can rely on back there. You saw what Asgardians did to me on mere suspicion. And as for Thor... I didn't dare to say anything against him for fear of the consequences of such candour, but in truth, Thor is a thoughtless brat who should've never been proclaimed king. No doubt had he been there when my true heritage was revealed, he too would've ordered me thrown in a cell.'

'You'll find Laufey is seldom kind or affectionate, even to his own kin.'

'So I gather from your tales.' Loki replied as he pulled out a chair and took a seat at the table. He picked up one of the dice and examined the stylised animal carved into each side. 'What do you propose I should do?'

Baugi let out a derisive snort. 'If you wanted to get away from your adoptive family, you should have done as your mother suggested and gone to Midgard.'

'There's nothing for me on Midgard.' Loki flicked the die in his hand across the table and sent the rest of the set skittering in all directions.

The front door burst open. The conversation with his peers had left the station guard flustered. His hands twitched slightly as he beckoned Baugi and Loki.

'No messages for you,' he said. 'They will take you directly to the Great Hall.' He coughed to clear his throat, then added. 'Welcome to Utgard, Prince Loki.'