Loki could feel Skadi's eyes on him as she looked at him in bewildered suspicion, but he knew better than to glance back at her. It would only confirm to the stranger that what he had said was true.

Forcing a laugh, the trickster bared his teeth in both humor and a threat. "And what causes you to make that assumption?"

The stranger splayed his hands. "I overheard you and your girlfriend talking –"

"She's not my girlfriend," Loki interrupted, taking a step away from Skadi.

"We're both married," Skadi pointed out, her expression disgusted.

"To different people," Loki finished, experiencing a similar feeling to what Skadi was portraying.

The stranger looked from one to the other. "And do they know you two are out here?"

"What's your name?" Skadi demanded, aiming her bow at him.

"Ragnarr," the frost giant answered, leaning back a bit. "And I overheard your conversation. You're looking for Utgard."

"And how does this concern you?" Loki asked, crossing his arms.

"Because I know where Utgard is," Ragnarr said, eyes sparkling in a way that reminded Loki of the days he would trick Thor into doing something. Except that he had always imagined that he was better at hiding the telltale sparkle than this Ragnarr was doing.

"You do?" Loki challenged. "So, you say you overheard us speaking about Utgard. Why didn't you come to us earlier?"

Ragnarr stared at them for a moment, appearing to calculate the odds of them believing whatever story he chose to tell them. Narrowing his eyes, Loki pinned the frost giant with them and rolled his hand in a gesture to continue.

"I got sidetracked," Ragnarr answered seriously.

"Really?" Loki inquired. "I don't believe that. What actually happened?"

Ragnarr looked at Loki with upraised eyebrows. "You don't believe me? On what grounds do you discount my story? I am not lying, I swear on my life."

"Yeah, and I bet my head once," Loki retorted. "It didn't mean I honored that bet."

"Obviously," Skadi muttered, still keeping her arrow pointed at Ragnarr.

"You want the truth?" Loki queried, his voice as cold as ice. "I don't trust your kind."

He regretted the words the second they left his lips. He could practically feel the temperature drop. Ragnarr curled his lip back in a snarl and Skadi turned to look at Loki in disbelief.

"'Your kind?'" Skadi repeated. "You know all too well that you are one of us." She paused before adding spitefully, "At least, you were one of us."

Ragnarr stood, his eyes flashing angrily. "Who do you think you are?" he asked, his voice full of quiet rage. "I can see the wilderness in you, but you deny it, every chance you get. You are jotun, I can see that. We are your kind. Why deny that?"

Loki stepped back from Ragnarr, wondering where that tirade had come from. "I didn't mean anything by my statement," he defended himself. "I want to make sure that I've got the truth, not a tall tale or a trap."

Admiration flashed in Ragnarr's eyes. It was gone too swift for anyone else to have noticed it; but Loki had seen it. It was replaced with an authoritarian gleam, and Loki realized that his step back had signified a shift in power: from him to Ragnarr.

Darn.

"Impressive," Ragnarr stated. "No, I am not lying. I know where Utgard is, and I can get you in."

"What do you want in exchange?" Loki asked calmly, trying to reassert his authority. He had a bad feeling that it wasn't going to work.

"What makes you think I want something?"

"You always do," Loki said, waving his hand generally.

Ragnarr ignored this insult and pointed to the pile of Loki's belongings, a couple of feet from the fire. "I see you somehow have obtained the goddess Freya's falcon cloak. I want that as my reward."

Loki and Skadi exchanged a look. Skadi pursed her lips and gave her head a tiny, almost imperceptible shake.

"Deal," Loki said, turning back to Ragnarr and ignoring Skadi's look of outrage. "But you only get it when – or if – we get to Utgard."

Ragnarr grinned. "Fine. We'll head out in the morning."

And just like that, the frost giant headed to a spot beside the fire and laid down, wrapping himself in his cloak.

Skadi sighed and went to sit beside the fire, laying her bow across her knees. Loki took a seat near her and met her gaze. "You aren't happy about this," he observed.

"No," she shot back. "You made a deal with a stranger and agreed to give him Freya's cloak – my stepdaughter's cloak! And you expect me to be okay with that?"

"Hey," Loki warned. "It's for the greater good. We need to get Brisingamen back, and I can't think of any better way to find Utgard right now. Thor and I were guided there the first time; for all we know, you have to have a guide to get there."

"Isn't this a little too convenient?" Skadi pointed out. "We're trying to get to Utgard, and suddenly, a guy shows up who knows how to get there, and the only thing he wants in exchange is exactly what you already have?"

Loki considered that. Skadi did have a point. Usually, whoever held the upper hand in a discussion with him wanted exactly what he didn't have – which led to him having to go steal it, which usually meant the Aesir demanded that he steal it back because whatever it was tended to belong to them in the first place, and then, after stealing it back, the giant typically chased Loki back to Asgard, where he was killed in some way or another by the Aesir. It was how Thiazi, Skadi's father, had been killed. "What other choice do we have?" he asked quietly. "You don't have to come, Skadi. You can stay here, and I'll go with Ragnarr. I'm the only one who has to do this."

Skadi stared into the fire, looking a tad grumpy. "No, I'm coming," she muttered. She then frowned and looked up at the trickster. "Ragnarr mentioned that you control fire."

Loki shook his head. "That was a long time ago. Before tonight, I haven't done it in years."

"That's not a skill jotuns have," Skadi said seriously. "Loki, the only ones I know who can control fire directly, without the use of magic, are the demons of Muspelheim."

"I swear, I am not one of those creatures," Loki promised.

"What are you?"

He frowned. "What do you mean? I am Aesir and jotun. You said it yourself: I am one of the frost giants."

Skadi lifted one eyebrow. "Really? Is that what you really are?"

Loki didn't know what to say to that. He didn't know if she was questioning his parentage, or if she was asking what he thought he was, or what. He decided not to answer.

"Another thing," he stated. "Ragnarr doesn't know who I am. I say we leave it that way. Give us some sort of advantage."

"You?" Skadi questioned skeptically. "An advantage. In your dreams, Trickster." After a silence, she added thoughtfully, "It makes sense, though, him not recognizing you or anything. After all, you've been gone for quite a long time. You're the stuff of myth now. Stories to scare children with."

Loki looked away into the night. "I assure you," he murmured into the silence that fell. "My skill is just what it used to be. I am not going to be relinquished to the past."

I can't be. I must have all my old talents. Otherwise, I go back to the cave...and Sigyn gets killed.

The thought made him shudder. He tried to imagine what she was doing right now, but the only thing he could think of was her mourning for Vali, and he didn't want to think about that. Shaking his head, he settled himself down, rolled over, and closed his eyes to get some rest, swearing to himself that he would make it back to Sigyn – and he would make things right.

Somehow.