Falling forward and tripping I found myself rolling down a dark tunnel for about half a minute before I stopped. My armor prevented most scratches and I had tucked into a ball to prevent injury to face and torso.
Pro tip, I learned that If you ever need to jump out of a vehicle for any reason, its tuck and roll. I also advise trying to roll onto either somewhere soft like a lawn in a suburb and at least somewhere clear of any obstacles like the emergency lane of a highway. The idea behind is at least you'll come out bruised but at least intact enough to make a run from your assailant.
I used that just now to protect myself from this steep tunnel. Landing in a dark cave like chamber, It was fairly dark in this chamber. A I peeked out my eyes, I can tell my movement had caused a chain reaction making whole room lit up like a bioluminescent chandelier. There was a loud rickety noise sounding as if a vault safe was unlocking. Looking around I noticed the lights were plants, something similar to mistletoe. It was strange too because I can tell that the plants on the furthest end of me, in this perfectly dome like chamber, were the dimmest. They are glowing due to my presence it seems.
When the clanking stopped, a type of air vibration appeared in the center of the room. Almost as if space itself was vibrating out like a peddle thrown in a pond.
Before I knew it an ancient double door came from the center of that ripple. It had a stone frame aged with moss and these glowing mistletoes. The door itself was of a dark wood with metal braces and hinges reinforcing it. There was a symbol of a snake eating its own tail on its front.
This ancient door gave off a strange mana. I could feel that the mana given off by the door was illusionary yet not. It could be in many places, but was always in one place when looked at. It reminded me of Schrodinger's cat which was the though experiment that demonstrated how you could place a cat and a bottle of aerosol poison in a box and seal it up and still not know the state of cat of death or living until you saw it with your own eyes.
It was weird because my soul senses using natures language was saying the mana was in several different forms but when I observed it with my eyes to see the practical effect of such a mana, all I saw was a stream of gold mana.
Yea that's another thing, I can physically see this mana. This usually is usually impossible and the only way to know the presence of mana is to feel it on your skin which is what warriors do, see it with your soul as druids, or bounce your personal mana off it to see its form like a forge master. The only time your eyes see mana is when it is actively affecting the environment like when its on fire or if its shifting something else around like air. Basically when mana is taking an elemental form.
This might be a new form I don't know about and the craziest part is that I have no clue besides some long quantum mechanical explanation for what this is.
Trying to sense a connection with Muninn so that he can relay my situation, I sense nothing. Its strange not having that bird brain soaking up info for me like he usually does habitually.
I look where I came in and see a boulder somehow appeared there blocking my path. This strange sequence of events has me very confused but I have a hunch as to what is going on.
With no where else to go but forward, I toward the door. On my approach, I see the gold energy surround me but does nothing. I reach for the handles of the double door and push them open. Slowly a pure white light fills my eyes and I walk through.
______
When I completely walk through the door, the light suddenly dimmed. All that was placed before me was an Icy wasteland. The night sky was out in incredible splendor. They were twinkling in grace while many began to move from place to place like shooting stars at times but still in others.
It was chilly but comfortable to someone reinforced with ice. It wasn't snowing but small gusts of wind tug up the snow in flurries.
In the Center of the icy plain was a Small yurt. Smoke was billowing from its top. Looking around and seeing nowhere else to go, I march toward it.
What is up with all these mysterious events having ice everywhere jeez.
Reaching the yurt, I smell nicely roasted rabbit and start to salivate. Pulling the flaps I am greeted with something a lot more simple than I expected.
The yurt was large already so there was plenty inside. A small fire burning at the center, there was a rabbit being roasted like a rotisserie. There was a fur bed roll to the side. and plenty of warm clothes next to it. a pair of fur boots were next to my feet while I saw a type of mortar and pestle bin in the furthest corner. Plenty of seemingly categorized plants were next to it hanging or stored in jars. All of this was on the left of the fire while on the right was a dark wolf sitting at the foot of a chair.
A very lean tall man sat upon that chair. His black hair cascaded down like a waves and he had a cleanly shaven two inch beard. He was barefoot but was wearing wolf fur jacket and leggings. Brown hide surrounded everything else.
He was poking the fire, not paying attention to me.
"Who are you?"
The man looked at me emotionlessly and lifted his spare arm in an inviting gesture to a chair or the other side of the fire. That simple movement shocked me to the core though. I knew that chair wasn't there to begin with but with a flick of his wrist, something appeared there. No mana came off his body as well.
I came out of my shock and walked around clockwise of the fire to the chair. Sitting I stared at the fire. Staring closely at the fire, I could see figures moving in the flames. They were fighting sometimes, sometimes they were gathered witnessing someone shooting an arrow, and other times it was a depiction of one man with a snake wrapped around him.
The lean man next to me took the rabbit from the spit fire and split a leg from it. He examined his nicely roasted rabbit as I was silently enamored by the flame.
He then reached out offering the leg. I looked to him while taking the leg and saw either a smile or a look of schadenfreude.
"Thank you", I say to him.
"Your welcome Loki Bjornson."
I stare at his still smiling face. He has very blue eyes and is very tall. I notice something interesting. He looks a lot like my father except way more handsome and less burly.
As I come to this realization and obviously start to open my mouth to ask he puts a finger to his mouth as a symbol of staying quiet.
He sits down and looks at the fire. We stared at the fire in silence for a while.
He was the first one to break the silence, "I am Loki Odinson, Giant of Mischief, Illusion, Trickery."
As I thought I am in a ruin. No wonder I couldn't contact anyone.
I took of what last remained of Aegir's special stuff which was really in a small canteen and took a swig.
My namesake looked at it and calmly joined me in my fun.
"Good stuff, I'm guessing your Aegir made this?"
I looked at him and nodded with a smile. "I am sure the Giant Aegir has stuff way better than that."
Loki looked solemn for a moment and then his stern look returned. He put a hand on my head quickly, and said, "It's not about the quality of drink but the quality of people."
"That's very true." I thought about it for moment, "So what is this trial about?"
"Very to the point."
He looked at the opening in the yurt at the stars, "My trial is different from all the others. I will give you no physical labor, nor will I challenge you to riddle. In fact, of all the Giants, I am likely the first one to already agree to hand you my blessing in exchange for just listening to my tale." He smiled at this moment.
I was very confused. What is so special about me. I am still just a mortal lucky prince. I ain't a protagonist that likes things handed to me on a silver platter without earning it.
He laughed, "Your mind is a very interesting place to listen to."
At that I sucked up my thoughts.
He smiled in interest. "Where did you learn to command thoughts like that?"
"I have a three eyed raven as a contract pet. I practiced taking precautions going by his example."
He leaned in closer to me, "Not even questions will allow me to detect your thoughts, interesting. I guess I'll take your words as truth"
He stared for a bit, "Any way to answer your question, you are very special. You are the first person to walk into my trial. I am not going to make it anymore difficult to get my blessing than it already is. If you succeed then I might ask a favor of you."
That's more like it.
I then noticed something, "Wait, I thought you weren't imposing anything on me?"
He then pointed up, "You started the trial the moment you entered this world. Granted I could have thrown Meteors or other magical defenses your way to make it difficult, but I already feel my power is hard enough to grasp. In fact, of the regular Giants, my trial is likely more difficult than Odin's."
"This is because my trial has a few requirements to even get here. You have to first think like me, and you have to have vision. Its either you have it or you don't. You wouldn't be here if you didn't at least have those two. For example, that dark tunnel only appears to those who fit some of the criteria, and even finding the tunnel requires noticing details which is difficult in your circumstances. Going through the tunnel instead of escaping showed determination to find truth, and the final test was if the mistletoes lit up in your presence, the door would appear. Those mistletoes would only light up in a specific situation. No one has had all those traits and acted the same at your age. By the time someone gained the traits to pass those trials, they are well over the age of 15, and one of the requirements of my trial is to be below ten."
I look at him stupidly because how the hell can anyone think, like him or better yet, like me and do all that at my age. If any of the stories about him are true, you'd have to be a born an inquisitive scientist, have severe paranoia, and a criminal mastermind.
"What, you really think I, I'm sorry, we are two of a kind?" He said clearly reading my mind.
...
"You can stay silent all you want, we are more alike than you think."
I look at him waiting for a continuation.
"Like you, I am also a result of a mixture of two tribes. My father was Odin, an Aesir, and my mother was Freya, a Vanir. Unlike your generation, pure Giants can easily mix between each other because we were so immensely powerful at the start, but it was never wildly practiced. In fact, my birth was a result of a treaty between Vanir and Aesir for peace. It is because of that peace that even our progeny keep great relations between each other. Me and a few others were the only ones to be pure giants and from two tribes. After our kind mated with humans, only the first two generations after could breed safely with each other. They set up the current merged tribes. Except the Aesir who largely stayed the same, Like you, I am somewhat of a black sheep, different from my colleagues."