Sins With the God of Mischief

Gates of Hel

Having recovered, and realizing that blindly making their way across the river would be futile, they decided to walk along its side until they could find a thicker iced over part of it.

"Your feet are not cold?" Kitri thought to Loki, watching him walk in front of her barefoot, the fur he materialized lying lazily over one shoulder.

"Not at all, kitten. I am pleased that you are feeling well enough to speak to me." He thought, as she caught up to him and slipped her arm through his. Her heat made Loki sigh in pleasure.

"Forgive me, I feel awful, I should have been stronger..." She thought sadly.

Loki waved his hand toward her dismissively. "Even if you could have made it all the way across, the ice was far too thin. My blood makes me resistant to the cold, but that ancient water was something else... Speaking of which..." He paused in thought, stopping to take a moment to look around.

"I had said earlier, there are eleven of these rivers. If that is, indeed, Hel, this river must then be Gjöll. The closest one to it." He tried to look as far along the river as he could in both directions, groaning in frustration from the thick fog obstructing his view from whatever he was looking for.

"Incredible. Now why does that matter?" Kitri asked, confused, and somewhat irritated from hunger and exhaustion.

"Oh it matters... Very much so, kitten. Gjöll is supposed to have a bridge over it that leads straight to the gates of Hel. It is called Gjallarbrú. Thor and I often heard of it in our lessons. I cannot believe I did not think of this earlier."

Kitri perked up. "So it is possible we will not have to cross over the ice at all! That is great news. It sounds like we will have to look for the gate anyway, so the bridge should lead us to it."

They continued to make their way along the side of the river, making sure not to lose sight of the large black wall.

It felt like they were starting to lose sight of it in the fog as the river snaked farther away from it, until Loki suddenly wrapped his arm around Kitri's shoulders and pointed ahead of them. "See?! I believe that is it!"

His voice made Kitri jump, since it suddenly shattered the silence that surrounded them for so long. She followed where he was pointing with her gaze, and just barely visible in the foggy distance it looked like there WAS a large black bridge spanning toward the wall.

She grinned excitedly. "You actually found it! I cannot see much, but it looks as if even if we were to cross the river we would have had to cross back over to use the bridge to get to the entrance." She speculated. If the bridge did lead to the gates to Hel, it looked high off the ground, making that bridge the only way to get to that gate.

"Well... I am not certain of what may face us there, but I do know I cannot look like this." Loki said as he cast an illusion to transform into his usual pale skinned and leather covered self, before turning to Kitri and wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Transform if you will, but promise me I can have a say in seeing you again like that. I may find those horns somewhat .... Erotic?" Her cheeks became even more flushed than they already were from the cold, but she kept her eyes locked on his.

He smirked, then shook his head proudly, his gold horned helmet appearing on his head with a flash of soft green light as he did so.

"Well I now see why you chose to have a helmet of this shape..." She mused as she traced one of the horns. "The things I would do to you with the real ones though..." She let her mind wonder, shaking her head while biting her lip.