But then she remembered Loki's deceitful ways, and said: "I believe thee not. This is one of thy tricks, Red Loki."
"Ho, you think so, do you?" said the crafty one. "Then come and see them for yourself, and bring your own to compare with them."
"Are they near by?" said Idun, rising doubtfully to her feet, and still holding fast to the casket of fruit.
"Only just a little way off," replied Loki, and taking hold of her hand he drew her outside the thicket.
On and on they went, and when she asked where they were going he always replied that the grove where the apples grew was just a little farther than he had thought.
At length, without noticing that she had passed the boundaries, Idun stood outside the walls of Asgard on a dreary region of barren heath, and then she at last began to suspect mischief.
"Where am I?" she cried, "and where, O Loki, are the golden apples?"
But she only heard the jeering ha! ha! ha! of the Asa as he returned to Asgard, and that was soon lost in the whirr-r-r of wings as a mighty eagle, swooping down upon her, fixed his talons in her girdle and rose with her into the air.
And this, of course, was Thiassi, the Storm Giant, who had been on the watch for her all the time, and who now carried her off, casket and all, to the bleak and desolate abode over which he ruled. Well had it been said that Loki was at the bottom of all the misfortunes that ever befell in Asgard. And never until the End of All Things would he work so dire a mischief again.
Poor Idun grew pale and thin and sad in her captivity, but she would not purchase freedom with a taste of the Apples of Youth, although the Storm Giant coaxed and begged and threatened by turns.