Journey into...

PLEASE give us a snippet of teacher!Loki attempting to teach baby Thor his first runes? 🙏

- Anon

The worst thing about it was how good it all felt.

Caring about his family was in his past. Loving Thor was in his past. Yet here Loki was, with a tiny blond boy on his lap, as Loki read to him from the illuminated scroll he had set in the air before them. 

Thor was so small, so small. 

Just months ago, Loki had been fighting him, like a beast with tooth and claw. Just months ago, they had been at each other’s throats, and Loki had thirsted for his blood and his defeat. Now here was his brother, tiny and trusting. His brother who needed to be led by the hand, who had to be calmed at night when he grew afraid, who did not even yet know his runes or any of the old tales they had together been raised on. His brother, who sometimes clung to him as the only safety and security in the world, little arms wrapped around Loki’s neck and a little face pressed against his shoulder. 

Now Thor squirmed, in what seemed a combination of anticipation and uncertainty, as Loki pointed a finger, trailing it along the glowing runes. 

“Young and alone on a long road once I lost my way,” Loki read aloud, murmuring to the child in his arms. 

Loki had not let himself feel like this in so long. 

It was a rainy day, thunder rumbling in the distance and the skies sallow with heavy clouds and the patter of precipitation, and Loki had spread great strips of paper out on the floor before the window, so they could work and play and watch the weather all at the same time. 

He also set down a handful of crayons, although the waxy little tubes were wholly unlike the implements he himself had learned with. But Thor liked them. He had often used them for drawing curious little scribbles, which Loki had nonetheless exclaimed over and stuck to the fridge with various multi-colored magnets.  

Today Loki had something different in mind. Thor had been progressing lately, and Loki felt a turning point approaching, a moment when he would be ready for something new. 

So Loki had laid out the crayons, the paper, the scrolls from which to copy. 

Thor was always oddly calm when the sky outside was full of storms, or perhaps there was nothing odd about it at all. But anyway, while lightning flashed and rain tapped on the window, he happily sprawled out on the floor at Loki’s side, both lying on their bellies, and picked out a blue crayon. 

Loki, with green, very deliberately drew Laguz. Othala. 

“What do you think I am writing?”

Thor leaned over, watching. 

Kenaz. Isa.

“Do you know what that says?” 

Thor’s brows drew together. “Lo-”

Loki felt himself grinning, nodding. 

“Ki. Lo-ki.”

“Very good. That’s right. Now what about you? Do you know how to write Thor?”

Thurisaz, written in shaky blue crayon, had never been so lovely. Loki could not remember the last time he had felt so proud. And he guided his brother gently through the rest, until their names were written side by side.

“Very good, brother,” Loki praised. “Now, do you know why that is so important?”

Blue eyes gazed at him, their color turned grey in the stormy light. 

“You have just taken the first steps toward magic. Magic of many kinds. Words are their own magic, and in this way you become their master. But there is magic beyond that, and these same skills can open whole new realms to you. See,” Loki added, as he traced a rune of fire in the air before them. Fehu. It hung, sparking, for a moment, before its color shifted and its light dissolved. 

“What did that do?” Thor asked, awed. 

“Hold out your hands,” Loki said, grinning.

In a rush of sparks, Thor’s little hands were filled with… 

Croooaaaak!

Thor squealed with delight at the warty, wriggling, long-legged creature that suddenly filled his grasp. 

“Not the strangest thing to find on a rainy day,” Loki laughed.