Kaleidoscope

~ XI ~

~o~0~o~

Thor and his friends played a joke on Loki making him believe all day that he was their friend and his any need mattered to the group. Loki asked to go to the forest to play and they joyfully agreed. Loki was happy like he never was before: for the first time in his life he had actual friends that 'listened' to him, his brother patted him on a shoulder and smiled at him, Sif was not cruel but playful and kind. Loki thought that he couldn't be happier.

That was until suddenly right out of the blue Volstagg came to him, smiled in his face and showed him painfully in the chest. Loki cried out in shock and fell back, desperately trying to hold onto something. He helplessly saw Thor - his brother - smirking as Loki fell and fell and fell until he couldn't beat back a cry of pain as his back collided with the ground. Blinking up tears of pain and shock Loki realized that the children pushed him to the hole in the ground, they... they have purposely lead him to this place and were now laughing hysterically above. Numb from shock Loki couldn't get away from the leaves and dirt that fell on his head as the boys showed it down the hole. His eyes burned not only from the sand in them.

Loki froze when he heard Sif as she started to pride herself that she was the best today in impersonating freak's friend. Thor roared with laughter saying that everyone was on the top today, seeing as his little kid brother was completely oblivious.

Loki was completely frozen in spot after hearing Thor reveal the cruelest thing they ever did to him... made him believe he was welcome in their midst. Loki couldn't even cry because tears were not coming, so great was his shock. He could only blink stupidly at the four visible heads from high above him, that enjoyed the trick they had played on him. His mind froze when he heard words like 'so pathetic', or 'did you see his face', or 'good job my friends'. So Thor was all along with the plan... Loki still couldn't make himself utter a sound when he noticed that the voices were getting far from the place they pushed him to, which meant they intended to leave him here, buried alive in some cave from which he saw no exit. Only tears dripped on the dirty cheeks when he stayed alone in silence. They left him here... And walked away... Left him alone...
For a long time Loki sat with his back leaned on a grainy cold stone, looking in front of himself. Shock resulted in shivering that wasn't going away. To add to this how the sun begun to settle and the temperature quickly lowered so the air puffed before Loki's lips in smoke.

His back was still hurting, maybe he broke something when he fell, Loki didn't know. Couldn't check.

He wanted mother. Where was she?

And only on this thought Loki started to cry. But still silently, not daring to make a noise, because Loki was always a clever child and he read how in the forests any sound could summon some wild animal. And trapped like he was, with no way out would result in his... in his death.

Loki let out a sob and curled further in on himself, starting to feel his body begin to freeze - it was a night already. But he cried, not because he was afraid - and he was, very - he cried because he suddenly realized that indeed it was night. Which meant for hours nobody had remembered him, nor sought him out. Nobody cared that he was not back home with Thor. Thor... Knives stabbed Loki's already bleeding heart anew as he recalled his own brother's glee at Loki's pain and shock of betrayal. Thor betrayed him in the worst way possible, knowing that he tried so much for someone to notice him, wanted others to play with him, to seek him out, to 'see' him. Thor used his vulnerability and spat it right back in his face. It broke Loki's heart.

But the thing that shattered the remaining hope in his heart was the fact that no one was looking for him. He heard no guards calling his name, not his parents' frantic cries for their son, nothing. All Loki heard was silence.

Apparently nobody even noticed that he was absent from dinner - Thor must have taken all father's attention with his tales of bravery and strength, his mother would definitely beam at her perfect son with pride... and no one would stop to ask where their second son was.

Because it was definitely true seeing as no one was coming. And it meant he would be buried here until someone would luckily stumble on this quite unnoticeable place or some wild beast killed him.

Loki was trapped. And he could do nothing to save himself, hurt, starving, freezing and completely helpless here alone, abandoned and unneeded by anyone he thought cared for him.

The ground he lay on was like ice, little dust fell on his head every time the wind growled high above him. Loki stopped shivering as he wasn't  even able to move anymore - after trying to climb from the tomb and failing every time, getting his hands scraped and cut to blood, Loki with a chilling thought got it - he couldn't get out. And if the night would become even colder for a bit, he could as well freeze to death.

But after such an emotional breakdown the death for the first time in his short life wasn't so frightening that should have scared him to think about it in so young an age but it strangely didn't. Loki didn't care anymore as he vaguely felt how his heart begun to beat slower and his breaths became deeper.

No thoughts were present in his head aside from one: his brother manipulated with his sacred feelings, let his cruel friends deceive him into believing that he actually mattered, Thor pushed him literally to his doom and his parents were not coming because they ignored or neglected to notice his absence. Not one soul in Asgard was thinking of him and that was killing him better than cold. Heimdall must have thought Loki not worth mentioning, and he clearly saw all...

Just as Loki's eyes begun to close in so much needed sleep, the boy heard someone growl. Blinking in the darkened cave and with some difficulty turning his gaze up the sky with his frozen body Loki guessed he hallucinated the sound and sighed in resignation.

But no. Someone cursed. And the loud bang of something falling to the ground. A man? Whining noise. A man on a horse? Rescue?

But what if he was dreaming it? Then he could call more danger from wilds of this forest then...

No. It was a man. Maybe he would save him? Loki let out a sob when he imagined the man looking at the hole and turning around, dismissing him.

'Please help...'

As the angry rambling continued, Loki realized his voice was unheard in this weather and from this height.

'Help.'

'Did you hear something, Diri? Or am I too drunk?'

'Please...' Loki rasped, his throat hurt.

'What in Hel?’

~.~.~

'Hang on in there, boy! Be brave just for a little more, kid, I'm coming!'

'...thank you...' As if the simple fact that someone was coming for him, took all the strengths Loki had in him for fighting. The relief and purest gratitude was so strong that Loki couldn't keep his eyes open anymore. He was so tired. He just wanted to sleep knowing that at least one stranger came for him.

'Hey!  Keep talking all right? Kid? Hey, don't fall asleep!'

~.~.~

'Oh goodness, you are like ice! Norns have mercy, please don't die on me, boy! Here, this will warm you up.'

'Drink it, come now. I don't care if you are too young, you need to warm up inside as well as outside. Oh, please, please...'

'Do I know you? You look familiar...'

'How did you end up here, you foolish boy? You would have died if I wasn't here- Shh... Don't worry. Shh... You are safe now... You are safe.'

~.~.~

Loki woke up feeling very warm yet very comfortable. He felt so good that be wanted immediately to go back to sleep. Only the slight tingling in his stiff fingers let him know that something was wrong.
The tips of his fingers were blue. And with it everything rushed back at Loki at once.

~o~0~o~

A/N: This story could continue in various ways. One of them could be that eventually Loki will be back to the palace, Thor would say sorry, his parents would say that they were just kids and kids do stupid things. Loki would have to accept it and go on. But he will never forget.

Another way of story to go is that the good man takes Loki with him to his home. Later he will find out that the boy is actually a Prince of Asgard and would be shocked, but Loki would beg him to not tell anybody and please please can he stay with him? The man – lets say Björg – would be at a crossroads. Because it was treason to keep the prince from his family. But seeing as no one was coming for him – and at the town the people didn’t talk a thing about the kidnapping, Björg would hesitate. And when the boy healed after the fall and frostbite, the man started to really care about the lad. After some rough night of crying, Björg finally heard what happened. And strangely, he himself no longer wanted to give Loki away. There was a question of Heimdal, but Loki finds out that somehow he can keep his presence hidden from him. At first, he thought that was why no one came, but from Björg’s story – no one was looking in the first place.

They live in a small house, after what – Björg was a merchant – they leave to Vanaheim. Loki is all too glad to leave Asgard behind.

After three days passed, Thor tried to find Loki. But coming back to the cave he found it empty. Then he started to become scared. To tell his parents what he has done was unthinkable. After two more days and no word of Loki, Thor realizes that he would have to tell the truth. He consults with his friends, but they too are scared and strongly discourage him from this, because they, too, will suffer. Thor already lied that Loki was visiting one of his friends so that he wasn’t home at dinners. His parents agreed it was good for Loki to have such friends.

Eventually after two weeks, Thor confesses.

Loki though is no longer on Asgard.

(I made myself cry while writing it, so I am sorry).

Thanks for reading!