Bitten
“Everything hurts. Make it stop” Loki said, and Thor didn’t know what to do.
Their parents were away in some business in who knew where and Thor had decided to take his little brother on a hunting trip, see if he could toughen him up a little.
They were nearly of age, and Loki was still too frail, too small. And the others were soft on him, because he’d often been ill as a child and they were afraid some bad might happen. Thor thought it was nonsense: Loki needed to be treated more toughly if he was to become the fierce warrior he and his friends were. And if the others wouldn’t, then it was his duty as older brother.
But then something bad did happen and Thor regretted his choice, this trip and ever wanting to make his brother any different than what he was.
There had been some big beast, larger than a bear and furry, with big teeth, that surprised them while they were walking through the woods. Thor managed to kill it in the end, but before he did, it had already sunk its teeth on his brother’s side, leaving a red angry wound on his abdomen. It was only Loki’s magic that stopped the animal from biting down, as Thor had been for a moment paralyzed by shock and fear.
He was used to big beasts, and blood and fight and he was not used to Loki being in those situations. He was not used to Loki being the one bleeding, the one hurt. Loki was the one that stood there from afar tricking the beast with some clever illusion. This was wrong.
But he snapped out of it and killed the animal in seconds. Still, Loki had a big wound that looked extremely painful, and he need the healers.
“Heimdall, bring us back.”
Nothing happened.
“Heimdall, this is important, what are you waiting for.”
Nothing happened, again, and Loki was bleeding and looking at him with pain filled eyes, barely able to keep standing, his clothes torn and in pieces. It was going to get cold in not too long.
“Don’t worry brother, we’ll be back in the palace in no time.” Thor said, trying to sound reassuring. “Heimdall!”
But Heimdall wasn’t answering, and Thor was afraid that the smell of Loki’s blood would attract some more animals. They needed to find a safe place and he needed to do something about his brother’s wound.
Finding a cave was relatively easy, even if Loki was moving much slower than usual. But tending to Loki… Thor knew next to nothing about healing because it was a women’s things and besides, Loki knew a lot about it and he always brought Loki along so…
But Loki was moaning softly and his eyes were opening and closing, he was in no condition to guide Thor.
This was so so bad.
He bandaged Loki’s wound with a piece of his cape and managed to get his brother awake enough to drink some water, but then Loki lost consciousness and Thor didn’t know what to do.
You’re too hot headed, too impulsive, people told him, and Thor hadn’t understood why that was a bad thing.
Because it has consequences, Loki had said, but Thor had dismissed him, like he often did. What did he know? He was a small, magicky boy and didn’t know the ways of the warriors, the ways of glory. Thor had been a teenage idiot thinking like that. Not heeding Loki’s words, when he had always been much more clever than him.
Loki had told him that he didn’t want to come hunting, and Thor had convinced him. Now they were trapped in some cave, Loki was badly injured and Thor had no idea of how to get back home.
He thought he could go out to find some healing flowers to make a salve or something, but once he was in the forest he realised he didn’t know if any of those healing herbs grew in this part of the woods. Then it took him too long to find the cave again, and he’d been scared to death that he wouldn’t find it, and that he would leave his brother to die on some cave.
Shortly after he found it, sleep claimed him. He would think better in the morning, Thor told himself. Things would be better in the morning.
They weren’t.
The next morning Loki was burning up with fever, and moaning and turning. Heimdall still didn’t answer.
“Make it stop, Thor. I’m burning, I can’t…”
“Loki, I…”
“It hurts, please.”
Loki’s wound was red and swollen and Thor knew he should have used the water to clean the wound the day before. He’d been reckless, hadn’t thought enough. As usual. And now Loki was suffering for it.
Thor’s eyes were bright as he looked at his brother.
“I’m sorry, Loki, I shouldn’t have brought you here. I don’t know how to get us back home, I don’t know how to fix you. I only know how to get you in danger.”
Loki’s eyes were focused on him. Thor was hopeful: Loki always had a way out of bad situations.
“Do you… do you know any way to get us back home? Please, Loki, anything.”
There was a whisper in Loki’s lips.
“Yes.”
He took Thor’s wrist and in a flash of green light they were back in the palace.
Loki fell on the floor, unconscious, his previous fever flush replaced with a horrifying pallor. He was taken to the healers immediately, while Thor felt like the worst brother in the world.
“I should never have tried to change you.” Thor told his brother the next day, as he awaited for Loki to wake up. “It was your talents that gout us out, and my stupidity that put us in danger in the first place. But you must promise never to live me, okay? Without you, things always go wrong.”
Without him, everything hurt.