Chapter 2

Balder sat next to the small pool in his room, his fingers lazily tracing the waters surface, allowing ripples to form. One of his many magical abilities was to look past the grey curtain clouding other minds and look into the future. Or at least see possible futures. The pool was a catalyst for this, its waters the purest in Asgard. It was a useful skill and yet...

He didn't always like what he saw.

Some futures were so dark he never wished he had gazed into them at all. Others so beautiful that he cried just thinking about them. And others were a mixture of both, their endings uncertain. For some reason though, the pool would show him so many images these past few days, never showing him something concrete. The images would be flashes, not staying for long every time he looked. But one thing was certain...

"LOKIIII!"

His brother would be in the thick of it. And his future wasn't looking too bright.

"I'd give away so much just to see what you see in that pool, little brother. Even for a day."

Balder turned calmly to see Loki himself leaning near the entrance door of his chambers ( Which had been Locked magically last time he checked. He'd have to find out how he had gotten past it.) with a smirk on his face as Balder got up from the poolside.

"Well it wouldn't be one of your brightest ideas, even to gain the power to foretell the future. Its not always pleasant, what the pool reveals. You'd have to be an idiot to trade anything for my power of foretelling." He said, flicking his hand as a magical seal appeared over the pool, locking it away from any intruders or Loki himself. The pool had still been made by balder himself, and His magic was potent enough to show others the future albeit with harsh consequences. He didn't want his brother going insane.

Loki smiled at his words. "Oh come now brother. You forget its me your talking to, not Thor. I'm smart enough to know when not to do something idiotic." He said, though balder only snorted in disbelief at his brother.

"Really? This coming from the one who knowingly, at Thor's suggestion, travelled through the bifrost with him with completely new armour and weapons to the forgotten realms where the gods of former Pantheons were doing battle. You almost made mother sick with worry. And to think you and Thor weren't even working together, you chose different companions from different pantheons. Odin almost had a fit, hearing about his son working with an Egyptian goddess of Archery. And when dear mother saw how he had cut his hair, dyed it brown and grown a beard to keep his identity a secret. Valhalla above! Mother was in tears. If it wasn't for me and Father coming to get you, mother would have come for you herself."

Loki had the grace to look embarrassed at the reminder of one of their more...famous escapades. He shrugged. "I admit that wasn't one of my finer moments. And dear father had a hard time convincing the keeper of the realm to let me and Thor leave before the battles were ended. Though if I recall, you seemed to have a great time talk with aforementioned Egyptian goddess. And since we did spend two nights there while Odin negotiated our leaving, I have to wonder if the dear goddess Neith made my little brother a man that day. Tell me, does mother have some unknown grandchildren growing up in another pantheon?" He teased.

It was Balder's time to blush.

"Sh..shut up. That's none of your business, Loki." He said, blushing a shade more as Loki chuckled. As much as his brother was the silent type and spent more time helping others, practicing magic and reading more than chasing after ladies like that idiot friend of Thors, Fandral, balder had always managed to hold the interest of many females of the nine realms, compounding the fondness and liking for himself in female hearts by never using them for pleasure and the desires of the flesh. Balder knew how capable of greater things a woman was just by looking at his mother.

His respect for females had many noble ladies after his hand, much to queen Frigga's joy and Balder's horror.

"Is there any reason you came to see me Loki? Other than annoying me that is?" Balder asked as Loki nodded. "It seems the allfather has an announcement for his family at dinner. Seeing as you like to lock yourself in your room from dawn to dusk and take your meals here as well, Frigga has sent me to tell you you're expected to eat with us tonight. No more hiding away."

"I'm not hiding away. Who says I'm hiding away?" Balder said, though Loki wasn't fooled.

"I wonder if your solitude has anything to do with mother's thoughts on finding you a wife soon." He said, his smirk back in full force at his brother's guilty look. "I thought so. Better hope a certain Egyptian goddess doesn't here about it and you better hope your female admirer's in the 9 realms don't here it either or they may just swarm Asgard in protest...or the hope of kidnapping you for their own."

Balder gave him a deadpan look before snapping his fingers and making a wasp nest appear magically in his hands, 30 wasps buzzing around it harmlessly as Loki's eyes widened in alarm.

"N..now brother, I was only joking. No need to do anything rash." He said nervously, looking at the black Asgardian tree wasps nest in Balder's hands in growing anxiety.

"You, Loki had best hope my aim hasn't improved since we last talked or you'll be having a new look to show to the family at dinner. Lots of nice swelling wasp stings." Balder said, watching as Loki walked backwards towards the door. He liked his face just the way it was and didn't need it changed for anything.

"I would start running if I was you." he said. Loki was out the door before the sentence was complete, Balder hot on the mischief makers heels.

The chase was on.

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1 hour and a thoroughly stung Loki later, balder walked the halls happily, greeting the servants and guards as he walked by. He would return to his room later to prepare since dinner time wasn't that far away. Just 3 hours and he would hear what father had to say to them.

For now, he needed something to distract himself.

"Balder."

That booming voice belonged to no other than Thor, in all his princely glory, long red cape trailing behind him and mjolnir at his side. Beside him walked Sif, Fandral, Hogun the grim and Volstaag.

"Dear brother, you must be bored if you're actually looking for me when you should be training. Has fighting the guards finally lost its interest?." Balder asked as his brother took him up in a warm armed hug.

"Nay younger brother. But I have missed you. You should walk around the palace more instead of cooping yourself inside your room practising magic tricks. Come learn the art of the sword. You may not have the bearing of a warrior but you have the blood if Odin in your veins. The battle blood of the allfather is inside all his children and I would see you nurture it." He said happily as balder just chuckled and turned to Sif and his friends.

"He never gives up, does he?" He asked her as Sif and the warriors just shook their heads amusedly. "I'm afraid he does not. You should just give in and come train with us." She said as Thor nodded his head.

Balder sighed. "Very well Thor. Though I'm not going to take up a sword I can at least keep you and your warriors from getting bored. Lead the way."

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Thor and company watched as balder closed his eyes in the middle of the training yard and spread his arms wide apart, drawing in his magical energy, readying it for release. He opened his eyes, looking at the expectant group.

"I cannot fight you directly brother. Spar or otherwise, I would lose to any of you. But..."

Balder suddenly let loose his magic, conjuring golden armour to mold, forming a giant knight of armour the size of a frost giant, a silver shield and sword appearing in its hands. Whereas most sorcerers would be drained to exhaustion by such magic, balder barely even batted an eye or drooped a sweat. He swung his arm back and placed the other to his chest, the knight mirroring his movements and placing the shield at its front with the swords ready at its side.

"With this construct, I can at least give you a challenge and alleviate your Boredom somehow. The construct will shatter if hit enough time and given damage. All I can now say is,On Guard! " He said at the shocked warriors, many of the training Asgardian soldiers stopping their activities to watch.

Thor got over his shock and began to grin like a man given the greatest gift in life, the warriors 3 and Sif mirroring him as they readied their weapons.

"Come friends, let us prove our mettle to my brother. To battle! " He shouted, charging at the armoured knight with a war cry, Balder readying the construct for a fight as he smiled.

At least he'd found something to do till dinner.

(Cookies for any reader who noticed the Smite game reference. Till next time.)