Hey guys! So... I realize that the movie didn't really go in depth on many things such as where Odin got Sleipnir etc etc so since the site is called fanfiction I am taking creative liberty in this area:P Ahhh I know I'm trying to follow the cannon but don't hate for this liberty I am taking!

As a post note:This week and next I will probably be loaded with other things but hopefully I will get to update by my winter break which starts Dec 23.

Enjoy!

CH11

Odinsleep was a strange sort of rest. Sometimes Odin would dream of things long past, his father, the Jotun war. Sometimes he could hear the servants scurrying about his room talking about the room their words incoherent to his ears. Sometimes he would see more recent events. He had heard someone speaking loudly. Was it Frigga? A dream latched on to the thought weaving a memory that had been at the back of his mind.

"Odin! He is your Son!" Frigga yelled. It was morning. The sun broke through into their room through the open curtains giving his golden room an ethereal glow. Frigga had been arranging flowers from the garden in a vase but was now livid.

Odin sighed. "What would you have me do? He prefers books over training? Taking him for hunting would be foolish."

"You are wrong Odin! He would ecstatic if you asked him! Stars! It's his tenth birthday! You know this only happens once! Besides it's a custom your father created!"

"My love I do not think this is what he needs… Hunting would only further discourage him from the art of war…"

"And I say!" Frigga dangerously declared, stars she was beautiful when she was mad! "You can have a nice trip to the forest regardless and have a father and son talks about his interests or other things! Odin he will think you love him less if avoid him!"

Odin sighed. "When will we tell him?"

Frigga sat on the bed. "I… we can wait you know."

"Perhaps, but it will only make things worse if he finds out too late."

"Or it can make things worse now!" Frigga fiddled with a flower bud weaving it together with the half flower crown she had been making. "Perhaps it would be best if we told him when he was older, Odin he is too young!"

Odin absently turned a page in the book on the latest imports and exports he was supposed to be reading. "He will never be ready for this."

Frigga snapped the stem of a white prilu blossom. "Alright, if you find the right moment during your trip tell him. But I would wait Odin…"

The memory faded and a new one took its place.

"Father, why this forest?" Loki asked confused. As Odin and Loki set up camp. "There are forests closer to the capital. Why do we have to travel so far?"

This produced a long and thoughtful gaze from Odin. "This is where I brought Thor on his tenth lifeday and my father brought me when I turned ten and his father before him."

Loki pouted not satisfied. "But it seems so inefficient mustn't a king be always close to his palace?"

Odin raised an eyebrow. "Where did you learn that? The art of king's is material you should be learning years from now."

Loki shrugged. "I found it in the library." Odin's eyebrow rose higher. "It's a difficult read did you understand it?"

Loki shrugged placing a few rocks to make a campfire. "It wasn't that hard and it had nice pictures."

They sat on opposite rocks as Odin sharpened his blade and Loki did the same to his knife. "Well if you read that book didn't you hear that a true king will be blessed by the forest of Inakural?"

Loki instantly brightened. "Bor's beard is that where we are?" Odin's eyes narrowed. The only person who often used the phrase had been Tyr. "Have you been spending time with Tyr? I believe I warned you that the council chamber is closed for young men. Especially when this certain young man ought to be in bed by twelfth watch."

Loki bristled pouting. "I did not forget! And it was in the library! And it was only tenth watch! And besides he said he was not bothered by my company! He tells me all about being king! He also told me about how you defeated the ice monsters and sent them back to their caves! Wham!" Loki hit his knife against and some high grass and twigs.

Odin frowned. "So were you blessed by the forest?" Loki suddenly asked his twinkling eyes on Odin.

Odin made a mental note to speak with Tyr. "I believe the correct question is whether King Bor was blessed." He gave Loki's small pony tail a tug to have the bouncing child settle down.

"Ow!" Loki rubbed the back of his head fixing the band. "I already know!"

"Do you now?" Odin said curiously.

Loki nodded sitting up straighter and brushing off a speck of dust from his clean tunic. Odin sighed internally. His son defiantly had been spending too much time with Tyr.

"This was before the realm was united. Grandfather Bor was out hunting and came upon an animal trail. As he walked he saw two Harpli birds fighting on the ground. A Felinx came and when both birds stopped fighting he bit into their wings and ate them. Bor Continued on and saw a tree filled with termlites gathering the trees sap. He then saw a termlite eater bite into the tree to try to extract the insect. The termlite's were too small to fight back but they all bravely entered the mouth of the eater and overran him cutting off his air supply. The termlite died and although many of the insects died many survived to live another day. This was what inspired King Bor to unite all the Aesir clans."

Odin's brow furrowed. "Impressive, you understood all that from your reading?"

Loki shrugged. "I was bored." Loki's stomach grumbled. "Can we go get food now?"

Odin looked up at the sky it was eleventh watch. "You do remember rule number one of stalking a prey?"

"Look for a water source."

"Take a half hour head start, today you are a warrior." Odin nodded as Loki scampered of into the forest grinning from ear to ear. When would be the right time to tell him? After the hunt? During? Odin sighed. Maybe they should speak of this when they returned from the hunt.

He resumed to sharpening his sword with a stone. An old habit he had picked up from his own father. It was no secret that frost giants were feared and hated… but he should have been more cautious about what his youngest heard. But how could he when all of Asgard was still recovering from the war? When wives, sons and daughters were mourning their husbands, fathers, lovers? Besides would telling him truly spare him?

The hour wore on. Odin frowned. He was not one to worry but tracking a beast at best took only a quarter of an hour. Then Loki as custom would call the start of the hunt and together they would capture their meal. He walked silently through the moss filled forest pushing aside branches laden with purple flutter flowers and corian vines that filled the forest with mist after rains or when watered.

Suddenly he heard a snarl of a beast. The Inakural forest was filled with dangerous predators but this was mating season most of the dangerous ones were tame this time of season. Fear clenched him suddenly. He had not been in time to save Fin but he would be star forsaken if he caused Frigga's beautiful tears weep for another death? The war had worn her out as well forcing her to lose a babe. How would he face her if he lost their youngest?

The branches tore at his armor as he ran through the thicket toward the sound. He heard a strange whimpering noise. Was it Loki?

He broke through quite a number of branches before he emerged in a small clearing with a river. It was misty. Someone had thrown water onto the vines. A tactic all warriors were taught to use against warcats who relied on their eyesight rather than their sense of smell. He heard the whimper again. The warcat roared. He heard a low shout.

"Loki!" He yelled. The growling turned toward his direction he raised his sword using magic to dispel the mist.

A huge black warcat with twelve foot fangs was dead in front of a tree half in and half out of the river. And Loki frowning at it his knife imbedded in jugular of the warcat his hands drenched in blood.

"Loki? Loki?" He ran over looking him over. Loki looked up at Odin smiling. "I saved it!"

Odin looked to the foot of the tree to see a small squirming bundle of a colt wrapped in what looked like his sons cloak. Odin went down on one knee to reach eye level with Loki. "Where is its mother?"

Loki frowned. "I, I think it abandoned it." Loki picked up the small wriggling mass and when one end of the cloak fell Odin gasped. An eight legged horse? "Where did you find it?"

Loki shrugged hugging it eliciting whining sounds from the horse. "Here, it was hungry so I climbed the tree for some fruit and the warcat wanted to eat it!"

"Why did you save it? You should have left it to its fate!"

"Why?" Loki protested. "Their used to be eight legged horses during grandfather's time!"

Odin sighed. "What must have happened was a clarion must have mated with a horse."

"What's a clarion?"

"Ten legged horses. They are exceedingly rare. Because of their legendary speed every Asgardian prince in my Fathers time wanted to own one. But they are a free and proud race. They die in prolonged captivity because they cannot live as servants to men's whim."

"He can live in mother's garden! Or in the training fields! I can charm a magic leash on it so it can't stray too far!" Loki protested in a loud voice his eyes filling with tears. "We can't just leave him to die!"

Odin sighed. "He will die without his mother within weeks. Clairion's cannot survive if they are torn from their mothers before the fourth month.

"I will take care of him! Please I will not leave him!" Loki began sobbing.

Odin sighed trying a different tactic. He did not want his son to grow attached to something only to have it ripped off months later! He knew loss and wished to shield his sons from it. "The other horses will not accept him; they will despise him for they know he is of a superior race. He will realize he is different will be miserable and never find a mate."

"I will love him enough so he doesn't realize!" Sobbed Loki.

Odin froze a chill going down his spine. His son was kind. Too refuse… How could he when he himself had done the same? He had seen a babe in the midst of war. It had changed color at his touch. It was different. He himself had been half Jotun but could this child as well be like him. The thought lingered but his gut told him it was the last act of Faurbauti, King Laufey's wife. Knowing he could never bear the thought of killing an Aesir babe especially after Frigga lost her child. She had made it look like his own dead one. The babe like Loki too had green eyes that reminded him of his long dead sister. A last laugh at the face of Odin. She had read him well and protected her line. "Alright." He sighed.

The rest of the evening was a blur. Loki talked about this and that his studies and magic. And Odin looked at the fire remembering wars and hurts long past. After a quarter of an hour Odin looked up noticing the silence. Loki's eyes were on him studying him intently and then flickering back at the fire where his own eyes had been.

"Loki? What ails you?" Loki looked up. "Oh ah I can't decide on a name for the horse…"

"I see how about fleet wings?" Loki frowned." I like Sleipnir better."

Odin's brow furrowed. "I thought you couldn't think of a name…"

"You gave me a great idea!" Loki beamed back only confirming Odin's suspicion that Loki had been lying about thinking of a name for the horse."

Odin nodded his head. "A fine name…

The half dream faded. Sleipnir had survived the first few months…And Odin had felt his gut clench. Perhaps he would never be ready to tell Loki the truth. But he, Frigga and Thor would love him enough so he would never know he was different…

So what do you guys think? :P