Author's Note: To thephoenixandthedragon4ever: Yes, Father was indeed Laufey.


Tears

Thor along with Father, Mother, Fandral and Grundsol raced after Loki. The Prince of Jotunheim didn't seem to see the people in his way or else wise shoved them out-of-the-way. From the route, it seemed like Loki was heading to the stables, 'Did something happen to Sleipnir ? It must have.'

Seconds after the jotun had disappeared into the barn there was a horrified scream of, "Sleipnir !"

They thundered into the silver barn, up to Sleipnir's stable and Loki was already knelt beside his son. The black-furred, eight-legged horse was missing huge patches of fur, it had burnt away leaving raw or charred skin in its place. White-blue hands ran over the horse's body covering it in ice and trying to reduce the swelling, the pain. There was a ragged whimper of, "S-Sleipnir ? Sleipnir, say something…anything, please !", making it quite clear that Loki was justifiably in tears.

Father moved to crouch beside the two before running a hand over the horse's body. Silence for a moment, before Father said heavily, "I am so sorry, Loki, but his mind…it is gone. The pain was too much for him to handle, even a regular horse has more a mind than Sleipnir now."

Loki's response was a roar of denial, "No !" That said before his love put his head beside Sleipnir's staring into the pain-glazed, dark-eyes. A hand visibly shaking as Loki raised it to stroke his son's neck. "No, no, not my baby, not him. Who did this ?" Swift movement as Loki rose before there was an angrier, louder roar, "Who did this to my son !?"

Sandr's voice came from behind them, "It was one of the Einherjar. I don't know if it was on his own or if it was on Sif's orders, but I know it was one of them. Sleipnir injured him before he could get away, Heimdall caught both the Einherjar and that great grey-horse when they went to leave."

He turned to look at the red-haired Asgardian, Sandr, of course, looked incredibly confused by Loki's actions. Grundsol and Fandral both looked stunned by what had happened in the last few minutes.

Father emerged from Sleipnir's stall and asked, "Where did Heimdall put the prisoner ?"

Sandr bowed as he replied, "In the prison, of course, my King."

"Good, I will speak with him. Are you coming as well, Thor ?"

"No, Father, I would stay with Loki and Sleipnir."

Mother, Grundsol and Fandral replied that they would stay as well before Father and Sandr left. Loki had gone back to sitting at Sleipnir's side and stroking the black mane. 'I must say I'm glad that Sleipnir looks more like Loki than Svadilfare. I know Loki still would have loved him, but he probably would have ended up doing what Father did and being standoff-ish. Svadilfare is dead at the least and finding out about today explains those nightmares he would have sometimes. Why he never wanted to talk about them - if it wasn't about little Morgil, it was probably about Svadilfare.'

Flashback

It was the whimpering and shaking that woke him. As he blinked awake, he saw Loki had moved away slightly from him. He reached out to put a hand on Loki's shoulder to which the black-haired Asgardian flinched away with a startled cry.

While he asked, "What is it, brother ?", Loki took deep, shuddering breaths. He gently pulled his brother close again, his arm wrapping around the pale-chest loosely.

Starlight gleamed off the side of the pale throat as Loki turned to burrow against him. Pale-pink lips brushed the underside of his jaw and followed a murmured, "It is nothing, Thor."

Tried not to be distracted that easily when he wondered, "Are you sure ?", while a hand trailed down his stomach.

Teeth grazed his throat, "I am. Now, come.", and that hand stroked him tightly.

'He really has far too much lust in that lithe body of his.'

End Flashback

When he joined the others in Sleipnir's stall, Mother was murmuring something in Loki's ear. The blue-white skinned head nodded before resting against Mother's chest.

Grundsol said, "Queen Frigga, surely there must be something that can be done for Sleipnir."

Mother replied, "I don't know, Grundsol, just like how Sleipnir came about, this has never happened in Asgard's history before. Perhaps in time he will regain his mind, perhaps if we could see if he is truly a shapeshifter instead of simply a horse we could do something."

Loki wiped away his tears, then sniffled before stating, "Sleipnir is far smarter than a normal horse, he wanted to see if he could shapeshift like myself. I told him that it was too dangerous, that if anyone saw him they would try to kill him. Yet, now someone tries to kill him anyway."

A seconds silence later, he stated, "Father will find out why, Loki and that Einherjar will never leave that prison. Sleipnir will get better, have hope, my love."

The eight-legged horse let out a soft nicker and stretched his neck towards Loki. Slowly, he reached out a hand to run it along Sleipnir's first left leg which still had fur on it. 'You must get better. He needs you to get well for both of your sakes. Please, Skuld, you said you regret not being able to stop what happened to Loki. Well, have mercy and help us save his son.'