Loki wasn't overly fond of zoos, but for some reason he felt drawn towards this one today. It wasn't the modern, large zoo of London, but a smaller one in Surrey. Looking around at the menagerie, he frowned. He remembered when animals were kept in bare metal cages with concrete floors and looked utterly miserable, and while things had become better, most of these still looked like they would rather be elsewhere.
However, the snake he was currently regarding was not in any cage, and it still looked upset. It was a large boa constrictor and was just lying flat on the sidewalk as people ran past screaming. Each cry of fear seemed to make the beast sag more dejectedly. Loki was really quite enjoying the sense of mayhem and panic over nothing, but the poor snake certainly wasn't. He couldn't help feeling rather sorry for it. As the last annoying group of mortals left – a skinny woman and rotund man accompanied by a very large, blond, sobbing boy who reminded him of a portly child-Thor and another boy who was scrawny and dark-haired and had an edge of something odd about him—silence resumed in the zoo. The snake, however, continued to sprawl on the ground, looking miserable.
"What's ails you?" Loki asked. "Are you injured?"
The snake lifted its head abruptly to look up at him, its jaw dropping open, then said, "Two of them in one day? Are you the other one's father?"
"Who?"
"The Parselmouth boy with black hair and green eyes who let me out," the snake said.
"No, he's not mine," Loki said, remembering the smallest member of the strange family he had seen and tipped his head, considering. "Possibly somewhere back in his ancestry there might be a link, though. There is a certain resemblance. Regardless, why are you lying there so listlessly?"
"I've nowhere to go," the snake said, looking glum. "I wanted to go to Brazil, but I don't know how."
"Why Brazil?" Loki asked.
"That's where I'm from?" the snake said uncertainly. "Well, sort of. I was born here, but the sign on the tank said boa constrictors are from Brazil."
"That's a very long journey, little friend," Loki said. "You're not even on the right continent. Brazil is in South America."
"Is that past the ice lolly stand?" the snake asked apologetically. "I went over there earlier, but a woman hit me with her shoe, so I left."
Loki stared at the snake. The poor thing was a complete innocent.
"I think perhaps I'd better help you before someone makes you into a purse," Loki said, gingerly picking the snake up and draping it around his shoulders.
A moment later, the pair of them appeared in a nice, green patch of jungle in Brazil. It was just early morning, and the sunrise was already making the plants steam.
"There," he said briskly, carefully placing the snake down on the moist earth and putting his hands on his hips. "Home. Better?"
The snake looked around cautiously.
"Is this Brazil?" he asked.
"It is."
The snake looked around again.
"I don't see anyone else that looks like me," he said uncertainly.
"Oh, they're about, I'm sure," Loki said confidently. "Try climbing a tree and having a look round."
Slowly, it wrapped itself around the trunk of a nearby tree and tried slithering up. It got about four feet off the ground before it unceremoniously fell off and landed with a loud plop.
"Ow."
"You just need practice," Loki said, then, shimmering, he turned himself into a snake as well, though he was a deep emerald green. "Watch."
Loki proceeded to smoothly spiral his way around the trunk, weaving his length over branches until he was snugly cradled in a notch about ten feet up.
"Come up," he said. "You can do it."
The snake gave as uncertain of a look as a snake can give, then tried to mimic Loki's casually graceful ascent. It fell four more times before finally managing to make it nearly as high on the fifth try. Sighing happily, it looked around as Loki patted its head proudly with his tail.
"I still don't see anyone else," it said.
At that moment, a third, very large snake suddenly started coming down the tree from its spot high above where it had been watching everything happening.
The new snake passed directly by Loki, then went up to the zoo-born snake, opened its mouth, and bit him behind the head.
"Hey now, none of that!" Loki said, flickering back to his usual form and pulling the new snake off, then throwing it the ten feet to the ground. The snake landed with a thud and turned around to hiss, but taking one look at Loki, it closed its mouth and slithered away at top speed.
"And there's more of them around?" the snake asked, sounding terrified.
"Well, yes," Loki said, gently stroking the spot where the other snake had bit this one. "I'm sure the others will be… less homicidal."
He didn't sound very certain about that, though. Scanning the surrounding area, Loki noted at least five other boas, each much larger than the one bred in captivity, and each fairly likely to see this one as an intruding competitor for food who needed to be removed.
"Ehm," Loki said, looking around, "perhaps this place isn't quite right for you."
The snake shook its head dejectedly.
"I have an idea," he said, and had Thor been present, he could have attested that those four words usually came before calamity, mayhem, and mortal peril.
Gently, Loki lifted the snake onto his shoulders again, then called for Heimdall. A moment later, they were traveling through space in a blur of light, and the moment after, they were standing under the dome of the Bifrost.
"Really?" Heimdall said, looking at the snake.
"What?" Loki said, striding away. "Besides, you know how Thor loves snakes. And I'm certain it will make a lovely friend for Jörmungandr."
And if the following day that snake just happened to be found in the bed of the captain of the Einherjar, who ran screaming through the town square naked in response, well, that was only an added benefit and the beginning of a long series of surprise appearances.
