Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel

Claimer: I own Angrboda, the blacksmith, and the smol blue bean child.

In this chapter, Loki is masculine and goes by "he/him/his" pronouns.

It was humiliating, Loki thought, to be forced away from something by so little a thing such as panic. Although Odin had said that he was proud of Loki for listening to his limits, he didn't know if he quite believed him. Odin's hand was still on his shoulder and as they walked, a small blue child zoomed by them, laughing and chasing a butterfly. Loki looked over his shoulder at zim, noticing when the child slowed as the butterfly few upwards. The child turned and began skipping back up the road, but paused when ze saw Loki watching zim.

For a moment, Loki and the child made eye contact. Zir light brown hair had been done up into a braid at some point, little white and blue flowers braided in. However, zir hair was so curly that the flowers appeared to be getting lost, and the braid was coming undone.

The child blinked at Loki and grinned suddenly, trotting after them and pushing zir hair behind an ear.

"Father," Loki said, turning forward again. "There's a child following us."

"Hmm?" Odin glanced at her and stopped, turning to look back at the child, who also stopped. "Hello there," Odin said. "Who are you?"

The child blinked and tilted zir head to the side. "What happened to your eye?" Ze asked.

"It was taken out by an enemy," Odin said.

"Does it hurt?" The child asked.

"It did, once," Odin said. "But no longer." The child nodded slowly and shuffled forward, glancing at Loki.

"You're crying," ze said, trying to catch his eye. "Are you hurt?" When Loki didn't reply, the child came closer. "Huh? Did someone hurt you? Someone mean?"

"My child is not feeling well," Odin said and Loki shot him a thankful look.

"Oh," the child said and shuffled forward, sticking a finger in zir mouth. "Is it a tummy-ache? I get tummy-aches, but my dam says that's because I eat too many sweets. Do you like sweets?" Loki didn't reply. "Would you like some sweetmints?"

Loki looked at the child and frowned. The child reached into zir pocket and pulled out a handful of small, flat-ish square candies. "Here!" Ze said and held out zir hand. Blinking, Loki extended a hand, letting the child drop the gift into his palm.

The child continued to look up at Loki, an expectant look on zir face, red eyes blinking. With a small sigh, Loki took one of the sweets and popped it into his mouth. The child broke out into a wide smile and bounced on the balls of zir feet. "Do you feel better?" Ze asked. "Sweetmints always make me feel better when I'm sad. Unless I have a tummy-ache!" The child giggled.

"Thank you," Loki said and put the rest of the candies into his pocket. The child smiled, but tilted zir head again.

"Are you going to the festival?" Ze asked.

"We will," Odin said. "Later on."

The child looked like ze wanted to say more, but was interrupted as another child shrieked out "Igri! We're gonna start a game!"

The child—named Igri, Loki assumed—looked past them and grinned. "Okay!" Ze shouted back and ran off, turning and waving, calling back "Feel better soon!"

Loki smiled a little and lifted a hand in farewell to the child. His smile faded a little and he hesitated. Odin watched him. "Loki?" He prompted.

"I think," Loki said after a few moments, "that I would like to try again. Going to the festival, I mean."

Odin raised his eyebrows. "Oh? So soon?" Loki nodded and Odin considered him. "As you say, then," he said. "But if you feel you are getting overwhelmed again, we will move away to a quieter part of the festival. Is that acceptable?"

Loki nodded and swallowed. "It is."

"Good," Odin said and took his hand from Loki's shoulder. "Thank you, Loki. Come along, then."

There were stalls where people were selling food and drink, as well as stalls for scarves and jewelry and other wares. People were dancing in a large field, a band or sorts playing, people clapping along and laughing. As Odin had mentioned, there were places where people were telling stories. Children ran around, ducking through the crowds and between dancers to continue their games. A blue child ran past Loki, shrieking with laughter as three other children took chase.

Loki felt a bit foolish, following Odin around like a child, but no one seemed to look twice at it. As he looked around the crowd, he noticed elves and—surprisingly—vanir making their way through the festival as well.

Every so often, Odin would pause at a stand to point something out to Loki. Beads, herbs, incense, and other things, until they paused at a stand with decorated knifes.

"Ceremonial," Odin explained as Loki picked up one of the smaller knives. "Or else meant for potion making and spell casting. The jotnar tend to work more with rune-magic rather than incantations."

"I see," Loki said, flipping the knife over in his hands and taking another, longer knife.

"That one is a ceremonial knife," the owner of the stand said, making Loki startle. "Oh! My apologies," the jotun said as Loki quickly put the knife down again. "I did not mean to startle you."

"I'm fine, thank you," Loki said. "What were you saying about the knife?"

The jotun—a blacksmith perhaps?—smiled and picked up the knife Loki had discarded. "It's a ceremonial knife," ze repeated. "Meant for sacrifices. You can tell by the curved blade. Most hunting knives have a straight blade and are less decorated. Throwing knives on the other hand, are double-edged."

"Yes, those are the ones I use," Loki said, nodding. "What's the metal?"

The jotun handed the knife back to Loki to let him get a closer look. "Moonbronze," ze replied. "It's unusual for that sort of blade, since you can only find the metal on Alfheim. On Jotunheim, metal is rarely used because it freezes and becomes more brittle. Iron-wood is used more often in Jotunheim, but most blades are formed with ice. Only ceremonial and certain other blades are actual metal."

"What is... iron-wood?" Loki asked, looking up from the knife. The jotun chuckled.

"It's a type of wood, actually," ze said. "But with a little spellwork, it can be used like metal. The jotnar are the only ones in all the Realms who know how to use it." Ze looked proud and pulled out a knife from zir own belt. "This is ironwood."

Loki peered at the blade. It was dark grey in color and didn't shine like most knives. The base was almost black.

"You see?" Ze said. "The entire knife is ironwood, but only the blade has had work done on it. It does not gleam like other knives, making it good for using in daylight without being too noticeable."

"Fascinating," Loki said as ze put the iron-wood blade away. He asked more questions about the different knives and the jotun seemed delighted to share zir knowledge. In the end, Loki purchased a small knife meant for rune-work and made his leave.

It was only then that he realized Odin had wandered off without him. Groaning, Loki went off in search for him.

After twenty minutes when he still couldn't find him, Loki began to realize he was getting hungry. With a sigh, he put his search on hold and paused at a food stand. The jotun—albino, he was surprised to find, with white skin and violet eyes rather than the usual red—leaning against the counter was looking extremely bored until Loki walked up, looking at the food listings.

"Well hello there," the jotun said, smiling and twirling a lock of hair around zir finger. "What can I get for you, valkur?"

Loki looked back up at the listings and replied "I can't say I recognize any of these."

The jotun perked up and said "Ah! Visiting from afar, hmm? Never fear. Everything on the listings is quite delicious, but if you'd like a suggestion..." Ze leaned in, forcing Loki to do the same. "...I recommend the olangil. It's a type of mushroom stew with various spices, but it's quite mind and filling. It's one of my favorites."

"I'll try that then," Loki decided. The jotun got up and picked up a bowl, heading over to one of the large vats of stew. A moment later, ze returned and handed him the bowl with some bread.

"You use the bread to scoop up the stew," ze explained. "Watch out, it's a little hot."

Loki tried some. It was good, but there was an oddly sweet back-taste. Seeing his surprise, the jotun smiled.

"Sweet, hmm? There's honey mixed in. Do you like it?"

Loki took another bite. Now that he was expecting the sweetness, it was rather good. "Yes," he said. "It's... definitely interesting."

The jotun laughed and said "You'll be licking the bowl before you know it," ze said and leaned against the counter again with a smile that reminded him vaguely of Fandral. "My name is Angrboda, by the way. I'll be free a little later if you'd like to meet up and I can show you the best part of this fair."

Loki felt a smile creep it's way onto his face and he said "Don't push your luck, darling."

The jotun laughed again and said "Well, if you ever change your mind, you can always come find me." Ze winked. "Have a lovely day, valkur."

"You as well," Loki said and started his search for Odin again.

Notes:

I AM SO SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING, YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME AND I LOVE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU.

Seriously, thanks for waiting. I know it's been waaaay too long, but I'M STILL HERE and I'm still writing this! Now I'm graduated, I have even more time to write! Whoo-hoo!

Thank you to the people who left comments and kudos.

Special thanks to Teckmonky on DeviantArt for making fanart for this fic! The fanart can be found here!