Thor trudged up the path leading to one of his favorite places. He was alone for a change, wanting to think without the chatter of his friends.
He had believed he was far ahead in the contest to show Odin who should be the next king. His father had made it clear to his sons that the most important thing was the ability to fight and lead the Asgardian army, and he was much better at that than Loki. After all, understanding Asgardian economics was of no value if an enemy overran Asgard.
Over the last few months his brother had had a growth spurt, and was now eye to eye with him. That meant that Loki was allowed to spar in weapons class, and today had been his first time.
Thor had made sure his younger brother was properly outfitted in a padded torso protector and a practice helmet that fit properly. He didn't expect much from Loki. The first time sparring most of the boys had been somewhat tentative and had stuck to the offensive and defensive forms they had learned.
His brother had been matched with Nordall, an average boy who was a little clumsy with his own growing body. They had been assigned maces as weapons, which where just weighted wooden balls with some little bumps to simulate spikes on the end of a wooden stick. Thor suspected the matching wasn't at all random, and that the trainers had picked an opponent and a weapon that Loki could manage and wouldn't embarrass the younger prince when he lost in a close match.
But Loki hadn't lost. He'd gone in and feinted a few times to throw Nordall off balance, and then started an offensive form for the mace. Nordall responded with the matching defensive form, but Loki had broken off after the first movement, ducked in low and tapped his opponent on the side of the knee.
The trainer had called the "wound" and Nordall was then not allowed to use that leg except the toe for balance only. After that, Loki had just moved around until Nordall couldn't keep up, and then tapped his helmet for the "kill".
It wasn't the fact that his little brother had won the match that concerned Thor. It was that he'd done it by using his brains. He'd tricked his opponent into expecting one move and then done something completely different. Loki had a formidable intelligence, and if he applied that to fighting, he could very well become a threat to Thor's dominance.
The good part was that Loki was forbidden to use his magic in the weapons class. The trainers had lectured him before his match in front of the entire class, using the excuse that all the points and edges of the weapons were enchanted so that they would not draw blood, and his magic could interfere with that. All the weapons could still bruise though, and most of the boys were rarely without a reminder or two of a mistake they had made in sparring. And then the trainers also reinforced the idea that magic use in battle was for cowards who feared to go man to man with the foe. So any cheating by Loki would have everyone condemn him as a coward.
Loki had looked disappointed at that, and Thor wondered what magical mischief he'd been planning. But keeping magic out of weapons training was in Thor's favor, since he hadn't shown any sign of magical ability. There had been a couple of things Odin had said that made the older prince think some day he might have some special abilities, but not yet.
Thor had to pay attention for a bit to his path, which had reached the point of being more a climb than a walk. Then he came out onto a shelf of rock that overlooked the palace and the surrounding buildings. There was an overhang above it that made it secluded and protected from rain.
The boy sat down on his favorite boulder, just the right height for his comfort. He picked up a small rock and toyed with it. He was going to have to become a better fighter fast. He was already good, aggressive without being foolhardy. Maybe he should try being foolhardy; this was the time and place to do it. He might lose a few matches, but if he could learn to be effective charging right through his opponents, he would be unstoppable. And Loki would never copy that sort of style, it wasn't in his nature.
Thor heard a small sound off to his side, and was pleased to see one of his favorite creatures. A beautiful dark blue, white, and gold snake had come out and was approaching him. The prince was delighted, he loved snakes. He gently picked it up, and it curled around his arms and body. He would take it home with him to show everyone, and then he could bring it back.
He quickly returned to the palace, hoping to show Volstagg, Fandral, and Hogun his prize, but they weren't in any of the usual places. Disappointed, Thor took the snake to his room, and then thought of Loki.
His brother wasn't fond of snakes as he was, but Thor was sure he would appreciate the unusual coloring. But his knock on his brother's door brought no answer.
Inspiration struck. He had a snake, and his brother's room was empty. Thor went in cautiously, but he hadn't been in Loki's room in so long his brother had stopped trapping the door. Besides, one couldn't leave traps around very long, the maids got very upset when they went in to clean and something unpleasant happened to them.
Thor looked around. Loki was unnaturally neat, there really wasn't a good place . . . oh, the bed. He lifted the coverings and slid the serpent into the nice darkness. Then he smoothed the covers as well as he could. There was still a little wrinkling, but not much showed.
Grinning, he quickly got out of Loki's room and went to his own. He sincerely hoped the younger boy didn't notice until he got into bed. Thor anticipated hearing a girly scream that he could tease Loki about for weeks.
The rest of the day passed normally. After dinner, Thor kept an eye on his brother. His three companions were in on it now too, and as soon as Loki left to go to his room, the other four boys followed.
They waited quietly in Thor's room. It was getting late when they heard Loki yell – more of a roar than a scream. Thor led the run through the nursery to his brother's room and flung open the door.
It was horrible. The beautiful snake lay on the floor with its head smashed in. Loki was in his night clothes clutching a bloody leg with one hand and a heavy candlestick with the other. The four of them froze in the doorway momentarily.
Loki snapped, "Get a healer, you morons!"
Hogun ran to obey. But Thor was ignoring his brother and sadly approached the dead snake and picked it up gently.
"What did you do? It was harmless and beautiful, you didn't have to kill it," he said resentfully.
"It bit me, you oaf! Is it poisonous?"
Thor just shrugged. He liked snakes and snakes liked him, he never had to worry about what might happen if he was bitten because he never was.
Volstagg and Fandral had stood gaping in the doorway, and were now pulled back out of the way as a pair of healers entered.
One glance at the snake and one of them said, "Thank the gods, that type carries no poison, just a nasty bite. It has three rows of teeth and lacerates with them." The other one was examining Loki's leg.
The healer picked up the young prince and carried him out. The other healer turned to Thor and said, "Fetch your mother, she will want to know."
Thor sighed and nodded. His three friends had vanished and he wished he could too. He hadn't meant to hurt Loki, it was just an impulsive prank.
Frigga took one look at Thor's guilty face and the snake he carried and said, "At least it wasn't a deadly variety. We will talk later, Thor. I think you can guess what the next rule will be."
For three days Thor was restricted to his room between weapons practice and dinner to study and "think about what he'd done". Loki spent the night in the healer's rooms, and the next day in bed.
Thor apologized to his brother before going to class the next morning.
"I'm sorry, Loki, it was just an impulse. I wanted to show you how beautiful the snake was, and it was entirely harmless all the time I carried it around."
"Thor, you have to think. Of course it didn't bite you, snakes never do, they just bite everyone else and I'm part of everyone else. Did you really believe I would kick it getting into bed and it would be my friend?"
"Well, yes."
Loki sighed. He knew Thor really had thought that. "The new rule is no animals in any place but your own room. You understand?"
"Yes, of course. I'm restricted to my room after weapons training, but I could come over here if you want and go over the lessons with you. I'm sure that would be all right since I'm supposed to study, and I know you hate missing morning lessons."
Loki nodded. "I would appreciate that. You know I'm going to get you back."
"Yes, but not while we're studying, all right?"
"After. When my leg has healed."
Thor shrugged. Back to normal.
It was nearly a month later when walking in the hills that Thor saw another snake like the first one, only bigger. It was just as beautiful and naturally unafraid. He picked it up gently, surprised at how much it weighed.
Suddenly it moved jerkily in his arms and "Yeaaaw!" it was his brother he was holding, not a snake. There was a sharp pain in his upper arm and he dropped Loki who landed on his feet, laughing and holding a small bloody dagger.
"Payback, Brother! And that's not nearly as bad as what your snake did to my leg."
Thor held the bleeding wound in his arm and shook his head. "No wonder I like snakes better than you, Brother. They are always what they seem, they don't sneak around in other forms." He looked thoughtful and continued, "I didn't know you could change yourself into anything, I thought you could only change others."
"Well I learned, just for you. You should see me as an alligator, it's amazing."
Thor nodded and started walking back to the palace to get his wound cleaned with Loki following him. It was Thor's turn to visit the healers and Loki's turn to get a scolding from Frigga. Life as usual.