Renegade - Lost Son of Asgard

Vault adventures

It was a day like any other in Asgard. Loki was trying to keep up with his brother and failing, still in his shadow, still at his heels. But he didn't mind it that much on that day. They were just a few centuries old at his point, coming up on five hundred, and bitterness didn't catch a quick hold in a child's heart.

The adrenalin was probably also a part of why Loki wasn't bothered by being a sidekick at that moment. Thor, their friends, and he himself had successfully entered the vaults undetected and were currently playing hide and seek, with the addition of the one searching having to catch the other's upon discovery, who then became part of the searching team, in Odin's treasure and trophy room. Which was totally forbidden, they weren't allowed in there unsupervised by Odin himself and playing games there would undoubtedly get them scolded for days if they were to be discovered.

With a hammering heart, buzzing with excitement at breaking the rules and having to hide from Thor who was searching, Loki tried not to breath or move behind the pillar he'd chosen as his hiding place. He listened as Volstagg was found and unsurprisingly quickly caught by Thor, shortly followed by Frandal who put up a fuss and then Hogun who joined in the bickering which had arisen between Frandal and Thor, trying to get them back on track. Loki was grinning to himself silently at his brother's and friend's ruckus. In his more rational and mostly also sadder moments he knew that they were more Thor's friends than they were his. But that was one of those things that didn't matter right then and there, what mattered was that the winner would either be him or Sif at this point and he was helheim-bend on winning, just as much as he was sure Sif was too. And then Thor said something particularly stupid and Loki couldn't help it. He giggled.

"Over there!", Frandal yelled and then followed the pounding sound of the four boy's boots running across the stone floor in his direction. At the last possible moment Loki darted out from behind the pillar and shot off like a green lightning bolt, Frandal, Thor and Hogun hot on his heels, Volstagg trying to keep up a few meters behind. Their laughter echoed from the golden walls as they chased after him, weaving through stone pillars and around artefacts, through halls and corridors and back again. Loki managed to stay ahead for a good few minutes, but eventually the other boy's managed to form a circle around him and Thor caught a hold of him when he tried to break out. The two princes of Asgard toppled to the ground giggling breathlessly.

After a minute of calming down and regaining their breaths, Thor got up and helped Loki to his feet, who brushed off his tunics. "Only Sif is left!", Thor grinned and briefly swiped the blond strands out of his face that had fallen into his eyes. His rumpled red tunic was dutifully ignored as the boy's started swarming out, looking for Sif. Just because she was the clear winner by now, having stayed hidden the longest, didn't mean that she didn't need to be found and caught too.

"Found her!", Hogun called out eventually and the others rushed to his side to see Sif twirling out of his reach with a teasing laugh. "After her!", Thor roared playfully and the gaggle of children was off again, passing more halls and hallways before they entered the room in which their father had shown Thor and Loki the casket not too long ago. Loki had trouble keeping up at this point, still exhausted from his efforts to try and avoid his own capture, and Thor was slowing down too, just moments before their previous sprints also caught up with the other boys. However soon it became apparent that Thor had only been waiting for Sif to notice and slow down too to turn around and mock them, because when she did, he shot forward with unexpected speed, albeit clumsily, knocking Loki off balance, quickly followed by Frandal, Hogun, and, slightly less quickly, Vostagg. Loki was instead stumbling and, with nothing else to hold onto in his reach, he grabbed onto the casket and its pedestal to avoid falling on the unforgiving stone floor that would certainly scrape his hands and knees bloody and give him a good couple of bruises. Those formed especially easy and were very visible on him thanks to his fair skin. The others were already out the door, down the next corridor, the distant echoes of their voices following them, by the time Loki had gotten a good hold and released the breath he'd held at the unexpected sensation of falling. He hated that feeling more than anything else.

It was when he was pulling himself back up straight that he froze at the sight of his hands on the casket. They were blue. Very blue. Was that some kind of safety measure to keep him or Thor from touching it? A protective spell or curse? To show that they'd touched it without permission? His father's hands hadn't turned blue when he'd picked the casket up! Would it last? With a shaky breath, Loki stepped back from the casket and witnessed how slowly but surely the blue colour vanished from his skin. His heartbeat pounded loudly in his own ears in the complete silence of the vault, the others were far away at this point. Curiosity and fear fought a raging battle inside the boy's mind and chest, but as usual, curiosity eventually won, and Loki pushed his fear aside for the sake of more discoveries that would help him unravel this mystery he'd encountered by accident.

Touching it again made the blue colour return and if he held on long enough it spread up his arms to his collarbone. The next time Loki took off his shirt and shoes and rolled up his pants to watch the blue colour spread across his torso and all the way down his legs to his feet. After a few tries he lost all fear that the blue was eventually going to stay and only regretted not having a mirror at his exposal so he could look at his face that he was sure had changed as well. This was also because he eventually became aware of the barely noticeable feeling that accompanied the change, so subtle that he hadn't noticed it the first few times, like a layer of very, very light fabric that he'd been unaware of covering him like a veil, being slowly pulled off his skin from head to toes. The room felt quite a bit warmer afterwards. The change in temperature faded with the blue colour when it felt like the veil was being draped over him again, settling against his skin so snugly that there couldn't possibly be any air left in between and he couldn't tell the two apart anymore. It was fascinating. Especially because his skin didn't feel touch any different, no matter blue or flesh coloured. Other artefacts didn't have the same effect, Loki discovered, and by the time he'd put his clothes back on, made sure the casket didn't sit askew upon its pedestal and slipped out of the vaults unseen, it was time for dinner.

The atmosphere that greeted Loki upon entering the hall in which all meals were held told him immediately that Thor and the others had been caught. It made him bite his lip and avoid not only his parents' but also his brother's gaze during the meal, which speared him with looks of betrayal after his mother inquired whether Loki had known about the supposed plan of Thor and his friends. "Of course not, mother. I wasn't with the others today, I wandered about on my own, reading. There's a book that I'm currently studying to improve my seidr.", Loki replied, being grounded in his rooms now of all times just wouldn't do, he needed to return to the casket as soon as possible to conduct more research. Preferably tonight in all honesty. Being an unnaturally good liar for his age, Loki got away with it. And Thor, who envied him for his way with words and ability to feign innocence at times like these, thankfully only glared at him when their parents weren't looking, fuming silently. In such moments Loki was actually quite fond of his oaf of a big brother.