Truths, Lies and Bilgesnipes [Complete]

Chapter 3

Loki had been awake for all of twenty minutes. Already, all the wanted to do what to drag his blanket up over his head and sleep the rest of the week away.

It wasn't that Lunda, the healer examining him, was mean. She smiled warmly at him and spoke in a cheerful tone. Whenever Eir turned her attention to Loki, even when she cooed at him like as if were a squealing newborn, she still seemed brisk — like Loki was a distraction from her real duties. Lunda sounded like she had nothing save Loki to occupy herself with. Ordinarily, that would have been nice; most of the adults in the palace had more important tasks to do than to pay attention to children.

But Loki was feeling absolutely wretched this morning. Everything ached. Certainly, it wasn't the same searing pain of the previous day, but it was enough that Loki struggled to concentrate and Lunda's very thorough investigation of his legs only made it worse. He wished he could simply tell her to go away.

'Did my father say if he would visit?' Loki asked instead. As much as he wanted to know the answer, he was equally interested in a way to disrupt Lunda's work.

He seemed to succeed; Lunda's hand grazed Loki's hip as she drew back her hands. 'He came by this morning, while you were still asleep. He couldn't stay long, but he said he would visit again in the evening.'

'I'll have to be awake for that then.'

'First and foremost, you need to rest,' Lunda replied. 'Right now, if that means sleeping through most of the day, so be it. You really gave us all a fright, Loki. You father has been very concerned.'

Loki knew that much; he wasn't an imbecile. His father wasn't in the habit of sitting by his sons' beds in the middle of the night. But that didn't mean Loki wouldn't have to answer for his behaviour. Loki's memory of the previous was fogged with grogginess, but he remembered enough. I have no cause to be pleased with either of you. Thor probably received his punishment already, Loki was next.

He chewed on his thumbnail. He wasn't at all sure what awaited. There was the whole matter of the bilgesnipe hunt, but he hoped the fact he had tried to lure the beast away from his brother and paid for his trouble would earn him a measure of clemency. But afterwards? He had tried to control himself, truly tried, but he had still ended up bawling like a baby in his father's arms. Just the thought of it left Loki cringing.

'Loki, don't bite your nails,' Lunda said softly.

'Sorry,' he muttered, pulling his hand away from his mouth. The effort seemed futile though. Gossip was a valuable commodity among most of the palace staff and the healers were probably no better than the cleaners or the cook's apprentices. Everyone in Asgard likely knew by now that their prince was a cry-baby, what did it matter if Loki was a nail-biter too.

'Why don't I bring you some breakfast? You must be getting hungry by now.'

He wasn't. If anything, there was a pit of anxiety where his stomach should have been and even a bite of a piece of bread seemed like too much effort. He had a feeling, however, that the healers wouldn't listen to him if he said he didn't want food, so he just nodded. Still smiling pleasantly, Lunda tucked the blanket around Loki's legs.

Eir appeared in the doorway. Her grey hair was pulled into a tight braid this morning, a hairstyle which Loki realised, Lunda was attempting to imitate with her own much-shorter, copper-hued hair. Or perhaps it was just a style healers found practical. Loki remembered Asta once remarking that she preferred to have her hair tied back while she worked.

'How's our progress this morning?' Eir asked, looking at Lunda rather than Loki.

'I'm about to fetch him breakfast,' Lunda replied. 'He seems to be a running a low-grade fever still. Not that the scanner will tell you as much. I'm not sure what's wrong with it, but if that temperature was accurate, he should be showing all signs of hypothermia.'