[Child adventures!] Ancient times

[st_ratagem]

They weren’t actually supposed to be outside of the palace grounds. Father and Mother both agreed, nine was too young, and Thor had only just started arms training. But Thor had wanted to ‘test his courage’ and apparently that didn’t just mean ‘leave the palace’, it had meant ‘leave the palace, take a skiff, go to island ruin with a door in it, far enough away that you could barely see the spires’.

It was exciting, yes! Still Loki was in trouble much more often than Thor, and he was deeply complicit in the escape thanks to a lot of illusions, was still nervous. Mostly about being blamed if something went wrong. “Did one of the guards tell you about this place?”

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[st_ormbreaker]

"I found it in a very old book inside of father's library," Thor says, practically bursting with pride. "There's supposed to be some ancient treasure here, it just didn't say what kind."

Part of him hoped that he'd bring it back and his father would be extremely proud of him for taking the initiative and braving whatever trials awaited him. But another part knew that there was a definite possibility that his father would be cross that they'd left the palace grounds without getting permission. Thor was prepared for both possibilities.

"Don't be afraid," he tells Loki, just in case he is. "I'm going to protect us both!"

[st_ratagem]

“I’m not afraid!” Even if he had been, Loki would have protested just as fiercely. Thor was older, bigger, and he’d begun training, but it was Loki who had gotten them off the palace grounds. He was going to pull his own weight. He was! “There’s probably traps and things, I bet. If there’s treasure, it’ll be guarded.” He flashed a grin at his brother. “Are you getting the door, or am I?”

[st_ormbreaker]

"I'll get it!" Thor says, and he hurriedly reaches for the door handle before Loki can grab for it. Opening the door was a very important job -- almost as important as being the first to step inside, and Thor was going to be sure to be that person, also.

As soon as the door is opened enough, sure enough, Thor hurries inside. The air inside is warm and stale and it feels and smells just as old as everything looks.

"I wonder why they left this place abandoned here," Thor wonders aloud.

[st_ratagem]

Too bad it hadn’t been locked. Watching Thor wrestle with a door would have been funny!

Loki followed his brother inside, pausing only to wedge a rock in the entrance to keep the door from closing all the way behind them. In case it was inclined to do that; it seemed to Loki that the next best thing to keeping people away from your treasure was making sure they couldn’t get away with it. “It’s outside the city, maybe people just wanted to live closer?”

[st_ormbreaker]

"It isn't like the city's that far away." Thor takes a few steps inside, looking around. "We have plenty of ways to get there easily enough on top of it."

Then suddenly a thought occurs to him:

"Maybe this place is haunted and people fled out of fear!"

For what might seem like a frightening possibility for a child his age, Thor seems remarkably excited by the prospect.

[st_ratagem]

“Maybe!” It would be interesting, Loki thought, to meet a ghost. Especially one as old as any in this place would have to be! If it didn’t attack first. “...I don’t know how useful knives will be against ghosts, Thor.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"That's what my lightning's there for! Ghosts can't evade lightning."

Thor sounds confident of this fact, but Thor also sounds confident of everything - including his ability to execute his skill with lightning with perfect form. Even the little sparks he made were a struggle for him to control.

[st_ratagem]

“No one can evade your lightning, brother.” As if illustrating, Loki reached up to touch his head and make sure his hair was down, make sure his brother couldn’t make it poof up. “If you electrocute us I’ll... do something.”

He’d almost said ‘I’ll tell Mother’ but there wasn’t much chance that would help since they’d both be in trouble anyway.

[st_ormbreaker]

"I'm not going to electrocute either one of us," Thor argues. Clearly, he's taken offense. "I've gotten a lot better since the last time you've seen me really use it."

He had not.

As they continue forward, they hit a T-Shaped intersection. Without even asking Loki's input, Thor immediately turns right.

[st_ratagem]

Loki followed, though he looked down the left-hand passage curiously. When it wasn’t much different as far as he could tell, he pulled a charcoal stick from over there and scribbled a mark on the floor. Then he jogged a little to catch up with Thor. “Why right?”

[st_ormbreaker]

"Because," Thor pronounces, and then he does not go into it any further.

Because was apparently the only rationalization he could give.

"Did you think we should go left?" Thor might as well have asked what, do you think I am wrong? with the tone he was using.

[st_ratagem]

“No, it looked about the same. I just wondered.” So much for hoping there was some sort of strategy. Probably Thor wasn’t even looking for traps! Loki was, though:grooves or lines where they shouldn’t be, depressed floor tiles. He assumed traps looked like that.

It meant that he was always moving slower than Thor, though, and continuously falling a little behind.

[st_ormbreaker]

"You really should try and keep up," Thor complains, looking over his shoulder at his brother, who is apparently dawdling behind. "What happens if you get left behind and the ghosts get you?"

Thor spins around and closes the gap between them, then takes Loki's hand into their own.

"There, so we don't lose track of one another," he pronounces.

[st_ratagem]

“I was looking for traps!” Loki protested, tugging slightly on his hand. Thor wasn’t letting go, though, and honestly a dark underground space that could collapse on them anytime seemed about the right time for holding hands anyway.

Until the ghosts attacked at least. Then it would be better to have two hands. “Now the ghosts are going to get both of us, does that make you happy?”

[st_ormbreaker]

"Better for us to die together than to die alone," Thor says cheerily. "Besides, if this place had any traps, they'd probably be set off or broken, anyway. This place has been abandoned for a millennia."

[st_ratagem]

“If I put traps in a place like this, I’d make sure sure they reset themselves so they’d just keep going off.” What was the point of a single-use trap? “Pits with spikes at the bottom and doors that closed back until, that kind of thing. Sharp spikes!”

[st_ormbreaker]

"You're not afraid that we're going to run into them, are you?" Clearly, Thor is not. "I'm sure that if I did run into one, I'd survive it easily, even if the pit were 100 feet deep with spikes half as long!"

[st_ratagem]

“No, just you. You’d throw me out so I didn’t get impaled.” Loki was absolutely sure of that much. It was a point they agreed on, if one of them was going to get impales by massive spikes, it was Thor.

Plus it would be easy, Thor was already holding on to him. “Right before a whole lot of fifty foot spikes go all the way through you.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"That's right," Thor proclaims, clearly delighted that his brother was well aware that he would save him. He gives Loki's hand a tight squeeze.

"Okay," he says, slowing his pace as the two of them approach another split in the hall. "Your turn."

[st_ratagem]

It was a little thing, but Loki was so used to Thor taking the lead that it felt ridiculously good to be the one to pick. Yes, it was only fair, but ‘fair’ wasn’t always a priority on either side when they played. (That was part of the fun.)

After due but brief consideration (his brother’s patience was far from legendary) Loki brought out his charcoal stick again and scribbled a mark on the left path. “This way.” Less chance of going around in a circle.

[st_ormbreaker]

Since Loki asked him before, it was only fair that he shot his words right back at him, right?

"Why that way?"

[st_ratagem]

“If we turn right all the time we’ll just end up where we started.” Loki shrugged, as if it was so obvious. Because it was so obvious! “Wouldn’t be much of an adventure, would it, brother? ‘Ooooh we went into this dark and collapsing ruin and walked around In a big circle, oooh.’ I’m being helpful.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"It's not like we couldn't backtrack, you know," Thor argues, clearly affronted by this very rational explanation. "Besides, we're going to eventually explore this whole place, anyway. Maybe not today, but sometime."

[st_ratagem]

“We’re still going left. I picked.” Loki pointed at his charcoal scribble, as if that made the choice permanent somehow. Then he started walking and tugged on Thor’s hand. “Come on, brother!”

[st_ormbreaker]

"I wasn't saying we weren't!" Thor says, giving the passage to the right a quick glance before following his brother down the left. "This place is starting to get boring." He kicks a little bit of rubble dismally. "I thought there'd be more excitement, more fighting, and more treasure."

And so far, there had been none of it.