Unbroken

Chapter 31

"Loki?!" Thor shouted as he and his search party rode through the woods on their horses trying to find Loki. After Loki's horse took off running Thor tried to catch up to them, but the horse was too fast and it wasn't long before Thor lost them, he and his friends did their best to search on their own, but they spent hours looking and couldn't find them, so they returned to the palace and gathered a proper search party to find him. Thor was starting to worry though, it was getting dark out and it was raining now and so far there was no sign of Loki. There was no way to know if they were getting close, or even if Loki was still alive, and Thor knew he'd never forgive himself if Loki was hurt. It was his fault Loki was even out in the first place, and on top of that, he was the one who suggested the eight legged horse.
"Loki! Come on Loki!" Thor shouted again, getting more and more exasperated by the minute, it was getting dark and pretty soon he'd be forced to return to the palace and continue the search tomorrow.
"Thor I don't think we're going to find him tonight" Sif said to him as they rode through the forest looking for Loki.
"I'm not going back until I find him" thor said back, various people in the search group had tried to get Thor to give in and go back already, it had started to rain a few hours ago so it was even harder to search, but Thor was determined to find Loki tonight.
"Thor seriously, we aren't going to find him tonight, he's-" Thor cut her off.
"I'm not leaving him out here all night!" He shouted at Sif "it's my fault he's out here, he didn't want to come in the first place, he was terrified and now he probably thinks I had some evil scheme in mind to get rid of him. He already has trust issues and I'm not going to go home and get sleep while he's still out here thinking we all abandoned him" he told her, looking pretty angry and upset.
"Thor I understand that you don't want to leave him, but at some point there's not going to be anything we can do" Sif argued, knowing that Thor wouldn't give up until he either found Loki or was forced into going back.
"If the rest of you want to go back you can, but I'm not returning until I've got Loki with me" Thor said more calmly, but with a tone of certainty that made it clear he wasn't going to change his mind.
The search went on long into the night, the rain was coming down harder, trekking through the forest was becoming more and more of a challenge as the ground turned to mud and obstacles were hidden because of the darkness, and Everyone in the search party was growing tired. it was the middle of the night and they'd been searching for the entire day with no luck, some of them wondered if Loki was even alive anymore, he'd been missing all day and the last anyone saw him he was stuck on a horse that'd gone wild. Thor had the party pretty spread out to cover as much ground as possible, but it was still starting to feel pretty hopeless. A couple people were about to give up and tell Thor that they were going to go back, but before they had the chance there was shouting heard.
"I found him! He's over here, we found him!" Whoever was calling was on the opposite side of the group as Thor, but Thor didn't care, he was going to get there and make sure that they had indeed found loki. He cut through the group and made his way to where Loki had been seen. Already several people had gotten off their horses and were making sure he was okay.
"He's breathing but he's unconscious" one of the people said as Thor came over. Thor didn't seem to care much about what he had to say.
"Move out of the way, let me see him" Thor said as he shoved his way toward Loki. Loki was laying limply on the ground, not moving at all. Thor got down next to him and moved his head off the rock that he'd landed on when he fell off the horse. He then realized that This area where Loki had fallen was a mess of tangled roots, sticks, and rocks, so Thor picked Loki up carefully and moved him to a spot that was a little more clear and wouldn't be so painful if Loki were to wake up.
"Loki, Loki come on" Thor said as he tried to get Loki to respond. Thor had brought a healer along for the search and she came over as quickly as she could to see what shape Loki was in. She got down on the ground next to Loki and Thor and started to take a look at Loki's head where he'd hit it.
"I think he'll be okay, but we need to get him back to the palace as quickly as possible" she said as she checked him.
"Alright. I'll take him on my horse with me" Thor said. He was about to pick Loki up again but Loki groaned weakly and his eyes opened slightly. Thor was glad he was alright, but Loki's eyes were glazed over and unresponsive so Thor was pretty sure he'd pass out again before they got him back.
"Loki I'm going to put you on my horse alright? You're fine, we'll have you back to the palace soon" he said as he gingerly picked Loki up again and secured him on his horse for the ride back. Loki became quiet again but his eyes were open and he looked like he was trying very hard to process what was happening, but his eyes were still half closed and he couldn't seem to focus on anything. Thor sent someone ahead to tell Frigga that they'd found him and that she needed to have the healers ready right away. The rest of them hurried back to the palace as quickly as they could, Thor had to keep making sure Loki didn't fall off the horse and the healer kept wanting to take a look at him every few minutes, but otherwise they went as quickly as they could. As soon as they got back Frigga was waiting with several healers by the entrance, and once Thor stopped and got Loki down off his horse all the healers rushed over to get him to the healing room. Frigga looked really worried and was trying to get to Loki to see if he was alright, but he healers were all moving quickly and got him inside before Frigga could see him.
"Is he alright? What happened to him? Where did you find him?" She asked thor as she followed him and the group of healers to the healing room where Loki was being taken.
"I'm not sure what Happened mother. We found him in the forest, he was unconscious and it looked like he hit head head. I think he got thrown off when the horse bolted" he explained to her. They got to the healing room quickly and they had thor put Loki down so they could check on him. By now Loki was unconscious again.
"Is he alright?" Frigga asked in a worried tone.
"He'll be fine, it's not too serious. He hit his head pretty badly which is why he's not responding very well" the healer explained, she was the same healer who had been with them on the search and she was now taking care Loki.
"Sir, would you get him some dry clothes for him?" She asked Thor as she tried to get his soaked clothes off of him to check for any other injury. Thor nodded a bit and left the room.
Loki opened his eyes a little bit, he was starting to wake up but he was very confused and started to panic a little bit. His breathing started to get a bit more panicked as his eyes shot around the room trying to figure out where he was, but his head was still swimming and he couldn't focus on anything, it was all a blur.
"Loki it's okay, relax alright?" Frigga said, trying to get him to calm down. But he didn't seem to take that very well, he tried to sit up but became so dizzy that he nearly fell off the bed. Frigga held him up and made him lay down again, but that only seemed to scare him more. At the moment, he had the worst amount of consciousness possible; he was awake enough to struggle and panic, but not awake enough to realize he wasn't in danger. Frigga tried to talk him out of being scared but it wasn't working, so after a minute the healer came over to just put him back to sleep again for now.
"I don't want him awake yet, I want to make sure he's okay first" she told Frigga as she forced Loki to lay down again and held a breathing mask over his nose and mouth.
Loki tried to struggle and move away from her for a moment, but whatever was being pumped into the mask was putting him to sleep. He took one deep breath and his muscles went limp again and he fell right to sleep.
"He's having a hard time processing his surroundings. As soon as he's treated properly I'll let him wake up and he should feel much better" she told Frigga once Loki was asleep. Thor hadn't come back with clothes yet so Frigga just pulled a blanket over loki while he slept.
"How long will he be asleep? And how long will it take to tend to him?" Frigga asked.
"Hopefully only a few hours" the healer said. Frigga was still very worried about him and what might happen, but she was greatly relieved now that he was back home and safe. Frigga had only known Loki for a few weeks, but she still felt protective over him, like he was her own son, and she stayed in the healing room for the rest of the night to make sure he was alright and felt safe when he woke up.