Lost in Time (Loki)

5 | The Banishment

"Why did you bring us back?" Thor demanded, turning to Odin, as soon as we were back on Asgard.

"Do you realise what you've done? What you've started?" Odin turned to face his son with a look of pure anger and disappointment. I stood back, so that I was standing beside SIf.

"I was protecting my home," Thor answered indignantly.

Odin scoffed. "You can't even protect your friends!" Odin bellowed, removing the Bifrost sword from its holster in the ground. "How can you hope to protect a kingdom?" He turned to the rest of us. "Get him to the healing room, now!"

Sif nodded and she, Hogun and Volstagg assisted Fandral in walking back to the palace. I tried to follow them, but Odin's booming voice stopped me.

"You," he shouted out, making me stop. I turned around to see his grave expression directed at me. My heart plummeted to my feet.

"Yes, my King?" I questioned timidly, looking up at him on the pedestal.

He beckoned me, with a withered hand and I approached him, glancing tentatively at Heimdall, who was standing stoically at the base of the steps. He sent me a sympathetic glance as I passed him. I stopped beside Thor and looked up at the Allfather.

"What were you doing, accompanying trained warriors to Jotunheim?" He asked, his voice eerily quiet with rage. "You have absolutely no experience whatsoever. It was a reckless and stupid decision, not to mention dangerous!"

I ducked my head submissively, knowing that no valid reason would satisfy him. Despite knowing my skill level was not as high as it should have been, to think I could survive the battle, I had let my sister's taunts get to me. I remained silent.

No one else came to my defence, not even Heimdall, who followed the others outside. I waited quietly, for Odin to administer my punishment or to reprimand me for my actions, but he did not.

"You should know better than to run into danger like that," he began, more softly. "You can not follow in your sister's footsteps until you have received the proper training." He waved me away and I took a few steps back so that I was no longer in his line of fire.

He turned his attention back to Thor, who was still seething.

"Protect a kingdom?" Thor questioned in exasperation. "There won't be a kingdom to protect if you're afraid to act." I watched as Thor struggled to prove his point. "The Jotuns must learn to fear me, just as they once feared you."

Odin scoffed, looking down at his son with chagrin. "That's pride and vanity talking, not leadership." I looked over to see Loki watching, looking as uncomfortable as I felt. "You've forgotten everything I taught you about a warrior's patience-"

Thor interrupted his father. "While you wait and be patient, the Nine Realms laugh at us. The old ways are done, you'd stand, giving speeches, while Asgard falls into ruin.

I watched in shock, at the way Thor addressed his father—and his king—with such disrespect. I wanted to look away. This conversation felt private and I felt like an intruder, but I could not tear my eyes from the argument.

"You are a vain, greedy, cruel boy!" Odin bellowed, with such rage and hostility, that I physically recoiled away from him. I could tell the exclamation had shaken the other two in the room, as they looked up at the Allfather in shock.

Thor glared at his father in rage, "And you are an old man and a fool!"

This insult seemed to spark a realisation in Odin and he stared down at his boy, coldly. Thor stared back up at him, breathing heavily, with his eyes tightened into a squint.