A Gods Favor

Asgard

Five hundred and forty three years before the events of Thor

Loki had to resist the urge to roll his eyes as he saw Yrsa and Elora walking towards him in the garden. His sister, Odin's third child, only daughter, and pride and joy, and her shadow seemed unbearably ever present these days and Yrsa could never pass him without some kind of remark.

"Little brother! It's nice to see you out enjoying the sun, you are much too pale. Your pallor is almost sickly."

"Yrsa, must I always remind you I am the older sibling?" He asked with a raised brow.

Yrsa's answering grin stretched wide and he didn't have time to step away before she grabbed him, rubbing her knuckles through his hair. "I didn't say younger brother, I said little brother! You may be older but..." her words trailed off as she released him, looking down at him with a small laugh.

Loki straightened and began to right his leathers as he glowered at Yrsa before shooting a look at Elora who was holding back a laugh. "You find my sister's disrespect to be humorous, elf?"

Elora's restrained laughter left her before she dropped her face and quickly reached up to cover her slightly pointed ears with her night black hair.

Loki instantly felt remorseful for snapping at the woman, despite being his sister's constant companion she wasn't a terrible annoyance. At least not quite the same way Yrsa was. No, Elora was soft spoken, polite, and a gifted witch, though not as good as he, which often slowed their lessons with his mother much to his disdain. She was also only half-elven, a fact she was self conscious about. She had also been taken with him for as long as he could recall and he quite enjoyed the ability to make her blush with just a look and the fact she treated him the deference he deserved as a prince of Asgard even if Sif and the others didn't.

"Forgive me, Lady Elora, my sister's behavior clearly had me out of sorts. I should not have spoken to you so."

Elora lifted her head back up, her frost blue eyes giving away her Ice Elf heritage even more so than her ears. "No, Prince," She spoke quietly, voice barely above a whisper. "It's your forgiveness I ask, I didn't mean to laugh. It's just that Yrsa is quite a bit larger than you."

Loki noticed a small smile playing at the corner of her lips before she looked at Yrsa.

His sister stood watching them, using all of her six feet seven inches to look down upon him, her well muscled arms crossed over her broad chest, fighting leathers molded perfectly to display her bulk.

"What a lovely sight!" The trio turned to see Thor jogging over to them. "My three favorite people in one place!" As he approached Thor came up behind Loki, ruffling his hair before resting an arm on Elora's shoulder.

"Why do you both always insist on disheveling my person at every chance?" Loki grumbled as he smoothed his hair back down.

"You're always so put together, Loki. It's nice to see you rumpled every once in a while. Don't you agree, El?" Thor looked at Elora with a knowing smile and saw as her cheeks reddened.

Elora bowed her head again to try and hide the heat rushing to her face from Yrsa and Loki. Thor, despite being a bit oafish and arrogant, was always the most observant of the three royal children especially when it came to those he held close. Although after all these years she thought that Yrsa's cluelessness in this matter might have been willful ignorance.

"I mostly do it for the joy I get from teasing my brothers." Yrsa began to walk back down the path, ruffling Thor's hair and grabbing Elora's arm. "Come, El, we should get to the training yard before Volstagg wanders off to the kitchens."

Loki turned and began to walk back towards the palace but his sister's words piqued an interest. "Elora, you're not going to the infirmary to work with Eir?" For decades the woman had been working and training to become a healer and for all he knew she'd never missed a single opportunity to learn from the goddess.

Elora turned. "I'm going in after supper. Eir thought it would be good for me to work with other healers to learn more and this way I could have the morning off."

"So you can train?" He prodded, confused. Elora had been his parents' ward since they were children and she'd never shown even the slightest interest in fighting despite Yrsa and Sif constantly begging her to join them.

She shrugged. "Yes, sort of. Yrsa finally convinced me I should at least have some basic knowledge to protect myself."

"That and Fandral has been asking her to join our training for years so he can teach her 'how to handle a sword'." Yrsa called from down the path a mischievous grin on her face. "Isn't that right, Ellie?" She teased Elora with the nickname the warriors three called her. A name Loki now suspected had been coined by Fandral.

Elora bit her lip, eyes darting to the skies in a silent plea for patience for her friends teasing before she curtsied and darted after Yrsa leaving Loki standing with a perplexed look on his face.