Chapter Text
Loki was exhausted. They had set up camp for the night and were gathered around a fire, the rest of his party drinking and loudly boasting. Thor roared, “The dragon flung me off the mountain, as if that would keep me away from battle!” Thor’s friends laughed heartily at that and tried to one up each other. Loki’s brows furrowed in annoyance.
He would cast a spell to render Thor, Sif, and the Warriors Three mute for some well-deserved peace and quiet, but he was essentially drained of his magic. It wasn’t worth it for Loki to waste any more of his energy on those fools. As Volstagg let out a particularly disgusting belch to raucous laughter, Loki closed his eyes and relived the memories of the day.
Thor had gotten it into his head that stealing from the most ancient dragon in the region was a feat worthy of Asgard’s mightiest and off they had gone. There was no plan as always and Thor hadn’t been deterred by the surrounding farmers’ worried looks as they traversed the fields on the route to a massive snow-covered mountain. They had refused to use illusions to cloak themselves and made themselves immediately known at the entrance to the dragon’s lair. They hadn’t counted on the dragon being as large as Asgard’s Great Hall.
The dragon had not been pleased by the intrusion to say the least. As Thor and the others ineffectively struck at the dragon and barely dodged fiery breaths, Loki had quickly slipped into the lair using the shadows to hide him and illusions paired with magical blasts to distract the dragon from his entry deeper and deeper into the dragon’s home. Loki found a large treasure room. He grabbed the closest treasure, a shiny sword, and sighed in relief. Maybe the others would be convinced to retreat, given that they had technically completed the objective of the quest.
He quickly teleported back to the entrance of the lair near minutes later to find Thor nowhere in sight and witness Sif get her nose broken by the dragon’s tail. Volstagg was on fire and trying unsuccessfully to stifle it with the snow on the mountain. Hogun was doing his best to distract the dragon’s head and Sif was keeping its tail occupied. Loki quickly saw why, Fandral had been stepped on and was weakly trying to drag himself away from the fight. Thor suddenly flew back from somewhere off in the distance and struck the dragon from behind with a mighty lightning blast from Mjolnir.
Loki jumped into action, casting a spell to suck the oxygen away from the large flames to finally extinguish Volstagg. He teleported Fandral to safety and healed the worst of his injuries. He waved the sword at the others and they finally got the message to retreat. Regrettably, the dragon had seen their prize as well and roared angrily, sending a fiery blaze directly at them. Loki instinctively created a thick barrier of ice so cold it dropped the air temperature several degrees. The barrier held against the flames and allowed them some precious time to start going down the narrow mountain path. He constructed a convincing illusion of another dragon and stayed at the entrance to the lair to maintain it, allowing the others to escape unharmed. When he was satisfied that they were far enough, he used the last of his energy to transport himself to the base of the mountain. He collapsed at the bottom and a few minutes later, Thor and the others found him. They bodily pulled him to his feet and they had ran as far as they could, finally settling in the middle of a thick forest where they had set up camp.
He reopened his eyes, looking at the unruly group. That quest could not have gone more disastrously if they had tried and yet they were making light of it. They had nearly died today. Fandral had had nearly all of his ribs shattered and Sif still had dried blood in her hair. If Thor hadn’t half carried half dragged him, Loki himself wouldn’t have been able to go any further than the base of the mountain. And what thanks did he get? The fools were all comparing their foolhardy feats.
Loki irritably left the fire, ignoring Thor’s pleas to stay, as he set up his tent. Luckily, he would never have to do today again. Tomorrow would be another day.