House of Healing

"My goodness Loki, what have you been up to now?" the Healer sighed as the young man entered the House of Healing with his left eye mostly swollen shut. His face was marked with scratches and bruises. She hurried over to him and guided him to sit down. He cringed when she touched his left shoulder, and she nodded to herself.

"It was a dragon," he responded promptly.

"You battled a dragon?" she repeated, deadpan, as she fetched him something to put on his eye.

"Single handedly," he confirmed, "It did not go well."

"I can see that," she agreed, "Put this on your eye."

The young Aesir obeyed, placing the poultice over his eye, closing the other one and listening to Eir do something in one of the cupboards.

"And what sort of dragon was this?" she asked.

"A big one," he responded promptly.

"A dragon in Asgard?

"Not in the city," he said, "Far in the outlands."

"What were you doing in the outlands?"

Loki did not respond to that. She shook her head slightly as she explored his left shoulder with her hand, trying to determine the damage. "Never mind," Eir said, "I am sure I do not want to know. This will hurt."

He hissed slightly, but held his tongue as she pushed his dislocated shoulder back into place. "I was riding," he finally managed, "It came out of nowhere. Startled my horse and it threw me, and then took off running."

"What did this dragon do?" she asked as she worked. His shirt was slightly scorched, but it seemed that his shirt had mostly protected the skin underneath.

"It had a massive tail, which I tried to avoid," Loki hissed again painfully, "But I was not fast enough. It also had wicked talons."

"It scratched you?" she looked alarmed. Her tone made him open his eyes again and look to her. "What did it look like?"

"The dragon?" Loki asked, "Why? What's wrong?"

"What did the dragon look like?" she repeated.

"It was green," he replied, "A dark green color, like fir trees with a purple crest and purple ribs on its wings."

Eir nodded and went over to her medicines, fussing around. He tried to turn to watch her, but she stood in front of the table, blocking his view.

"And you said it had a blue crest?" she asked after a moment.

"Purple," Loki corrected.

She came to him with a sickly green potion that was fizzing slightly. "Dragons often bathe their talons in poison," she told him, "Different dragons have different types of poison."

"It's just a little scrape," Loki said, "I probably got it from the tail anyway, not the talons."

"Probably," she agreed, "But we cannot take risks. Drink this."

He regarded the potion uncertainly. "It smells funny," he informed her.

"The distilled urine of the sea drake is the most effective counter to dragon poison," Eir responded, "Even if it does smell strong."

"The what?" Loki stared at the glass.

"Drink that," she said.

"I'm sure that I'm not poisoned," Loki said, "Aside from my shoulder, I feel fine."

"Dragon poison is slow to work," Eir said, "It might take days before it kills you. Drink that."

Loki regarded the potion with distaste. Then he looked up at Eir, "I am positive that the dragon did not scratch me."

She shook her head, "One can never be positive about things like this."

The younger Aesir sighed inwardly, closed his eyes, and downed the foul smelling potion. It tasted just as good as it smelled. But he swallowed it down in four swallows. He shuddered and then cringed as the movement hurt his shoulder. "May I go now?"

"Go on," Eir said, "Just take it easy."

Loki rose to his feet and hurried off.

Eir sighed, watching him retreat. The young man was worrisome. He was clever, far cleverer than his brother, that's for sure. The Healer knew lightning burns when she saw them. Whatever had happened had been a joint effort between the two brothers. If Loki really had battled a dragon single handedly, he would have had broken bones.

She wasn't sure if she should be impressed or worried at the extent that Loki was willing to carry his story. Even after she had put together the most noxious (but harmless) potion she could think of, he hadn't given up.

Back in his quarters, Loki was rinsing his mouth out for the fourth time. He reminded himself never to get scratched by a real dragon if that was the antidote. At least the healer had bought his story.

The elixir had been a price he had been willing to pay to avoid Odin's anger descending upon the boys for Thor trying to call down lightning unsupervised.

At least the fire hadn't been too big.