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May 22nd, 2009 - 04:24 am
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Pt 1: The Bet
The bet had changed everything. Without it, he would never have begun to understand the lessons of his time joined with Blake, or what his father was trying to do. He would have resented it instead. But the bet, he owed to Loki, it had opened his eyes, and then had simply forgotten for a time - as mortals drifted from the gods, so too had Thor drifted away from half his heritage. But now, he remembered.
Thor had put down mortal men, always calling for blessings and aid. Sometimes he had granted it, sometimes he turned a deaf ear. But devious Loki sought to imperil and humiliate his brother instead, and had bet Thor he could not long survive in the guise of a mortal man before he would call upon his godly powers. Ever headstrong, Thor had taken the bet. He disguised himself as a human being, and signed on board a ship bound for adventure. They were braving the open seas, bound for exploration and what treasures they could find in a strange land.
Even for the seas of Norway, the seas were difficult, and Thor had thought time and again as men struggled and men suffered and men died around him battling the seas. They were imperiled the whole way by creatures of the deep, and had to fight their way through adversity time and again, and yet he kept Mjolnir hidden and used no more might than a mortal man could bring to bear, much as he longed to save his brave comrades.
Upon reaching their destination, the explorers came upon yet more dangers, stretching the credibility of even the dark legends of the place. Giant rats, then the walking dead bedeviled them. Yet as more of the crew fell to these new threats, he held back, fighting as a man, and gaining respect for the bravery of the men around him in the face of almost impossible odds.
It was then that Loki went too far, and underestimated him. Deep within a cave network, they encountered a dragon - but well accustomed to battling monstrosities, Thor recognized what it was, and its origins - summoned to the area by sorcery. Wielding Mjolnir, he battled the dragon as Thor, turning the treasures over to the crew, and insisting they had proven worthy to stand with him rather than demanding they bow and grovel in worship.
Ensuring them an easy and quick journey home, he confronted Loki, who at first believed he had thus won the bet. Thor instead proved Loki had cheated all along, stirring up the storms with magic, turning the sharks and krakens against the ship, growing the rats to massive sizes from normal vermin, animating the dead, and finally summoning the dragon.
Odin was enraged, and though he had punished Loki before, never on the scale he intended to for this gross violation and treachery. Thor convinced his father to limit the punishment somewhat, for it would not be punsihment for what he deemed the true sin - imperiling the brave humans. Instead, the All-Father was enraged for Loki's cheating on a wager, and imperiling Thor under such pretenses. All of that, Thor could forgive his brother for. It was the needless lives of brave men lost that he would never forget, and he would never again place the same trust in his brother.
But it had opened his eyes.
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