Title: Rune Mage: Meeting
Author: Yami no Kaiba
Fandom: Thor
Rating: PG
Pairing: Thor/Loki
Length: 1,177 words

Summary: The Warrior Prince of Asgard meets the First Prince of Jotunheim for the very first time.
Disclaimers: Marvel Comics and any of its subsidiaries/partners owns the personality-characters and the conceptual universe they exist in. (Mythology of course owns the characters themselves.) I’m borrowing them for light fun and fan purposes that have nothing to do with earning anything.
Note: Written for this prompt and reposted from the norsekink community.

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The whistle of Fandral's steel cutting air, the groan and crack of ice, Sif's cries of battle, Volstagg's hearty bellows of encouragement, Hogun's quiet cursing. Thor's roar of defiance carried above it all, as Mjolnir crashed into the knee of a Jotun, causing it to stagger back.

"Thor! Thor, we have to go! There's too many of them!" he heard, far away, but didn't listen - *someone* had to stand their ground, someone had to --

"Isa," a sibilant whispered hiss, almost lost to the cry of battle.

Motion to the left, an instinctive jump all that kept his boots and his feet inside from turning into blocks of ice. He landed with nary a stagger, whirled about, Mjolnir above his head ready to strike again another Jotun's knee --

A cloaked figure not a head shorter than he, red eyes caught in an errant beam of reflected light. A skinny blue arm stretched forth from the mixed furs, two digits folded, two pointed at him, the tips glowing a soft radiant sphere of blue.

Fury and confusion sparked in his chest - that the Jotun were so cowardly as to send their untested *children* into battle...! A dishonor on them for doing so, but a graver one on him should he slay the child --

A flash of white teeth below those red eyes. "Fool. This is war you have started! And in war - you give - no - quarter!" The pointing fingers flashed in the air, like a quill in a talented scribe's hand slashing at paper and leaving behind its mark, trailing now a yellow light in its path and leaving a sigil - no, a *rune* - in it's wake. "Sowilo!"

Fire - fire in a land of ice, of all things! - erupted from the glowing rune at him. Dodging to the side was his only chance --

Heat like that of a forge fire caught his trailing shoulder and arm, and he bit his lip to stifle the startled cry of agony into a grunt. Steam erupted from a melted trench in the snow where the fire had burned a scarring trail on the white land. Water pooled at the bottom, already freezing again at the edges.

A Jotun child wielding fire...! His heart thrilled, and his grip on Mjolnir tightened - there was no dishonor in fighting a worthy foe, be he child or not! "It is thee who are a fool! Thee dare stand against Thor, son of Odin, Prince of Asgard, God of Thunder? I wouldst know thy name, before I strike thee down!"

The furred hood tilted ever so slightly to the side, before the glow surrounding the outstretched fingertips died away. An equally skinny blue arm to match the first twisted out of the shadows of the cloak and rose to help the other fist the sides of the stiff hood and throw it back. Crimson red eyes stared out at him from a mature face, as the blue hands worked at the fastenings of the cloak to throw the furs aside, revealing a lithe body sheathed in green and black-inlaid plate and chain-mail armor. "I am Loki Laufeyjarson, First Prince of Jotenheim, Trickster, Liesmith, Shapeshifter, Rune Mage."

Thor's eyes narrowed - only his great Father had ever made the trip to the roots of Yggdrasil and survived to hold the knowledge the great tree had imparted! Truly the man before him was a liar and a trickster! And yet, that *had* been a rune he'd seen --

A hand stretched out once more, drawing another rune in the air in a hard blue light. "Hagalaz," the tiny Jotun hissed, and daggers of ice were flying at him, too fast to dodge. Crouching, Thor let go of the shaft of his hammer while keeping hold of the strap, whirling it to create as much of a shield as he could. The daggers shattered and chips flew, scoring his unprotected skin and lodging in the top layer rings of his chain-mail.

Leaping from his crouch, still spinning his hammer by the strap, Thor lunged forward, bounding through the sheets of ice towards its source. Rune Mage or not, a Mage was a Mage, and if he could just strike true once --

"Thurisaz!" Loki cried out, his other hand having written another rune in green light that blazed forth as Mjolnir swept down. The hammer impacted against a disc of solid green light, and bounced back to crack against the plate armor of Thor's right shoulder, leaving a brief wrenching sensation and an unsettling lurch as his shoulder was shifted out of true.

Hissing in pain - Mjolnir was so *heavy*, pulling and further disjointing his shoulder from its socket - Thor immediately twisted about, spinning and giving his enemy his back for but a moment as he dropped and scooped up his hammer with his other hand, coming full circle with another devastating blow --

Swing and a miss, for the tiny Prince had used Thor's gambit to distance himself once more, yellow tinging blue light crackling about his finger tips as he drew another rune, exactly like the first one Thor had seen him draw. "Sowilo!"

Lightning chased by thunder flashed towards him, and Thor grinned like a feral beast, stretching out his hammer like a rod to draw and absorb his element into himself --

Fire and power twisting and striking like a snake inside, hundreds of scales rasping and scrapping under his skin. He knew his mouth and eyes were open, but could not see or hear - it burned too much, too fast, too *bright* --

He was Thor, God of Thunder! Lightning was *his* to command! And he would.

Not.

YIELD!

Blinking white spots out of his eyes, breath rasping his sore throat as he panted in the cold harsh air, he clutched at the haft of his hammer, gripping snow between his fingers as he found himself kneeling on his hands and knees in the frozen wastes of Jotenheim.

Green and black metal-guarded boots crunched into his field of vision. Lifting his bowed head, he stared up into the crimson eyes of his foe and the light frown that graced the Jotun's features. Exhausted, but not yet willing to admit defeat, Thor grinned and haltingly jeered, "Is that - all you have?"

"... No." The man crouched down, stretching out one of those deadly frozen limbs to trace against Thor's forehead another rune. Despite his exhaustion, Thor felt a spark of disbelieve that the tracery felt more like a loving touch than the cold chill of frostbite. "Eihwaz."

Cursing under his breath, he could feel the strength draining from his limbs, retreating like a river who's spring-head had dried up. Already collapsing into the snow, he managed to twist one last time onto his back so that he would not plummet face first into the icy embrace of the land.

The sight of the still frowning face of the First Prince of Jotenheim chased him into a dreamless sleep.

--TBC

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Notes: There are 24 Futhark Runes used in the old Norse mythology. Each one typically had multiple meanings attached to it, like the tarrot. Here's the meanings used here:

Isa - The second ice rune, more to do with the creeping ice of winter.

Hagalaz - The first ice rune, associated with hail stones.

Sowilo - The third and most powerful fire rune, associated with the fire of the sun and lightning.

Thurisaz - A protection rune associated with the natural protection that thorns give.

Eihwaz - Encompasses the cyclic concept of endings leading to new beginnings and vice versa.

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Next: Declarations and Messengers