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The nursery was peaceful this morning. Frigga had taken Thor to be fitted out in a new uniform – he was growing so fast that it was hard to keep up with his clothing! There was also the necessity of deciding his colours, although Thor had made his mind up a long time ago that he wanted silver and red and gold, maybe with a little bit of blue thrown in. Fulla had been left in charge of little Loki and she had decided to turn out the drawers and boxes of clothes and toys to tidy them up and to get rid of anything old or worn out, or simply not used by the boys any more. She up ended a large toy box that contained soft toys and began to look through the various fluffy animals and shapes, starting to sort them into various piles in order to make up her mind which ones to keep and which ones to discard.
Loki was sitting in the middle of a large rug with some coloured wooden blocks in different shapes and sizes. He had been able to sit up unaided for some time now and he seemed to be coming to the end of what had been a very trying time of teething. He was nearly weaned from the breast and was taking great interest in the world around him. He heard the box being stood back up and turned his head to look at what Fulla was doing – she had all the soft toys out! Was she about to play with them? Loki suddenly lost all interest in the wooden blocks – he wanted some soft toys, too. He leaned slightly forwards and held out a hand, opening and closing his outstretched fingers in the direction of the pile of toys.
“Ah. Mam mam ma mam…. ta.” His little voice caught the attention of Fulla and she smiled over at him.
“Would you like a toy, Loki?” She smiled and held up a plush toy horse, whereupon Loki reached out with both hands and gave out a giggle. Fulla carefully threw it to within his reach and he immediately picked it up and started chewing one of its legs. “Oh, Loki! You need to stop doing that!” Said Fulla, with a gently reprimanding tone. The little boy looked at her with uncertainty; he knew that this voice meant he was doing something that this person did not like. He removed the toy from his mouth and was rewarded with a bright smile, which caused him to smile back.
“Good boy! Toys are not for chewing, my Prince.”
‘Prince’. Another word people used a lot when they were talking to him. That and ‘Loki’, which was said the most. The Baby Loki mentally added these words to a list of sounds he associated with his own sense of being. ‘Little one’, ‘My Son’ and ‘Brother’ were some of the other sounds that he knew were how he was identified. It must be that the other people had sounds associated with them, too. The small person who was around him a lot was definitely identified as ‘Thor’, and the larger person who made Loki feel so happy he could burst, yet also sometimes made him feel a little sad or like she was more interested in ‘Thor’ than him, was the one they named ‘Mother’. “Mam mam ma ma ma mam.” He said, practising the sound with his small mouth.
Frigga looked at her handiwork. She scooped a few toys into a small box and went to the nursery door to see if the guards were there. She nodded to them and said, “Would one of you be so kind as to fetch a runner? A strong one to carry some things from here to the orphanage? I have some toys and I will have some clothes soon, too.”
“Yes my lady.” Said one and he strode off to find someone.
She returned to the nursery room to find Loki had started playing with the wooden blocks again, building crude patterns with the various colours and shapes. She took the box of old toys to the door to put them on the floor ready for the runner to collect and he watched her as she did so, curious as to what she was doing. He continued to watch as Fulla took another empty box and began to sort the older toys into it whilst leaving those she thought were still of interest to the boys in a small pile beside her. Loki began to mimic her actions by starting to sort the wooden blocks into piles of different colours around him, going from red at one side round in front of him in orange through yellow, green and blue to purple on the other side. Fulla meanwhile took another box to the door.
Loki looked up from what he was doing as a knock came on the door and a young man stepped into the room in a red and gold uniform – the uniform that signified the small army of Palace runners who were at the general disposal of those who lived and worked there. The little baby’s blue eyes watched as he picked up the first box and disappeared back out of the door to follow Fulla’s instructions. The Queen’s lady-in-waiting was rather pleased with herself; a good third of the toys were either going to the orphanage or were now going in this last box – the one that would have to be disposed of in the Palace incinerator because they were too damaged and worn to be handed down to anyone else. She put in old scraps of blankets, broken wooden figures and then turned to put in those soft toys which were ragged or had their stuffing hanging out.
The runner turned up again and picked up the second box, “Is this going to the Orphanage, too, my lady?” he asked and Fulla nodded, “Yes please. Then this last box is to be taken to be burned. These toys are not suitable for anyone anymore, but they have had very good use.” The runner nodded and left the room, with Loki watching.
That was the second time that person had taken away some of the things that belonged to him and to the person called ‘Thor’! What was happening? The little boy’s face was serious as he tried to work out what was going on. He watched the lady-in-waiting placing more items into the third box and wondered if this box was going to be taken away too. He sat watching, squeezing the soft horse toy and concentrating on the items being put into the box.
Fulla scooped up the last handful of old bedraggled looking toys and went to put them into the box. One dropped back onto the floor, so she picked it up to place in the top of the box. As she did so, the baby Prince made a noise and she turned to look at him. “We are having a good clear out, little one!” She said, “There will be more room for new toys now, and those poor children in the Orphanage will have nice presents from the Princes, won’t they?”
But Loki was not looking at her; he was looking at the box and pointing clasping fingers towards it, “Mam!” He exclaimed, “Gan da! Gan da!” He looked at her and then back at the box, “Mam mam gan gan dar! Gan dar!” His little fist opened and closed as he made the baby sounds.
“Yes! ‘Mam mam’ will be pleased to see what we have done today!” Said Fulla, “It is the turn of your clothes next – you are both growing so quickly and they can be put to good use by those poor children.” She stood up to take the box to the door so that the runner could take it to the incinerator. “Now, where shall I start?” She said as she walked over to the large chest of drawers that contained Thor and Loki’s clothing. A louder noise from the Prince made her look round and she saw him leaning right over in the direction of the box she had placed near the door, pointing his hand and babbling in his baby talk. He was almost on his belly and she wondered if he might try to crawl. She sat on her heels near the drawers and watched the young child as he gestured at the box.
Loki looked at the box. Helgrindr was in it! His old teething toy, given to him by Thor, had tried to escape by falling out of the big person’s hands, he knew it – he had seen it! But she had captured it and had placed it back in the box. And those boxes were being taken away! He leaned in the direction of the door and reached out his hands, “E! Ah! Gan dar!” He called and felt himself start to fall forwards. Instinctively, he put his hands out and ended up sprawled on his front. He reached out and kicked with his legs, “Gan dar!” He called again. Helgrindr was in the box! Helgrindr should not be in the box! “Gan dar, gan dar, da, da, da!” A sense of helplessness and loss began to fill Loki and he began to cry. “Gan da! Da, da, da!” He kicked out with his legs in a temper and an amazing thing happened! He moved forwards a small distance! Slightly shocked, but then immediately realising he could get to the box and retrieve his most precious toy, Loki kicked out again, feeling the tips of his toes digging in to the rug, which propelled him forward again!
Still upset, but now also excited at the prospect of managing to get to the toy, Loki’s little voice came out in excited bursts and pants as he exerted himself and Fulla looked on with pride in her Prince. Another milestone! She was completely unaware of the distress the little boy was in, because she thought he was simply learning a new skill, so she allowed him to carry on moving on his own. A knock came at the door and the runner came in, picked up the box and nodded to her.
“That is everything for now. I will send for you later if I have anything else.”
“Yes my lady.” The runner looked at the little Prince and smiled, then left the room.
Loki, who was getting tired very quickly in his new enterprise immediately started to cry as he saw the box containing Helgrindr being taken away. Within moments, he was scooped up by Fulla, who thought he may have banged his face on the floor and she hugged him, trying to calm him down. But the little boy was inconsolable.
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“I can not wait to show Loki my new uniform!” Enthused Thor. He felt every inch the man in the lightly armoured tunic and his new red cloak. Warrior’s clothes! He was walking tall and taking over-long strides as he accompanied his mother back to the nursery to have dinner with Fulla and his brother.
So it was with dismay that they both heard a distinctly unhappy wail arise from the direction of the Royal suites; Loki was clearly upset about something. As they rounded a corner, they almost collided with a Palace runner who was carrying a large box. He nearly dropped it and a few items fell out of it as he managed to just hold on to it. Thor picked up the toys that had fallen and looked at them.
“What is this?” He asked the runner.
“The Lady Fulla is throwing out all the old toys, Your Highness. Two boxes have gone to the Orphanage but, as you can see, these ones are beyond repair and are going to be incinerated…”
“Not this one!” Exclaimed Thor, as he put a few bedraggled toys back into the box. He had a tattered soft toy in one hand. Its ragged ears were dirty and it was no longer apparent what type of animal it had been when it was new, “This is NOT going to be incinerated!” To Frigga’s amazement, the young Prince ran off in the direction of the nursery at full tilt and she glanced at the runner with a puzzled face. “Thank you for your help in clearing out the nursery.” She said, “You may go.” The Queen of Asgard followed in the direction her son had taken, wondering what on Asgard he was doing.
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Fulla wandered up and down with the upset baby Prince, jiggling him and cooing at him, trying to calm him down, but he was well into this – well, for want of a better word, this – tantrum! He was struggling in her arms, clearly wanting to be put down. His little face was red with anger and frustration and the tears were streaming from his blue eyes. His lungs and voice box were putting on an impressive display of his vocal talents and her ears were almost ringing with the volume of his cries.
“Loki!” Thor appeared at the door and looked over at his baby brother. Loki had not heard him, so loud was he crying, and Thor crossed the room to come into his view. Fulla held Loki so he could see the elder Prince and tried to get him to look.
“Loki! Brother, is this what you want?” Said Thor loudly, managing to get Loki’s attention at last. He held up Helgrindr for Loki to see and it was as if he had thrown a magic switch.
The little Prince instantly stopped crying, although huge sobs went through him from the sheer effort he had spent in his outburst and, calling out “Gan da!”, he threw himself towards Thor with his hands outstretched, almost causing Fulla to drop him. Thor laughed and took Loki into his arms as the baby boy grabbed at the soft toy. Within seconds, the tattered dirty toy was brought to Loki’s mouth and he started to chew on the ragged ear. Thor hugged his brother tightly and smiled over at Fulla, who threw her hands up in resignation at the thought that the baby Prince would be allowed to keep the filthy thing a little while longer. Thor walked out onto the sunny balcony and sat on one of the large sofas, sitting Loki on his lap and tickling under the younger boy’s chin. As Loki giggled around the mucky, spittle drenched cloth ear of his favourite toy, Thor said:
“Don’t worry, Brother. You will always have me to look out for you!”