Hermod turned around at the sound and saw Loki. He smiled; glad to see the other god was there. He didn’t know all the details, but his father had told Hermod that Loki had Sleipnir and gave him to Odin. It only made sense that the horse’s former owner would want to come see how he was doing. The messenger suspected that Loki had visited many times before when no one else was around. Sleipnir seemed happy to see the other god as well.
“Hey, Loki,” Hermod said, greeting him. “I’m glad you showed up. I was about to tell Sleipnir that I forgot to bring him an apple today. You saved my butt if that’s for him.” That wasn’t exactly true. He had brought a couple of apples and sugar cubes, but they were in the barn and not right there for him to just grab one and give to Sleipnir.
He went over to the gate and opened it, letting Loki in to get closer to the horse. Hermod thought of Loki as almost an uncle. He knew Loki was very close to his father and he had heard of some interesting adventures. He wondered if he would ever get to go do something exciting like that some day.
He went over and started brushing Sleipnir’s hide. It seemed important to him that Loki knew that he took good care of the octoped. He didn’t want the other god to regret giving Sleipnir up. Which made him realize that he hadn’t heard Loki come up. So there was a chance he had been there for q while.
“Um, could you not tell my Dad if you saw me riding Sleipnir? I’m really not suppose to without Dad around.” Hermod suspected that his other had put that rule into effect. She was always worried about him getting hurt as if he were still a child.