“Hi,” Bragi said to the horse again after they'd been officially introduced. “Your name means smooth or gliding. That's a really good horse name.” Bragi wondered who named him that, and if they knew they weren't supposed to ride him yet. He looked at Hermod. “That's okay,” he said about just petting and not riding. Bragi liked horses, but the thought of riding one frightened him a little. Bragi had never ridden a horse before. It looked fun, but scary. “Wow, you're right, he is young. I bet when you do get to ride him it won't be rough or bumpy at all, and people will say it's like running over water instead of land, and they'll tell all kinds of stories about the things he does.” He had eight legs, and he was Odin's horse. Bragi bet he'd do all kinds of neat stuff that other horses wouldn't.
He was going to pet the horse when Tyr came in. The yelling part made Bragi cringe. He didn't like when adults yelled like that, because sometimes it meant soon they weren't just going to yell. But Tyr was really nice, and he stopped really quick. Unfortunately, this still put Bragi in a tough position.
He didn't want to be in trouble, because if he was bad, maybe the Alfather would send him back. Hermod started there, so he couldn't get sent back anyplace, but Bragi could. Bragi already felt like he was on thin ice because he'd tried to play Frigg's loom like a harp the other week and it messed up all of her strings. Bragi didn't want to be in trouble. But he really wanted to play with Hermod and Sleipnir. He didn't want Tyr to make Hermod take Sleipnir outside without him again.
“Could we play with him then take him right back to the stables?” Bragi piped up leaning around from the other side of the horse. “We can take him back really fast after we're done.” He looked at Tyr and then Hermod, and then Sleipnir, and then back. “It could be good luck. So maybe the Alfather wouldn't disapprove. Because there are these extremely rare horses who are born with three toes, and when they're found, they're given to kings to ride in battle because everyone says they're good luck,” Bragi said, jumping. “Eight legs is probably way more lucky than three toes. And other kings have had horses in their halls before. There was a dwarf king and whenever he entertained guests from far away he had the feast brought in on the backs of nine ponies in golden tack with coats that gleamed like fire. And if he had ponies bringing food like that they would have had to go through the hall to do that. And one time he was entertaining a beautiful elf maiden and he called for the ponies but they didn't show up and...” Bragi looked at Tyr. This was becoming a tangent. His eyes widened. “And nevermind...But Tyr, you could pet him too. Didn't you ever want to pet a horse inside? And Sleipnir is really smart.”