A Magical Encounter.

Loki sat silently on a bench in the police station as the adults figured out what to do.

'It's busy.'

Loki thought as he watched the police officers swarm around the office in a seemingly arbitrary order, moving to finish the tasks they had started, with a definite drag to their feet.

'I need to get out of here.'

'Preferably before they decide where I'm supposed to go.'

'I don't want to have to spend money travelling back and Elane must be worrying about why I haven't returned home yet.'

Suddenly a deep rumbling voice spoke from beside him, pulling him from his machinations.

"What are ye in for? Magic?"

'Huh? Magic?'

Loki turned to look at the man beside him.

The man's hair and beard didn't separate. It felt like he had a thick mane that went all around his face and neck. He was dressed in clothes made of cheap coarse fabric with nothing else to keep him decent except a small towel acting as a handkerchief in his hand.

Apart from his height which could only be defined as gigantic, the most striking feature about him were the chains that glimmered all around his body.

'Probably being used to bind him up.' Loki guessed since a large ring on his neck was connected to the thick rings around his wrists and ankles with the help of a thick iron chain that seemed impossible to break.

But all the rings and chains when compared to the gigantic man's size looked like thin threads you would see glimmer in a spider web.

'Is this 'magic' related to Beyonder stuff or is the man just cuckoo?'

Just to make it a little fun to talk to such a man, to play around and find out if he was as reasonable as he seemed, Loki said the following instead of clearing up the misunderstanding.

"Used Magic to prank a friend."

"Knew it." The man nodded as if he'd won a bet with himself, rattling his chains in the process.

A strange silence took in the atmosphere as they acknowledged each other's presence and then the man spoke again.

"How did ye do it? Good 'ol Leg locker curse?"

'Leg Locker curse? Which Beyonder pathway would give you the ability to lock someone's legs? It is quite the practical skill though.'

'Hmm…maybe I can check if he has knowledge about the various Beyonder pathways? Yes, that seems like the best plan of action.'

With the beginnings of a plan forming in his head, Loki answered the man with an intelligent and calculated smile on his face.

"Nah, I turned his dress animate."

"Ah! Professor McGonagall's classes. That's a good way too I suppose. If your transfiguration was good, I suppose she'd like it too." the gruff man acknowledged.

'Oh? He wasn't scared? Is he just cuckoo? Or is this Professor McGonagall someone from the Rose School of Thought?'

'Are the Rose School of thought in this world not corrupted by 'Her'?'

"What are you in for?" Loki asked with an interested smile.

"Beat up twelve people in a bar."

'That's surprisingly normal?'

"Oh? What'd they do? Call you bubbles?"

"Worse. They tried to steal me Dragon's Egg. Unfortunately, I broke me egg by accidentally sitting on it. That's why I beat them up."

'Dragons are alive? What the heck? Why haven't I seen them? Wait!!! I can get the Beyonder ingredients from him if he trades in exotic animals?'

"I understand. I'd be mad too if these magicless fools tried to steal my things." Loki nodded solemnly.

"Yes, muggles can sometimes be a little hard to handle too, though Professor Dumbledore doesn't think so."

'Muggles?'

"If I wanted things like the dragon's eggs or perhaps even their brains where could I meet you?"

"Erm..I'm not supposed to say this, especially not to a student, Professor Dumbledore would be disappointed in me, but you could try your hand at the Knockturn alley; I visit often. You'd be fine if it were only the outskirts."

With the comfortable silence settling in, Loki calculatedly whispered to the old man.

"Could you help me a little bit?"

"Help? What kind?"

"My little sis must be worried that I'm not back home, I'm the only one she has you see.", Loki said with a pitying smile on his face that elicited a gruff from the man.

"I understand, you don't need to worry about it. What do you suggest?" The friendly giant asked with a humorous undertone.

"Could you create a distraction so that I could slip by?"

"Although I'm not supposed to be using magic, I think I can make a small exception. I'm sure Professor Dumbledore would be proud."

"Thank you very much. I will remember to pay you back in some way when we meet again!" Loki excitedly accepted the offer since not only did he want to get away from the place, he also wanted to see what Beyonder pathway the man belonged to by seeing him use his abilities.

"Haha! Don't worry, I can do this much for a student."

'Student? Where does he think I study?' Loki thought bewildered. 'Is there a Beyonder school in this world?'

The gentle giant then pulled what seemed like an umbrella that was hidden in his boots and winked at Loki. It looked comically small in his hands.

Under Loki's astonished look, the giant then swung his umbrella and caused a stack of papers on the table of a desk worker to catch on fire.

'What the heck!!!'

'He's of the Apprentice or the Seer Pathway or Red Priest? And what was that umbrella? A prop for acting?'

"AHHHHHHH!!!!!" The desk worker instantly noticed the fire and stood up to try and put it out using his jacket but similar fires began to spring up all around the office as the giant waved his stick.

Loki sat on the bench baffled as he watched the already busy police station turn into a mess, filled with the screams and shouts of various people all running either towards sources of water or fire extinguishers to stop the fires.

"You should leave." The giant whispered shaking Loki out of the stunned state he was in.

"Ye- yes!" Loki quickly nodded thankfully to the giant and made his way towards the exit.

'I will think about this matter later, first I need to buy some burgers and then reach home!'

Reaching the road, Loki quickly made way towards the nearest WcDonalds, bought food for Elane and himself, and rushed back home.

"Big Bwother!!!" Elane who was waiting at the stairs leading up to the door shouted loudly as soon as she saw Loki enter the street and ran up to him to hug him. "You are late Big Bwother!!"

"Haha~ Thank you for waiting for me Elane! I was late because some police caught me! I will make sure I'm not late again! Promise!"

"Big Bwother is a bad boy?" Elane asked holding onto Loki's hands.

"Hehe~ No. Police caught Big Brother to take him away from Elane."

"Big Bwother is going away!?" Elane asked shocked. "Polieec bad!"

"No, don't worry, Big Brother is going to stay with you forever!" Loki nodded with certainty, patting Elane's head softly, but inwardly he was worried how he would embark on his beyonder journey with Elane hanging onto him.

After Elane and Loki finished eating, Elane immediately slept since she hadn't slept in the afternoon and was sleepy, allowing Loki to think about what had happened at the police station earlier.

'Which pathway was he from?'

'Red Priest?'

'Or the Fool Pathway? Maybe the Apprentice?'

'I remember both those pathways allow a person to work with fire, while the Apprentice pathway had the Sequence 8 Tricksmater who could possibly pull off such a trick?'

'Oh! Or maybe that umbrella was a Mystical item with those abilities?'

'Perhaps he was a low sequence Beyonder and was using a mid-sequence item belonging to the red priest or the fool sequence to produce those flames.'

Loki rubbed the four squares tattoo that had appeared on the back of his hand for a while and slowly slipped into a short nap himself.

'Today has been stressful.'

'I'll go check if I can do the homework at other schools tomorrow, but I doubt the police wouldn't keep an eye out for me.'

'Perhaps I can lay low for a few days and work with the money I already have? And then when things cool down, go back to solving homework again?'

'We'll see what happens later. That's the future me's problem. Now all I need is a good sleep.'

"Good night Elane."

"Voodnigh bwode" Elane mumbled, already sleeping.