The chattering was far more widespread than he had first imagined.
Now that the incessant noise had been brought to his attention, Loki was beginning to notice that wherever the Bifrost took him, in just about every realm, there would be what seemed to be a vague humming at the edge of his attention. When he took the time to listen closer, he could just make out the same noise every time.
Rata-tata-rata-tata-rata-tata…
Sometimes, he would just take to ignoring it. Other times, he would try to find it. But whenever Loki went to search for it, he would either be unable to discern even the direction of the chatter, or the noise would stop suddenly before he was able to find the source. He hadn't yet managed to get as close to discovering the mystery as he had the first time he had heard the squirrels.
Somehow, the idea of telling anyone else about the chattering didn't quite appeal to Loki. On the very rare occasions that the thought occurred to him, an odd sort of compulsion would come over him telling him to keep it to himself. It would be a puzzle that only he knew about, and that he would get to solve with his own efforts.
So, he travelled. Again and again, Loki felt pulled back to the original cliff site where he first noticed the noise, but it seemed to have fallen defiantly silent. He wandered along waterfalls and riverbanks in Vanaheim, plains and meadows in Alfheim, rocky terrain in Svartalheim. Everywhere, the noise faded in and out of his attention completely independent of his own efforts. No spell he knew could successfully track or find the source of the noise and physically tracking the noise just sent him running in circles.
He refused to let his exasperation overpower his curiosity. Heimdall could tell a disappointed Thor why his little brother couldn't join him on his latest adventure; Loki's acquired knowledge of the realms was always invaluable when they met back up again, anyway.
He was currently hiding in a Midgardian forest. The locals had been friendly enough, even reverent when Loki had arrived with his gleaming armor and magic, but had become less pleased when he decided to test his latest manipulation spells of animate consciousness by switching the minds of the villagers and their livestock. He had intended the spell to be temporary, of course, but not quite as short-lived as it proved to be. Before Loki had the chance to leave among the pandemonium of animals panicking and flailing about with their new limbs and pigs and chickens angrily working to escape from their pens, everyone returned to the rightful bodies and had their sights set on the strange new god who had appeared the night before.
It had taken a lot of running and shapeshifting to throw the angry humans off his trail, but Loki finally lost them. He lay on the ground, panting from the exertion, but smiling gleefully to himself from the chaos and the adrenaline rush. He closed his eyes and sighed contentedly. Not perfectly executed, but prank well done.
Rata-tata-rata-tata-rata-tata…
Loki's eyes snapped open and darted around. There it was again. He slowly got to his feet, but didn't move from the spot, determined to find the horde of squirrels this time. Gently, he tapped both of his ears lightly, letting tiny tendrils of magic wind their way into his ear canal. Without warning, the volume of all the sounds around him jumped up. The chattering now sounded like a crowd, babbling incoherently but unceasingly around him.
He did his best to listen through the noise and strained his ears, listening until he found…there! There was the soft rustling of foliage ahead of him from small animals darting all around it. Loki jumped forwards and ran towards it.
It was like they could see him spring into action, because suddenly, the rustling sound exploded in his ears, and Loki knew that the squirrels had just taken off running.
He was going to need to draw less attention to himself. In a stroke of inspiration, he shapeshifted himself into the form of a gray, nondescript, average sized squirrel and kept chase. He was lighter now, and able to propel himself much farther with each push from his powerful legs. His surroundings were now much bigger, but they sped past him faster than they ever had before.
And suddenly he saw them. A mob of squirrels: in the trees, on the ground, quick as silver and skillfully using the wildlife around them to shield themselves from sight. They were red, brown, gray, and even some black, but they were all headed in the same general direction. Loki slipped into their midst, little heart pounding excitedly about finally learning the answer to this mystery.
The mob stopped. Loki almost tumbled head over heels, the change was so abrupt. The squirrels all gathered around a large stone with a flat front face, chattering uneasily amongst themselves. Loki shifted anxiously under the wave of nervous energy the little animals were giving off, despite not looking to be in a hurry to go anywhere else.
They waited. And without warning, the world swallowed them.
Just as suddenly, they were spat back out, but their surroundings had completely changed. It had been midafternoon, but now, all that Loki could see above and around him was the night sky, beautiful and starry. The hard, packed earth that had just been under their feet was now replaced with some kind of odd, pale gray stone that was rough and had large, jagged fissures running through it. The squirrels had all fallen silent and were now looking expectantly at a wall made of the same material not far from them. Loki looked at it too, noticing that it seemed to be very tall. He looked up and almost fell over from the shock.
It felt like looking at infinity. The wall stretched above him dizzyingly high, continuing up and up until it was completely out of Loki's range of sight, and yet he knew that it still stretched beyond even that. The inability to see where the wall ended hit him with a crippling sense of vertigo; he felt like if he continued to stare and try to comprehend the sight, he would go utterly, stark raving mad.
There was a scrabbling noise from around him, and Loki realized a moment too late that the squirrels around him had gone ahead, leaving him behind to gaze mindlessly upwards. Dozens of little heads swiveled to stare at him, and he heard a hiss from somewhere above him.
"Trespasser…"
For the first time in his life, Loki felt utterly out of his depth.
He jumped when the voice spoke again, now sounding closer. "I thought I warned you lot about keeping the little magician out of here." Seemingly out of nowhere, a huge, red squirrel jumped down into Loki's vision. It had a long bushy tail, flecked with gray and black. From what Loki could see, it looked like it had a pure white belly. Its claws were orange and sharp, and it was clinging upside down on the fissures in the wall. It was very reminiscent of the way regular squirrels would cling to a tree trunk.
Loki's eyes widened. Like a tree…!
He gave a quick scratch to the ground beneath him and saw in a flash of understanding that it wasn't some kind of gray stone, it was wood, and not just wood, it was bark, and oh Norns, that meant that he must be on…
"Take that false skin off," growled a voice that was now very close, and Loki started when he looked up and realized that the giant squirrel was now crouched right in front of him. Its voice was very little like the chatter that had been haunting him for the past fortnight; it was growling and hissing that was much deeper than one would ever expect out of a rodent, and the noise didn't so much enter through his ears than echo directly into the recesses of his brain. "It doesn't suit you anyway."
Loki had never been much for following orders from strangers, but he felt like this situation might call for an exception. He shook the sense of squirreliness free from his mind, and felt the magic tugging on his body, making his limbs bigger and feeling more familiar. Now at his normal size, Loki could see that this squirrel was not as heartstoppingly huge as he first thought, though it was still about the size of a middling mountain cat.
The corner of the squirrel's mouth quirked into a smirk. "You are not as small as I thought you would be. But then, I suppose most gossip gets exaggerated in the telling."
The question burst from Loki without warning. "Am I on Yggdrasil?"
The squirrel snorted. "Impertinent. But perceptive." It began to circle Loki, who was still on his knees. "You are much as they say, trickster prince."
"But I am on Yggdrasil? We are sitting on the branches of Yggdrasil?" he pressed.
"You are on Yggdrasil, if the knowledge satisfies you," the squirrel said, coming to a halt in front of the prince. "You are taking the sight of the Tree well for a realm dweller."
Loki reminded himself not to get lost in the sight above him. He hardly dared to contemplate what looking down would look like. "No one has ever set their eyes here…" he murmured, awed. "It is truly astonishing."
The squirrel hissed again to get his attention, glaring at him. "And you, realmling, are not to be here. Your place is solely where the Gate Guardian can send you."
Loki was startled, but met the gaze defiantly. "And who are you to refuse me?" he shot back.
The squirrel let out a snarl, baring its long, sharp teeth, and he shrank back almost instinctively. "You dare speak to me in such a way? I have more knowledge of the universe than you shall ever possess, little trickster," it said. It leaned towards Loki, its eyes narrowed menacingly. "Believe me when I say I know stories and truths about you and your family that could make your blood curdle in your veins."
Loki flushed in sudden rage. "You dare speak so dishonorably of the house of Odin?" he replied angrily.
"Oh, I dare," it responded, eyes gleaming coldly. "I answer to no one in all the Nine Realms, and I speak as I please."
"There is no such creature in all the Realms," Loki declared.
The squirrel pulled itself up onto its hind legs, tail twitching behind it. "Then it is fortunate that I am not of the Realms. I am Ratatosk, traveler of the Tree," the creature stated haughtily. "These little ones are my messengers, telling me of events that occur in the Nine Realms."
"A gossip," Loki pronounced, smirking.
Ratatosk hissed at Loki menacingly. "I have sometimes been titled so, but only for the wealth of knowledge I can glean about any realm dweller I please."
"Oh?" The first hints of a scheme began swirling around Loki's head. "Do you think so? Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I've never seen one of your little messengers scuttling around the palace of Asgard."
The crowd of squirrels behind him began to babble in indignation. "They hide among the grounds and the gardens," Ratatosk growled. "We know much of what happens among the high Asgardians."
"How much, hm?" Loki suggested tauntingly. "Do you hear of the schemes of Odin and of court intrigue? Have any of your little ones seen the splendor of Asgard's throne room with their own eyes? The Asgardian noblewomen are the most precious jewels of the royal court, and they shine the most beautifully in their place within the palace. The Lady Sif ventures ever outwards, but what can you see of our beloved queen Frigga? The wall ringing Asgard sprang from the Lady Freya's beauty. And what of Lady Sigyn, Lady Nanna, Lady Idunn?"
"Do you try to weave one of your spells of words on me, Silvertongue?" Ratatosk sneered, but the edge to his hostility had gone.
"Why ask? Do you feel the pull of their truth?" Loki asked, grinning cheekily. He leaned forwards, as if to tell a secret, and began to whisper enticingly. "Oh, venerable Traveler of the Tree, the tales I could tell you. A royal prince and a skilled sorcerer? I can enter places your underlings could only dream of in their wildest fantasies. What do you wish to hear of? The knowledge and artifacts to be found in Odin's own private study? The treasures locked away in the weapons vault? Ask yourself, and then really, truly consider to yourself whether you want to ban me from this place forevermore."
He broke off when he started to feel his heartbeat in his ears. His nerves were all humming, roiling emotions pulling all of his muscles taut. Loki didn't have the faintest idea of the powers that Ratatosk might possess and of his own right to be here in the first place. The thought was frightening, but the feeling only fueled his excitement of trying this ploy. If this succeeds…the knowledge I could gather from being on the Tree itself! Could I travel along it? Could I get to the bottom and see the beast chewing at the roots? Could I meet the Norns themselves? Could I…? The prospect was intoxicating, more than the finest mead that the royal dining halls could ever offer.
Loki forced himself to calm down. His skill at wordcrafting was going to be diminished if he let his emotional investment in this get the better of him.
Ratatosk had fallen silent. It was staring at Loki very intently, tail very slowly swaying behind him. "You offer much, trickster prince," it finally replied. "What guarantee would I have that you would ever pay up?"
"Why, none at all," Loki responded flippantly. "I haven't promised you anything, Traveler. I tell you only of the kind of knowledge I have and can gain. I only hope you consider them worth knowing yourself, so that you might allow me entry onto the Tree once more."
They continued to stare at each other, each trying to leverage each other solely with their gazes. Then suddenly, Ratatosk turned its back, went to the little horde of squirrels, and began to rapidly chatter at them. The sound echoed painfully in Loki's ears, feeling like a little drill whining at the back of his skull, but he kept the discomfort from his expression.
Ratatosk finished chattering, and the squirrels scattered everywhere along the wall, up and down and across until they had all disappeared from Loki's sight. The large squirrel turned around, sauntering back towards the prince, letting out what sounded remarkably like a sigh.
"So, what was so interesting that I don't get to listen in as well?" Loki inquired casually, taking care to sound as if the matter only just barely piqued his curiosity.
Before he could even blink, Ratatosk's tail was wrapped securely around Loki's neck. It felt like a warm, furry shackle, pressed hard enough to just cause discomfort. The fur tickled at his lower jaw.
"They will spread the word," Ratatosk growled, "among the beasts and creatures to be found among all the Nine Realms: Trickster Prince Loki is to be allowed on the Tree. If he should abuse this privilege, he shall meet the wrath of Ratatosk."
Loki's eyes widened, and he let out a nervous chuckle. "Ehehe…I thank you for your generous offer, good Ratatosk," he said, not quite able to keep the tremble out of his voice. "I am eternally grateful that you should have gifted me with your permission to traverse Yggdrasil."
"Cease your pretty words. They are empty," it snapped, loosening its tail's hold over Loki's neck. "I shall collect my payment from you when we cross paths again, and you come to me as another of my messengers." The tail wrapped around his arm and swiveled him around. "Now come," it said, bounding towards the mob of squirrels' entryway in, which had transformed from a flat face of rock to an odd sort of shimmering membrane wall. "Come learn how to step on to the Tree."
Ratatosk uncurled a claw and gently ran it along the edge of the undulating wall. Loki stared, fascinated. "All of the realm-fruit are imperfect. There are cracks to be found in each of them, but they are small." One of the talons caught, and Ratatosk very gently dragged it, and a swimming view of trees could be seen in the resulting opening in the membrane. It let go, and the wall snapped shut again.
"The cracks are almost always to be found in nature. Structures made by the ruling realmlings usually obscure them," the squirrel explained. "You will learn their locations as time breeds your familiarity with the Tree." It stepped back. "Now open the crack yourself."
Loki stepped forward and cautiously pressed his palm to the wall. It felt like cool water, but his hand remained dry while touching it. Carefully, he ran his fingers along it, unsure of what he would find.
And then he felt it. It was like the faintest sensation of brushing an edge of a thin page of a book tingling along the tip of his middle finger. Loki curled his fingernail around it and pulled.
He was suddenly jerked forward into the scene before him. Behind him, Loki heard a little chatter of mirth. "We will meet again soon, little trickster. May you be more graceful in your future travels."
Loki stepped back onto the Bifrost site on Midgard, his mind awash with the knowledge and memories of the last hour. Now that he could get onto Yggdrasil, he could hardly comprehend the possibilities that could be open to him now. The things he could learn, the places he could travel; Loki wasn't even sure where to begin.
The familiar spinning pull of the Bifrost hardly interrupted his thoughts, and as the golden observatory materialized around him, Loki gave a quick nod and acknowledgement of thanks to Heimdall before heading for the door, eager to begin his search for other cracks in the universe.
"Hold, Loki," Heimdall interrupted, and Loki came to a halt, heart suddenly pounding. Heimdall. Of course. He had forgotten about him, Heimdall had surely seen his romp onto the World Tree, how could he have thought he would be able to keep this hidden? Heimdall would surely tell Odin and this discovery might just change all Asgardian technology and future method of attack, Ratatosk had just warned him not to abuse this privilege, how was Loki ever going to–
"I seem to have lost sight of you for a period of time in your travels at Midgard." Heimdall turned to fix his golden eyes directly at the prince, and Loki could almost feel his very thoughts being seen and examined. "Can you tell me how this can be?"
Loki blinked and exhaled slowly. Heimdall hadn't been able to see him while he was on the Tree? That could prove to be…interesting. He didn't get much opportunity to lie to the All-Seeing Gatekeeper, after all. "Why, I cannot imagine that your Sight has waned, good Heimdall," he said aloud, quickly slipping back into a calm visage. "Perhaps, with so much to see at once, you simply lost track of me and could not easily spot me again once I had entered my shifted state."
They gazed at each other in silence for a few anxious seconds. "Perhaps," Heimdall finally admitted. "I shall endeavor to watch you more closely on your travels in the future."
"I thank you for your vigilance," Loki replied, flashing a confident smile before striding out of the observatory. Once on the rainbow bridge, he surreptitiously breathed out a quick sigh of relief before running forward. Heimdall was going to keep a closer eye on him, eh? Well, that would mean little while he was on Yggdrasil, but it he was going to need to study his illusions far more deeply if he was going to doubly fool Heimdall: one, to keep him from being seen when he stepped off the Tree to another realm, and two, to make others think he was still where they expected him to be.
Loki could hardly keep the grin off his face. This would be his grandest scheme yet.
Phew! That sure took long enough, didn't it? Looks like Loki's just got a whole new world of mischief opened up to him…
My apologies for being so late in this chapter; school just came and hit me like a brick wall, knocking me over from my keyboard and then repeatedly wailing on me to keep me from getting back. I'm sorry to say future updates are likely to take around this long in the future, if not longer. So no more updates every couple of weeks, but not to fear! I definitely want to keep writing this, as I've become attached to our lovely couple here. I've got ideas of who I want them to meet and what their lives will be like all the way up to the events of Thor. Next chapter, I think we might get to see Sigyn again, so yay! I wonder what she's been up to while Loki's been running all around the Nine Realms?
As always, thank you thank you thank you for taking the time to read this fic, as well as favoriting and following it! And an extra special thank you to all you extra lovely folks who review and take the time to tell me what you like or dislike about my story! It seriously helps me and my writing so much to know what things you guys think of it and where you want/hope it will go. It makes me happy inside whenever I see a notification in my inbox about this fic, so thank you to you all! I really hope you like this chapter, because I've had this scene in my head for Loki for a while now, so please tell me what you think of it! I encourage any and all feedback, tips, or criticisms that any of you might have for me, and I hope to see you all soon!