Chapter 21: Gnawing at the Issue
As Eve delved further, her nails were thick with dirt. She could see the rot and decay. The rotting portions emitted a musky scent in the air with a combination of mold. She was getting closer. She could feel the vibrating getting stronger, and a crunching sound got louder. This was not a normal unhealthy tree. The roots were long dead before the canopy. The canopy showed signs of wilting but these roots seemed to be poisoned.
"What is going on?" Eve asked herself aloud, as she fussed and blew her hair out of her face, wiping some sweat from her brow.
A few rocks and loose dirt fell from above her, from the mouth of the hole she had been digging. Voices from above queried for her.
"Eve! Where are you?" the voices called out.
She quickly recognized them as both her parents looking for her. She thought to herself, how amazing it was that they seemed to have resolved the catastrophe of Ragnarok so quickly.
"I'm here Mom! I mean Mother- I'm down here." Eve called out.
"We need to get out of here now! Loki is targeting the tree of life." Xena answered, quickly kneeling down to the hole that Eve was situated in.
"What are you doing down there?" Gabrielle asked quickly, wondering what her adoptive daughter had got herself into. Perhaps she was hiding.
"I don't know Mom, I just noticed the tree is very unhealthy. Possibly even dying, and then there seemed to be a rumbling from underneath me. So I climbed down here and felt it getting stronger, so I started digging. The weirdest thing is that some of these roots here have been dead and rotted way before the boughs. It doesn't really make sense. Don't the leaves and boughs wilt before the whole tree dies? You know, the roots being the last?" The messenger asked thoughtfully.
"I don't know Eve. Did you ask the God of Love or maybe Eli?" Gabrielle asked, also intrigued by question. She had remembered on her father's farm, when they had cut down some younger trees by their trunk, sometimes another branch split off in growth, so perhaps the roots had to have a bit of life in it despite the tree's leaves being gone.
"I didn't really stop to ask, I just.." With Eve's fading word, the tree of life's rooted ground began to shake violently. The hole Eve had dug, began to collapse into itself.
"Eve!" Xena and Gabrielle screamed frantically. An ungodly shriek from their daughter permeated the crumbled dirt that continued to slide into the hole Eve resided in. She struggled for footing and spastically clawed at the sides of the hole attempting to climb her way out.
"Catch me!" Xena yelled recklessly to Gabrielle as she simultaneously completed a leap toward her daughter into the hole. She aimed and began grabbing for the fingers she had seen peeking through the dirt and decayed root. By the skin of Xena's boots, Gabrielle caught her heel just in time and pulled. Grabbing hold of Xena's leg, she kept her from falling completely in the hole with Eve.
"Xena! Eve! Hold on!" The blond yelled. The rumbling got louder and the earth below them began to be unstable.
"What in Tartarus!" Gabrielle yelled. She grabbed hold of her Pegasus and relayed to it that it must take flight with her holding on. At the ground rumbling at this rate, the tree of life wouldn't have ground to be rooted in.
Loki laughed raucously. "You really think you can survive the prophecy, do you brother? Once again you prove to me your conceit."
Pacing forward, Loki reminded Fenrir of his destiny.
"Fenrir, take what is owed of you! Get your sweet revenge. We shall rule in his place. He does not deserve to sit on this throne. It is we who deserve our time of rule." The trickster roared loudly so that all could hear. The warriors of Valhalla objected with war cries, but the fire and frost giants cheered on, animating the battle scarred plain with activity..
"I shall have my revenge father. After all, I am entitled. All these years, you chained me up. Not one apology. I did not provoke you. Did I!"
Odin looked straight into his adoptive son's eyes and nodded.
"Do what you will my son. It is not that I thought that I would not perish. I know the prophecy. I accept that now. Xena and Gabrielle would not leave if they knew my fate. I may die, but I will not let life down there-" Odin pointed to Midgard, and then toward the tree of life, "and there. Be destroyed. Do what you will! My life is not of consequence. I must make amends." Odin answered pointedly as Loki sneered.
Fenrir charged the once all-father, and growled, lifting his lips to his gums. Through his bared teeth, Fenrir roared, "You do not die a honorable death father. Just because you made a sacrifice now, does not fix all the wrong you did before!" Fenrir lashed out as Odin aimed his spear to the monstrous wolf's jugular.
Dodging it quickly, Fenrir reached out his paw and swat at the God he had once called father, knocking him and his spear to the floor. Opening his mouth wide and menacingly, Fenrir dove straight in at Odin, as Odin's eyes grew wide in horror. Before he could protest, Odin's life flashed before his eyes as well as the vision of his own death from the prophecy played out in real life. Fenrir engulfed him in a quick gulp. Not a sound permeating from the massive jowl of the previous step son of Odin.
"Hold on! Everyone!" Gabrielle reminded as she bid her Pegasus to fight to fly higher to lift them out of the crumbling ground. The ground was crumbling inward, it was as if there was no ground safe to be called as such. Her mind scrambled through different ideas to get them out of the predicament. Her Pegasus was enough to lift them to minor safety, but for how long. Would there even be a ground to be above? She remembered Xena's own Pegasus.
"Xena! Think! Tell your horse to come to you! We're all too heavy for mine." Gabrielle suggested.
As Xena madly thrashed to grab for Eve's fingers, eventually securing hold on Eve's wrist, Xena heard Gabrielle's instruction. She looked down to Eve. She saw the fear in her daughter's eyes. She hoped that the god of love would listen to her daughter's momentary fears. After all, what use were Gods if they couldn't get them out of moments such as these.
The Brunette pushed that thought aside and summoned her steed. Quickly it appeared and it flew towards them. With her two hands gripping her daughter's wrists tightly, she instructed the horse to fly underneath and between Gabrielle's legs. As Gabrielle felt the solid relief of the Pegasus' saddle beneath her, she tugged Xena's legs as hard as she could along with the strength of the Pegasus beneath her. She dragged and swung Xena with Eve in tow, dragging them out of the loosely crumbling ground. Gabrielle's own horse left Gabrielle's side as she instructed it to dive below and under Eve's torso and raise her. When Eve felt the safety of the Pegasus' saddle beneath her torso, she pulled one of her arms free from Xena's grasp as her mother saw the actions.
Breathing hard, Eve grasped the saddle and righted herself onto the Pegasus as Gabrielle reigned the horse to go higher. Seeing Eve safe, Gabrielle pulled Xena onto her Pegasus behind her. Grabbing safely onto Gabrielle's waist, Xena sighed in relief.
"That was a close one." Xena let out a baited breath.
"You wouldn't have it any other way." Gabrielle smirked away from Xena's prying eyes. The brunette pinched at the blond's side as they both turned the steed around to ride alongside Eve.
"What the Hades was that?" Xena asked. Xena and Eve brushed the dirt off their bodies.
"We need to get back to the plains to guard Odin." Gabrielle reminded everyone as they ascended.
"Always reminding us of tasks we don't want to do." Eve muttered under her breath in good natured manner. Gabrielle was always a guiding light in both their lives.
Xena smiled at the comment and turned back as the sound of dirt and rumbling increased to a deafening level. As loud as an avalanche, the dirt made way for a monstrous sight. Eve's eyes grew wide when two and two finally fit together in her mind. The rumbling, the rotted roots, they were all the work of a monstrous dragon.
"Mother! Look!" Eve exclaimed, to get her attention. Xena and Gabrielle both turned their necks just as the monstrous dragon began ascending out of the dirt. It's sharp toothed mouth was still filled with root from the tree, dangling.
Gabrielle, immediately at the sight, rolled her eyes, and uttered the only words that came to mind, "You have got to be kidding me! Not again?"
Eve locked eyes with Xena and a question broke from her lips, "Again?"
Xena clenched her jaw and answered calmly, "Long story. But yes, again."
The dragon was as large as the part of the tree that exuded from above the ground. The dragon was a dull green and bright brown mixing in fusion. One could not be sure if the brown was a result of the dirt or it's actual color. It's individual scales were easily as large as each of their heads. It did not seem to breathe fire like the one that killed Beowulf, but it's girth and size were not something to scoff at. It's head had horns jutting from the crown of it's head. It's nostrils flared and it turned it's bright red jewel like eyes in the direction of Eve. Eve could feel something within her that told her that this was not going to be a good thing. She was right, as the dragon went straight for her.
To be continued in Chapter 22
**Author's Note: I think the story is coming to a close, so I hope to speed up updates. Thanks again for continuing to follow this story :).**