Giving Tree

Saint Raven; Petrified

Loki returned to the company of his brother and met with Nason to make a journey to sell all him and the foxes had mined over the last year. Nason looked back and tipped a brow as his paws curled around the cart. The fox walking behind him with the hare had his ears flicking and a lowered gaze as Heimdall let go of the other side. The wolf nodded as he stepped away to let him know he would wait. With the foxes working in the mines they'd pulled so much ore to sell the hare had to help move it to sell. Heimdall stopped as the fox looked around with a deep frown and shook his head. "Loki? You hear it again?"

He snapped his head the buck as he cringed. "You do not hear her?" The hare shook his head as Loki's ears moved back and forth. "She cries again, almost screaming."

"Loki, I do not hear anything." Heimdall's ears shot up and he turned blinking as Nason raised his brows. "Come, Brother. I do hear something. Perhaps a distraction from whatever it is in your mind." Heimdall grabbed the cart pulling it to the side, and Loki huffed as he stuck his paws in the ground and grew foliage around it, making it look as if it was nothing other than a large overgrown patch of the woods around them. He followed the hare, trying to distract his mind until his ears perked at the sound of a minstrel strumming as he walked the small path. "YOU! WHERE DID YOU LEARN THAT MUSIC?" Heimdall asked as he hopped forward. The hare in front of him sneered at the wolf and fox, lifting an ax he swung, and let his jaw drop when the fox lowered his brow angrily as it burst into flames. The blade fell from his paw as Loki lowered his head and let his eyes shift from green to red, growling as Heimdall shook his head. "We mean you no harm. We have not heard such music since leaving our lands. We only wished to hear you playing the familiar tunes of our homelands to distract our minds." Heimdall said as he shook his head.

The hare frowned as he looked at the wolf, the fox and the hare in front of him. "This was not the type of company I wished to call with my music. It cannot be beautiful if it calls demons to my side."

Loki growled and dipped his head angrily as the other hare glared at him. Heimdall squared his shoulders as rain began to fall in a heavy downpour. The fox stood with the drops sizzling around him, the heat from his own fur burning them away before they had the chance to hit him as Nason ducked under a tree shaking his head. "It is unwise to anger gods." He muttered as the hare's ears swiveled to him and eyes shot to the fox and hare in front of him.

The hare laughed as he covered his instrument and rolled his eyes. "The demon is a god? You are a god? You are but a hare like me."

Heimdall sighed as he lifted his paw to Loki and the fox let his lips drop as he turned his head. "We will provide shelter from the rain and proof for you if you will play for us. We are in need of distraction this night."

The hare ticked his head to one side and frowned as he glared at Heimdall. "Prove he is a god and not a demon and I will agree."

Heimdall nodded as he lifted his paws. He built a dome made of ice as Loki lit a fire in the center to keep them warm. The fox stuck his paws in the ground growing fruits and vegetables as the hare took an uneasy seat across from the fox, the wolf, and the hare. He played for hours before Heimdall caught Loki closing his eyes. He turned back to the hare as he picked an apple and shook his Head. "Eating it will come at a price, friend. He offers it as gesture, but it will make you fat."

The hare laughed as he looked back to the fox and shook his head. "You should kill the thing. No fox is worth anything but the fur they hold to keep mud from our feet."

Heimdall growled as Nason cringed. "You think so little of them all, when you are rude and do not see the gifts we have both given. Love does not see such things. He is my brother and will be for eternity. Love should not be something one denies any other simply because they are different."

The hare nodded as he looked up and saw the rain had stopped. He picked up his things and reached for his ax blade, shocked that a new handle had grown into the blade as he looked back to Heimdall. "A gift from the fox you hate. It will never break or burn. He returns it to you better than what he took. Give love freely and remember that this night it was a god, a fox who kept you warm and fed you. Another god sheltered you from his wrath for your insult, a hare who will give love to any who asks of it." The hare left as the fire kept burning and rushed away with Heimdall's words locked in his mind. Similar to that of the foxes Loki had left dancing, they were taken…badly and spread through the species in the world.

Heimdall sat up as his ears set and blinked as Loki yawned. Nason tipped his head as the hare grabbed the fox and shook him until he sat up blinking. "Why do you wake me so early?" Loki asked as he wiped the sleep from his eyes.

Heimdall looked around shaking his head. "Mother calls. We must return home."

"I do not wish to go back." Loki curled his lip as Heimdall looked at him pleadingly.

"It is our mother who calls us Loki. Something is wrong." The fox sighed as he stood and stretched. He went back to the cart removing everything around it as Heimdall kept ticking his ears back and forth looking up.

"I will manage." Nason nodded as he grunted and heaved the cart up as Loki sighed. Heimdall threw his paws up and the wolf shook his head in wonder as he watched the fox and hare rush onto a burning rainbow, walking across it as if it were solid. He turned back to the road as it faded into the sky…

Their feet hit the ground of Asgard and Loki hit his knees clutching his head. "Loki?"

"By the powers that be, Brother - how can you not hear her screaming! She is so loud here that she drowns out everything!"

Heimdall looked around training his ears in every direction as he shook his head. "I do not hear anything." He helped the fox up and they walked into Asgard as Loki cringed. The roaring lion was almost a match for what was ringing in his ears as Freya rushed to them and pulled them to Idun's garden. Loki let his paws drop as Heimdall stood in shock. Freya cupped a paw over muzzle shaking her head as she sobbed and Idun sat staring into nothing. The trees that had grown for eons of years were fading to a dark grey. Loki stepped in with his jaw hanging open as many of them withered and turned to ash that blew away, while others seemed to lock in place and turn to stone. Completely petrified as the color faded away. Odin roared as he stormed to the fox and Loki looked up at him bewildered as he growled. "YOU! YOU ARE THE CAUSE OF THIS!"

Loki frowned and curled his lip, nearly exposing his teeth as his father clenched his fists. "I cannot kill trees! I was not even here!"

"THEY WERE DYING BEFORE YOU LEFT! HUGINN AND MUNINN HAVE VANISHED! YOU DO NOT THINK IT COINCIDENCE THE TREES FINALLY PERISH, ALL ON THE SAME DAY YOU RETURN?!" The fox looked back at Freya and bit his lip as he tipped his ears back. He said nothing to indicate his mother was the only reason he'd returned and fought not to cup his paws over his ears as the wailing he kept hearing grew so loud he could barely hear his father screaming.

"YOUR BROTHER SHALL NOT OPEN ANY MORE BRIDGES FOR YOU UNTIL THIS IS SOLVED! THE BEAST WILL KILL US! YOU HAVE AIDED THE CREATURE IN DESTROYING US ALL!"

Loki growled as he clamped his claws into his fists. "WHAT CREATURE? I KNOW OF NO BEAST?!"

"A beast who steals our life forces, one that lives in darkness and hides from justice. A cruel creature who kills its own. You will not use the bridges any longer until you have helped resolve a problem you helped to create!"

"I KNOW NOTHING OF A BEAST! YOU BLAME ME FOR THIS? I AM TO BE KEPT PRISONER HERE?!"

Odin growled as he shook his head. "I took the knowledge, memories and wisdom from the gods when I returned and found them dying after the battle I chased you though. Those left went willingly into the Ozaruki to save themselves. You will stay only because I believe you know something of this, and are responsible, you will find a way to fix it!"

The lion stormed off as Loki curled his lip and looked back to Heimdall as the hare looked back at their mother. Freya let her head fall as she walked away. She tipped her ears and turned at the sound of rustling, looking up at the raven that sat perched in a tree. "Grace. What can I do to help with this? My family is falling apart."

The raven tipped its head before swooping in front of her and shifting to a shadow that swirled to an aged vixen. "If there are many tumblers in a lock and each must move together in a certain order to open the door, none can move with a lost piece. The door cannot open without the tumblers being in place. No one should know the future, for if you define it, you take away the possibility of choice. No living soul has ever seen between the veil that lies between life and death, and someone lost can only be replaced by one and eight."

The wolf curled her brow, shaking her head. "A riddle? Nine? There are ten gods still outside the Ozaruki. That does not help me, Grace."

"The sands of time shift and turn. A single grain can tip the scales and the weight can be held only in the eye of the beholder. Two will become one and something beautiful will grow where once, only one thing should have been, three and the world becomes larger and expands the possibility for hope. For if there is no hope, there will never be a land to return to."

Freya shook her head as the vixen fell into the shadows and faded into darkness. The wolf ticked her eyes around before they shot back to the shadows. "Never be a land? The eye of the beholder….Heimdall? Sands of time… GRACE?! DOES THAT MEAN WHAT I THINK IT MEANS?!" Freya left, lost in her own thoughts as Odin cringed and ran to the tree of life, calling the others who still remained to join him.

Heimdall jerked as Loki hissed and hit his knees, cupping his paws around his ears. The hare dipped lower when Loki looked up at him growling as his eyes watered from the sound. "He cannot keep me here. I may not be able to use the bridges Heimdall, and I will not go against what he has set but I will find this wailing if it is the last thing I do! I have other ways to leave Asgard, Brother."

Heimdall sighed as Loki stumbled from the gardens and shook his head as kept clutching his ears. The fighting between them only worsened over time and Loki became more and more obsessed with the voice only he could hear.

Heimdall walked to the center of Asgard looking for a distraction and his face fell as he looked over the tree of life. The hare stumbled back as a crack opened the ground it sat on and the tree split before he stumbled again, rushing to find his brother after alerting Freya. Loki followed Heimdall back to the tree where Freya watching as Odin examined it. Her eyes glazed over as she placed a paw on it and looked back to them shaking her head. "We have tried everything. Can you do anything?" she asked as she looked between them. Loki curled his brow as he stuck a paw on the tree and let his eyes drop to the roots as Odin shook his head growling.

Heimdall tipped a brow as the fox stuck his paws in the ground and closed his eyes. Loki looked back to him with glowing eyes and sighed. "Brother, can you freeze it? Encase it in ice so the crack does not grow? I will set a fire within it that will keep it alive, protect it from the cold and cover the eggs with gold so neither will affect them. As long as the flames burn and the roots are warmed, the tree will live." Heimdall looked back to their parents as Loki looked between them waiting. Freya nodded and the hare took a breath as he stood back, holding up his paws before ice started curling around the trunk of the tree. Loki closed his eyes and made the ground warm, heating the roots as the branches crested over with ice. The eggs on the tree looked as if gold was pouring from their stems as it encased each one, hanging from strands as a small flame lit above each egg like an ornament that would keep them warm. The ice glistened like glitter over the branches as light danced around the gold and ice from the flames. Heimdall stood looking it over as Freya and the others stepped back covering their mouths.

"It is beautiful." Freya whispered as she looked it over. Ten gods stayed around the tree of life as an aged vixen watched from the shadows. Grace took a deep breath and closed her eyes as Odin growled. The she wolf turned, curling her lip up as she lowered her head. She kept her voice low but let her lips vibrate as Odin tipped his brow. "You will not destroy this moment. Not when Loki and Heimdall are the reason the tree still lives! Why are you-" she growled.

Odin looked around seeing the other gods gawking at the tree and lowered his voice. "Why? Because after I hung myself on the tree and spoke with the fates, I knew Loki is the one who will cause the end of all."

"You will cause the end of all if you believe you can change Fate! Do not destroy what little is left of this family Odin!" She growled silently.

He nodded as he raised his head. "A feast! We will have a feast to come together on this day!" Freya closed her eyes as Loki and Heimdall examined the tree, while the others all tipped their heads high enough to look over the top where the largest flame sat, burning like a star…..

Notes; Cryptic much- very. Here ya go, clues-

"If there are many tumblers in a lock and each must move together in a certain order to open the door, none can move with a lost piece. The door cannot open without the tumblers being in place. No one should know the future, for if you define it, you take away the possibility of choice. No living soul has ever seen between the veil that lies between life and death, and someone lost can only be replaced by one and eight." One plus eight = nine.

There is a living soul who can see beyond the veil between life and death, (not into the veil) if someone lets him look. He cannot see beyond death, but he can see into their next lives, which should not be possible. Heimdall swallowed the eye of Odin. The eye held something else that is the reason he can do this, a grain of times sand that also made Heimdall a Fate. What will open an unlocked door is vital- but not the point of opening it.

The wolf curled her brow, shaking her head. "A riddle? Nine? There are ten gods still outside the Ozaruki. That does not help me, Grace."

Some numbers are critical and in the world of foxes everything has more than one meaning. This has many and is directly related to the prophecies of the scrolls of Odin.

"The sands of time shift and turn. A single grain can tip the scales and the weight can be held only in the eye of the beholder. Two grains and something beautiful will grow where once, only one thing should have been, three and the world becomes larger and expands the possibility for hope. For if there is no hope, there will never be a land to return to."

Freya shook her head as the vixen fell into the shadows and faded into darkness. The wolf ticked her eyes around before they shot back to the shadows. "Never be a land? The eye of the beholder…. Sands of time… GRACE?! DOES THAT MEAN WHAT I THINK IT MEANS?!"

Sands of Time= Father time and Mother Grace (One person who shifts forms between a raven, a vixen and an old mammal) also holds the sands of time.

One- Eye of the beholder- Heimdall swallowed the eye of Odin and is in love with Sigyn.

Two- Something will grow where only once one thing should have been- Sigyn grew inside a seed of from a single grain of times sand. A seed of life and sand.

Three- the world becomes larger and expands. Loki Heimdall and Sigyn will become the reason the world grows and changes. No god has ever lived a mortal life, they will expand from their original confines.

"…there will never be a land to return to." Neverland

The brothers Grimm tale here is about a man who plays music and attracts a wolf, a fox and a hare. His magic instrument attracted them and he did not want their company. They were chased away by another who held an ax. In this story, Freya gave the world music.

Loki growing plants. The reason he can do this on Earth is simple. He is magical, but he was created from the moon, the father who left part of himself with the Earth so all life grew. The reason he can do this so quickly is because of his fire. When he sticks his paws into the ground, the heat accelerates life under the Earth and causes anything in the area to grow faster.

Tree of life: gold hanging eggs, glittered with ice, (Heimdall's eggs and ice) a flame above each one, the largest burning at the top like a star. (Loki's fire. Before there were electric lights this was how a tree was lit at Christmas. Fire hazard) = Heimdall and Loki trying to keep the tree of life alive create the first of its kind. The tree of life is the first Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas

One; Odin is the first god, he is where everything started. One and Eight- Loki is the first subspecies to be created by Odin and Freya outside the original Nine. Loki is also One. He is also the first and only god to birth and sire children in the 'traditional' fashion. His first 'mate' in this story was not another god, she was the Lady of the Cliffs. Heimdall is the ninth god created. An eight turned sideways becomes an infinity symbol- a symbol of Time. Heimdall is a Fate. One plus eight = Nine. Loki and Heimdall are the key to solving the problem. Loki is also the tenth god created. In rabbit culture, ten is the greatest number, for it represents the Divine and is the first two-digit number and represents higher thinking in mathematics. Sigyn was more than a god. She had significant power, but it was only revealed once what her true power really was as she never knew where she came from. She was born from a single piece of fruit. A seed that was planted and grew from father time placing a single grain of his sand within it. (A single grain of sand can tip the scales.) Father time changed himself into Mother age/growing old with Grace. Grace is Sigyn's mother and father. Time is also darkness and the ability to pull it away from living souls because time also causes death. Father time (The raven) talks about being in love and taking the one he loves gifts even though he can never be with her. He takes her the souls that he reaps because he is also death, he removes the darkness from the souls before returning them to her so she never knows the darkness in the worlds she has created. He wants her to stay pure and innocent. He is in love with the spark of creation. (Darkness and light- light created time where once only darkness lived. Darkness became time because of light.) The 'creature' (Spark of creation) that cast light into the darkness and gave time form through the living mammals it created, hands, face, purpose. (A clock face and hands) All souls are returned to the spark and can join with her where they can become 'Divine'. I know that a lot of people would think about Heimdall and Loki having purple and green eyes and lay that onto Nick and Judy. The fact that a god had the first set of purple eyes is significant, but- Eww- just stop- the color of someone's eyes can change through each generation when the soul is reincarnated… Grace only has Loki's soul one time, she cannot change what Odin has done and Loki lives through thousands of miserable mortal lives before she intervenes and moves him into the last mortal life he has.

When Loki returned to the town of Gosforth he spends the night dancing with the foxes under the moon. Heimdall tells this hare to give love freely. Both these lessons are misinterpreted and cause significant problems. Not everything they are teaching is taken correctly. It's why Foxes don't dance because the fire Loki started with the foxes led to kits being born without fathers and is the part of the reason they adopted the idea that foxes mate for life and are faithful, and banned dancing within the species. Hares become synonymous with sleeping around. The mythical Jackelope shouldn't exist- neither should the only species on the planet that comes from two species being able to reproduce. Domesticated rabbits and hares can reproduce. The species is known as Jackelopes in Zootopia. Jackelope also has another meaning in Zootopia as on the rare occasion a hare will marry a rabbit- they often run away from the rabbits family and elope because it is not an accepted practice and their offspring are considered…well they aren't openly accepted.

Ugh- missing chapter about the bar and the Jackelope (When Loki decrees that no fox shall ever consume alcohol if it isn't made of fruit instead of grain after he gets drunk from the spirits - because he sees pink elephants. They're playing cards and the others are cheating, he turns himself into a fly on the wall to watch and calls them on it after he returns - the people chase them from the bar and Loki turns them into playing cards. He shrinks them and sticks them in cups before tossing them into the ocean because they offer him a vixen as an apology and he is not happy) Lost when Liam downloaded Windows 10-