Excalibur and Joan Of Arc

Cindy Lauper; Time After Time

Falling In Reverse; The Drug In Me

The black formed vixen stood as he straightened his back. She held her paws out towards him and he tilted his head hesitantly as he laid his paws in hers. "Close your eyes, Robert of Loxley, Robin Hood, King Arthur of the round table. Do not open them under any circumstance as I show you their way. The two paths cannot cross. Breathe deeply and look with more than just your eyes."

The fox closed his eyes, blowing out a breath and inhaled deeply as the form in front of him shifted and blew into him as the air he breathed in. He fell to his knees as the smoke clouded his lungs and curled his arms around himself, trying not to choke on it before his lips curled into a smile as he kept his eyes clamped shut and laughed. "They live…."

He watched as the ship they were thrown into was boarded by many angry mammals after a battle lost. The rabbits he'd taken in as his own used every clever trick he had taught them and escaped into a small rowboat after lulling the crew into a drunken stupor with the ales and malts they brewed on the ship. Something him and Marion had taught them over the years they had grown. "Christopher." He laughed as he shed several tears. One of the youngest of the litter. A boy he had spent many nights with, showing the stars, the young buck used them and the sky to navigate the waters with the little boat they had stolen away in until they lost their way in a storm and were shipwrecked on a foreign land. His brows curled as he watched the rabbits befriending several natives. All different species that were fighting among themselves, over land and territory, uncivilized by the standards they had set in other lands.

The ship that had stolen the rabbits was wrecked along another shore and within one or two of their generations the lands were ravaged by the jackal hell bent on claiming it as his own after the failure to take a kingdom known as Camelot. Taking advantage of them all bickering among themselves as he warred through the lands. The fox shuttered as several stood around after a few paw shakes and he watched the oldest doe saying goodbye to several kits that held her blue eyes with others who held that of the purple she had spoken of the night he brought them to the forest. "Sissy," he ground his teeth together and sobbed as he clenched his eyes together while she sacrificed herself for a greater good, bringing all the tribes together as they readied for a bloody battle with a tyrant destroying their lands. "Oh Gods..."

She left behind several kits as many of her brothers and sisters followed her ways, along with many other prey who joined them in their sacrifice. The tribes around them all revering the prey who gave their lives so others would have the strength to fight back an evil threatening to destroy them all. The fox coughed and tried to hold his chest steady as he watched the jackal wielding one of the swords they'd given him, leaving a path of death and destruction unseen to the new world before as he held it above his head roaring.

Several of the rabbits who'd grown came together with the mammals of the lands and gathered at a large body of water in a desperate attempt to end the war. He curled his face as he watched the same dark figure rise from the waters, making an agreement with them to help save their lands and their children. She stole into the waters they were trying to cross as the wolves led the jackal to what he believed would be another battle won. The darkness under the water pulled them under as they tried to cross, until it was still again. The dark form rose again as the bodies of the jackal and his army floated to the top of the lake. An older rabbit doe stood watching at the edge of a large waterfall and waited until the black shapeless form took the sword the rabbit held out. "Violet." He shuddered as he watched the dark creature take it, agreeing that if it would be returned to its rightful owner, she would give her life to make it so. He hacked several times and the blackness spilled from his lungs as he kept trying to cough it out through the sorrow.

"Open your eyes, Robert of Loxley."

He opened his red blood shot eyes on her as he fought to keep the drool from spilling from his mouth, growling through angry tear stained cheeks. "You evil spirit! What wretched fate have you set upon my children!"

"I have set none. They were simply given choices as all are. The choices they made were through your own teachings. Noble and brave, sacrifice for the good of all others. Are you not proud of why they made the choices? They have held true to every lesson you taught, and they will be loved through all history for it, as will the fox because of what you taught them, and other foxes who have loved them and touched their lives."

"You had them build a temple under the earth as if it were a burrow and a den! My eldest daughter was eaten! My youngest threw herself to you! If I am not to be remembered, why did they have to sacrifice so much for nothing!" He hissed as he sat on his knees, shaking his head as he fought back tears and bore his teeth at her.

"Because, Robert of Loxley. You are more than what you see, you are more than what the world sees. They are truly yours, and you shall be the one who brings everything together again. Blood is thicker than water, and the blood that has run through your soul through each life you have lived has proven it. It will bind you all together for Eternity."

"You make no sense you crazy hag! How do I live knowing what I have taught them led to this fate!"

"I allowed you to see into the future, you must not live in the past. For it is the past to them. They are happy and settled in this new land and will be the greatest among their kind because of you. They will make the world a better place."

He shook his head coughing as he struggled to get off the ground and wiped the tears from his face. "The hell that you have brought us will never be undone! How can I tell my mate what fate awaits, even knowing they live!"

She flew in front of him as he kept his teeth locked in a heartbroken grimace. "I have no power over free will! Listen to the voices that have guided you thus far!" She shoved him and his arms flailed as he fell over the edge he'd been standing on. He flew back into the air as the sand kicked from his feet and hit the water hard as the darkness swirled around him. The fox was struggling for air as it was knocked from his lungs and curled his brow as something solid and cold hit his paw. The darkness fled as the sword glowed, and the rags he'd been wearing burned away the royal garments as they glowed so brightly he was nearly blinded. A warmth settled into his fur as the water around him swirled with images while the voices in his head told a story that had every trace of regret and fear leave him. The name is known only as a whisper on the wind….. the winds of time blow through all life… Wild are the winds of time-

His eyes snapped open as a rush of energy blew him out of the water in a spout as the sword lifted above his head and he sucked in a breath before he screamed. "LOKI IS A WILD!"

He was washed to the shore and laughed as he clutched the sword in his paw. The dark shadow that slid in front of him had him looking up as he shook his head grinning. "Gods! The children of our children will be Gods!"

The dark vixen in front of him tipped her head and he could barely make out the smile through the darkness she was. "Much more than simple Gods."

"I will see it?" He asked as she laughed in a hollow voice that sounded more like a hiss.

"I can only show you the first few years, for I cannot see past the time I return to. Tell the story of the God of Mischief. For all your children, even those not here know it well. I will guide you from the darkness back into the light, as I have already done and will do many more times, until you all meet again."

"Again?" he asked as he stood up and fell forward coughing as he braced a knee. The red fox looked at his fur seeing the grey streaks that had recently appeared and back to her as she dipped her head.

"It is a heavy price to pay, My King."

He shook his head, chuckling through the coughing he was fighting from the water that had gotten into his lungs. "I am no king to you, My Lady. You are all the Grace the world has ever known and I will dive into it when I live…again?" he asked curiously as she chuckled.

"I will guide you, time after time, but you may never speak of living again."

He cocked his head as she held her paws out and when she pulled the dark forms away he held two paws full of little purple flowers and shook his head as he looked back at her again. "Violets?"

"You are more than what you see yourself as, Robert of Loxley. You are more than what you will ever be in this life, as is your mate."

"Marion?"

The dark vixen tipped her head as she slid further under a shadowed canopy of trees. "I am now positive the path I am taking is the only one I can take, even if I cannot see its outcome. Every child born to this world is mine to keep, even if they are grown from the foolish notions that yield no true fruit."

"Fruit?" he asked as he chuckled through another cough.

"Robert of Loxley, look to the future, and do not live in the past or try to understand what is not meant to be understood. Know that there are three fates. There is a right choice, a wrong choice, and no choice."

"Three fates?"

The dark figure billowed as she hovered above the ground. "Three fates, Robert of Loxley. One can travel the wrong road, that will lead to darkness. One can sit and make no choice, and it will still lead to darkness, for doing nothing is making a bad choice when you should have done something. One can make the right choice and fight for it, the outcome may be unseen, but it is the only choice that leads to any hope."

"I am afraid I do not understand."

"I have seen three paths. Two were dark, one I could not see beyond. You have taught your children well and the fates will rest in all of you."

"Fates? Are you speaking of the witches that lived under the tree of life and stole the eye of Od.."

The fox shook his head chuckling but when he looked again only the natural shadows remained. He made his way back to the edge of the woods and out into the area where the carriage was sitting, the buck at a fire and another small fox sitting with him turned as a branch snapped under his foot.

The buck stood up wide eyed as he shook his head. "What in the name of all the Gods happened to you, Mr. Robert? And how did you get…that sword again!?" Skippy blinked as the young fox beside him stood up. The light hitting his clothes sent them both squinting as they turned to shield their eyes. The buck cringed as the red tod stepped next to him and shoved the sword back in its hilt. "The monster of the loch gave it to you?"

"No, my boy. The lady of the lake gave it to me." He sat at the fire and stuck his paws over it, warming his fingers as he coughed and the buck and younger fox looked at each other uncertainly as they both took seats.

"A monster she must be to have aged you so." Skippy said as he looked over the greying fur and bags that now rested under his eyes. "What is that?"

The red fox lifted a brow as the young buck pulled a scroll from under his cape. "She did nothing of the sort. That was my own choice and a price I was willing to pay to see something no one will believe if I spoke it. I didn't know she had given me something else." He looked it over and smiled as he rolled it back up. "Something for our family I am supposed to keep hidden. I will find a place I know it will stay with us."

The buck looked back to the younger fox as he leaned forward. "We should make haste, Mr. Robert. You are ill."

The red fox leaned forward dipping into the stew that was simmering and licked the spoon. "Oof, wish Little John had come. You can't cook."

"At least I did cook, that one can only burn everything." The younger fox snickered as the buck narrowed his eyes.

Robin looked over grinning as the young vixen next to him shrugged. "You should stop dressing like a boy Joan, and traveling around with us when we take to a quest, child."

The young vixen sneered at him as she scrunched her nose up. "I'm as close to a boy as you are ever going to get, Father! You should stop letting me come along and teaching me things only boys should know if you felt that way." she snatched one of his swords and pulled it from its sheath as he leaned back. Him and Skippy both threw their paws up as it flashed in front of them.

The older fox looked back at Skippy blinking. The young vixen stood holding it with her jaw hanging open as it lit up like the armor her father was wearing. "Perhaps it doesn't matter if you are a boy, the Armor of the Gods seems to find you acceptable as its next heir, and apparently mine."

"I CAN'T DO THAT! MOTHER WOULD KILL ME!" Skippy looked at the red fox and they both laughed as she glared at them. "That isn't funny father, we aren't supposed to be using swords or fencing, fighting and-"

"Joan," he said as Skippy shook his head, still snickering. "If you want to live to see your next year, never let your mother hear you say there is something you cannot do."

The young vixen took a seat examining the sword as her father smiled. "I will never marry, will I?"

Skippy looked back at the tod and shrugged. "If it is what you wish, you will. Why is that a thought now?"

Joan bit her lip and looked to her father. "Emily and Darla already have suitors interested."

The tod sat up and curled a brow. "Are they…interested back?"

"I wasn't supposed to tell you, Father."

The fox scratched his chin and smiled. "I believe I may have a way to keep the Hopps bunnies we have lost with us all the time. We can honor them on the day we wed, to show that we will always be bound together as a family."

Skippy tipped his ears. "What are you thinking, Mr. Robert?"

The red fox smirked as he sighed. He looked over the scroll before sticking it back under his robe. "Rabbits and foxes. Red and Gray, always connected even though we are apart." The older fox looked to the buck with a tipped brow. "Do you still dabble in the arts, Skippy?"

The buck nodded slowly as the fox rubbed his chin. "Something on the day we wed? And something you would like me to...draw? What is it you have in mind, Mr. Robert?"

"Just a couple of ideas that show we will always be connected. Something specific to your sister Sissy and the day we came together as a family... She is well by the way, as are all the others."

The buck beamed as the young vixen and older tod smiled. "Something on the day we wed- something that is a reminder of how we were separated, how we can come back together. To show no matter how far apart we are, we will always find each other again."

"Will we, find each other again?" Skippy chewed his lip.

Joan took a seat still marveling at the sword in her paw and Robin chuckled. "We will, in time…"

Notes; References for this are scattered through actual history and mythical stories.

Wherefore art thou; Romeo and Juliet, who were separated from each other due to feuding families. Yep- twisted it. You should be able to put together why soon enough with how that story ended, but if not, it is believed most foxes can't live once they have lost a mate without a significant reason to keep them going. The love of their children that still need them, or hate.

Robin Hood's daughter that could carry the swords in a functioning state's name was Joan. Also obvious in the context of religion. She was killed for her beliefs by the Catholic church and being a female who fought when it wasn't allowed, later became a martyr and a saint when her mother went to the church asking to clear her good name. Joan of Arc. Joan means merciful, Arc means boy or curved line/half circle

It wasn't the armor that killed Robin Hood, (King Arthur) but the water that got into his lungs. The future he saw also aged him and greyed his fur significantly, making him ill and shortening his life. Robin Hood being King Arthur explains that there really was a first fox king- it isn't revealed in Think Like A Fox, even though Robin Hood was said to be the first fox king and the first dominant male of their species.

All for one and one for all is a reference to the three musketeers. Marion, little John and Robin Hood were the only three of the original gang to travel to this new country after King Richard was asked by another King for help because he feared his kingdom would fall when his subjects began to fight over power with no rightful heir being born.

Christopher was one of the youngest 'Hopps' bunnies Robin and Marion took in, he used the stars to navigate to another land. This should be clear enough to anyone who knows general history. (At least what is commonly taught.) Attila is a reference that should also be obvious, though this is not actually history the way I have weaved it all together. Similarities in how things unfolded are all that are meant to be caught.

Excalibur was the sword King Arthur had to get from the lady of the lake in the story of Camelot. It held a great deal of power only the rightful king could wield and was also the sword in the stone. Hmm funny the sword of the gods was returned from a place where Loki is carved in stone in a den that was believed to be a myth around a council that has ten seats – the name peter means stone - hehehe - man I'm kinda evil saying that kinda stuff ain't I?

The monster of the loc is of course the loch ness monster, always seen as nothing more than a (giant) dark shape or shadow. Thought to look like a water dragon or a long extinct prehistoric animal.

Grace talking about fruit and seeds is a reference to her daughter Sigyn. (Loki's mate) who was found growing in a fruit in Idun's garden.