A Tree's Wisdom

Author's Note:

This is the first fic I've written in quite a while, and the first outside of Transformer's fandom. A lot of the inspiration for this of course came from the movie and the soundtrack, but also a lot from this community. "Fallen Star" by Alydia Rackham was just so beautiful, and I've enjoyed Shipperwolf's tales as well as those of several others. So thanks, authors, for your energy and creativity! One of my favorite habits I've seen authors here get into is a suggested soundtrack. I hope you don't mind if I follow in that tradition.

On a more detailed note, I wanted to explain what I meant by "mostly movieverse". If the Marvel movieverse spells something out, I will almost always use that. To fill in the blanks, I draw on Thor Marvel comics, then on Norse mythology and modern Asatru beliefs, though to make something "fit" better, I may use devices of my own invention – in particular, I puzzled over why Odin's ravens were missing from the movie and developed some ideas. You may spot other changes as well. I hope you enjoy what I came up with. I appreciate all feedback and reviews!

Prologue

(Music: Dune, Prophecy Theme, by Toto)

Yggdrasil. It is a vast, unimaginable stretch of energies whose scope and stature holds the nine realms within its structure. Those few who see past the edges of conventional time and space still see only glimpses, but best describe their vision as a branching tree that is deeply rooted into the very essence of the multiverse. It is made of life and death; physics and magic; starlight and dark matter; lightening and thunder and the silence after; and in its unique way, holds an awareness of the lesser beings that settled on the nine worlds entombed at its roots, cradled in its trunk, and nestled in its branches. The warlike natures and behaviors on so many of the realms did not particularly disturb Yggdrasil; for a tree well knows the value of the pruning shears. Yet also it loved growth and new leaves and new life, and at times flexed a twig to further those purposes.

Events along Yggdrasil's expanse had been relatively calm for a moderate period of how the tree's awareness reckoned time. Few traveled from one realm to the next, and most of those from Asgard, the realm held in the uppermost of the tree's branches. Those of the race of Asgard were reckoned as gods by most from the other worlds, and indeed of all those Yggdrasil watched, they burned the brightest with life and passion, going about the business of their long lives with tremendous energy and enthusiasm.

And then in the span of a brief rustle in the cosmic wind, events unfolded so rapidly that something new, something unexpected, something unthinkable occurred:

Yggdrasil itself came under attack.

oooOOOOooo

The prince called ice to the core of the Bifrost mechanism, with the purpose of locking it open for its cosmic energies to rage unleashed against the hapless world of Jotunheim. He cared not what form the ice took, and so distracted was he by his brother's grim approach that Loki did not notice that without his own direction, the ice branched and rooted, and grew upward until the form of a tree erupted from the central platform. The ice-tree flared warning, lightning flickering along its branches; cajoling, alarming, pleading, for Loki Odinson to take heed and pause in his rash actions.

But Loki was consumed in reaction to what he perceived as patronizing condescension from his brother, Thor, who had somehow escaped the final traps Loki had set for him, had broken free from Loki's web of lies, had returned to Asgard to confront his dark-haired brother, and now refused to fight him as though he were not worthy of a simple test of arms!

It would have driven any warrior mad with frustration, and Loki, for all his talents at mage-craft, knew himself a warrior. He threw out insults, threats, seeking some flaw in Thor's newfound control, not caring what he said so long as it hit deep. Finally, a threat to that mortal girl struck the nerve Loki had been seeking and the trial by combat began between the brothers. As they tumbled and wrestled from the Bifrost chamber, the ice-tree screamed into brighter incandescence, but went unnoticed.

oooOOOOooo

As the Bifrost energies sliced deep into Jotunheim, the concerns of Yggdrasil escalated until the tree that held the homeworlds began to shudder in reaction. Across the realms, winds stirred for no cause, high tides occurred out of sync from the influence of their usual planetary forces, and stars pulsed in silent agony as a branch of the living world-tree began to burn.

Yet almost as suddenly, mighty blows against a crystalline surface resounded across time and space. Uru-metal, harvested from the heart of a dying star and guided by an indomitable will, fractured the unbreakable Asbru bridge of Asgard. Without the support of the rainbow structure, the Bifrost beam faltered and died.

The assault was over, leaving a painful singe in its wake.

The great world tree calmed then, and had time to examine and ponder on the peculiar behaviors of several of these powerful beings that trod the uppermost world. The uru-wielder was a child of one who had traded a part of their essence to Yggdrasil in return for a piece of the world-tree's wisdom. This child was associated with thunder and lightening and the storm, but after an exile to the middle realm found its very nature – brash, impulsive, careless – changed by interaction with what was almost a speck, by a part of creation that flashed its light for but an instant before dimming. And the world-tree considered: what force had this slight being that could change the very nature of a god?

The tree contemplated another child, born of one realm and raised in another, purposed to bridge a gap between worlds yet who not only denied itself this birthright entirely, but had in its ignorance entered into anathema, for Yggdrasil yet was pained. The child of mischief and illusion spiraled, lost in darkness and shame within Ginnungagap, the great emptiness through which the tree spread its branches.

And Yggdrasil wondered: if one god's essential, primal nature could be so altered, could not another?

A/N: I have the whole story plotted and the next chapter written. Please let me know what you think!