I wouldn’t call living on the street nature; It was stinking, filthy squaller. The gutter was the depository where  the detrius of humanity was jettisoned. All the useless throw-away parts that had been found defective ended up in that filth, like me. What I was staring at, as the door opened up before me, was true nature. The old man was resting in his wheelchair on an observation deck watching a  gentle cascading waterfall flow past. About us was the cloak of jungle vegetation. The humidity was stifling. A young woman was standing behind him. She had white hair that fell well past her shoulders. It was the girl I had saved from rape and most likely murder. Why had I not noticed that she had albinism. She looked to be in the undecided attitude of both wanting to flee and wanting to stay. I caught her glancing obliqly at me. He face blushed. She was wearing dark glasses so I couldn't see her eyes. Of course she hadn't been wearing glasses at night. She wouldn't have needed them.

I sidled up to M, our wheels bumping. The water streaked by. I gapped at the spectacle wondering at the cost of being able to recreate, the stone, the water, the lush vegetation, inside. The place vertually breathed. “Nice sound.” I always liked the sound of running water. It had always been a strange relationship between me and water. The surging, tempestuous froth could both destroy and calm me. I felt the humidity and the fine spray on my face. It felt good.

“Yes, it is," he said loudly enough to be heard over the water. "You cleaned up nicely." He began to back away from the platform, his hands failing to take the wheel grip. He held his hands up in surrender as the young woman took over pushing him. "Nothing, bloody well works any more." I began to follow. We were rolling up a path and he continued to speak. "I had this place built because I am unable to venture into the world outside. You see, my body, my immune system, virtually everything has betrayed me. I am only alive because of my immense wealth. Nature, in the raw would kill me, so I bring nature here and somewhat sanitize it.”

OD gave a wave with his hand and his granddaughter pulled him away from the waterfall and began to push him up an artificial path. As we moved away from the waterfall the gentle intensity of the running water lessened and the heat and smell of the tropical vegetation became stronger. It closed in on use like a cloister blanket of moisture. A yellow bird flashed by and I began to noticed that this artificial world was full of life. A little bearded dragon glared at us whilie it blended in with the bark on the branch on which it perched. We were going up a slight incline that lead towards a large, open building. It was a dark teak wood building, proliferate with the unique scrolling wood work of  an  ancient world.  We had to cross a bridge to get to the building, but the way was clogged his pinkish-red birds. In form they reminded me of short little pink flamingos. 

"Who let the Scarlet Ibises up here?" demanded OD testily swivling his head around to look at the young woman pushing him.

She shrugged. "Must have been one of the help," she said demurly.

He blew a blast of air out his nose. "Well, find out who and fire them."

We made our way slowly through the birds. Despite my distaste for being a kept creature, I liked the old man. "You let the birds up here, didn't you?" I said to M who was gliding along beside me.

M was staring at the birds. I wouldn't say she was smiling but there was a softness to her normally impersonal features. She shrugged. "They wanted to meet you, and this was the only way." 

"They wanted to meet me? You speak to birds?"

"Among other things." With that she walked past me reaching out to touch the birds as she went.

It is a strange world that takes the dead and resurrects them. I was, to myself, to others, spiritually and physically dead. Then Odin came and his blasted ravens. I had been promised to death. I shook my head, not entirely sure if I wanted this life that was being thrust upon me. At least I could listen.

Inside the teak house there was a soft, wooden feel of another age. I reached out and touched some of the detailed ornamentation. I searched with my eyes, but did not find any point, any joint where a nail, a screw had been used.

"There's no nails..." I mumbled to myself.

"None," barked OD. "Did you know, in the mines of Solomon the stone was cut without the use of any metal tools."

I nodded but didn't say anything. This was his moment, his pride, and I didn't want to take it from him. I had been to Jerusalem, had gone beneath the walls and spent time in those ancient mines. I had done some private contracting for the IDF before I had lost my legs. There are places on the earth where the past piles up into the present in overwhelming awe, and overwhleming destruction. King Zedekiah had found that out. He had tried to escape through the mines. For his efforts, the Babylonians killed his sons in front of him and then gouged out his eyes and imprisoned. He spent the rest of his life in the darkness of his cell and his mind. Only death had set him free. 

"The Gods are dead," said M.

We all stopped, me more than anyone, and stared at Munnin. That had been what Odin had said to me in my dream. 

"Munnin," said OD, "could you get us some tea. There is something that I wish to share with Huginn."

M, much like the shadow she was, flowed into a back room.

"Munnin is from Java. You may have confused her for being of Chinese descent, and there may be some truth to that, but she is mostly Malay Mongoloid..."

"Why are you telling me this? I don't care about anyone's origin. it's all the same to me. You obviously want me to do something for you or I'd be dead..."

He snorted and gave a nod. "I appreciate your direct nature, but you must know about Munnin. She most probably will save your life. She is M because she is my memory. I found her in Java on one of my expeditions. You see, I used to be an explorer."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"I thought most things had been discovered."

"We haven't begun to scratch the surface. I found M in a little village. A group of terrorists had slaughtered everyone. I found M under the body of her dead mother. Big eyes, she had, big enough to consume the world, but so, so quiet. I suppose her silence saved her life, or they would have bashed her brains out. I adopted her, and had her trained in practically every martial art. She was a child of violence, so violence will redeem her."

It was impossible for me to express any of my thoughts. I was facing a profound and almost mystical truth. It was eastern in origin, unfathomable, but nevertheless true.

M returned into the room and placed four tea cups on the table. In the silence she carefully poured the tea. She handed me the tea almost reverently. I tried to catch her gaze, but she would not meet my eyes. After she had served the tea, she moved back and almost was absorbed by the shadows.

"Firstly, Freya wants to say something to you."

The young woman had taken off her glasses. The effect of her albinism had left the iris portion of her eyes so clear that there was nearly no colour pigment to stop my gaze. She blushed again and looked down at the floor.

"I'm sorry. It was foolish of me to be out so late. I just figured..."

"You just figured that the ruthlessness of this world had no ownership on you," growled OD. "You were foolish, damnably foolish." He reached over with his vein lined hand and patted my own with his finger like claws. It was like being touched by a mummy. I wondered how much time he had left. I also wondered how old he was. He said he was exploring when he found M. She couldn't be more than twenty. He didn't look 60 or 70. He looked more like 90.  "I thank you." The discomfort passed as he removed his hand. "Although my gratitude is eternal, for Freya is the only one I am going to dispense my immense wealth to, when I pass over to Valhalla, it is not why you are here."

"Can I ask a question?"

"Depends on if the question is a stupid one."

"Why all this Norse crap? It's not as though there is any truth to it..." I could almost hear Odin laughing in my head.

"There isn't?" OD looked amused as though a child had shared some quiant misinformed idea. "One of the greatest sins of our time is to assume that the ancients were simpletons, village idots. They were not. Their understanding of the metaphoric was beyond anything we can comprehend. In the thunder, they saw Thor, literally, and because of that, Thor walked among them."

I shook my head as his ideas ran off my skull like an oil slick. "So, if I believe in Odin, he will exist?"

"It is not so simple. For that to occur you would not only have to believe but know. Knowledge creates life, and without that, the Gods are dead, or dying. It is what I've searched for my entire life, knowledge, truth. Of this I have found a portion of it."

"Truth? You found truth?" I said a little too incredulously. I felt anger rising within me.

"I found Yggdrasil." He leaned in towards me, his voice was full of adoring intent.

"The world tree? Where?"

"It's not in a specific place. It's everywhere and nowhere all at once." He laughed and I thought he must be partially mad.  He tapped his temple. "It's here, in the mind." He tapped the table. "It's here, in this wood." He reached out and took Freya's hand. "It's here, in her flesh. In you...I can see, on the look of your face that you think I'm insane. Perhaps there is some truth to that, but who says what you can not see does not exist."

"I need to see to beleive." I said in obstinacy. 

"The math is there. The logic is there. You see Yggdrasil runs through out the Universe. The tree of live supports, billions of worlds."

 I shook my head feeling my disbelief and sarcasm bubbling to the surface. I looked to M and then Freya for support. They couldn't also believe in this tripe. M, as usual, was staring stonily off into the distance. Freya, with her dark glasses,  was impossible to read, but there was a tear run on her cheek.

"I was coming back from a protest," she said. "We need to make our voices heard. If we don't they'll just keep taking, killing. Things can be different. We can heal things. We can heal worlds."

I felt an incomprehesible rage rising up inside me. My fury coalescing about me I went to move away, to leave this Javanese house of madness.

"You have heard of the multi verse?" said OD.

The closest I had ever come to the multi verse was in a Doctor Strange comic book.

"It has been proven that the Big Bang that created our universe is based on inflationary principles. The Universe as we know it, continues to expand."

"Then we don't have to worry about it dying."

"It will expand whether it is dead or living. I thought you were a man who would care."

"Well," the rage boiled up inside me finally released. "You're wrong. I don't care. Listen, I appreciate everything you've done for me, but did you ever think that I didn't want saving, that I was waiting, hoping, to just die?" I didn't wait for a response but backed out of the Javanese hut and nearly rolled over a dozen scarlet Ibis in the process. Stupid birds. At the water falls I paused. Then spun the wheel chair around, then I realized I had no idea on how to get out of this bloody labryinth.

Then I felt her behind me, the presence of a shadow.

"You can never go back."

"I can..."

Then she spun me around and hit me, multiple times. One thing my training and experience ad taught me, was that if you wanted to kill someone, you went for the points of weakness and you were ruthless. M was ruthless and she was going for the kill. Fortunately my instincts kicked in. Her blows, although lighter than a males would have been,  still poounded into me, repetitive blows of a hammer. I was able to deflect most of them, but one of them caught me on the side of the head and I nearly blanked out. Another thing I learned was to anticipate. Know what your opponent is going to do before they do it, then you've got a chance. With me in the chair, I knew that if she started kicking, I wouldn't last long. I had a vision of myself prone at the bottom of the water fall. In a few moments she was going to roundhouse me into oblivian. I only had one chance. I threw myself out of the chair ontop of her. It was like wrestling with a python, but I managed to get her into a choke hold. It was my only chance. Even so, she slipped out of it. Rolling onto my back I waited for the death blow.

Instead I recieved the sound of solitary clapping that rose over the sound of the gentle waterfall. I looked at OD in bewilderment. M was standing beside him, her face neutral again. Freya stood on his other side. Then I realized they were total opposites. M was dark while Freya was light. I puffed away and with no pride left pulled myself back up into the chair.

"Why did you attack me," I sputtered. "You could have killed me."

M just nodded her head.

"You're insane."

"And, you," snickered OD, "are a liar."

"A liar?"

"You professed your desire to die, yet when you are attacked, you defend yourself as though your life depended on it...which it did." He was smiling."I had instructed M to grant you your wish, if it was truely your wish."

"That's not the same thing," I began to protest and realised that indeed it was. It was exactly the same thing. "Would you have killed me?" I asked M.

She nodded again.

"You didn't because I want to live?"

She nodded.

"Now," said OD with relish, "where were we? I think I was trying to shed some light on reality and the multi-verse, and how we're going to heal Yggdrasil."