Page 26 of Between Broomsticks and Beating Wings
“Midgard is between Asgard and Hel. We’ll have to travel through it, won’t we?” Kari pulled Tove into her lap, a warning not to take her back to her mortal world despite all the bitter words she threw at me for bringing her here.
Before she could get even more defensive, I said, “No. We can bypass Midgard, and we will. As long as you don’t accidentally wander through its gates, your precious feline will be fine.”
The muscles in Kari’s face relaxed.
Peering down at the fat orange animal in her arms, I summoned a bowl of white fish on the floor on the far side of the room. He leaped off Kari with a strangled meow as he beelined it toward his treat. I’d imagined it’d been quite some time since he’d eaten anything at all, and though he no longer needed to, here in Asgard, it wouldn’t pass through his little teeth and mouth. He could enjoy the food for once.
I wasn’t sure why I’d done it, but I imagined if Apple had gone years without any fruit, I’d want her to have a little treat too. I couldn’t let my frustrations with his human cloudmy judgement and allow me to take my emotions out on the innocent feline.
Kari watched as her cat devoured the contents of the bowl, a small smile forming on those pink lips. I tore my gaze away from her before I found myself lost to her features and the subtleties of their movements. I wouldn’t stare at this woman. Though it felt as natural as breathing, my time watching her was over.
It had to be.
Kari tore her eyes from Tove and asked, “Tell me more about the World Tree. I want to make sure my mortal understanding isn’t built off mere legends and tales. You’ve actually travelled through it.”
I nodded and leaned back in my chair, settling in for a long conversation. “Yggdrasil is an ash tree connecting the nine realms. Its branches and trunk extend through the worlds and heavens, and its roots tap into even more locations, including Hel. Asgard is the top realm, in the branches, and Midgard is directly below it, along the trunk. There are, however, many creatures who live within the tree, and avoiding them will be our biggest challenge. They must not be ignored in our plans, as much as I’d like to pretend they’re not there at all.”
“Jörmungandr,” Kari muttered, her lips parting.
“Yes, I’m sure you’re very familiar with his story. The serpent surrounds your human world, after all.”
“He’s the son of Loki and the giantess, Angrboda. All three of their children were born monsters. The serpent, Jörmungandr, the wolf, Fenrir, and, of course, Hel.”
“Correct, and we’ll have to avoid the first two if we want to make it to the third alive. Jörmungandr won’t be our only obstacle, though. Within the World Tree, there’s also the dragon, Nídhöggr. Not to mention, the stags and the eagle, and of course...”
“Okay, okay, one creature at a time. Is the dragon…truly as horrible as everyone says?”
“Well, that depends on what side of the war you’re on, but in Asgard, he’s seen as the personification of chaos and evil and has been known to herald the end of time.”
“Oh, good. Will he be hard to avoid on our way to Hel?”
“Nídhöggr is coiled around the tree, where he feasts on its roots. We’re coming down from the branches here in Asgard to travel to Hel, but?—”
“Let me guess: that’s where the eagle resides.”
“Well, yes,” I said. “The eagle remains at the very top of the tree, and that wind you feel on Midgard is due to the beating of his wings. But we don’t have to worry about him, though, because we are traveling down the trunk instead of up.”
I searched around for something to write with so I could better explain the path we were going to need to take from Asgard to Hel. “What I was going to say was?—”
“You’re forgetting about the Norns!” Áma called out from the kitchen, where she scrubbed all the dishes we’d used during breakfast.
“I didn’t forget about the Norns,” I grumbled. “I just wasn’t going to mention them.”
“The squirrel?” she called out again.
“Áma! She doesn’t need to know about every being in existence.”
Kari fiddled with the edge of the wooden table and said, “Okay, but now I’m curious about the squirrel.”
I sighed and ran my hand down my face. I was going to get nowhere if I kept getting interrupted. “The squirrel runs up and down the World Tree, delivering tidings. Mostly, he delivers insults to the dragon, Nídhöggr. I don’t know how the thing hasn’t been eaten yet.”
Kari held back a chuckle, almost as if she didn’t want to give me credit for saying something that amused her. Her lips twitched again, but then she took a deep breath and nodded her head, as if I’d told her something as dry as why rain falls from the sky.
“Anyway, forget about the Norns and the squirrel, even the eagle and the stags. Our two main challenges will be the serpent and the dragon.”
“Can’t we just fly down to Hel on a pegasus or something?”
“I wish it were that simple. The Bifrost Bridge we use to fly to Midgard would be more than sufficient for me to travel anywhere in the nine realms, but you’ve already experienced the strain of it once, and it’s not meant for mortal humans.”
