The burgers were every bit as good as they smelled, and the root beer was probably nearly as good as the actual beer.
While we munched, I filled Angrboda in on the riddle.
“Muspelheim is where fire flows like water.” She shuddered. “I couldn’t even set foot there. I’d melt. Literally.”
I nodded. “I seem to have picked up more fire nature than ice.”
“Oh, definitely, and you’ve been there.”
I nodded again. “Quite…”
“Comfortable. Homely.” She frowned. “Ah well. You’re fiery for a reason.”
“I managed fine in Jotunheim too, but…”
“You’ll never be happy there, I don’t think. It’s fine. We can always meet up at a dwarven inn.”
I laughed. “Or here.” I frowned. “What do you think it all means.”
“Surtur told you Muspelheim was dying.”
I tried to remember when I’d told her that. I drew a blank. I obviously had, but I must have been drunk.
“Right. Which means…”
“A dead apple tree, or not quite dead. But that’s more about Asgard.”
I nodded. “But Surtur seemed to think I could…you think it’s connected to what he thinks?”
“He might think he needs some apples of youth to restore things. And that you could get them for him.”
“And he’d never ask Odin.” I glanced at Kanesha.
“What if he does?”
“I don’t know.” I frowned. “I mean, I don’t want an entire realm to die. Any realm. Surtur’s not the only person who lives there, after all.”
“Good,” Angrboda said. “But if you start taking responsibility for Muspelheim…” She tailed off.
I shuddered. “I ain’t taking charge. With him or without him.”
But I didn’t want the place to turn into some kind of black desert with dead trees. I thought of what I had glimpsed.
Trees with flowers of fire.
Rivers of lava.
It was beautiful. But…
“But you still want to save the place.”
“It’s beautiful,” I admitted. “Maybe not to you.”
She laughed sharply. “No, not to me. But I’m not you. I’m just an old frost giant, and kind of set in her ways anyway.”
“An old frost giant who likes to get people drunk.”
She didn’t deny it. Meeting her, though? This was the kind of not normal I didn’t mind at all.
Especially as she paid for the burgers.
And did not start a bar fight. This time.