He reached into his jerkin and he took out the thing that he had carved. His father’s carving, which he had finished. It was his mother, as she had looked before he was born. It was the finest thing that Odd had ever made, and it was beautiful.
The Frost Giant squinted at it, and then, just for a moment, smiled. He put the carved head into his pouch, and he said, “It is…remarkable. And lovely. Yes. I will take it back with me to Jotunheim, and it will brighten my hall.” The Frost Giant hesitated, then he said, a little wistfully, “Do you think I should say good-bye to Lady Freya?”
Odd said, “If you do, she’ll probably shout at you some more.”
“Or beg me to take her with me,” said the Frost Giant. Odd could have sworn that the Frost Giant shivered at that.
The Frost Giant took a step away from Odd, and as he moved away, he grew. He went from being the size of a high hill to being the size of a mountain. Then he reached an arm up into the grey of the winter sky. His hand vanished in the cloud…
“I think I need good weather to leave in,” said the giant. “Something to hide my tracks and to make me hard to follow.”
Odd could not see quite what the Frost Giant did, but when he lowered his hand, snow began to fall in huge white flakes that spun and tumbled and obscured the world. The giant began to lumber away into the blizzard.
“Hey!” called Odd. “I don’t know your name!”
But the figure did not hear him, or if it did, it did not answer, and in moments it was lost to sight.
CHAPTER 7
FOUR TRANSFORMATIONS AND A MEAL
THE EAGLE FOUND HIM, as he sat on the wall, in an area that he had kept as free of snow as he could. The great bird landed beside the boy.
“Good?” it said. It was twilight, and the snow was falling more gently now.
“I’m cold,” said Odd. “I nearly got blown off there a couple of times. I was getting worried I’d have to spend the rest of my life up on this wall. But, yes, I’m good.”
The great bird landed beside the boy.
The eagle simply looked at him.
“The Frost Giant’s gone,” said Odd. “I made him go away.”
“How?” asked the eagle.
“Magic,” said Odd, and he smiled, and thought,
“Loki, you caused all this,” she said. “All of it.”
“Yes,” he said. “I admit it. But I found the boy as well. You can’t just focus on the bad stuff.”