The Web of Loki

by Carla Reighard

  “I don’t know, and I was leading the way. So are our theories true? Is Ingrid creating the myths with her mind? The reason I say that is that if the snake wasn’t Ingrid’s imagination creation, then it may be the one the gods used to torture Loki. If that serpent is free from its bonds, then Loki may be too,” Stein suggested.

  “There’s no way of really knowing that, is there?” Hilde stated more than asked.

  Bjørn crouched down on the ground and found a rock to use for drawing onto the cave’s surface. He began to create a tree, and then labeled the sections below the surface of the tree where the roots were located. On top of the tree he wrote, YGGDRASIL or TUNTRE. Just below the trunk of the tree he wrote, ASGARD. Then Bjørn drew a circle around that word. He created another circle below ASGARD and wrote, MIDGARD. He put down the rock and let everyone exam his rudimentary sketch.

  “The more I think about our village, Tuntre, the more I think it is Midgard. We may even be inside its root system right now. This cave seemed normal, but have you noticed it changed?” Bjørn asked.

  Everyone looked around and realized that the walls seemed different. Instead of rock, the surface had a bark-like texture. Ingrid noticed that the smells were similar to the tree in the center of their village that never got covered in the Web – though it seemed to have the black threads shooting out from it.

  “What does that mean for us?” Hilde asked.

  “I’m not sure, but perhaps we could try to go upward and find Asgard. If the gods exist, maybe they could help us fix Tuntre’s problems. If they had already tied up Loki and he got free, maybe they could help us find him and force him to put a stop to all of this,” Bjørn answered.

  Chapter 11

  “Freya’s gown, that’s outrageous!” Hilde laughed.

  “Do you have a better solution?” Bjørn asked, annoyance in his tone.

  “No, but if the gods really exist, and I’m not sure they do, why would they listen to measly humans?” Hilde questioned.

  “Why wouldn’t they?” Stein asked.

  No one had any comment to make as they pondered over Bjørn’s suggestion to find the world of the gods. He made it sound as if they were in the middle of some gigantic World Tree which also happened to be the tree in the center of their town. Bjørn had explained to them that Tuntre was another word for a sacred tree or Yggdrasil in Norse mythology.

  Ingrid thought of what Stein had said about being from another world; of course he wouldn’t think Bjørn’s ideas were too outlandish. But Stein didn’t think he was from a world of gods and goddesses so Ingrid didn’t know if Bjørn’s plan would work.

  “If we are in the World Tree, which Bjørn thinks is the same one in the middle of Tuntre, that would mean Huldra led us back the way we came except for now we’re under our village. I’m not sure I believe that. Of course, none of Bjørn’s theories even begin to explain what I have to do with the situation. If I have powers to control things with my fears and desires, then why do I have these abilities? How can I regulate them?”

  “We need to ask the gods,” Bjørn responded.

  Hilde laughed, and it surprised Ingrid how cynical her friend become throughout their journey. In Tuntre, she had ways encouraged Ingrid to look at the bright side of situations. She had always been up for adventure, and she never scorned others who may have had bizarre ideas. Now she continued to contradict any suggestion that supernatural things were occurring, even though she had admitted that Huldra seemed to be magical.

  “How are we going to find these gods, if they even exist?” Hilde asked.

  “Like I said, we need to go up the tree.” Bjørn replied as he pointed to his drawing of the different realms.

  “There is no up in this cave. We are lost in a bunch of tunnels and I don’t know which way we should go. Do any of you?” Hilde asked.

  “Maybe we should find where the stone began to change into wood or whatever this is,” Stein said as he scratched the side of the nearest wall.

  Stein's illuminated his lamp by using the flame from Bjørn’s lantern, and then he led the way, since the cavern was too narrow to walk side-by-side. Ingrid had not really been paying attention to where he was leading them, but when they arrived at a fork, Stein yelled from the back of the line, “Go left. I remember when we were running from the snake that I took us right when we came upon a fork, so now that we are going the opposite direction, shouldn’t we go left?”

  “Maybe we should leave a marker of some kind here in case you’re wrong. Then we can come back and go down the other fork. I’m just thinking maybe there was more than one of these places you had to choose left or right. I wasn’t exactly concentrating on where we were going, but only that we needed to prevent us all from dying by snake venom,” Hilde said.

  Hilde scratched an X in the side of the wall with the stone she had used to mark their way into the cave. They continued on the path that Stein had suggested, and the sides of the cavern began to change from a dark brown to a lighter tan. Ingrid reached out to touch the surface, and it felt more like stone than wood.

  Bjørn stopped and looked around. “There is definitely a difference, but did any of you see another place we could have gone?”

  They walked back a few steps where the exterior started to change and Ingrid looked up, based on Bjørn’s earlier explanation of where Asgard could be. It was hard to see, but she thought she saw an opening above their heads.

  “Stop and look up,” Ingrid suggested.

  Everyone saw what she had noticed. Bjørn stretched up to feel the sides of the opening. “There’s a ladder.”

  “So maybe I was wrong again,” Hilde admitted.

  “You, wrong? Never,” Bjørn teased. “I’m just glad there may be a way out of this cave. I’m beginning to feel a little claustrophobic.”

  Bjørn pulled his body upwards so that he could climb high enough to put his feet on the rungs of the organic ladder. He jumped down and asked, “Are you all able to pull yourself up or will you need help?”

  “I’m as strong as you.” Hilde lifted her body up and began climbing out of sight. She yelled teasingly, “What are you all waiting for?”

  Ingrid frowned, “I can’t lift myself up, sorry. I’ve never had much upper body strength.”

  “That’s okay. Bjørn, you catch up to Hilde, and I’ll push Ingrid up until she can hold on to the ladder without my help. I can get myself up.”

  Ingrid felt her face flush again as Bjørn moved quickly out of sight. Ingrid was glad that Hilde insisted that Ingrid wear Hilde’s younger brother’s clothes. It seemed especially helpful as Stein lifted her up so that she could reach the ladder with her arms and legs; as he hoisted her, she thought how awkward a skirt would have been compared to the pants she was wearing. Ingrid was thankful that she was a small girl so that Stein didn’t seem to have to use much effort in lifting her.

  They proceeded to climb upward. The soft ladder seemed to be made out of the tree roots. The smell of earth and wood was cleaner than the air they had grown accustomed to in the forest or even the cave. There was a space between the walls and the ladder so they could wrap their arms and legs around it whenever they felt like they were going to fall. Though it was cool, Ingrid felt sweat form on her brow, and she noticed that Bjørn had wiped his sleeve across his forehead a few times. The exertion was probably causing them all to overheat.

  Everyone had caught up to Hilde, who had slowed her pace after her initial show of strength.

  “Freya’s gown, my legs are getting wobbly,” Hilde declared.

  “Yeah, mine feel like soggy straw, but we have to keep moving. There has to be an end to this,” Bjørn encouraged.

  “I keep trying to look around to see if there are any openings to escape sideways, but so far, I think this is a two way tunnel–go down the way we came or stay the course upward,” Ingrid said.

  Ingrid had hoped that soon there would be an end to the ladder because she didn’t know how much longer she could keep climbing.
She had felt rejuvenated from the sleep and water, but the farther they moved away from the respite, the more she felt like she had before they had been led into the cave.

  “We didn’t really put much thought into this, did we? If we are moving away from the human realm into the world of the gods, these steps may only be for those with supernatural abilities. The gods wouldn’t make it so easy for mere mortals to reach their home. We may be on a futile path,” Stein suggested.

  “I began thinking that very same thing, after my legs started to feel like they were going to fall off, but I don’t have any other ideas,” Bjørn responded.

  “Why doesn’t Ingrid conjure up some way to get us out of here, if she is so full of magic?” Hilde scoffed.

  Ingrid had been wondering if she was the key to ending their current journey. She remembered reading a book about Jack and the beanstalk. She had never questioned how Jack had the stamina to climb into the clouds to reach the world of the giants because it was a fanciful tale. Now she felt it was a stupid story. He was just a boy, and there wasn’t anything special about him to give him the ability to climb so high.

  “What am I supposed to imagine? I want this trip to be over as much as anyone, but the only thing I can compare this ladder to is a story about a magic beanstalk, and we don’t want me to think about giants.”

  “Goddess, now you’ve done it. We’re going to have to face giants just as soon as we find the end!” Hilde retorted.

  “Is that Hilde admitting Ingrid may be controlling stuff with her mind?” Bjørn teased.

  “Not really, but I don’t want to take any chances. Ingrid, please don’t think about giants.”

  “I’ll try to think of something better.” Ingrid felt horrible for getting her friends into this situation, so she tried to imagine a world where the gods would live, but she didn’t have any references to gather information from for that. The books she had read on the topic didn’t describe Odin or Freya’s home in any kind of detail.

  She thought about the country where the girl, Alice, had lived. She was a fictional character from the book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In Ingrid’s mind, it was a place full of green vegetation, with sunshine and flower gardens. It was easier for Ingrid to imagine the world Alice had come from before she had fallen in the hole because Ingrid had read about England. She had once dreamed of visiting that faraway land if the Web would ever go away.

  Not long after Ingrid’s mind visited England, Hilde screamed, “Guys, you won’t believe what I’m looking at.” Hilde disappeared through a bright opening as she spoke excitedly – the climb had finally ended.

  Ingrid was blinded by a bright light as she followed Bjørn out of the hole. Her eyes felt a sharp pain and her face felt the warmth from the sun as its rays spilled onto her skin. She squinted until her eyes gradually adjusted to the world her mind had only pictured minutes earlier.

  There was a sweet, clean smell as a world of colors exploded before them. Flowers of a wide variety spurted from the ground as the four of them stood dumbfounded upon the velvety green lawn just outside the tunnel. In Ingrid’s wildest fantasy, she could have never pictured so much sunlight, pigments, or beauty. Her senses were in overload, and Ingrid knew this wasn’t Tuntre, because the Web had prevented anything so glorious from growing in its midst.

  “Goddess, where are we?” Hilde asked.

  “Is this Asgard?” Bjørn questioned.

  “I think we’re in England,” Ingrid replied.

  Chapter 12

  “Why do you think that?” Stein questioned Ingrid.

  “Just before Hilde screamed, I was imagining the world Alice came from before she visited Wonderland. It was all I could visualize besides the end of the beanstalk Jack climbed. I figured it was more pleasant and safer. I wanted an end to the climb as much as anyone else, but I couldn’t envision a land where gods lived, so I pictured something from one of the books I had read.”

  “But I don’t remember much about Alice’s world before her adventures began,” Hilde said.

  “I know, but I read somewhere that she was from England. I also assumed any place that wasn’t covered in black thread had lots of sun and the ability to grow a variety of flowers. Books in the dispensary had some information about horticulture. The descriptions of the flowers made me imagine how each type smelled. I know I had read somewhere about England having many rainy days and clouds, but I also read about their beautiful English gardens. That is where my mind ended up finally. It kept me from agonizing over sore leg muscles and a ladder that led to nowhere.”

  “I don’t care if this is England or Asgard; I’m just glad to be out of that hole. When I thought my legs were going to stop working, the myths of how to reach Asgard came back to me. They said that humans could only reach the gods’ realm by using the rainbow bridge called Bifrost. I began to feel like an idiot. I was the one who suggested we could reach the gods through the middle of the World Tree,” Bjørn exclaimed.

  “Could I have created this world with my mind?” Ingrid inquired.

  They all stood in awed silence as they took in the surroundings. It was probably safe to assume that no one knew the answer to Ingrid’s question. They also weren’t going to blame anyone for the circumstances they were in because they all volunteered for this mission.

  Hilde began to walk the green path of grass that the led around the flowers. The rest followed. Once in a while, the sound of one of them sucking in air to smell the flowers was heard, but they seemed unable to speak. Their world was limited in Tuntre, and they had never seen so much light or color.

  Ingrid sighed quietly as she looked up at the sky. It was a shade of blue that she couldn’t think of a word to describe. Dotted among it were fluffy white clouds that looked soft enough to make a comfortable bed. Ingrid had never been able to see so much of the sky through the Web. The clean, warm air was also unusual. It didn’t seem to be winter in this new place. Eventually they ended up facing several large, shiny, green-leafed bushes which were shaped into walls.

  “I read about these. They’re called hedge mazes. People plant and cut the shrubberies to make a labyrinth. Some are difficult to navigate through but others are rather simple,” Ingrid commented.

  There didn’t seem to be any other option for the four. If they went back where they came from, they would have ended up at the hole they had just climbed out of. If they went right or left, they would end up going around in circles in the luxurious flower garden that also seemed to be fenced in with the same type of hedgerow. Forward was the only other direction they could go if they wanted to make any progress.

  “When you read about these labyrinths, was there any mention of danger lurking around the corners?” Bjørn asked Ingrid.

  “Great, now Ingrid is going to conjure up some kind of bush monster to jump out and eat us!” Hilde said half-jokingly.

  “I thought you didn’t believe Ingrid could create things with her thoughts,” Stein added.

  “The more I see the unexplainable, the more I’m convinced anything is possible in this wacko world,” Hilde admitted.

  “Don’t worry, guys. I’m thinking it is too sunny for creatures to lurk. Just getting away from the Web has made me less gloomy. I’m not focusing on scary things at the moment.”

  Ingrid couldn’t explain to her friends the relief the new place gave her. It didn’t completely make sense. Sure, the setting was peaceful, beautiful, and bright, but they had no idea where they were and what they were going to find. That would have normally made Ingrid edgy and ready to borrow trouble, but for now, she felt hopeful.

  They wandered for what seemed like hours. Just when Ingrid was feeling optimistic, she began to lose confidence again as she became thirsty and discouraged. They weren’t accustomed to the intense solar heat. Even though the Web kept their town more insulated from the extreme cold of the Norwegian winters, they still had come from a much colder temperature than this. The new garden world felt like a desert to bodies that were
not adapted to summer.

  “I think we’ve already gone this way. We should turn right,” Hilde demanded.

  “No, look at this leaf.” Bjørn pointed to a red sprig. “It isn’t like any others we’ve seen before.”

  “How can all of these leafs be green and that one red?” Stein asked.

  “I don’t know, but at least we’re not going around in circles,” Bjørn responded.

  “Look!” Hilde ran ahead. “There’s another red one and –” She kept going forward. “There’s a gold one and – whoa!”

  The three followed Hilde until she stopped abruptly and they almost ran into her. The leaves had seemed to transform before their eyes. Gone were the green hues replaced by shades one would normally see in the fall. They were stunned by the sight of golds and reds.

  Until that moment, the only sounds the four had heard were their own breaths and their feet padding onto the carpet of grass. So when they heard a distinct noise of a woman crying nearby, they hurried their pace to see who it was. The woman’s sobs led them out of the maze and into a courtyard that connected to a sizeable gold palace.

  Perched on a golden bench was a woman with flowing blonde hair and a white gown that appeared to have been made of silk. Her tears came down in crimson and gold droplets which seemed to spread magically as they seeped into the ground and bushes nearby.

  “That explains the hedge’s sudden transformation,” Ingrid whispered.

  “But who is she?” Hilde asked.

  The woman looked up and saw the four standing in her presence. Ingrid had assumed they must have all looked strange in their soiled clothes and with their bewildered expressions. Yet the young female didn’t seem fazed by their appearance. Instead, she answered Hilde’s question.

  “I’m Freya, and I weep for my husband Odin who is always gone. I miss him terribly.”

  The glances between her friends showed they all had recognized the names of the god and goddess of Norse legend.