Freya and the Magic Jewel by Joan Holub & Suzanne Williams

Author:Joan Holub & Suzanne Williams [Holub, Joan & Williams, Suzanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

11

Podmates

FREYA SAW A NOTE HANGING on a noticeboard in the mudroom beyond the front door to Vingolf Hall. It read:

Welcome to your dorm at Asgard Academy, girls!

—Odin and Ms. Frigg, principals

Racks full of wet boots and skis from other girls lined the mudroom walls. Freya slipped off her red-and-white-plaid snow boots and set them on one of the racks. Then she pushed through another set of doors and padded into the main hall in her wool socks. As she came to a halt, her mouth fell open in awe.

Vingolf was as big as the outdoor village square back home! Only, the dorm was round, not square, and enclosed with a roof. A hole at the top vented smoke from the fire that burned in a pit at the room’s center. Game tables, reading nooks, and gathering spaces were positioned all around the roaring fire.

She moved farther inside, bypassing a bunch of stools and small tables set with oil lamps carved from soapstone. Light for students to do homework by, she supposed.

Where did everyone sleep, though? Maybe through the doors all along the wall? She counted eighteen of them. She peered through the first open door she found and saw it did indeed lead into a bedroom with six hammocks for beds. There were six light-elves inside, all giggling and twirling, having so much fun that they didn’t notice her.

Like petals growing outward from the center pistil of a flower, the eighteen rooms were evenly spaced all around the edge of the circular main space of Vingolf. The next room she passed was occupied by girl dwarfs. Catching sight of Freya, a silver-eyed one sent her a hesitant smile, probably thinking that Freya wanted to room with them. “Sorry, no space,” the girl called out, shrugging in an apologetic way. “There are five of us and only five podbeds.”

“Okay, thanks,” said Freya. So the hammocks were called podbeds? Interesting. She returned the dwarf girl’s small smile with a big, friendly one that made all five dwarfs blink. She was still hoping to make a good impression on behalf of her world and didn’t want anyone around here to think the Vanir were standoffish or unfriendly, in spite of what Angerboda had hinted at back on the Bifrost Bridge.

Freya moved on. The other open rooms she passed were of various sizes, some smaller and others larger, with podbeds for four to eight girls. Each room also had a small window on its far wall and a large rug woven with the big initials AA, for “Asgard Academy.” The central fire was making the dorm rather warm, so many of the windows’ shutters were partly open to let in some air.

So far the rooms she’d passed were already filled with girls putting away their stuff and chatting. Some looked at her curiously, but none invited her in. Like Njord had noted on their trip here, students from the same world were sticking together. Even in these podrooms, it seemed.

To her relief, Freya eventually spotted her backpack on the floor outside one of the podroom doors.

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