Bragi let out a short laugh. “Oh?” he asked, “The next tree goddess? What happened to you?” He raised an eyebrow and shook his head, but smiled. “You are right in that scenario,” Bragi said, “Though I'm not sure how much good that would do me. I don't typically struggle for conversation anyway. It would be especially tragic if I did.”
His smile turned into a devious grin. “Besides” Bragi added, “judging by all the tree goddesses I've met, they can be a very temperamental sort when you find them in trees. Langeleiks might just make her angry.” Of course, he was only basing this on one example. Bragi didn't typically meet goddesses in trees. Rosy might be the only tree goddess. He couldn't resist teasing her though. Bragi loved the faces she made. Even the indignant ones he'd seen the day before.
If walking at this pace meant obtaining the company of laughing tree goddesses, Bragi would have learned to enjoy it sooner. He couldn't look at their feet any longer because it meant not looking at the tree goddess while she answered, but he'd memorized the sound of their feet as they hit the earth almost in unison, and in the very back of his mind, Bragi started writing music to it. They were walking, and Bragi wanted to dance. But more importantly, he wanted to walk even slower so they wouldn't get where he was going. Bragi had never wanted to walk slower before. It was a pity he knew his way around these paths so well.
Bragi liked the idea of her in an orchard. He could picture her ith all those trees around filled with bursts of brightly colored fruit. It struck him as beautiful. Besides this was information he could file away and use to find her again. Fate had been quite kind to him those past two days, but after two knocks, it generally wanted someone to open the door for it after that.
“Apples?” Bragi asked, feigning only mild interest. “That sounds like very fulfilling work. And very much to do with trees. You might be a tree goddess after all.” Then she started talking about the trees and it only further confirmed this. It wasn't just that Bragi liked what she said. He understood it. He felt the same way. “I think without the journey the destination doesn't mean much,” Bragi said. He paused and smiled. “I love climbing too.”