“Oh? The trolls?” Iduna said. “Nothing. It’s just that I figured out that you were right all along and I’m really sorry for going off on you like that.”
“It’s OK,” her mother said. “And I’m glad you’ve figured it out.”
“Uh, Mom?” Iduna asked.
“Yes?” said the Leader of the Northuldra.
Iduna opened her mouth to ask the question of why she was abandoned as a baby and raised by the trolls, but knew that was a terrible idea. So she kept quiet.
“Never mind,” Iduna said. “The question isn’t that important anyway. Like the trolls said, I just need to give things time and then I’ll figure it out.”
The Leader of the Northuldra was concerned about her daughter, but smiled as well as she could.
Eventually, she could not hold it in any longer. “Iduna, you will run out of time someday,” she said.
Iduna thought it through. She knew that time could run out, but also knew that waiting things out also lead to positive outcomes more than negative—at least that’s how she always thought, with the glass half full.