Lake Rodney night at the lake

Charon had expected her to take his tips into stride and thank him for them, and maybe for their meeting to be ended with that; or for them to just gaze at the stars a while in silence and harmony. But instead she asked for a story. He was a little disgruntled at that, but didn't let it show too much. Instead he shrugged nonchalantly, as though it didn't really matter much, and said, "Sure, uh — I can tell you a story about the eyes of Thjazi. He was a giant who captured the viking goddess Idunn. The gods wanted her back, of course, and they decided Loki must've been involved, 'cause, well, giants and stuff." Okay, so maybe he didn't remember the story as well anymore, but he knew the gist of it. "So Loki was sent to get Idunn back, and he manages, but he kills the giant Thjazi in the process. So his daughter Skadi's pissed as fuck at the matter, of course, and then Skadi's given a choice what god she wants to marry, but only by viewing their feet. She married some unimportant sea-dude because he apparently had really beautiful feet. Anyway —" He looked half like he was reciting it from a memory long ago, and half like he was making it up as he went along, as he had to think hard on what Thistle Cloud had once told him, "They also had to make Skadi laugh, so Loki stuck a goat to his balls and then she laughed. That's the part of the story most kids'll love." Charon had certainly loved it when he was told as a young boy. "And the last compensation was that Thjazi's eyes were thrown up into the sky and made into stars." Thinking about it, Charon wondered if that was really any good kind of compensation. If he were ever to die, he didn't think he'd want his eyes to be put into the night sky.