Now that summer is here, I'm gonna try to get a chapter out every week.

Rolan was never much for reading, but the book of monsters was just too intriguing. None of the green cloaks had ever taken it seriously. And who would have? A book that read like a textbook of imaginary creatures. It also seemed to be an amalgam of much older books. The first pages were made of some kind of animal skin, while last were of old parchment. All the pages had various sketches of each of the monster races, even a snake like one he hadn't seen with the others. The pages also held advice on how to defeat the monsters as well as tips on how to injure them. Things like, "Giant skin too thick for arrows, aim for eyes or use large weapons" or "Asanbosam eyes hypnotic, look away".Rolan eventually closed the book and layed down. They just got more incentive to find Rumfuss.

Meanwhile, halfway across the world, Goliath was about to have a bad time. The first thing Goliath noted about the experience was that maybe drinking from a five thousand year old jug was a bad plan. The thing that he first noticed was the fact that there was enough dust in the liquid to choke a rhino. The next thing he noticed was the intense burning pain that he felt. Like pouring molten lava down his throat, the nectar was probably the most painful thing he was ever going to experience. He dropped the empty jug, shattering it on the ground. Goliath coughed for a while before going as stiff as a board and falling on his back.

When he woke up he was laying in… Snow? He sat up and looked around. From what he could tell, he was in a snowstorm back on Jotunheim. Now how did that happen? He stood up and stumbled around for a minute. It felt like his legs were jelly. He continued to look around in confusion until he saw another giant. Had he been there before?

"Hey! How did I get back here?" The other giant gave no response. And Goliath just realized how strange the other giant looked. He wore a horned helmet that covered his eyes, he was covered in armor that looked like it was made of… ice? His huge snow white beard was tangled in braids and decorated with beads. He leaned calmly on a massive sword, also made of ice. Goliath stared at the strange man for a while.

"Well, Goliath? Is it really taking you this long to figure all of this out?" He spoke with all the same lethargic laziness as most giants.

The winter wind blew for a long time. Goliath didn't even feel cold. Well, giants never really got cold, but this was different. It was about then when Goliath realized what was happening.

"OOOOOooooohhhhhh… This is all in my head?"

Zane went to his knees next to Goliath's head. The giant had gone out almost twenty minutes ago, and only showed signs that he was getting worse. He was sweating, a lot. His buffalo and bear skin shirt was drenched.

"We need to cool him down." Murder's voice was worried,"Quick, let's take his shirt off."

After an awkward glance, Geomi and Zane started. The sewn together mass of fur was not easy to move. Not only was it newly soaked with giant sweat, it was probably as heavy as all three of the smaller monsters combined. After the herculean task of removing the shirt, Geomi went to the huge water skin Goliath kept on his belt, but stopped.

"Wow, I knew giants had tattoos, but never thought they would be so… Intricate." Geomi looked at the giants chest. Runes that were probably the giant language were alongside pictures of animals that she recognized from rock paintings that she'd seen on the way to the giant's home. Creatures that looked like tigers with knives on their mouths, huge hairy rhinos and elephants.

Zane looked at the tattoos in wonder,"The world the giants ruled must've been so strange to witness…"

Goliath looked around again,"Well, it's disappointingly empty in here."

The strange armored giant chuckled,"Well, we aren't exactly in your head. We are on the threshold to my hunting grounds. The last time one of my own were dumb enough to drink anything produced by a great beast, we had this little talk, to."

"Your hunting grounds? Huh… I am dead aren't I?" When giants died, they went to the eternal frozen hunting grounds of Ymir to hunt creatures of the past for the rest of eternity,"And that makes you Ymir I'm guessing.

Ymir grinned, his teeth were pearly white. "That didn't take you too long. Now, the fact that you didn't die straight away means good things. Assuming you survive, that is." Ymir stroked his beard as he looked down at Goliath.

"So I'm not dead. Well, that's a bonus. Wait, does that mean?" Goliath looked up hopefully at the winter god.

"You see, when a monster drinks the nectar, it temporarily gives them something that they never had before. A connection to the tree. The smaller monsters can't stand the energy rush and normally die in horrible ways. But giants! I made you be made of sterner stuff! And two of the three times that this has happened, it worked out!"

"So, what you're saying is, that if I wake up? I have an animal?" Goliath felt like a kid at his first feast.

"Well, that's assuming you survive the actual summoning. Well, no point in wasting any more of your time!" Ymir cheerfully lifted his massive sword and slammed the butt into Goliath's head.

Goliath woke with a start. Before he could even react, a dazzling light appeared in front of him. It seemed to shine for a long time, building up feeling inside him. He felt like the days an electrical storm would roll over Jotunheim, charged. When the light dissipated as fast as it came. The blindness it left Goliath with faded, and found himself looking at something magnificent. It was like a deep cultural memory. Something from the beginning of his people's history, something the humans had taken from the giants thousands of years before. It was like an elephant, but it's tusks were much larger, and it had a thick coat of brown hair. It was a mammoth. Goliath shakily reached out his hand and touched the beasts trunk. It felt like a thunderbolt discharged and Goliath blacked out, but didn't dream this time.