AN: Hey everyone! Chapter two's here, I forgot to mention last time that I will update this short story once every two days. Yay often updates! This one's a long one, and could've been split into two, but eh, this is how I do short stories. We get introduced to some new characters, and there will a pronounication guide at the bottom because they're Frost Giants and Frost Giants have weird, nordic names.

Chapter two

I rubbed my eyes as I walked through the ice castle. I was the only Jotun left who could command and control Ice Beasts. But... Tritan's whole tribe knew how to control Ice Beasts similarly. Surely, they were still around.

After... after Tritan's death at the hands of Drafilie... Farbauti had ordered him into exile, and banished him from Jotunheim. I don't know where Drafilie had been sent, but it was definitely off-world. Their tribe, which had been prone to Ice Beast attacks even before Drafilie and Tritan failed to return to them, must've been destroyed by the waves of Ice Beast attacks, or had descended in to disarray after their chief and heir had never came back.

Was it my fault? That a whole tribe was no longer in existence? Was it because of me? Or would it have happened eventually anyway?

The darkness of the halls seemed fitting for my current mood, gloomy and a bit depressing. I wasn't sure where I was going. I was familiar with the castle, so I could find my way out if I had to, but I wanted to walk and stretch my legs. I needed to think.

Farbauti hadn't given me the details of where exactly the Ice Beast was or when I was to leave or how long the mission would be. She had dismissed me, saying how she had other errands to attend to. I wondered how much work it was to run a tribal race, and whether she would send someone to debrief me when she remembered that I needed that kind of information.

I kept walking, this time paying attention to my surroundings. I didn't recognise it. Even though it was only bathed in ghostly pale light cast by torches in brackets placed regularly along the walls, I never recalled walking through here before. I did have to admit, one part of the ice castle looked a lot like another.

I felt a drought rustle past my hair, blowing a few strands of hair backwards over my shoulder, the noise of which sounded like a giant ghostly breath, slithering past my ears and whispering across the walls. The air blew past again, this time sucking in, a violent deep breath. My hair flew forward in a torrent of swirling ice blue and obscured my vision, I even stumbled forwards a few steps. The wind died and my hair flopped down in front of my face. Quickly I brushed it back and shoved my fringe out of my eyes. I started walking forward again, following the wind and the draught. I was deep in the belly of the castle, there shouldn't be a draught.

So I kept walking, although the same cowardly voice from before whispered in my head this is the type of curiosity in horror movies that got the chick killed, but I kept going. There was nothing in this castle that could actually harm me. I'm sure Farbauti wouldn't have anything dangerous running around, right. Right?

I stopped at a giant hole that almost took up the entirety of the hallway's floor. It was dark, a pool of black that seemingly tunnelled down forever. It reminded me of the chasm of the north side of the castle. Air rushed past me, being sucked in to the hole. The light from the torches flickered almost becoming extinguished due to the wind.

I took a torch from its bracket and held it down into the hole, kneeling on the floor and leaning far over in to it. How far did it go down? Why was it in the middle of the hallway? Did it lead any where?

"Careful, wouldn't want you to fall down." A voice said from behind me. I jumped so violently that I almost did fall down. I whirled around to face the voice, the fire from the torch illuminated the hall. I did not like to be snuck up on. I had a bad history of sneak attacks.

The Frost Giantess who addressed me stepped closer into the light; her long and toned arms folding over her chest. I was taken aback by the sight of her. Not only was she the first Frost Giantess I had seen besides me or Farbauti, she was massive, one of the tallest giants even in general. She stood at least 9 feet tall, over at least a foot taller than me. In addition to her powerful and intimidating stature she was also extremely pretty. Beautiful if I had to admit it. She had large red eyes with long lashes and full lips. Her hair was in one long braid over her shoulder, but a big fringe covered half of her face. I blinked once before composing myself.

"Well thanks, but you might have almost just shoved me in there yourself." I said.

She smiled, but it didn't seem to be out of amusement at my comment. "Farbauti sent me. I'm going to take you to the stables; from there you'll be able to pack for your trip. We can't help you when you leave so you'll be on your way." She informed me.

"Oh well, thanks again, but I've never seen the stables before." I said. "I may need a little help to find them."

"Of course. Follow me. The stables are a new addition." She said.

I placed my torch back in its bracket and followed the giantess down the hall, I caught up with her, but her legs were quite a bit longer than mine, I spied at what she was wearing, there was a mix of furs and ice armour. It was similar to mine, but long bits of fur draped around her thighs and from the front and back of her short ice chain mail skirt. She had ice shoulder armour on one shoulder and fur on the other. Her forearms were clad in more ice armour as was her lower legs. I felt a pinch of envy. Her body was strong, but also rather... curvy.

"I didn't catch you name." I said, hoping to break the tension between us. "I'm Ink."

"I know who you are. Everyone knows who you are." She said. She sounded offended that I didn't know her. Should I know her? I racked my brain but she didn't stick out in my memory as someone I remembered. And I would remember her. "My name's Icder."

"It's nice to meet you, Icder." I said.

"Nice to meet you too, I guess." She replied.

Huh, I thought. What did I ever do to offend her?

I followed behind Icder for the duration of our journey, and I wondered, was I really going to take a horse all the way into the North Mountains? They were a week's walk away, and it took even longer to climb them. I didn't just have to reach the mountains, I had to search them. Search them high and low for an Ice Beast which I had never seen before. An Ice Beast that could fly and ambush me from above. I was to take a horse.

No wonder why no one returned.

I thought of Bonecrusher. I honestly had no idea what had happened to him. And my heart ached for him. Had he gone back into the wild? Maybe to the nest of Ice Beasts that... that Tritan had had once taken me to. Maybe he had stayed here. Maybe he had died. I wasn't sure I wanted to find out.

As we walked I felt the change in the air. Again I didn't recognise where we were going, but I marked the corners we turned; I had a tendency to ignore where I was going when I was following someone. If they knew the way why should I? That mindset had gotten me lost on more than one occasion.

It was definitely getting warmer. Well, warm for Jotunheim. Worryingly warm actually. There was only ever one temperature on Jotunheim: freezing. The only time when I had felt anything different was in the Ice Beast's nest. This was more like chilly. My heart jumped in my chest. Maybe I was to take an Ice Beast to the North Mountains.

Icder shoved her shoulder against a heavy door and heaved it open, I would've helped her, but in the time I stepped forward she had already opened it all the way. I stepped into the chamber inside. The warmth hit me in a wave. The stables were unlike any other room in the castle. There were roaring fires on three of the walls and an open space landing out onto a long balcony, more like a landing and taking off strip, over hanging onto to the chasm. The furniture inside was wood, which was strange, as I had never seen any trees on Jotunheim. There were 10 pens in total, and 6 of them were filled. Five Ice Beasts I had never seen before, and one I knew very well.

"Bonecrusher!" I exclaimed the same moment he laid eyes on me. He rushed forward out of his pen. I embraced his head to my chest, my arms hardly wrapped around his head. I held him for a long time, before he pulled away to lick my face.

The sound I made was somewhere between an 'aww' and an 'ugh'.

"He's been waiting for you ever since you went away." Icder said as she walked into a pen and started sweeping all the hay out with a broom that had been lying to the side. A disgruntled and annoyed Ice Beast walked out, letting Icder have full space to clean and change the hay.

"Have you been looking after him all this time?" I asked, because if she had I would be entirely in her debt.

"Yeah; me, Nirym, Hefmir and a few others."She said. "Farbauti commissioned the stables for us and our Ice Beasts."

The Ice Beast Icder was attending to was big, almost as big as Bonecrusher, but instead of having four wings and two legs, he had four legs and two wings, similar to the posture of Drakki/ is tail was shorter, stocky, with a mace like spiked end. His big wings also had spikes at their joints. He was quite a spiky Ice Beast. His colouration was the same though, red burning eyes and blue skin, with darker blue markings.

"He's gorgeous." I remarked, my Manchester accent coming through a little bit. "What's his name?"

Icder smiled, different from the first time I had seen her smile. This one was genuine. "He's called Banshee, and he's a Sonic Scream."

I smiled at her. "I'm guessing he's loud and proud, then; rightly so by the look of him." I said.

"Like his owner," Icder remarked.

Banshee came closer, prowling forward, like a tiger. He snuffled, heavy breaths coming out of his nostrils. Although I preened and rubbed Bonecrusher, Banshee ignored him for the most part, they'd lived in the same stable for months now. I held still as he sussed me out. When he realised I wasn't something to eat or kill, he returned back to Icder.

Icder had finished her job and rubbed Banshee's head. I was puzzled. If Icder had an Ice Beast, then she knew how to handle them. And she had mentioned others.

"Hey, how come Farbauti has me doing this quest? You seem just as capable at handling Ice Bests, maybe even better." I said.

"Icder drew herself up, obviously pleased with the compliment, but her eyes were stormy.

"You're the only one Farbauti trusts." She said rather bitterly.

"Why only me? Why wouldn't she trust you?" I asked.

"Because I'm from Drafilie's tribe!" She shouted. "Or what's left of it. Ever since Drafilie announced his plans to take over the throne of Jotunheim and killed Tritan, Farbauti's been a little untrustworthy of those left over. And then she exiled our chief to outside the nine realms, and what happened? Our village fell apart. Nirym, Hefmir, Rimir, Isar and I are the only ones left."

I was so taken aback I didn't know what to say.

"Farbauti's kind enough to let us stay in the castle, but her trust doesn't extend so far that she would send us on such delicate quests." Icder explained.

"Icder, I'm so sorry." I said, but it didn't feel like it was enough.

"Yeah, I am too. But there's nothing I can do about that now." She said.

Bonecrusher nudged me, asking for more petting. I gave it to him, if only so I could look away from Icder's beautiful and distraught face.

"Any way." She said when she had composed herself. Some of the other Ice Beasts tilted their heads and opened their eyes to see if she was okay.

Icder walked over to a table and showed me a book. The page she opened to depicted a, frankly, beautiful Ice Beast, with intricate red patterns on its wings, a long, graceful neck and tail and spines running down it's back.

"This Ice Beast you're tracking down, it's called an Amberjaw, but there's something different about her." Icder explained.

"Different how?" I asked.

"There's a legend that explains her origin." Icder started.

"Don't spoil the story for her!" A Frost Giant shouted as he came through the door, followed by several others. "Everyone knows that Nirym's the best at telling stories."

He gestured at the giantess that followed him. All of these new comers were a bit much for me all to take in at once.

The Frost Giant entering looked young, bit younger than me by a few years, but he was taller. He was taller than Icder too, but only by a few inches. If I were to guess, I would say he was somewhere around 9 foot 5. He wore a fur cape, secured at his right shoulder and flowing down over his chest and left arm. He didn't wear a top, so he showed off his very muscled chest. My eyes widened a little, it was quite enough to have that much muscle. He ware some kind of toga, but it was only covered his bottom half. He had Ice armour, his right arm was covered in a gauntlet and shoulder guard, on his left there was only a gauntlet. His hair was dark, almost blue-black, and shorn off on his left side, the other half hanging over his face. His demeanour was brash, like he was ready if a fight came around the corner.

My attention was then immediately drawn to the Giant behind him. He was easily 10 feet tall, and looked so similar to the first Frost Giant that lead me to believe he was his brother, but instead of his fur cape draping over one shoulder, it was over his back, he had ice shoulder armours on both shoulders, and a necklace of long teeth on a string. He also had leather bracers around his chest, his very muscled chest (boy this was uncomfortable). He also wore a toga, similar to the first Frost Giant. His ice armour was also similar to the first, but different. He had identical armour around both arms. He had the same hairstyle, except the one side was longer, and its colour was lighter almost like blonde.

I then focused on the Giantess that walked with them. She was shorter than the others, so she hadn't drawn my eye immediately; she was even shorter than Icder, but only by a couple inches. She was still taller than me by about a foot, so I would say she stood somewhere around 9 foot tall. There was a long cape that draped from her shoulders, and wrapped around her neck like a scarf and draped around her chest like a scarf. She had ice armour that was similar to Icder's. Her upper arms were clad in ice armour that replicated Ice Beast scales. She also had a short chain mail like skirt, but her chain mail was like scales. Short pieces of fur that draped down her thighs and longer pieces of fur draped down from the front and back of her legs. Her hair was a similar shade to mine, and had a long fringe over the right side of her face, the left side was shorter, and a long single braid hung over her shoulder. The rest of her hair flowed out behind her. She was also pretty, with long lashes and big lips.

Finally my eyes were drawn to the last Frost Giant there. He was smaller than the others, which it was why I took so long to spot him. He looked to be around 8 and a half feet tall. His hair was long and wavy, and shorter than the other two Giants, and also the most normal. He was the only on with armour all over his chest. It was a lot of linking pieces strapped together with leather. It looked very well crafted and like it took a long time to perfect. A cape hung from his shoulders, and a bit like the Giantess; draped over the top of his chest like a scarf. He had shin pads and armour on his fore arms. He looked young as well, as young as the first Frost Giant.

"It's so nice of you to finally show up." Icder said sarcastically. It wasn't something I heard often from Giants, sarcasm, but it was at that moment that I remembered that the Vikings invented sarcasm.

"Isn't it just, Icder?" replied the first Frost Giant.

"I'm sorry; I don't think I've met you before." I said. I was definitely the smallest creature in the room, especially now that the various Ice Beasts in the different pen had woken up to see their respective owner.

"No, you wouldn't have." Said the Giantess. "I'm Nirym, that's Rimir," She gestured to the first Frost Giant, "that's Hefmir," She gestured to the second, "and that's Isar." She said pointing to the last.

"It's very nice to meet you, I'm –" I started but was cut off by Rimir.

"-Ink, we know." He said.

"Everyone knows." Hefmir said, his deep voice reverberating around the room.

"It seems like I hear that a lot lately." I mumbled and brushed my hand over Bonecrusher's head.

"Well, there's another thing you are going to hear a lot of, Nirym's the best story teller around." Rimir said as Nirym stepped forward.

AN: Me again, okay so pronunciation guide!

Icder - Iss-der

Nirym - Ni-rim

Hefmir - Heff-mer

Rimir - Rim-er

Isar - Iz-are

I will also soon get pictures of them up on my Deviantart page, so you know what they look like!