Giants

A few months later.

"Ptooey! Damn, I almost died!"

Solam struggled out of the snow. Just moments ago, he'd been caught in an avalanche. If he hadn't been lucky enough to find a jutting rock to hide behind, he'd probably be dead by now. Even so, he'd still been buried under a thick blanket of snow and had to fight his way out. He'd nearly suffocated.

Solam had left Avalon and had been wandering around the Spine of the World for several months. A few days after his conversation with Arando that night, he'd set off. Aside from saying goodbye to old Kramsh, he hadn't told anyone else he was leaving. He had no idea what he was supposed to say to the others. Saying goodbye would only make everyone sad, and Solam wasn't comfortable with that sort of thing. He was a grown man, after all. Though he felt bad about it, he still thought this was for the best.

The old man hadn't said much, either. He'd just told Solam some stories from the past, including things about his parents, then given him a bracelet and a list of names and addresses, telling him to seek those people out if he ran into trouble. They included the old man's friends and his father's comrades. The bracelet was a keepsake from Solam's mother, enchanted with several Message spells that could contact his parents' old comrades.

Not long after leaving Avalon, though, Solam ran into a big problem—he got lost. He was headed in roughly the right direction, but in a place full of towering mountains, knowing which way to go wasn't much help. The terrain was too complicated, and it was easy to stray off course. There wasn't a map to be found, either, and Solam had no idea where he was.

If he couldn't even talk to Frostfang, Solam thought he'd die of boredom. Come to think of it, if Arando hadn't given him that pendant, he wouldn't have known how to bring Frostfang along at all.

After crawling out of the snow, Solam sat down to rest for a while. Only then did he have the energy to wonder what had triggered the avalanche. In the middle of nowhere, an avalanche was unlikely to happen on its own unless something had made a lot of noise.

Either there was some monster nearby, or there were people around. At the thought, Solam decided to search the area carefully. If someone was nearby, that would be great. He was getting sick of the Spine of the World's desolation.

No sooner said than done. He took Frostfang out of the Amulet of Shelter and had him help with the search. Frostfang had visibly put on weight over the past few months. It couldn't be helped. Solam had discovered that while the pendant could store living creatures, anyone who entered its space immediately fell asleep. So Frostfang spent most of his time snoozing, only getting a chance to stretch his legs when Solam made camp. No wonder he'd gotten fat.

"Hey, buddy, you need to get some exercise. You're going to turn from a fine direwolf into a pig at this rate." Solam cupped Frostfang's noticeably chubbier face and teased him.

Frostfang had no idea what a pig was, but he could tell Solam hadn't said anything nice. He wrenched free of Solam's hands and ran off, barking at him now and then. Frostfang was clearly unhappy.

"Quit fooling around. Go look around nearby, and don't bark so loudly. I don't want to get buried in snow again."

And so Solam and Frostfang split up to search.

Before long, Solam heard Frostfang bark. He'd clearly found something.

Solam hurried over, afraid that Frostfang's barking might trigger another avalanche. He still couldn't cast Fly, and if another avalanche hit, he might not die, but he'd certainly be badly hurt.

Solam soon reached Frostfang. The direwolf was circling a gigantic humanoid, and the sight startled Solam, too.

It was freaking huge. The humanoid stood at least seven meters tall. His skin was a milky white with a hint of blue, his features delicate, and his hair silvery white. He was very handsome. But the sparse fuzz around his mouth showed that this giant was male—and still underage. His clothes were a little tattered, but their fine craftsmanship and materials were still apparent. There were no obvious wounds on him. He seemed to have passed out, though Solam couldn't tell what had happened.

Solam figured he must be a giant, but he wasn't sure what kind. He suspected a Frost Giant, since they were the ones who liked places this cold and snowy. But he'd never heard of Frost Giants wearing such fine clothes. They usually wore animal hides. Still, Solam had never actually met one, so he didn't want to jump to conclusions.

Solam wasn't sure whether he should wake the giant. If he really was a Frost Giant, waking him might cause trouble. Solam had heard that Frost Giants had terrible tempers. Who knew what might happen once this one woke up?

Solam agonized over it for a while, but in the end, he decided to help. He didn't want to keep wandering around in the middle of nowhere. And though Frost Giants were said to be violent and cruel, he'd never heard that they repaid kindness with treachery. Besides, even if this guy turned out to be hostile, Solam had nothing to fear. He might not be able to beat him, but he could still run away.

With his mind made up, Solam immediately cast Wind Agility, Rock Guardian, Resistance, and several other spells on himself. He took his battle-axe and warhammer in hand—better safe than sorry. Once he was ready, he cast Rejuvenation Spell and a second-level Light Wounds spell on the giant, then watched him nervously.

The giant woke up quickly, so his injuries couldn't have been too serious. He sat up at once and shook his head hard, still a little dizzy. Then he spotted Solam.

"%#￥%#￥%...￥" The giant spoke a string of gibberish at Solam. Solam couldn't understand a word. He guessed this must be the legendary Giant language.

Solam pointed to his ear, shook his head, then asked in Common, "I can't understand what you're saying. Do you speak Common?"

The giant paused in surprise, then switched to Common. His accent was rather peculiar; if you weren't paying close attention, you might not understand him. "Have you seen that White Dragon?"

"White Dragon? No, I haven't. I just saw you passed out here, so I helped you. What's going on with that White Dragon?" It seemed the giant had passed out while fighting the dragon. The fact that he'd come away with only minor injuries suggested he was no pushover.

"You saved me? Thank you. It's good you haven't seen that White Dragon. Otherwise, we'd be in danger. I'm no match for it." He gave Solam a hearty smile. "My name is Milor. I live in Cloudtop City. I was going out to look for Snow Velvet Flowers today, but then I ran into that White Dragon. What bad luck! I was sure there weren't any White Dragons around here."

So this was a fake Frost Giant. Frost Giants were usually cold and aloof, not talkative. Solam was curious about what kind of giant he was. There were quite a few branches of the giant race, after all.

"Uh, sorry, I'm just curious. Are you a Frost Giant or not? And where is Cloudtop City? I thought giants didn't build cities."

"Frost Giant? No, no. I have nothing to do with those barbaric brutes. I'm a noble Cloud Giant. As for those creatures you've heard about, we don't even consider them giants. They're just a pack of beasts, with no connection to our great race."

"Cloud Giant?" Solam had barely heard of the race. "Forgive my ignorance, but I've never heard of your kind."

"That's all right, that's all right. We rarely interact with outsiders. By the way, are you human?" Milor asked, looking at Solam curiously.

"Uh, no. I'm a half-orc. My name is Solam." Before he'd left, Arando had warned him not to reveal that he was a Beast Elf. For one thing, Beast Elves had a terrible reputation and faced discrimination. For another, he might be hunted by elves. Those fanatical long-eared folk would kill any Beast Elf they came across. So Solam had played a trick. What he'd said was true, in a way. Weren't Beast Elves half-orcs?

"Half-orc? That can't be right. You don't look like the ones in the books." Cloud Giants loved to read. Though they didn't like interacting with the outside world, they weren't completely ignorant of it.

"I'm telling the truth. My father was an orc, and my mother wasn't." Solam really wasn't lying about that. "As for how I look, I have no idea. I don't look like my father or my mother, and I don't look like other half-orcs, either." That was true, too.

"Huh? That's possible?"

"Why would I lie to you?" Solam shrugged. He was lying, of course.

"Really? Really..." Milor didn't know what to say.

"Enough about me. Are you feeling better now?"

"I'm much better. Thank you for helping me."

"That's good. Do you know how to get out of here? I've been wandering around for months." Seeing that Milor really had recovered, Solam asked him for help.

"I wouldn't know, either. I've never left Cloudtop City. This is my first time out." Great. Another rookie.

Solam's disappointment was impossible to describe.

"But I know someone who can take you out. My dad has been outside before, and he knows the way. I'll ask him to take you." Seeing his rescuer look so downcast, Milor hurriedly added.

"Really? Where is he? I'll go see him right now. That's wonderful! I thought I'd never get out of here."

"He's in Cloudtop City."

"Cloudtop City?"

"Yeah, over there." Milor pointed toward a distant peak shrouded in mist.

And so Milor cheerfully led Solam toward Cloudtop City. Milor had run out of spells, so he had to walk alongside Solam. On the way, Solam learned a great deal about the Cloud Giants from the young giant, who was completely guileless.