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“Amara!” Gullie shrieked, and she tugged on my right ear, making me turn to the right. At first, I wasn’t sure what I was looking at, until I realized the ice and the rock were breaking apart. Only that wasn’t exactly correct. Something was coming out of the rock, or separating itself from the rock, it was hard to tell, but after a moment or so it became clear that it was a creature, and that creature was at least fifteen feet tall.
I backed up, my hackles raised, as the creature made a lumbering jump out of the natural indentation in the rock it had been hiding in and landed directly in front of me. The ground trembled, Colbolt snorted, and Valerian looked ready to draw one of his blades.
“No!” I yelled, “Don’t!”
Valerian’s hand went to the pommel of his sword, but he didn’t draw it—not that a sword would’ve done him a lot of good here, in the face of this creature. In the next couple of seconds, more of these creatures emerged from the rock and the ice. Some leapt out of the walls to land around us, while others skidded down the side of the valley.
Looking at the thing standing before me, it became instantly clear that it wasn’t made of ice and rock, but fur—glittering, shiny white fur that seemed thick, bristly, and rigid. It was massive, and muscular, with a powerful, bestial jaw and thick, animal facial features. Thick tusks poked out of its lips, while from the tips of its hands and its feet, claws that were at least ten inches long became plainly visible.
We had found the Frost Giants, and they were surrounding us.
“Keep perfectly still,” said Valerian, keeping his voice low and non-threatening. “Don’t make any hostile moves.”
One of the Frost Giants took a step toward me, then another, and another. I backed up, realizing quickly that there was another one behind me. I had nowhere to go. We had nowhere to go. If I didn’t do something, we were going to get mauled to death and eaten.
“I’m looking for my brother,” I yelled at the creature in front of me. “He looks like me.”
The giant stopped, angled its head to the side, and examined me curiously. “Little… wolf…” it gurgled.
“Yes,” I said, “I’m a little wolf, and I know you could kill and eat us, but we aren’t here to hurt anyone. I’m just looking for my brother. Can you help us?”
“Help?” the giant grumbled. “Why help Fae?”
“Because… well, you have no reason to help me. Our kinds haven’t been friends in the past. But something terrible is happening, and I think I’m the only one who can stop it, but I can’t do that without my brother.”
“Terrible…” the giant seemed consider my words. “Winds change, smell no good, shiny castle dark now.”
“Yes! Yes, the castle is dark. I need to make it bright again. Please, help us.”
“And I can’t stress this enough,” Gullie added, “Don’t eat us.”
“I already said that.”
“I know, but I felt like it needed to be reiterated, you know?”
The giant turned its head to the side and looked at its companions. They all had similar appearances, but they all looked like individuals, too. One of them was skinnier than all the others, another had a hunch back, and another one appeared to be missing several fingers. They didn’t speak to each other, but merely grunted, and shrugged, and made strange, guttural noises.
Finally, the giant in front of me looked up to the top of the valley, and there, staring down at us, was a wolf, his gunmetal grey fur and tail billowing in the wind.
“Radulf,” I breathed.
He disappeared, and for a moment I felt my heart squeeze inside of my chest. He emerged again an instant later, and began expertly picking his way down the side of the mountain, sliding and leaping at just the right moment so as to land behind the giant standing in front of me. The giant turned to my brother, pointed a long, sharpened claw at him, and said, “Little wolf.”
“Wait…” I said, “He’sthe little wolf?”
“Around here I am,” Radulf said.
“What does that make me, then?”
“Tinywolf,” said the giant, turning to look at me again. He had a big snaggle-toothed grin on his face.
“Tiny wolf? Come on, that’s not fair.”
“I would take it, if I were you,” my brother said as he approached. “It means they like you. Probably because you smell like me.”
I padded toward him. “It’s really you,” I said.
Radulf lowered his head. “I knew you would find me.”
