“If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.”

Isaac Newton

The Ice Giant’s head rose over the horizon. It was colossal. Grey and white with hints of blue, it was impossible to tell what was elemental ice and what was giant flesh. Somehow, it felt that the footprints it had left behind did not honestly do its actual size justice. Even from so far away, it felt as if it was glaring down at the giants that dared to despoil his endless white domain with their presence. It was also moving quickly toward the straggling line of giants escaping the Thorpe. It looked like the exodus was about to end in the worst way. They were not going to make it. He had seen them and was now altering its path south toward them rather than aiming for the Thorpe or simply striding westward.

Now, despite the ground shaking at its approach and my heart trembling in sheer sympathetic shock at seeing the behemoth rapidly striding across the landscape. There are two possible attitudes when facing a giant. One is to say, ‘It’s so big there’s nothing I can do.’ The other is to say, ‘It’s so big. I can’t miss it.’ The worry was that even if we didn’t miss it, there wasn’t much that we could do that would have any impact on something so ginormous.

“It’s time to run, Kai.” Namir calmly commented as we continued to sail past the giants, now breaking into a run all along the line.

“We can’t leave them.” I objected even as we sailed past them. I pulled over to argue. It felt cowardly to leave them to their fate without trying something. They were not all friends, but even so, it just felt wrong to sail on by. None attempted to board us; we were already packed with a boy, beastkin and two giants.

“We can. What are you going to accomplish against that?” He pointed at the Ice Giant that was growing inexorably closer.

“Something, anything,” I shouted. “How can we just run?” I had noticed that the giants of the Thorpe had sallied forth, but it was doubtful that they would be able to reach the ice giant before it reached the end of the line, and at his size, he would be able to step on and possibly swallow any giant it didn’t freeze with its passing.

“You don’t try to fight the storm. You sail away from it.” Namir kept calm despite the approaching titan.

“It’s not a storm, it’s a monster.” This was not a mindless storm it could redirected.

“At that size, it’s a force of nature.” He pointed out the swirling eddies of ice it generated as it passed, little snow flurries forming out of the air and settling in its wake. It was its own little weather system.

“I’m not suggesting we fight it head-on, but we could lead it away from the rest of the giants,” I answered, thinking through our options.

“Lead it away?” His face was expressive in his doubt.

“The ship is faster than he is,” I answered, judging the speed by which it was travelling and what we would be able to reach once I applied my skills alongside the ship’s natural speed.

“Lead it where?” He humoured me.

“Toward the Thorpe, away from the exodus,” I answered already planning it out.

“What then?” He asked.

“Then the rest of the giants can take over the fight,” I suggested acknowledging that it was not a bright idea to take on an Ice Giant head on.

Namir contemplated the idea in silence while I turned to Eryk and Varvara to gauge their impressions of the idea. We would have to all be on board figuratively and literally with my idea if we were to attempt it. That or they would have to get off here and now.

“You are who you choose to be,” Varvara answered my silent question. “What can we do to help?”

“We’re with you.” Eryk brashly answered.

“Even if you want to lead it away, what makes you think you will be able to distract it or that it will follow you?” Namir asked, considering the approaching disaster and the long line of giants fleeing.

“Monsters have always found me particularly delicious.” I reminded him. “If we are a little closer than the others and I flared my mana, I’m sure we will be able to tempt him to try. We only need to turn him toward the Thorpe. Hopefully, Volur and his apprentices will be able to do the rest.”

“If it looks like we are failing for whatever reason. I’m picking you up and fleeing.” He grumbled his assent.

With the group’s agreement, I filled the sails with wind and turned our little ice ship around to sail back the way we came along the line of fleeing giants. Flaring my mana rather than letting it collect in my core it was not immediately obvious whether it was working as we were already midway along the line of fleeing giants.

However, soon enough we noticed a shift in his trajectory.

He was turning toward the back of the line.

“It’s working!” Eryk shouted excited.

“That’s not necessarily a good thing,” Namir commented sardonically. “Have you noticed? He’s speeding up.”

Sure enough, the Ice Giant was no longer marching steadily toward the fleeing giants but was beginning to walk a little quicker.

“Can we sail any faster?” Varvara asked pointedly.

“Yes,” I answered a little hesitantly. I had not really planned on the beast speeding up. Simple enough mistake to make but one with potentially huge implications. It was now a race to the Thorpe the Ice Giant clearly focused far more on us than the line of giants which we had now left behind. The beast was still angling to cut us off before we reached it.

We raced across the endless ice. Cutting across it quicker and quicker as I pushed more mana into the spells, powering us over it.

Seeing their relatives safely fleeing, the warriors and hunters had halted their charge toward us and were retreating to Thorpe’s temporarily created stone-spiked wall to face the Ice Giant when we brought them to him. We had not had time to communicate our plan in our focus to gain the Ice Giant’s attention.

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Now we had its attention there was nothing else to do other than concentrate on making it to the stone spikes and not crashing before we made it to them.

It was going to be close.

Seeing his prey getting closer to escaping into the spiky stone Thorpe, he had increased his speed once more, his steps sending shuddering cracks splintering through the ice as we attempted to race ahead of both them and him. I stopped broadcasting my position by releasing my mana but it did little to deter him. He was fixed on chasing us now.

“Volur says to aim for the centre,” Varvara shouted, somehow communicating with him through her rune stones despite the breakneck ride across the ice.

“There’s no entrance,” I screamed out, holding our course to the east of the Thorpe.

“He’ll make one,” Varvara replied above the whipping wind she said pointing to the central stones that even now were being lowered to allow our entrance.

“Faster, Kai.” Namir encouraged loudly.

While, Eryk shouted, “He’s gaining.”

I risked a look back and wished I hadn’t. The Ice Giant loomed above us, his shadow reaching out across the ice to catch us even though he had not yet managed to. I had my other senses I did not need to use my eyes to see how close he was to catching us. The sight only made the fear more profound. But fear is nothing more than an ice giant in your mind, freezing your body. It was time to conquer it both inside and out. Either way, there was little more mana I could apply to the spells, propelling us forward. They would have to be enough.

Falling into his shadow as it overtook us, we blitzed across the final stretch, we screamed across the ice as the temperature fell, with the blocking of the sun to the opening Volur had created for us and Ice Giant hard on our heels.

“We’re going to make it.” Eryk shouted as if that would convince reality of our situation. The ice ship was now bouncing a little with each step it took toward us. How close was it? Would we make it? I couldn’t risk another look with my eyes, but I could feel the temperature fall further as ice began to form along the ship's lines. It would have been beautiful if I’d had time to stare.

Close enough to see the whites of the giant's eyes ahead of us, I was shocked when the stone spikes of the Thorpe in front of us suddenly erupted. Launching themselves toward the Ice Giant, we flew underneath them as they shot into the air above and behind us. We were so close to crossing the line of stones when the Giant roared in pain. I watched with my senses as the stones found their mark.

But the Ice Giants’ retribution was instant in its effect. The roar of pain carried ice mana within it, and flinch as I might when I sensed the release of the wave; there was little I could do to stop the ripple ripping instantly across the ice, catching our small ship before it could enter the ring of stones. It found itself speared by ice and stopped instantly from crossing the last metres into safety.

But where the ice ship failed to take us into the Thorpe, our momentum had other ideas. Launched through the air by the sudden stop of our vessel we found ourselves flying through the air toward the dubious safety of the Thorpe. There was little I could do for Varvara and Eryk. They crashed to the ground and then slid through the opening. Namir, of course, landed on his feet and sprinted alongside them, sliding through the gap in the stones.

I, though, was made for flying, and rather than come down hard on the ice, I kept my momentum going, soaring over the entrance and up toward the central metal and stone monstrosity that housed the Thorpe’s shard of the Lodestar.

Finally, out of reach, I turned to face what we had brought to knock on the giant's door and saw the first casualty, my ice ship.

In frustration at our escape, the Ice Giant had crushed it beneath its feet.

Without my mana leaking, it was no longer focused on me, and it was kicking over the spiked stones that prevented it from marching straight into the Thorpe. Stones were still being launched from around the circle at him, but it did not look like they were having the impact one could have hoped for. I could see where the stones had struck and stuck, but they were being forced out by ice that flowed from his wounds. The ice quickly sealed up any gaps or vulnerabilities in his skin.

I felt a giant approach me from within the tower of the Lodestar. Volur appeared soon enough alongside me with his stone staff and Stamfar the Gryfalcon. “Thank you for your efforts.” He nodded his head to me as we watched the Ice Giant kick over their defences.

“It was the least I could do,” I answered, breathing hard; the flight across ice and sky had left me breathless. Not helped by the rapidly falling temperature across the battlefield, I found my breath catching with each cold breath.

“It was more than many would do.” He smiled sadly as he attached a core to the collar Stamfar wore.

“The shard of the Lodestar?” I asked.

“Stored within, yes. It's only a matter of time before the Thorpe falls, and it cannot have it.” He answered grimly. “Stamfar will carry it south and out of its reach. Would you accompany him, seeing as you can fly?”

“I couldn’t possibly keep up with a Gyrfalcon. Besides, I have an idea I’d like to try before I admit defeat and depart.” There is no one giant step to felling a giant, at least not when you are my size, there were however a lot of little steps that might make it possible. After all my brain was my sleeping giant.

“Could you tell Namir that before he catches me?” I said to him as I watched Namir racing across the Thorpe to the central tower.

Shouting, “Kai!” he would not be happy with me when he finally caught up. Flying ahead had allowed me time to set up something I hoped might just end this beast.

“Tell him what?” He asked.

“That I choose to try this,” I answered determinedly

“Of course. If I survive, I will pass on your message.” He

“Good luck to you both.” He said as he launched Stamfar into the air, and I stepped off the tower to sweep up into the sky.

“You too,” I shouted as we quickly rose, fleeing the Ice Giants’ flailing arms and upward roars, ice spears launched upward in an explosion of sound as he realised both prizes were flying away.

My senses told me where they were coming from, and unlike an ice boat, I was able to spin and twist myself between them, rising ever higher as they began to fall away beneath me. Volur was not inactive in our absence and the huge spikes that made up the central metal and stone-spiked monstrosity began to launch themselves at the Ice Giant as it started to step over the destroyed outer layers of the Thorpes defences.

Distracted by the new threat, the ice stopped flying as it renewed its march to the centre of the Thorpe. Stamfar headed south but I stopped high above the Ice Giant out of his reach. There was something I wanted to try, and if he was not going to be running around while he trashed the Thorpe, it was an idea that might just work.

Opening up my spatial vault high in the sky, I stepped inside.

I had no new weapons, nothing the size of which would impact the ice giant, but I had physics and a vault filled with raw materials I had been bartering for the last month to work with. I had never attempted this before, but safe within my spatial vault, I had the opportunity to try. It would take a lot of mana, but there was no reason I couldn’t forge my own weapon of the raw materials. It just wouldn’t look like one. But if it worked, no one was going to complain.

With a quick flex of stone shaping, I formed a stone crucible the size of a small room in the centre of my spatial vault. Next, I hurriedly stacked all the iron ingots I had traded for.

A huge burst of all my mana and the metal melted. I had the skills for it.

The temperature shot up in my sealed room.

I would only get one shot at this.

I would need to get it right.

I opened the vault.

And let the

molten

metal

F

A

L

L

. . .

It pooled briefly on the Ice giant's shoulder before melting its way in despite the ice aura billowing off him. I snapped the vault shut, leaving only the smallest of apertures open, facing upward to allow my senses out. Practising with my spatial vault and my senses had shown me if I kept the smallest of apertures open, I could still sense everything happening outside without being at risk.

In theory, I knew what would happen next, and I was not disappointed.

The Ice giant exploded!

The bigger they are, the harder they fall. His remains, both standing and flying, crashed to the ground. What he had not already destroyed on his way into the Thorpe was thrashed by his obliteration.

Exhausted, I collapsed on my back. I had done it; I had killed the giant.