Harkon rode his polar bear as his party rode on their own respective mounts.

Gaerith sat on his flying carpet which he bragged to no end about enchanting himself, a spirit of a cockatoo sat on his shoulder, it's large white feathered crown unbothered by the rushing winds.

Terisa sat on her massive spider, it was called a silk strider and it's long thin legs let it travers any environment, a smaller spider the size of a cat sat on her shoulder as she sat on her spider, gleefully checking her daggers she'd gotten from her guardian spirit, Haname the spider queen.

Joseph was riding at the front on his horse which was armored like Harkon's bear but the metal was a gold color and he called it tungsten, it was a very hard metal but also heavy, which was why it was only used on the massive carriage horse who was bred to move heavy things. his ornate sword and shield was flashy and fancy just like his armor, because he's the hero.

Harkon looked at the massive mountainside castle, which was a gigantic tower shaped kind of like a wedding cake, the main gate was guarded by two huge blue frost giants who watched them approach, they were about twenty five feet tall.

Joseph looked back. "This is it, the castle of Balthamor the mountain king, are you sure this is the guardian spirit you want at your back? I hear he's stubborn and kills anyone who attempts it."

Harkon nodded. "Yes." He said simply.

Gaerith shook his head. "Bloody mad addlepated buffoon, he should go for something safe."

Terisa laughed. "Don't be such a grouch, you weren't exactly cautious with your pick of guardian spirit."

Gaerith sneered. "Talia the thunder bird is easily the best guardian spirit for a mage of such brilliance as my own."

Joseph chuckled and leaned toward Harkon. "What a tool, am I right big buddy?"

Harkon smiled and nodded. "Is indeed tool, I think he'd make good shovel, maybe hoe."

Joseph burst into laughter. "Man, haaaa... this is the best thing." He moved his horse close to Pado and whispered. "Hoe means prostitute where I come from."

Harkon barked a laugh. He got off of his polar bear as they approached the two frost giant guards who wore ever frost armor, made from ice that never melted and was harder than steel. it wasn't well known but Frost giants couldn't leave the north because their skin was sensitive to even light heat, because they couldn't use basic forges to create steel, this caused them to develop forging techniques using rime flame which was also called antiflame and it burned colder than absolute zero.

He watched the pair cross their huge axes before them. "Humans, what is your business." They said in unison, their voices that made the mountain rumble.

Harkon was about to speak up, but Joseph spoke up. "My companion wishes to try to gain the favor of Balthamor the mountain king!"

The frost giants bellowed with a laugh that actually caused birds in the distance to fly off. "This will be fun to watch, alright, go in, I will escort your contender and only him to the king, the rest of you may watch." The large blue giant on the left said said.

Harkon raised his axe and Pado padded forward. "I am the challenger, I claim the maat of Ieka."

The giant said, though he looked a little surprised. "So it shall be, follow little bear man."

They walked through the castle and through a labyrinth of tunnels dug into the mountains, one of the giants lead the rest of the party down a branching tunnel, while they lead down the main tunnel, he saw upside down torches with blue rime flames burning downward instead of upward like normal flames. they eventually came to a large chamber with large pelts of massive monsters, and a large figure sat on a large everfrost throne draped with pelts and a massive skull the size of a house framed the throne. "It was the head of a tarrasque, it once destroyed many kingdoms and was considered a natural disaster and unkillable." The Giant on the throne said, he was at least ten feet taller than the other giants.

Harkon looked at it with a stoic expression. "Is very big."

The giant king laughed. "So, What do you want little human?"

Harkon looked at the mountain king. "I claim Maat of Ieka."

The Giant king's smile faltered from surprise then his grin grew. "Hell I thought I saw the last of challengers years ago. You know what my challenge is?" The king asked.

Harkon shook his head. "No."

The giant king smiled and gestured for him to follow. "Come, let's go to the arena. it shall be a contest of strength! Drop your weapons, we shall need none!"

Harkon unslung his axe and set it on the corner of the room, and then set his massive knife down next to it, and The mountain king set the massive axe next to his own which dwarfed it severely making it look like a toy for a figurine.

They walked out of the throne room and up some stairs, after a nearly an hour of walking up stairs they came to the top of the castle which was one large battle arena, his friends were watching him from the sidelines, though they didn't have seats as those were all taken by frost giants who were watching the show.

The giant king bellowed. "This man thinks he has what it takes to become a giant sage! Let's see if that's true!"

Harkon smiled. "We fight?"

The king laughed. "No! we won't be fighting each other! You'll be fighting!" He gestured to a frost giant who opened a cage, and a massive centipede like creature with ice blue pearlescent carapace and large cobra like frills, large orange glowing spines on it's back. "The Remorhaz! fight it with your bare hands and you'll be a sage like your friends over there! If you can pin it down for ten seconds you win the first challenge." The remorhaz shrieked a loud high pitched scream that would have shattered glass and started skittering toward him in a serpentine manner.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Harkon charged it and leapt at it, his fist collided with it's hard shelled face and it's large segmented eyes somehow conveyed anger even as the creatures huge body reared back from the blow, and it's long serpentine body was flung backwards and thrown into a wall, though it's tail thrashed and smacked him to the side, he smashed into the wall as well, he slid down to the ground and slumped, but got back up after a couple second and ran back at the violently thrashing creature. It got it's bearings and started back toward Harkon. he leapt over it's head and onto it's back which seared his arms and chest when he grabbed onto it but he gritted his teeth and bore burns, the creature started thrashing not because it was panicking at least that wasn't the only reason, Harkon swung and once his feet got to the ground he swung the creature and the remorhaz got slammed into the ground it's massive serpentine body almost cracked like a whip, he gripped it's smooth and hot body so hard that it's carapace started to crack, one, two, three, four, five, the creature started thrashing violently, it's lower body curled and twisted, but it's upper body was held in place on the ground in a vice grip. six, seven, eight, nine, ten, The creature was twisting and writhing so desperately Harkon was afraid it was about to rip it's lower body off of it's head, Harkon tightened his grip and and his fingers dug into the cracks in it's carapace. eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.

The Giant king slammed foot into the ground "Times up! Congratulations human you go to the next challenge!"

Harkon wrenched the creatures head to the side and tore it's head in half from the parts where his hands were dug into it's skill. He looked down at his burned body, it was pretty bad, but not nearly as bad as it should have been, it must have been because of his rage ability.

The Giant king procured two mugs one he set down on the ground and was just the right side for a human, and looked hilarious. he tipped the large mug just enough for a large drop to splash into the hilariously small mug. "Now, we drink! we shall see how much mead you can drink."

Harkon took the smaller mug and they tapped their mugs together, he drank it all in one go, and saw it immediately start to reffill itself, so he drank, and drank, and drank, after fifteen minutes straight of drinking the small mug stopped refilling and giant set down the massive mug, which was completely empty even though the giant had not taken even a sip. The giant king opened his mouth to speak but Harkon held up a finger and walked over to a wall and undid his trousers and took the longest piss of his life.

Six minutes later Harkon walked back over to the mountain king wiping his boots all the way. "Sorry about that..." The king looked at the massive puddle and then cleared his throat. "Well then, the third challenge shall be a test of wit."

Harkon saw the giant king walk forward and produce a small yet utterly beautiful ornate stone cube. "This was made hundreds of years ago by a brilliant stone giant artisan, it's a puzzle box that few have solved."

Gaerith cackled from the stands. "You picked the wrong man for that one! hahaha" he called out, Harkon pointedly ignored him.

Harkon grabbed the cube from the giant man, and started fiddling with it, it was made from six by six smaller blocks, and each side had different symbols, it took him about five minutes but he got all the side to match, when the last one slid into place, the cube fell to pieces.

Harkon looked up at Gaerith and sarcastically shrugged in a way that said 'what can you gonna do', then sifted through the small blocks and saw a orb, which he offered to the giant who took it. "Well, alright, You've passed all three of the trials, I'll give my you my blessing, rise, sage of giants."

Balthamor lead Harkon into the castle and into a rimeflame forge and opened a large vault on the other side of the forge room, where he took a large mithril axe off of the mantle, it shifted size to fit in the giant kings larger than usual hands, and he lowered the axe and handed it to Harkon, and it shrunk down to the size of an average two handed bearded battle axe. "This was made for the first frost giant sage." The axes runes glowed an icy blue.

Harkon looked at the bearded axe, and the giant king smiled. "well, through that axe you have my blessings and abilities."

Harkon nodded. and put the new axe into the leather holster for his axe and slung it onto his back.

He met up with his party again and they left the castle and started back south.

Harkon rode Pado next to Joseph, whose white cape fluttered in the wind, because he was the hero.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harkon finished the story, and Bernard blinked, Olivia had long since fallen asleep on the couch. "That was quite a story, and it's true?"

Harkon nodded. "All true, I wrestled a Remorhaz and drank a giants cup of mead, and solved a stone giant's puzzle box."

Bernard nodded. "I should get her to bed, it's late and we have a long day tomorrow."

Harkon nodded, and got to his feet and patted Pado awake from where he slept, and they walked outside.

Bernard watched them leave and then looked in the drawer of his nightstand next to his couch and opened it, he looked at the letter with the seal of the royal seal of emperor Hadrian emblazoned in golden wax. He suddenly heard a loud crashing sound and turned around yelping. "Oh god no I'm sorry!" He shouted, he saw it was just the chair that Harkon was sitting in earlier it had apparently given up the ghost and crumbled. Bernard breathed out a sigh of relief and closed the drawer.