Joy learned that not everyone was as rude as Anna and Jan in the village. He had almost immediately found an elderly woman named Joanna who was supervising the monsters making the soup. The parts of her that Joy could see under her winter accoutrement were as wrinkled as Lillian’s bed sheets after a nightmare. She was haggard and elderly, but still seemed wizened from her years in the snow.

She also adored Joy, she said that he reminded her of her own son who had left this tribe long ago.

After enough sweet talking and giving her a few of their rations they were able to get her to open up about the open secrets of the area.

“So, what’s with the monsters cooking?” Joy asked.

“They’re not monsters foolish boy. They were a gift from the leader. Our tribe has always had less hunters than the other tribes. We can make a secure area with our assortment of gifts, but there is rarely enough food to go around. The extra manpower lets us spend more time searching for food rather than the other assortment of things that must get done.”

As she spoke, the old woman’s gnarled fingers kneaded some kind of dough. Joy had no idea where they would have gotten flour or any sort of replacement for it in the cold wasteland. But the woman certainly was kneading it.

“Time is a resource out here, young one. Everyone learns it, some more harshly than others. We must dedicate our time well, otherwise there will not be enough food to feed everyone. Or good enough shelter to withstand the winds. Or enough clothes to keep us warm through this miserable cold.”

After those words she gestured in the general direction of Emmy, who was with Theo talking to another person.

“You all were able to bring her to combat the cold. But we get no luxuries out here with her. Before the new regime she would’ve been treated as a queen in our society if she pumped out as many children as possible.”

Everyone looked at her with that remark. Benny blushed while Joy and Lillian just looked thoughtful. It was a common misconception that a specific god would continually give the same gifts to the same family. Only truly renowned families were given such a privilege, and at the end of the day it was always up to the human’s karma, not the will of gods.

But it was clear that these people took every opportunity they could get, even a slim chance was better than none, to make their lives survivable.

“Well, what did you all do before the leader gave you these gifts?” Joy asked as the old woman went back to kneading her dough.

Her hands paused in her incessant motion. The question had brought something up within her, old memories leaving an aftertaste in her mouth.

“Best not to speak about it. The old leader is dead and gone, may the new one prosper for as long as he lives.”

With that she did a small bow towards the monsters cleaning and helping her cook, before going back to her kneading.

Quite an ominous statement from the old woman, and her eyes let out a dangerous air that let Joy know not to ask her any more questions.

Thus Joy, Lillian, and Benny, all left her in hopes of finding more people to ask about the ominous things the old woman had said.

After talking to anyone who was willing to spend the time, Joy had learned that the overwhelming consensus about what things were like before this new leader, was not to talk about it. Nearly everyone said the same thing, “the old leader is dead. May the new one prosper for as long as he lives.” It was some sort of mantra that nearly everyone repeated.

During the many talks they met a few interesting people though. Many people were luxuriating in the warmth that Emmy brought with her gift, they were dancing naked in the snow.

There was nothing sexual about the nakedness, it was a triumphant dance about conquering one’s greatest enemy. The cold that cut and destroyed their people, was subjugated under the heel of Emmy, allowing them to feel a power over their world that could never be shared.

But the naked people allowed Joy to see what the people of the Frozen continent looked like underneath all the layers of cloth they always wore. They were very pale; their skin was nearly the same color as the snow around them. There were many different colors of hair, but the majority seemed to be wheat colored. Not the royal blonde, but a faded cousin of it.

The most striking feature on many of them were the tattoos of chains covering many of their bodies. One in five people that Joy saw had the tattoos. They wrapped up the arms thoroughly, while snaking down the torso and binding up the legs. They weren’t exact replicas of each other, however the chains all had identical barbs covering their length.

No one talked about the chains. Any time Joy even started to ask questions about them, the person would just leave. No comments, no anger, just pure avoidance from them.

The second type of interesting people that Joy met were the happy people. Not that being happy was a bad thing, but there were a few people who just seemed far too happy compared to those around them.

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

Even though the camp was survivable, and people were living the best lives they could, the general vibe of the whole place was grim determination. These people had been left alone on this abandoned continent and they were going to survive because they had no other choice.

But there were a few people who just seemed too happy compared to the rest of the members of the tribe. They built snowmen and made drawings in the snow. They had a childlike wonder about them, but they were fully grown adults. Occasionally, a senior member of the tribe would walk over and give them a good scolding, before giving them a task that they proceeded to do reluctantly.

The normal members of the tribe just seemed to ignore the happy folk, but occasionally, Joy caught what looked like glances of jealousy pointed at them.

It was quite strange, and the people themselves were unreceptive to talking. Some were more lucid than others, but most of them were incoherent when speaking. They were just a bit too loosey-goosey.

After the group had talked with as many people as possible, they reconvened nearby the giant ice castle to see what their next steps should be.

Theo and Emmy hadn’t learned anything different from Joy, Benny, and Lillian. However, Emmy had been asked some indecent questions several times. One woman had apparently even come up and asked if Emmy wanted to watch the Yeti with her.

The Yeti were apparently what the people of the tribe called Peku and his family. No one was quite sure what they ate or how they survived in the grueling landscape, but they were the apex predators of the area.

Nothing messed with the Yetis and that was an immutable fact.

To everyone’s dismay though, no one had been able to convince a tribesperson to join them on the journey back. It was disheartening that they had found these mythical people, yet none of them wanted to join the prince’s plans.

Lillian and Joy wanted to stay in the area and keep trying to convince people, while Emmy vehemently wanted to leave, which was fair for her. Finally, Theo and Benny were undecided. Those two still wanted to get the mission done, but also would be fine going back to the prince in failure.

Eventually the group came to a decision based on the rations they had remaining. They were not willing to risk the journey back on severely low rations. Thus, they divided the food they had remaining into two piles. One was the amount they felt was necessary for the journey back, while the other was the remains. The remaining amount was enough that Joy felt the group could stay for three days without endangering themselves.

Just as Joy and Theo were about to start repacking the food again Anna and Jan approached the group with a gleam in their eyes.

“That’s quite a bit of food.” Jan said.

“Yes, and there is more than you can even imagine back at our home camp.” Joy replied a little too loudly.

More eyes turned to face the group and their large piles of food.

“If someone were willing to go back to our camp with us and help us with an important project, we would be willing to compensate that person with food far tastier than this.” Joy continued his impassioned speech. “We have a chef in our camp who can make more food than your entire village could eat. So, we would be willing to compensate the person who joins us with as much food as they could carry to bring back to this camp, to help with the current food shortage in your community.”

The eyes that had turned to face the group suddenly shifted. They grew wide and filled with surprise. The tribe had never seen that much food ever stockpiled; they lived meal to meal by necessity. Skipping meals was necessary to keep everyone alive. Therefore, this was a temptation that no one could resist.

Before Joy got mobbed with requests to go with him Jan pulled the tribe into a town meeting, while Joy and his group were kicked out of the settlement.

“That was a good job, Joy.” Emmy said conversationally. “You used the food as a bargaining chip and kept them from just robbing us in the night. Now instead of taking the short-term gain and stealing our food and leaving us to die in the snowy wastes, the leadership will have to let us go and bring them back delicacies. Otherwise, they would have a small riot on their hands.”

“Huh? I just was telling them an option they had.” Joy replied.

“No political maneuvering thoughts in your mind at all, huh Joy? You wouldn’t survive a day dealing with the wait staff of the politically powerful. Much less the real big leagues.”

“I appreciate you opening up to me a little Emmy, but what you said is still hurtful and I will now go cry in a hole.”

Joy didn’t find a hole to cry in. However, there were a couple overdramatic sniffles. An unfortunate cloud hovered over the group as they realized how badly that situation could have gone. Joy’s accidental diplomacy and strong-arming had allowed them to survive this situation. But Emmy’s comment had shown them just how much their lives were on a razor’s edge.

They were stranded in a culture they barely understood. The apparent normalcy of the people had fooled the group into thinking that these people would act the same as anyone from the Hearted continent, but that obviously couldn’t be true. What hard choices had these people made, what actions had they carried out to survive in such an unforgiving land?

Silence loomed over the group. But soon Anna approached the group. No one knew why the tribe kept letting Anna speak to them as she had been nothing but rude to them the whole time, but she came closer still.

“Me. You get me, and we still get the food?” Anna proclaimed.

“Can it be anyone else?” Joy asked.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Anna said. And Joy could feel her smirk underneath that hood; it made him itch.

“Damn. It was worth a shot.”

At those words the group started setting their tent up in an area nearby the castle. Close enough that they were still close to the settlement, while not getting all up in the native people’s business.

“Anna. We set off bright and early, don’t be late. Prepare to ration. And if you keep up the attitude, we will have the Heater exempt you from her personal hot spot.” Theo continued as he gave her a piece of jerky. “These are what our rations will mostly consist of, but we will not be eating our fill, we need to make the food last.”

Anna gnawed thoughtfully on the tough piece of meat.

"Go say your goodbyes. You may be gone for a while.” Lillian said to the woman while giving a brief pat on the back.

A melancholy look crossed Anna’s face for a moment before she sauntered off back to the icy castle in the middle of a snowy expanse.

Emmy sidled up to Theo as they all continued to set up camp. Despite the comfort that Emmy’s presence brought, having a little shelter to call home was very important to the group’s mental fortitude.

“You do know that I can’t exempt people from my gift, right?”

“Yes. But she doesn’t.” Theo replied with a little grin before handing Emmy one of the larger pieces of jerky.