(Jokul’s POV)

With my new mantle of white wolf fur, and with the skull fashioned into a helmet covered with the original skin, I finally arrive at the top of the mountain after several days climbing up. Until here, I have faced several wyverns, each one stronger than the last one, but as they died and I became stronger, they now pose no threat.

I stand at the top, the mountain certainly much taller than the mount Everest itself. The powerful cold and freezing wind blows on my skin, my clothes starting to show a thin layer of ice. My body, however, is unharmed.

I look to the world ahead of me. The rising sun in front of me bathes the valley below with its golden beams and the clear sky revealing the ground to my enhanced eyes. What I see is a vast forest, similar to the one that I have seen before.

However, the climate doesn’t seem as harsh as the valley behind me. A wind blows up from the foot of the mountain, the thin air surprisingly not bothering me at all. A familiar smell, the smell of conflict, raises together with the cold.

It’s a smell different from the smell of the forest behind me. It isn’t the same savage smell that I have been used to, the smell of beasts battling each other for territory, but a much more rich and varied smell.

The smell of struggle for survival, the weaker fighting the stronger out of necessity and with courage. Are there humans down there? Or another species entirely? As I look for a settlement down in the valley with my eyes, the ground lightly rumbles.

I look to my right, where the mountain extends on a narrow path to the top of the next mountain, since this is a chain of mountains, almost like a wall. From one of the taller peaks with a flat top, a gigantic figure raises. I gaze in awe as I see a pair of gigantic white wings unfurl.

They flap once, sending ice and snow on my direction. The body raises, while scales shimmering under the morning light, like crystals of ice. The lean and gargantuan body raises, the long neck and the horned head move, and the big and crystal blue eyes glare at me.

At least sixty meters from head to tail, a gargantuan white dragon stares at me, making all the hair in my body stand up. My body trembles with excitement, and my hand itches for my axe. We stare at each other for some time, and a powerful, but surprisingly feminine voice rumbles, making the mountains shake.

(White Dragon): “So you are the vermin killing my servants. You don’t look like much in my eyes, nothing of the blood thirsty monster that was described to me.”

Ho, an arrogant one eh? I wanted to meet someone like this! I haven’t really had any conversations with monsters in my time in the forest, and a dragon seems a good start in another world!

(Jokul): “And you don’t seem that much of a thing to me, lizard. Fitting for the boss of the weaklings that I slaughtered on my way up.”

The beautiful face of the white dragon twitched, and I could feel its anger form here. I can also feel the difference between us. Sincerely, I don’t think that I can win, but I also don’t feel like I’m losing.

(White Dragon): “You will pay for your arrogance, insect.”

Suddenly, a strange feeling assaults my body, and I can feel… something, bending in front of the dragon…ness(?)’s head. A spike of ice, three times my size appears in front of her head, pointing at me. Is that magic? I take my axe, and the ice spike flies in the direction of my head.

I swing my axe by instinct, and shatter the spike as soon it gets in my range.

(White Dragon): “Oh, you’re qui someth-?!”

I interrupt her when I throw my axe with all my strength. The Leviathan Axe flies a dozen times faster than the earlier spike. The dragon jerks her head, barely avoiding, the axe scraping the scales, making a cut under her left eye.

She looks shocked at me for a moment, before she starts to boil in anger. From her laying position, she gets up, the enormous body shaking off some of the ice and snow covering it.

(White Dragon): “You will pay for this, mortal! What can you do without your precious stick?”

She said mockingly. I simply smiled and rose my right hand. She frowned at my strange action, and then, lowered her head when something came from behind. The Leviathan Axe returned to my hand, as fast as it had left previously. Holding the axe with two hands, I smiled and said:

(Jokul): “This is going to be fun!”

(3° person POV, at the foot of the mountain)

Three people walk through the snow a bit far from the wall of mountains. Dressed in leather clothes and pelts, the three figures walk with bows in hand and arrows in the back. The leading one and the biggest is a gigantic man that is at least two meters tall, with big muscles, moving under the primitive clothing.

Blonde hair, pale skin and blue eyes, with a thick beard and stoic face, also tall and imposing, the figure of a barbarian. The bow in his hands, big enough to not seem small at all, is made simply of wood, most likely from the same tress that surround the three figures.

Even with his massive size, at least two meters in height, he moved silently and with flexibility like a feline. As they walk, he instructs the other two with whispers that barely go over the sound of the wind and the shaking of the leaves.

(Man): “You two, take a better look where you are stepping and step lightly. If you make too much noise we’re not going to hit anything.”

The two figures nod, and after walking for a few more minutes, the man raises his hand, stopping dead on his tracks. The two behind him, clearly kids, stop, a bit nervous. The man looks behind him and smiles. Children always wet behind their ears.

However, he himself knows that he can’t blame them. The forest around their village is dangerous and the children are educated to stay away from it, since monsters and wild animals dwell there.

That makes the job of the hunter of the village, this man, fairly dangerous and admirable by the strength loving society. These two kids, two boys, came with him today as apprentices, both carrying smaller bows.

They are also dressed like him to survive the harsh cold and eternal snow of this area. He crouched, looking at the ground, waving his hand to call them closer. Both boys looked at each other for a second, before kneeling besides the guy.

(man): “The snow was weak in these last weeks, so we can see some tracks with more ease. What tracks are these?”

He asked, pointing at the mud in front of him, where there are tracks of hooves. Both boys looked at it for a second. The biggest boy, after a short silence, said:

(boy): “Deer?”

He said eagerly, his short red hair glittering from the morning sun that shines through the trees, melting the snow gathered on the strands of red, the green eyes glowing with excitement of finding tracks. His friend, a youth with blonde hair and smaller and thinner build, blue eyes, clearer than the hunter that guides them, rolls his eyes.

(thinner): “The tips are wider. Mountain goat.”

The thinner boy said, and red hair frowned.

(red hair): “I’m sure it’s deer.”

The man laughed.

(Man): “Almost Bjorn, but Ulf is right. It’s a mountain goat.”

Bjorn, the red-haired youth frowned, but didn’t say anything. Ulf smiled, clearly happy with his find, but the hunter wouldn’t let it go his way yet.

(Man): “What more?”

Ulf looked at him surprised, no waiting a follow up.

(Ulf): “More what, mister Hrolf?”

Hrolf, the hunter, smiled with his surprisingly white teeth.

(Hrolf): “More about the tracks! What can you tell me?”

Ulf looked back down to the tracks, desperately trying to find anything else that he might have missed. Shaking his head, Hrolf said:

(Hrolf): “These tracks are no good. See how they are shallow? They aren’t fresh. This mountain goat went far from the mountains for some reason, and by the direction of the tracks, it must be going home. It must be there already by this time.”

Ulf sulked, and Hrolf smiled. Ulf may be smart, Hrolf thought, but he’s still a child. He got up, not bothering in cleaning his knees.

(Hrolf): “We’re going to get an elk and go back to-“

He was interrupted as the sky turned black suddenly, a cold wind blowing strongly. Ulf and Bjorn got up in panic, and Hrolf eyed the top of the mountain at distance.

(Ulf): “What happened?!”

(Bjorn): “Frost Giants?!”

Bjorn said in a hurry, remembering the stories that his parents told him to scare him at night from misbehaving, not that he knows that. Hrolf tightly gripped the shoulders of both boys, making them stop panicking for a second.

(Hrolf): “Worse than giants.”

He said briefly before a loud roar made the earth shake. The wind picked up, colder and harsher. The dark clouds trembled, lightning cut through the new darkness, and snow started falling in what would soon turn into a blizzard.

(Hrolf): “Frost Dragon.”