ACT IIII - Crystal lands part 2

The snow felt like fire melting his face and fingers.  Titian trudged along blindly through the blizzard, stumbling in the knee-high snow.  
The dragon had flown him here, there were no boats between the crystal lands or what was known as Iceland.  Of course, Titian was totally confused as to why the maps had called it Iceland, and the dragons had called it hell.  The whole land was engulfed in snow and was apparently night for most of the year.
The little light that could be seen, just illuminated the snow drifts blowing into Titians’ eyes as he sneezed and fell again.  This was ridiculous, the dragon had gone home, claiming that this land was too cold for him to survive, and his fire was not hot enough to melt the snow, the giant humans that lived here were more adapted.
He had not been prepared for this.  He wore the trousers and top, boots and cape the guild members had to wear, but they were designed for the warm and the hot.  Nobody came to this island in the north unless they had no other choice.  And he could see why, he doubted any monsters lived here, or humans, nothing was even growing save the odd tree here and there, and the occasional animal.  
The one bonus this did provide though, was he had fresh water.  The snow and ice water hurt to drink, but it was drinkable and had no traces of salt like the oceans, so he had spent time packing ice into pots and then holding it over the fire as he cooked his food when he thought it was a meal time.  Obviously in a place that was always night, it got confusing and the cycles between day and night were long forgotten by his body.
To sleep, using his hands, he dug out large holes in the snow and set his tent up inside to insulate the tent and protect him from the elements, and hopefully any wild animals that might be around.  Not that that was likely, he had heard the howls of wolves once or twice in the distance but the main animals he had seen were rabbits and extremely large and hairy deer like creatures.
Now as he ploughed through the snow though, he thought he heard screaming.  At first, he thought it was the wind blowing, but the further he moved forward, the more clear the screams got.  They seemed female, but there were hints of men too, and the sounds of some kind of struggle.  
Drawing his sword, Titian ran forward.  Well, it was more like a tripping and stumbling through the snow at a very slightly faster pace than he had been.  His legs were getting tired after just a few strides, and his thigh muscles were still sore from when he first started making a trek through this impossible terrain.
Titian dodged by diving flat onto the mount of snow.  He had sensed more than seen the huge long thin projectile flying toward him.  It landed a few feet away and weighed a ton, he tried for a while to pull it from the snow, but it was three times his size at least, and weighed more than ten people, he was sure.
“Who goes there?” came a loud booming voice.Titian did not respond, instead, he crawled along the top of the snow away from the spear.  The snow falling had already started hiding the tracks of where he started, so with luck whoever or whatever had thrown that large spear like stick, would lose sight of him and be as clueless to his presence as Titian wished he were.
There was no such luck though, something grabbed him and lifted him high into the air.  Titians first thought was the dragon had come and found him after all and was saving him from whatever had thrown the spear, but as he was turned about, he realized he was staring into the face of a human.  A giant, ten to fifteen feet tall human.
The man was dressed in furs, and his white hair and beard blended into the snow well, the only way Titian saw them were the wind blowing them slightly, and the closeness, otherwise it would have looked just like more falling snow.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” the giant man asked, his breath strong enough to feel like a strong wind itself, and it smelled like rotting corpses.  The teeth were yellow and chipped, and the blue eyes seemed so intense, they reminded Titian of dragons’ fire.“I did not mean to intrude, I am lost” Titian tried to explain, “I was chased from the desert, and a dragon dropped me here.”He failed to mention the missing friends, if these were the giant people that the dragon had said brought his friends here, he did not want to let the guy understand he was here to steal them back from him.“You smell like human” the giant said, sniffing the air, “and of manure”“Manure?” Titian asked, he had been through a lot, but he had not gone anywhere near manure yet.“Never mind, I will keep you with the others I gathered” the giant man continued as though he had not heard Titian.
The giants’ home was enormous.  Titian had been placed in a kind of grate that may have once been used as food storage judging by the blood and smell of it.  There were traces of grain in one corner, but it was packed with people, both tanned like the desert folk, but there were two who stood out.
Sofia and Migual were here.  
Sofia looked furious toward Titian though Migual ran over and hugged him, clapping him on the back.“I knew you would come” Migual said joyfully, “Sofia said as stupid as you were, you would never come and even if you were brave enough to wander through the desert, you would never cross the sea.” Sofia glared at him, and then looked away, storming to one side, and sliding down the wooden plank to a seated position, burying her head into her arm wrapped knees.
The giant went outside again, brandishing a knife, which looked stupidly small in the large hands but was still a lot longer and larger than the sword still sheathed in Titians belt.  He had forgotten about it in the panic and rush, it was only when he sat down and felt the discomfort of the hilt pressing into his waist.
Titian explained to Sofia and Migual what had happened.  His journey through the desert, the nest he had found that explained that scavengers were social and not as isolated as it was though, then explained the monster down there he had seen, but did not match anything from the books he had looked through.  Neither of those had any idea about it either.
They explained to Titian that after he went back into the tent, the giants had attacked, throwing spears and rocks at the camp, and killed most of the people, eating them on the spot, and taking a few, those included as pets back to their village.  She also said that they were at war with the dragons, which is what led them to cross the sea in the first place, and head into the desert.
Now they needed to escape.  The giant lived alone as far as they knew. None had been in the house other than him at least.  So, what they did is slowly started chopping away at the wooden bars with Titian’s sword.  A few of the desert people kept watch for the front door as the trio took it in turns chopping for a few moments each.
They were nearly through the first bar, a few hours later when the giant walked back in again.  He had blood around his mouth and threw a bone into a basket in the corner before lighting a fire in what Titian had originally thought was a broken doorway but was a giant log fire.  Smoke and heat soon filled the room, causing his muscles to relax a little more.
Titian awoke to being pressed against his bar, smothered, and trampled with people falling over his legs.  He did not remember falling asleep, but as he opened his eyes, he found people crowding around him, pressing up against the bars as they could, a few trying to squeeze through the gaps, unsuccessfully.  
Gazing up, the lid to the make shift cage was open, and the giant was reaching around, trying to grab people, who ran backwards and forwards around his grasp.  Titian was lucky in a way, being asleep and sitting there, he was unnoticed by the giant who was more interested in the people running around.
Sofia threw someone out the way.  Migual slumped down beside Titian and the three of them spoke, producing a plan to get out of this situation.  Giants were hard to kill, but not as hard as dragons, they possessed all the weaknesses of humans, but were just larger with thicker skin.  This would come in handy.
Migual ran under the giants’ hand and waved up at the guy who suddenly seemed confused for a moment and paused before it smiled and put the hand back down toward Migual.  Sofia ran from her corner and leapfrogged onto Miguals shoulders and then jumped up, grabbing hold of the giants’ sleeve.
Next Migual side stepped the grasp at the last second, as Titian swung the sword and removed the giants index finger.  The giant roared and kicked the cage, which fell on its side, causing everyone to stumble.  But now the opening was in sight, and everyone dashed for it while the giant was howling and sucking the stub of what was left of his finger.
The giant recovered though before the Migual and Titian had escaped, they were still trying to guide everyone.  The stampede and confusion were amazing, you had people running, left, right forwards, some ran for the front door of the house, others for the cover of furniture, but some were too scared to leave, and just huddled down in fear.
The giant recovered and flipped the cage the right way up.  The sword flew out of Titians’ hand and into the air, lost in the fur of the giants’ coat.  Though it never fell back out.  The giant must have not seen it though as before the few people left in the cage could find their feet and recover, he slammed the lid shut again.
That was when plan really came to light.  The giant was wandering around looking for the escapees, howling and throwing things, blood drops flying everywhere as he flipped furniture and made to grab anyone hiding there.
Suddenly, the giant turned around, with a stupid look on his face.  Blood poured from the side of his neck, which he rubbed and looked at as though he had never seen blood before and looked around the room.
The giant stumbled a little, to and fro as though he were dizzy or something before falling to the ground, with a loud thump that caused the whole floor to jump a little with the shock of the impact.  
Out of the collar of the fur of the coat, Sofia slowly slid down to the floor and started chopping at the bar again, trying to break it.  The other survivors came to help her, four of them holding the giant knife which they swung dangerously before using it to saw at the next bar across.
Eventually, the bars came loose enough to be pushed outward and the desert people fled for their lives.  Migual and Titian walked out, Titian hugging Sofia who kneed him in the groin in response.  “Sorry” Titian whimpered, falling to his knees, and trying to catch his breath, “I’m just so happy and glad that we all made it out safe”Sofia slapped him before giving Migual a look that said If you try to touch me, I will kill you.
It took several of them to open the front door and run out into the cold.  The wind and snow felt harsher than ever after the warmth of the house they were running out of, but it was better than waiting to see if anyone would discover the body or try to capture or kill them again.  Nope, giants were off the adventure menu for now, until they had more men and were better equipped to deal with them.
The walk to the shore was a lot longer than the walk to the giants’ house.  For one, with so many people it was hard to keep track of everyone in the dark, and they had eventually opted to all hold hands so they would not get separated.  For two, no one had any idea in which direction they were heading without the stars or moon to guide them, and finally, there was no food to eat, and many were collapsing exhausted and hungry.
Eventually though they reached the shore where a group of hooded, human sized figures were standing beside a few giant-sized bodies. Ships lined the coast, and at first, Titian thought he was seeing things, though in the distance in the sky was a dragon, circling around, almost impatiently.
One of the hooded men put his bow against a wall of snow, and headed to them, he was paler than anyone Titian had ever seen, perhaps he was a baby giant, though that did not seem real, surely something this small and fragile would not grow into one of those.  That would be a hell of a growth spurt.
The new men turned out to be elves.  They had received a message from the guild master who had been contacted by a dragon who decided it was a good idea to scare the life out of all the people in the villages in the western grasslands.
The guild was not able bodied enough to send enough men but had asked the elves and their better wooden ships and much better warriors to go on a rescue mission.  When the elves had landed on the shore though, they had been met by dragons and giants fighting and after joining the fray, the dragon from the sky had said he spotted a group of humans heading their way.
On the ships home, the elves had supplied them with food and fresh water.  The dragon had flown above keeping a watchful gaze until they hit the edge of the crystal lands, in which it let out a roar that Titian was sure made the sea tremble in fear.
“He was letting us know that if you got hurt, he was going to eat us.”  One of the elves said.  “For our help, he did not trust us much, I have never seen a dragon take kindly to a human as he has you before.  What did you do for him?”Titian shrugged.“Whatever it was, you are either one of the bravest or stupidest humans I have ever come across.” The man smiled.“I don’t feel brave” Titian sighed, “we went in to save a few desert people from the scavengers and never got to do that.  We failed the mission.” “Yet you braved scavengers, dragons, and then saved everyone from giants.  I would say you’re a hero” Sofia smiledMigual looked between them, his eyes wide.“I almost got grabbed for your plan” he sulkedSofia punched Migual on the arm, and the three of them laughed.