"So… who exactly lives in the Ice Kingdom? Like, they're obviously not humans, right?" Rivi and I had made it out of the ice cave, and though we could have traveled much faster via flying or shadows, I had decided to walk for the time being, as I really hadn't experienced much of this world yet.

"No," Rivi snorted, shaking her head. "The Ice Kingdom is a shared kingdom between the living and the undead. Mostly ghosts, since the other races of undead don't tend to get along with the living all that well."

"So…who are the living? Beasts?"

"Yup," Rivi nodded. "The north is home to a lot of more humanoid beast tribes, some of which reside within the Ice Kingdom. The most prominent of which are the Grenir. They're white-furred, vaguely humanoid beasts at around seven or eight feet tall. Very conservative, lots of rules and traditions they adhere to.

"Before we became the goddess of death, there used to be an Ice Queen who ruled over these lands, and even though she's been gone for millennia, they still worship her as if she was a true goddess. They also stick to their own language, so even though most of them know Elder, they won't use it unless they have to. Best to stick close to me as they can be a bit prickly sometimes."

"Elder? That's…?"

"The beast tongue, though most demons use it too, basically the equivalent of the human's Common language for the Lost Continent. Rumor has it was passed down by the dragons, the fathers of all beasts, but that tale's so old it's part of our creation myth. Only the most ancient of the gods would have any idea of whether it's true or not."

"Are there dragons?" I asked curiously, though I flushed when I remembered what Rivi's alternate form was.

"You want to see one?" She raised an eyebrow suggestively.

"Right, right. Sorry. But are they really so legendary, then?"

Rivi shook her head. "It's not the existence of dragons that's in question, it's their position as the ancestor of all other beasts. Dragons are famously proud creatures, it'd be easy to imagine them simply making the story up to assert their dominance over the other beasts."

"Ah," I nodded, looking down at my feet to keep track of where to put my feet as we made our way through some rockier terrain. We had descended to the other side of the mountain range that separated the Ice Kingdom from the Kingdom of Undeath by now, and maybe it was just the season, but the snow didn't reach to the valley beyond, except for a thin starchy layer that remained here and there along our path.

"Is there not a God of the beasts?" I frowned, trying to remember the little I had been taught about the pantheon back in the human kingdom. "Shouldn't they be in charge of all their kind here on the Lost Continent?"

"No, not for a very long time." Rivi shook her head. "Once in the very beginning of the Age of Gods, there was supposedly a god for each race—one for humans, one for elves, for beasts, for demons, and so on. But they inevitably clashed with eachother and over many years their domains were lost. I believe it's said that the human god more or less won the war, dividing the fragments of his opponents souls among his most devout followers, creating a new pantheon divided by categories of ability rather than racial affiliation.

But to be honest, I'm not too familiar with that stretch of history. You're asking all these questions, I don't really know the answers too, and I'm having to pull on my shared divinity, which is a little tiring." She gave me a weary smile as if to say So please knock it off now, k?

"Hehe, alright." I grinned, looking forwards again.

We crested a ridge, which revealed a small town, nestled into one of the banks of the valley. Despite the lack of snowfall on the ground, most of the buildings seemed to be carved out of snow and ice.

It looked vaguely like a bunch of giants had dumped down their toy blocks in a random pile. Square buildings were the norm, often stacked on top of one another, sometimes in a rather precarious fashion. Occasionally there were rounded huts like igloos or blackstone towers that rose out of the white mess of structures like a sore-thumb.

A figure sitting in a small ice house which only really had room for a chair, spotted us as soon as we crested the ridge. He was distant from the rest of the village, stationed along the ridge line we had just crested, though further towards the valley wall, so he hadn't been able to spot us until we crested.

He stood up, a long jagged ice spear in his hand, and began lumbering over.

"Halt!" He called out in a heavily accented version of the Elder tongue.

"Who comes to our village?" He approached rapidly in huge strides. Once he approached he lumbered over us at nearly eight feet tall. With his grey-white fur, a face somewhere between a gorilla's and a human, and with his sloppy grasp of Elder, I assumed he had to be one of the Grenir Rivi had just told me about.

I stood there a little nervously, as Rivi looked at the guard with evident nonchalance. Rufi, perhaps picking up on my nervousness, hopped up on my shoulder, and gave the Grenir a low growl, though it sounded more like a warning than a threat.

I looked to Rivi to answer. "We're travelers from the Kingdom of Undeath. Nos eran gragetaratu, vera vera kakedo." She started in Elder but then switched to another language I'd never heard before as I looked at her confused.

The guard's eyes widened at the familiar speech of his tribe, and he replied eagerly. "Vera vera taterogna wiraio beliera nado de berais," He nodded with respect, and Rivi gave him a smile.

"Go Grenir delai, bera de Elder dara polana vis fai."

"Uhh, what just happened?" I whispered to Rivi. She turned and gave me a wink.

"I just greeted him and told him that we should still speak in Elder despite me knowing their language. Normally I might not have bothered, but anyone who speaks Grenir is almost automatically considered a friend of their tribe, so it'll make things easier."

"Ah," I nodded blankly as the guard turned and began escorting us towards the village.

"Come," he turned back to us with his thickly-accented Elder. "We shall have an exchange with elders. People be very excited for friends."

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