A surprise in the ice!

My ice climbing adventure yesterday has turned into a real adventure!

I went to the cliffs with two elves who were skilled climbers, Alaban and Olida.

We took ice picks and ropes. We wore special ice climbing shoes. The shoes have spikes on the bottom.

We started up a cliff that was new. It was on a big block of ice that stood 150 feet in the air. Part of the ice face had broken away, so it was a new cliff face.

As I said, we were going to climb. I was also looking for possible places to put some workshops. I wanted to make sure the ice was safe and no more was going to break.

We had gone up about 50 feet when Olida said,”Look in there!”

We looked deep into the ice. There was a shape.

“It looks like a person,” Alaban said. “A big person.”

A snow giant!

Frozen in the ice!

“How’d he get in there? How long has he been in there?” Olida said.

“No telling,” I said. “But we’d better find out.”

We marked the spot, then climbed down and hurried back to the village.

I ordered elf teams to go out and find Kracknovag, the snow giant. He was the ranking member of the snow giants still at the Pole. Most of the others were on vacation at e South Pole.

The village shook as Kracknovag approached a few hours later.

“You are wanting something,” he bellowed.

“We think we found a snow giant frozen in the ice,” I said.

He sat down suddenly. The ice beneath us rumbled.

“A snow giant? In the ice,” he roared.

Tears began to form in his eyes. They tricked out, and froze, falling as chunks of ice. I had to jump out of the way so I wouldn’t be hit.

“This way," I said.

We went back to the cliff. A few dozen elves were up on the ice face, staring in.

Kracknovag was about 30 feet tall. He stretched, but he could not see the figure in the ice.

“I can’t see,” he bellowed, sending down a shower of ice tears.

“Are you missing any giants?” I asked

“Not in many years,” he said. “This is a terrible thing.”

“Then we will come tomorrow with a team to get him out and find out who he is,” I said.

We worked at the cliff all day today. But most of the elves are on vacation, so we don’t have a lot of workers. Several snow giants are helping.

But we have to be careful. Snow giants can survive in the ice for many years. We could easily damage him while trying to get him out, though. He could die. So we have to dig very carefully.

We managed to dig about 20 feet into the ice, but we have not reached him yet. Because it is still light almost all day, a second team is working through the night.

The rest of us have gone back to the village to get some sleep.

Tomorrow, after church, we will go back.