Balam: Virgo the Pure (Trials of the Zodiac Book 2)

RETURN OF TWO PRINCES

BALAM

We slipped through the woods in a diamond formation, me taking the lead. The weight of leadership was already driving me up the wall. Every time we needed to take a turn, they looked to me for directions. I knew they were trying to relinquish control, but it was growing too much, especially since I didn't know where we were headed. It had been so long since I traversed the forests of the giant realm.

As we delved into the unfamiliar woods, our glimmering weapons were the only light source for most of the trip. Moonlight barely penetrated the canopy of trees, and when it did, we saw creatures scurrying about in the treetops.

The woods around us danced with life, insects chirped, and birds rustled through leaves, occasionally startling us with sudden movements. As we continued our journey, I would reach out to the minds of the animals and send them calming thoughts. I let them know that we had no intent of harming them and that we just wanted to make it through quietly.

Our surroundings had grown increasingly ominous as we fast-forwarded. The towering trees acted like ancient titans, their branches groaning in the chilling breeze. We tried to remain vigilant, weapons ready, and senses alert, knowing that danger could hide in every shadow. So far, our path had been marked by nothing but scattered bones, both human and giant. I wished there were a lot fewer human bones.

After we passed by a skeleton cloaked in tattered military garb that was decades old, I turned to Kai, thankful that he had closed the portal. Humans didn't belong in a place like this, especially unaccompanied.

"What did the giant say back in the clearing?" Kai whispered.

I tried to think of what the frost giant said but couldn't decipher it. Like there were languages of the sea that Jalen could understand, there were languages of the giants that I had once been entirely fluent in.

"His accent was too thick. I knew the Frost Giant had spoken in Jotun Tongue but in a dialect of Niflheim, one I was least familiar with. Niflheim is the land of the Frost Giants. It's on the planet's southern hemisphere." I replied as we made another turn. "The tongue of the Giants also served as the ancestor to all modern Proto-Indo-European tongues, so you might catch a few words you recognize now and then."

Rashid cleared his throat, another act he probably learned while living among humans, to pass as one of them. "The nine worlds, that's what the humans call it."

"But that's not right, I don't think." I turned to Jalen, who was scratching his head as if that would make the knowledge that had been unsealed clearer.

"No, it's not. There are five continents in Jotunheim, which humans consider worlds because of their vastness. We'll start from the bottom. Niflheim is covered in perpetual snow and is a massive island. It's surrounded by waters almost near the freezing point, colder than anything on Earth. Those waters are infested with cyclops and, in the past, krakens. At the top of the globe is Muspelheim, the realm of the fire giants. It's a vast archipelago of islands, each larger than Australia. Many of them are covered in volcanoes. There are very few things that can survive on that island. I don't have any memories of living there, but I remember it had dinosaurs, which I always thought was cool."

"You mentioned dinosaurs before. What kind of dinosaurs are there, and how are there dinosaurs here?" Kai asked. He stomped, and we waited for him to give us the all-clear before continuing our hike.

"Giants are beings of nature. They are older than humankind and were once seen as protectors of animals. They didn't let everything go extinct during the great destruction." I spotted another skeleton; this one had what looked like a tattered dress stained brown and red. The lower half of her body was missing.