Role

Chapter 6

Later, around the steaming spring that was the geographic and social
center of their village, the giants discussed what to do with the human
child, who was insisting, in their language, in between bites of boiled
reindeer that he was of one blood with them. "John," he said his name
was, gnawing the meat off the bone.

"Jawn," the chief told the assembled giants, perhaps had enough giant
blood to fill his foot, but no more. "Jawn Foote" they called him
thereafter as they eventually decided to not kill him and to return him
to the lands of men at their earliest convenience.

But they were feral giants of the tundra and convenience did not come
easily to them. It would be almost twelve years before the marked
Jawn Foot would be returned to people his own size.

During those years he learned of the harsh life on the ice, of the ways
of giants and of the ways of men, especially men who carried the mark
he bore on his cheek.

There were the dangers of the ice, of yetis and dire icewolves invisible
against the snow, but these were the dangers of an hour, of a day. The
Codex represented the danger of an eternity, a danger that would turn
the ice black with soot and send giants and wolves alike to the very
edges of the world.

Gradually the blood of his foot filled his whole body.