Snippet from next chapter · 9:44pm Mar 6th, 2013

I'm nowhere near finished, and the wording of this will not be exactly this, but...

Later that day one of the two scouts returned to the main force with curious news.
“A tursakalf?” said Einar with concern. “In what direction was it going?”
“That’s the point, sir,” said the scout. “I... can’t tell. The tracks are really strange!”
“That’s usually obvious,” Einar explained to Twilight and Spike. “It’s like a snowplow, almost literally. You can’t miss where they’re going.” To the scout he said: “Alright, I’ll take a look at them!”
“Can we come?” said Vigg.
“Yes, but be a bit careful,” Einar said. “We don’t know exactly where this thing is, and we must avoid it at all costs!”
When they reached the tracks half a mile further ahead, Twilight understood what the scout meant.
“I see,” she said. “An ice elemental would basically leave a furrow...”
“But this looks like a series of craters,” said Einar.
“Can they jump around?” said Saga and sniffed one of the craters. “I mean, if it did, it would leave holes like this, right?”
“Never heard of it,” said Einar.
“Can’t it be some weather phenomenon that looks like tracks?” said Twilight. “Natural or unnatural, give the circumstances?”
“No,” said Einar, “nothing I’ve ever heard of...”
“See, there are pieces of thick ice here in the crater, like splinters!” Vigg said eagerly and trotted down in it. “And there is magic residue everywhere, like there would be from a tursakalf!”
“It Looks very similar to such residue, in fact,” said Einar.
Twilight cast some spells and frowned.
Spike walked around the crater Saga was sniffing in.
“Twilight, can you lift me up...” he said.
“Spike, I’m kind of busy here,” said Twilight.
“But Twilight, it’s important!” said Spike and tapped his right foot. “I need to look at things from above!”
Twilight stared at him, and then it dawned on her.
“Oh!” she said and levitated Spike up into the air surrounded by a purple glow.
The others stared at him
“Yes!” he shouted. “I thought so!”
“What?” said Vigg.
Kvalhissir bellowed and suddenly sprung into the air, repelling the earth and rising to Spike’s level.
“They’re normal tracks!” Spike said. “Like from a pony, or deer, or... or anything with four legs, really!”
Kvalhissir bellowed and nodded.
“He says he has heard stories of the ancient giants...” Saga said. She sniffed some more and licked an ice splinter.
“That’s ridiculous!” Vigg said. “We have proved that the stories of stalo was just stories of moose like Kvalhissir! No moose gets that big!”
“There were giants in the days of yore,” said Einar, “but that was in the beginning of time. There shouldn’t be any left.”
“Maybe they’re coming back, sir,” said the scout fearfully, “because we’re so close to the end of time.”
Kvalhissir bellowed something.
“He says they look like wolf tracks, or maybe skoll tracks,” said Vigg.
“Princess Celestia told me that the Adamant Alpha, the first Diamond Dog, was... is... a giant canine made of stone,” said Twilight. “Maybe there is a skoll equivalent?”
“I hope not...” Einar mumbled.
“I think I know what it is,” said Saga and spat out some ice. “It’s pretty crazy but not as crazy as what you’re talking about.”
“What do you mean?” said Vigg.
“It’s a secret of the temple of Hrimfaxi, so you must never ever tell anydeer, okay?” she said. “I shouldn’t be telling you this at all but this is an emergency...”
“Could you put me down!” Spike said.
“Sure - and sure,” said Twilight, nodding to Saga as she placed Spike gently in the snow. Kvalhissir followed him.
Saga looked at the others.
“We solemnly swear,” said Einar.
“Okay... See, there is this ancient rite to create a servant,” Saga said, “and it hasn’t been done like for ages. It’s from the very founding of the temple. If you sort of butcher a tursakalf, you can use the pieces to build a... a living ice statue, an ice... golem. You need clay from a frozen river and the heart of an enemy and all kinds of gruesome stuff.”
“Like the faceted golems employed in the Ancient Crystal Empire!” Twilight said, eyes glittering. “Eh, although you didn’t need to kill people to create those...”
“It’s called a mokkurkalfe,” Saga said, “and usually they built them big, to fight or do heavy labor. But big, that’s big like Kvalhissir, or a big urox... This one must be huge. It must be made from several tursakalfar.”
“Look, that would take lots of magical power,” said Twilight, “and you say this thing is a big secret. Don’t you think that if there was some wandering Hrimfaxi worshipper with that much power, some Grazer shaman or something, somedeer in Einar’s herd or from your temple would have heard about it?”
“Lady Twilight,” said Saga and looked at her, “Princess Hrim... Princess Luna told us all about who founded the temple. He probably came up with the whole rite to begin with.”
“Right,” said Vigg and looked at Saga admiringly. “And Wiglek the Wicked wasn’t that bad a wizard.”