Story-A-Day #414: Frost Giants

FROST GIANTS

The reports were vague at best, most of them revolving around strange occurrences throughout the city.  There was no real evidence that something mysterious was happening, but there was no denying that weird things were happening.

It started with a power outage due to a downed line.  Eyewitnesses at the scene reported a strong and offensive aroma that lingered heavily in the air, almost like burnt hair.  That was the catalyst for what was to come.

There were other power outages, other downed lines, but there was also a rash of damaged property throughout the city.  Cars were found with their roofs caved in, garbage dumpsters crushed like tin cans.  Tree were found cracked in two, large sturdy maples.  It could be expected during fierce wind or thunder storms, but it was an anomaly on calm summer nights.

The media had been chalking the occurrences up to teenage vandals.  They even justified the crushed garbage dumpsters up to hit and run scenarios, drunken teens losing control of their joyrides.  Only thing is, there were never any reports of stolen vehicles or smashed cars being brought into local garages.

Like most people, I assumed that the media was probably telling a variation of the truth at least.  They only had certain privileges after all so it was quite likely that they would be developing their own theories and conjectures and expanding upon those.  Knowledge is power and if the police had no leads, then obviously that was not something they would want to communicate to the public at large.  I was sure that they were just as baffled by the occurrences as everyone.

Hell, I was baffled until one day I discovered a strange...something in the snow.  It looked like a footprint, a very large footprint.  I wore size twelve boots and this particular print looked to be about twice as long as my own.  It dawned on me then that there might be more to these occurrences than any of us had imagined.

It dawned on me that our little town might have a problem bigger than any of us had imagined.  A giant problem, at that.