Ijemaru climbed onto the back of Nigurai's skater with Heather and Battler joined Ebisu. The Graecian turned his key and started the machine. "Here we go!" he said, leaning forward and pushing down on the pedals to get moving.<br/><br/>The skaters were designed to be very sleek and aerodynamic. They had a very smooth, round frame that narrowed at the front and back. There were handles up front for steering, and a compass stuck in-between them. Instead of wheels there were blades attached to the bottom, like what people use to ice skate. The vehicles were designed so that the passengers leaned forward, nearly laying face down. Two reasons: first, you could go faster; second, sometimes ice fragments would get caught up in the wind, and you didn't want to get sliced up by those. The contraptions were mostly white with some fluorescent blue detailing. At the very back was a glowing blue and white circle which emitted pulses to propel the skater forward.<br/><br/>While over all Graecia was a low-tech country, they had some pretty neat accomplishments under their belts. However, although they had the capability to create amazing technology, they only created things that seemed necessary. They couldn't be bothered to join the humans' technology race, even if they ended up last. The skater was a good example of what they could do if they felt like it. The humans who knew about skaters still had yet to figure out how they propelled themselves and how they seemed to operate without any kind of fuel source. For that matter, how all of Graecia supported the electronic technology the used without any obvious fuel source. The humans were too proud to ask how it all worked. Their loss.<br/><br/>They were heading northwest for now, since that was the way toward the center of the continent. Every two hours or so, they'd come across the ruins of old cities, showing just how much the ice had expanded over the past couple hundred years. At one point, there was a giant misty figure visible a ways in front of them, and Ebisu immediately adjusted his course to make a<span style="font-style: italic">wide</span>circle around it. That was a troll. They stood about sixty feet high on average, and were covered from head to toe in thick white fur, with claws as big as a human. They weren't as clever as Jotuns, but twice as ferocious. Battler stared at the monster's outline as they circled around it. It was frightening seeing it even from this far away. Trolls had good hearing--to make up for their terrible eyesight--so Ebisu didn't explain until they were a ways away. "That was a troll," he said. "When there aren't any demons around, we usually keep busy by dealing with those... Stay away from Jotuns, though."<br/><br/>They passed by a pack of sleeping sabre wolves (which were also pretty big: about 14 feet at the shoulders and big tusks and claws, and white fur with black etchings), but could outrun them easily enough on their skaters. Those things topped off at about 450 miles per hour, but no one was stupid enough to drive them that fast.<br/><br/>After several hours they stopped for a meal break, and Ebisu made an ice igloo around them and the skaters to keep them from being noticed by predators. The skaters had storage compartments beneath the seats, and there were provisions inside. While they ate, Ebisu took a minute to offer them some advice.<br/><br/>"I feel like I should warn you what Jotuns are before we run into any," he said, "since there's supposed to be a lot of them further inland where the mountains are. They're about the size of trolls, about sixty feet tall, and they're dark blue. They can manipulate ice freely and they're smart. They're especially hard to fight because they read minds. If you ever run into one, you gotta be nice to it. If you can make friends you should be okay. If not, your best chance is running away because you'd probably lose in a fight."