Foraging around the forests and snow lands has never been this fun. How long has it been since we did this before? It has certainly been a long time; it is rather fun to change the pace and do something more fun for a change.
We walked around the ice lands which were getting hotter as we moved to the south, apparently, there was a big reason behind this which wasn't just climate change.
"To the south of Jotunheim is Muspelheim, due to its hot temperatures, it slowly changes the temperatures in here and slowly turns the snow lands into beautiful greenery. And it never gets too hot for it to be deserted." Said Rakasha.
As a man who have traveled across three continents, or more, he knew his stuff very well and had learned a lot from everywhere he visited, so I totally believed his facts as he threw them without even doubting his own words. He was a wise man, and quite old, being 200 years old or perhaps a bit older, he was indeed a man whose life experiences I envied a bit.
"What's to the north then?" wondered Miranda.
"To the north of this continent is Niflheim, the land of ice. It is a place where there is only snow and ice much like in here, but perhaps even more extreme, although I do remember that it also had its own good places, especially to the east, where the temperatures got more moderate, and the snow and ice receded. In such places, beautiful greenery could combine with snow peaks, and some people lived in harmony with that area of nature that was forgiving of weaker beings that could not survive in such harsh colds.
"I see…! This world is truly a vast one, isn't it?" wondered Benladann.
"It is, lady Benladann. It is a vast world! The continents that make it up are gigantic by themselves, it takes a year to cross from north to south. I would say the prettiest continent I've visited is still the land of humans and varied races, Midgard. That place is beautiful and filled with many people and ethnicities, the grasslands cover most of the world alongside all sorts of jungles and forests… it is a place filled with greenery and beauty. Over millions of years, many races from other continents had migrated there, and it had become an incredibly culture-rich continent like no other else… the amount of cultures is incredible, and other many years they had all been adopted and merged together… You have to only get there to see it." said Rakasha.
"Midgard, huh? That's where I was born. Or well, my main body… not really the best place, but I do admit it was a good place in terms of ecosystem and nature. However, the people there, especially humans, are incredibly racist of other races, and often went into complete slaughter-fests over tribes of beast-kin over the hate they held against others that were not of their damned race… To be expected of the arrogant children of the Aesir." Sighed Belle.
"Belle I think you're talking way too much," I said, she was sitting over my shoulder.
"Well, I am afraid that's not really the case… Perhaps you've met a different Midgard of the past, Belle, but as of now, things had changed a lot! it is said that after the big apocalypse of the Vampires, when our lady Ice Queen reformed the world and slain the Vampires, Midgard, who was saved by a race they discriminated against, ended accepting other races way better, and the Ice Queen made sure to instill the acceptance of other ethnicities and more. Although over millions of years other races had lived there even before this, they had a big boom in quantity, and it was all thanks to her. Humans already accept other races, and even held respect to us Ice Giants, calling us the children of the Ice Queen, even!" said Rakasha.
"Eh? Are we treated well there?" asked Benladann.
"Even if the humans are tiny?" asked Draugann.
"Well, there's always the little asshole here and there, but you gotta just push through them and shrug it off, the number of good people there make up for the few assholes you might encounter." Said Rakasha.
"I wonder if Vampires are accepted there…" sighed Ruby.
"Hmm… That's… well, that's quite hard to know. I do think there might be a few duchies that are very open, but even now, the Ice Queen made of Vampires the most marginated race." Said Rakasha, telling the cold truth to Ruby.
"Don't worry, Ruby. I will make sure that you won't have to worry about that, using Illusion magic, it should be possible to hide some of your features, only a few such as your eye color and your pointy ears, and that should be enough to make you seem like a pale human girl…" I said.
"Oh, really? Maybe we could do that…!" said Ruby, feeling a bit hopeful.
"Don't worry, daddy is the best at what he promises! He always does he says he'll do." Said Flayr.
"Yeah, he's the best!" said Noirenn.
"Perhaps Vampires are discriminated but the other races are only looked down upon, so I guess you won't be persecuted if we do that. I have to make a new accessory for this hiding mechanism though, but it shouldn't be anything too hard." I said.
"Thank you, uncle Drake… I-It really means a lot to me." Said Ruby cutely, as I petted her head.
"Don't worry about it," I said.
"Uncle Drake, can you come down?" asked Ruby.
I moved my face down, as Ruby suddenly gave me a tender kiss on my cheek.
"Thank you…" she said while blushing.
Uwah! Such a cute vampire daughter!
"Ruby! I'll become your second father if you want to!" I said, hugging her and raising her high.
"O-Oi! I am the only father here!" said Rakasha.
We walked across the forest while picking up fruits, seeds, mushrooms, and occasionally hunting monsters of low ranks we encountered, we found a few new species of creatures such as Giant Ice Rats, Horned Rabbit Kings, and even the very rare Snow Leopards.
After that, we enjoyed the evening fishing and relaxing.