The snow-covered hut stood alone, a tiny, silent bastion against the thoughtless winter's cruelty, its smoke billowing against the cloudless gray sky.  Through a chink in the wall, a small girl's wide eyes gazed out at the icy stillness that surrounded her home.

    The wind had died down and the snow lay in a silent, drifted expanse laid amid the trees, unmarked by the prints of man or beast.  Shoving a piece of wood into the hole, Ariana turned from the austere scene and stood watching her sleeping parents.  They had been ailing for many days, her father rising only long enough to go out in search of some hapless fowl or collection of edible roots for their meal, and then sinking back on his rude bed of wood and skins before he had eaten much of his share.  Her mother usually prepared the food, and might sometimes sit listlessly in company with her daughter after they had eaten, but before long she too would fall into a restless sleep, trusting Ariana to keep the fire burning.

    The time of the winter festival was drawing near, and the girl had nothing as yet to give her sick parents.  The very fact of their illness sharpened her anxiety about the lack of a special present, for she felt that if she could only gift them with something truly wonderful, happiness alone might make them well.  Her father had once told of a man who found a great precious jewel lying in the forest, lost there by traveling nobility.  Thinking thus, she fed a few more pieces of dry wood to the fire and then, bundling up tightly in her furs, Ariana went out into the winter morning to see what she could find.

    At the sound of her feet crushing through the fresh snow, a rag-tag, battered-looking dog emerged from its den, quietly favoring the game leg to which it had grown accustomed.  Silently it followed her through the trees and over the drifts, until they could no longer have been seen from the yard of the hut.

    Against this monotonous background, the strange footprints clashed, shocking her senses when she came upon them.  The thing that frightened her most was the size of the prints.  They looked like the impressions of a grown man's feet, but could any man grow so huge?  She remembered her father's stories of the frost giants who constantly did battle with the gods.  Legend foretold that ultimately the frost giants would persevere, and destroy the world.  Terrified, Ariana turned to run, and almost blundered into the maker of the footprints.

    He stood looming above her, his not unhandsome face shielded by strange curved transparent plate, the rest of his body sheathed in a rubbery material that seemed like a second skin, rife with strange contrivances.  The dog barked and Ariana, paralyzed with fear, screamed shrilly into the icy air.

    She had thought the giant man was moving forward to seize her, but Ariana suddenly realized that he was falling instead.  His huge body toppled forward and to one side of her, landing heavily face down in the snow.  He lay unmoving for a moment as the girl stared openmouthed and the dog circled warily, then he roused and lifted himself on one elbow.  Ariana noticed now that his leg was injured; the rubbery covering was slashed below the knee, and blood stained the snow beneath that leg.

    The large man brushed snow from his face-plate and regarded her thoughtfully.  His hand beckoned her closer, the gesture only serving to send her several halting steps in the opposite direction.  The dog, however, edged forward hesitantly, and the giant nodded and made further reassuring gestures until the sorry beast's head moved near enough for him to stroke with his oddly-gloved hand.  The eyes behind the glazed shield met Ariana's again, and she smiled charmingly and came forward.

    It took all his waning strength and all of Ariana's efforts to get the giant standing again.  He clung to the trunk of a small tree with one arm and swung the other over a low branch for leverage while the girl shoved at his good leg until it was in a straightened position.  He hung on, the dog at his side, while she searched for a fallen branch to serve as a staff.  The new-fallen snow made looking difficult, but finally she spotted one lying across a notched limb and went running back with it.

    In his weakness, the stranger needed her support as well as that of the staff.  He took a few tentative steps and shook his head violently when Ariana pointed in the direction of her home.  Easing one hand off the staff, he indicated a direction to their right.  Puzzled, the girl nevertheless did as he wished.  The dog ran ahead, prancing excitedly on his three good legs.

    It was not a long trek, but it proved a difficult one.  Though the staff bore most of his weight, Ariana was soon gasping with the effort of keeping the weakened giant from falling sideways.  As they wandered into deeper forest, she looked back anxiously at her tracks, but the frozen land still lay calm, and the way back was clearly marked.

    Over a low ridge they struggled, Ariana's eyes continually scanning the ground for pitfalls, her tired arms constantly steadying the large man's faltering steps.  Only when they reached the bottom did she look up and see the strange silvery vessel nearby, resting on the forest floor amid the trees it had broken in its descent.  The huge stranger smiled down at her tiredly, and pressed two fingers to his belt.  Ariana watched as the heavy metal doors slowly rolled aside, then she moved forward to the portal with the injured giant, the dog following hesitantly.

    Inside, a moving metal path carried them through one chamber into another and came to a halt.  Ariana swayed drunkenly and the giant fell wearily into a huge chair that seemingly grew from the metal floor, yet spun around at his touch.

    He removed his helmet and dropped it to the metal plating with a crash.  A tool he produced quickly separated the rubbery armor at the knee, and he pulled the lower section off gingerly.

    His great hand moved to the wall beside the chair, and he pressed one of the tiny colored bumps which seemed to protrude everywhere.  Almost immediately another door swung aside and something that moved like a man but was obviously made of polished metal came hurrying in, holding something that glowed strangely.  Ariana shrieked and flattened herself against the wall, and the dog cowered, but the giant only smiled and spoke reassuringly in a strange tongue, touching the small girl's shoulder with a surprising gentleness.  He turned and spoke to the metal man, and it swiveled to face her, bowing deeply and emitting peculiar clicking sounds.  Then wasting no time, it moved to its master and held out the odd thing it had brought him.

    The giant used the small tool again to remove the coverings from his hands, and he took the glowing object from the metal man.  He held it above his injury, slowly moving it up and down over the entire area.  To Ariana's astonishment the bleeding slowly subsided, and the wound began to close.  The giant still seemed tired and weak, but his color was rapidly improving.  He sank back in the chair and smiled at the wide-eyed girl.

    After a moment he leaned forward again, making encouraging noises to the dog, and it obligingly sidled up to his chair.  Taking its bad front leg in his hand, the giant again lifted the glowing thing, moving it round and round over the dog's swollen joint until it began to appear more normal.  He stroked the dog, and it leapt up and made several ecstatic circles around the chamber before returning to the girl's side.

    Then the giant motioned Ariana to him, and held the glowing thing out to her.  He showed her the little bump that pushed in and made the glow fade away, and he showed her how pushing it again restored the glow.  When he seemed to think she understood, he nodded and smiled, pressing the strange thing into her hands and clasping his own great hands over her small ones.

    Carefully then, he rose from the huge chair and tested his leg.  Turning to the metal man, he spoke again in the strange dialect, and the doors by which they had entered swung aside.  The moving metal strip carried Ariana and the dog through them and the metal man went with them as far as the outer doors.  While there was still time, Ariana turned and waved to the giant and he smiled again, lifting one enormous hand in response.  She didn't know who he was but she was certain she would never see him again.

    The dog scampered eagerly ahead, following his own footprints home.  Ariana hurried after him, clutching the winter present for her parents tightly to her breast; the present which would make them well again.