So the old chief continued the story of the giants that Jack never knew, nor did Carus honestly.
"I told you the giants lived peacefully, right? That changed when our god chose the fire giants due to their innate talent and aptitude for blacksmithing and gave them his blessing."
Carus was surprised by the fact, but Jack simply nodded. It wasn't a surprising decision, and honestly, it was very reasonable.
"That's when things changed. The fire giants were put on a pedestal by the very god we worshiped; they were chosen over the other giants, which made us... unhappy. The ice giants simply accepted whatever the god chose and even sent some special ores as gifts for the fire giants, but the forest giants were consumed by jealousy.
They prohibited entry of the fire giants into the forest by saying fire was naturally dangerous to the forests and they could bring harm to nature. The forest giants at that time owned the biggest area on the island, so they had an ego behind their actions, and while the fire giants were not egotistical, they had pride.
So when the forests were closed off for them, they closed their land to us. The ice giants tried to decrease the hostility and talk the two out of it, but ultimately failed due to the forest giants egos and the fire giants aggression.
Things started getting really bad real soon. These acts of hostility slowly turned into pure hostility, and before they knew it, the fire and forest giants were at war."
Jack quietly listened to the foolishness of the giants, letting their pride get in the way of peace. Nevermind that, actually.
"And so the war escalated, and blood was spilled. The forest giants had huge numbers and physical strength to overpower the fire giants, while the fire giants were able to create weapons that were far more effective. Due to the mass production of weapons, the heat rose in the northern area of the island, causing more trouble for the ice giants.
When they raised this issue with the fire giants, they were met with no reasonable answer, saying the fire giants wouldn't concede and they should talk to the forest giants. When they tried, the result was the same, causing anger among the ice giants. They knew better than to start a war, but they were not happy.
Which only got worse in the future when the forest and fire giants ended up fighting in one of the ice giants' areas, causing the destruction of a small village. The ice giants were now pissed, as it became a three-way war. Honestly, the fire giants were the ones who were losing due to being pushed by both forest and ice giants at the same time. Their defeat was almost certain, but one thing. One simple appearance changed the whole tide of war forever—something that caused the extinction of forest giants. The reason I try to preserve and protect us is because this village has all the forest giants left. There are no more forest giants except us. They all died, and it all happened because they appeared."
Jack was somehow holding back his curiosity. He understood the old man was having a hard time mentioning who "they" were, so he didn't push it. Carus, however, didn't know any better.
"Who were they? Who caused all this? The extinction of our whole race? Who?"
The old giant sighed and spoke with a sorrowful voice. "Something we never considered; they were a wild card. As the war was progressing,. The Viking Giants landed on the western shore."
Jack was speechless. He was almost expecting water giants or something. but Vikings? That, of all things, was something he was just not expecting. Vikings seemed as wild as they were, but imagining Viking giants felt... yeah, he'd rather not think about that right now.
"The Vikings are brawlers; the forest giants, whose strongest suit was their physical strength, felt as if they were being pushed back by them. When they landed, the forest giants were busy in the war, so they were easily able to set up camp and a city.
Soon the forest giants found out about this and tried to drive them away, which was, in all honesty, stupid. If we had asked them to join our side, maybe things would be different. But when they were pushed back, they retaliated tenfold.
Unfortunately, the forest giants were pushed back on all three sides, and that soon led to their defeat. The ice giants retreated from the war with the arrival of the Vikings. The ice giants refused to accept them as a part of the island but did not bother to declare war as enough blood had already been shed.
The fire giants and Vikings hit it off great since the Vikings needed weapons and equipment, and the fire giants were the blacksmiths. It became an alliance and a partnership. Due to losing the war, the forest giants were mostly hunted down and killed. We used to occupy the largest land on the island, but now this forest is all we have. The ice giants knew they would be the next target; they saw what happened to forest giants and went into hibernation. And so the Vikings rule the west now; the ice giants have the north; and the fire giants have the east. And this forest is all we have left."