It was a lovely winter evening in the month of December. The road outside was covered with snow. A thick snow covered the roofs of beautifully built houses. The trees were covered with snow. It was so mesmerizing to see a thick blanket of snow covering the whole town. It was quite chilly both outside and inside. Three girls Charlotte, Mila and Ida sat in their hostel room. They were roommates and they studied at the University of Vienna.

Charlotte sat on a chair near the bonfire in their room with a cup of coffee in one hand and the novel “I Saw Her That Night by Draco Jangar” in the other. She was wearing a thick grey sweater with black pants. She was a bookworm. People called her a walking Encyclopaedia. She was a tall girl with a slender figure and curly hair, wearing spectacles. Her dark brown eyes looked beautiful inside the spectacles. She was intelligent and smart. 

Another girl sat on a chair near her with a laptop watching some sort of funny show. She is Mila. She was the cute, bubbly, childish one. She was dressed in thick blue baggy jeans and a purple pullover. A messy bun was making her look cute rather than shabby.  She was laughing loudly.

“Shut Up, Mila”, said a voice from the bed. A girl lying on the bed with a phone in her hand. She was dressed in track pants and a pink sweater. She was Ida, the most notorious and the wicked among the three.

“Oh! I am Sorry, I didn’t realize that I was disturbing you”, said Mila.

She continued, “But I don’t think you are doing something so serious that I can’t laugh”. She grinned

“Mila, I am doing something really serious”, said Ida.

Mila replied, “Oh! That must be chatting with a new boyfriend.”

“Why don’t you continue watching your crappy show instead of poking your long nose into my business”, said Ida in anger.

“Oh! Stop arguing you two and listen to me”, said Charlotte.

Both looked at Charlotte. 

Charlotte continued, “Do you guys have any plans for the Christmas vacation?”

Mila replied, “Not yet, I’ll be going home and celebrating Christmas with a hell lot of relatives”.

Ida said, “Same with me but I am least interested”.

Charlotte looked at them with a sparkle in her eyes and said, “Then this Christmas let’s drop the plan of going home. Instead, we will go to explore a new place”.

Mila and Ida asked together in a confused voice, “Where?”

Charlotte replied, “Slovenia”.

Mila asked, “But how? How will we get there?”

Ida smirked and said, “I can do that. Well, I am ready.”

Charlotte smiled and said, “Ok girls, then this vacation we are going for a hike in Slovenia.”

All three jumped with joy. Christmas vacation was fast approaching. Three of them had finalised how to get there. Mila told her parents that she is going to Charlotte’s home for Christmas. Charlotte told her parents that she is going to Ida’s home and Ida told she is going to Mila’s home. Everything was set. All the bookings had been done. They were eagerly waiting for the day to come. 

Finally, the day arrived. They had to travel by train from Vienna to Slovenia and from there they would go for their hike in and around Triglav National Park. On 23rd December, they departed for Slovenia from Vienna. They would start their hiking the next day. They reached Slovenia. The three of them were tired and decided to spend the rest of their day indoors. They got up early the next day. They had to start their hiking journey and a bus would drop them to the place from where they had to start their journey. They wore their hiking gear, grabbed their little bags which had only essential items for hiking and headed off on their adventure.

They reached the place from where they had to start. They noticed that another group of hikers had already arrived,

Mila was so excited. She said in an excited tone, “What are you both thinking? Ida, are you scared?”

Ida replied, “Huh! It seems you are scared, Mila”. 

Mila was about to say something when Charlotte grabbed her hand. 

Charlotte said, “Don’t you both dare to quarrel until we finish our hike or I am going to feed you to wild animals.”

All three laughed. They started their hike. They were watching everything carefully. The view was captivating. The green valleys, the slow flowing rivers, the lazy chewing cows and the blossoming streams. It felt like nature was talking. The description of that beauty was really hard to put into words. All three walked together. It was not a guided tour so they had to decide their paths themselves. The smart girl Charlotte already had a map in her hand. The three walked slowly enjoying the beauty of nature. Everything was normal until the night fell off.

They had set their camp and lit a bonfire. Charlotte was sitting near a bonfire and thinking of the places yet to be covered. Mila and Ida were tired so they had dozed off after having a light pre-packed meal brought by them. Though Charlotte was tired, she was not sleepy. Charlotte was lost in her thoughts, she felt someone watching her from behind the camp.

Charlotte said, “Mila, I know it’s you. Stop frightening me. I will throw you, to wild animals.’

There was no reply. Charlotte went inside the camp to check and found both of them sleeping. Charlotte came out and someone pressed her mouth and dragged her away.

Next day, Mila opened her eyes and found Charlotte out of her bed. Mila was confused. 

Mila said to herself, “Did Charlotte sleep at night? She was awake when I slept.”

Mila got up and started calling for Charlotte. Charlotte was nowhere to be seen. 

“Oh God Mila, What’s wrong with you? Why are you shouting? Don’t you see I am sleeping”, said Ida

“Ida, get up. Charlotte is nowhere to be seen”, said Mila

“She must be exploring nearby”, replied Ida

Mila said in a scared voice, “Ida, I searched nearby. She is not there.”

Ida jumped out of bed and started calling for Charlotte. They couldn’t find Charlotte anywhere. The two girls were frightened. They decided to pack up their things and look for Charlotte. Charlotte’s belongings were scattered there but she was missing. They started searching for Charlotte everywhere. They continued their search inside the forest. They saw an old lady gathering firewood. They quickly walked to her.

Ida said, “Can you please help us find our friend? She is missing.

The old lady ignored them. 

Ida said to Mila, “I think she is deaf.” 

The old lady looked at her angrily and replied, “You won’t find your friend again. The giant Lednec would have eaten her by now.”

Ida laughed and said, “What? What did you just say? Giant? Eaten Charlotte?” She laughed again.

The lady fumed with anger. Mila squeezed Ida’s hand and signed her not to laugh. Ida stopped laughing.

Mila said, “Please tell us where can we find Lednec?”

The lady replied, “Why do you wish to die?”

Mila replied in a crying tone, “Please tell us, our friend might be in danger.”

The lady told them the story of Ledenec. In a mountain cave above Martuljek lived a giant called Ledenec. He bullied everyone who dared to come near him, breathed an icy breath, danced and yelled with joy when it snowed. The only things he feared were the sun and fire.

One day, he decided to have a mountain next to its cave. He called all the giants he controlled and ordered them to build one. The work was hard and the giants were soon tired of carrying rocks but Ledenec would not let them rest. When he finally fell asleep in his cave, the angered giants stacked up a pile of firewood at the cave entrance and set it on fire.

Unable to escape, Ledenec suffocated from the smoke and started melting. To the present day, his remains flow from under the Martuljek mountain group as the Martuljek stream.

“This is the story of Ledenec”, said the lady.

“So, what is the connection of Charlotte with the giant Ledenec?”, asked Ida

The lady replied, “This is the story that had been told for ages but this is not true.”

Mila asked, “What do you mean?”

“The giants did suffocate Ledenec but that was not the end of Ledenec. That night two of the giants among the group of giants felt guilty of their doing and went back to save Ledenec. When they freed Ledenec, the half-dead Ledenec was furious and punished them. He made them an ever-flowing stream so that everyone should feel that Ledenec is dead. The other giants were killed by Ledenec and the last giant made a deal with Ledenec. He offered to give him humans if he left him alive. Ledenec agreed, said the old lady.

“But how do you know all these?”, asked Ida.

The old lady smirked and said, “Because…. I am the other giant.”

The old lady became a huge blue giant with two horns. The giant grabbed them and said, “Now you two also go to your friend. Ledenec would award me for bringing two humans on the same day. Mila was scared but Ida just wanted to save herself and her friends from the giant. Ida signed Mila to stay calm. When the giant took them near the cave, Ida signed Mila to take her hairpin and pierce his eyes. Ida and Mila took hairpins from their hair and pierced the giant’s eyes making him blind. The giant dropped both of them and screamed with pain. Ida took firewood lying nearby and hit his knees. He bent on his knees. The girls smashed the giant’s head in no time after that. The giant screamed even louder and his scream was heard by Ledenec.

Ledenec came outside the cave. The girls hid themselves and went inside the cave. They saw many people inside the cave who were hypnotised by Ledenec. Some of them had already been killed by Ledenec.  He was feasting on them one by one. They saw Charlotte sitting. She didn’t respond, seeing her friends. Ida and Mila quickly went to her and called her. She didn’t respond. Ida slapped Charlotte hard which resulted in her coming out of the hypnosis state. They slapped other people one by one. Everyone came out of the hypnosis.

On the other side Ledenec was terrified by seeing the killing of the other giant. He was searching nearby but couldn’t find anyone who had killed the giant. Ida, Mila and Charlotte came out of the cave and behind them all others. Ledenec didn’t find anyone and returned back to the cave. As soon as he went back to the cave, he saw no one inside. He fumed with anger and came out of the cave. 

All the people stood with burning firewood in their hands pushing him back to the cave. Finally, everyone threw the firewood inside his cave which resulted in the melting of Ledenec. Ida covered the whole cave with dry leaves and firewood and lit fire. The cave started burning. The heat produced by the fire completely melted Ledenec. All the people came out of Trigalav National Park.

Next day, Charlotte, Mila and Ida returned back to Vienna and promised not to discuss this incident with anyone. They wanted to forget this like a scary nightmare.