Puck refused to look at Jason. They followed Grim to the base of an ancient ruined castle, where shattered pillars and broken gargoyles lay scattered about the courtyard. Bones littered the area as well, poking up through the snow. Puck trailed behind, not speaking to any of them, wrapped in angry silence.
"There," Grimalkin said, nodding to a large stone pillar broken in two. One half rested on the other, forming an arch between them.
There was something else, though.
There was a body lying in front of it. A body that was at least twelve feet tall, covered in hides and furs, with blue-white skin and a tangled white beard. It lay sprawled on its back with its face turned away, one meaty hand clutching a stone club

Ash grimaced. "That's right," he muttered. "Mab leaves her pet giant here to guard the place. Cold Tom doesn't listen to anyone but the queen."

Jason glanced back to Puck here and there,but stopped in his path when they had to. He shifted a bit,dark blue wafting over his freckle scales over and over.

Puck, his animosity either forgotten or suppressed, peeked out from behind a boulder. "Looks like it's Tom's nappy time," he said. "Maybe we can sneak around him."
Grim regarded each of them in turn and blinked slowly. "In times like these, I am even more grateful that I am a cat." He sighed and trotted toward the huge body. Grim sauntered up to the giant, looking like a fuzzy mouse compared to Tom's bulk. Gazing up at the body, he twitched his tail, crouched, and leaped onto the giant's chest. Perhaps Grimalkin was too light for him to even notice. The cat turned and sat down, curling his tail around his feet and watching them bemusedly. "Dead," he called to them. "Quite dead in fact. You can stop cringing in abject terror if you like. I swear, how you survive with noses like that, I will never know. I could smell his stink a mile away."

"He's dead?" Ash immediately walked forward, brows furrowing. "Strange. Cold Tom was one of the strongest in his clan. How did he die?"

Grim yawned. "Perhaps he ate something that disagreed with him."

Jason seemed a bit puzzled,then opened his mouth a bit and took in a bit of the air a little more than normally. He coughed and swallowed dryly. He seemed to agree with the fact of the death call.

And then, a metal spider crawled out of Cold Tom's mouth. The huge arachnid skittered away, over Tom's face and up a wall. Ash drew his sword but Puck gave a shout and hurled a rock at it. The stone hit the spider dead on; with a flash of sparks the bug plummeted to the ground, landing with a metallic clink on the flagstones.

Jason walked over to the metal thing and crouched down,looking it over. He let scales form over his hand and he used new sharp black claws to hold it down as he checked it over. "What is this? Other than a metal spider?" He asked.

The boys approached it cautiously, Ash with his sword still drawn, Puck with a good-sized rock. The insect thing lay broken and motionless in Jason's hand, almost smashed in two. Up close, it looked less spidery and more like those face-hugger things from Aliens, except it was made of metal. "Another one of Machina's fey?" Ash guessed. For once, the unshakeable faery sounded almost...terrified. Almost.

Jason noticed the hint of fear in his voice and almost felt bad,but smothered it. He scaled both his hands and then began looking it over more closely with both his hands,his claws being very careful with the metal.

Puck was freaking out at the moment. When he sobered he was more serious than ever before. "This means war," he said, locking gazes with Ash. "If the Iron King is killing the guardians of the trods, he must be planning to invade. We have to find Machina and destroy him."
Ash sighed but said, "I agree." Ash sheathed his sword, giving the bug a revolted look. "We will bring Jason to the Iron Court and rescue his brother by killing the ruler of the iron fey.

"Bravo," said Grimalkin, peering down from Cold Tom's chest. "The Winter Prince and Oberon's jester agreeing on something. The world must be ending."

Jason stood,putting the creature down and then letting his hands shift back to normal. "If there's a war,I think I could bring a few dragons to help. If there's something going on here,you could use a few others who could use ice,and maybe some Shockers as well." He said, putting a hand to his hip and shifting to his jocky persona.