Frostgnashers are active only in winter. During summer they hide in deep caves that contain ice which keeps their bodies cold. As a bonus, warming causes the ice and snow on the surface to melt and drip down into their caves where it cools and freezes.
During winter they become active again. Their ability to sense change in temperature means they feel the slight temperature difference between summer and winter in their caves.
They sleep in random intervals so they're active during the day and night. They have no sight and so are attracted by smell, sound and unnatural vibrations. For example, they can distinguish between the vibrations of falling water and a creature running.
There is a legend that the Frostgnashers were mentioned on paper far before their discovery. Frostgnashers usually become apex predators in any territory they inhabit during winter. Their main way of hunting is to sneak up and pounce on their prey.
This Frostgnasher sensed Reiji Kurozuma's footsteps, smelled and heard him.
But how does one run from such a creature? They don't. Reiji pulled out his katana with a distinct shing of the blade.
He decided to run at it and when it pounced, he slid under its body, avoiding its attack. He quickly slashed its underside and grinded to a halt in the snow.
The Frostgnasher hit the ground, kicking up a lot of snow as it slowed down. The impact rocked the frozen ground. Reiji turned and stood up, getting a good look at it.
It had pale skin stretched tightly over a muscular body. Its mouth formed a wide, gaping maw filled with sharp, uneven, needle-like teeth. It had reddish lips.
Its front limbs were very long compared to its hind limbs, making them support a lot of its weight. They ended in two long, bony fingers. The creature's shape and posture made it move with a low, predatory crawl, hugging the ground.
It had a long, muscular paddle-like tail. The creature had a bone attached to the humerus of its front limbs. Tissue connected these bones, creating a wing-like appearance.
It slowly crawled towards Reiji. Reiji decided to knock on the tree next to him to try and confuse the creature. It worked but as Reiji took a small step forward the crunching of snow clicked in the creature's brain, and it ran at him.
Reiji decided to go for the same trick again, but the Frostgnasher had other ideas. Being the intelligent creature that it is, it suddenly stopped and turned around, using its tail to hit Reiji's left side with bone crushing force. He let go of his katana, making sure it wouldn't harm him by accident.
He landed in the snow but withstood the pain, refusing to let out a scream. He looked up and saw that the Frostgnasher lost interest and was crawling away. Why would it waste so much energy on a creature so much smaller than itself?
Frostgnashers usually never attack humans. They use the vibrations to tell the size of a creature. They can also distinguish creatures by sound.
The truth is Reiji's running and crawling while fighting the Frost people caused vibrations strong enough that the Frostgnasher thought it was a much bigger creature.
Based on the sound, vibrations and how far away they were when Reiji landed into the snow the creature figured out that Reiji wasn't food.
He laid in the snow until he felt that the Frostgnasher was far away, letting out a sigh of relief. He stood up and searched for his katana. When he found it, he cleaned off the snow and put it back into its scabbard.
He then walked back to the clothes and boots he threw away and picked them up. He carried them all the way back to his living spot, dumping the stuff near the hole.
He jumped in and cleared some of the snow that the wind blew into the hole. The fire was blown out so he took some of the previous sticks he gathered and used the clothing he took to light a new fire.
After he let the fire burn for some time, he decided to feed it some proper firewood. But the strong wind covered the pieces in a thin layer of snow that he cleared off before. This made him concerned that the pieces might've been a bit wet. He grabbed a bottom piece of wood from the small pile that was most dry and threw it into the fire.
He used his katana to dig small holes into the frozen dirt, two on each side to the fire. He stuck a stick into each hole, and they made an X shape on each side of the fire. He placed his katana on these two Xs so that it was over the fire, drying any water left on the blade. He then grabbed a piece of firewood that had been covered in snow and placed it on the blade.
The heat from the blade and the warm air would cause the wet piece of wood to dry, hopefully.
He shoved the clothes and boots under the logs he slept on. After an hour the fire burned out, and he used the boots he took to move the coals under the logs he slept on. He threw the leaves and the clothes into the snow and buried them.
After that he laid down on the logs and went to sleep. Reiji woke up when it was daytime. He got up, cooked and ate a piece of meat left over from yesterday's deer and decided he couldn't fight the Frost people like this anymore.
He stood up, took his katana and went back to the spot where the fight happened last night. This time he walked deeper into the forest. He walked and walked, climbing to reach higher ground in order to find the Frost people.
"How would such a race live? Snow keeps warmth trapped. Houses made of snow? They would be like giant piles of snow."
He decided to climb back down the mountain. After he had a bunch of close calls, he made it down and walked on a wide path that carriages used for transporting goods.
The sun was setting. He refused to turn back because if he doesn't find their colony or whatever it is, he'd just die fighting them in a meaningless way.
He walked through the dark forest, trying to find a place to sleep. He then heard clicking. He felt really uneasy all of the sudden and looked up.
There, on a tree, looking right at him was a creature with a long, swollen, segmented body like a giant centipede.
Its back was covered in thick, reddish brown armour of keratin. It had multiple insect-like limbs gripping the tree. The front limbs were yellow and transitioned to red further down the body. Its head was disturbing and had sharp, protruding mouthparts.
This creature was six meters long and was currently staring at Reiji like he was a piece of food.