Winter Wonderland [Event]

[voidtreckermods]

”Good Morning passengers. Today is day Twenty Four of the month of Catfish. You may wish to look out of the window.”

As passengers wake in their beds they will indeed notice something different about the light. If they look out of the window, instead of the ever changing void they will see white slopes of mountains, flakes of snow alling down around them and frost covered trees zipping past the windows. If they glance at the ICP on the table they will see a message.

Investigating the dressing cart they will find the drawers and cupboards unlocked once again. However, instead of the fantasy-esque clothing of world #25768 they will find thick winter coats, hats, gloves and scarves. There are heavy fur lined boots and even some ice skates.

Entering the garden carriage they will see that the glass dome of the roof has opened, leaving the carriage exposed to a bright blue sky. Any nonsense of the past few weeks has vanished, leaving the carriage pristine. Not that that is easy to notice as it is covered in a thick layer of snow. The paths are clearer, a light dusting of snow but easy to talk through. Around the paths the drifts are high, perfect for snowman building or a snowball fight.

The streams and the pond in the centre are solid ice. Anyone brave enough to try to find the ice holds their weight for ice skating.

And the ICP message was correct. There is hot chocolate in the stores.

Comments

[knifewithnoname]

"Ice skating." The water would hold his weight? Because of the cold? That was the strangest thing she had ever heard of.

"That's what the knife shoes did be being for. I did be wondering."

It had seemed a strange thing to have, shoes with knifes on the bottom. She had wondered if they had been for an odd style of fighting.

[so_dark_a_road]

"Ice skating, yes." He smiles again. "Knife shoes, I think that's a good name for ice skates. The sharp blades slice very shallowly into the solid surface of the ice, and that cut allows the skater to practically fly across the surface."

What strange weapons they would be. Death by ice skate!

[knifewithnoname]

"They do be?" That was fascinating. She got closer to the frozen water and peered at the surface. Indeed she could see the small cuts on the surface where the skates had gone over.

"It do be being like carts in the sand? It do be being hard at first but then it do be making a track so the next cart can be following and it do be being easier."

She wondered who had even thought about putting knives on shoes to make ice flying a thing.

[so_dark_a_road]

"Something like that, yes," he answered. "If a skate goes into one of those tracks, it would certainly slide more easily than if it had to cut its own way. But then again, it's not that hard to cut the ice with these sharp metal blades, and that's why if you look at the whole pond, you see so much criss-crossing of tracks."

He liked the way she used her mind to think up reasons why some phenomenon was occurring. She was smart. It didn't matter whether any particular hypothesis was correct or not; what mattered was the thinking, and the process of testing ideas with experience.

"Would you be interested in trying it yourself? There are more skates in the dressing car. They're all different sizes, too, so I'm sure there'll be some that will fit you."

[knifewithnoname]

Her eyes flicked over the ice, looking for what he was talking about. There was indeed a lot of criss crossed lines all over the ice. A lot of people had been flying on the ice then.

She nodded, she would definitely be interested in trying it herself. She had seen the knife shoes in the dressing cart, she knew where they were. "I will be being right back, I will be going and finding some."

She grinned at him and skipped off.

It didn't take her all that long to find a pair of knife shoes that fit her and she carried them back to the lake before sitting down to figure out how to put them on her feet.

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin skated while Little One was gone, practicing his spins and leaps. When she returned, he skated over to the edge of the lake and stopped near to the part of the embankment where she was sitting, in case she needed help figuring out the lacings. But he let her work on it without saying anything, since he believed in letting kids discover their own competence whenever possible.

[knifewithnoname]

Tony had taught her laces already and so it wasn't that much more difficult to fasten these knife shoes as it were her walking boots. They were a little stiffer and her feet already disliked them.

She wouldn't want to go on the ice barefoot though, that would hurt. Soon the knife shoes were on her feet and laced up and she stood up feeling very wobbly. She took a breath and stepped out towards the pond. Walking on the snow wasn't all that hard but the moment she reached the pond her legs wanted to slide out from underneath her.

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin stayed near as Little One stepped out on the ice. "It will feel a little precarious, to stand on the skates, and then to glide on them. But just remember that the trick is to act like you're flying on the ice, and just stride along and let your body's momentum carry you forward. Like this, see?"

He skated forward and then circled back. "You just let your feet keep you in motion, and if you think you're going to fall, then skate in the direction your body feels like falling. That'll keep you upright."

Hopefully his suggestions would work for her!

[knifewithnoname]

Act as if she were flying. Let her body momentum carry her forwards. She nodded, it was a little like roof running, as long as you didn't think so hard and just kept moving the momentum did most of the work.

She pushed herself forwards, immediately her legs went in more directions than she had ever thought possible and she toppled onto the ice. It didn't really hurt, the jacket she was wearing was thick after all and she sighed and tried to get to her feet.

She was determined to learn this ice flying.

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin skated to where she lay, and he knelt down by her.

"Are you all right?" He offered a hand to help her to her feet.

[knifewithnoname]

"Yes, I did no be being hurt." She doesn't take the hand at first, she's not a baby. But standing back up on this ice was harder than she had thought it would be. So eventually she had to reach out and use his hand to get back up on her feet.

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin gave her the time to make the attempt to get up, not intervening, but he smiled at her as she took his hand. "Don't worry, you'll learn the art of skating pretty soon. It just takes practice, and if the train allows this carriage to stay wintery for a while, there'll be enough time. Do you want me to show you the easiest way to get up if you fall?"

[knifewithnoname]

Just practice, that was reassuring. It meant that she could learn, like she had learned other things in her life before.

She nodded though at the offer. "I would be liking that, please."

Being able to stand up on her own would be a good start.

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin smiled. "Okay, this is how you do it." He got down on the ice, on his stomach with his arms stretched out, the way people often ended up after sliding or falling. He rolled over so that he was sitting on the ice with his legs stretched out in front of him, toes pointing at the sky. "Now, this is the critical part." He bent one knee to the side and then rolled sideways over it, so that he came up on both knees and was kneeling on the ice. Then he brought one foot forward with bent knee so that he could plant the blade solidly on the ice. Then he put both hands on top of that knee, pushed down on the knee with the hands, and pulled the other foot through so that it was right beside the first foot, and at the same time he rose so that he was standing upright.

"You try it, now," he said.

[knifewithnoname]

She watched as he lay down on the ice and then more carefully as he demonstrated how to first roll and then kneel and then stand. She nodded silently when he told her to try and as carefully as she could lowered herself to the ground again and sprawled out on the ice.

Carefully she rolled over and sat upright with her legs stretched out. Now bend the knee, roll to kneel and... What was next?

Right one foot forward, solidly in the ice and then... Hands on the knee and very wobbly got to her feet.

"Did that be being right?"

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin watched and was pleased that she did so well on her first attempt. "Yes, that was right. Your motions will get smoother with practice, but you succeeded in getting up on your feet, so that was perfectly all right."

[knifewithnoname]

She beamed at the praise, glad that she had gotten it right on her first go. "I will be remembering and using it if I do be falling again." She told him with a smile.

"You do be knowing a lot about ice flying."

[so_dark_a_road]

He beamed back at her. She was such a lively, intelligent person, and he always enjoyed her company.

"I do know a lot about it. In my home world, my country had long winters and short summers, and there were rivers and streams and ponds everywhere. My people invented skating even before we came to that place, but we certainly used our skates often after we arrived. It was a way to lighten up, to celebrate, and of course to acquire strength, speed, and agility."

[knifewithnoname]

It sounds like a terrible place. She's quite enjoying today in the ice and the snow but if it was this cold all the time it would be a very terrible thing. She can't imagine long winters and short summers.

"How did you be drinking, if all your rivers did be being frozen?"

Surely they would all die, if they had no fresh water.

[so_dark_a_road]

It was a terrible place, sometimes. But not because of the weather. Curufin loved the beautiful northern environment, including the bracing cold, and he liked being a pioneer. Even the wars didn't daunt him much.

"We chopped or bored holes in the ice with axes and augers, and then dipped the water out with pails. We also dug wells down into the earth, down to the water table, and lowered buckets on a rope to bring up the fresh water. Of course, we had to break the ice in the wells, too, in the wintertime. But that wasn't much of a problem."

[knifewithnoname]

They chopped holes in the ice for water? She understands wells. Her own city had wells but the idea of smashing through ice just get water. It was a lot of work.

"I do be understanding. Did you be having to be breaking the ice every day?" After all this pond had been water yesterday and now it was ice. That was how fast it happened.

[so_dark_a_road]

Those First Age Elves were very strong, physically, mentally, and magically. They liked to work, and they liked new challenges. Bashing a hole in the ice was one of the easier things they did.

"It depended on how low the temperature had fallen. In a cold month, we'd be breaking the ice every day. A bitter wind blew from the north through the Pass of Aglon where my castle was located, and the villages began at the foot of the pass and extended south along the river valley. Thus, in the wintertime, there was no escaping that north wind, and it froze every mill pond and irrigation stream in the territory, and the river as well." He grinned. "Good thing we liked to skate! And the Elf children liked to sled on the hillsides and build snow figures in the yards. I used to take my son out to skate, sled, or make snow-art. He loved it all."

[knifewithnoname]

It sounded hard and cold and not a place she would want to go. She tried to imagine a whole place frozen, she was surprised anyone was even alive. She doesn't know sledding but she knows snow figures, Peter had been making some earlier.

"You do be having a son?"

A son and a father? How did that even work? That sounded like far too many family members.

[so_dark_a_road]

Our preferences are formed by our experiences -- and Curufin would not fault her for not loving an environment that she had not grown up in.

"I do have a son. His name is Celebrimbor. I have not seen him in a long time, but my heart tells me that we will meet again someday." Curufin's face is a little sad, but at the same time hopeful. And of course, not all of what is in his heart shows on his face.

[knifewithnoname]

"Celebrimbor." That was a long name and she hoped she had said it all right. She tilted his head at his sad face, he must miss his son. She can understand that. She sometimes missed home as well but at the same time she wasn't sure how much she'd like anyone she knew turning up here.

"He might be coming here. A lot of your family do be being here already."