The One Who Laughs Last

Hay Lin lay in her bed with one leg in bandages and stared at the snow falling outside. Under other circumstances she would have been put out, but being surrounded by her friends, only Taranee was still missing, she couldn't stop smiling.

Finally, her fiery friend came through the door.

"Sorry for being late," the fire guardian said as she realized she was the last one. "I came as fast as I could."

"Don't you worry," Hay Lin said smiling. "As you can see, I won't be leaving for a while," and nodded towards her broken leg.

"How did it happened?" Taranee said worryingly to her friend. But then she suddenly caught eye of the unexpected object standing on the dresser beside the bed and said surprised, "And how did you get that!"

"Yeh, come on tell us," Irma said impatiently. "I am dying to know how this happened."

"And why you are grinning," Cornelia said.

"Come on guys," Will said diplomatic. "Let the poor girl tell at her own pace."

Hay Lin laughed at her friends antics and said, "Okay, since you are all here, I will tell you what happened."

Flashback

Hay Lin was looking over her equipment, making sure she hadn't forgot anything. Today was the day, she was going to compete in the annual cross country ski race in the Heatherfield forest. Although she still was clumsy and slow as a turtle compared to the others she was up against, she wouldn't let that stop her from trying.

The skis was her mother's and clearly not up to date. Her ski dress was of her own design and probably not as aerodynamic as the others but it was much cooler in her opinion. She took the skis in her arms and started walking when suddenly a mocking voice assaulted her from behind.

"Well, well, well. Isn't it Hay Lin who is here? Did she came all the way up here to have a look at us professionals or are you somehow lost?"

Hay Lin turned around and was met by two grinning Grumper sisters in a similar pairs of modern ski suites and new carbon skis.

"I am here to participate in the Heatherfield race if you really want to know," Hay Lin said and felt her good mood rapidly decline.

"What!" said Bess, faking surprised. "With those skis and that suite? I thought you were a part of some retro fashion exhibition or something like that."

"Good luck to you then," Courtney said and turned around to leave. "You really need it."

Hay Lin watched the sisters walk away, whispering to each other and casted a few looks back at her. Hopefully she would only see them at the start line. Unfortunately, if they finished before her or even worse, won, she would never hear the end of it. Incredible how just a brief meeting with those two could manage to ruin what was supposed to be a good day.

Hay Lin had only five minutes left until start and had finally found a stand where she could wax her skis and was therefore in a hurry. She took the only tube with wax that was available from the stand, sat down and started brushing it out, finishing in record time. Then she put on her skis, took her first step… and fell on her nose. The skis felt heavy as if they had been glued to the ground! Confused she looked up from her awkward position and heard somebody giggle. Hay Lin looked around and saw Bess and Courtney standing half hidden behind a tall ski box, grinning mischievous.

"Are you studying the ground?" Courtney asked. "Or is it the first time you have skis on your legs?"

Hay Lin glared first at them and then she looked at the tube with ski wax she just had used. Upon closer inspection, she noticed the label on it was loose at the top. She stretched out her hand and tore it off.

"Glue!" The label under it said and Hay Lin was fuming.

"See you later. After the finish," Bess sang as the sisters left for the start line.

Hay Lin had little time to remove the glue from under her skis. Unfortunately, this wasn't something her air powers could help her with either.

Scraping off the worst of it was all she could do, she had not time for the rest. With still a fair amount of glue under her skis and in a sour mood, she was hurryingly on her way to the start line when she passed a gorilla-looking guy who was speaking in a cellphone when her enchanted hearing caught on the conversation:

"Do you follow me?" said the voice.

Hay Lin immediately recognized the voice of Courtney.

"Yes," the gorilla replied and scratched his head. "You want me to set up the water stand in the middle of Big Kill Hill. But why?"

"Because it is impossible to stop there. People will fly past it without being able to stop and drink, and without water they will be too thirsty to continue at full speed. Then we will pass them all and win!"

"Duh!" he said to his phone, "Wouldn't you be thirsty as well?"

"Of course not. We have somebody waiting for us with water in a desolated place further down. Now go! The race is about to begin."

The conversation ended and Hay Lin saw the big man walked away grumbling to himself. Of course, the Grumper's couldn't participate in any competition without cheating. How typical. But could she stop it? She wasn't sure, the time didn't give her much room to think about it right now.

She had just managed to make it to the start line before she heard somebody shout, "GO!", and then the race was on.

The first thing that happened was that she was passed by almost everyone around her; her skies still were full of glue she hadn't managed to remove. It took Hay Lin several minutes of hard work before she managed leaving the start area and got some speed on her skis. But still!

"This won't do," she said to herself. "At this speed I won't cross the finish line before spring. Think Hay Lin. Think!"

Then an idea hit her.

"Air!" she whispered and let the air lift her up from the track. Not much, perhaps a centimeter, just little enough that no one would notice it. Then without the glue sticking her to the track and no other friction between the skis and the snow whatsoever, she literally glided on air effortlessly along the ski trail, quickly catching up with the others. And soon she had passed half of the competitors.

Hay Lin looked at the others who sweated and struggled to keep up with her and felt a twinge of guilt as she raced past them. "Hmm" she though. "Perhaps I should take it easier. Although I am sure there are no specific rules that says the skis have to stay on the ground the entire time, I bet the others would look at it as cheating if they knew. I should not try to win this with magic, a place in the middle would be most realistic for me without the stupid glue."

She was just about to slow down her speed when she caught eye of two familiar figures not too far away from her.

"Or beat them on the finish line. Yes, that would serve them," the air guardian grinned for herself.

If the Grumper's wanted to cheat to make her loose, she could return them the favor. Putting away her guilty feeling, she speeded up to pass them.

Though, before she could do that, the sisters disappeared behind a turn. Unfortunately some trees that caused Hay Lin to lose sight of them for a moment also blocked the view further. What happened next was totally unexpected.

Right after the turn, the track abruptly went down a steep slope. Hay Lin whose skis were floating on air with nothing but gravity to affect them, suddenly got an enormous acceleration downwards. It took only a fraction of a second before her mind became aware of three important things.

One: There was a sharp curve at the bottom of the hill.
Two: Her speed was far too great to let her get around the turn.
Three: She had to let her skis touch the ground in order to slow down.

Acting quickly, she put in motion thought number three and lowered her skies. But unfortunately she didn't have time to see the sand that just a moment ago, accidently, had been lost on the ski track halfway down…

The skis had barely touched the ground before the air guardian suddenly felt a powerful jolt as her skis stopped abruptly, and the next thing she knew she was flying through the air without the aid of her wings or magical powers.

"POFF"

She landed head first inside a pile of snow at the bottom. Arms, legs, skies and poles pointing out in every direction. Fortunately it was a soft landing in powder snow, Hay Lin uncovered her head and looked around to see if there were anyone to witness this embarrassing accident. With a quick check, she found her skies, legs and arms to be fine, then she looked back at the track and saw…

"Sand! In the middle of the winter, how mysterious…" she thought angry for herself before she yelled down the track. "JUST YOU WAIT!"

With a little help from her wind magic, she lifted herself up from the pile and back into the track. She was about to continue when she looked back.

"I don't think it is right that those who comes after me also should be victims of the Grumper's machinations. And since nobody is here…"

Hay Lin called on a powerful wind, let it blow the sand out off the track, and hurried to catch up with the troublesome siblings.

This time she had no qualms to let her skis hover frictionless above the track. The distance she had made between herself and the people coming after had been made short because of her involuntarily flight and meeting with the snow. Therefore she had to push on hard to make it up.

She wouldn't use her magic to let the wind push her uphill, that would be too much cheating, but she hadn't needed it either. The glue under her skis made her hang on far better than any ski wax available. Soon the Grumper's were in sight again.

As it turned out, both of the sisters were fast ski goers and not far ahead of them again was the elite group of the race. Expecting something sneaky from the Grumper's again, she went even faster to pass the duo.

Hay Lin smiled from ear to ear and started to whistle a merry tune to make them look back and see who was coming.

"Hi girls!" Hay Lin hummed. "Did you miss me?"

"What! Impossible!" Bess spurted out. ""How could you catch upon us so fast after we…"

She didn't finish her sentence because her sister suddenly slapped her with a ski pole. "Shut it!"

Hay Lin pretended that everything was in order, pushed out to the side and passed them on their flank. "Hmm?" she said innocently. "Was there something?"

"Nothing!" they both said simultaneously.

Then Courtney said, "Are you sure you should go this fast, you may not be able to endure the entire race if you go as fast as you do now."

"Watch me!" Hay Lin said and stuck out her tongue as she passed them completely.

A couple of colorful words that she was sure she didn't deserve was heard, but she didn't mind them and pushed on with the two angry sister close on her heels. Oh, she was going to tire them out.

They went faster and faster. She purposely let them pass her sometimes just so she could pass them again soon after. Not once did they notice that her skis never touched the ground.

After going on like this for about twenty minutes, they came to what seemed to be the top of a hill because the view expanded greatly in front of them. Courtney decided to pass Hay Lin, leaving her in the middle between the sisters.

"Come on Bess," Courtney shouted. "We are fastest downhill, let little Lin bite the dust." And with that, Courtney disappeared over the top. Hay Lin and Bess heels on.

Fate however is an unfaithful friend. Halfway down of the long and ridiculous steep hill, stood the water stand, and on the tracks in front of it was a tightly packed group of skiers. Bess and Courtney had gravely miscalculated the stopping skills of the elite group.

Seeing this, Courtney tried to slow down her speed to get around them. Unfortunately she wasn't slowing down fast enough and slammed into a couple of people who fell and effectively blocked the entire ski trail.

Hay Lin was more fortunately, she managed to use her magic to stop right in time before she collided with the wide eyed boy in front of her. But her moment of relief was short lived.

The last of the Grumper's had not the skills to stop in time either. The Asian girl felt a sharp pain when something with great speed rammed right into her back and sent her flying into the rest of the crowd.

Flashback ends

"I don't remember what happened next because everything went Black," said Hay Lin. "But when I opened my eyes again, I and everybody else lay jumbled together in a big heap of limbs, arms and broken skis the very bottom of the hill."

"Ah," said Irma. "That would explain your broken leg. But it doesn't explain that!" and pointed at the shiny object on the dresser.

"Oh, you see," said Hay Lin and continued with a smile. "When the judges learned of what had happened they had to terminate the race because there were so many of us that were unable to continue, so instead they decided to move the official finish line to the bottom of the hill. And then give the first price to the person who lay at the bottom of the pile as they assumed this was the person who came down first!"

Hearing this the girls around her broke out in laughter and Cornelia managed to speak between her giggles, "That explains your trophy. Congratulation on winning the annual Heatherfield ski race Hay Lin."

End

Hi guys, hope you enjoyed my last story (for now?) in the enchanted days series. Please write and tell me what you think and which of my stories you enjoyed most (all praise and critic are welcome). Would you like some more stories in this format or do you want more like "The Asylum"?

My next story will be one from Inu yasha (manga/anime) featuring Kirara and probably a few chapters long. Hope you will read it : )