It was battle of the foxes.
That was what Wilde said when the two of them were at the starting gate a couple moments ago, at least.
While she could have done without the smug and clever remarks he said every time he passed her up on the course, it definitely beat having to go down R 'n' B alongside Weaselton.
Her luck had to be somewhat good today for her not having to make the run down the slope with that jerk. After the brief quarrel between her and the mustelid on the way to the event, that was something she originally hoped that she wouldn't have to do.
Skye put all of that stuff to the side and just tried to keep her eyes on the prize, keep her attention on wowing those nitpicking judges enough to earn herself the first place spot. Coming in a lousy fourth place during the last event certainly would have crushed anybody's ego, but rather than sitting around and thinking how she could have done better back there, she took whatever time she could get to perfecting her snowboarding style.
I am not going to come up in fourth, she thought, her attention fixated on the bends in the course ahead of her. I'm gonna get that first place spot no matter what it takes, even if I gotta take some risks with a couple different tricks.
The head-to-head trick showdown she had with Snarlov out in the backcountry proved to be another reason she needed to step up her game, and she hoped to do just that with several new moves. She only practiced them a few times before this event, but she had enough confidence to try them out here. While it was much different doing them out in the middle of nowhere on the peak, where nobody was there to mark down if the execution was sloppy, she had good faith that the judges would find no faults in these new tricks.
Perhaps they might even be a little stunned, she believed in the back of her head, a grin forming.
The arctic vixen crept up on the next hill, and she made her way towards it at the fullest speed possible. Her tail swished out of excitement as she took the air and felt that first real sense of big air on the course. The other jumps she had made prior to this were all a bit on the smaller side, but even though they made for good chances to get tricks in, this one she made right now was perfection. Pure, unadulterated perfection.
She had to be quick if she wanted to pull every little maneuver off in one go, and that was exactly what she planned to do. With slick finesse, she hopped out of her board and grabbed it with both paws, holding it in front of her and twirling it like she was spinning a sign. She held onto it tightly as she stopped doing this, flinging it behind her back and out in front of her again. Clicking herself back into safety, she finished with a few twirls in the air before landing in a not-so-smooth manner.
"All hail to the queen!" she proclaimed before taking the next rail a few leagues away.
Once she was effortlessly grinding across it, she unchecked from the board once again to lay flatly across it. She then flipped over onto her stomach as she held onto to the front of the board as tight as she could, swiftly moving into a new move of hers. Rather than the traditional handstand, she broke out into a trick where she balanced solely on her tail. Much like that new rabbit's move she pulled out at the last trick event, where she stood on her ears.
She got herself ready to jump off the rail and continued her journey through the terrain, only to be cut off unexpectedly by Wilde. She uttered a short and sharp grunt upon being nearly knocked down by the speedy vulpine on the course.
"Catch ya on the flip side, Skye," the tod chuckled as he flew on by.
Snow splattered up from the ground and hit her cheek from the sudden swerve that her fellow circuit competitor made just then, and she quickly wiped it off as tried to pick up her own speed.
"We'll see about that, Nick," she called out before returning her focus on the course ahead.
Nick chuckled to himself as he made his way through R 'n' B, anticipating that next jump that would come soon enough with the excitement of a kit on Christmas morning.
Throughout the time he made his way down the descent, he could see just how much Skye was trying to make her comeback. The way she performed each trick, in his opinion, just didn't feel like they were done in a natural way. It almost felt like her brain was in fight of flight with each move she made. She was focused on how cool she could try and make herself look, rather than taking in that sweet and freedom-filled feeling that came with pulling tricks off.
Sure, the consensus from the judges in the end was all about how someone looked out here, but that was quite alright to Nick.. Even though he wasn't busting as many moves as Skye had already, with the ones he already did not as intricate as hers either, he was at least enjoying himself out on the snow today.
Here it is… he thought upon peaking his head up a bit, taking notice of the jump a short glide away from him. No way I'm passin' that up.
With a little bounce, he hopped onto the log in front of him in time to make the ascension. Time entered its usual standstill for him once he has transported himself into the air, and he swore he could even the faintest sounds of the crowds of SSX fans far away from this spot. He removed himself completely from his board and held it against his right side, raising a paw up to his forehead and making a salute while in midair. Lifting the board in his paw up closer towards him, he gave it a little twirl on his finger before slipping himself back into place getting in one quick backflip.
It was seconds later that Nick was back to just navigating through the path. As much as he disliked that short instant that felt like a plateau in his steady rhythm of tricks, it was better to play it safe then take a gamble and go for something when he knew he might not be able to land it. Especially when the path was snakily curving to the left and back to the right so abruptly.
The fox, upon reaching the middle of the sinuous passage, he directed himself towards the very edge of the snow bank that was formed here. Catching just enough air to get it over with, he pulled a paw out his board, held it out in front of him, and kicked the side of it so it would twirl in a circle before he clicked it back in.
Now we're cooking, he thought after freeing himself from the path of zigzags he now dodged.
The direction he was now heading gave him nothing but a clear promenade of snow up ahead. No fallen branches, no rocks devilishly sticking out in the open, waiting for the snowboarder that wasn't pay much attention to collide into it. Though the next jump was further away, that didn't mean he had to wait until he was up to that point to do what he wanted to do out here.
With little to no risks to run into on this part of the course, with the worst that could happen being he takes a teeny tumble into the snow, it was totally worth giving something new a shot. Now was the time to do just that, he believed. The time he had on this course known as R 'n' B was a-brewin'.
He had to get in touch with the inner instincts for this particular trick, since it was pretty much a play on something foxes were known for.
The good ol' pounce.
He squatted down as he got himself ready before freeing both paws from the board and springing into the air on all fours like the clown emerging from a jack-in-the-box. As the vacant board cruised at a lesser speed away from him, he planted his arms so he could get a tight grasp onto the nose of it in time to stick a landing. From there, he went into a balancing act where his foot paws were in the air. He quickly changed up by making it where he was balancing on a single paw, pushing even further a second by making it where his balance was held by one finger for a split second.
Nick leapt up again and landed on the board while on all fours, taking that from Snarlov's trick from the previous event where he did the same thing. His tail swishing faster in the breeze that swooped on by, he stiffly held a foot paw out onto the side, letting it just touch the cold surface of the snow as he rolled along by. His claws left thin little lines in the white expanse as he did this, as if he were leaving his mark that this was the spot that he pulled this off for the first time.
He then hopped up for a third and final time, flipping in the air before landing just precisely enough to get himself back into his board without embarrassingly wiping out.
"But that's not all," he said to himself motivationally. "One of 'em mountain cams is up ahead."
Just as he had coached himself, he could see a wood-colored post where one of the camera capturing footage of his run down the course had been placed, right by the up and coming jump. When it almost felt like the fun was over for the time being, along came that sick-looking ascent into the wind.
Ready or not, here I come…
It was time to taste the wind for him. He ascended up the inclining mound of snow and became on the wing once again.
"This one's for you, Hopps," he said out loud, though who he was talking about was waiting for him at the finish line.
He took himself completely out of the safe bindings of the board again and started to roll his horse in a circular motion on the surface of it, twirling his legs through the air while doing so. It was like he was pulling off the dance move known as the windmill but in midair, a feat he had wanted to make after thinking it up but never finding the drive to try until now.
Once that was over with, he finished up with another set of flips while he still had the chance. He couldn't keep that reputation of his as the Flip Trick Prince without incorporating them into the run every moment he could. The nickname wouldn't make much sense that way.
"Keepin' it foxy, Wilde! Keepin' it foxy!"
Skye pretty much had this whole shebang in the bag. After she graced R 'n' B in her eyes with the moves she was sure would bump her up from the previous fourth place, she could take her mind off of busting tricks and just get her way down to the finish line.
Being the one who pretty much dominated the peak, she knew her fair share of shortcuts to getting to where she needed to go much faster. Even if she wasn't being timed or anything, being quicker to that finish line didn't kill nobody.
Don't wanna overly impress the crowds now, do we?
Her shortcuts, leading her around every obstacle and making a full circle past them all, gave her a one-way ticket to the final portions of the course. The glowing sign that marked the end of it all was getting closer and closer, but not without a certain large vehicle, a sponsor of the event, atop of a huge mass of snow in her midst, of course.
She grinned as she thought about what she said earlier about not needing to do anything else. Hell with it, she thought. Everybody's got room for just one more impressive trick.
The vixen took the closest rail of the three that led up to the snow mound, gaining just enough speed for her to then make the travel upward. Onto a thinner yellow rail she went, keeping her head down as she glided across it and through the open backside doors of the vehicle.
Once she was past that part and reaching the tippy end of that rail, she slipped out both paws from her board and placed them closer to each other outside of the bindings. From there, with as much faith as she could put in herself to not mess up, she leapt into the air making dual peace signs with her paws. Her board was starting to glide away on the ground as she floated in the air freely. She felt like she was a skydiver in a way, but instead of jumping from a plane she jumped out of a snowboard.
Skye was more than certain that those crowds waiting at the finish line were tense at what she just did, but she felt like there was no need for anybody to get too hyped up. I got this!
Gravity took its toll and she found herself falling from the height in which she was before, but her board—thank the snowboarding gods—was within her reach. She reached out for it and landed in such a way that one of her foot paws was able to be back in its binding She wobbled for a moment while she put the other one back into its place, the weight of nearly tumbling there now lifted off her chest. After all, crashing onto the snow at the very last part of the course after a flawless run would've sucked big time for her.
She slowed down before crossing the glowing arch that said "Finish Line" up above her. The crowds were going absolutely ecstatic, because she knew that's naturally how they should be.
She was the queen of the peak, after all, and the only thing to do now was wave to the crowds in the likeness of one.
Judy shuffled in the snow with her paws in her pockets, still feeling all the excitement from the run she had completed. While anticipating those scores from the judges seated at the booth to the far left of where she was standing, she decided to pass the time watching some of the footage the mountain cams around the course had captured. The videos were being shown on a large projector a good distance from her, lighting up the spot where the platform the winners of the event would stand to get their medals.
Being displayed on that screen in that current moment in time was a replay of the insane trick Skye pulled off at that last moment. As much as she wasn't a big fan of her in this circuit, Judy had to admit that it was pretty impressive. Something that she hoped, perhaps in some distant future of her in this sport, she could be able to do that easily. The picture being shown faded away and started to play portions of Snarlov's performance, showing him while on a rail and then when he and her both encountered one another on the course.
A few seconds later, Judy was greeted with playback of herself being shown on the screen, right there for all the spectators standing around to see. "Hey, that's me!" she said to herself with ebullience, pointing to what she was now watching.
The screen continued to show all the doe's best tricks from the run she had finished, playing it in slow motion (maybe less than half of how fast it actually was) to show just how much skill and precision went into what she did out there. She simply stood there beaming as she saw the replay of it. It was one thing to see it from her perspective while on the snowboard herself, but it was completely different to see it the way others did watching her. The way those might hva eseen it from their televisions that couldn't be out here to see it live.
Hope I made the fans I got around here proud, she wished.
Judy then heard the sounds of something against the snow over the rest of the noises floating around the finish line, and turned herself around with ears now perking up. She looked in that direction to spot a certain russet-furred snowboarder making their way here. HIs footage might not have been shown just yet, but she was pretty sure that he did a marvelous job on the snow today. That was her feeling on the matter, and ten out of ten times she had a feeling about something like that, she was correct.
The bunny took a couple steps to the side, making a clear runway for him to slide right through once he got closer to the destination. She observed as he moved across the descending snow in a slithering manner, jumping from time to time to get in a quick spin.
A short bit of time went by and he started to get pretty close to the finish, and he jumped once again to try and do a front flip. The fox was doing it just fine but was not quick enough to stick a perfect landing, resulting in him taking an unpredicted fall. Members of the crowds gasped as this unfolded, and he quickly got up and came to a stop on the other side of the finish line, the applause from before returning as if nothing happened.
Nick waved with both paws to everybody that surrounding him and the other competitors that had arrived here. "I'm okay, ladies and gents!" he called out, though no one could really hear him over the mixture of cheers and music blaring.
"You okay, Nick?" Judy asked him despite him saying he was just fine a second ago.
The fox shrugged and answered, "Just a little topple, Fluff. You'll have that every now and then. Nothing to get overly upset about, ya know? So, how was R 'n' B for ya?"
"Pretty awesome," responded Judy honestly.
"Yeah, that about sums it up for me as well, Carrots," Nick replied. "Heck, you could honestly say that about every part of the mountain. Oh, by the way, I, uh, did a special trick out there that I kinda dedicated to you."
"To me?" the doe inquired, a paw against her chest.
"Maybe they'll show it here on the big screen behind us if we watch it," the vulpine suggested.
The two turned around and started to watch the screen, which had, just in time, shifted from what it had been showing before to footage of Nick's performance on the course. The footage shifted from him leaving the starting gate to when he was gliding on the snow while he looked like he was on all fours on his board. Judy chuckled as she watched that part being shown to the audiences.
"What?" Nick asked upon hearing her small laughter.
"That move you did out there," Judy replied as she pointed at the screen. "It's silly, but I really like it."
Nick smiled in agreement as he stood there silently. "Wait, I think this is it!" he said to her shortly afterwards once he saw the replay change. "That was the trick I did out there I was telling you about."
The rabbit watched attentively when it showed him pulling of that move that looked like he was doing the windmill while in midair, and she watched with amazement as it replayed in slow motion, her mouth hanging open in an awestricken state. "Wow..." she muttered. "How did you do that?"
"A talented fox never reveals their secrets," he joked with a grin.
Judy laughed in reply. "Well," she said to him, "it's quite an honor to have another rider out here do a trick out here that they dedicated to me. I mean, I'm just a regular bunny out here on the mountain."
"You're not just a regular bunny," Nick responded. "You're the bunny. The one who broke the mold and the one who'll take every bit of this mountain by storm."
"All three peaks?" Judy wondered.
The fox smiled back and nodded his head. "All three peaks."
"You think I can master boarding all of the spots on 'em? The word is that the next to are a little bit trickier to navigate and stuff."
"Oh, you'll do amazing. I ain't no fortune teller, but I know that that's exactly what you're gonna do."
"Up next is Wolford and Weaselton in today's freestyle event..."
As Duke Weaselton rolled the sleeves of his jacket up once and shuffled his board against the snow, he found himself now ready to take on the course. The wolf who would be shredding down the snow with him came sliding up at a pretty fast speed, halting suddenly like a car whose brakes had been slammed on too hard.
Wolford waved with both paws to the audiences in the booths behind the starting gate, the dumb, ear-to-ear he always seemed to have on him plastered on his muzzle.
Duke rolled his eyes at his ridiculous amount of cheerfulness. The way he seemed to fret not about the whole winning thing despite this being a competition seemed a bit blithe. Who would just disregard and be that happy despite pretty much doing a so-so job at this year's circuit, complete with upsetting wipeouts?
Obviously this freakin' wolf does, he thought, answering his own question by himself.
Looking closer at the happy-go-lucky canid, he could see he was in a different kind of getup for this event. Rather than the typical winter clothing that all the riders were wearing, Wolford's choice of outfit appeared to be a bit different. Whatever deep blue outfit that he was wearing had thin black pieces of cloth between the arms, legs, and chest.
"I don't know what that's even supposed to be," Weaselton muttered to himself not-so-quietly.
Wolford overheard him and turned away from the crowds to look at him. "What was that?"
"What's with that suit?" Duke asked with arms crossed. "Does that serve any purpose or is that just some kinda fashion statement?"
Wolford knew the weasel was just trying to knock him down a peg or two before the run down the course, but he didn't let that sink in. "Well, Duke," he answered, "you'll just have to wait and find out."
The mustelid scoffed at the vague response he had gotten. "What's that supposed to mean?"
The timber wolf grinned back with pointed teeth and said, "It means what it means, buddy."
"I ain't your buddy," Weaselton snapped back, pointing a finger at him. "I ain't nobody's buddy 'round here. You just better watch your tail out here. Out here's gonna be my domain, and anyone who tries to stop me from winning's gonna get their ass knocked down."
"Okay, mammal," Wolford simply replied, placing the goggles on top of his head over his eyes. "See you at the finish line."
"Get ready!" called out the mammal holding the starting pistol.
With that statement, the two competitors turned away from each other and got themselves into position. Either of them had a good shot at impressing the judges out on the open snow, and it was up to them to give it their all out here. And that was exactly what they were both going to do.
Tail wagging faster than ever, Wolford veered in the direction of the wind and soars up the snow mound. He started to break out into a series of spins done so swiftly that he was almost looking like a gray-furred blur in the air.
The timber wolf whooped as he hit the blanketing snow. This whole R 'n' B course was proving to be more fun than he had anticipated on his way here.
He diverted from the direction he was going and scouted for his next jump, which was right far out to the right of where he was going. He swerved towards it and picked up speed, just as Weaselton was coming straight ahead. The two of them were near inches away from knocking into one another, both of them quickly eluding by getting further away that scenario before it could happen.
"Whew," Wolford said to himself, crisis now averted. "That was a close one."
"Hey, watch where you're going!" Duke snarled as he boarded off in the other direction.
"Sorry," he called back, though he wasn't exactly sure why he was doing so.
He literally wasn't meaning to almost bump into him, but he was pretty sure Duke wouldn't have believed that. He seemed like the kind that made talking to him feel like talking to a wall. Though he didn't personally know him enough to prove that or not, it was just his hunch.
Alright, Wolford, the canid thought. Time to get your head back in the game.
A fallen log, hollow with a hold cut straight into it, sat several feet away, leading up to that jump he wanted to take. Wolford thought a quick pitstop to pull another trick while gliding by it wouldn't hurt, so that his quick yet confident decision that he made.
The wolf coursed straight up to where it was and bounced up so he could be able to glide on the top of it. He heard the scraping of the fallen log's bark underneath his board as he did this successfully. With that, while flowing forward across it, he took a paw out of his board and held it out to his side like he was doing some balancing act. He wobbled just a bit before he broke into trick. He laid across the board on his stomach wit his fangs out on the edge of the board's nose, making it look as if he were biting it like the wolf that he was.
He hoisted himself up perfectly and slid to the end of the log, just in time for the next big jump. It wasn't the biggest one he would probably find on this course, he presumed, but it made for another cool chance to get something else in his run.
Or, in his case, assuming he timed it all right, multiple tricks in this part of his run.
The wagging of his tail became faster than the flags blowing in the heavy winds that were coming in, and he was on cloud nine as he came to the jump and braces himself for some more of that sick big air.
Wolford, once he had taken off like an airplane entering the skies, clicked himself out his board again and got on his knees, holding his paws in front of him as if he were a begging canine. He jumped right up and back into his board again before clicking himself back out of it, defeating of the purpose of even doing it. With one paw out the board and the other still in its bindings, he kicked the edge of it so it would spin a circle. He continued to do it faster each time until his board looked like a wheel in motion. He slipped his paw back into the spinning board and found himself twirling in a few fast circles.
He enjoyed the feeling of just falling back down to the snow for a few seconds, the weightlessness that came with the drop back down onto that covered ground. The snow crunched loudly once he had landed, and he let out a delighted howl. It was a little stereotypical of him to let one out, but sometimes it was best to just do it when you were feeling that adrenaline.
His adrenaline was short-lived and only at its highest for a short while, however. While he was only paying attention to what was in front of him and not on either side, he, without warning, found himself being struck down unexpectedly onto the snow. He tumbled down and ended up getting a muzzle full of chilly snow before he picked himself back up.
As he was doing just that, he saw the culprit behind him getting knocked onto the show. The mustelid on the course speeded on by without stopping, and he could hear him faintly chuckling.
"Watch out for pedestrians!" Weaselton laughed.
Wolford shivered for a second as he tried to regain the speed he was at before. Crashing into that snow wasn't on his itinerary for today, but he just had to let that go and keep boarding along. Sometimes he had to just go with the flow, he guessed.
Now that the wolf was far from catching up with him now, Duke now had the chance to call dibs on the best spots for tricks first. That was just the way he liked it.
And here comes the jump...
There it was. The mound of snow that projected anyone up over the empty railroad tracks around this part of the peak. A pretty sick jump to make, if someone asked him for his thoughts on it (as that was something he was always more than happy to do, even if it wasn't asked for).
"Comin' through, Peak One!" he walloped joyously as he took to the skies.
The weasel jumped out the board and grabbed it with both paws, throwing it behind his back and brushing it against it as if it were a back scratcher. He then held it back out in front of him above him just a little it like he was holding up some marvelous award he had won. He kept that pose he was in for a brief spell, enjoying that sense of flying freely for a few measly seconds before clicking himself back in.
"Boom, baby!"
He then slipped his left paw out the board again and let it hang out in front of him, leaning his body to the side as he did this quick maneuver. The direction in which he was soaring through the air, however, did not work out in his favor. He ended up brushing against the side of a tree in his midst while airborne, and that collision knocked him out of his board completely.
The snowboard flew downward and somewhere into the snow, while Duke was flailing around as he took the free fall. Lucky for him, he wasn't hurt when he landed in the cushion of snow down below, his tail being the only thing sticking out of it.
He pulled himself up from out of the freezing snow he had left a dent in, pounding a fist against it as he cursed his rotten luck under his breath. He ran up to where his board had landed and got himself back into it.
He never really believed in karma like others did, but for a quick second he thought that was what he was getting for knocking that wolf down earlier. If that was the case for him, then Karma needed to take a chill and realized he was only joking. Out on the slopes like this, it was pretty much survival of the fittest.
Karma wouldn't understand; it wasn't a snowboarder like him.
"Son of a..." he muttered through gritted teeth, now back into place on his board and more careful when it came to his surroundings.
He hopped up a bit to get the motion going and slowly slides down the hill. He was far off from gliding like he was before, but he hoped that in no time he would eventually gain some speed.
Wolford honestly had never felt this alive before in his young life. Gliding across the snow-covered rooftops of the buildings in the heart of the course gave him a feeling that felt like nothing else he had felt before this journey on the circuit started for him.
The canid leapt off the end of the surface he was sliding across and took to the air once more. He removed himself entirely from the board and held away from him in his paw, kicking his legs in the air as if he didn't know how to stay still. He pulled this off with ease before getting back down to the ground again, simply enjoying the ride through the meandering middle of the course.
He had pulled off quite an assortment of tricks today, and so he decided to put those on the back-burner until he got near the end of the course. That was where he planned to pull off what he thought of as the grand finale to this run. He swerved from side to side through the snaking portion of snow before making his way through the finishing portions of R 'n' B, breezing passed the trees as he threw in the simple nose or tail press on his board.
A moment later, directly on his side, he spotted a tall black pole with a light dimming glowing on the top of it. The timber wolf took a detour towards it and jumped up, grabbing the post with both paws and spinning around it twice. He let go of it and touched the snow again, crossing that little trick off his list. He hadn't seen anybody do anything of that sort before in footage of circuits past, so he figured he might just have to try it out and mix things up.
Wolford slid a bit faster now through the terrain, taking notice of a fluorescent rail even further to his left, gliding further out into the distance before leading him to a drop-off from this part of the course. He went right for the bright rail that stuck out to him, doing a handspring once he was near millimeters from the start of it. He held it for a moment before flipping into the air and proceeding to glissade forward on the metallic surface.
He dodged the temptation to do some other crazy move while on the rail, but he didn't have anything else to offer the judges watching from the mountain cams all over. He didn't want to do a repetition of something he already did, so he just focused on picking up his speed instead. Surely enough, that's exactly what he did. While he was far from the speed of lightning, he felt like he was going pretty fast at the moment.
Wolford reached the end of the rail and was coming right up to the drop. This was the moment he had been waiting for, the perfect time to do something he found pretty unique.
That Duke fella was askin' me about what was up with the outfit earlier, he thought. Well, now he's gonna see for himself!
A log elevated by a large stone was in the middle of his way, providing a clear shot up above the other path that he assumed the weasel was taking. He glided onto the log and entered the air, hovering there for a second.
Now that he was in midair, he spread his arms and legs out. Little did Weaselton at the beginning of the run that he was wearing not just an ordinary jumpsuit, but a wingsuit. Prior to the start of the events, Wolford was hit with that idea and thought it would take things up a notch. Enough practice using it out in the backcountry and he felt comfortable and confident enough to try it out before an audience.
He glided along through the wind, the webbed fabric that was part of his attire blowing in the gust. He whooped once again at his success, now feeling like a pilot in control of steering an aircraft from up here, even though the height was far from a huge feat.
"Bet y'all never saw a flying wolf before!" he exclaimed.
Wolford could see the finish line not too far away. As much as he wanted fly above the gate that marked it, he was pretty sure he, technically speaking, had to cross it the way the others did. Until he reached that point, though, he simply just enjoyed the sensation of riding with the wind.
Duke basically felt like cursing himself out at every moment that he could for the remainder of his run. That ridiculous plummet into the snow earlier was enough to crush his ego into a million tiny pieces.
As much as he tried to make up for that mishap on the course, he just couldn't quite get back into the game like he was prior to that. The only tricks he could get it from that moment on were a couple grabs and flips, but nothing that would've been impressive to those judges awaiting the end of his run.
He had to face facts as he continued along; the journey on this SSX circuit was probably going to come to its close pretty soon. That had him more than ticked off on the inside, but as much as he just wanted to give up and go out of here, he had to finish the course.
The weasel had a little bit more snow to cover until the finish line, though. He might not have been able to do too much, but he figured the last bits of R 'n' B gave him enough of a chance to put one last touch to the run. One last impression on this peak.
"Woo-hoo!"
Duke heard the sounds of that overly gleeful wolf coming his way from behind, becoming more audible as he got closer. He lifted his head to look up at the sky and saw that the snowboarder canid was flying up above him.
"Are you kidding me?" he said. "A frickin' wingsuit?"
So that was what the son of a gun was wearing this entire time. He had this planned from the get go, he presumed. From the time this event was announced, he probably developed that idea in his tiny mind.
Duke had to give him credit since it was due. The whole wingsuit surprise was pretty damn impressive.
Still, it felt like it was a bit much to him, most likely because he was about to come in dead last. Nobody honestly liked to feel that way, so his feelings at the moment were pretty valid.
The mustelid didn't feel like thinking about that anymore than he needed to, though. Rather than doing that, he just kept his eyes on getting to that finish line like a driver focused on the road. Better to just get there without doing anything else than try to do some slick trick and end up blowing it even more. He crossed the finish line and just stood silently for the time being, getting out of his board and sighing heavily.
The wolf to the left of him, meanwhile, seemed to be enjoying himself, pumping a fist in there and taking in all the applause. He let out another howl and rung out in the air, and some of the folks in the crowd couldn't help but join in with him.
Duke could do nothing more than roll his eyes at his antics. There was nothing wrong with a little dash of positivity, but the amount of positivity exerted from his was just annoying to him.
"Dude, I was flyin' out there," Wolford remarked once he turned to look over at him, still super pumped up from what he had completed a short time ago.
"There's a big difference between flying and just falling with style," Weaselton snapped, crossing his arms. "Same goes for whatever the hell Skye thought she was doin' out 'ere earlier."
Wolford could sense the tenseness that weasel had built up, pretty much emitting from him as if it were an aura. "Dude, you gotta chill-"
"No, dude," Duke interrupted. "Ya know, somebody oughta wipe that annoying-ass grin of your freakin' face!" He uncrossed his arms and started to march up to the wolf, huffing loudly under his breath. Before he could take too many steps forward, though, a bulky rhino that served as a guard to the event stepped him and held the irritated weasel back. "That shoulda been you out there that wiped out like I did!"
"Calm it down," the rhino urged the resistant mustelid. "We don't wanna have to get the event organizers involved and have ya fully kicked off the circuit for good, do we?"
Duke most certainly didn't want that to happen, so he just let it go for right then. If that happened and they removed him indefinitely, then he wouldn't have a chance to come back and try to kick tail in next year's circuit. That didn't take away, though, from how upset he still felt in that moment.
"Time for today's scores from the judge panel for today's event!"
All the snowboarders remained silent as they awaited the moment they had been anticipating for the longest few minutes in a long time. All of them waited on the benches they were sitting upon, brushing off their boards, checking their Z-Comms. In just a few short seconds, the first score was going to light up on the screen that finished playing all the footage of the riders.
"Drumroll, please," Nick joked.
Judy laughed alongside him and started to pat her against her legs, imitating the drumroll he had mentioned wittily.
Wolford's picture was the first to show up on the screen. He knew that he didn't exactly do the most fanatic performance in the world, but he hoped that the judges would show at least a little excitement for what he did. Right next to his name was the number 23. Out of the thirty possible points he could get from the three judges at their table, that was what he managed to get.
Not bad, he had to admit, for what he got accomplished.
Up next was Weaselton's name to be displayed, and within a second his score was now being shown. Much to the weasel's dismay, he had gotten a lower score of 20. That, he believed, was probably brought on from the fall and the lack of things he did following it on the course. The mustelid scoffed and muttered to himself, storming off from where he was standing and heading elsewhere.
"Not a big fan of accepting a loss, huh?" Judy said quietly to herself.
"Probably never has been and probably never will," chimed in Snarlov from where he sat, scrolling through the feed on his Z-Comm before setting it down
Judy, meanwhile, continued in waiting paitiently for her results just as hers started to show up on the screen.
He had pinched himself and he surely wasn't dreaming. He actually was the one who would take a gold medal in a slopestyle event for the second time so far this year. Even though he was up here for the second time already, he still really couldn't believe this was actually happening right now.
The scores after Wolford's and Weaselton's were pretty much neck and neck, with literally one or two points being what separated them from one another. Snarlov, much to his disbelief, turned out to be the one who was standing on the top of the podium, donning the gold medal that shimmered around his neck.
"Two out of two!" he proclaimed as he flexed his muscles. "I think I'm beginning to like this."
"Better watch out Peak Two," said Judy out loud from her spot on the second-place podium, pointing around at the crowds with her shiny silver medal on, "'cause Judy Hopps is here to win it all!" She returned to her act of waving to all the fans, which were cheering at their loudest they ever had for her.
Nick ended up being only two points off from her score and a third place spot, and even though fourth didn't receive a medal in this competition, he still was number one in the rabbit's book. Had there been an extra medal or award to give out, she would give it to him in a heartbeat.
Skye, meanwhile, wasn't too happy to be the one showing off the bronze. As much as she wanted and coveted that gold around the neck of that polar bear right now, she would have been at least a little bit happier if she got that silver. She had nothing to say to any of those watching around her, so she just stuck to clapping and nodding her head, vowing to do better once the next peak was on her radar.
The three on their podiums, Nick, and Wolford were the only ones remaining from the beginning of the competition. Even though they all had their own goals that were different from each other's for when they would travel to the next peak in one week, all of them were more than ready to take on what was next. It was sure to be a fun ride for all of them, with maybe some new faces along the way, and the day the next event was taking place couldn't come soon enough.
Author's Note: Hey there, everybody! A mixture of two snow days where I'm from and the Winter Olympics being in full swing sparked my urge to write some more of this story.
This whole slopestyle part of the story proved to be more than a bit challenging than I originally thought as I was writing it out. I know this probably on the lamer side of things, but now it's over and on to the next part of this tale. I tried to make things as exciting as possible and like the insanity that you saw in the SSX games, so hopefully I did a decent job at that. I tried to get imaginative when coming up with everybody's trick, doing ones that were a bit different this time.
I'm going to work on writing out everybody and what they'll be doing leading up to the point where the competition resumes, so that'll make things a little more interesting to read about hopefully. Not only that, but there'll also be some new characters coming real soon as well. :)
Anyway, let me know what your thoughts were on this. As always, your feedback, whether good or bad, is gladly appreciated. And thank you to everyone who has been keeping up with this little story of mine. I've been having a lot of fun writing it and I'm happy to know you are all enjoying it.
'Til next time! :)