Whot?
Whott?
Three chapters?!
Noooo!
Yes :)
This one is light-hearted, too! It's pure fluff and fun, I promise. The squad needed that, hng. But yes, this is purely fun. I hope you enjoy it!
Grumbling, Amity lifted her face from the snow.
She hadn't anticipated skiing to be so hard.
Eda had shown her how to do it and had weirdly enough, been a really good teacher after they had crafted the necessary gear. She supposed Eda had been skiing in the Human Realm already.
Huffing, she got back up and somehow managed to maneuver her heavy legs against the steep hill again. These weird boards on her feet were hard to handle and less fun than she had imagined after Eda's descriptions. They were almost up to her chin and very flat and as narrow as her feet, and while she did have some sticks to hold herself up with, they could get really fast and very hard to steer before she would inevitably faceplant again.
She couldn't imagine how Luz would've found any fun in that.
Luckily, she hadn't gone for the board version, though, the one Emira and Willow were trying out. Their reasoning had been that one board should be easier to control than two, but that had apparently been a very bad mistake, as Amity watched her sister barreling down the slope farther down for the umpteenth time, only being stopped by Gus who was thinking fast and stopped her with a pile of snow he conjured.
Gus, Edric, and her had opted for the skis, hoping that having their legs separated would give them some sort of stability. But that had been a mistake, too. She supposed Edric was buried somewhere in the snow as well.
For some reason, Willow had managed fairly well, but she suspected her friend was somehow using her plant magic to cheat. Gus had immediately figured out these wretched things and had begun riding down the slope faster and faster every time. Amity was kind of jealous of him.
Edric and Emira had tagged along for the promised fun, but it had soon turned out to be a pretty precarious situation, with Edric unable to stay standing on his skis for more than 5 minutes while Emira got down the slope in three-sixties more often than on her board like she was supposed to.
Eda, meanwhile, had barely shown them the necessities before skiing down the slope by herself, looking graceful and fun and leaving the kids desiring some skill to at least enjoy this somewhat.
Picking herself up, Amity slowly tried making her way downhill again, keeping her skis in the braking position Eda had shown her, with her legs so wide she was already struggling exhaustedly after barely an hour of being on the slope.
Once again, the tips of her skis clicked on top of each other and she groaned when she felt herself getting faster again because her edges couldn't dig into the snow properly anymore. Trying to pull them apart, she only pushed them further on top of each other, didn't see the next hill of snow coming and with a big whoomph!, she felt her skis once again being ripped from under her body and face planted, her legs crossing when she whined in frustration.
"Oof, big crash. Are you okay, Amity?", Willow's voice sounded from behind her and when she somehow managed to turn around, she met her friend's concerned gaze.
"Just-… Trying to figure these stupid things out. How's it going with your, uh, snow plate?", she asked, trying to make easy conversation while trying once again to unwrap her legs. She felt Willow shuffling closer, the board still attached to her feet, sitting in the snow before grabbing at Amity's skis to untangle them, before helping her getting them against the slope again.
"It's a snowboard, I think. And it's going quite okay, I have to take care not to tumble like Emira but, I think I should be fine. I see your skis are giving you a hard time?"
Once again, Amity groaned in exasperation but gratefully smiled at Willow, shaking the snow out of her hair again.
"Yeah, they're kind of hard to handle. I don't know how to keep the tips apart from each other and when I don't, they just kind of cancel each other out, if that makes sense.", she grimaced, but Willow suddenly lit up, apparently coming up with a solution.
"Oh, I had the same problem that when I wouldn't tilt my board enough, it wouldn't have enough grip. Maybe try to go lower with your knees and keep your skis tilted sharper? That should do it?"
Skeptically, Amity got up again and tried the position out. With keeping her body lower, she would need more strength to keep upright, but at least the tips of the boards wouldn't get on top of each other anymore.
Drawing a turn around Willow, she ended up lower on the slope than her friend and smiled up to her.
"It works!"
Giving her a thumbs up, Willow got up again and well and Amity saw what she meant. By tilting her board sharper against the snow, she would get slower. Eager to try this out on her skis, Amity tried turning more into the slope again, and lo and behold, it worked.
Giggling, she pumped a fist, before holding out her arms for balance again, not noticing how Willow watched her while turning again and skiing along the slope once more.
A few rounds later, she was sure enough to try out keeping her skis parallel to themselves while only using the braking position for turning and it turned out to be so much easier.
This was actually getting fun if she was being honest. She could do this more often!
She wondered if Luz had tried out skiing already and if she had been able to have fun with this, too. Maybe she was even as good as Eda and Amity would never know.
Laughing to herself, she tried getting a bit faster before braking again and making a turn. But something in the corner of her eye made her look up and she saw a big snow cloud approaching her. It soon turned out to be Gus, who had finally lost control of his skis and barreling towards her.
He only managed to keep on his stomach for long enough to yell something to Amity.
"Stop me!", he cried and Amity quickly turned to the slope to get out of his way, watching him slide past her with an indignant expression.
"Everyone for themselves!", she yelled back as he continued sliding down the hill, his heavy skis now pulling him down while Amity giggled and watched the betrayal written across his face, before finally drawing a spell circle and stopping him against a gentle abomination hand. He stayed in the snow, though, still staring at her, and she couldn't help but laugh.
"Did you seriously think I would risk my life and catch you?!", she yelled back to him under tears and Gus finally let out a cry in disbelief, getting up. Amity burst out laughing at the snow that had slipped up into his jacket, all the way up to his collar to come out by his neck. He had to be soaked by now.
"Who wouldn't have?!", he shot back and Amity laughed harder at the snow sticking to every inch of his front, making him kind of look like a snow gremlin.
"Gus, I would've taken your skis to Titan knows where and we wouldn't have stopped!", she laughed and he aggressively patted down his jacket, a shiver going through him with all the snow still trapped underneath his jacket.
"You deserted me! Betrayal! You traitor!", he cried and Amity collapsed against the slope, holding her stomach laughing. He looked like a very angry fairy.
"Come on, Gus, we didn't get hurt, that's the important thing!", she yelled back, prompting him to immediately take off his skis and start running towards her.
"I'm gonna hurt you! Come here, you selfish traitor, you heartless monster of a woman!", he yelled and Amity squeaked in exhilaration before making a turn and skiing down the slope, winning in speed while looking back up to him while he struggled to put his skis back on and chase her.
Giggling madly, Amity started turning faster and ditching the braking position, instead drawing turns big enough to let her skis stay parallel. Laughing in delight, she looked back up again to see Gus speeding down the slope yelling obscenities, but the grin was spreading across his face as well.
Laughing and giggling, they chased each other down the hill, even accompanied by Willow at some point, who tried to keep up but decided not to get up to the neck-breaking speeds her friends were at.
Amity still giggled when she finally avoided Gus towards the end of the slope and turned once again, to watch him barreling past her and shaking his fist at her, before she followed him again, watching him slow down.
She made her way towards him, intending to turn before him, but suddenly, he made a turn and stopped in the middle of the slope.
"Guuuus!", she shrieked, trying to curb herself before crashing into him, but he held his arms wide open and grinned at her while she couldn't stop anymore. One of her legs went between his and when she crashed into him, he threw himself downhill, making them both tumble down the slope as they laughed and shrieked whenever the cold snow managed to sneak into their jackets, up their pants, or into their sleeves.
When they finally came to a stop, Gus was fortunate enough to be on top of her so he grabbed a handful of snow and smeared it into her face while she giggled and tried to push him off, but she was defenseless with how hard she was laughing.
"And some down your jacket, you traitor! You left me to die!"
He shoved the snow down her collar and Amity laughed harder, before throwing him off and grabbing her own handful of snow, rubbing it in his face in turn.
"I didn't leave you to die, I just didn't want to fall, too!"
"And where did that get you?!", he cried indignantly and Amity had to laugh again, letting off of him. They sat up, still laughing and brushing the snow off of themselves, before Willow finally caught up, sitting down next to them in a controlled and obviously meticulously practiced fashion. She had apparently worked on her technique while Gus and Amity had just aimed to race down the slope like mad.
"Are you guys okay?", she asked, half concerned for their health because they were both sitting and seemed fine.
"She betrayed me!", Gus immediately picked up the conversation and Amity had to giggle, throwing some snow his way, which landed on his face but he was so focused on telling Willow how exactly Amity had deserted him, left him to soak and die, that he didn't even notice it.
"Gus, you're being overdramatic!", Amity laughed again, shaking her head to Willow who just amusedly smirked, before looking up.
"Take care, there come the twins!", she suddenly yelled, and out of reflex, Amity scooted away from the slope they had made, before looking up and seeing Edric frantically waving his arms to keep his balance before falling headfirst into a pile of snow after being tripped off by a smaller pile. Emira kept her control better this time, but she also seemed pretty exhausted and soaked, coming to a safe stop a few paces away from their group.
"I'm just about ready to go home.", she announced and now that Amity could get a better look at her, she was shivering and had blue lips already. Nodding and smiling, she got up again.
"Eda should be coming down this way shortly, then we can go home."
Farther up the slope, Edric stuck his head out of the pile of snow and grimaced.
"I don't think I got this!", he called and Amity laughed.
"Take off your skis and come down here, we're ready to call it quits!", she shouted back and he showed a thumb up before reaching back to take off his skis while using the relative stability of lying in a pile of snow to his advantage.
They only had to wait for a few moments, when Eda already came riding down the slope gracefully, making Amity deadpan. Just how often did she have to ride down these slopes to even be half as good as that witch?
She arrived with their little group a second later and propped herself up on her sticks, grinning widely.
"You kids look like you need some hot apple blood.", she announced and all the kids nodded energetically, grinning up to her, "Alright then, let's get off the slopes. Did you all have some fun today?"
The mixed answers she received were enough to make her snort and laugh.
"That's good enough for me! Let's go take a break!"
"Our treat!", the twins immediately announced and Eda let out a loud whoop, before pumping a fist.
"I get to be a freeloader for once!"
Taking a relieved sigh while unclipping her skis, Amity didn't notice Willow also taking off the snowboard and getting up to stand next to her, nudging her shoulder.
"Thank you for letting us tag along for the bucket list, Amity. I had a lot of fun today."
The young witch smiled at her friend before nodding and smiling.
"Me, too. Let's do this more often!", she giggled as Willow wrapped her into a one-armed hug, before shivering in memories, "Because this is a lot better than skydiving, honestly."
Grimacing, Willow nudged her friend to guide her off the road.
"I don't exactly know what skydiving is, but I can hardly imagine that Eda shoving you from her staff before catching you again is right."
Frowning, Amity recalled the memory again. Eda had flown up way higher than any of her parents had ever flown and had shoved her off her staff, before catching her just by the treetops again.
"No, I think that's pretty accurate to what humans do, at least Eda said so. Except that they have fabrics that carry them and make them fly and they land with them, too. But I doubt I would've wanted to try that out."
Shivering, Willow shook her head.
"No, you're right, being caught by Eda sounds better.", her friend chuckled nonchalantly and Amity giggled along with her.
"All I know is that I don't wanna try skydiving again. But skiing is fun. We should do that every now and then.", she had said that last part louder so that the group could hear her and earned wide smiles and nods from everyone as they agreed.
Let me know if you liked it!
