finished A Study In Ice pv

@Zephyr Deakin

13.12.2025

Although she would've preferred keeping the details of sabotages to herself, there wasn't going to be much harm in telling, she supposed. "Don't want to deter you from any future decisions on competition, but it won't do much harm I suppose." She said it slightly teasingly. It had been years since Maisie competed, so the finer details of what a younger her had witnessed were smudged by time. It's also difficult to recall certain events, especially trauma. Although she had never been set upon, she'd always seen others. "Well...once, I saw a girl — she was, and I suppose still is, really good. She put a nail in another girl's shoes." The child shuddered. It was one of the best tales in the organization she was a part of. Almost everyone had witnessed it in the cloakroom, yet the girl had denied it. There wasn't any further action, as the judges and coach decided to believe her. "She got out of it, but the targeted girl...she never played again. Magic could only do so much. It was around that time that I pulled out.¹" Many others pulled out soon after as well. Parents simply didn't feel it was a safe and fair organization, and left.

Maisie let out a sigh of relief. Her actions were often rash, and performed without a second thought. This obviously led to many troubles. Maisie was glad this time it wasn't. People tend to get offended when others charge at you for not reason. She was glad Zephyr wasn't. She was beginning to like him, and he was a fun person to interact with. "Yeah, but still, sorry. I might have hurt you. There was a split second I thought I would." She apologized, even though he said it was fine.

"Oh, yeah." For an instant, she forgot why she even did it. "First, you skate forwards, and turn one of your feet so that it's facing outwards. Not perpendicular with your other foot, but a 45° angle. And then apply more pressure on the turned foot, dragging it forward." She demonstrated as she spoke, a fresh layer of ice coating the silver blades. She did it again twice. Once in slow-mo and the other in action. "There are other ways, but this is the most common." She shrugged, "You could also just sit down.. at the expense of your pants, but still, you'll slow down." She attempted at a joke. She cocked her head, "You should try now. And I won't mind if you charge at me." Maisie laughed. "After, would you like to know how to spin, or do something cool?"

¹the story above is purely fictional, with little to none inspiration from real life. they are a figment of my imagination. any similarities to life and people, whether alive or dead, is purely coincidental.

[quote]Zephyr, admittedly, was curious, maybe even excited to hear stories from competitions, but when Maisie mentioned the nail in the skate, he frowned. He didn’t expect that. “A nail?” he repeated just to be sure he heard her right. Her teasing tone didn’t match what she just described to him. “That’s horrible, someone could have gotten seriously hurt by that. That’s not just cheating, that’s dangerous.” He was not exaggerating when he told her that. While trying to imagine it, he was shaking his head in disbelief, but failing on purpose. He didn’t want that image to get stuck in his head.

On the farm, life was easier, there were no grey areas, everything is black and white. If you mess up, you mess up. If you lose, you lose. You don’t try to hurt someone just to win. He grew up fixing fences, caring for animals, and working with his family. If you cut corners, things will break. If you lied, someone will pay for it later. It was as simple as that. “She never played again…” He said more to himself than to Maisie. “Losing something you love, that must be hard.” That’s not fair and that’s not how it should be. “I would leave if it were me too. If winning means hurting someone else, then, it’s not really winning, is it?”

He doesn’t think he could enjoy something if he had to worry about people planning his downfall behind his back. “I like competition when it’s about pushing yourself to get better, not tearing someone else down so you can stay on top.” It takes the joy out of it. “I’m glad you told me about that, to be clear, it didn’t scare me off trying new things. Learning is supposed to be fun.” Besides, if someone tried that stunt here, he would probably trip over his own skates before they even have the chance to do it. The thought made him smirk in amusement.

Zephyr shook his head right away when Maisie apologize again. There was a small smile tugging at his face by now. “It’s really okay…” meaning his words. “I was surprised, but I’m not hurt. And you looked like you were having fun.” She proceeded to explain the technique for stopping, and basically watched her feet instead of her face while trying to copy her movement. Forty-five degrees and put pressure on one foot. He was nodding and filing the instructions away. “I don’t know why it reminded me of slowing down a wheelbarrow, you don’t stop it dead, you drag it a bit.” He was not sure if that comparison fits their current scenario but that’s just how he imagined it and it’s easier to understand that way.

The more he watched her demonstration, the more his brows furrowed deeply. “Wow you make that look so easy.” She joked that he could just sit down and in response, he made a sound that close to a snort, not even bothering to hide his reaction from her. “As you saw earlier, I already tested that method. Not my favorite one.” For whatever reason, her comment about charging at her caused his ears his ears to go warm. “I’ll try not to run you over. I won’t be as graceful as you.” Not even close.

He pushed off carefully and moved in short distances for now to be on the safe side. And gradually increased his speed causing his heart to beat faster too. Very slowly, he turned one foot outward and pressed down. The blade scraped against the ice affecting his stance, both his arms automatically spread on both sides for balance. “Whoa!!!” His knees bending in purpose. For a while there, he really thought he would fall again, but he didn’t. Whew! Coming to a stop, his breath came heavier than before. He looked up at Maisie, his green eyes bright in excitement. “How was it? Did I do well?” He glanced at the skates, grinning from ear to ear, “I didn’t fall, so I’m counting it as a win?” At her next question, he nodded, if he’s hesitating, he didn’t dare show it. “I can try, whatever you think is easiest?” He added quickly, “Something cool, but not something that will break my neck kinda cool.”

@Zephyr Deakin

13.12.2025

Putting on a grave expression, Maisie nodded in agreement . "Indeed. A nail." For whatever reason, she cracked up at her own words. Something about how it was phrased, and the solemness of the conversation was funny. She remembered how she laughed when the girl let out a cry of pain years back that day, as if the whole event played out in front of her. The memory was still fresh in her mind. Laughing was a way of responding to trauma. "Er..." She tried hiding the laughter under a fit of coughing. Clearing her throat, she continued, "It was quite a scandal. The Ministry nearly got involved because the father of the two girls hold great influence— all the kids in the facility are from generational wealth and are quite powerful." She believed this a necessary part of the story. Maisie added, "The girl left because of the psychological trauma. She can't even look at ice even now, years later. Not much magic can't do when you have a nail in you. And because her family believed it meaningless." She sighed, "I agree with what you say. But there's people like that out there and there's nothing we could do about it."

Maisie stood back a bit as she watched him take off. She knew chances of a collision was low, as she could always move out of the way, so she wasn't exactly scared. It was more or less an instinct for one's arms to spread wide-eagled when the road was rocky. Maisie observed his arms go up and laughed. She was surprised when his knees bent down. It had took her two years to automatically do that and he did it on his first try. He truly had talents. The girl watched in anticipation as his shoes turned in the familiar form of "t". Her hands shot up in the air. "You did it! It was excellent for a first!" She exclaimed. "You have talent. You could try doing it as a serious sport." The child added.

"Oh, definitely. Not going to break anyone's neck." She chuckled slightly. "Though if you did, I don't see why I can't bribe a sixth year to do help me with a fancy spell." She joked. But in all seriousness, that meant any stunts that involved jumping, flipping and spinning were ruled out. "Let's see..." Maisie reasoned that maybe skating backwards was the one. It was harmless and easy. Just normal sliding in a different direction. Maybe she'll teach him how to skate backwards in style. "How would you like to learn skating backwards? It's a cool trick." She jumped a step away from him and pointed at her shoes, which were facing inward. She moved her feet backwards and looked back simultaneously. After a few steps, she stopped and looked at him, "See, quite easy." Then she took off again, feet drawing circles on the ice. "A variation." She explained. "There are really many ways to do it. You can do it. Have a try."

[quote]Zephyr's brows knitted deeply when Maisie looked amused at their topic of conversation. It must about a memory or else he would question why sabotaging someone would be funny. Not expecting that kind of reaction, he didn’t know how to react for a while there so he just watched her try to cover it with coughing. She did explain more and as she did, his expression changed. Generation wealth and powerful families. Few months in wizarding world is not enough to know everything there is to know about this world. He had not seen people bent rules easily for the right names. “So, she just got away with it.” It was more of a statement than a question.

When Maisie mentioned the other girl, he felt bad for her, for losing it so completely that even seeing it hurts. “I can’t imagine that." He shook his head slowly. “And all because someone wanted to win.” The family thought it was meaningless? "I didn't get that part, how easy it was for them to decide it didn’t matter?" But she's right thought, there was nothing they could do about people like that. There will always be people who don’t care who they hurt. “But I still think choosing not to be like that counts for something although it will not fix everything.”

He almost flinch at her laughter, taking it as her laughing at his own expense. Did I do bad? But then he saw her hands flew up in excitement. “Wait...really?” He was breathless, still riding the rush of not having fallen on his face. This was definitely a test of his balance, not that he was bad at it, he'd been roller blading, so that must have helped. She told him it was excellent for a first try, and his ears warmed again. "I thought I was about to wipe out, my legs were just doing things on their own.” All his movement were instinctive, he didn't know if he's doing this right, as long as he's not falling, he would consider that as something good. “You really think so?” he asked when she said he had talent. The idea of skating as a serious sport was strange to him. “I don’t know about serious, I like it because it’s fun and because I’m learning. But it does feel good hearing that.”

He chuckled at her joke about bribing senior student to help her with fancy spell. “Backwards?” There was a small grin forming, “Looks weird, but I can give it a try.” He watched her draw circles on the ice, if he could do this without falling, that would be something. After watching her, he tried to mimic her stance with feet facing inward and knees bent. He slid some short distance again as he moved backward. His arms shot out immediately when his feet shook, helping him with his balance. “Whoa… that definitely different.” Laughing nervously but didn't stop moving, “Feels weird looking where you’re going instead of where you’re facing.” He continued to copy her footwork properly. “Hey! Look at me! I’m moving backward!”

@Zephyr Deakin

13.12.2025

Before hand, Maisie had honestly never given the whole nail-in-shoe fiasco much thought. Sure, it was brought up once or twice, but after it died down, everyone went on with their lives, as if nothing happened to them. In truth, nothing did happen to them—the onlookers. Life just resumed it's normal pace. She just accepted that the victim would never go back. Maisie quit skating not long after, therefore she had no reason to mingle much.with the girls in her club. Sure, they saw each other, but more often then not, it was just a simple wave of the hand or nod in acknowledgement when passing. So she was surprised when this appeared to have affected Zephyr. She herself, after all, didn't give it much thought. But now, a few years later and older, she realized he had a point. It was not fair for the girl's parents to decide whether their daughter played or no. She was scarred, definitely, but they should've let her find out in her own time. "You've got a point." She said quietly. That's what she loved about being with other people. She could gain new perspectives. "I guess they did it for their daughter to not get hurt? But she's alright now. She could accept ice in her drinks." She shrugged.

"You do look like a penguin with your arms jutting out like that " Maisie said with a teasing smile. But even she did it sometimes—it was instinct. "That's why you should never skate with your hands in your pockets." She added. Maisie nodded in agreement, "You have potential." She mused. True, a serious sport might lead to competition and more injuries than free-time, but it would be a different view.

"You learn quickly." Maisie observed, gesturing to him skating backwards. She'd been deathly scared of doing it till a year or so back, when she realized it wasn't that scary. The afternoon passed quickly, and when Maisie looked at the sky again, it had been painted in a beautiful orange-red hue. The sun shone brighter than ever, now dipping under the horizon. Once the sun set, she knew the ice would be colder. "It was nice today. You want to come again? Same time, next week?" She asked.

[quote]Maisie tried to explain the parents’ side, that maybe they were protecting their daughter, that part, he could understand. "That may be true, I get wanting to protect your kid. My parents are like that too, if something hurt me, they would probably want to keep me far away from it. But there’s a difference between protecting someone and deciding for them forever.” If she was scared at first, then that's understandable but maybe later she could have chosen for herself. Even if in the end she decided not to go back, it would have been her choice. She mentioned the girl being okay now, even joked she was able to handle ice in her drinks. Zephyr chuckled at that, “Well, that’s something, I guess.” Small steps counted for someone with trauma like that. It still sucks that something she loved got taken away because of someone else’s decision. That's the part he didn't like. He glanced at Maisie as a thought came to him, “You quitting around that time, was it because of that? Or were you already thinking about stopping?”

“A penguin?” He asked her in surprise, unable to hide his disbelief, then looked down at his arms still stretched out at his sides. He tried pulling them down but then his skates shook again, causing his arms to fly right back out. “Okay, this is funny, maybe I am a penguin.” He admitted with a sheepish grin. “A tall one.” He's still growing. She mentioned not to skate with hands in pockets. Hearing that, Zephyr winced, "That sounds like a broken nose waiting to happen.” He had fallen enough times today to know balance was not something to gamble with. He was told he got potential, he felt his ears go warm again. “You keep saying that, I’m starting to believe you.” A hint of a smile appearing on his face. He didn’t know if he would ever take it seriously as a sport but learning like this felt good.

He looked over his shoulder when she said he's a quick learner. “I’m just stubborn, when I fall, I'm not one to give up easily, instead, I want to figure out why it happened.” He slowed himself down clumsily and came to a stop before turning around to face her properly. Seeing her looking above, he followed her gaze to the sky. Only realizing how much time had passed now that he noticed the sun. The orange-red light reflected off the ice, and he just stood there for a while just breathing in the cold air. “It really was.” He agreed when she said it was nice today. "It feels so peaceful here." At her offer, he hid his surprise that she would still be willing to teach him. He didn't hesitate. "I would like that. Same time works for me.” trying his best not to show his excitement. “Maybe by then I’ll graduate from penguin to… I don’t know....not so awkward bird?” He grinned but gave her an appreciative glance, "And thanks, for teaching me.” He meant it more than just skating. Since they were done, Zephyr waved at her and skated toward the edge of the lake to go back to the castle for a good snack.