Chapter 61 - High-Speed Skating and Mountain Grandpa

Just as I was bracing myself for impact against a closed door, Little Voxea threw yet another ice dagger at a spot above the door. I saw the dagger hit what looked a target of some kind, making a loud clunking sound. The doors suddenly flung open and Little Voxea skated out of the door and into the halls.

I couldn't exactly look down due to my vision being locked to Little Voxea's, but I could feel how this spell...[Ice Road?] worked. The entire spell was about circulating the aether around oneself like a wheel, with the ice-skates acting as the point where the aether changes. Aether would build up to the front, turn into ice for the ice skates to skate on and then turn back into aether after the skates moved away from the magic ice. It was a rather fascinating spell...granted it would be more fascinating if I wasn't praying that Little Voxea didn't trip and hit something.

I know I am just a passenger in Voxea's memory, but I have no idea if this memory ended happily or tragically. Either way, it's very unsettling moving at high speeds but not being able to feel the high speeds.

Little Voxea kept skating down the large ornate hall of her home, making a sharp right turn once she reached a point where the hall split off into two other halls to the left and right. As she skated down this hall, the light sweet smell of fresh pastries greeted my nose. Apparently my sense of smell was connected to Voxea as well, I really need to ask her how this memory sharing thing works later.

As if on cue, a well dressed man servant appeared from a door off to the side of the hall. The man was holding a silver tray that had a bag made of some type of transparent material, filled with small round pastries, creampuffs if I had to guess.

As Little Voxea got closer and closer to the servant, he suddenly lowered the silver platter in his hands to about Little Voxea's height. In one swift motion, Voxea skated by and grabbed the bag from the platter.

"Thank you Albert", Little Voxea shouted behind her as she skated onwards. Albert merely nodded, a small smile on his face as he watched us skate down the hall.

Little Voxea kept up a breakneck pace as we skated through several halls filled with grand art pieces, a few rooms that were decorated to the ceilings with books, furs and everything in between and a what looked like a garden inside of a room made of clear ice. I wonder if this place was still intact in my time...

We had finally stopped at the entrance to what was possibly the sixth hall I've seen all day after skating for what felt like ages. She paused for just a few moments to readjust herself and then flew off down this hall even faster than before.

When we reached the half way point, Little Voxea began screaming at the top of her lungs the word "grandpa", or more accurately, "GRRRRRAAAAANNNN...".

Once we got closer to the end of the hall, I finally saw how the room looked like and that we were heading towards disaster. The room we were about to enter was massive, characterized by a large double door at the end and the hall on the other. The only issue was that the hall was technically on the second floor. If I were facing this hall from the door, I'd be greeted by the sight of a balcony and pair of staircases to the left and right. In essence, Voxea and I were about to skate over a man-made cliff...or so I thought.

Once we got close enough to the balcony, Little Voxea whipped out her hand and formed a ramp made of ice in front of her. She sped up her skating and jumped off the ramp into a dive, all the while screaming, "PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...".

At the exact same moment of the dive and her yell, the massive doors opened. The figure that entered as the doors open was a mountain of an old man.

The man stood at least 6 feet tall, built like a bear and dense muscles could be seen in his arms while the rest of his body was covered in a mix of fine cloth, furs and jewelry. The man's head was a mane of white hair with a beard to match. As the man turned his head towards the flying Little Voxea, I noticed that he had the same sharp look that Voxea had when I first met her.

A few seconds later, the look softened greatly as a smile bloomed on his face. He opened his arms into a hug and with a huge booming voice he said, "Ice Flower"!

As Little Voxea and the Mountain Grandpa got closer and closer to hugging, my consciousness suddenly got yanked from the memory.

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I was now laying on the bed, eyes open, as Voxea the Blizabella was now floating over me with curiosity on her face

"So...how was the trip down my memory lane?", she asked in a teasing voice.

"Albathorn's a funny name".