047: Three Ice Sculptures

November 1, 2020 - 8 minutes read - 1675 words

We didn’t want to get mixed up with the violent adult snowball fights, so after a small snowball among the three of us, we grouped up at the back of the village square.

“Looking good… Hey, Asmo! Help me roll this!” Thor

“So you got a bit greedy and made it too big. I can’t help you.” Asmo

We’re currently making snowmen. When you think of snow, you can’t forget about snowmen. Thor and Asmo are putting together a snowman while I roll up
sections for mine. Why didn’t they say anything while I was making it too big?

Don’t you want to see a big snowman? They seem like two people who would appreciate big things, but overall balance is important too.

What has my snowman turned into?

“Al, how many layers did you stack on that snowman?” Thor

“On, two, three… seven layers? It’s in the shape of a person too!” Asmo

My snowman was made with ingenious strategy involving magic. Obviously, it’s made up of oversized snowballs I rolled up, but they’re stacked in a unique way. The reason it doesn’t collapse is thanks to a splendid technique I came up with: the sections are held together with internal supports made by Ice Magic. Therefore, it won’t fall down easily, in addition, the bottom section is anchored to the ground with a ice stake. Thanks to my technique, this snowman should stay for a while.

“Wow, this snowman is super nice.” Thor

“It’s snowcredible” Asmo

Thor and Asmo examine my snowman while saying silly things.

“Since you can make something like this, make a snow sculpture not a snowman!” Thor

Thor has come up with an idea.

“Like a person? It’s fine, but it’ll take a while to make?” Al

“Oh, we’ll come to help when our snowman is complete.” Asmo

“Are you going to make yours taller?” Thor

Asmo has rolled up a troublesome-sized ball. It’s almost as tall as an adult, I don’t think he can stack anything on top of it.

“Yeah! Let’s sit down and get Al to roll it.” Asmo

“Ugh, fine I’ll do it.” Al

“By the way, Asmo, wouldn’t you make a good start of a snowman section?” Thor

“Yeah, let’s roll him into a ball!” Al

“Augh! Stop joking!” Asmo

Well, should we try anyway? Hmm, the person in question will make it too hard. Even if we did, would he be the base section?

My end result was three ice sculptures.

The sculpture of Emma sits gracefully on a circular base. It was sculpted to appear as if she is looking into the distance with an expression of sorrow and fragility to inflame a man’s heart.

Behind that is the sculpture I was least interested in, my sister Eleanora. Wearing a blouse and skirt, she’s depicted resting her hands on a sword thrust into the ground like a valkyrie. She’s resembles a dignified female knight. I was able to make it so lifelike since I see her so often. I wished I could have made the Emma sculpture as realistic…

Next to Eleanora’s sculpture is Sheila, Koriat Village’s treasure. Sheila’s fluffy hair and gentle expression were impressive. I went for an appearance of waving hair with a smile. I was worried since I’ve seen Sheila the least of the three, but Asmo said it was a good likeness.

It ended up being those three since they’re often seen as a trio.

“Wow, Al! These are great, especially the one of Eleanora! Can I take it home?” Thor

“Use your head. There’s no way you can take a snow sculpture home. Wait, what are you going to do with my sister’s ice sculpture?” Al

“I’ve decided to take it home… What’s your problem! Let me go!” Thor

I could take them home using Spatial Magic. Hmm, no two works will ever be the same in the world! Will I ever be able to reproduce these?

“You can’t take it home. It’s a consequence of being weaker than I.” Al

“What?!” Thor

“It’ll just melt anyway…” Al

I argued a few minutes with Thor. Eventually, we decided to leave the sculptures here. Thor might try to carry away the Eleanora one later, I’ll try to stop him. I might give you the Eleanora one, but I want to keep the one of Emma. It’s a masterpiece.

“Uh, Al. Isn’t my sister’s chest a bit larger than life?” Thor

“Eh? Can’t I take a little artistic license?” Al

Did I accidentally make an idealized version of Emma? No, I couldn’t have made a mistake on the Emma sculpture. While I was ruminating on those thoughts, Thor jumped in to make corrections.

“My sister should be about this much, I’ll fix it.” Thor

“Augh, you’ve scraped it off! What are you doing to my art!” Al

I push Thor away so I can fix the sculpture. Amateurs are so difficult to work with. Ok, I think it’s fixed. Only I can handle the detailed work…

“Well, I hope you can live with that… What did you do to the Sheila one?” Al

“Huh?” Asmo

“Is her shape not correct as well?” Al

“We can get it right, balance is important in life.” Asmo

The three of spend a while getting the detailed parts of the sculptures correct.

We got tired of ice sculptures and snowmen, so we left the square and headed to the river. The village has a frozen river and nice slopes to slide down. They seem very popular with kids during Winter. It’s the same river takes me to during Summer, there’s a nice slope nearby.

As for the huge ball that Thor and Asmo rolled up, then didn’t use for a snowman? I rolled it in front of the village mayor’s house. At first, it was in the middle of the road, but I moved it so it wouldn’t inconvenience anyone using the road. I had to use body strengthening to move it. I didn’t do it from any sort of grudge from the harvest festival… it just happened that the village mayor’s house was out of the way.

At the river, I can’t hear any sound of flowing water. It seems the river has a good coating of ice. I can’t see any river fish, it’s like they’ve been scared away by the ice.

“Hey, hey! How can you skate around with that physique?” Thor

“What’s wrong Thor? You’re just sitting down?” Asmo

“I don’t get the fun of putting a thing on my shoe soles and skating around!” Thor

Thor is quivering like a newborn fawn as he makes his way onto the ice.

“Look at Asmo, he’s skating around very well.” Al

Asmo is skating around the rest of us. I made skates for us using Ice Magic to make a simple blade, then we can skate on the ice. Asmo has surprisingly good balance, he may be fat, but he’s nimble fat.

“He’s large, but he has good stamina. I’m different from him. If he fell, he wouldn’t feel it like I would. Wait, Asmo. Why are you pushing me? Slow down! Don’t push! Augh, augh!” Thor

Thor was pushed by Asmo, he went across the river and right into a snow bank.

“Cold, augh augh! You bastard!” Thor

Thor jumps out of the snow, removes the blades from his shoes, and runs towards Asmo. Perhaps he wants to get revenge on Asmo by pushing him around?

Asmo removes his blades as well, and gets ready to receive Thor. For strength, Asmo is the better one, but Thor has picked up speed on the way… I wonder who will win?

“Dang it Asmo!” Thor

“Thor!” Asmo

Thor collides vigorously thanks to his run-up. Asmo struggles to push Thor back without slipping on the ice and falling over.

“Grrrrrr” Thor

“I’m worried about Thor’s attack!” Asmo

It would hurt if you were knocked down to the ice.

Asmo looks to be holding on better than Thor, will he win. I was going to let them keep going for a while, when an ominous sound occurred.

Crick, crick! Crack Crack Crack!

“Uh oh” Thor & Asmo

After that sound, those two weren’t shouting anymore.

Crick, crick, crack!

The sound is coming from the ice under Asmo’s feet. You can see a spiderweb of cracks emanating from his feet. I swallow from nervousness. If Asmo start to move, the cracks will start to threaten Thor and I.

“Asmo, don’t move…” Al

“If you move, it’s going to break!” Thor

Thor and I try to discourage Asmo from moving.

“…” Asmo

Crick, crick

“Why are you moving?!” Thor

The creepy melody of cracking ice worries us. Asmo is the most disturbed as the sounds are coming from under him.

“Wait a minute, huh? What’s with your evil smile!” Thor

Asmo has a dangerous smile! Is he planning on taking us all in, since we can’t save you? Calm down, Asmo isn’t that kind of person, I think?

I’ll try to slide back toward the bank, but those two are in trouble. I think I can solve this, it we take it slow. So long as I can get out of danger, we can all get out of it without falling in. Even if we did fall in, the river isn’t deep, but you’re going to be very cold. You might even catch a cold.

I have to avoid that at any cost.

“Wow! Greedy! Al just ran away into the sky!” Asmo

Thor and Asmo noticed that I escaped the danger using Shield magic to run into the air. I just don’t want to die yet, it was you two fighting on the ice that led to the problem anyway. My actions didn’t cause this.

“Hey, Al” Thor

“What?” Al

“Can help me first?” Thor

“Are you just going to help Thor, and leave me to fall in?” Asmo

“What’s that? I’ll blow you away! Augh!” Thor

Thor then fell into the frigid water after he got angry and stomped on the ice.