December 22, 1894 — Irvingly Ice Skating Party
Annora McKelvey Daffodil Grimstone

Life was a delicate balance of "Things One Knows How to Do Safely" and "Things One Wants to Try Because It Seems Fun"--the latter sometimes regardless of one's ability to do it "safely." Unfortunately, there was not much opportunity for Protego to become skilled at ice skating in particular, since there were long months between times when there was sufficient ice available. Ah, well.

Protego stood at the edge of the lake, teetering awkwardly on borrowed skates. He considered his feet with mild amusement. "Hard to be too graceful in these, isn't it?" he commented to one of his fellow potential skaters. Protego did wonder if ice skating wasn't invented by someone with an odd sense of humor, no matter how enjoyable an activity it may be.

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After managing to get her skates after running into Mr. Applegate, Annie had taken to the ice with about as much grace as she handled everything else in life; not well. It was fun, and she wasn't terrible at it, but she was not an effortless skater and she had already fallen three times now. Perhaps it might be time to give it up for the afternoon.

"I do now know how people manage." She chuckled in reply to the gentleman who had spoken to her. "I fear I look like a baby giraffe learning to walk." It was an amusing (and true) picture, but Annie realized belatedly, that it was probably not the best comparison to make to a handsome gentleman. Now she could be as graceless in conversation as she was on the skates.

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Protego chuckled. "Some people make it look remarkably easy," he agreed. "They'd make good salespeople, honestly." Protego, of course, ought to know. Making things look easy was a powerful tactic sometimes, assuming you were selling something people wanted to try. Even if Protego personally thought skating on ice must have been a hard sell for the first person to ever think of it.

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Someone went whizzing by her and Annie nearly went down again, she flailed her arms in a circular motion, not entirely unlike a windmill and now she was truly done comparing herself to strangely tall things.

Then her toe caught on a divot in the ice and down she went.

"Oh!" She squeaked in surprise. She'd had fallen on her hip and side, elbow connecting painfully with the ice. "I think I ought to give up." The sigh was audible; this should be more fun than it was.

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For Protego's part, he thought it was a minor miracle that he was on his own two feet still. Maybe his balance was better than he'd given himself credit for. "Are you all right?" he asked the woman, reaching down a hand to help her up--unsure if that was a good idea for his own ability to stay upright. Chivalry was a dangerous game sometimes.

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   Annora McKelvey

"I think so," she sat up better, assessing the damaged. Bruised most likely, so she supposed it could be worse. She blushed a little deeper when the gentleman offered his hand. She reached up, trying to settle her own balance on the slippery ice so she didn't make anything worse than it already was. She really wasn't doing well with not making a fool of herself in public lately. That candy had clearly been pointless.

With the gentleman's help, Annie was upright again, as she tried to steady herself, she leaned on him accidentally, using both hands on his arms to keep herself from falling again, wincing as the pain in her hip radiated outward.

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