footsteps.”
“Thank you, Pan,” she said. Then, she turned to Ice-Ghost.
Ice-Ghost smiled and laughed, “It shall be in the fashion of dwarves.” They, too, followed the tradition of the dwarves. At the end of their farewell Christy couldn’t help herself and embraced Ice-Ghost in a hug.
He comforted her and then said, “It is time.” He turned Christy toward the darkness and said to her, “Christy, all that you have to do is skate through the darkness and toward your mother’s voice. You’ll be okay, okay, okaaay…” Ice-Ghost’s voice trickled away.
Christy awoke to see her mother, father, the ice-rink manager and a young man standing next to her.
“Oh, thank God, my little Christy is okay,” said Christy’s mother.
“What happened?” asked Christy.
Everyone looked puzzled and the boy spoke. “It was awesome! You did an almost perfect triple Lutz until one of the laces on your skate came partially undone and got caught your blade. Then, the toe of your skate blade caught some bad ice and you fell. You’ve only been out a minute or two.”
Everyone helped Christy to her feet and escorted her to a bench.
“Poor thing, you must be cold, dear.”
“I’m fine, Momma,” Christy said as her mother continued examining her from head to toe until she was sure Christy was okay.
Then Christy’s mother said, “Oh my, the little glass bits that were on your skates are gone.”
Christy did not, at first, hear what her mother had said. She had been too busy studying the young man who had just helped her.
Looking at him suspiciously, she asked, “What is your name?”
He paused for a moment and then replied, “Karston…Bairn. I am the new caretaker of the ice.”
Christy’s mother looked curiously at Karston and then back at Christy. Odd, she thought. My little ice-ballerina seemed fond of those bits of glass.
She repeated, “Sweetheart, your glass bits are gone and you’ve had them since…I…I can’t remember.”
Christy replied, “Mom, they were ice-crystals and my skates are fine without them.”
“Yes, but I still wonder if we should ever find them on all of that ice.”
Christy replied, “Losing them has been an adventure, but I think the Ice-Crystals belong to the ice now.”
Christy’s mother began to wonder what had come over Christy and said no more.
Karston turned to Christy and smiled, “Yes, they belong to the ice.”
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