Breaking the Ice

Astra lifted her neck and stared. The sun stood in the east, while overhead wispy cirrus clouds had replaced yesterday's black sky. Astra looked out of the alcove. The ice was now slick and treacherous from the rain. The wind was steady but not strong, as she judged when she felt it blowing gently against her the back of her arms.

She stared ahead. There was a short stretch that would be difficult to walk, but then the trail sank down the sides of the giant bowl. A day ago she would have said that it was impossible to cross. She picked up an stone with several edges, and squatted down. She dashed the stone against a block of ice, and it cracked beautifully. It was amazingly easy! (She could even hear the crack. But sound to the mind of a steingeweser was as scent was to a man. Scent is tangible to a man, but his discernment of his nose is much less than that of dog. Such is sound for a steingeweser.)

Astra nodded, brushed away the chips of ice, and then continued up the path. She steadily crushed and cleared a path toward a rise in the trail, and then looked down on an ice-coated scree. A quarter mile out the ice diminished to where it was little more than mortar between the rocks of the scree slope.

There was little snow, and she judged that there would be little danger of an avalanche, even though she was heavy. The ice did not seem cold, and she doubted her body would suffer from extended contact with it. If she could find a flat surface, then perhaps she could slide down the ice and perhaps even down the exposed rocks. There were dangers. She could lose control and speed down the cliff and hurt herself. She felt indestructible, and knew that her body could take more wear than that of a man. But there had to be limits. Still, navigating the grade of the slope, while it was steep, was not as obviously foolhardy as something like jumping off a cliff.

1. Astra chose to slide down the slope of ice.
2. Astra tried to find another path down.

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