Astra's Improvised Braking System
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 87878
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Sliding down the icy slope would not be difficult. Indeed it would be all
too easy, as Astra knew that she would pick up tremendous speed when
descending at even quite a modest angle, so that stopping safely might be
problematic. The main risk would probably be that of stopping too
suddenly, if she wasn't able to avoid a sizeable boulder. In the event of
such a collision, she wasn't sure whether she or the boulder would come
off worse. She also did not know how much ability, if any, her body had
to heal itself once damaged. However she could not see an alternative way
of getting
down.
She decided that it would be best to slide down on her back, feet first. If she did hit something, she would sooner put her legs at risk rather than her head. It would also make it easier for her to see where she was going. It occurred to her that she might be able to control her speed by using her fingers as brakes. She could try to dig them into the ice, more deeply when she wanted to slow down and wholly or partially retracting them if she wanted to speed up. She thought that her fingers would be better than using her improvised ice-axe for the purpose, as that would only cut the ice at one point as opposed to ten and so would slow her much less. Using the stone would also tend to throw her off course by slowing her down asymmetrically. There was a risk that her fingers might suffer some damage, but better them than some more significant part of her body.
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JH
9/19/2009 1:32:04 PM
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