Ice-Ghost

By Gilbert Pangelina

Thirteen-year-old Christy, a figure skater, is lured into the world of Hene, an icy, cold place of harsh realities and disbelief. Her only friend is her newest acquaintance, a pale boy named Ice-Ghost. Her figure skating dreams are put on hold when she encounters the ice dwarf, Gloo, the ice witch’s henchman. Trapped in this icy world, her eyes are opened to one of life’s harshest lessons: “Things are not always what they seem.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gilbert Pangelina
• Release date: Jul 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310287961

Book preview

Ice-Ghost

Copyright 2014 Gilbert Pangelina

Published by Gilbert Pangelina at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

~ The Rink~

Christy is an advancing figure skater who diligently practices every night of the week. She is often the last to leave the rink. By unusual circumstances, this night her mother was late picking her up. There was a phone call and her coach Michele Tan, had to leave the rink. I’ll be right back, she called out to Christy. This left Christy in the freedom of an empty rink. Happy to be on the ice alone, Christy, exuberantly ran through her routine, ending with her most daring feat, The Triple Lutz.

As Christy skated she prepared herself with slow steady breaths and a reminder, remember now, drive-accelerate-hop, outside-edge and vault, and off she went. Reaching a desired speed she turned backward and glided on one skate. With the toe of her other skate, she vaulted herself into the air. Rotating magnificently she felt and heard the air whirl past her ears.

Twirling in the air she felt as if she had just launched herself to the moon. A perfect ten, she thought. She was ecstatic, but as she landed the tooth of her blade dug into the ice and she fell. Something went wrong. She slid several feet on the ice before every-thing went blank.

When she woke up there was a boy, or perhaps he was older, standing beside her. On his head was a small purple cap that looked like an elf’s cap, minus the pointed curved top. There were two thin gold stripes that circled around the cap. On his neck was a silver chain that tucked into his shirt. He wore a thick purple tunic that went a few inches below his waist. There were several vine designs woven into his sleeves. There was a brown utility belt strapped around his waist. He had brown high-front trousers and brown boots. Attached to the boots were ice-skates. His hair had a very faint earth color to it and his skin was oddly pale. There were no discernible signs of expression on his face as he reached his hand out to hers.

She hesitantly accepted it—after all, he was a stranger. As she got to her feet, Christy, noticed that the far end of the ice-rink now seemed oddly darkened.

How odd, she thought, everyone has left, and where is my mother?

She looked towards the end of the rink and whispered to herself, here is yet another mystery. The end of the rink has a darkness that seems to lead to nowhere, or maybe some-where! How strange! So strange!

Christy had two mysteries in front of her: the boy and the oddly darkened rink. She stood next to him looking and wondered, where had he come from.

The boy had heard her whispers. Somewhere or somehow, she felt as though she had met him before.

Hello, said Christy, and thank you.

The boy smiled cautiously. Christy continued, I thought I was the only one left at the rink.

He cautiously smiled and shook his head no.

Christy then asked, Who are you? and he courteously answered.

Some call me Ice-Ghost, but I have other names.

She replied, Oh…Are you giving me a riddle?

With a disconcerted look he answered, No, but it’s a long story and we don’t have that much time.

What time don’t we have? she asked. And why are you answering my questions with riddles?

~ A Different World~

As Christy spoke, somewhere in the dark distance she thought she heard a young girl calling for help. She turned to face the darkness and listened. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she began to notice that there were many tall, dark silhouettes just ahead of them. She saw that they were trees. She looked inquisitively at the trees and thought, that’s odd, but I don’t remember that there were ever paintings of trees in our ice-skating rink. She slowly skated towards them and discovered that they were not paintings at all. The trees were indeed real. They were old, thick and gnarled. They had long, dark branches that seemed to be covered with moss.

How could this be? she thought. She couldn’t help but notice that the end of the rink seemed to have no visible ending to it. Rather than being scared, Christy had become fascinated by this new turn of events. Pulled by the chain of her own curiosity, she decided to skate into the dark void.

Don’t go… was all Christy heard from the Ice-Ghost.

As she skated into this dark new world, she again heard the voice of the little girl calling out. This time the girl’s voice seemed much closer. Further into the darkness she went. The ice below her feet became as smooth as glass. She felt as if she were just floating over the ice. She could feel no wind as she continued to skate.

Then something strange and unexpected happened. The further she went into this new place, the lighter her surroundings became. Finally, she skated into daylight. As she looked around, all that she could see was ice and snow. There were many trees, some very large, others not so much. What they all had in common was that they were all covered with ice and snow.

The ground she stood on was more like a sheet of ice. Snow banks scattered the landscape. Nearby were small ice tee-pees and igloos. All of the ice tee-pees and igloos had a whitish blue exterior, but no one appeared to live in them. In the far distance was a mountain. It was both very wide and stood very tall. The top of the mountain was covered in fog. It seemed like only a minute had gone by when the Ice-Ghost came skating up to her.

Finally, he said, I have found you, but now we must get out of here—the sooner the better.

What do you mean finally, I just left you less than a minute ago.

No, he said, It has been several hours that I have searched for you, but I’ll explain that later.

Christy looked puzzled. She was about to ask the Ice-Ghost what he meant by that, when she again heard the voice of the little girl again. Imploringly Christy urged, We must go and see what is wrong

But the Ice-Ghost fervently warned against it, shouting, Stop, it could be a trap!

Disbelievingly, Christy laughed light-heartedly. A trap, don’t be so worried. No one would want to trap me. No one knows I am here. Where ever here is. That just couldn’t be.

~ The Land of True Ice ~

As Christy continued to skate, she heard the young girl’s voice call out again and again. She followed the voice until it led her to an ice-bush that stood in front a snow bank. From behind the bush the voice called out. Christy stopped in front of the bush and spoke. Hello, is there someone in there?

Once again, she heard the voice from behind the ice bush. Help me, help. Just as Christy was about to circle around the bush, out skated a small figure. It was a small, thin Ice-Dwarf, who looked at least seventy-five years old. He wore a blue-and-white striped pointed cap and had a thin, scraggly white beard. His jacket collar was white, while the rest of it was a light blue. He wore light blue trousers with a wide black belt.

Bracketed onto his feet were his skates. He approached Christy with a wide pleasant smile. As he looked down at the ice skates the girl wore, his smile became different. Christy noticed this and wondered what the sudden change had meant.

The