Fated Rivals

Chapter 27

Elijah's POV

It's another blindingly bright day in this winter wonderland, and today's plans call for going to the mountains and shredding some snow. Both Gray and I's groups are merged once again for the activity, excluding Conner, since he wanted to get some more shots of the town. We arrive at the ski lodge around ten in the morning, still rubbing the sleep out of our eyes, but ready for some mountain thrills. Although Gray and Vic would argue it's "not that early". We meet up with Malachite and Beryl, who offered to teach my group, while Gray's crew gets our gear.

"Okay! First things first. Who's doing what?" Beryl asks, clapping their hands together.

"Eli and I are snowboarding, Milo wanted to try skiing and Beth, didn't you say that you wanted to go on the snowmobiles?" Atlantis says.

"Yep, I saw Jaden on one and thought it looked fun!" Beth says, tying her hair into a ponytail.

"Okay, I'll get you two started on how to balance and move your board," Malachite says pointing to me and Atlantis, then turns to Beth, "Beryl will teach Milo the same with skis, and Jaden will teach you how to drive safely until I catch up later," he finishes, giving Beth a wink that turns her red as a tomato. She buries her face in a new scarf that I'm guessing is Malachite's, considering the strong claiming scent on it. These two are so sweet I think I'm going to get diabetes, lol.

"Alright!" Malachite claps his hands, beaming with excitement as Gray's group returns with the gear, "Let's get started!"

After riding the ski lift, we split into our respective groups: Jaden and Beth run off towards the snowmobiles, Gray and Vic go to warm up on the expert section of the mountain, and the rest of us follow Malachite to a secret beginner friendly section of the mountain.

"This section is more so for the Head Alpha's family, but since Beth sees you all as family, so do I," Malachite says, giving us a warm smile.

True to his word, no one else is going down the section, leaving the trail covered in a clean sheet of snow with very few obstacles on the way down. Which gives us enough space and privacy to learn (fall). Malachite does one last check over our gear, before running us through the basics.

We learn the proper stance (which involves a lot of squatting that will burn my legs later), how to mini glide with one foot strapped in, how to balance with both feet strapped in, how to toe-side and heel-side traverse (kind of like horizontally sliding down the mountain), and finally j-sliding in and out of regular gliding.

Of course, with Atlantis being a quick learner, she's gliding just fine after an hour while I continue to still struggle with not falling forward (or backwards, or in general). Thankfully, Malachite also taught us how to fall properly so we don't fuck up our legs. After a full two hours of struggling, I finally managed to glide down the short slope without falling!

Let's gooooo! See I told you 50th times' a charm! 😊

Why does this complement feel backhanded somehow...

"Good job Eli! Not many beginners are able to learn the movements this quickly, so you must be a natural!" Malachite says, gliding up next to me.

"Thanks, even though I still feel like I took a while compared to Atlantis," I say, adjusting my hat.

"That's because I used to skateboard back in middle school," Atlantis says, trudging towards us. "So, I have the muscle memory for balancing on a board. You're completely new to this, so don't go beating yourself up over it. Let's celebrate the fact that you know how to snowboard now dude!" She gives me a playful punch on the arm and lets out a cheerful howl that's joined by me and Malachite soon after.