The air bit at her nose.
The sharp sound of ice shredding under her blades echoed around the arena as she breathed in the cold yet homely sting of the frostbitten chill cutting through her heavy breaths.
She picked up her speed as her blades continued etching and carving the surface of the rink as if picking apart its flesh, leaving traces of her journey behind her.
The world was passing by her in a blur of ice as she imagined the bouquets on the podium, proclaiming admiration as the crowd cheered with every practiced trick that showcased her true talent.
The silver slivers disconnected from the ice, and with her arms tucked in close, she twirled. The world whipped around her as if she were a top spinning in the air.
The lack of ice crunching under her feet, the dizzying loss of a stable horizon, the flowing streams of air whipping her hair in every direction until it tangled into itself and forgot its original form, it all told her she was soaring.
Borne from the shredded flaked dusting around her skates and cheeks from hours of practice, she was flying.
Until she wasn't flying anymore.
She was falling. Her beloved blades became traitors as they slipped from under her balance and sent her tumbling over the cold ice below. Her arms flew in front of her to prevent much impact but her actions sent a terrible jolt, courtesy of the hammer-like hit she received.
"Dinner's ready!"
Her pain dissipated.
Confusion washed over her as she surveyed her surroundings. The chill had vanished, replaced by the moon's radiant glow streaming through the window near her bookshelf. She untangled herself from the sheets, setting aside the novel she had been engrossed in.
Taking a deep breath, she closed the book and headed towards the dining room, reminded of the power of literature to transport us, granting experiences more vivid than life itself.
"We live through books; we have adventures in them, we lead alternative lives through them. We expand our memories through them. And that sometimes art can offer us more intense experiences of the world than life itself can."
— Anthony Doerr.
