The adventures of Prinz Eugen and the young engineer Volume 1.

Chapter 22

"Okay? Why did you lead us to this park?" Prinz Eugen asked the young engineer. He shrugged his shoulders and continued on into the park. After a couple minutes of walking they started to hear the sound of children playing and shortly after they arrived at a frozen lake on which said children were playing. Walking towards a near bench the young engineer sat down. While Prinz Eugen kept watching the children playing. " They seem to enjoy their time on the ice. Do these bladed shoes help them slide on the ice?" She asked, still watching the children. " Yes, ice skates allow you to build up speed and travel on the ice and be very maneuverable." He answered her question. While she kept watching the kids, the young engineer opened his package and produced a pair of ice skates from them. He untied his shoes and took them off to put on the ice skates. After finishing to put his pair on, he stored the bottles from his pockets in the package, stood up and walked onto the ice and started to accelerate. Only now that he interfered with Prinz Eugens line of sight did she realize that she was alone on the shore and the young engineer was on the lake ice skating as well.

After getting used to the shoes with this little presentation he came back to the shore. " Okay, the shoes are doing their job. Why don't you come and join me? Ice skating is a lot of fun. I got you a pair as well." She looked at him with utter surprise. "Wait.. What? You got ice skates for me as well?" He nodded to her to acknowledge that fact and pointed with his chin to the package next to the bench. getting to the bench himself, he asked her: "Did you ever ice skate before?" She shook her head. " Okay, so I guess you don't know how to properly tie ice skates as well. I will help you with that." He concluded. Prinz sat down on the bench and got the ice skates out. After taking her ankle boots off she tried the ice skates on."Can you slide your foot to the left and right inside the shoe?" He asked her and she nodded. "They seem to be too wide for you. Here, I brought some thick woolen socks to remedy that issue. I guessed as much since I got you a pair of hockey shoes instead of ice skates. They are mostly made for men and are therefore a bit bigger and wider." He handed her a pair of woolen socks which she put on and fitted her feet back into the shoes. " They fight in thighly now, but it's not uncomfortable." She said. The young engineer nodded and began tying her shoes for her. "Ice skates have to fit tight and have to be tied well and strong. When they are too loose there will be no proper hold when you are standing on the blades and they will bend away under your feet or will slide to the side when moving. Also, when that happens you can seriously hurt your ankles. Therefore a good fit and strong lacing is important." He explained while taking care of the second skate as well. "So, that's it, you are ready to go." He proclaimed and stood up. Holding his hand out he helped Prinz Eugen up on to the skates and walked her to the ice.

Getting her on the ice he saw that this was completely new to her. Smiling he said: "Well, you may walk on water and be unbeatable on it, but I guess I am better at walking on ice. Don't worry, you will get the hang of it." He slowly started to move. Pushing one leg to the side while moving forward, slowly accelerating. " Here, mimic my movements and you will learn how to skate on your own in no time." He said encouragingly. "That is another thing entirely. How are you able to skate like it is nothing? I can barely hold my balance." She said while still concentrating on her movements. "It takes time and practice. But you will be able to skate in no time. It's all a thing of balance and fluent movement." He assured her. Guiding her over the ice, Prinz Eugen slowly started to become more stable in her movements and posture. After almost reaching the center of the lake the young engineer pulled away out of her grip and got a bit of distance between the two of them. " You managed to get here without falling. Now it's time to get back by yourself." He explained to her. She looked at him in disbelief. " You expect me to get back and skate on my own? I will never reach the end without falling." She exclaimed. Chuckling the young engineer answered: "Well, that's the idea. You have to fall, just to learn how to get up and how to avoid making the same mistakes. I will be close by though. Also, try to fall on your butt. It will be easier to get back up and it will hurt less." With that he started to slowly skat back towards the shore. Stopping about 7 meters from her he turned around to see in his astonishment, that the cruiser was not making small little steps but already made proper swiping motions with her legs, building up a good speed. She passed him and was on her way back. Although he could tell that she was spreading her swipes too far out which would mean that she would not be able to bring her leg up for the next step fast enough, causing her to fall.

He went after her, catching up to her right at the moment when she could not bring her left leg up to go for the next step. She stumbled mid bent and was about to fall on her face and belly, when he grabbed her by the shoulder and broke his speed, using her momentum to let her lower body slide past her underneath her torso and letting her crash into him mid break. Falling he did not land on his butt but on his back, hitting his head. A split second after making ground contact, Prinz landed on him. What air had remained in his lungs after the fall was knocked out of him. Prinz stood up as quickly as she could. "You seem to enjoy laying on the snow and ice. Is it that comfortable?" Her irony left her voice and her smile faded when she did not get an answer from the young engineer. " Are you okay?" She asked, more troubled. She received no reaction from the body before her. Nudging the young engineer with her ice skate produced a reaction. A slight groan followed by deep breaths followed by words. ".... Uhhh.... That was uncomfortable. Are you okay? Did you get hurt?" He asked her. Taken by surprise she answered him. " Yes, I am. I did not get hurt. How are you?" Sitting up and touching the throbbing back of his head the young engineer replied sheepishly: " I got the wind knocked out of me, but nothing to worry about." He stood up as well and dusted the snow off his clothes." So, are you ready to continue? You don't need to make so long swipes with your legs to get into motion. It's the streng in the push not the length of execution that will give you momentum." He started to accelerate again and had his grin back on his lips. The cruiser looked at him with astonishment for a second. Then her signature smirk appeared and she started to skate as well.