Page 31 of Tye
Ice
“No!” Demi howled. “You cheat!”
I broke into laughter at the betrayed look on her face.
We were in the man cave, aka the basement in the gaming room, and were playing a first-person shooter game, and I’d had just sacrificed Demi to escape.
Demi launched a cushion at me as Jared, Aaron, and Tony laughed.
“I can’t believe you fell for that!” Jared chortled.
“Seriously!” Demi yelled at me while I did a victory wriggle in my seat.
“Girl, we’re running from serial killers, I wasn’t going to be a statistic!” I teased.
“You’re a bad example to your brothers. If this was real life, would you have left me?” Demi demanded.
“Quicker than a dog scenting a bitch in heat,” I replied, laughing.
“Wow. Chivalry is dead,” Demi muttered as we picked characters for the next round.
We’d been playing for about twenty minutes, and I had just nearly escaped when the serial killer discovered us. Quickly, I’d sacrificed Demi, and we’d all fled.
“I wasn’t putting my head on the chopping board!” I retorted, and Demi glowered. “You are a sore loser!”
“Hell yeah. I solved those puzzles while you all grunted and scratched your balls. You’d all be trapped still. You’re all on your own from now on in!” Demi shot back.
I was laughing as the game loaded up.
It had been a fun morning. I’d shown Demi around the house and loved her reactions. She’d especially liked the ballroom and long gallery. Then we had taken a golf cart, and I’d shown her the grounds. Everything had spellbound Demi.
We’d stopped at the stables, and Demi had fussed the horses. I was hoping I could take her out riding soon. It would be nice. But I didn’t think Mom would let me sneak that past her, not with my broken arm. However, we’d had snowfall already, and the next two days promised a shit load more. That meant I could get the sleigh out, and I thought Demi would enjoy that.
She’d loved our man cave with the bowling alley and swimming pool down here and all the other stuff.
Chapter Seven.
Ice
After informing Mom we wouldn’t be around for dinner, I avoided my siblings, who were a bunch of nosey bastards, and headed to Rivendell. Mom had converted a part of our surrounding forest to make a replica of the famous LOTR elven city. Of course, it wasn’t as big, but it had some of the main scenes. Mom had built it when we’d moved here for the younger children, along with the Ewok village, in the opposite direction.
The kids adored it and still played here. But as the family grew, Mom had changed the homes from playhouses to actual liveable cabins. They were pretty damn cool. Each had a minimum of two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a small kitchenette space containing kettle, toaster, and microwave. All buildings now had electric, and plumbing with wiring had been buried in the ground with tree-coloured pipe and electrical covers hiding them in the trees.
The arched area where the famous Fellowship of the Ring was created was called the Rivendell Council Hall. It was laid out in a replica, but the houses and other buildings were allwere built into the trees with roped walkways connecting them. Because of the different tree heights, the cabins were also on levels, giving a tree rendering of Rivendell. Two thick oak trees had curving staircases that wound round their trunks, giving access to Rivendell if you didn’t want to use the rope ladders.
There were graceful arches, tree covered walkways, rope bridges, and artificial waterfalls where the water recycled itself much like a fountain. Flowers grew in abundance on the floor around the Council Hall. There was a pool with waterlilies, a true feat of engineering, which was fed by a rain collector, and koi carp swam lazily in it. Thick supporting trunks were cemented into the ground and helped hold up the cabins and platforms. They were treated with a substance that turned them hard, and every year, we had an inspector come out and check for weaknesses.
The area was beautiful, and I was as much in awe now as I’d been when Mom first revealed it. There were twenty cabins, a food hall, party room, and three mock shops, and the kids used them as playhouses until they were needed for family to stay in. Jodie and Serenity had been too old to play here, but Eddie and now Peyton often pretended to be princesses.
The entire setting was an almost exact replica of the films, including the intricate carvings inside the buildings. Fairy lights lit the area run off solar power, and it was truly a beautiful space. One I hoped Demi might enjoy.
In the snow, it looked even more amazing. I’d not shown Demi this earlier or the Ewok village, telling her that they were better lit up at night. Which gave me an excuse to get her out of the house.
Mrs Ames was providing a hot meal, and I had already carried out the hotplates, crockery, and cutlery. I was now moving logs from the woodpile to start the fires in the Rivendell Council Hall. There were several burners there that I knew fromexperience would warm the area up. I was also going to take blankets, any excuse to snuggle my soon-to-be woman.
Once I was happy everything was good, I collected the food from Mrs Ames and started looking for Demi. I found her in the Hall talking to Spike and interrupted what appeared to be an argument.
“Demi, we aren’t sure that Red Raider is ready,” Spike insisted.