If Choi Han had spent more than a century in the Forest of Darkness, how vast is the forest actually? Look Choi Han is cunning and smart, after a few decades when he would have gotten stronger while being in the forest, he could have found the wall leading to the Harris village. But if he couldn't, than the forest had to be extremely vast and dense to make someone spend an entire century inside of it before they find a way outside.
OH MY GOD THAT WAS AWESOME ALL AROUND!!! and that end credit song!! man it was only the pilot but that was so damn great holy shit, i wanna be anne lister when i grow up
Step by step, one at a time, Annie trudged forward. Bags under her eyes, slumped shoulders, sundress ragged and torn... but she moved forward.
For what purpose? Annie couldn't tell. It had been... It had been... a while since she left the smoldering wreck that she called home. Always to where was colder. Never one step back. Forward. She just wanted to keep going forward. To where was snowy and silent... to where no one could disturb her anymore. Not even herself. Freljord, her dad called it. A land of barbarians and tyrants... and cold. He told her how the cold could seep into the bone. Maybe that's what she needed. She just needed it to stop.
Her body covered in ash and dust, bathed in mud up to her knees, weak, tired, malnourished. The things she caught almost unrecognizable after her awful method of cooking.. just holding them on her hands and letting them burn until their meat was dark as coal. Then eat. It wasn't very pleasant. But it let her move forward. And finally, the snowy trees gave way to snowy plains, vast as the backyard she once had. Almost as desolate as she left her home, too. Tears started to form.
She continued.
The Teddy Bear that had saved her, the only thing she believed to still be alive in this world besides the birds and the critters, and the insects that burnt their wings after getting too close to her. When was the last time she saw someone? A person? She saw a road once. It was empty. Maybe she was alone, truly? Well, she had Tibbers. That was enough company. That was the only company she needed. Lifting him up and holding him tightly to her chest, her steps got wider, the snow under her feet melting and turning into boiling puddles.
"It's very, very cold." She mumbled, barely loud enough that even she wasn't sure she said it out loud. She repeated it, a few times, for good measure. The sound of a voice, even her own, brought comfort. Annie held the bear tighter.
A trail of steam and puddles were left in her wake as she went further and further into the Freljord, but at the very least, food was becoming easier to find. The birds in the sky were easy targets for her to scorch, and the occasional rabbit filled her well... even if it did taste absolutely horrendous.
Step by step, she went further into the cold. Getting worse by the day. Sleeping less. Crying less. Everything was less. Even her fire seemed to dim... and oh, the joy it brought her was almost indescribable. But even that she couldn't cherish for long, the energy spent standing up and looking at the dwindling flame being better spent going further and further along... somewhere no one would find her.
"It's quiet." Her whispered breathing announced to no one in a cold night. "The sun is very bright." The large mountain pass she walked into echoed, as she went along. "We are doing good." A soft cry as she huddled up beneath the pillars of a long forgotten building, forgotten even by Annie as she walked on.
Her feet almost giving up, she spotted a forest on the horizon. Her hands were black with sooth. Her eyes red and bloodshot, her brown hair graying from the lack of baths and the amount of ash. A forest. Mountains behind it. And smoke.
Smoke.
Like a moth to a flame, her feet lead her there, clumsily taking large steps to get her feet out of the deep inches of snow. Annie wanted to yell, but opening her mouth felt like too much work.
Rushing water in the distance.
The glimpses of silhouettes moving around a campfire.
Her muscles tensed up, and she could feel her lungs empty. Trying to turn to the left or right, just walk past them... it was like being stuck between two boulders, slowly squeezing... and suddenly a cry. It sounded like a random noise, but it came from the images near the campfire.
The shadows stopped, then carefully lurked forward. Towards her. Tall men with beards, large coats that made them look twice their size, bows strapped to their backs and arrows in hand. The large knives in their belts making her shiver more than any cold could ever hope. They walked faster, talking in a tongue she couldn't even begin to comprehend. And they were loud. Loud.. loud...
They came closer and closer until one of them, with his hood down, hair past his shoulders the color of blood, tried to land his hand on her shoulder. So heavy. So tight. She could feel her lungs starting to work again, even if they never stopped. Her eyes widening in pure horror as he spoke that devilish tongue.
Annie did not scream, but nor did the Hunters as she burst into an inferno. It started just as suddenly as it ended, black phantoms engraved in the earth underneath, the ground dry and the air filled with steam, not a drop of water left in a couple dozen feet. And in her hands, after the deed was done, more ash. More lives she just ended. Tibbers was on the ground, smoldering. She wanted to yell, but why would she? There was no point. All she could hope to do now is finish this once and for all.
With what little was left of her spirit, she dragged Tibbers along with herself forward, towards the campfire, not even noticing the leaves that were smoldering and sizzling from the blast. It was so cold. Nothing around her seemed to exist... it felt like stepping on thin air, as if she was going to float up any second now. Her fingers lost all sensitivity, the only reason she could tell Tibbers was there was how the fur felt brushing against the dress.
Finally, however, she was standing in front of the campfire. A soft smile came to her lips as she laid on her side on top of it, embracing the charred earth and smoldering wood, literally burying her face on the flames and yet being unscathed. Finally, she would sleep for good. Finally, she had found her cold place, somewhere even the comfort of the fire could not warm her. Annie would disappear.
A howl, loud, angry? The Wolf, surely. It had come for her. How much she longed for it... to feel its fangs ripping her away from this damned earth. With her eyes closed and a smile of pure joy, she accepted her fate, soul in peace with the fact that she would never harm anything, anyone, again. She would stop being so bothersome. Finally. Finally...
Their steps. Such tiny paws, the Wolf had. How silent he was. There was something looming over her. If Annie could speak, she would have begged for him to take her. The presence got closer. She tried shutting her eyes even harder, as if to dull the pain of his fangs...
... yet all she was met with was a very soft poke on the cheek. Was that Lamb's Arrow? It felt so wimpy. She half opened an eye and was met with a boot. A boot, and someone yelling once again in that tongue. If there was an ounce of strength left in her body, she would have done the same thing again. Even if the boots were much too small. Almost her size.
Another poke. Slowly she forced herself to lay on her back, getting a clearer view of who was talking to her. A sun-kissed face, large eyes and a confused tone from the strange words that left his lips. He knelt down and pulled a flask from his belt, opening it and giving Annie the fresh water she so dearly needed, despite how much she denied it. There wasn't even enough will to deny it, being forced to swallow it all, that or cough it all over herself.
The boy's hands wrapped around her arm and tried to pull her up, quickly giving up on it as soon as he realized just how warm she was. Looking back at it, maybe the fact she was laying almost face down on a live campfire was a good sign that she was, in fact, pretty damn hot to the touch.
Whispering to her words that meant nothing, he yelled out. "WILLUMP!" Well, that sounded like a name. He couldn't... no, he wasn't older than her, for sure. He was much too small, and the pitch of his voice... wait, was he a she? There actually wasn't much else she could tell right now. Hell, she wished that she couldn't even have these questions! Were him just a few more hours late... damn him and his unfortunate curiosity!
There was something loud coming, and it made her curl up. "What's... what's that?" She moaned out, the more time she spent up, now actively trying to stay alive, feeling more and more in pain, and a sliver of will to fight. Now Annie had a good time to rest instead of falling face first in the snow... Gods! She was dead tired. Dying would have been better. Easier, too.
The boy didn't reply, thinking it was nothing but the confused, delirious moans of someone dying of a high fever. His mom had treated him before of something similar. Even if she did look nothing like the other kids that he'd seen.
It wasn't long before a large, smiling four armed monster came into view... and with the utter, sheer fear that only a dying creature could muster, she burst into flames again. Too spent to actually send the nearby area to oblivion, but enough to make both the boy and his Yeti cower away in surprise, fear and sadness... even if after the flames settled, she looked peaceful.
Despite what anyone sane would have thought, as soon as Nunu laid hands on her again and felt just how cold she was, or, how normal her temperature was... he couldn't help but feel awkward. He begged the Yeti to, despite how she reacted, try to warm her up in any way they could while he looked around the camp. Like a dutiful friend, Willump obeyed and started to wrap every piece of cloth he could find around Annie, while also gathering materials to reignite the campfire.
When the poor Noxian was back, the sky was dark as her vision before she fainted. The monster wasn't around, and her precious Tibber was standing on top of her. Wriggling out of the layers upon layers of protection, she pulled him close, whispering questions that she knew he couldn't answer, but the simple sound of her voice was enough to calm her.
Noises. She stood ready, despite her body being so weak that getting up could probably make her pass out once again... but no, instead, a very friendly boy came to her, illuminated by the campfire. He wasn't wearing his clothes, in fact, now that she came to it... she was wearing his! All he had on were his shirt and pants. Even his boots had come out. Maybe he was like her? He was also holding a bowl, but how could that warm him up?
"Who... are you?" A soft, weak whimper that she forced out of herself, already wanting to close her eyes. He didn't answer, simply helping her head up and tilting the bowl forward. There were some chunks... soft, squishy. Meat! And it wasn't the coal-like meat she forced herself to get used to. It was almost that of her home... but with a different taste. That, and she didn't drink meat. How weird! Still, she gladly accepted the warm, delicious meat-drink.
Once done, he put the bowl to the side and pulled out a map from his belt, clearly drawn by him with a few names scribbled on it, unrecognizable for the young girl. He pointed at a few cities, but what would poor Annie answer? She had never seen a map, let alone knew what nation she was from. She just... was! With a very unhelpful shrug from the lady, he sighed.
He rolled up the map, pointing at himself and slowly going "Nu... nu. Nunu. Nunu." Then, he pointed at her, as if waiting for an answer.
Nothing.
"Nunu." He tapped his forehead. "Nunu." His nose. Then a tap on her forehead, as he raised his eyebrows and started to hum. "Ehhhh?"
"...A...Annie?"
"Annie!" He sounded ecstatic with the revelation. Something that she could only assume was a greeting was said, followed by her name again. While singing her name in a happy, rather beautiful tune, he pulled another piece of paper from his belt, being very careful as he held it. A creature with four arms, massive horns and... a beard? Truth be told, if that was how Nunu drew, he could seriously use some help learning better. He tapped the drawing with the rolled up map, smiling. "Wi...lump! Wee lump. Willump. Willump. Willump!" He said, smiling.
"Willump..." Annie repeated in a careful tone, and with another yelp of pure glee, he left the drawing on top of her, yelling away in a happy voice. Sounds of him talking, mixed in with growls. She forced her arms out of the covers again, looking at the picture in it's full 'glory' now. Beside the large monster, there was a cute, tiny little person with a coat holding... holding hands with him?! How weird! That must have been Nunu... was Willump his dad? How weird!
The ground quaked, and illuminated only by the stars and the campfire, the friendly, almost dreamy visage of the Yeti was still a horrifying nightmare for the girl as she tried to pull the blankets over her, holding Tibbers as tightly as she could, hoping that if she just snuggled herself enough it'd go away. But Nunu was there, and he sat with her.
While covering her eyes, shivering out of sheer, primal fear, a soft tune started to fill the air. It was magical... wondrous, even. Something she had never heard before, it left her paralyzed, not out of fear, but out of amazement. The flute that the boy had made the crisp of the lumber burning and the wind howling so much prettier. Soon the sounds of drums joined, along with the yelling of the Yeti. Not angry, violent or booming, simply... well, it was singing. He sounded happy, the boy moved from side to side with pure glee, too. It was like her own personal band!
After a little bit of them playing on their own, she finally built up enough courage to join in, poking her head and arms out of the layers and layers of cloth to start clapping, very awkwardly trying to insert herself in the melody that the beings kindred of soul and heart had made their own.
Instead of complaining, stopping or simply being annoyed at her, as she came to expect from her family, they instead started to play faster! Music drowned out everything else, and even with the clapping breaking up the rhythm most of the time, it only seemed to make both the Yeti and the boy happier.
And so the night went, as Annie slowly came to leave her covers and play along, bathing the borrowed coat in ash as she slowly wiped away the sooth that had built up over the weeks by clapping so much. By the time morning came, they were all too tired to continue, the flames of the campfire had died... but everyone seemed so full of joy!
Although distrust for the Yeti was still pretty big, she trusted him and the boy enough that, even as he pulled young Nunu into a hug so the boy would sleep in warmth, she simply huddled over with her pile of blankets, tent cloth and everything else, setting it up near them to maybe absorb some of the heat as well.
This was... so nice.
She felt happy.
He felt happy, too.
And so, as the sun rose and slowly danced through the sky, they slept, and after so much time... Annie could finally say she didn't want the cold. Not while they were there, alongside her.
