Chapter Eight
In the morning, Annabelle awoke to find that the carriage had stopped moving. So, resisting the urge to fall asleep again, she sat up, rubbed her eyes, and looked around for her master. When she saw that he wasn't here, she decided to look outside the carriage for him. As she limped toward the door, she made a note to herself that sleeping on the window seat of a carriage was probably not the best idea for one with a twisted ankle.
She opened the door to find that the coach had arrived at the Black Order; that they were home. So, she hopped out of the carriage as best as she could and, with the Genesis Bow in hand, she strode through the front gate, making sure to shout a greeting to the Gatekeeper as she passed his face.
As soon as she had entered, however, she was immediately tackled to the ground by an overly hyper Lenalee.
"Bella!" Lenalee shouted, "I'm so glad to see you!"
Annabelle, who had landed on her injured ankle, did not feel quite the same way. "I thought I told you not to call me Bella!" she shouted back in protest, "And get off me, you're hurting my already twisted ankle!"
"I'm sorry! Did I hurt you Bella?" Lenalee asked.
"I already said that you did," Annabelle said, getting even more annoyed with each passing minute, "And stop calling me Bella!"
Jeez, Annabelle thought to herself as the Chinese girl got off of her; I almost wish Kanda had greeted me instead. Almost.
"Why are you here anyway?" Annabelle asked the other girl rudely.
"Oh," Lenalee began, "My big brother said that you might need help finding your way to his office so I volunteered since I know you get lost easily."
Annabelle, not at all too happy about Lenalee accompanying her, was angered even more by the fact that Lenalee didn't seem to trust Annabelle's internal compass, and responded thusly. "He couldn't have send Daisya, or Marie, or somebody else?" She yelled, "And I do not get lost that easily! It's not like my internal compass points south you know!"
"Jeez," Lenalee said, somehow still maintaining her happy tone, "Bella, you sound just like Kanda. Are you sure you two aren't related?"
"Well gee, Lenalee, I have red hair, Kanda's is black. My eyes are green, Kanda's are dark blue. I'm French, Kanda's clearly Japanese. Does it sound like we're related? And stop calling me Bella!"
"Oh yeah," Lenalee said reflectively, "I guess you're right. You sure do notice a lot about him though. Bella, do you like him or something?"
"Why would I ever like someone as rude and emotionless as Kanda? He tried to kill me! And stop calling me Bella!" Annabelle screamed so loudly that it echoed throughout the entire castle.
"I think you do like him," Lenalee teased.
"Do not."
"Do to."
"Do not!"
"Bella likes Kanda," Lenalee sang, "Bella likes-"
Before Lenalee could finish, Annabelle reached out with her fist and punched Lenalee in the mouth. The girl began crying immediately, but Annabelle grabbed her by one of her pigtails and said, "If you tell anyone, especially your brother, that I hit you, I swear I will find you and cut off these cute little pigtails of yours," which shut her up promptly. Then, for added effect, she said, "And don't you ever, ever, call me Bella again or even suggest that I have any feelings at all for that stupid jerkface Kanda because I don't." That being said, Annabelle walked off down the corridor toward Komui's office.
Inside the office, Annabelle saw that her master was already sitting in front of Komui's desk. The words of her nightmare kept returning to her as she came in and sat down in the chair next to the old general. She was extremely nervous as she sat and listened to the two men talk about the previous mission.
"So," the crazy Branch Chief said, addressing Annabelle, "How was your first assignment as an apprentice?"
"A little scary at first," Annabelle said, somewhat nervously, "But all in all, I think it went well."
"That's good. Great to hear it!" the ponytailed man smiled, "Usually when I ask that question I get 'don't ask' or 'none of your business old man' as a response. So I'm glad to hear something different for a change."
"Yes," Yeegar said smiling, "Annabelle did rather well for her first time. She still needs to work on some of her basic archery skills in order to use her weapon to its fullest though." Annabelle looked at her feet in embarrassment as she remembered her failure to even draw back the string on the practice bow. "Which is why I'll be taking her on a journey for a while," Yeegar finished.
Komui and Annabelle both looked at the old general like he was senile. They both couldn't believe what he had just suggested, but their feelings about it differed completely.
Komui, who was worried for their health, spoke up first. "But General Yeegar," he said, trying to sway him away from his decision to leave, "You just got back. The two of you should rest a bit before heading out. Besides, what if the Earl decides to attack Headquarters? We'll need you to help defend it from the Akuma."
Annabelle, who was excited about the whole ordeal, yet annoyed by Komui's comment, said, "I slept on the way here thank you! And what if Headquarters is attacked? You've got plenty of Exorcists to defend the place and I'm sure the other generals can help them."
"Quite the naïve one aren't we?" Komui asked, "Don't you think the other generals might be busy with their own assignments?"
"Then how come we don't get to leave?" Annabelle asked rudely, "The other generals do, so why can't Master and I?"
"That is enough," Yeegar said, "From both of you. Komui, Annabelle is right about one thing. We have plenty of Exorcists here just in case. Besides, Headquarters hasn't been attacked in over a century and we don't yet have enough Innocence for the Earl to want to attack us directly. The risk is far greater than the reward. We will stay for tonight only. In the morning, we will depart."
"How long will you be away?" Komui asked.
"As long as it takes," Yeegar answered.
"Very well," Komui sighed, giving up on the argument, "I'll let you go, but remember the prophecy. You have to be back before the solar eclipse."
"That will give us about sixteen years," Yeegar said, "If the Science Department's calculations are correct. We shall be back long before then." With that, Yeegar stood up and walked out of the cluttered office with his apprentice in tow.
As they stood in the hall, Yeegar told his young student to go and relax for the day while he devised an exercise routine for her, with Jerry's help of course. So, without further hesitation, Annabelle took off for the library to engage in her favorite pastime, reading. She smiled to herself as she walked down the hall, thinking about the upcoming journey with her master.
Wow, she thought, over a decade without that annoying brat Lenalee or that jerkface Kanda! It'll be almost like paradise, only without the humongous bookshelves and unlimited supply of candles to read by.
She opened the doors to the sacred hall of books and stepped inside. The Black Order's library was immense! It contained rows upon rows of high bookshelves that seemed to go on forever with every book in the world upon them. There were even books from the Far East, the lands where almost no one in their right minds would dare to tread.
Annabelle maneuvered her way to the cultural religions section and picked out a book on Greek mythology. Mythology was one of the few subjects in the library that she could wrap her seven-year-old mind around with no trouble. That and she enjoyed the stories of the gods and heroes, so this was the section she spent most of her time in.
She pulled the book from its place on the shelf and sat down in one of the large, comfy-looking chairs that were laid out for the library's clientele. She opened the book to the first page and began to read about the story of Creation. She found it strange, yet fascinating that the Greeks believed that the Earth was created from a nothingness called Chaos rather than by an all-powerful God.
She was just getting to the part where Cronus and his siblings defeated the sky god, Uranus, when she realized that she was being watched. She looked up and saw that Johnny Gill, the youngest of the Science Division's new members, was staring at her through his thick, rounded glasses.
"Can I help you?" Annabelle asked the young scientist.
"I just noticed that you were reading about mythology," he replied, "It's one of my favorite subjects, other than science of course. You might like the story of Artemis and Apollo."
"Who are they? I'm not that far yet. I've never really had enough time to get past the myth of Hades and Persephone."
"Ah, another good one," Johnny said, pushing his glasses up his nose, "Artemis and Apollo were the gods of the moon and the sun. They were also excellent archers, especially Artemis. You should read about them when you get the chance." That being said, Johnny left Annabelle to her reading.
Annabelle, curious to find out if she really would like the story recommended to her, flipped directly to the page it began on and started to read.
It was about six hours later when she'd finished the book and Annabelle began to respect the twin archer gods, Artemis in particular, as Annabelle felt somewhat connected to her in the sense that she, too, wanted to stay a young maiden forever, no matter how impossible for her it was. She also felt connected to the goddess Athena and the hero Orion. Like Athena, she didn't really want to fight in this war against the Earl, but also like the wisdom goddess, she knew that it was a necessity to do so. Despite that, however, she, like Orion the Hunter, wanted to be the best, no, better than the best, and could not resist a challenge.
She pondered these thoughts as she walked toward her bedroom door. Once she got there, she yawned, went inside, plopped down on her bed, and fell fast asleep. That night, there were no nightmares. That night, she dreamt that she was the Huntress, Artemis, chasing after a stag with her dryad followers close behind her.
The next morning, she rose up out of her bed, made her way to the cafeteria, endured Jerry's overly enthusiastic remarks about how adorable she was, grabbed her breakfast, and sat down, praying that Lenalee wouldn't come bother her. Instead, much to Annabelle's surprise, it was Johnny who joined her. His sandy-brown hair was a mess and his white lab coat was in disarray, leading Annabelle to believe that it was another late night for the Science Division.
"Hey Annabelle," Johnny said, smiling doggedly as he greeted her.
"Hello Johnny," Annabelle replied, returning his smile, "What are you doing here? Don't you usually have work to do at this hour?"
"Yeah, but I wanted to ask you what you thought of Artemis and Apollo."
"I really enjoyed it, but won't Reever be on you about leaving in the middle of a big assignment?"
"It's nothing I can't handle," Johnny said with gusto, but as soon as he did, there came a yell from Reever in the direction of the labs.
"Johnny Gill you get your scrawny butt back in here and get to work!" Reever yelled, causing Johnny to lose some of his courage that he had previously built up and dash back to the labs as fast as he could with a "Gotta go!" to Annabelle as he did so.
"Don't work too hard!" Annabelle called after him.
"I'll try not to, but I can't make any promises!" Johnny yelled back as he disappeared from Annabelle's field of vision.
The rest of the morning was peaceful for Annabelle. She finished her breakfast with no interruptions and was able to locate her master with ease.
"Ready to go?" Yeegar asked Annabelle as she approached him. He was standing in front of the same carriage as before, but, this time, a different Finder was by his side. This one was tall and slender with dark brown skin and wide brown eyes. His hair was black and curly, and drifted around his head like a black cloud.
Annabelle, who had never seen anyone like this before, was speechless for a moment. She had heard that there were people in Africa with skin as dark as night and hair that was curlier than a sheep's wool, but never before had she seen one in person.
"Oh," Yeegar said, "Forgive me; I haven't introduced you two yet. Annabelle, this is Zaki. He will be traveling with us on our journey."
"How do you do Annabelle?" Zaki said, his accent heavy, though Annabelle couldn't place it.
"Hello," Annabelle managed to say, "I'm very well thank you. Might I ask where you're from? I don't mean to be rude, I've just never seen someone like you before."
"It's alright child," Zaki said, "I get that a lot in these parts, though that isn't the worst you could say to me. I am from a country called Tanzania. It's in Africa as you may have guessed."
"What is your accent? I can't figure it out."
"Ah, you see, my name, Zaki, is Swahili, which is the language I grew up speaking. My name means virtuous, which is what I try to be every day that I live."
"Wow, that's deep," Annabelle said, "I wonder what my name means. I want to try to be that, whatever it is."
"It is a good goal to strive for, in my opinion, but whatever your name means, I am sure you will achieve that state of being as you grow older. You also have an accent child. You are from France, no?"
"I knew it! I knew I had an accent too! I just couldn't hear it. I wonder why. And yes, I am from France. It's where I was born and where…." Annabelle drifted off. She was going to say "Where my parents died," but she just couldn't. She couldn't even think about the people who'd raised her without crying. She thought herself rather pathetic for that fact because, in her opinion, real warriors didn't ever cry.
"Where what, child?" Zaki asked her, breaking her train of thought and pulling her back into reality.
"Zaki," Yeegar said addressing the dark-skinned man, "Annabelle's life back in France is still too difficult a subject for her to talk about right now. All I can say is that her reason for leaving was similar to your reason for leaving your village back in Tanzania."
"I see," Zaki said, remembering the white-skinned men who took away his parents and his older sister. He had no resentment toward the white-skinned people at the Black Order, they had taken him in with open arms when he was a young teenager running from the English law. They had bribed the constables so that he would no longer be persecuted for stealing when he had no money to survive. No, he loved the white men of the Order as if they were his fellow kinsmen. It was the world outside that he distrusted. To Zaki, anyone wearing the uniform of an Exorcist or Finder was a brother, a comrade. Anyone else was a potential enemy who might take him away just for being different.
"Well then," Yeegar said, "Shall we depart?"
Annabelle and Zaki nodded at the old man and took their places, Zaki in the driver's seat and Annabelle inside the coach. Zaki took up the reigns and urged the horses forward. As the castle behind them grew smaller, Annabelle waved goodbye to the library, goodbye to her friends, even goodbye to Kanda and Lenalee. It seemed, to the small red-headed girl, that she was constantly jumping from one life to the next.
First, she left her life as the daughter of a wealthy aristocrat, and now she was leaving her life at the Black Order for life on the road. She knew she would see her new home again, but who knew when that would be. She soon got the sinking feeling that, on this journey, she would also say goodbye to her childhood and embrace her new life as an adult. She hoped that, by that time, she would at least be prepared for the change.
