Chapter 19 – Annie (Arc 6)
There sat in the receding sun was a smaller Stormcutter playing in front of the irritated Nadder who sat, glaring daggers in her direction, ignoring the owl-like, annoyingly playful dragon as Annie stepped forwards.
Seeing the smaller girl step into the courtyard, The Stormcutter scrambled to Frost's side, entering into a haste poise of majesty that they were known for. But it still had a glimmer of mischief in her eye that made her question before realising… oh gods… so this must be…
Knowing the situation, her eyes scoured the surrounding area for the bright blond tousle of hair, narrowing softly as they found it, a small grin spreading across her face as she walked around Frost before she returned to her natural observant expression.
As she made her way around the quills of the Nadder's tail, she looked at the boy, his eyes now rejuvenated with wonder and a new light of fun in them as they met hers. Oh fuck it, she thought, I deserve something after all that shit getting Frost on my side. Slowly moving her feet forwards, she took off her neutral mask and let Artlet see the smirk that she had hidden just moments ago.
Seeing her face light up, bounds beyond what he'd come to know of her, he pushed himself onto his feet, rushing towards her; Annie could feel the aggression emanating from Frost as a low guttural growl grew in its throat as the boy came closer and closer to the girl, but with a calming quiet outstretched hand in his direction from Annie, he decided to disregard the boy as a threat.
As the boy came closer and closer to her, she decided to try something new that had yet to come to her, putting her arms out in his direction, causing his face to morph into inquisitive curiosity. Before tripping and landing face first into her arms. Taken aback from the impact of the boy, but still standing, Annie's smirk grew into one of her first genuine, if somewhat awkward looking, smiles as she realised how stupid and ridiculous the whole situation was; Both their dragons watching the two intently, the Stormcutter with curiosity and fascination and Frost in veiled interest, just watching out of the corner of his eye.
Her arms thrown awkwardly around his torso as his ribs pulsed from his own soft laughter at the situation. The knives strapped to her back feeling as if they weren't as heavy anymore. The cold, frosted over lens through which she always saw the world, now finally clear as vibrant yellow hair rested now next to her cheek.
For the first time in her life, Annie realised that she had a taken a leap of faith and it had paid off. Realising that this wasn't actually as bad as she had once thought it would be, she decided to let her frozen shell begin to thaw; not for Armin and certainly not for her moody dragon, but because she finally realised that maybe she didn't need them for herself so much anymore.