Three days go by in ridiculously slow speeds when you have absolutely nothing fun to do. Annie had done nearly everything that there was to do in the huge, boring, castle. She dug deep into the closets -even finding pants, cleaned, lifted things up and down with the colors, hung out with Abdiel though it was clear he wasn't too found of her, even tended the garden at the northern wall of the building. The flowers were mainly reds, blacks, greys, dark blues, and purples. They were bleak and disappointing to the vibrant flowers back home; so she touched them up just a bit by upping the colors to be bright and beautiful. Pitch, of course, did not like this. Bright blues, pinks, and yellowed just didn't match his style, Annie had assumed. In fact, Pitch disagreed with anything fun she did. One day she had levitated her bed and rode it down the long maze of hallways. Pitch had actually yelled at her for that, stating that she, "Could have damaged his things or hurt herself." So no fun happened in the Black manor. He said that fun brings around unwanted characters. The meaning of that statement puzzled Annie greatly. What characters? Like, people? Whatever the meaning, she listened and stayed quiet for the three days
"I'm going to die of boredom here." Annie said to herself as she lay down on her fluffy bed. "Die. I'm just going to die." She stated almost as a response to her first assumption. Was it possible to die of boredom? Even if it wasn't, Annie was definitely going to, no doubt in her mind. What was it like to die of boredom? "Probably rather boring" Annie thought with a particularly unladylike snort. Perhaps if she was entertained to some degree she wouldn't have found the lame joke funny. Annie groaned, all this boredom was messing with her humor.
She was about to sink back into boring thoughts when a dark, shadowy, mass rose from the wooden floor. Annie had grown used to the visitors. They were a bit like Pitch's helpers or messengers, telling her this and that. With no defined features or shape, Annie wasn't exactly sure what to call them. Blobs? They all had voices but not audible ones, choosing instead to communicate telepathically with her. The voices were all different and unique but were all deep and rumbly. Intimidating was the word Annie would use though they had never tried to hurt her. Pitch obviously wouldn't like that very much. She was something Pitch needed, Annie figured. You don't throw away something you need. It stung just a bit knowing that she was nothing more than a tool.
"You are needed in the courtyard." The being said in Annie's head. The courtyard? Did she even know where that was? She'd find it eventually. "Dress in clothing appropriate for physical activity." It continued in monotone. So the training begins. What would she be trained in exactly and what for? Would he use her for races? Like, horse races? Annie giggled to herself as the entity melted back into the floor of her large room.
Annie stood slowly from the mattress, the cold from the wood seeping into the rough skin on her feet. Should she bathe? She was pretty stinky, but she would stink after anyways so what was the point? Okay, no bathing. Annie strode across the hall to the gigantic room filled with hundreds of articles of clothing, mainly dresses. What would she wear for "physical activity?". Fishing through the layers of fabric she eventually found a pair of brown pants, hunting pants by the look of it. Pants were something she was familiar with, even if only vaguely. She wore them to go stomping around in the snow with friends every now and then. Friends. That was a word Annie didn't use very often anymore. Her only real current friend would probably be Pitch, but Annie figured he didn't like her much, but oh, their first encounter was so charming. "Of course he cares about me." She said to herself as she shook her head. Silly. Of course. Shaking her head out of the clouds, Annie dug back into the clothes until she found a simple black shirt. Perfect.
The outfit looked weird on her, probably because the girl was used to dresses and aprons. She looked, strong, dangerous even. Her favorite part of definitely the heavy leather boots. It thrilled Annie to look such a way. How exciting! It was so new and interesting to switch the gender roles for a while.
The courtyard wasn't as difficult to find as she had thought. It was just around the back of the castle and stretched for a good mile or so. Usually it was just plain tall grass with the occasional grey flower but today the grass was cut short and there were ten different stables littering the range of space. Pitch stood near the middle of the field speaking quietly with two men, both about as tall as Pitch himself. The man at his left looked human with tanned skin though it was covered with various dashes and tattoos. He was also adorned in heavy looking armor. The man on Pitch's right was a bit taller than Annie's housemate. Maybe just a few inches. His skin was a blueish grey stretched over almost human features. His clothing was drapped elegantly over his shoulders like a waterfall. He was beautiful, absolutely. Their discussion stopped when Annie approached. Pitch's smile was warm for the first time in three days as he held a long hand towards her. She took it absently and strutted next to him. The two other men eyed her thoughtfully. Annie couldn't help but wonder what kind of training this was.
"Annie," Pitch said softly to gain her attention. "They will be your trainers today. " He pointed to the man with the heavy armor. "He will train you in combat," Combat? Why? Next he pointed to the elegant man on the right. "He will help you to better control your abilities." Annie nodded at the introduction, figuring that they were already fully aware of who she was. No names, that hardly seemed polite. The first man with the armor shoved his hand out toward her with a charming smile, as if to shake it, which they did. He was close enough for Annie to see the small about of stubble that sprinkled over his jaw line. "I'll be going first." He said smoothly. His voice was warm and sounded a bit like verbal butter.
He led Annie to the first of the stables. Inside were sacks of different materials. Dirt, mud, brick, stone, wood, which she was expected to lift. The man taught her lift with her legs, not her back, and lock her arms. She passed each test with flying colors until the eighty pound mark. The sack of coal could've been glued to the floor for all the good she was doing, but her trainer didn't pester her, just nodded and tugged her to the next of ten stables. The rest of the combat training took around five hours. He had his own five stables for his training including strength, agility, hand-to-hand combat, knives and swords, and archery. archery was her favorite though she was admittedly bad at it. The arrow kept swiveling to the side or limply clattering to the floor. Her trainer laughed soflty at her before taking the bow and arrow from her hands. "Not one of your strong points, okay." He said between laughs. It stunned Annie how human he was, it made him easier to relate to. Easy to relate to until he shot right down the center of an arrow without even looking.
"What can I call you?" Annie said before leaving. He shrugged, causing his armor to clank around. "Whatever you want I guess. Nothing stupid, though." He warned playfully. He didn't seem so deadly. Maybe he was newer to this like her. Annie nodded, quickly scanning her brain for a name. "Archer." Annie said simply based on his little trick. Archer nodded an okay as she left. The next man was standing right outside the opening of the hut waiting for her. He looked a lot more like Pitch than the last man.
"Hello." He said. The faint accent in his voice led her to believe that maybe he was around the same area as Pitch. Maybe they knew each other when they were alive? The idea was an interesting one, Pitch having buddies was humanizing. Annie and her trainer walked slowly side by side to the next stable, speaking softly as they did.
"What'll you teach me?" Annie said casually, not understanding any need for formalities. He glanced at her briefly before turning looking ahead of them.
"Energy. Basics and advanced. Pitch has told me you are actually quite skilled with your abilities. I'll just help you with them a bit. Pinpointing your energy, strengthening it, building it up, movement, and attacks." He said without even turning his head to her. "Call me Lev, everybody does." Annie rose a brow at this. Did Pitch go out with his guys from time to time? Give them nicknames? She would have never thought.
"So there are more people like you?" Annie asked. Lev turned to look at her this time, as if she was stupid. Oh yeah, he definitely had Pitch's attitude. "Of course. Many of us. The first was the Man on the Moon. He carefully selects us because we have a purpose. Mine is energy, much like yours. I take it away from those who no longer need it. There's Illness, Disaster, Depression, so many. Our least favorites are the Guardians." He said the name with disgust. "They only come around to ruin things for us. Awful people, terrible, dreadful." Someone was fighting against Pitch and his crew. That's what the training was for.
"Any other ladies in your little group?" Annie asked almost playfully in an attempt to lighten up the mood and transition the subject. Annie saw his silver eyes roll dramatically in his head. How dare he! Immediately she knew they wouldn't be getting along. What a uptight guy. Maybe someone should pull the stick out of his-. Her thoughts were cut off by his voice. "Just one. Her name if Phobia. Much more intense than Fear, or Pitch." Fear, that's what Pitch specialized in. Okay, yeah, she understood that completely. He was a rather scary man at times.
The conversation ended there, something Annie was a bit thankful for, This Lev guy was a real pain in the ass to socialize with. The stable they entered was significantly larger than the first five with several bags just like the first. "Show me." Lev said curtly. I guess we're getting right down to it than, asshole. Annie did was she was told, no longer needing to concentrate much, she easily lifted a particularly heavy bag. Lev nodded in thought next to her with a hand on his chin. "Explain how you do it to me." Hm. Explain. Well, that's a tough thing to do. Managing to find the right words had never been the easiest task for her. "Well, first I focus on the colors surrounding the object." Annie said, circling her finger in the air.
"The colors?"
"Yeah, the colors. Then I think about them getting really hard and dense, almost solid, ya know?" Annie rambled. After receiving the reply from Lev she continued. "Then I just sort of lift it. It's a lot like having another, stronger arm. I'm sure you know about that. I don't really need to think about it much anymore, if I want something to move it moves." She said with a shrug as she placed her hands smugly on her hips. Lev nodded once more before smacking his lips. The rest of the day was shitty. Annie hated the man next to her, so proper and perfect.
The last of the activities included a stuffed dummy which Annie had to animate to look realistic. Annie began to lose her patience quickly. Time after time Lev made her do it again, saying that a leg looked limp or an arm moved too stiffly. "Again." He said emotionless as he did the dozens of other times. Annie was sweating buckets, angry, and about to soil herself from the intensity of the energy flowing through her. "Well I'm sorry, Mr. Perfection," she started angrily. "Animating an entire body is pretty goddamn hard." Lev did nothing but scoff at her as she began to move the doll once again, making it skip and glide gracefully across the ground. It looked so good! Annie looked over at Lev excitedly but he looked indifferent.
"Again."
That night was the first time Annie had ever been violent. Usually she was such a calm and content person. Before Annie knew was she was doing, her hair whipped wildly around her and the doll slammed into Lev, and through the wall of the stable. The dummy and Lev crashed into the dirt so hard they dug into the soil, creating a long crevasse to the crater where they sat limply. The reality of what she did kicked in after scanning her red vision over the field. Archer was leaning calmly against one of his stables snickering quietly. It was Pitch that worried her. He stood about one-hundred yards away from her with a fury washed expression on his face that surely matched her own. It caused her hair to fall back over her shoulders and her vision to clear up. I just injured one of a very powerful group. At first the thought brought her intense fear. What was going to happen? Would they kill her? But after taking Pitch's screaming, it brought on pride. She injured one of a very powerful group. A young girl doing that to a man who was probably hundreds of years old. Under all the fear she felt there was a tad bit of pride that she felt for doing that to someone so insanely powerful.
The next day after Pitch had cooled off a bit, they came back. They did a sort of score, like a scale from one to ten, giving her around a six in regular combat, and a seven in her energy skills. It was surprising to -say the least- that Lev actually liked her energy skills.
"Learn to control that." Lev leaned in and said. He didn't seem mad, something that had surprised Annie. He almost laughed it off, treated it like a joke. Not that Annie minded that at all. It was much better than having him hate her for eternity. He didn't seem as bad now that the embarrassing training incident was over, but Archer was her favorite, no doubt.
"We wanna take you to meet the gang." Archer said with a smile.
"Oh boy, how intimidating." Annie said sarcastically. Oh fuck me.
Okay
So this is the sixth chapter. I myself am not very fond of it but I hope my readers like it. I can't believe I took so long to update and I'm sorry, but a lot of stuff had been getting in the way. I'm trying to pump out all these chapters now because school is starting in two days and I will have zero time to work on it. So far I have up to chapter twelve up and ready to be read by all of you guys.
Anyways, sorry if this chapter sucked.
Totally listen to the song, I Got A Man by Positive K because old music is the bomb guys.
Later!