“Len you okay?” Anna fidgets next to me looking around but otherwise ignores all sensory input, including the lecture she's supposed to be listening to. I poke her slightly and she looks “You alright?” She shrugs but gives no answer. In my world that means no. I continue to watch her for a few minutes, she seems nervous for some reason. Tolfdir finishes the class and the students disperse back to their dormitories leaving the two of us. “...So now what?” Anna asks gathering a pile of papers that had fallen earlier. “Up to you. Library? You wanna go for a walk? Go get something to eat?” She thinks over the options but I recall something before any decision is made “...Did you eat lunch today?” Anna shakes her head. That's been happening more frequently lately, lack of hunger, fidgeting, not having energy to do anything. I gesture towards the door “Let's go get you something to eat.” I take her hand and we walk down the crumbling bridge to the sleepy town of winterhold.
“Can I ask you something?” Anna puts a hand over her mouth to cover any crumbs “Sure.” She responds with a mouth full of grilled cheese sandwich. “You seem kinda distant recently. What's wrong?” Her expression goes blank after swallowing. “Nothing-nothing's wrong.” I give her an unconvinced look. “Fine.” She leans her arms on the table and leans forward. “Just an anxious mess. That's what's wrong.” Anna frowns and looks up at me. “Hey that's my thing! I'm the anxious mess, not you!” That gets a slight grin out of her. “So what's making you anxious? And more importantly what can we do to not make you anxious?” Anna sighs “Well there's that whole thing with the Falmer in markarth then there's ulfric and then the Ashpawn and I have to write a three page paper…” Hmmm, the Ashpawn problem would be hard to deal with but the others can be obtained. “What's the deal with ulfric?” Anna scoffs “Ah he's just being his usual self.” Ulfric stormcloak is known for not being the nicest fellow. “Fight him.” “What?” “Fight. Him. Again.” Anna thinks over the suggestion “Eh, might as well.” She says getting up from the table and walking towards the door. “Where are you going?!” I grab my coat and run after her. She stops holding the door open and stares at me silently. “Well to fight ulfric obviously.” And exits the building. I catch up to her as we walk towards the stables “I didn't mean now, you know.” Anna disregards the comment and climbs onto Frost, her horse then gestures for me to get on my own, we ride for Windhelm.
“I must say I did not miss this city.” The gates of Windhelm become visible over the ridge we'd stopped on. The oldest city in Skyrim, and the snowiest. “Let's go.” Anna rides down and towards the gates. We stop outside the stables, Anna stops and dismounts in once graceful movement, something I'd never mastered. “How'd you learn to do that?” She looks at me slightly confused “Do what?” I tie my horse to a wooden pole holding up the stable and feed him a carrot. “Dismount so well.” Anna shrugs, her attention caught by something else for a moment before coming back to reality “lots of practice. And I've been riding since I was around 6 years old.” Paying the stable master we walk down the large bridge and into the city. With every step Anna seems more and more tense, though if I were her I would probably be in full mental breakdown at this point.
We drop our things at home before crossing the cemetery to the Keep where ulfric is. Two guards stand stationed on either side of the room and Galmar Stone fist, Ulfrics military advisor, stands to the right of him, his steward on the left. Anna approaches the throne where Ulfric sits reading a scroll as I stand a few feet back. “Good evening, my lord.” Anna says remarkably calm. Ulfric looks up looking for the source of the sound before looking down and noticing her. “Oh, it's you. Come to apologize for last time?” Galmar stifles a laugh and Ulfric looks at me with a slightly annoyed expression “And I see you brought your bodyguard.” He leans back in the throne “What do you want, miss Lenox?” Anna fidgets with her hands behind her back before tightening them into fists “To challenge you. One to one, fight me.” Ulfric shakes his head “No. Not again. There's no way I'm doing that again.” Anna gives him a falsely confused look “Oh, and whys that? You're not scared, are you?” Ulfric frowns “No- no of course not! I just- I couldn't fight a woman!” Anna steps closer to the throne and uses telekinesis to move him out standing opposite. “I think you're just scared I'll beat you again.” Ulfric goes to draw his sword but Anna kicks it out of his grip “no swords.” He lunges at her but she moves out of the way, he tries again to no avail, falling to the ground. Galmar goes to fight as well but the steward holds him back. Anna stands over him before she kneels down and whispers something in his ear. Ulfric is enraged and attempts to get up but she holds him down, her grip really is surprising how strong it is. He yells insults at her to which a sinister grin shows on her face. Anna raises a fist as Ulfric's eyes widen. “Have a nice sleep, my lord.” Anna says before the fist comes down and knocks him unconscious. She stands, wipes her hands on her dress and bids Galmar and the steward good night before walking over to me, still staring blankly at the unconscious man on the carpet and grabs one of my arms, and drags me backwards out the door. Once outside Anna shakes her hand back and forth “now I know why he won't listen to me. His skulls too thick! Really, ow!!” A company of stormcloak soldiers walk by and we stop the conversation abruptly walking home in silence. “Feel better?” I ask once inside, “Not your hand of course, but any less anxiety?” Anna nods and wraps up the possibly injured hand. “It had been on my mind for awhile to be honest, I don't think he was happy with me for what happened last time so the thought of coming back here kept popping up. Now that's done though, Galmar understands it as well I talked with him while you were staring at the floor.” She finishes wrapping her hand before wandering around the room looking for something to do, in the end sitting down next to me and reading a book that had been sitting on the side table. “Why does Anxiety show up at the worst times?” Anna asks looking up at me. I shrug “I have no clue. Ask Yuuri. All I know is it's annoying and awful to live with.” Anna puts the book down and rubs her eyes sleepily. “I'll ask him tomorrow. I'm going to bed. Don't stay up too late.” Anna goes upstairs leaving me alone with my thoughts as I look at the fire. It's a rather strange reaction to Anxiety really, normally if you're anxious you don't want to do anything at all, your mind is too preoccupied. Though Anna isn't “normal” in any sense it was a rather interesting way to deal with it, instead of running from it, turn it into an adventure. Of course the ride from Winterhold was enough of an adventure on its own, and Ulfric got what was coming for him anyway. “I think that's enough adventure for one day.” I miss to myself as I extinguish the fire and go upstairs, might as well get some sleep.
...I had no clue how to end this and wasn't really thinking that much. Anyways hoped you enjoyed it!
Until next time,
Max
I love the way Anna turns anxiety into adventures!
ReplyDeleteAnd of course Farkas adds to it.
Also the way she used telekinesis on U. That doesn't count as fighting - does it?
I do too! It really is an interesting phenomenon.
DeleteI think my favorite part was either "Hey I'm the anxious one not you!" Or Anna dragging him out the door backwards.
No I would t count it as fighting, just forcibly moving into position.