Clockwork Shadows

A friend

It was a stormy day when I first met Annaliese Bronze. I was told by my father at the age of 10 that an important heiress was coming to our home and I needed to gain her trust was all the information I had gotten from him. So on that rainy day, when the thunder sounded like the blacksmith's workshops, I roamed the halls alone mentally preparing myself for another boring engagement. I was halfway to the gathering room when a particularly loud crash of thunder exploded across the sky, because of my father's strict training I wasn't allowed to show any kind of fear for such a silly thing like thunder. But I was surprised to hear a small scream of terror in the closest room, one of the many drawing rooms my father had lord's work in.

Filled with curiosity I cautiously crept towards the large metal door and took a deep breath before pushing it open. Using my young strength, I managed to push open the heavy door only to find a regular room. The rounded table in the corner with its expensive yet comfortable chair pushed underneath hadn't moved and the curtains still remained drawn back. I tilted my head to try to find some kind of clue that someone was there but to no avail, even the woven carpet laid perfectly straight. Disappointed, I began to leave the room when suddenly a brilliant flash of light spilt across the sky. Only a few moments later the roaring sound of thunder followed and I heard that same squeal of fear as before coming from behind the chair.

Inching closer, I shifted around the table and towards the mysterious chair. Curled up behind it was a little girl in a silver dress, the same colour as the lightning outside. Tears silently fell down her face as she shivered in the darkness of the room. Taking pity on her, I slowly moved towards the ground where I saw her small hands shaking. She was the same age as me, I could tell by style of her clothes, but her most fascinating feature was the white streak of hair on the left side of her reddening face. "G-GO AWAY!" she screamed when she saw me, pushing my body further from hers.

"I'm sorry," I calmly said, trying to copy the same tone as my mother when she was talking to my new siblings. "I don't want to hurt you, you just looked really sad. It's not nice to be sad alone, my daddy says so."

I had paused, unsure of what to say to the scared girl, "Umm, my name's Myrina. What's yours?"

Annaliese had already started to calm down a little bit, she had a least raised her little head. "I'm Lady Annaliese Bronze, are you the Supreme Judge's daughter? Wait! Are you going to make fun of me too? Please don't, I-I don't want to be stared at because of my hair anymore." She pleaded, her eyes already beginning to well up with tears again.

Sitting closer to her, I waved my hands frantically telling that I wouldn't dream of making fun of her hair. I told her that it was the prettiest kind of hair I had ever seen before, and I wasn't lying. Annaliese's hair kind of made me jealous but I soon forgot about that when another clap of thunder came. Whimpering, she curled into an even tighter ball. "Hey, it's okay Lady Annaliese, you don't have to be scared. My dad says that when you're with people that you just have to laugh at whatever scares you, it makes it seem funnier when you do. We could laugh at the thunder together okay?" I suggested, taking her shivering hand in mine.

She nodded slowly and together we sat behind the drawing room chair laughing at the raging storms outside.

--------

It didn't take long for Annaliese to get on a first name basis with everyone, which surprisingly included Raiden. Someone could have easily mistaken them as life-long friends, jokes were told and stories were exchanged. The more they all talked the more I began to relax, which was highly unusual for me but somehow Annaliese had that amazing ability. As I stood just behind the fence, watching Nalren and Raiden argue about which jam tasted better with the bread, I chuckled.