Boram Darkwill\u2019s last years on the throne were a time of great uncertainty for Noxus, and many with an aptitude for magic left the capital for the relative peace of more distant provinces. Gregori the Gray and his wife, a witch by the name of Amoline, preferred to demonstrate their Noxian strength by taming the borderlands, rather than partaking in the political intrigue of the noble houses.<\/p>\n
The young couple claimed a piece of land beyond the Ironspike Mountains to the north, finishing their small home just before winter and the arrival of their first child. During their journey, other colonists\u2019 tales of the great shadow bears that once roamed the territory had captivated Amoline\u2014now heavily pregnant, she passed the time sitting near the fireplace, creating a toy version of the protective creatures. Just as she finished sewing the last button eye on the stuffed bear, the quickening of labor overcame her. Gregori remarked later that his daughter was eager to play with her new toy, for there, on an ember-warmed hearth, Amoline brought Annie into the world.<\/p>\n
When Annie was still a toddler, she and her father took ill. As night fell, Annie began to burn with fever, and soon she was so hot, she could no longer be held in her mother\u2019s arms. Amoline grew desperate, deciding at last to fetch icy water from the nearby river. The next morning Gregori awoke, weak and groggy from his sickness. In the crib, a now-healthy Annie played with her stuffed bear, Tibbers, but Amoline was gone.<\/p>\n
Na\u00efvely, Annie believed her mother would one day return. Gregori would often find the girl sitting in her mother\u2019s rocking chair near the hearth, hugging Tibbers and staring into a crackling fire, where he was sure there had been nothing but cold ashes. He chalked up these slips of the mind to the burden of parenting a child alone.<\/p>\n
Years passed, bringing more colonists to the region. And in time, Gregori met Leanna, a woman seeking a new life outside the capital with her own young daughter, Daisy.<\/p>\n
Annie was eager for a playmate, but spoiled by the indulgences of being an only child, so acclimation to her new stepfamily was difficult. Whenever Annie\u2019s fiery temper erupted, it left Leanna uneasy, and quick to take her own daughter\u2019s side. It fell to Gregori to keep an uneasy peace between the three.<\/p>\n
Unused to the dangers of the untamed borderlands, Daisy\u2019s playing ended in catastrophe for the family. Leanna, of course, blamed Annie for the loss of her daughter, focusing her rage and grief on her stepdaughter\u2019s most prized possession: Tibbers. Annie was horrified as the last physical memory of her mother was threatened. The girl\u2019s terror grew to an unbridled rage, releasing her latent and powerful pyromancy, and the stuffed bear was brought to life in a maelstrom of protective fire.<\/p>\n
When the flames died down and the swirl of ash settled, Annie was left orphaned and alone.<\/p>\n
Believing most city adults to be like her stepmother, Annie has kept to the wilder parts of her frontier homeland. On occasion, she will use her disarmingly adorable exterior to be taken in by some pioneer family long enough to be offered new clothes and a hot meal. However, fire and death awaits anyone foolish enough to try parting Annie from the stuffed bear at her side.<\/p>\n
Kept safe by Tibbers, she wanders the dark forests of Noxus, oblivious to danger\u2014and the dangers posed to others by her own unchecked power\u2014hoping, one day, to find someone like her to play with.<\/p>\n
If there was one thing Marcin knew how to do, it was to keep his head down.<\/p>\n
Before him, rowdy voices intermingled with the clatter of tankards and the sloshing of beer. Every once in a while, someone barked a drink order, and just as soon as their coin landed on the bar, a drink slid in front of their waiting hands. His quick and silent service kept him unnoticed\u2014and as such, uninvolved in any trouble.<\/p>\n
And there was always trouble.<\/p>\n
It took on many forms. A belligerent brawler, itching for a fight. A transaction among cloaked figures that ended with a dagger through a throat. Or, perhaps most unexpectedly, a little girl, pushing through the heavy tavern door.<\/p>\n
Marcin watched the girl hum and skip her way toward the bar. Behind her, the door slammed shut, one last swirl of winter air blasting across the room, the loud\u00a0bang<\/i>\u00a0grabbing the last few eyes that weren\u2019t already following her, baffled by her presence.<\/p>\n
The girl clambered up a stool, barely peeking over the edge of the bar. Marcin took in the child\u2019s bright red hair, the tattered toy clutched in her grip, the frayed satchel on her back, and the ragged, unseasonably short-sleeved, dress.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat can I get for you?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
The girl stood on the stool and plopped her toy on the counter, peering at the many bottles on shelves. Marcin could see it was a stuffed bear, once well crafted, since well loved. The stitching at its limbs were visible after many years of stress. Somewhere in its life it had lost one of its button eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cCould I get a glass of milk, please?\u201d<\/p>\n
Marcin raised an eyebrow but said nothing. He walked toward the far end of the bar to fetch the ceramic jug.<\/p>\n
\u201cAwfully late for you to be out by yourself, ain\u2019t it?\u201d a deep voice rumbled.<\/p>\n
Marcin sighed. Trouble always attracted more trouble. He pulled the jug down from the shelf and gazed back down the bar. A large man next to the girl had turned to peer down at her with his one good eye. Seated in front of him, the girl looked like a pebble at the foot of a mountain. He was a pile of muscles criss-crossed with scars. The loops of ropes, chains, and hooks at his belt, along with the massive blade slung across his back, loudly announced him as a bounty hunter.<\/p>\n
The girl looked up at him and flashed a smile. \u201cI\u2019m not alone. Tibbers is here with me. Aren\u2019t you, Tibbers?\u201d She held up the bear, beaming.<\/p>\n
The bounty hunter laughed out loud. \u201cSurely your parents must be missing you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The girl\u2019s hands dropped to her side as her eyes drifted down and away. \u201cI don\u2019t think so,\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n
\u201cAw, but I do think so. Would pay a pretty penny to see you home safe, I imagine.\u201d Marcin could practically hear the coins clinking in the bounty hunter\u2019s mind, the man already tallying up the prize for her safe return.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can\u2019t. They\u2019re dead.\u201d The girl plopped back down on the stool, staring into the button eye of her bear.<\/p>\n
The bounty hunter started to speak again just as Marcin placed the mug down on the counter with a percussive thud.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour milk,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The girl turned and beamed at him, breaking from her sullen mood.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you, sir!\u201d<\/p>\n
She set her bear on the table and reached back into her knapsack. Marcin waited, prepared to accept any coin she put down as payment enough.<\/p>\n
He did not expect the massive purse that landed with a clatter.<\/p>\n
A few golden coins bounced onto the counter, one rolling toward the edge. Marcin stopped it on reflex, one finger pinning the escapee. Slowly, he lifted it from the bar, its heft and texture proclaiming it as authentic Noxian mint.<\/p>\n
\u201cOopsie!\u201d the little girl giggled.<\/p>\n
Marcin swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry. He reached over, hoping to shove the coin and the purse back into the girl\u2019s satchel before anyone else noticed\u2014<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a mighty big purse for a mighty small girl,\u201d the bounty hunter growled, far too loudly.<\/p>\n
\u201cTibbers found it,\u201d the girl replied.<\/p>\n
The bounty hunter snorted. \u201cIs that so?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was on the man who stopped me in the road. He was a real meanie.\u201d The girl took a sip of her milk, her attention back on her bear.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s too bad\u2026\u201d The bounty hunter leaned in closer on his stool, hand sliding towards the purse.<\/p>\n
The girl looked up at him, a playful smile dancing across her face.<\/p>\n
\u201cTibbers ate him.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a moment, everything stood still. Then the bounty hunter\u2019s laugh cut across the room.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure he did,\u201d he roared. He thrust a meaty hand forward, grasping the toy by the head and yanking it away from the girl. \u201cThis big ol\u2019 scary monster.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet Tibbers go!\u201d the girl cried out, reaching up for the bear. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t like being pulled.\u201d The bounty hunter just laughed harder.<\/p>\n
Marcin pocketed the coin in his hand and turned away, walking unnoticed toward the back. He wished he could help, but he hadn\u2019t survived this long by sticking around longer than he should.<\/p>\n
Her voice stopped him cold.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said. Let. Tibbers. Go.\u201d<\/p>\n
The words rumbled with gravel and rage, cutting through the din. Against all his better judgement, Marcin paused and looked back. The girl stood on the bar, staring at the bounty hunter, fury smoldering in her eyes.<\/p>\n
Then chaos erupted.<\/p>\n
A flare of light and a burst of heat erupted from the girl. Too late, Marcin threw his arms up, crying out in pain. He stumbled back, knocking into the shelves behind him. Several bottles crashed around him as he ducked beneath the bar, cursing his idiotic hesitation. The screams of men and the sound of breaking wood punctuated a growing roar of flame. A guttural, impossible sound reverberated through the air, rattling his bones. Marcin crawled, still half-blinded, toward where he hoped the doors to the kitchens were. Around him, the screams heightened\u2014then stopped with a stomach-turning crack.<\/p>\n
For the second time that day, Marcin forgot all his honed skills of avoiding trouble and peered over the edge of the bar.<\/p>\n
A hulking beast loomed, silhouetted against the firelight. Thick strands of sinew bound its limbs to its torso like stitching. With a start, Marcin realized the beast itself\u00a0burned<\/i>, unharmed by the hungry tongues of flame that danced across its fur. In its claws it held aloft, by the head, the slumped, bloody form of the bounty hunter, a limp rag doll in the massive paws of the monster.<\/p>\n
Before it, the little girl stood wreathed in fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re right, Tibbers,\u201d she said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t like being pulled either.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marcin looked around the room in horror. Throughout his tavern, overturned chairs and tables ignited, raising a thick, black smoke. The smell of blood and burning flesh crawled inside his nose, and Marcin choked back a cough, his stomach turning.<\/p>\n
The beast turned and looked at him.<\/p>\n
A whimper escaped Marcin\u2019s lips. He gazed into the glowing abyss of the bear\u2019s eyes, and swallowed in the certainty of his end.<\/p>\n
A peal of laughter rang out over the crackle of flames.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t worry,\u201d the little girl said, peering around the monstrosity. \u201cTibbers likes you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marcin watched, frozen, as the girl hopped, skipped, jumped her way through the burning tavern, the beast lumbering behind her. He stared as it smashed the heavy door off its hinges. He gaped as the little girl turned back one last time, a sweet smile back on her face.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks for the milk, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then, the girl walked out into the snowy night as the tavern collapsed behind her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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