"Anything less would be uncivilized."~ Cho'gath, The Terror of the Void (Gentleman Cho'gath)
Yes. A quote from a skin. The best one indeed. What are you going to do.... sue me?
Before this chapter starts you can check out Annie's cover story on universe.leagueoflegends.com. Just to give you an idea of how things got there, obviously there are changes from the main story but it is good. It is not a necessity to read it. But I will not be copy pasting someone else's story as my own. I might give a quick version of the events but I will not plagiarize.
So, here you go.
Annie's Adventures.
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For a demon, Tibbers was quite un-demon-like. He could always leave. But he stayed. Every time. Annie had grown on him.
At first he had stayed to pay the woman, Amoline, back. Demons weren't heartless. She hadn't ever asked anything from him. Not once in the near decade she had him. She just saved him and set him free. Free from his captors.
But she hadn't freed him completely. She became his new cage. A cage that escaped the ones that made her into one. But she had never used him. At first he believed her to be weak. No, she was not weak... she had proved that with her last breath.
A demon would always pay back any favors it owed. Even if it was one sided. For the years of rest and safety, he had accepted her last wish. To protect her daughter and help control her unstable magic. And he accepted it. A favor for a favor. But that wasn't why she had asked him, not because he owed her favor but because he was the only one who could actually help.
Annie's magic was tainted.
It was not just a result of uncontrolled magic. Annie's issue arose from him. Due to Tybaluk being sealed in Amoline, Annie had experienced a fundamental change in her magic. No one could have predicted the effects of the presence of a demon during pregnancy. But Tybaluk was certain of his influence over the child, he had sensed the magic within her.
He had spoken of her magic to Amoline, warned her about the changes. But Amoline never took the words to heart. The chance for Annie to become a near demon was still there, but he could offset those changes.
When Annie had fallen ill, Amoline had finally accepted his words. And had asked him to leave her and protect her daughter.
But a demon cannot leave its cage without destroying it. Amoline would die if he were to change hosts. He had let her know of this and she accepted and subsequently ignored his warnings a second time. The woman made the decision for him. She transferred him to a new cage, one she had created herself. For month she had sat in that chair by the fire and sewn every thread into it. A replica of a Shadow Bear.
She put him into the bear her daughter had proceeded to name Tibbers.
Tybaluk had never understood how she had gotten close to his own name. Tyb and Tib were basically the same.
The early years with the child were not great. It was a baby after all. He couldn't expect her to do anything other than clutch him and babble. But once she had started speaking, he became her outlet. Her sole confidant. Annie told him everything. Things she had never even told her father.
He never replied.
But she always continued to speak to him. Deep down she probably knew that her bear was alive. It was obvious, her magic was always going to him. He consumed her magic and a certain emotion.
Her father was also similar. He had come across many kinds of men. But Gregori was one of a kind. He showed love unconditionally but he was also capable of great anger. He had never shown any negative emotions near his wife or children. Even his second wife had never seen his true hatred. But as a demon, Tybaluk knew of the darkness in him. Among all whose emotion he consumed Gregori had been the most delectable.
Tybaluk, The Demon of Guilt.
And man did Gregori ooze guilt. The man singlehandedly provided him so much sustenance that he was seldom hungry, and it increased after Amoline faded away as a result of the transfer.
Annie's guilt was significantly less, but any guilt she felt was instantly consumed by him. Often leading Gregori to assume something might have been wrong with his daughter. A demon must do demonic things. It is their reason for existence. Something as small as causing worry, did fortunately fit the criteria.
As much as he hated to admit it. He had fallen in love with this family. They radiated a lot of love. Even with the new additions to the family, that had not changed, in fact it grew. The love they showed to each other affected him. Somehow, he started to crave that feeling. That emotion. Despite being the demon of guilt, he wanted love.
Tybaluk. One of the ten original demons, wanted love. Any other demon would find that hilarious. But not Tybaluk.
If love was not an emotion to be felt, then why was there not a demon of love.
Lust had a demonic entity but not love. That was a near primal emotion only trumped by fear. And the demon of fear was nigh unstoppable.
"Tibbers why did we not stay with those people?" Annie spoke as they walked down one of the many roads in Noxus.
Bad people
He spoke into her head.
And he was not wrong. It was the third time this had happened. Someone would spot Annie walking alone, ask her where her mother was, she would say gone and they would take her in. Three times this had happened and not once did they show her love. There was always something they did wrong. The first was one of the Noxian slavers. They took in children and sold them, usually to the army to turn into child soldiers. The second had more nefarious plans for Annie. Noxian nobles had a morbid fascination with young children. And Tybaluk was not going to let the child he had come to love, suffer in that manner. The final time had been a family that adopted her, but upon seeing her magic, they tried to sell her off for money.
All three times, they had seen his Shadow Bear form and did not live to tell the tale.
He hadn't let Annie take lives. She was still innocent in that area. She could take lives once she got old enough to understand what that meant.
Tybaluk had become the first ever demon to adopt a child.
Annie had not found this journey fun.
She missed her father. She missed her sister. She missed her mother.
Annie wanted to go home. The house had been all she had ever known, her father took her around occasionally but the house was everything. The creek next to it and the woods around it was her little world.
One that she had lost.
She lost everything and everyone.
Despite everything, she missed her daddy. She wanted to be in his arms.
But she never cried.
Annie promised her daddy that she would not cry when she was alone.
"Only cry when you have someone with you." He had told her. He hadn't told why but she followed his words. Her father was always right.
Annie walked forward without any aim. Just going wherever her little legs took her. If she felt tired, she asked someone for help or else she just went and plopped herself down under a tree and fall asleep.
Two weeks of this was not that bad.
Her toilet situation had been taken care of by visiting various houses and asking them to use their toilets. No one said no. After all, it was just a small cute girl asking to use a simple facility. Only a monster would stop her.
But she was getting a little dirty now. The previous time someone lifted her off the streets, they gave her clothes and a nice warm bath. That had been three days ago.
Tibbers had been her only companion in this journey. She was happy when he talked to her but he never talked for long. Nor did he say a lot.
Just a couple words each time. But it was enough. Anni was happy listening to someone. And it promised it would never lie to her.
On the third day of their journey, she had asked it, "Is my daddy alive?"
Alive.
"Is Daisy alive?"
Don't know.
She hung her head low. Tears threatened to fall, "Will he come find me?"
He will.
That was all she needed. She never asked about her father again and she never felt the littlest bit of doubt if Tibbers had lied to her. Annie believed that her father would find her. It might take some time but he will find her. He always did.
Tybaluk answered the questions without worry. He knew Gregori was alive. Annie's magic had marked him. The first time it awakened, her magic had burned through his nerves, leaving him completely paralyzed. It was why he was bedridden when his wife decided to sacrifice herself. The nerves grew back quickly. Magic was extremely efficient that way, and him being Daisy's father made her magic go easy on him but had also marked him. A mark Tybaluk could trace.
Her magic with its demonic traits had also caused a change within his own. What kind of change he would exhibit, Tybaluk did not know but it was definitely going to be a net positive for the man.
Annie asked, "Where do we go Tibbers?"
Where you can learn magic.
"But I already know magic!"
Not as much as your mother.
She put a finger to her chin and slowly spoke, "Okaaaaayyyy."
Get strong.
"How do I do that?"
Learn.
"Who will teach me?"
ME.
Annie smiled, clutched Tibbers close to her chest and started skipping forward.
She made it past a tavern but a couple steps forward, she stopped. Turning her head, she looked at the tavern.
"I'm thirsty..... lets buy some milk."
She spun on her heels and walked into the tavern. It was nighttime and she was thirsty. She would get milk.
Annie used her back to shove open the heavy tavern door and skip across the tavern to the barkeep. She used her little hands to pull her self onto the stool.
"What can I get for you?" The barkeep asked nicely.
She smiled at him, " Could I get a glass of milk, please?"
Annie was a polite girl. Her daddy had taught her that way and she was a good girl. The best girl. Her father would be proud of her. Once he found her, he would rub her hair and tell her that she was the best.
Unbeknownst to her, the tavern was in a standoffish state. The air was heavy, as if everyone was waiting for something to happen.
Tybaluk was in his cuddly bear form but he knew the night was going to go to shit.
And the sequence of events that followed confirmed his thoughts.
Because... as expected......
The night went to shit.