Chapter 44: Welcome to Annesville
In a few days time was the day the train would make its first official trip up the mountain. I've been told there were many test runs before this, but this is the first time it'll actually accept passengers. Meanwhile, the day after tomorrow was the ceremony to make Annesville an official city under the Principality of Sanctuary. Of course, I will be in attendance to give my full blessing.
Foxman drove us down the hill two calendar days before the ceremony. From early morning, we were planning to drive all day, camp tonight and arrive there late afternoon tomorrow. It was just Raina, Panchi, Foxman, and I making the trip down the hill. Granny Sota has already been down there for days, planting some much needed trees and bushes. Auntie Lexine decided to walk down the mountain alone. She said it would be "nostalgic." How she walks a distance that we literally need to build a train line to traverse is beyond me. Though, admittedly it's faster downhill than uphill.
He drove us on a winding path that led us down the mountain. Not far away we can see the train tracks. Eventually, we left the eye of the storm and we were inundated by cloud cover. I watched the trees go by. Eventually, I spotted something very familiar in the forest nearby.
"Ooh! Look over there!" I shouted.
Raina next to me looked around. "What did you see?"
Panchi looked around from her spot riding shotgun. Normally you wouldn't let someone 2 feet tall ride up in the front, but I'm pretty sure she can handle anything this car could dish out.
"That large crater over there! Do you see it?"
"Oh yeah, it looks like some trees got knocked over." Raina noted. "That must have been one heck of a meteor."
"That's where I landed!"
"What?"
I explained how I wound up on the Odd, how the dragons flung me from the veil, how I collided with the planet right over there, and how I scaled the mountain to find Langweilig.
"Woah, it all happened over there?" Exclaimed Raina.
"Yeah, it took me a while to re-solidify after that." I laughed.
"Huh, we were all wondering about that large hole during construction. Mystery solved I guess." Foxman expressed from the driver's seat.
"Seriously, does anything kill you, noodle girl?" Panchi said exasperated.
I sighed nostalgically. "To think I was just a messy girl with no name back then. A lot has changed..."
"To think I was toiling away in prison back then..." Raina said wistfully.
"To think I came here to escape my family, only to stick around when they move in." Panchi huffed. "Maybe you two should stop being so likeable so I can leg it."
"I'm sorry our charms made you want to stay." I jest.
"We'll try to be less lovable in the future." Raina joined in.
"I knew it!" Panchi jabbed a finger in our direction. "You two are being cute on purpose! Stop it!"
Raina and I looked at each other. We then raised our fists into the air and shouted, "Never!"
We all laughed. Foxman just listened quietly from the driver's seat. He had a big glowing smile on his face. Glad our banter wasn't too annoying.
Eventually, our fox driver told us that it was close to "night" and parked off of the side of the road. He set up four camping chairs and made a fire. Then he pulled out two packages of hotdogs. He was considerate enough to remember to bring the tofu dogs for my girlfriend and I.
As I roasted my tofu dog over the fire, I looked up at the overcast sky.
"I'm glad we planned to do this on a day day." I said, looking around. "It gets pitch black around here on a night day." Heck, even with the light, it's still dim because of the cloud cover.
"I honestly like the darkness." Stated Raina. "Reminds me of the solar eclipses on Sarpanit."
"I thought the Monster Home World didn't even have a moon?" I asked.
"It doesn't. No one can explain why they happen."
"I'd imagine it's dragons." Panchi chimed in. "They can't tell where they are putting their asses."
We all laughed. I quietly hoped no dragons heard that remark.
After we had eaten our dogs and had some roasted s'mores (with vegan marshmallows for the two of us of course,) Foxman made an announcement. "Welp, time to set up the travel fox house."
He pulled something out of his inventory, and out plopped in front of us was a fox-shaped house. Like, it was a house shaped like a cartoon-y fox standing on its hind legs.
"Wha- why is it fox shaped?" I asked.
"It's got everything!" He began his sales pitch. "Bedrooms, baths, kitchen, living room, everything to make your trip feel like home!"
"That didn't answer my question..." My pleas went on deaf ears.
Instead, Raina had her own question. "If you had a kitchen available, why did we have dinner over an open fire?"
"Good question! A question I'll gladly answer!"
"I had a good question, too..." I moped.
"It's not a camping experience without some fire cooked meal! I wouldn't DARE rob you!"
"But," Raina continued, "if you care about our camping experience, why are you pulling the house out at all?"
"Do you want to sleep in the dirt?"
"Well, no..."
"Then that answers your question. Come on! Let's head inside!"
The house only had three bathrooms so Raina and I had to share. I regretted letting her take her bath first as I had to spend the whole time bathing trying not to think about the fact that Raina's naked body was in the water before me.
"Don't think about it, baths are for cleaning..." I'd tell myself, trying desperately to push the mental image out of my mind.
When I finally finished my bath and changed into my nightgown, I went to our bedroom to find Raina sitting nervously on the bed, muttering to herself: "Don't think about how she's currently naked right now, don't think about it, don't think about it..."
Welp, now I'm a tomato. I'll try to forget I heard that.
After breakfast the next day, we packed everything up and headed off. The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful.
Later that day, we finally made it to the bottom of the mountain. It was only partly cloudy down here. Apparently, it's usually like this. We passed by a sign that read "Annesville city limits." and quickly the forests were replaced with houses of many shapes and sizes.
The thing about Annesville is that unlike Sanctuary which already had buildings to set the city's look and feel, this town was built from the ground up (or more like they pulled out houses from their inventories.) So it had a very different feel from the capitol on the top of the hill. In fact, it looked more like the Monstre distinct, the only part of Sanctuary that's 100% entirely new.
Some of the houses were modern suburban style homes. Some were tree houses. Some were built into the side of a hill. There was even a little old lady who lived in a shoe. It was just a hodgepodge of aesthetics all mashed together. It was wonderful.
We drove right up to the Annesville Hotel. It was a luxury establishment, clearly created in anticipation of all the tourists coming their way. Not that we could see much considering what was in front of it.
"What in the..." Raina was the first to see it.
I looked where she was peering and apparently a huge crowd had formed in anticipation of us. There was a red carpet spread out down the middle leading to the front doors.
"Foxman, did you know anything about this?" I asked.
"Nope!" But his smirk said otherwise.
Tricksterish fox, I thought.
The crowd saw us approaching and started to cheer. Foxman pulled us up right to the carpet. Just when I didn't think I could possibly step out into the lion's den, the fox jumped out and opened the door for me. Thanks a lot.
My legs touched the red carpet and the excitement around me swelled. I tried my best to wave around to the people, but I think my movements came up as robotic. Raina had exited from my door and nervously joined me by my side. I immediately wrap my arm around her missing one to ease my nerves. This just made the crowd even more fervent. These were just a bunch of shippers, weren't they?
Lord Panchi jumped out of the car from the opposite side of the carpet, then dramatically slid across the hood of the car like an action star. This got another rise from the crowd. She quickly joined us by our side. She switched to her "I'm security" strut as she scanned the crowd for threats. Not that there was much to worry about considering there was a line of blue shawl security people lining the perimeter of the crowd.
A cute fluffy white bichon frise woman approached us down the red carpet. I recognized her, the dog named Elodia, one of the people that was traveling with Foxman when he first arrived. She was his accountant, but he sent her to Annesville to oversee construction. She wound up moving here permanently and was elected to become the town's first mayor when it gets established tomorrow.
By her side was the bear bodyguard Mathias who now protects the dog mayor. He looked at me nervously. I wasn't sure how Foxman got by letting go of both his bodyguard and accountant, but I'm not going to judge his life choices.
She came right up to me and gave me a curtsy. "It's an honor you would join us at this historic week, Princess Anne!"
"It's my pleasure, Mayor Elodia." I returned her curtsy. I hoped I did my curtsy perfectly. I didn't want Lexine to find out I was a few centimeters off. I don't know how she would know, but I figured she had a way to get those kinds of details.
"Please, I'm not mayor until tomorrow! Just call me Elodia until then!" She insisted. She turned to look at the others beside me. "I'm glad you could come, Duchess Raina. And Lord Panchi, too!"
"I'm the bodyguard." Panchi stated.
"That you are!" She responded with a smile.
Raina simply curtsied nervously. I think she was slightly off. I pray the vampire doesn't find out.
"Well, on behalf of the people of this town, I welcome you all to Annesville!"
The crowd cheered for us as the bichon led us into the hotel.












