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Annette awoke to a rustling noise in her room and Claude missing from her bed. For a second, she thought that the monastery was under attack again, and that he’d been kidnapped, but that couldn’t be. They’d defeated not only Edelgard, but the Fell King Nemesis, as well. The war was over. So what was going on?
“Who’s there?” Annette whispered, preparing to cast Excalibur at the intruder. “I’m warning you, I’m not afraid to use my magic!”
“Woah, woah, Annie!” a familiar voice responded, frantic. “It’s only me!”
Annette sighed and pushed the spell from her mind. It was only Claude, which explained why he wasn’t at her side. However, that didn’t explain why he was moving things around in their room while it was still dark.
“Oh, you scared me,” Annette sighed in relief. “Why are you up and about now ? I thought we didn’t leave for Almyra until noon.”
“We don’t. I’m up because I wanted to take you out to celebrate the war’s end.”
“Another celebration?”
“Yeah, but think of this as a celebration only for us , my sweet.” Claude patted the thing he was messing around with earlier, his satchel. “And if we want to actually celebrate , we’ll have to leave now. Meet me at the stables once you’ve gotten dressed.”
Claude left the room, and Annette quickly threw on her clothes from the night before and ran after him.
When Annette arrived at the stables, she found Claude sitting on his beautiful white wyvern.
“Hop on, my sweet,” Claude ushered. She climbed onto the wyvern’s back, wrapping her arms around him, and he spurred the wyvern into motion. Soon, they were soaring through the air.
Annette had ridden on the back of Claude’s wyvern before. Whenever the war would weigh on them, they’d find escape by flying a few laps around the monastery. It was exhilarating, feeling the wind rush through her hair, seeing the world below them. They’d done this during their monastery days, too, whenever the professor assigned Claude to flying duty. But, no matter the time, Annette felt invincible on the back of a wyvern even though she was never the one flying it. Perhaps it was the wind blowing through her hair, the fact that a plunge to the ground meant death, but they controlled it. This must’ve been why he chose to take her flying again, because he knew that she enjoyed it.
He wasn’t taking their usual course around the monastery, however. Instead, he was flying away from it, over the encircling landscape.
“Claude,” Annette called over the rushing wind. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see,” he called back. “Just hold on!”
He cracked the reins again, spurring the wyvern to fly faster in no particular direction. She knew they weren’t headed for Almyra, for they hadn’t packed anything. Perhaps it was somewhere special he’d discovered that he was finally showing her?
Suddenly, the wyvern banked hard to the right. Annette screamed and held onto Claude tighter than before, burying her face in his back.
“Sorry, Annie!” Claude yelled. “Just keep holding on!”
Soon, he made another turn, though not nearly as sharp as the last one. If this was a special spot, he certainly wasn’t familiar with it.
“Okay, we’re here. Take a look.”
If they’d landed, Annette hadn’t realized it. And when she un-buried her face, noticed that they were still hovering in the air. Why was he hovering?
Then, she knew why.
The sun was just peaking over the horizon, coloring the sky a brilliant orange that tapered out into a vibrant purple as the light traveled further from its source. The few clouds that hung in front of the sun were backlit by its rays, adding a stark contrast to the scene in front of her.
It was the most beautiful sunrise Annette had ever witnessed.
Claude kept the wyvern hovering in that spot for a while, watching as the sun rose fully above the horizon, ushering in the first dawn of the United Kingdom of Fódlan.
“That was...amazing,” Annette breathed once the sunrise was over. “Is that what you wanted to show me?”
“It was,” Claude smiled.
“How...how did you manage to discover something like this? More importantly, why did you only wait until now to share it?”
“I saw it while practicing my flying early one morning. I promise you, I wanted to share it, but it just didn’t feel right while we were fighting for our lives. Now that we aren’t, I thought that it would be the perfect first look at the new world, the one that we’re going to make better.”
“Well, you were absolutely right.”
They sat in silence for a few moments more, before Claude spoke again. “There’s something in my bag for you, Annie. Would you mind grabbing it?”
“Of course.” She reached into the satchel that had woke her earlier, and found it emptier than it normally was. In fact, there was nothing in there except for...a ring.
“A ring?” she asked, pulling the item out of his satchel. It had a shining silver band, with a large emerald fitted in the middle.
“Yeah, a ring,” he said, turning around to face her. “I love you, Annette, with all that I am, and if I’m going to return to Almyra, I want to return with you as my wife. Annette Fantine Dominic, will you marry me?”
“Of course I will, Claude. I would’ve married you even if you hadn’t given me this ring.” She slipped it onto her finger, and it fit perfectly.
They stayed suspended in the air for a few more minutes, savoring the moment for as long as they could, before Claude guided them back to the monastery. When they landed, they began packing their belongings to make the trip to Almyra, where they would work to ensure that more beautiful sunrises would shine over not only Fódlan, but the rest of the world, as well.