In the dim lights of the city-state of Demacia, on a chilly starless night, a shadow lurked. It stood still, for hours on end, the faint noise of her breath being the only sound to grace the streets. Her chest moving up and down slowly, defying the silence, the stillness, the coldness in the air. A gust of wind swept across the street, then the silence returned, the only sound being her breath sucked in...and out...
"You are late" she whispered suddenly, words holding an accusatory note. The figure of another could be barely distinguished behind the corner of a nearby building. "The night is still young..." the reply came as a faint whisper, almost like it had never even been there. Her body stiffened, as if preparing for a fight. The figure made no move whatsoever, seemingly fading even more into the darkness. "You are never late." "I am now." The smallest glow of metal, almost suspended in the air before the figure, glinted for just a moment then disappeared.
A loud squeak penetrated through the silence, and droplets of blood were spilled on the dirt. The tension faded, as the two relaxed. "A rat", the figure announced from behind the corner, stepping out of the shadows only to reveal a smirking redheaded woman with a scar over her left eye. Her beautiful face was almost unfitting for the coldness of her green eyes. The other woman frowned, clearly unhappy about the mess. The redhead's eyes narrowed, and she started walking down the street towards a large gate, not even turning her head to look at her companion. "So that's how it's gonna be tonight", the first woman thought, as she hurriedly followed, still hiding in the shadows.
...the morning light found her laying in the clearing of the forest outside Demacia. Her hands on her knives, her head covered by red hair on a rock, mumbling incoherently, she was clearly not welcoming the first rays of sun with joy. A black-haired woman nudged her. "You have to be in Noxus." "You have to be...somewhere..." the redhead mumbled. The other woman looked at her with disgust. "I could end her life right now", she thought "and rid the world of a whit of violence and hatred." She smirked, then shook her head, hoping the redhead wouldn't catch her gesture. "This is not the time nor the place, Shauna." She gathered her belongings: a crossbow, one half-eaten sandwich and a small pillow in a sack. "I'm leaving." she announced. And with that, she went for the forest, her footsteps loud at first, as she was stepping on dry leaves, then fading away in the sounds of the wind through the trees...
The redhead slowly opened her eyes. "This has to be one of my most terrible mornings..." the thought barely had time to race through her head as one quick move brought her to her feet. "Shake it off!" she yelled, trying to wake herself up, but only resulting in more dizziness. "My sister must be suspicious by now." This was, indeed, an alarming thought. What would happen if the whole fortress found out she wasn't there? Even worse, what if anyone found out that she had spending time in Demacia?
Katarina looked around her. The thick forest had no answer to her questions, and the numb pain in her head signaled it was time to move out. She could feel nature live around her without even noticing her presence, but spared no time thinking about it. What was it about nature that made her so unwanted, so unwelcome? Almost like everything around her was glaring at her, eyeing her every move...
...the path through the forest was hard to remember, and even more difficult to follow during the day. At night, the shadows were her guides, but with the sun hovering over the top of the trees, she felt exposed. "In the dark, all is laid bare; that's what...she used to say." Katarina smirked as she thought this. "Guess it's true in more than one way" she pondered, while stepping on some branches. A bird started to chirp nearby, as the leaves rustled below her feet. The sound of the woods echoed in the woman's mind over, and over... and as soon as she allowed herself to stop just for a second to take it all in, she felt a tingle in her fingertips. She felt a cold shiver, and widened her eyes. Sure enough, in half of a second, the lust for blood was back, the noxian inside her had awoken. "Time to taste the venom." she whispered through her teeth, as she grudgingly made her way out of the forest.
So, there she was. Back to her house in the forest. Shadowed by a large stone, the house was built by Shauna herself, not because she needed a house, but because she needed a shelter. A home. She would never admit this, though. The small cabin was imperfect, logs sticking out from it at odd angles, but this wasn't an issue for Vayne. She had built it all alone, with her own two hands, and this was enough. Actually, it was more than enough, it was perfect. The only object that seemed amiss was the huge mirror. She wasn't sure if she needed one, at first, and even after she bought one halfheartedly (a rather large ornamented one), every time she stared at her own reflection, thoughts raced from simply putting the mirror away (maybe on the other side of Runeterra), to punching it.
Staring at herself seemed too useless. Her tiny frame was rigurously trained everyday, her clothes were fitted with various devices. She had everything needed to be an unseen assasin. But here, in her house, it was different. Her black hair flowing, her glasses off - she had nothing. She was just another woman. "Just another girl..." Shauna thought as she slipped into more comfortable clothes, getting ready to sleep for a while. She stepped towards the window to close her makeshift curtains. "Why does the sun have to shine so bright at noon?" she wondered, while curling up in the uncomfortable bed, welcoming sleep.
The fortress on the hill wasn't very welcoming. Painted with only black and grey, it looked rather gloomy. The walls surrounding it were home to dozens of well-trained guards, and the catapults were minutes away from being ready to fire at any time. There were hordes of hungry beasts in the dungeons below, and lots of weapons, and men that would use them when given the order, above. Overall, the defenses were unnecessary, after the activity of the League had started, but the noxians weren't going to dishonor decades of being a fighting nation for a few years of peace. No, war would eventually come, and Noxus would be prepared. "More than prepared!" Swain used to yell, when motivating the soldiers he was training. The massive fortress looked nothing like a family home. But it was, indeed, the home of the Du Couteau family. Although once a large family, the only ones remaining were the sisters Katarina and Cassiopeia, out of which only one was still human.
"Rattlesnake!" Katarina yelled, once she opened the door to the inner chambers. Receiving no answer, she assumed that it was safe to go in and pretend she had spent the last few nights in her own bed. After walking to the living quarters, she opened a black door, decorated with two knives forming an X over the peephole, that she had glued herself when she was 10 to scare off unwanted intruders, especially her sister. The room was simple, but was not lackluster when it came competing in luxury with the rest of the fortress. It contained a grey desk with some papers on it (the DuCouteau sisters received weekly updates about the state of the affairs in the city-state not only from their own spies, but from high-ranked officials' personal staff as well), a bed covered with an inviting black velvet sheet, a sturdy armoire, multiple shelves where the red-haired woman stashed her knives and other fighting tools (also plenty of knife sharpeners). The wallpaper that once held an intricate design, with war themes manually sewed on, was torn and ragged from the many times the inhabitant of the room had aimed her knives at the wall. The mirror on the wall had been broken by an angry punch delivered to it the day she came back from the mission that got her the scar, and Katarina had insisted that the maids wouldn't clean it up or replace it. Failure needed to have adequate reminders, lest it would happen again. Katarina did not glance at it often though, but refused to listen to Cassiopeia when she barked at her about the general state of her room not being befitting of their status. In fact, she hated being bossed around in general, and was almost elated when she heard the news of her father's disappearance, some months ago, hoping it would be a permanent one. Now, there was nobody to order her around. The fortress lay at her feet.
"Home, sweet home."