Hi! I hope you enjoy this. I'll try to put up a chapter once every two weeks (They take a lotta polishing and editing), but please review :P
Note: This story will get slightly more mature as it goes on, but nothing sexual or gory.
There's something magical about that first snowflake in winter. It's as if everything suddenly changes, as the corpses of plants finally crumble into dust and the taste of fresh, cold air is omnipresent. To some people, it can represent another few painfully freezing months, where every morning is marked by the monotonous exercise of shoveling snow in the subzero morning air. To others, it's a whole new adventure, filled with the constant hope of snowball fights and sledding. But to me, it will always have one meaning- Yasuo. I still remember the first time I met him.
He took out his sword, staring up at the sky. "It's going to fall soon." As I gazed up into the heavens, a small dot of white floated down. As it neared, the tiny, intricate patterns woven into the frozen star became visible. Yasuo held out his katana, and the flake was caught perfectly on the crisp edge of the blade. He presented it to me with a humble gesture.
I held out a single finger and allowed him to place it on it. As I touched that first breath of snow, I felt something completely opposite from the cold dot on my finger. It warmed me up from the inside. And as I saw the snowflake slowly melt into a little puddle of dripping water, I let myself open up, not a lot, but just enough so that a certain samurai could find his way into my heart.
It was a bright autumn afternoon as I, a happy little girl, skipped down the street with my sparkly red shoes. My father had just come back from a long journey, and of course, he had something for his little princess.
"Come here, mon amour," He would say in his characteristically deep voice as I lept off the ground where I was half-heartedly playing with my toys and into his arms. He laughed, a deep rumbly noise.
Even though he answered the same every time, I asked. "Daddy, did you bring me any presents?" Already expecting his answer, I reached into his pockets.
He held up a hand. "Not so fast, bèbè. First, remember the magic words?" He shook his wagging finger.
I giggled. "I love you daddy, forever and always."
"And I love you, my darling, forever and always." We repeated the well-worn phrases as we had dozens of times in the past.
He reached into his pocket and brought out the small pair of shiny, sparkly red shoes. "Pour vous, Elise."
I donned the shoes as soon as I saw them. They seemed to fit perfectly onto my two small feet as I skipped to school in downtown Noxus, leaving behind my small, white house. Little did I know, I wouldn't come back.
As I neared my home that afternoon, I sniffed in the air and immediately knew something was wrong. Very wrong. The warm, fresh cookie smell of my house was gone, as well as all the familiar quirks. The grass no longer shook in the wind, the familiar cats gone. As I opened the door, something tipped me off. It seemed now as if it were my bright red shoes, shining brilliantly in the mid-afternoon light, reflected something dark and sinister. I instinctively leapt back, just as a razor-sharp talon raked through the air.
In front of me, emerging from the shadows, was a deformed and huge spider. About the size of a grown man, its grotesque eyes bulging out of its head like a group of glistening red, bulbous pimples. Normally this was what would make a full-grown man scream, much more a little girl, but I held my ground. Until I saw my father. His face, covered with the sticky strands, was petrified for eternity into one of pure terror. Around his body, the spider strands formed cocoons as he was encased like a mummy. But worst of all was his arm. A large chunk of it was missing, with liquefied meat spilling out of the hole. As I looked at the man who once loved me, cared for me, I screamed.
Naturally, I sprinted out the door, but I was immediately confronted with a sticky wall of translucent thread. Too late, realization hit me. The spider quickly closed the gap.
As it got closer, it began to shed. Soon, its long spindly legs fell off, closing into the sides of the body, until it became a full grown man. Looking at his face, fangs sticking out, panic overwhelmed me.
"Hello, mon amour." His silky voice poured out of that accursed throat, still tainted with my father's blood.
"Don't call me that, you cruel beast." I screamed, backing away further into the corner.
He laughed. "Don't you remember? Your soul is mine, promised to me by eternity himself." And he lunged.
Closing my eyes, I sat there and waited for the inevitable impact, the sharp fangs digging into my flesh, poison seeping into my veins. It was a thousand times worse. Every inch of my body begged for release as his toxins seeped into my bloodstream, consuming both my innocence and my heart. I couldn't move, paralyzed in oblivion as he transformed me. He let go.
I snarled and leapt at him, my personal fear now forgotten. But he held up a hand as I touched him and I ripped straight through his body, which dissolved and reformed a few feet away.
"Bad girl. You should know better than to attack an immortal." He smiled, a mouth of bloody teeth being revealed. I fought him many times that afternoon, confined within those terrifying sticky walls. But as much as I could rebuke him, he just laughed and dodged whatever pitiful punch I could throw. And then as I lay on the ground, dying out, he bit in.
That was the day I died, only to be reborn again as Elise, the Queen. The one who lured innocent men to their deaths. The one who's heart was harder than that of a diamond. The one who moved from a father who would never love her, forever and always, again.
"Are we almost there?" A nervous looking man tapped on my shoulder. I grinned into his face.
"Close. Then you'll get to devote your life to him, the Almighty." As the weak man stumbled away, I looked out into the swamp. The Black Mist consumed the area, sticking to the skins of the living as parasites to the dead, as I led a new batch of devotees to the temple. Those poor fools, I thought, believing my web of lies. I forced myself to swallow down the bile that began rising in my throat. I couldn't, of course. I'd been under full control of Vilemaw since he had captured me three years ago, using me as a literal kidnapper of souls.
As we sailed further through the murky swamp, a woman screamed as one of the many dark spirits lingering on the sides lunged in and devoured her essence. No one seemed to notice. They were all grouped up on the deck, huddled in prayer to the god that didn't exist. As I looked at their dark cloaks huddling together for safety, I felt a sense of repulsion. If I had a choice, ending my life there would have been a mercy both to humanity and myself. However, the powerful toxins dug within my arms, embedded with ancient magic, prevented me from doing any self-harm and disobeying my master. I pulled up my thin black sleeve, revealing a twin fang mark where he had first entered me. My mark of death, destruction and pain.
"All right, off the boat." I herded the masses off the spectral ship, where they stood in front of the cave, a giant hole with stalagmites standing eerily and covered to the top with webbing. It was time.
I led them into the cave like a flock of sheep, awaiting slaughter. Inside in the darkness, it would be impossible to see, making it easier to do my job. Also, the only mercy I could offer them as to spare their minds of the traumatic images. And then, I struck.
The innocuous rocks sitting in the side of the cave morphed into toxin engorged spiderlings, instantly crashing themselves into groups of pilgrims and acidifying their flesh amid screams of torture. I shot out waves of webbing from my hands, layering the victims with chains of white. And then, I began the process.
My arms began to shrink, my head enlarging into that of a large bulbous black widow. My eyesight began to distort until I could see everything all around me, innocent meals identified by their body heat. I leapt over to the first victim, making two small indentations within their arms as I began to suck out their living soul, a collection for my master. As I slowly filled up with souls and repulsion, the room began to dim. Finally, I reached the last. I slowly chomped down on the crying child's head, begging her for forgiveness as her whimpers slowly stopped. And then, a sword came crashing on my head.
Unluckily for my attacker, my impulses were lightning quick. I dashed out of the way, morphing into a human and shooting blasts of toxin at him. As I looked closer, I remembered the lad. He had arrived to our pilgrimage by himself, cloaked in a plain shawl marking him as a wanderer, probably from Ionia seeing the mottled brown color. His eyes shone sharper then daggers as the ocean-blue color from them reflected on the shiny katana he wielded. I let him on the ship with no second thoughts, as he seemed just like the others- gullible, idealistic, prey. But now, he was the predator.
He seemed to weave through the wind itself, forming it into new shapes that repulsed my miasmatic attack. Like the ancient artists of old, he created instead of destroyed. His katana moved through the air like a blade of glorified justice, and I begged for him to end my pitiful life as my uncontrollable body dodged and attacked back. Soon, the gusts of movement transformed into a typhoon, a swirling gale of pure passion weaving around our deadly dance. And then it was over. One of my stray webs managed to ensnare itself onto his leg, and he slowed down for that split second. I could see his movement with my supersonic vision, his face suddenly twisting into one of pure agony, right before a blast of my toxins hit him in the face and he fell.
As I stared down at my prey, universes collided within my hearts. As if two celestial armies rushing each other in a devastating charge, love and admiration mingled with the inevitable sorrow, pain that would come with me inevitably slaughtering him. I stared down at the man, his face peaceful and accepting of death. It was as if… If he knew I couldn't control myself. And then my talon went down.
But I stopped. My talon hovering inches away from his soul, I stopped. It felt as if the fire inside my heart was inside a rainstorm, knives piercing into my flesh, but I controlled it. I fought back against the demon inside, forcing him to let me have this one act of mercy and forgiveness. I felt my life slip away as I tried to overcome his immortal powers. His will forced itself onto me, overwhelming my mental insurgence in a flash. As I was about to be overcome, suddenly, a golden shield of bliss formed itself around my mind, another immortal fighting for me. We overcame the demon, making him form a pact with me. I would not harm this man, but I would gather information about him and send it to Vilemaw. The compromise would allow for me to save this man from Vilemaw's fury. And thus, I turned back into a woman and held out my hand.
He took it and looked into my eyes. Somehow, he had understood what had just happened and didn't leap out to attack me. He stared into my eyes. "Yasuo, Ionia."
"Elise, Noxus."
And as we stood there, two warriors embracing within a dark cave, I felt the small twinges of emotion move inside my chest, emotions that hadn't been there since my father died.