Hello everyone who might be reading this. Here I go with try #2. I know this chapter might seem less detailed and less elaborate than it's counterpart, but I think it's for the better, anyways, here we go, chapter 1 once more.
Try to put out a wildfire, hit it with wind and water and sand, until the flames are gone with wisps of smoke. Yet there remain small embers glowing hot. When the time comes they too shall burn again.
There was excitement in every corner of Demacia. It was a momentous day for these citizens of light and justice. Once more one of their own has been accepted into the League of Legends, this time none other than the Prince himself! Everywhere merchants and scholars and street boys alike whispered together, "He shall return today…" "Demacia is so finely represented…" "Take that Noxus we've got the Prince!"
Yes, all this uproar of voices and mutual achievement and City-state pride.
Shyvana groaned and cupped her ears.
Beside her was Davis, another member of the Elite Guard. They were patrolling the streets, and they weren't the only ones. With this much festivity there was a need for a policing force.
"But we aren't the police, we're the Guard, this isn't our work." Davis spoke allowed, echoing Shyvana's thoughts.
Jarvan was their commander, but since his journey to the Institute of War and apparent acceptance, they have been put temporarily under the order of Xin Zhao until Jarvan returns.
Xin was fair, but he also served the King directly, and the King had wanted extra security for his fellow citizens upon his son's return. And so, the Elite Guards found themselves breaking up scuffles between rowdy children and prying flying kites out of tree branches.
It was a windy day, Shyvana breathed in the cool air, and her bones ached for something that she never truly had. Flight.
They passed another patrol out on the street. They only nodded quickly at them and scurried along.
"They still fear you then," Davis commented.
"What else..." She grunted, already used to the distance that had formed around her.
"Don't be so glum," He laughed, but she growled, she wasn't glum! "They may fear you, but they certainly respect your strength and loyalty to the Crown."
"Hmph."
In truth, Davis also kept his distance. No one in their right mind would gladly approach a dragon with offerings of friendship. Well other than Jarvan, but he was… a different thinker.
Davis was one of the two soliders that survived the Great Barrier and journey Jarvan had undertaken for two years, the journey of which they met Shyvana and put an end to the cruel drake that had torn her father apart. Jarvan had given Shyvana a place in the Elite Guard, she had accepted in respect and in debt. Now, around a year later, she was still not used to this human life. The soliders of the Elite Guard certainly respected her strength, but they kept far away from her.
They were near the Royal Palace now, built round and in height with a great pavilion and steps that reached the front doors, usually wide open to let in the bustle of soliders, mages, citizens, and more.
Shyvana spotted Xin at his post at the foot of the steps, strange that he was away from the King.
"What is it?" She asked, wondering if the solemn solider would answer.
Xin's expression didn't change, but his eyes did light from excitement, "Jarvan is due back soon, any moment now he will pass through the gates of the city." He gave an odd smile to the half-dragon, "You are ordered to stand watch at the gates until his return."
Shyvana knew that Xin was actually doing them a favor, and in truth she really had wanted to get to the gates.
"Yes sir!" She and Davis answered, and she was sure Xin could hear the eagerness in her voice because he chuckled lightly, softly, so none could hear except Shyvana's heightened senses.
It was packed to the brim on the outskirts of the city. Davis was already lost inside the crowd. Shyvana had strayed back, not wanting to be in close proximity with the bustle of people. She climbed up a drainpipe and onto the roof of a building, away from the heavy crowds below. The city gates were already croaked wide open, and through them strolled an influx of people. Nobody wanted to stay in place. There were many soldiers at their posts, armor gleaming from rigid polish, as if never having the stain of battle.
People often forgot that battle was a bloody ordeal.
Shyvana closed her eyes and listened, wondering if she could pick up a familiar voice through the crowd. Even her dragon senses were rendered useless in this great disarray. She gave up on the idea soon enough, laying back on the blue tiles feeling the sun scorch her. It was great comfort and soon she was in a peaceful sleep.
There aren't many things that are able to calmly awake a sleeping dragon. It is best advised to leave them to lie, as the saying goes. So when the tell-tale scent of blood hit her nose, she wondered if it was just a part of a really sensitive dream.
Shyvana groaned, the tiles were cold as the night around her. She stretched, taking a deep breath, letting the air fill her and all the smells that would tell her what transpired on the streets below. There was a faint smell, one she recognized well. It wasn't a secret that dragons could smell blood from far away, but it was more than a smell, and it was a tugging feeling in the back of her mind. It was this particular scent that was important, it wasn't some silly kid with a paper cut or an old wound of a solider; this was blood that reminded her of her father's lifeless corpse. It made her uneasy, was there another dragon in the area?
She looked around in a stupor, for a moment not realizing her place. It was relatively quiet all around. Gone were the crowds and the noise.
It was obvious she had missed the return of Jarvan… Jarvan's scent…OH!
She rememberd now, for she always associated back to that day, of her father's death, of the bleeding Jarvan letting her rip out the drake's heart. It was the smell of dragon blood and Jarvan's blood and she would forever afterward think of dragons whenever Jarvan was wounded.
…Wounded…Blood… With these thoughts still in her groggy sleepy mind she leapt off the roof and onto the streets below. The chaos of the morning gone now in the late night, she could pick her away along the street practically alone. It was a pretty harsh punishment for sleeping on duty, but some of the human intuition that had started developing within her told her that Xin would let it slide. Humans made mistakes right? Half-humans were no exception. Besides, it was just a day of festivities; it wasn't as if she was guarding the city-state from a war.
She walked along the streets of Demacia, were confetti and traces of pie were sprinkled around, like a big ruined birthday party which would be cleaned up in the morning light. There were many scents lingering in and around, of men and women and children, of horses and wagons, of sweat and of an annoying eagle, and some she could recognize by name. Garen, Xin, Lux, Jarvan… She stopped at the side of the road, of where it seemed the welcome back party lingered for a while. It was an open market street, wide pavements, and perhaps there was some announcement. She bent over one foot and sniffed the ground, on a patch of dark, of the smell of dragons and blood that was unmistakably Jarvan's. He was definitely wounded, there was no doubt.
Curious as to why, for all she knew the Institute Judegment wasn't meant to be physical. Were they attacked along the way? Seemed unlikely, and yet, maybe so.
Shyvana headed back towards the palace grounds, hoping to avoid Davis or Xin or anyone who might realize her absence in the Prince's return. Some luck must truly be on her side, for as she neared the Royal Botanical Gardens that were grown behind the palace she ran into none other than a huge huggle and giggle. Lux.
"Shyvannnnaaa~" Lux's shrill voice broke the night's silence and she jumped onto the half-dragon with her arms outstretched, "Where were you, you didn't see did you? It was so magnificent, Jarvan is always so serious, but I've never seen him so serious, Oooh and the drama! For Demacia! Ha! How thrilling really," Lux babbled on. It always amazed Shyvana on how the girl could find a million different ways to say the same thing, in one long breath and sentence…
She awkwardly got out of Lux's embrace, it still was weird to her the whole physical contact thing. Lux didn't seem to mind. She really really liked Shyvana for reasons no one could understand, and Shyvana enjoyed her company. Plus she wasn't scared of her, and that made her the third person of out three who didn't fear her or shy from her.
Lux was still talking, and Shyvana had no choice but to interrupt. "Lux…" She growled softly, in a friendly manner.
"Oh yes, what is it?"
"Was there anything strange?"
"Strange? Whatever do you mean strange? Like unnatural, magical, out of place-"
"Like with Jarvan… was he," Here she hesitated, remembered how faint the smell had been,
"Was he proud? Was he slightly cold? Was he so serious that his expression could be measured in only one light spectrum, so devote to his cause that the slightest spark could be a solider-"
"Did he say anything?"
"Oh he said lots, spectacular Demacia, what a great honor, finely represented, justice. Honestly those long speeches bore me with all their fancy worded paragraphs just going on and on and on into forever never seeing the end of them really who do they think they are who even comes up with those things OH Shyvana where are you going?!" Lux ran after her friend, not stopping for a single breath.
To Shyvana it was clear now, as clear as the knights who polish their armor clean and stand along the City-state gate. Jarvan was wounded beneath his charade. It must not have been obvious. She wondered what it could be, and realized the only person left to ask was Jarvan himself.
Alright hope that this sets a different sort of mood. A more curious and reserved Shyvanna.
Feel free to leave a review if you like, I'm in the midst of writing chapter 2 and it's going much smoother than my last failed attempt. Well, only time will tell. :)