It was an overcast day, the sun barely peeked through thin lines of clouds, and the darker parts of it threatened to rain as the day progressed. However, that did not stop Quinn and Valor from leaving the Institute of War. They wandered around in the forest, where Valor soared high into the skies and enjoyed his surroundings. The archer herself preferred to remain hidden in the shades of the trees, despite there not being any sunlight to begin with.

They both enjoyed nature very much, and it allowed Quinn clear thinking without the oppressiveness of the summoner magic lingering in her mind, along with the endangerment of her life. Even if all the champions in the league have agreed and signed under contract to prevent violence upon each other, doesn't mean that any of them wouldn't suddenly break the rule and seize an opportunity to catch each other off guard. There were very important figures that are participating after all, like Prince Jarvan and the leaders of Freljord.

The Demacian archer sighed as her eyes trailed to the ground. This scene, although peaceful, brought back memories of her past. Of her brother.


"Quinn, come on!" a voice similar to her own spoke to her, a smile was apparent on his face as he rushed forward, holding a wooden sword in his little hands.

Quinn herself only followed with her eyes for a moment, looking at the same raven hair he possessed, but eventually ran along with a grin tugging at the corner of her lips.

"Wait for me!" her more feminine voice rang, but it was only slightly different from her brother's, who in turn only teased, "You're so slow! We're gonna miss out on adventuring lest you take all day just catching up!"

They laughed together and entered the forest, her twin brother whacking the shrubberies to the side as if they were barricades, easily powered through with two people. "The light of Demacia will prevail!" He cheered, and Quinn raised her wooden sword as well, making swooping noises as she swung her weapon all about.


Clang!

A sound so realistic compared to her daydream rang into her ears, and Quinn snapped out of her reverie as fast as it came. She looked up in alertness, wondering if there was a battle that ensued, and if she needed to stop it.

She got up from the tree she was sitting at and remained in squatting position as she advanced towards the sounds of battle. As time passed, and she got closer, she noticed that there really was only a small series of swings, along with only one person making the battle roars and grunts.

Finally, she reached a small clearing, similar to the one that her brother's tragic accident happened in. Quinn shook her head of the thought and reasserted herself. This wasn't the time to be controlled by her thoughts, nor emotions. The Demacian archer looked over the bush she was hiding behind, and found a pair of large, white wings, spanning at least 9 feet. It makes Valor's wings look much less impressive.

It was Kayle, fully dressed in armor, unlike some nights ago, where all she wore was some sort of night-gown. Now that she thought about it, even her so-called 'night-gown' was armored. 'Guess the judicator might be just a little bit paranoid' she analyzed.

The Demacian archer let out a sigh and decided she would leave the woman to her 'training session', which was presumably beating up an armored tree trunk that the woman had set up in the middle of the clearing.

Even so, Quinn couldn't help but continue to stare and watch the way that Kayle fought. It was really intriguing, watching an angel trigger her flaming sword and lash out at the armored tree, then swoop to yet another, swinging her spectacular sword again. It was almost a dance between Kayle and the tree, except the more she observed, the more she understood all the vital points that the judicator had been striking: The neck, back, stomach, arms, knees, and the Achilles tendon. It's almost sickening, just imagining the fact that such an elegant creature could be so cruel.

Another cut was made, and it was right at the groin. Now that, Quinn can definitely say, was vicious.

'I should go before she notices…,' The archer reasoned again, and this time peeled her eyes away, 'Where's Valor?' She looked around; there was no sign of the blue eagle, once again.

It wasn't until a moment later, she heard the familiar squawk did Quinn realize that Valor had landed on the armored tree, looking down at Kayle. The angel looked up with her calm blue eyes as she evened out her breathing easily.

"You are… Valor, right? Quinn's eagle?" Kayle questioned the blue eagle, who bobbed his head up and down in agreement. "Let me guess, Quinn's here too." The angel looked around, expectantly, but Valor gave a small shrug.

She hesitated for a moment, but took off her helmet and held it snug in between her arm and body before reaching towards the bird, who flinched back slightly, causing the armor fingers to pause. "I won't hurt you." Kayle reasoned, and Valor allowed the outstretched fingers to reach his head, smoothing his roughed-up feathers after his flight.

Quinn watched in disbelief as the judicator grinned a little, petting Valor as he eventually snuggled up against Kayle's hand, thoroughly enjoying being spoiled by the soothing touch.

Snap. Crack. Pop.

The Demacian archer looked down at her feet, there, two snapped twigs rest under her feet, and by the time she was able to raise her head to look at Kayle again, she was already making her way over. Quinn's body screamed in high alert as she attempted to run away, but was called out.

"Stop." Kayle commanded with authority, it was one of those voices that made you freeze in place, which the archer did so obediently. "Come hither, young one." The judicator ordered, looking at the shadow behind the tree with a small glare.

The still figure then proceeded to peek out the side of the tree trunk, as if she were a little girl, afraid of everything around her, but still curious enough to look. Though in this case, Quinn might as well be a little girl, Kayle was much older than she looked.

"Shall I clarify my instructions, or do I have to drag you out of there?" the angel placed her free hand on her hip, still staring at the tree in expectation.

"S-sorry." The Demacian ranger finally thought to move out of the shadows and into the edge of the clearing.

Valor was still on top of the wooden trunk, but squawked in a way that could definitely be interpreted as laughter, teasing the situation that Quinn is in. If Kayle wasn't here, she would have run after the eagle and scolded his ears off.

"What is your name, young one?" Kayle questioned.

"My name is Quinn, Ser Judicator." She answered truthfully, "and that is Valor."

"I see." Kayle's expression was hard again, as if she wanted to hide the more pleasant side of herself.

"Umm," Quinn hesitated, rubbing the back of her neck, "What are you doing out here? I mean… There's training dummies in the training room, why come out here for this?"

"My wings." Her wings curled themselves in anticipation before they were stretched out completely, revealing the lengthiness and size that is normally not seen, even on battlefields.

"Ah.." the ranger felt somewhat stupid now, even Valor and herself have difficulties training in the room due to how they function, there's no reason someone like Kayle wouldn't struggle.

"So…" Quinn went around the angel and towards the makeshift dummy in the middle of the clearing, "Is this your spare armor or something? I rarely see you use it on the battlefield." She gestured, looking at the silver shine and blue cloth that accompanied it.

"Ah… Yes. Some summoners prefer other clothing… Which I do not understand at all. Armor is armor, its looks should never be more important than its functionality." Kayle paused, looking over at Quinn, "I'm sure you have another suit as well."

"Yeah…" The Demacian ranger thought about it. Summoners call those spare clothing 'skins' for some odd reason. To her, it was just another pair of clothing.

"So why would you practice it on this armor? It'll get scratched and it'll be hard to repair…" Quinn reasoned, examining the armor.

"It's crafted before time itself, nothing in the world can scratch it." Kayle explained nonchalantly, walking over towards the training dummy as well.

Valor had been waiting all this time for something hilarious to happen to make his partner's situation more awkward, but nothing did as the two women evolved into simple chatter. He expressed his disgust with a loud squawk before he flew down and swooped in to snatch Kayle's helmet, who surprisingly, was not gripping it firmly.

"Valor! No!" Quinn reached in hopes of catching him, but he was already out of reach with the golden helmet in claws.

Kayle followed suit, bending down and jumped up for momentum before her large wings caught her, allowing her to fly after the Demacian eagle. Valor was able to peek behind him a little as he made evasive maneuvers against the larger, winged creature. The angel welcomed the challenge and almost easily followed up with it if it weren't for her rustiness with flight. Being restricted to fly within the halls of the Institute really killed her wings.

As Kayle got closer, she conjured a red light upon her hand, but did not fire it as she observed the eagle in wait for an opportunity; an opening.

Valor squawked in triumph as he detected the angel behind him had flew upwards, and slowed down a little. So he decided to glide down back into the clearing and set the helmet down.

However, up high, Kayle had her spell ready, and she simply dove forward, tightening her wings to her sides as she sped downwards at the eagle. Even as Valor caught sight of this and tried to out maneuver the Judicator, the spell that she released slowed him down to a snail as the angel caught up with all haste and peeled the helmet away; smoothly landing on the ground afterwards.

Quinn's jaw dropped as the scene played through, but she reacted fast enough to catch Valor as he flew down and sat on her left arm.

"I've never seen anyone beat Valor at a race…" the ranger admitted, and the Demacian eagle turned her back on Kayle, who stood up and was already back at her usual sophisticated posture.

"There's always a first." The angel responded, but did not say much else.

"Hey, I'm really sorry about what happened… Valor does have his own mind after all…" Quinn said after a pause.

"It matters not." The angel reasoned, then glanced over at the other woman's feet before speaking, "You should leave. You are being summoned."

"R-right… I'll see you later?" Quinn spoke uneasily; receiving no response as the light blue glow around her feet grew intense, signaling her teleportation into the arena. No more than a second later, she disappeared along with Valor into thin air.

Kayle almost scowled at the sight of the magic, but left the thought as she went back to practicing.