With a pencil in hand Garen delicately etch the image of the flower laying on his desk. With military as his only life since childhood, he had found ways to express himself outside of battle. Life on the field left him very little time to pursue any sort of art and his lack of companionship gave him quite a bit of free time. He kept a personal journal, but he rarely wrote. Mostly sketches of nearby town's local animals and fauna. But the last two pages, that he hoped if ever found would be over looked were sketching he made from memory of Katarina. The first few attempts weren't just armature looking but he gave her more sinister and an evil aura about her. Each failed sketch had met its end to which ever source of flame was keeping him warm at the time. But the final sketching he kept, had her look more fragile something overly feminine about her, yet not overly sexualized. The last page contained a poem he wrote which he hoped no one would ever read and if so made it as vague as possible to avoid suspicion. Over candle light he slowly read the poem to himself…
"That red sun, I know I shouldn't stare at it, but I can't avert my gaze. It's fire gives warms me and leaves me wanting more, but I shouldn't stray too close or it shal' burn me."
It was short poem, one would consider it almost a short post note if anyone but Garen were to find it and he hoped it would be easily missed. He closed the journal and placed on top of a shirt which he folded and put in his footlocker at the edge of his cot. He stretched his legs as he stood up from and decided he would take a short stroll around the camp, better than just sitting in til he fell asleep all night.
As soon as Garen closed the door and he walked away, the small window over his cot was shimmied open. The intruder lost their grip and fell forward landing on the cot, "fuck!" Katarina spoke to herself looking around quickly as she laid on the cot. Making this much sound was uncharacteristic of her, but then again watching a man through a window for 15 minutes without his blood on her blade was also uncharacteristic for her. She scanned the room as she stood up noticed, the large collection of books and scrolls strewn about. "How the hell am I going to gather any information?", "Where do I even start?" thinking to herself as she eyed the rucksack and rushed for it as she dug threw it she found the sketch book Garen had been careful to hide. She rummaged through it and was surprised at how good the sketches were. All sorts of flowers familiar and strange to her, were sketched in great detail. At the bottom of each sketching had short notes. One such sketching brought a smile to her face it was a beautiful flower at the bottom's Garen's short notes brought a smile she kept to herself.
Nelumbo nucifer, Lotus flower. Roots are in up to three meters of water while the majestic flower blooms at the surface. It's quite resilient, can live up to thousands of years. Is this where she got Death Lotus from?
Katarina had spent too much time admiring the sketching's and decided to make her exit and return later, no need to rush. The Demacian's would be here for a few more nights according to the information High Command had given her. Over the next few nights she waited outside Garen's small cabin windows, watching him read until he would get up and leave and she would ones again make her way into his cabin and go through his private belongings. She felt guilty at how much interest she had taken in Garen Crownguard and his sketch book. How could such a fierce warrior on the battle field have a gentle side? "There had to be something wrong with him", she chuckled to herself. She finally go to the last few pages, were she found the two oddest pages. Two short sentences and a sketching of a woman…she leaned closer to inspect it running her finger over softly over woman's face. She could feel where Garen had been careful and had erased a line running across the woman's right eye. She quickly thought to herself "Is it me!?" as the thought hit her she heard footsteps outside the cabin and Garen's voice was heard speaking to some his troops outside
"Okay Gentlemen, finish your inspection of the new recruits armor they are helpless. Remember each and every one of you are sons of Demacia and we are all brothers and we are our brother's keeper".
Katarina took these precious few moments to rip the last two pages from the journal. Hastily put the journal back in the rucksack and make a mad dash for the window she had made her entrance from. As Garen entered the room he had enough time to see a pair of feet disappear out the window and the window closing with a "click". He quickly did a 180 and ran out of his room, yelling at the few troops nearby "Spy!" and Garen ran towards the direction he assumed the spy had ran.
Not wanting to give the intruder any lead time Garen had decided to pursue blindly into the woods that bordered the camp no more than 40 yards away, as he saw a silhouette in the dark make its way into the tree line. He sprinted after it, he knew his man would be at least five minutes behind him but the years of training made him more than confident enough to face an opponent in solo combat let alone a spy. He quickly lost his bearings as what little moonlight made it through the canopy did nothing to light his way. But his gut told him he had to be on the right path, in a game of hide and seek the seeker could make all the noise the one hiding had to be quiet and with only 20 to 30 seconds head start the spy was practically a few steps ahead of him. As Garen ran by a tree he has knocked down as something or someone had struck him forcefully in the face. Katarina had heard Garen's footsteps closing behind her and she decided an ambush would be the only way for her to scape. So as he ran by the tree she was hiding behind she leapt into the air and with her right foot kicked him square in the face. Garen laid flat on his back for what felt a lifetime quickly shaking his head and trying to regain his vision, he instinctively grabbed for "Justice" (his sword) and used it quickly to parry two daggers aimed for his chest. Although the arms behind the daggers weren't strong he could feel they were precise as he fought to keep both daggers pinned from reaching for his throat. In the few seconds it took him to come to his senses from the sucker punch (or kick) he realized the person trying to drive the blades into him was sitting around his waist straddling him. He lowered his sword a few inches to only see a hooded figure, with the help of the moonlight he saw two emerald green eyes make contact with his. With his right hand holding his sword in front of him to block the repeated downward dagger jabs from his assailant his left hand swung blindly at their mid-section. He heard his assailant gasp for air and with the same hand he had used to punch he reached for his attacker's right wrist and used all his strength and flipped the attacker off of him. He didn't let go and the attackers wrist and quickly found himself in reverse roles, his knees on both sides of his attacker's torso, he had pinned their wrist to the floor.
Garen looked down at the person under him, his blue eyes met hers as the fighting had displaced the cloak over her head and he could see her face. He soften his grip on her wrist softly the words escape his breath "Kat?"
Katarina stared back at him with a scowl before her face became relaxed "hey, Demacia."
He watched her blood red lips speak his name and let go of her wrist for a second. She used this moment, to grab for whatever dirt and twigs were closes to her right hand and quickly threw it into Garens face, blinding him for the second time in less than two minutes. She quickly got up and turned to run, but Garen grabbed blindly in her direction. Grabbing her by the leg he quickly pulled her to the ground ones again, with all his strength he grabbed her by her shoulders and pushed her against a large tree pinning her in place. Kat, franticly reached for one of her many daggers on her body and kept stabbing at Garen's armored shoulders. Garen, looked up unable to dodge the dagger aimed as his unarmored neck. Fueled by his anger and annoyed at her constant underhanded attacks he grabbed and held on tightly to blade before ripping it from her hand. With both of Katarinas wrist pinned up above her head she felt like a mouse cornered by a ferocious lion. Garen's, heavy angry breathing terrified her as she was face to face with him only mere inches separated their faces. Garen's face was dirty, his eyes watery from being kicked a few moments earlier and dirt thrown in his eyes. The look on his face was that of a warrior about to crush his enemy. Garen looked at his opponent's face, her emerald green eyes full of fear knowing as if it were her final moments. Garen took a moment to re-study her features, the way her scar ran down her face her soft skin and red lips breathing softly. He was lost in the moment not even realizing blood had started to drip from his open wound on his palm. The fact that he was holding her wrist tightly greatly increased the speed at which his hand bled. Katarina's look of fear scared himself back to reality and his anger face became composed and neutral, with an exhausted sigh he leaned in closer not more than an inch separated their lips. "Katarina…why are you spying on me?", Katarina looked at him with an unsure gaze. "Look Kat, I've been kicked I have dirt in my eyes and my hand is bleeding I'm not in the mood for games!" She, was choosing her words wisely not wanting to anger him but trying not to betray her mission. Her face soften almost as full of regret "Garen, I'm sorry, I just.." as the words left her mouth she heard the Dauntless Guards in the distance as they yelled out "Commander Crownguard". Katarina's eyes widen, she knew if caught she would rot in a Demacian prison even worse be executed for espionage and her life or death was at Garen's whim.
Garen saw the look of despair in Katarina's face all the feelings and emotions he had kept bottled up for her since Kalamandra betrayed him as he leaned in resting his face next to hers. Her scarlet red hair brushing against face, taking in her scent for a mere second her soft skin brushing up against his. He had dreamt of a moment like this where he could be this intimately close to her, but not under this circumstances. With his lips close to her ear he gave out a defeated sigh releasing his grip on her wrist and gave her a commanding whisper "leave…" he backed away and she gave him a quick look of relief in a hushed voice she spoke "Garen…thank you". The sound of the Dauntles Vanguard increased as the sound of their shouting and footsteps grew, for the first time that night Garen gave her a worried look and replied back to her "leave…now!", Katarina gave him a quick nod of confirmation and disappeared into the tree line. She could hear Garen's somber tone change quickly as he yelled back to his troops
"At ease men! It was just a local kid looking for a warm meal, return to camp at ones!"
one of the men replied back "sir what happened to your hand?" Katarina didn't stick around to hear his excuse as she quickly made her way back to her camp a few kilometers away to gather her belongings and head back to Noxus.