The first hint that something was amiss happened in a match one day.
"Welcome to Summoner's Rift."
As usual, when we spawned in base, Garen warned me to be careful. My carefree self simply nodded, as he always said this whenever we were in matches together, and danced off to my lane. After all, what could go wrong? It was just another match. Me mid, Ashe and Janna bottom, Garen top, and Hecarim jungle.
I was proven wrong when I walked further down mid. I felt a strange ringing in my ears that refused to stop no matter how much I shook my head or tried to silence it. It grew steadily worse throughout the match until it got to the point where every small bolt of light that I shot out of my baton sounded like a heavy explosion upon making contact with a minion or foe. Ahri, the enemy mid laner, seemed confused as to why I was so uneven in my attacks.
"What's up with you, light mage? All your brightness made you light headed?" Ahri chuckled at her own joke. Every word she spoke sounded like she had placed a megaphone right next to my ear and was yelling into it. The Rift shifted between normality and a woozy, dimly lit space.
Before I knew what happened, I was lying on the fresh green grass of the Rift, my baton a few feet to my right. There was something trickling down from my nose, and when I raised my hand to see what it was, I realized it was blood. Ahri was at my side in an instant.
"Lux?! Lux, can you hear me?! What happened?! Somebody help!" Her screams echoed around the Rift, drawing everyone to the mid lane. Garen, face white with fear, towered above me. "Luxanna…" Garen only used my full name when he was either extremely angry or worried for me. "Stay with m-" He was cut off when suddenly everyone was enveloped in a purplish light, and what was once the Rift became the Champion's Lounge, where champions sat and waited until it was time for the match that they were summoned to.
After everyone got over their initial shock, they looked down at me. Garen and Ashe gently lifted me onto one of the plush couches. Janna looked around, and floated to a nearby door. When she tried the knob, the door didn't budge. There was one other door, which was locked as well. Ahri and Taric joined her at the door and started pounding on it and yelling. Still, no one open the door and their cries went unanswered. Everyone had lost their weapons too, so that meant-
"We're stuck." Janna sighed. "All we can do now is wait…" She glided over to me and sat down on the floor next to my couch. Everyone except Garen, who was alternating between standing by the head of the couch I resided in and anxiously pacing across the room, followed suit and sat down. Five minutes passed and I felt stable enough to sit up. I still felt incredibly woozy, and the ringing was quieter but still there. Fifteen minutes of silence passed, when suddenly one of the doors swung open. A summoner in purple robes entered the room. Everyone was on their feet at once.
"Champions, on behalf of the High Counselors, I'd like to offer my sincerest apologie-" The summoner was stopped halfway in his sentence by a half-crazed Garen. "YOUR APOLOGIES AS TO WHY WE WERE LOCKED IN THIS CRAMPED, CLAUSTROPHOBIC ROOM CAN WAIT! RIGHT NOW WE NEED TO GET LUX MEDICAL ASSISTANCE!"
The summoner gulped, and looked where Garen was pointing: at me. A look flashed across his face that I couldn't quite decipher. However, I was sure I had simply imagined that look, for a split second after he looked back up at Garen and said, "Of course, I'm sorry I held you up." He stepped aside. Garen and Ashe allowed me to use their shoulders as a support, and we slowly made our way out of the Lounge, everyone following behind.
Author's Notes: Garen is such a good big bro. I know these chapters are really short, but I'll try to make them longer from here.