Chapter 1: The Injured Fox

Nothing made sense. From what Kaldur could understand, just a moment ago he was sitting in his room playing a game and drinking his favorite brand of Jen and Sons. The last thing he could remember was watching the loading screen take forever and thinking about how his life sucked. The next thing he knew he was standing in a creepy forest with a purple skinned man and a young boy staring at him from behind tree. Now he stood in another forested area, but to his left was a clearing of rolling hills, and behind it stood a mountain that was larger than most he had seen in his home town. Around him, small creatures fluttered about and the trees themselves seemed to sparkle with small gems of assorted colors.

A sharp snap behind him shook Kaldur from his daze, and he twisted around to get a glimpse of the noise's cause; but before he could get a good look a sharp force knocked him to the ground. Hitting his head on the floor he lay there dazed, trying to clear his blurry vision. Kaldur tried to get up but he couldn't move, something was holding him down and he couldn't see it. As if in a trance he finally heard it, the voice of his assailant; it was the voice of a woman.

"I am sorry. I need this." Apologized the voice. There was something sad about her, but Kaldur could not put his finger on it.

Slowly Kaldur began to calm down, his anger and frustration faded away and he quietly felt at peace and a little happy, though he wasn't sure why. As his emotions rose, so did his vision and he was clearly able to make out the bruised and bloodied face of a woman. She had pale skin and glowing yellow eyes. Her hair was raven black and her cheeks seemed to have stripes painted on them in sets of three on either side. She had an elegant shape to her face and lips that were full and luscious but what really was noticeable about her was the two fox-like black ears the protruded from the top of her head. One word sparked from his mind in that moment: beautiful.

As he stared at the woman in wonder her eyes began to change colors to a violet pink and she began to lean down towards his face, inching ever closer.

"Don't." He called. Kaldur wasn't sure why he said it, everything in his body kept saying that what this woman was doing was a good thing, but something felt off and he couldn't identify it.

The woman stopped and stared at him, her eyes wide with curiosity. As she did Kaldur began to feel his original emotions again, fear, anger, and frustration. Slowly he began to struggle and push against the young woman.

"Get off me!" He yelled. The woman looked shocked and backed off just enough to allow for Kaldur to sit up straight.

"What the hell lady!" He yelled, allowing his anger to rise in his voice. By now the woman had backed off and was standing near a tree eyeing him with a massive amount of curiosity.

Slowly Kaldur calmed down, allowing himself to regain his composure. "At least buy me dinner first."

Kaldur stood up and looked over the woman once more, she was about his height and wore an odd red and white dress with disconnected arm pieces. Near the bottom of what he could only assume was a skirt, were two gemstones on two matching lapels. She wore small sandals with white tall stockings and had a fluffy tail that trailed behind her. In the center of her dress, connected between her two breasts was an odd string that dangled connected by a type of bell, then a butterfly knot, and finally a long sash with gold trimmings that dangled to her knees.

"So… you going to a furry convention or something?" He asked, breaking the silence that seemed to stretch.

"You were able to resist." The woman responded.

"Excuse me?"

"No one has done that before." She claimed as she moved towards him.

Kaldur was too confused to know what to do. "Woah, woah! Hold on. Back up. First of all, I have questions and I would appreciate it if you answered them."

It had just occurred to him that this woman had tried to do something to him, and while he wasn't quite sure what it was he didn't feel that it was a good thing either; but he needed answers.

"First where the hell am I." He asked.

The woman replied almost immediately. "Ionia."

"I don't know where that is." He commented.

"To the north east of Valoran and Noxus." She seemed to be quite pleased with her answer.

Kaldur was more confused than ever. "Ok, skip that. Who are you? Know what? Better yet, why did you tackle me to the ground?"

The woman flashed a small smile at him. "My name is Ahri. I am in need of your memories."

This was making less and less sense by the minute, but he had a name.

"Ahri… nice name."

She smiled in response.

"As for my memories, whatever the hell that is supposed to mean, they belong to me and I would really appreciate it if you didn't take them."

The smile from Ahri seemed to vanish in the blink of an eye and she glared at him with the gaze of a predator. As if on cue, a small noise began to emanate through the forest. At first Kaldur couldn't recognize it, but as it came closer the sounds of shouting men could be heard. Ahri's ears twitched and a hint of desperation clawed at her eyes.

"Please. I need them." She pleaded. For the first time, Kaldur could see panic cross her face.

Kaldur covered his face with his hands. "Will I get my memories back?" He asked.

Ahri hesitated for a moment. "No." She finally responded.

"What do they do for you?"

"They give me power."

Nothing made sense here, he couldn't just give up his memories, that seemed preposterous. But if the woman was in danger than he might be as well. The men could be dangerous, but maybe only to the woman in front of him. The question was if could take that chance. Too many options presented themselves here, and he couldn't think of a single good outcome. Kaldur wracked his brain for a solution when one finally presented itself.

"If you do this, I want you to promise me something."

Ahri looked from him to the approaching voices. "Yes, anything." She hurried.

"I need you to be my guide for as long as I am in this world. I don't know where I am and I don't know how to get home. Promise me that you will help me for as long as I need you."

"Deal." She called and closed the distance between them in a blink.

The sensation was just as he remembered it. The feelings of fear and dread were removed from him and all he could feel now was happiness unlike he had ever felt before. A large grin appeared on his face. And just as quickly as it had appeared, the feeling had left and he was now lying on the floor with a feeling of confusion.

Moments went by without any way to tell the time. Kaldur heard screaming in the distance, a few yells, and then dead silence. It took a bit for him to stand up but once he did he looked around to see Ahri standing near a group of dead men, all holding primitive weapons and dressed in a form of silk and cotton. Blood was spattered across the ground and markings of it bore on the trees, Ahri was the only thing that was untouched. upon closer inspection Kaldur noticed that her injuries were gone from before, and she stood there with more vitality and beauty than she had before, with nine tails spread around behind her instead of the one he had seen prior to. For some reason the gore did not disturb Kaldur in the least, it was only in this moment that he actually felt excited believing that his life was changing for the better.

Still sitting there, Kaldur watched as Ahri began to walk towards him and then right past him as if he didn't exist.

"Woah hold up." He called. "Did you already forget that you promised me something"

Ahri stopped for a moment and then turned around to look at him; a look of utter shock marked her face.

"How…?" She began. "I took that memory from you."

Kaldur put the pieces together. "Well then. Looks like I have a natural immunity to your abilities." He called, feeling a slight amount of smugness emanate from his voice.

"So. You were going to break a promise." Kaldur stated. "A young man, lost and alone in the woods, and you were just going to take his memories and walk away despite the agreement you made."

Ahri looked down with guilt written on her face. "I didn't…"

"Of course, you did!" Kaldur interrupted, anger now seething on his face. "You were just going to leave me here with my memories long gone. I wouldn't even know what to do at all then! It just so happens that I was lucky but that isn't always going to save my ass!"

Ahri flinched as he yelled. Kaldur looked once again at her face and saw the guilt that plagued her. He closed his eyes, covered them with his hands, and turned around.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!" He screamed.

The sound echoed through the forest making animals scurry and take flight. Spinning back around Kaldur looked at Ahri through here eyes, each showing a sense of sadness deep behind them.

Taking a deep breath he continued. "Here is what is going to happen. I need a guide, if I don't get one I will likely die. I only see you around so it looks like my answer is made for me. Question is: are you going to still walk off?"

Ahri cocked her head to the side puzzled.

"I almost betrayed you and you want me to guide you?" She asked.

Kaldur felt no real need to make this request but something in him wanted to trust her, whether it was his hormones or his feeling of being lost, he couldn't tell.

"That about sums it up." He remarked.

As if a switch turned on, Ahri regained her air of confidence; all guilt swept away with a simple smile.

"Seems reasonable."

Kaldur nodded and pressed on.

"And so that we can make this a proper arrangement you can drain me for memories when you need them. Seems like it doesn't harm me in any way and it keeps you healed so why not."

Ahri looked like she could jump for joy in this moment, as she did she walked over to him but Kaldur put up his finger and glared straight into her eyes.

"But ONLY when you NEED to." He commented.

"Deal." She called without any hesitation.

Kaldur held out his hand to her, and Ahri looked at it with confusion.

"My name is Kaldur. Pleasure to do business with you." He flashed a grin.

Ahri looked strangely at the hand still.

Kaldur sighed. "You shake it. This signifies that an agreement has been made."

Ahri reached over and put her hand on top of his, gripped it awkwardly and shook with the enthusiasm of a three-year-old.

This was going to be a crazy adventure.

Nothing was as it seemed in this world. Plant life, as well as animals, were all different here and Kaldur could never make heads or tails of it as he followed Ahri along. In many instances the animals that he thought were harmless were actually violent and could easily kill him, on the other hand there were things in this world that were quite friendly to many who chose to look. From his many questions Kaldur had found that he was in the world known as Runeterra; in it were many different countries one of which was called Ionia, a large island nation off the coast of Valorn, the name of the largest continent. From what he could tell Ionia was a peaceful place that focused many of its efforts on keeping a form of balance within the community. For every amount of good there had to be an equal amount of evil, a philosophy that did not quite strike well with Kaldur but he did not press the issue to Ahri when she explained it.

From what he could tell Ahri seemed to have a plan in mind which involved some form of monastery and a few friends that she could talk to and, hopefully, find answers. In the time it would take to reach their destination, far more than a month by how Ahri had described it, Kaldur had begun what was described as 'the questions of a child.'

"Come on. You can't tell me that you grew up in a hole in the ground. That's just barbaric."

Ahri didn't even turn back. "It's all true. If you didn't want an answer then you shouldn't have asked."

Kaldur shrugged. "I'm a curious individual. Besides, I never expected that Vastaya would live like their kindred. You seem a little more human than animal."

Ahri remained silent for a moment before murmuring to herself. "An animal huh?"

It took a moment before Kaldur realized his mistake. "Sorry."

This time Ahri stopped and turned around. "For?"

Kaldur took a deep sigh. "I am not the most social person."

Ahri laughed. "Are you kidding? You haven't shut up since I met you!"

Kaldurs cheeks began to turn red at the retort. "Just because I talk a lot doesn't mean I am social." He responded. "I have a hard time reading people and their emotions. If someone is upset at me I normally don't catch it. It takes certain situations to allow me to do that. When I talk to someone I don't want to upset them but I do it non-the-less."

Ahri stopped for a moment and looked at him curiously. "You seem to be doing just fine to me."

"Just you wait. One of these days there is going to be a situation where I don't know if everyone in the room hates me, then I'll say something and then they will really hate me."

Ahri shook her head and continued their walk. "If you say so." She resigned.

Kaldur shut up after that for a while, letting the silence, and his frustration, stretch as the walk did. Ionia was a beautiful country with wildlife at every corner and a variety of colors that were more common here than from his land. The place was a community of farmers, monasteries, and rural towns that, for all intents and purposes, ran themselves. The rolling hills that Ahri and himself traveled through had tilled fields and water farms of food that Kaldur had never even dreamed of before today. Moving through them, it didn't take long for Kaldur to figure out that his clothing was attracting all manner of attention from whatever locals they passed by in the fields. As it so happened, many spoke in a language that he couldn't understand which happened to be the native tongue.

"So why do you speak my language when they don't?" he queried.

The night had been a long one and Kaldur had to learn to sleep on the hard dirt floor and eat whatever it was that Ahri had brought back from her little hunt. For him it had been many years since he ever went camping and he didn't remember it being like that.

Ahri didn't even pause in step to look at him when she responded. "I learned them from those whose memories I had taken. Yours just happens to be that of a Noxian."

Kaldur paused for a moment. "The language is called English. Though it may not be called that here." Recalling something he shot another question. "Wait. How did you know to talk to me in another language if you just found me in Ionia?"

"You look like a Noxian, or maybe a Demacian but I know that the common tongue is similar for the two." She replied.

"So…" Before he could get his question out of his mouth Kaldur began to hear the pounding sounds of hooves ahead of him. Taking a look, he could see an animal that he now recognized: an ox. Behind the animal was a wagon that was laden with carts and cargo overlay by a fur trimmed cover. In the drivers seat sat a man with a pointed had that looked a little like a cone, he was quite tan from working in the sun and his beard was speckled with small amounts of grey. He wore thick skinned pants, a wool button shirt, and padded objects tethered to his clothing.

Ahri quickened her pace and called to the traveler in Ionian. The man, nearly falling off his wagon at the first sight of her, adjusted himself and addressed her. The conversation was quite calm normally involving Ahri flashing her most disarming smile and the traveler blushing furiously with a nod of the head, whatever it was about Ahri was getting her way. After a few exchange of objects that Kaldur was not particularly interested in, the traveler lead his ox onward and Ahri came straight back.

"Put this on." She commanded, throwing a type of tunic overshirt at him.

Kaldur looked at the light green shirt in his hands. "What in the world is this?" he asked.

"A tunic. I don't like people looking at us. It will also keep you warm at night."

Kaldur gave her a confused look. "While I admit my clothes are a little odd aren't people also staring at you? I mean, you do easily draw the eye and I am not talking about your tails."

Ahri shot him a menacing glare.

"Alright, alright." He sighed. "But I am not removing my other clothes, my shoes are too comfy."

Shrugging away the right to retort Ahri led along the path towards the base of the magnificent mountain and the pass that followed, the quickest way to the Monastery of Hirana.