Well that took an embarrassingly long time. The good news I ended up writing two chapters in one, so I essentially have the 3rd chapter already written. It should be done within the week after I polish it up. Enjoy and please leave any thoughts you may have about the story in a review! I read everything. ;-)
-RP
Shadow Signs
Violet light broke over the sleeping camp to announce a new morning. Talon watched from a distance as the first early risers began to stir and move about, uncovering coals for morning fires and preparing what little food they had available. His eyes felt heavy after the night's long vigil, but he easily ignored it. Sleep was one of the many conveniences he'd learned to live without during his years growing up on the streets of Noxus. One of the many reasons he'd been so good at his job.
More activity stirred below and wisps of smoke from the numerous cooking fires began to rise straight up in the windless morning air. Talon permitted himself a sigh and shifted his position. The ex-assassin was not foreign to waiting for prolonged periods of time, but he was a hunter, not a sheep-dog. As he watched the helpless masses below him, his ego rankled for the hundredth time. He should have been part of the scout expedition to the Fall, but instead here he was, stuck with the thankless job of herding thousands of whining, sniveling, weak-willed...
rrRrrRrrrrrrRrRRRrrrr
Talon paused in the middle of his mental tirade and perked up his ears. That didn't sound familiar, but then there were many strange, new sights and sounds in Runeterra these days. It was the end of the world, after all.
rrrrrrrRRRRRrrrrRrRRRRRRRRR
Underground. He bent low and gently laid a cowled ear against the rock he'd been standing on. Long seconds ticked by without event, but an assassin is, above all, patient: Talon waited motionlessly, every fiber now tensed in anticipation as his old hunting instincts stirred once more. He was rewarded with another long, low rumble coming up through the earth.
That's not a tremor. Talon rose to his feet and shielded his eyes to survey the landscape sprawled out below the cliff on which he stood. The crumbling city stood out stark and clear against the violet horizon and the shifting landscape had kicked up a dust storm in the lowlands overnight, but otherwise nothing had changed. Still, that was no reason to assume nothing was wrong. These days, solid rock could become a deadly, inescapable sludge in minutes.
The assassin remained poised, using every sense available to probe his surroundings for any more unusual signs, but nothing else manifested. Talon turned and headed back to camp at an easy jog while his mind began to sort through the report he would give to Kayle. End of the world or not, his gut instincts told him that those growling sounds spelled bad news for their immediate chances of survival. And if there was one thing Talon trusted, it was himself.
"Are you serious?!"
Lux stared at Talon with disbelief etched in her girlish features. All four champions were gathered in a small tent near the outskirts of the camp where hopefully no one would be able to overhear their conversation.
"I am," Talon replied evenly, jerking his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the rest of the camp. "This ridge isn't safe for us, let alone them."
"We only just got here," Diana protested angrily. "We lost a lot of time-"
"-and people!-" Lux blurted.
"-Yes, and those too, just to gain this position," Diana continued with an annoyed glance at the Lady of Luminosity. "And now you want us to go back down to the plains just because you heard strange noises?"
Talon glowered at the two women as he replied, "like I said before, it's just a hunch. Frankly I don't care what you choose to do, I'm just here to scout."
Lux massaged her temple between thumb and forefinger. The Lady of Luminosity had a reputation for being cheery and easygoing, but this Noxian assassin was clearly beginning to get under her skin.
"Look Talon, I realize you aren't used to the concept of 'escorting' people and that you could probably survive in the lowlands on your own. However, these people can't. It's been weeks since the Falls first formed and we still haven't seen anyone from Piltover cross the pass, despite the fact that they were the first to begin mass evacuations after the event."
"I am well aware that the mob is incapable of protecting itself," Talon interrupted rudely. "The concept you aren't used to is me not caring."
"We could lose hundreds just trying to reach the bottom!" Lux protested with clenched fists, "let alone trying to cross the plains! There's still miles and miles between us and the Ironspikes. It'll be a miracle if even half of the people make it there."
"Then at least you will be better able to protect the few that remain" Talon replied evenly. And good riddance to more unnecessary burdens, he added mentally.
Lux gripped her staff tighter and her face flushed red with anger, but before she could utter another word, Kayle intervened.
"Talon, I trust thy instincts. Were our party a small one that we could easily manage, I would not hesitate to follow your advice. However, the entire point of this mission is to rescue these people and thou knowest well that we have already lost many simply to gain this position."
The assassin snorted derisively, but Kayle continued: "Thou art of Noxus, well-versed in putting the needs of the many over the needs of the few. If thou canst honestly tell me that we can save more by leaving the ridge than remaining on it, that is what we shall do. Otherwise, we shall stay the course."
Talon bit the inside of his cheek.
Damn her.
She had put the responsibility of the entire mission on his shoulders and he knew as well as they that leaving the relative safety of the ridge would spell certain death for many of the soft city folk they were trying to rescue. And he would take all the blame.
The three women looked at him expectantly; Lux a picture of worried anticipation, Diana wearing a murderous frown, and Kayle's impassive, helmeted face waiting silently for his answer.
You shall pay for this, Kayle. No one backs me into a corner like that, especially not a Demacian.
"We will stay," he said aloud through gritted teeth. Lux's face brightened visibly and Diana relaxed her grip on the haft of the silver sickle.
"Let's hope for their sakes it's the right choice," he added grimly.
"For their sakes and our own," Kayle rejoined calmly.
I will skewer you and wear your wings as a cape, birdbrain, he swore darkly.
They broke camp early that morning and ate what they could as they traveled. Talon stayed ahead of the main group as was his wont, acting as the forward scout. He couldn't stand to be near the whining masses and he got the distinct impression that his fellow-champions preferred his absence as well. Win-win, as far as he was concerned.
By midday they had already covered several miles with remarkably little interference from the terrain. It was the best progress they'd had since leaving the crumbling remains of Piltover and Kayle, Lux, and Diana did their best to encourage the people to keep moving, distributing water and dried food as they walked to circumvent pleas for a "lunch break." Talon, as usual, was moving ahead of them and reporting back whenever he encountered an obstacle in their way. His nerves were on edge throughout the day and his distrust of their route only continued to increased. He kept feeling unusual vibrations, or catching half-imagined glimpses of strange sights. However when he reported these things, no one else seemed to have noticed them. Between the other Champions' attitude and the indecision which had arisen in him since that morning's argument, the lone Noxian became increasingly sullen and silent.
Towards the evening, Talon forged ahead at an accelerated pace to look for a suitable spot to camp for the night. He was rewarded by a wide, flat area set between two spurs on the leeward side of the next mountain. It appeared to have been a small wood at one time, judging from the blasted stumps protruding from the ground at irregular intervals, but now only a few scraggly Thorncrowns remained scattered near the upward slope of the mountain, their sparse, needly canopies tilting towards the minor shade it offered.
Talon skirted the area twice, checking for any signs of recent passages either by animals or people. There were no footprints and the area looked largely undisturbed since the wood had been razed, yet something about the area made Talon feel ill at ease.
His observations were suddenly interrupted by the sound of running water. Quickly but cautiously, he made for one of the spurs and located a tiny rivulet running on the other side. They hadn't seen a drop of water since entering the wasteland surrounding Piltover and there was no telling when they would find more. This alone was worth stopping for, even if Talon felt like the entire mountain was waiting to ambush him. He turned to report back to the herd and hear what the other Champions had to say about the matter (though he was already fairly sure what their answer would be).
Just then, out of the corner of his eye he caught a flash of light from underneath a nearby fallen branch of Thorncrown. He paused and turned to look, one hand subconsciously reaching for his dagger.
A rock? No, rocks aren't nearly that round or smooth.
He took a few steps closer. Now he could see the dull gleam of metal and some weird glyphs etched on the object's surface.
Magic. Gotta be magic, that's mage-writing if I've ever seen it.
Talon was inclined to simply leave it. Magic wasn't his forte and he had no use for it anyway. His skill and his blade was all he needed.
Then the sphere moved.
Like a lightning strike, the assassin leaped forward and pinned the sphere to the ground, pressing the top of one blade against the metal surface so hard he scratched it. The thing offered no resistance, but he could now see the glyphs clearly. They still made no sense to him, but now that he could see the thing up close, it looked strangely familiar. It rattled faintly and rocked a little in his hands, as if impelled by some weak, inner force, but it wasn't going anywhere in a hurry.
I've seen this before, he thought. Worry began to plague him, fueled by the ever-present tingling in his spine, warning him that there was something wrong here. Why do I recognize this mage-toy and what's it doing way out here? He scanned the area once more and noticed something he hadn't before: a jagged gouge in the mountain spur on the water side. It ran quite a distance and seemed to go fairly deep into the soil and rock. Talon's memory stirred at the sight and he rose quickly and trotted over the spur to look down into the clearing on the other side again.
Yes, there was another gouge in the mountain face at the back of the clearing. Why hadn't he paid attention to it earlier? Now that he was looking more closely, he could also see several wide indentations in the clearing that had been half-filled by sand and debris. Blast craters.
Leave, his mind silently pleaded, but the Noxian was seized with morbid curiosity now. He went back to where he'd found the sphere, only to discovered that it had somehow moved a few yards up the spur and come to rest against the base of a Thorncrown tree. Talon stooped to retrieve it, but then quickly withdrew his fingers. Something else gleamed under the exposed roots on the downhill side of the tree.
Fingers. Not fleshy ones, but perfect metallic replicas. His blood ran cold as he pull on one and was rewarded with a complete hand, minus the smallest digit. He recognized this.
Quickly he scanned the spur and water source once more. Now that he knew what he was looking for, the evidence became readily visible. Two toes and some loose wires marked the remains of a mechanical foot. A few nuts and bolts held together a curved sheet of half-buried metal that might once have formed a torso.
Suddenly, he dashed forward and plunged his hands into the muck where the pooling water ran off and soaked into the arid soil of the mountain. He rose with a head grasped firmly in his muddy hands.
The back of the metal head was facing him, but he could already tell that it, too, had suffered massive damage. It was horribly bent and melted. He flipped it around to reveal a ghastly, but familiar face- no, an imitation of a face, mangled almost beyond all recognition- staring up at him. The two eye sockets, which had once housed mysterious blue orbs now gazed emptily at him, their metal surfaces seared by intense heat. The face was scorched and there were gashes in three different places: each cut looked as if it had been made by something extremely hot. Only one of the artificial eyebrows still remained attached, dangling crazily above the left eye socket.
"Orianna," he muttered under his breath. The infamous construct had been created as a grieving father's attempt to restore life to his dead daughter, but quickly became an unholy terror of the Fields of Justice. Talon still remembered their encounters, especially her soulless, unblinking eyes, which always stared at him with an artificial curiosity that made his blood run cold. Piltover had been her home too, but why was she out here? Constructs could survive far longer than humans in the decaying city and Orianna was far above the average construct.
A million questions shot through Talon's mind at once, but they were interrupted by a creaking sound emanating from Orianna's disembodied head. Her mouth was moving, leaking garbled, mechanical sounds. The hair on Talon's back was rising with every passing second and goosebumps were beginning to break out all over his skin. There was something very, very wrong here. Every inch of his body screamed "flee!" but his curiosity had the better of him. He remained kneeling next to Orianna, watching in horrified fascination as her mouth moved back and forth.
"Orianna, can you hear me?" he asked.
The mouth moved some more and the eyebrow trembled slightly.
"What did this to you? Why are you out here?" Talon was getting impatient. He should have left this place long ago, yet he couldn't abandon his investigation now.
"Ball." she rattled.
"Yeah, I found your ball," he agreed, referring to the metal sphere he'd first discovered.
The mouth moved spasmodically as it she were trying to say more, but all that came out was a slow dribble of trapped water.
"Orianna, why are you out here?"
A sudden breeze slapped the assassin in the face and he got the unmistakable feeling that someone- or something -was staring at him.
"Ball!" Orianna repeated desperately.
Then an eerie pink glow lit the entire mountainside.
"Oh sh-" was all Talon could manage before he tucked and rolled to avoid a devastating ray of purple-pink energy plowed through the top of the spur and raked straight down the slope.
The assassin rose and fled, clutching Orianna's head under one arm while the other helped him maintain his balance on the rocky soil. Behind him a deep, otherworldly voice boomed: "MORE TEST SUBJECTS. WONDERFUL."
