Chapter Three:
"Come on, Alayn! It's almost lunchtime! You'll get to meet everyone."
They had just gotten out of the hearing with the Summoner's Board and Lux was already dragging Alayn around sight-seeing. They had gone and watched a match on Summoner's Rift, a narrow victory for the red team after a very bloody fight, as well as looked out over the Crystal Scar, the Twisted Treeline, as well as The Howling Abyss.
"Wait, these places are scattered all over Runeterra. How can we be walking from one to the others when one is near the Kalamanda Desert and one is in the middle of the Freljord?" Alayn had asked, curious about how he could've covered the distance from the Crystal Scar and the Howling Abyss on foot over the course of five minutes. Lux laughed at the comment. "We're not actually there, silly. The windows we look out over the arenas are actually just enhanced viewing screens, imprinted with whatever the arena currently looks like. That's how most people watch the matches since they can't actually be there. They've been working on opening up a smaller arena for one-on-one matches, but it's planned to be near a whole lot of lava under the surface and the depth plus the lava is interfering with the signals, so they haven't made the map public yet." Lux explained as they walked from the Twisted Treeline viewing area toward the commons area. It made sense to Alayn; lord knows the havoc that could happen were there to be a live audience watching a League match on-site; one misplaced spell or shot and a few dozen people are seriously injured, or worse. Alayn nodded in agreement to his own thought; definitely much safer to have remote viewing capabilities.
"Come on, you slow-poke! They'll all be done eating by the time we get there at this rate!" Lux whined, grabbing Alayn's arm and dragging him through the halls. Summoners of all kinds congregated in the halls, their robes distinguishing their rank from one another.
The corridors eventually opened up into an expansive hall area, tables covering most of the floor area. A few aisles of tables and trays were set out to one side, each tray covered in different types of foods and cuisines from all around the world. Most of the tables were occupied by Summoners, with the vast majority of one rank congregating together in an area. There was a small clearing toward the center area of tables, though, and there sat the champions. It was in that direction that Lux was dragging him. She finally stopped in front of one table, clearing her throat audibly to attract the attention of those sitting there.
"May I present to all my friends, the ONE, the ONLY, Alayn Durand!" she announced dramatically. The table collectively let out a massive sigh, except for one voice who squealed in excitement. "Oh, so this is the fabled man who's supposed to be able to defeat any team single-handedly? I must say, he's rather cute. I do hope you're not planning on hogging him to yourself Lux!" the voice mewled, sliding out of her chair and gracefully floating her way to his side. She was wearing a red robe with a white trim around the edges that barely covered her chest and bottom. What looked like a fluffy, snow-white train was actually individual fox-tails, nine to be exact. And on top of her head were two black fox ears. Whether they were a costume or actually part of her person was hard to tell, as her long, black hair covered up any signs of there being a headband. The girl wrapped her arms around his side with a slight "Nyah!" and looked up at his eyes playfully. "Y'know, you can play with the ears if you'd like. I don't mind." She purred, giving a slight wink to emphasize the point.
The entire table laughed, aside from Lux, whose face was covered with a mixture of shock, embarrassment, and absolute horror to join in on the mirth. "I can't believe you Ahri! Can you be decent for once in your entire life? And I'm not even hogging him! Not like I would hog him! It's not even like that! Gah!" Lux complained while she peeled the she-fox off of an entirely red-faced Alayn.
Once the two fighting females composed themselves again, Lux returned to Alayn's side, patting down her ruffled hair to be perfectly in place again. "Right, so this is Caitlyn," Lux began introducing, first pointing to a slender brunette, peacefully eating her meal. She nodded politely, clearing her mouth of food before speaking. "Lux has said many good things about you. It's a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance." Caitlyn greeted, a polite smile touching her lips. "This is Akali," Lux continued greeting, gesturing to a raven-haired girl who, he had to admit, he didn't notice until Lux pointed her out. His slight surprise got a smile from Akali. "It's okay, it takes a while for people to start noticing me. Being a ninja tends to make you unnoticeable. I'm sure if you're a friend of Lux's that you'll catch on sooner or later." Akali explained, which made sense to Alayn. She seemed friendly enough, which was the only real thing that mattered, he supposed. A grumble came from Lux to end off the list. "And, of course, you just met Ahri…" Lux mumbled, still seemingly upset over Ahri's sudden outburst. Ahri just grinned deviously. "Don't listen to li'l ol' Goldielocks over there. I know how to play fair. Especially since all is fair in love and war." She spoke, giving another wink. Alayn's face returned to its previous crimson color and Lux groaned in frustration.
"Anyway!" she shouted, trying to get the topic off of things that didn't turn her color the same color of Ahri's skimpy dress. "Time to actually talk. The Board scheduled his practice match for tomorrow. He needs a Champion to use." Lux informed. The only one who looked slightly surprised was Ahri. The three others shared a look, and just started laughing. "What!?" Lux asked, looking exasperated and thoroughly lost. The three of them gave Lux a mystified look, as if they were having an entire conversation through a single look. Lux's expression changed from one of anger, to disbelief, to shock. Lux looked at Alayn, who looked utterly confused at the entire non-verbal exchange, then back at the group. Caitlyn rested her hand in her palm, which was the last straw for Alayn. "Okay, can someone explain to me what is going on? I don't speak face." The frustration from Alayn got a giggle from Ahri and a sigh from Akali. "Okay Alayn. When you learned about the practice match tomorrow, right after you were finished with the meeting, who was the first person that came to your mind to ask to be your champion for the match?" Caitlyn asked. Alayn paused for a second. "Well, Lux of course." Lux immediately whipped her head around to stare at Alayn in disbelief. Caitlyn didn't pause, however. "And after you met the three of us? Who did you think you wanted to ask?" Caitlyn continued. Alayn didn't think for very long on that one. "Lux, still. What's with all these questions?" Alayn asked. Lux's cheeks adopted a light pink hue. Caitlyn gave a slow clap in response to the second answer. "Congratulations, Lux. He was gonna ask you from the very start."
Lux's face was one of utter disbelief. "Wait, you didn't think I was going to ask you? Who else would I want to do this with?" Alayn asked, thoroughly bewildered by Lux's shock. Lux was his best friend, the one person in the Institute that he had complete and full trust in. If he was going to do a one-on-one for the first time, he wanted to do it with someone he trusted. A smile twitched on Lux's lips. "Then I suppose there's a few things we need to discuss before tomorrow then. I know a quiet place where we can discuss skill usage and itemization." Lux suggested, gesturing outwards toward the corridor. Alayn nodded. "After you, of course."
…
Hey guys! Thanks for reading through chapter three!
I'm still on spring break, but there's not really a whole lot for me to do. I'm on a vacation and during the nights when there's just boat-loads of down-time all I have to do is write (which is fine I'm just swimming in ideas for this story right now so I could keep writing for a long time to come). But maybe I should be doing something more productive with my spring break…
-shrug- Who cares.
Anyway, since I know my writing probably sucks, I'd love to hear what you guys have to say. Do you have any comments or criticisms you want to bring up? Any ideas you wanna offer or just wanna drop in to say hey? Leave me a review! I always welcome feedback of any kind, since I'm always looking to improve my writing.
Anyway, I'll see you guys for chapter four!