The Passage Of Twin Disciplines
Chapter Five
The Butcher's Fury
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Akali pressed a finger to her lips, hoping the signal to be quiet would get through to the bestial huntress. When Nidalee didn't react, and simply watched the ninja with the same curious expression as always, she said another silent prayer and looked at the sleeping town.
They had walked along the forests edge until they reached a village nestled against the Sablestone mountain back separating the lush green, from the coast line. It was mostly a small trading town, built around carrying supplies over the Shurima desert to Noxus or Demacia.
It was situated perfectly so the yordle homeland, named Bandle city, was on the opposite side of the mountains, making it easy to get new technology from the ingenious rodent folk to potential buyers. The only downside was the proximity to the VooDoo lands, which were rumoured to be in inhabited by the angry spirit of a powerful magician. Entering the VooDoo lands was the same as knowingly committing suicide.
Considering that, this was not a town you wanted to bring unknown magic into, and a girl who could shift into a cougar and stir up healing winds, would fall into that classification. If Akali didn't need to stay on the good side of the trading village, she would not have gone to such lengths to hide what Nidalee was.
However, they were often the only way for the shadow warriors to cross the desert without mishap, there were other options, but they were not nearly as pleasant.
Akali was beginning to think it may have been less trouble after all to simply try to disguise Nidalee as some sort of exotic hunting pet. When she considered it, it wouldn't be that far fetched. Nidalee was very good at moving quietly, and remaining unseen by her prey until the last second. Such an animal would be beneficial to a ninja.
The problem still remained of making her seem tame and under the shadow princesses control, and Nidalee didn't seem to like the idea of seeming tame one bit. On top of that, there was no guarantee that she would understand the plan and not simply shift in the middle of the village for everyone to see.
There simply didn't seem to be many options for the shadow princess, and even those present were likely to fall through even if she did everything as best she could.
Realizing she was grinding her teeth and gripping the handle of her kama hard enough to draw blood, Akali took another deep breath and tried to relax. She hated stealth missions, she was the second best hand to hand combat fighter out of all of her comrades, but stealth and patience had always been a struggle for her.
While she had learned to be quiet, after years of her mother beating it into her, she had never quite managed to learn patience.
"Stay here, do not move unless someone is going to see you." Akali paused, more out of shock when Nidalee promptly sat down and glared at her with enough spite to force a lump down the seasoned warrior's throat. "Try to hide, and if you can't, find me. But be as quiet as possible." Akali finished her orders and Nidalee growled a quiet threat.
When it appeared the tanned girl was not going say, or do anything more, Akali tried to push the unease surrounding her orders being followed so explicitly, and started towards the village.
As Akali disappeared into the darkness, Nidalee looked at the horse tethered between two trees in the dark twenty feet behind her. The dark had never bothered the huntress, her eyes were just as good at night as they were in the middle of the day. What did bother her, was the feeling of magic that had washed over her once more and compelled her to follow the humans orders. Even if she couldn't fully comprehend what was said, there was a deep feeling from within herself that gave her the sense of 'stay'.
Last time, she had used a word that was not the same as this time. It seems like she would have to remember more than one command.
She traced her nails in the dirt, drawing a rough outline of a cougar as she let out a soft croon. The noise sounded different coming out of this forms throat, but it was the only way she knew to show sorrow. She missed her mother, her father and her hunting brother.
She missed the cubs, and her sisters. Nidalee had asked the forest spirits to search for her sisters while following the slave-beast, only to have them come back telling her they were gone. They were all gone, there was not a trace of the cubs or her sisters within the forests borders.
Gentle fingers ran over the picture she had drawn and a tear rolled down her cheek. Nidalee blinked and touched her cheek, looking at the clear liquid that smelled strongly of salt. Why was there water on her cheek? She looked up to see if it was raining, but saw the night sky clear and free of angry clouds. (1)
Huffing, she tucked it away in the storage of questions she had to ask if ever she found someone with answers and surveyed her surroundings. She already missed the human, Nidalee hated being alone, and even Akali's insufferable company was better than none at all.
Akali felt the terrain change under her boots as the dirt began to mix with sand and she moved a little quicker. She kept her kama strapped across her back, knowing they would be useless in a fight if she traversed the alleyways and gripped the handle of twin daggers instead; both of them already coated in a paralysing poison.
It took just under a minute before her victim would lose the ability to scream, and that was if she only managed to nick them with the nasty weapons. When she reached the shadow of the nearest house she immersed herself in it, invisible to anyone who would walk by. Unless, she thought with a sadistic grin, they got close enough to feel her steel, but by that time it wouldn't matter if they saw her or not.
Checking one last time to make sure that Nidalee was still hidden in the bush, - and pleasantly surprised when she was - Akali took a deep breath and pulled her mask up and tightened it. The cloth was good for multiple things, one of which was quieting the sound of her breathing.
Taking another step into the darkness, she traversed a broken crate without incident and snuck by a sleeping cat without waking him. She turned into an alley way and began stalking through the tight passages between houses, keeping her attention fixed on the ground in front of her, and the sounds of late night drunks walking the streets.
It didn't take long before she found what it was she was looking for, a street urchin. Silently, she dashed between two houses without catching the attention of two arguing men and placed her hand over the urchin's mouth.
His eyes opened wide as he stared at her, terrified and believing his end was at hand. Akali held her hand over his mouth and dug out five coins with her other. No sooner had the silver entered his view did the dirty boy stop protesting.
"Go and buy me two simple sets of clothing with this and," she hissed, voice muffled by the cloth as she pulled out another coin, this time, gold. "This is yours when you come back." Akali let go of his mouth and he watched her outstretched hand, frozen between fear and his want for the coin.
Without a word he took the offered silver and ran into the street, Akali sighed and settled down to wait, pulling the blanket the boy had been sleeping on around her like a cloak. It was dirty, and smelt of vomit and feces but it would work in disguising her armor. If anyone saw her waiting in the alley, they would assume she was just another homeless bum.
Some of the villagers were desperate enough that they would attack her if they were to see her armor and weapons, which were worth more than what most of the poor slobs made in their entire life.
An hour passed before the boy returned, carrying two poncho like linen shirts. They were big, meant for someone much bigger than either Nidalee or herself but they would work well enough. They would also serve well to cover Akali's equipment.
With the two tops, he carried two brown pairs of slacks of tanned leather. One looked like it was meant for a boy around his age, and the other could fit a man big enough to fill out the poncho's. He looked down the alleyway, tentatively taking a step towards her cloaked form. She didn't say anything, for fear of startling him, simply flicked two gold coins towards the boy.
It was double what she had originally offered him, but then she hadn't expected the first child she came across to return, let alone with exactly as she requested.
His eyed widened and he dropped his cargo to scramble for the coin, taking off into the street. Akali smirked and gathered up the clothing, leaving the blanket tucked in a crevice in the alley. If the boy returned he would be able to find the blanket, if he didn't then someone else would find it if they were looking for scraps.
Akali pulled one of the ponchos over her head and was pleased to see it was big enough to hide any sign of the gear she wore. Even her kama were almost invisible under the fabric, the hilts made her look as if she had a slight hunchback, but she could work with that. The shadow princess would often appear to have a limp, or some other injury when she was trying not to attract attention. Her mother had once told her that you could tell how proficient someone was with a weapon by the way they walked.
Akali had long ago learned that her mother was very seldom wrong.
She frowned looking at the leather leggings, they could be a problem if she ran into trouble or had to run. The fabric was stiff, and felt as if it hadn't been worn in a long while. If she ended up needing to fight, they would be a handicap.
Akali resigned herself to planning for that moment if it should happen, realizing she was still better off in the leather leggings than walking around where her decorated, metal, shin-plates could be seen.
She struggled to pull on the tighter pair, reluctantly giving into the argument that Nidalee had much more muscle on her legs and was a good half a foot taller, storing the extra set of clothing in her belt. With one last glance at the streets, the shadow princess disappeared into the night to see if her feline friend was where she had left her.
Nidalee sniffed at the wind that blew towards her, chocolate brown hair fluttering in the wind and against her skin. The smells of the desert were so much different than the forest, and she had never travelled this far from home before.
There were certain places she had been forbidden to go, like the bright tree home where Akali had gone all those years ago. This village was another, and the air reeked of human. This type of human was different than the other two she had encountered already, the first being Akali and the shadow warriors, the second being the hunters.
Akali smelt of... herbs, sweat and silk. But at the same time, she had an odd sweet tangyness to her that wasn't unpleasant.
The hunters... they had smelt of musk, pain and blood. Their scent had left a foul taste in her mouth that she was happy to be rid of. But these humans, the ones that lived in the odd caves that Akali had disappeared into, they mixed with the wind of the desert and had a peculiar scent.
They smelt of fish, and snake-strikers, horses and wood. Not, trees... wood, dead trees. But not rotting, it was a new experience for the feline and she closed her eyes to immerse herself in what the wind carried to her.
Her ears twitched and she strained to hear a sharp noise. The sand beneath where she sat vibrated, granules of sand catching a short span of air time as the ground shook. Nidalee's nose flared, and she opened her emerald eyes to look out towards where she sensed the disturbance was from.
Cocking her head, she tried to move but found the magic that had washed over her from earlier still intact, until the human returned, she knew she wouldn't be able to sneak off to see what was going on.
Were humans always this curious, yet frustrating?
Akali returned moments later, and dropped the clothes beside the waiting huntress when she didn't react.
Nidalee ignored the ninja, having been listening to her approach for some time, still unhappy over being ordered around and having a collar forced around her neck. While she was happy the other girl was back, she was still able to be angry with her as well. Patience was one virtue that it was apparent the other young fool did not have.
Nidalee grinned an inward grin, she could already smell her rising frustration, it was delicious.
"Here," Akali tossed the extra set of garments onto the dirt beside Nidalee. When the huntress continued to ignore her, and seemed content to lift her nose to the wind and close her eyes, Akali bunched up her fist in frustration.
No one, in the Kinkou warriors, would ever ignore her. They may not have always followed her orders, and they may not have gone easy on her, but they always showed her the respect she deserved. The respect she had earned. Having a beast as a companion who did not want to cooperate in the least was wearing out the small amount of patience Akali had.
"Get dressed," she said through tight lips and Nidalee reluctantly turned to look at her, then down at the clothes. Just as she reached out to touch the fabric, Akali paused and instinctively reached for her kama. Something wasn't right.
The ground shook under her feet, and Akali realized the feline had been focusing on something important after all.
In what seems like a moment of absolute silence, a suggestively dressed woman steps out of the local tavern, tilting her head back as her drunken client slobbers on her ivory skin. Her eyes widen, and her lips part as she lets out a scream of terror, cut short as the butcher's blade descend, severing the unsuspecting pair clean in two.
Letting out an insane, blood-lust filled laugh, Renekton pulls his blade free from the hard ground and licks the blood experimentally.
"Carnage..." his long, narrow muzzle grins as he turns his yellow eyes on the next set of patrons who stand frozen in the doorway of the watering hole.
Standing at his full height, his dark green scales shift and slide along his body, shimmering in a raised torches light. His head stands at ten feet, towering over the slack-jawed villagers as a bit of gore runs down his fangs to drip onto the packed sand.
He lowers himself to crouch, tail brushing the ground as it sweeps back and forth behind him. Nostrils flaring, he lets out a wave of putrid breath and places a clawed paw onto the ground, looking into the eyes of the torch bearer.
"Embrace death," Renekton growls, his voice rumbling out of his chest like rocks rolling down a cliff-side.
With lightening speed, his jaws snap down on the upper half of the man in front of him, teeth separating his torso from his hips as he swallows his snack. The lump visibly forced it's way down his reptilian throat as the deceased man's legs crumple to the ground and the woman beside him lets out a terror filled scream.
"Yes, yes!" Renekton laughs, "scream in terror, let me hear your screams!" The Aligator warrior cackles into the night and runes after his fleeing prey.
Akali took off for the village, pulling off her new-found clothes and dropping them in the sand as she went, weapons already in hand. She and Nidalee had both heard the screams, and out of obligation to her mother, and the villagers, she would defend the town.
Nidalee's paws found it difficult to gain traction on the shifting earth, the fresh scent of human blood burning her nose as she streaked after Akali, having shifted instinctively at the first sign of danger.
Behind them, Akali's mount whinnied a shrieking sound that pierced the night.
Renekton slammed his half-moon blade down, crushing the front of the tavern as he watched the villagers scatter, screaming. Jaw parted, he tried to watch them all, and failed at watching any in-particular. He wanted them all, he wanted to taste them all, none would escape the jaws of death. They were all so impure, so savage, he would cut out their hearts and eat them alive.
None of them were worthy of his brothers teachings, none of them!
"I'll leave them all in pieces!" He cackled, blood tinged saliva dripping from his fangs, "do you hear me, brother? They shall all die!"
The giant reptile pulled his weapon from the wreckage and charged the fleeing forms, springing into the air to land on another home that crumbled under his weight. As he let out another cackle, he felt a weight hit his back and twisted to see what it was that had attached itself to him.
Nidalee clawed at the beasts scaled hide, holding onto his shoulder guard with her maw. Her hind legs raked futilely, only to be repelled by his diamond like skin. Her front paws stretched out wide, claws digging into the crevices she could find as she held on for dear life and fought the only way she knew how. With tooth and claw.
Renekton laughed, reaching back to grab the golden cat when he felt a sharp pain in the back of his knee. His calf became numb and he kicked his leg, surrounded by a smoke bomb, placing back the leaden foot when the pain ceased.
Snarling, he grabbed the cougar, large, clawed hands curling around the feline's frame. Flexing his fingers, he grinned when he heard a bone snap and watched the feline squirm and scream in his hold.
Akali threw another needle, connecting and pushing through the tough outer skin of the reptiles throat. The poison would do it's job, she cringed as Nidalee let out another pained scream, but not nearly quick enough.
Dashing out of her fading smoke cover, Akali jumped and slashed with her kama for the creatures inner elbow where the flesh was not protected.
Consumed with watching the life being slowly crushed from the cougar, Renekton failed to notice when the ninja was too close and cried out when the tendon connecting his bicep to his forearm was severed.
Nidalee dropped to the ground, her fur dishevelled and spattered with blood. Chipped and broken nails hung pathetically from her toes, and she let out a sigh of relief as she settled amongst the wreckage of what was once a house.
Akali landed and instantly took off towards the main road, where it was still wide enough for her to move freely.
Narrowing his yellow eyes on his new prey, Renekton roared and chased after the fleeing ninja, ignoring the growing numbness in his leg.
Once they reached the centre of town, Akali threw another smoke bomb and instantly turned, running out the opposite direction – directly back towards the charging reptile – than what would be expected.
Sliding under his dashing form, she threw another dagger, aimed at the back of his legs, as he rampaged straight into her smoke cover. The tiny metallic weapon sang as it hit a hard scale and fell harmlessly to the ground.
Renekton turned, sweeping his crescent blade out wide, and Akali narrowly dodged the attack that would have surely cleaved her in two.
Furious, with the taste and scent of fresh blood still dripping down his throat from his tongue, Renekton pulsed with magic. Around him, the sand turned into a small tornado around his growing frame, whipping up a storm that buffeted and attacked the nearby housing with the fury of a sand storm.
Akali cursed, his skin becoming raw under the assault and ran for the nearest coverage she could find to escape the unrelenting winds.
"I will rip you to pieces!" Renekton sang out, roaring into the night with enough force to shake the ground under the shadow princess's feet. His nose flared, catching the first hint of a familiar scent and turned towards a pillar of light, a feral grin turning up his scaled lips.
"It's so nice of you to join me, brother." He snarled, eyes fixated on the canine humanoid that stepped out of the light and into the wreckage, golden armor gleaming in the magical light. "You will die!"
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– Cats cannot cry, they lack tear ducts.
Alright, end of chapter six. This one had a bit more fighting, and we have met yet another pair that will make a brief appearance in this story. Renekton, I love you so, so much.
Until next time, - Kiravu