I'm not entirely sure what to write now that I haven't updated the story in almost a year, so I'll just state it simply: it's back. There will be more. I hope you'll enjoy it.
Many, many thanks to the divine Swords Divine Light (/u/2343391) for Beta Reading this chapter!
Note: The characters are dressed in their usual clothes, except for Riven, who is dressed as pictured Redeemed Riven. I just like her better that way. Things written in italic are emphasises.
Disclaimer: All characters and places mentioned belong to Riot.
Stray Dogs
Chapter 6: Survival of the Fittest
They ran as fast as they could. Cold air freezing their lungs, they dared not to stop and look behind. Ashe was faster than the Exile could ever imagine; even with her leg not yet fully healed from Teemo's poison she moved swiftly between the trees, jumping over the roots threatening to trip her over had any of her feet got stuck in between them. Riven was following, taking the route set by the Frost Archer, instinctively trying to repeat every single move, even though with the still heavy backpack and the broken sword in her hand she was far, far clumsier than the Queen. She fixed her eyes on the frosty bow bouncing on its owner's back, reflecting the sunlight every time a ray managed to slip between the dense tree crowns. Shivers ran down her back as she heard a roar again, though it was much further than the previous times; the Exile could only imagine what kept the beast occupied.
She would pray for the lost souls later.
Suddenly she tripped over something large, not paying attention to the road in front of her anymore. She rolled over in the pine needles, feeling the skin of her knees and elbows tear from the impact. Despite herself she let out a yelp of pain and she let go of her sword, which landed a few feet away.
"Fuck," she gasped, her heartbeat fast and loud as a top quality hextech engine. Massaging what she quickly decided was a sprained wrist she looked over at the obstacle.
It turned out to be Ashe, kneeling on the ground behind her, bracing herself on shaky arms and with her gaze cast on the ground. The Exile got on her fours, getting over to the fallen queen. "Are you alright?"
The figure only trembled harder and Riven could see little droplets falling to the ground from under the navy hood. She lifted the other woman's chin with the back of her good wrist to discover tear marks on her cheeks, but Ashe quickly shook her head, looking anywhere but in the Exile's eyes.
"Did I kick you that hard?" Riven intended to say that as softly as possible, but her voice came out rough from the run. Ashe shook her head again and bit her lip, fighting hard to regain her composure as the Exile continued to watch her closely.
The Freljord Queen was acting like no queen should ever act; the list of disasters only grew longer.
"I should have stayed," she finally broke, her voice squeaky. "I— I ran away like a coward."
Riven watched her for a few seconds, searching for the right words to say. There it was again - the time when somebody needed her comfort, but she couldn't provide it. She couldn't bring herself to lie about the situation; it would only serve as a mockery of those who had fallen. Her breathing returned to its normal pattern as she gulped heavily. She needed to say something.
"And you're alive," she let out at last. "They—"
"I led you out in the open!" Ashe screamed, deaf to Riven's words. She hit the ground with her bare fists. "It was my stupid idea to cut short through that clearing! We should have sticked to the woods and... and..."
She was inhaling rapidly and soon she burst into a coughing fit. The Exile watched her calmly with eyes fixed to her pale face, a reassuring hand on Ashe's shoulder.
"I killed them."
As soon as her coughs stopped, the woods fell completely silent.
"But you're alive," Riven repeated sternly, holding the cloaked shoulder with a firm grip. She used her injured hand to force the wrecked woman to look her in the eyes. "Your idea wasn't stupid, even if it turned out— wrong in the end." She managed to bite her tongue before she said something that would only upset the Queen more.
And she meant it. If not the beast, the frost would have taken them soon anyway; it was time they had needed the most, and taking a shortcut provided more of it. She frowned at her own thought. Time was still slipping through their fingers.
"We need to get to Rakelstake."
The Queen's lower lip quivered, but she didn't say anything. Riven got up and reached her good hand out to help Ashe do the same; she accepted it, but only for as long as necessary to shift her weight back on her legs and then let go abruptly, making the Exile furrow her brows. The Frost Archer turned around to where they came from; there was nothing except the woods so dense she had to wonder how she'd found her way through them. They couldn't hear any sound of Baron Nashor anymore. They had lost the way back as well.
"Did you—" she started, still refusing to look in Riven's direction. Her voice got caught in her larynx again, but The Exile didn't seem to mind, occupied with her sore wrist. Ashe swallowed the lump in her throat. "Did you hear any screams?"
"Yes," she answered shortly and Ashe winced. "Right before we reached the woods, a female, but I couldn't be sure which one." The Exile hung her head down. She wouldn't admit it to the Queen, but she had a fair idea which woman the voice belonged to; she had heard Leona's scream of agony on the Fields of Justice far too many times to forget its sound. "Then nothing, only the beast."
"Shit," the queen swore, wiping the new tears from her eyes with the back of her hand.
There was some hope still left in her before; a flicker of a thought that they had somehow survived the onslaught. She hadn't heard anyone as she ran, focused solely on the path before her and the selfish need to survive. She was barely even aware that someone was following her, though she was glad she wasn't alone now.
But hearing Riven state it out loud was almost physically painful to her.
"Hey," the Exile caught her arm, feeling Ashe's wrist wet with her tears. "It was not— it is not your fault, for gods' sake. It was the wisest move to run. We wouldn't stand a chance fighting him anyway, if you're even thinking about it."
"I... know," she said bitterly, trying to free her hand from the Exile's grip, but she held on tight. "But still— I mean, we were a team—"
"We weren't," Riven's voice, calm up to this moment, bore an angry tone to it now, and it forced Ashe to finally look at her. The Exile's gaze was hard, and the reassuring expression she had on before was gone. "We were just a pack of stray dogs that grouped up together only because we had no other choice and we had a higher chance to survive like that. I assure you that everybody else ran away on their own, not paying any mind to the others. To survive, Ashe, at any cost. There is nothing wrong with what we've done."
Silence filled the woods again. Not even the wind was howling anymore.
Riven finally let go of the Frost Archer's hand and it fell limply to her side, as if suddenly all the bones disappeared from it. The Exile turned around and took up her sword from the ground, running her injured hand over the broken blade, cleaning it of the dirt and pine needles.
What she said to the archer was true with what she believed; she had lived through the feelings Ashe was facing now. She still remembered the guilt twisting her gut all too well, and the bitter disgust every time she looked at her own reflection. She had abandoned people countless times by now, but the first time was engraved in her memory forever.
"Come on, Archer," she urged the Queen, knowing there was no point in just standing here in the woods and mourning. She forced a reassuring smile on her face, though she wasn't sure if it looked as it was supposed to. "Let's get going."
oOo
The walk through the forest was much harder now; whenever there was a clearing between the dense treetops, a deep, thick layer of snow would cover the ground, making it hard to move and obscuring any possible traps waiting to catch their feet and sprain their ankles. Whenever there wasn't, the ground would be almost perfectly clear of snow, but the lack of sunlight still made it impossible to detect protruding roots and holes. Without Luxanna Crownguard, they had to make their way through the dark forest painfully slowly. For a good reason they tried to avoid the clearings.
"Wait," it was Riven who broke their silence after an hour of trying to avoid tripping over anything or getting tangled in the thick bushes. Something crunched beneath her feet, and she recognized the sound with a smile. She bent down to gather the small stones and crushed them together, producing a small spark.
"It won't be of any use," Ashe said as she watched the Exile repeat the procedure, huffing as she leant against a tree and set her bow against her leg. The walk had been pretty hard for her as well, though for a different reason. Spending a lot of time in the woods when she was younger, she somehow developed an instinct to avoid anything that could possibly harm her, but getting her mind completely clear of any thoughts was not something she was accustomed to. She tried to do it for the past hour, but to no avail. Guilt had set its roots deep within the queen's mind.
She sighed, putting her hands over her face. The cold fingers felt so nice against her burning eyelids. "We'd need a dry stick or some... cloth or something to make a decent torch. If you light anything this way, it will go out—"
"I know," Riven interrupted her, sounding more than slightly insulted. "I didn't exactly spend my whole life in a palace and I do realize how the real world works," she said in a mocking tone and hid the stones in her pocket. "I'm saving these up for later. There will be use for fire when the night comes."
She readjusted the backpack on her shoulders before passing Ashe still leaning by the tree and proceeding further into the woods.
"The night comes," the Frost Archer repeated, catching up with her. Even in the complete shade of the forest, she could vaguely distinguish Riven's face as it turned towards her with a frown. "And then what? What are we going to do?"
"Find a shelter? We'll figure something out when we—"
"And then what?"
Riven stopped again and tried to read the Archer's eyes, even though she could barely see in the darkness. There was something odd in Ashe's face, something the Exile had never before seen her show under any circumstances; then again, most of the time she had only ever seen Ashe on the battlefield. And it wasn't even a real battlefield.
"What do you mean?"
"What are we going to do next, after the night, where do we go? To Rakelstake?" she didn't wait for an answer. "Odds are we won't even make it now; we never considered the- the beast would follow us that far away. To get to Rakelstake we'd have to go out in the deserts... and what if— if he's not gone yet?"
"Then we die." The look of what Riven decided was pure fright on Ashe's face only deepened. She tried to calm herself down before she spoke again. "Or we die either way, here in the woods. Katarina was right with one thing; we have to try to do something instead of waiting for the cold to take us."
oOo
She couldn't force herself to look up at her now.
They had found a nice place between fallen logs, big enough to hold the two of them just as the sun was setting and the forest was becoming even darker than before, though Riven didn't even think it was physically possible. Setting a fire was a necessity in order to see anything and also to roast a hare the Frost Archer had shot half an hour prior. They sat on the ground on the opposite sides of the small fire that was providing the minimum amount of warmth.
"What did you do before?"
The question had been unexpected; neither of them spoke for hours, having nothing to actually talk about. Riven's mind was completely blank, set on the basic task of biting and swallowing. The interruption pierced through the mist that settled in her brain like an arrow. She looked at Ashe intensely, searching for a clue.
"Excuse me?"
"What did you do?" Ashe repeated, but Riven's face still bore a look of utter confusion. The Frost Archer felt the heat of a blush on her cheeks and cleared her throat. "Before the League."
"Oh," Riven's gaze fell to the fire again, her brows furrowed. "I was an exile. You know about that."
"I do," the Frost Archer's gaze ended up on the fire again as she brought her legs up to her chest and circled her arms around them. She sank her chin into the collar of the cape she wore and nuzzled her nose against one of her knees. "Everybody in the League does— did, I guess." She winced, though she was sure Riven couldn't see that. "I mean... before. What did you do before being exiled? Were you a soldier, a warrior, daughter of a noble family-"
"A soldier," Riven's expression hardened and she stared at the hare leg she was holding as if she was about to kill it again. "Noxian army. The, uh," she stopped momentarily, wondering whether she should tell the queen anything; after all, even if she didn't consider herself a Noxian anymore, the information she possessed could be considered extremely dangerous had she told it to a leader of one of the strongest Demacian allies. Stranded in the woods with little to no prospect of surviving to spread the word further. She smirked, "the Crimson Elite."
"Crimson Elite? I've never heard of anything like this."
"I'm sure you haven't; it's an elite squadron formed of the best Noxian warriors. We were leaders of our given legions and had it ever come to a war, those men answered to us and us only. Well, to us and Jericho Swain. But then again, everybody answered to Swain."
"So you were... a leader?"
"Sort of," she nodded her head, staring at the fire before her. "Well, at least more of a leader than the other guys."
"So what have you done?"
"What do you mean?"
"To get exiled."
"Oh," she shifted her attention to the archer sitting across the fire and felt a shiver run down her spine as she saw the icy blue eyes stare back at her. "I- actually, I haven't been exiled. I exiled myself."
Her face must have expressed how she felt about the matter, cause Ashe's gaze fell to the ground instantly after she spoke.
"I'm... sorry," she heard the Queen's quiet voice. "You probably don't want to talk about it. It was rude to ask."
Riven got up from where she was seated and walked over to the fire, throwing the hare bones in it. She stood like this for a while, her eyes glued to the flames and an absent-minded look on her face. Ashe watched her, but she didn't say anything else; she felt truly stupid for asking a question like that. While they were still at the Institute of War, she never even talked to Riven.
The Exile moved so abruptly that Ashe's eyes had barely registered it; then, all of a sudden, the former Noxian was sitting beside her.
"It's so fucking cold in Freljord," she said quietly, staring off in the distance. Through the trees above their heads, she could just barely see the stars shining in the night sky. It was clear now, with no clouds to get in the way of her sight as she watched the lights play against the dark, what she knew had to be the faint traces of aurora polaris. She hadn't ever seen it before, but she'd heard such a thing existed; it was one of the few things she still remembered from her childhood.
"Have you ever been to Noxus, Ashe?"
"No," the Queen admitted, looking at her suspiciously. "Is it that much different?"
"The hell it is," she sighed, leaning her head back against a rock behind them. She covered her face with both of her hands and slid them down slowly, her eyes closed. "I don't think it has ever been as cold there. When we were little kids, we prayed for a little bit of snow for the Snowdown— you know, as the name says it. We envied the Demacians so much for having lots of it during winter; I guess the hate starts at a young age."
Ashe snorted, closing her eyes and wrapping herself tighter in her cloak.
"And how's it in Freljord?"
"It's cold," the Queen huffed. "Kids are not even excited with the snow anymore; they're happy when it's actually warm enough not to run around in furs—"
"How do you stand it, anyway?" Riven cut in, pointing at the Archer's exposed skin. "Aren't you a little... chilly in that?"
Ashe let out a loud groan.
"Of course I am," she answered with a scowl as she made a futile attempt to cover her whole body with her cape. "I only wear it for the Field's for... fan service's sake." She put her hands up to make quoting motions in the air. "That's what they call it, the Summoners. I'm sure they made you do something stupid like this as well."
Riven's face turned into that of pure disgust.
"They made me wear a bunny suit once," she admitted, then blushed as Ashe let out a small giggle. "It's not funny!"
"It is," the woman grinned, looking straight at the Exile. "I'd like to see you in that one. I'd already took a surprise photo of Katarina in a kitty suit and have used it for... diplomatic means ever since."
"Well, there's nothing you'd want to blackmail me for." Riven crossed her arms across her chest with a smug face. And then she frowned. "There... is nothing, right?"
"Haven't found anything yet." The Archer smiled as she set her head against her knees again.
A cold wind blew from behind their back and Ashe shivered involuntarily; really, to be left in Freljord in such a skimpy suit...
"Gods, you really are cold," she heard Riven say as she realized the Exile's fingers rested against the exposed skin of her left arm. For a change, Ashe felt the heat of a blush spreading across her cheeks.
Suddenly, Riven's arm was around her waist and the Frost Archer was being pulled closer towards her.
"This should be better," the Exile muttered, leaning her chin on top of Ashe's head; the second one of the women realizing just how much taller the first was. "Fucking cold Freljord."
"Hey, watch your mouth," Ashe joked and playfully hit Riven's thigh. "This is still my favorite place in Valoran."
oOo
They agreed to keep watch in turns, just like they had when there was still eight of them. Riven volunteered to go first, as she was feeling chivalrous enough to let the hypothermic Archer rest.
Truth be told, Riven didn't feel that well herself; even after the protein-rich meal they had for dinner, her body was still fatigued from running for so long. Not to mention the days they'd spent walking in low temperature up until now. Her armor and light hood could only serve as a shield against the wind; it didn't provide much warmth, and even the purple cape they took from Summoner's Rift didn't help at all.
She leant her head back to rest it on the tree she was sitting against and allowed herself to let a deep sigh out; Ashe stirred against Riven's side and the Exile almost jumped in surprise as she felt the Frost Archer's face nuzzle in the crook of her neck. They tried to keep as close a proximity as possible; with the dying fire, this was really all they could do to keep warm through the night. Riven tightened the cape wrapped around them.
"Riven?" The voice was so quiet she wasn't even sure it was real. When the Exile looked down, though, she noticed the icy blue eyes staring back at her.
"Hey, you can sleep some more, I'm fine," she assured her, readjusting their position so that the Archer could be more comfortable.
"Do you think they're really dead?" Ashe asked, her voice the pure sound of exhaustion and sorrow. "All of them, back at the Institute."
"Yes," Riven muttered back. She inhaled the scent of Ashe's hair, which smelled of sweat, dust, and snow; it made her wince as she realized it'd been almost six full days since they were forced to leave the Fields of Justice. "As much as I'd hate to agree with Du Couteau, I think she could be right with this one."
The Exile was startled by the sniffle she got as an answer.
"I'm sorry," she said quickly, trying to turn the Archer so that she could look the woman in the eyes. "I shouldn't have- I sometimes forget your husband is in the Institute as well. Was."
She cringed at her own bad choice of words.
"It's not about him," Ashe sighed, turning her gaze to the ground again. "I... do care about him, but not in a way you'd imagine a wife to care about her husband; he is by all means a political figure that I need, nothing more and nothing less than that."
Riven didn't know how to react to that; she had never experienced the Queen being so open about her feelings. Truth be told, she wouldn't have expected for the two of them to talk at all, had they still been in the safe walls of the Institute.
She gritted her teeth; the safe walls of the Institute. The League of Legends managed to destroy the remnants of the soldier in her, even though they constantly put the sword she despised so deeply in her hands and forced her to use it. To use it. Not to fight with it, every battle they had ever had on the Summoner's Rift was just as unreal as the people Riven still saw in her dreams, though these people died so many years ago.
Every battle, except for that last one.
"There were champions in the League that were dear to me," Ashe continued, her eyes once again drowned in the shade of her hood. "Not necessarily from Freljord, even. I wish you and Katarina were wrong about it. I wish I could talk to them again."
Riven exhaled slowly, trying to take the words in. She should comfort her, the Exile realized again. The sole reason Ashe was telling her all those things was to hear words of comfort.
Her throat went dry at that and no sound could come out of her mouth.
"Don't you?"
"Huh?" The question caught Riven off-guard as she was still battling with her own thoughts. "I, uh... talk to— not really. I mean, I didn't really... befriend anyone at the League."
A weird mix of a huff and snicker was Ashe's answer to that.
"You didn't even eat with the Noxians."
"You noticed?" Not knowing why, Riven felt her mouth form a smirk. "I guess they don't really like the exiles... or anyone, as we're at it. And I didn't feel like joining the outcast table, either. Fallen angels and lunatic heretics are not exactly the kind of people I like to sit and talk with."
They both frowned at the mention of Diana. It brought back the events of the morning with full force.
"What are the odds...?" Ashe asked, and she didn't have to finish for Riven to know what she was talking about.
"Slight," she answered quietly with a long exhale. Fighting against Baron Nashor was hard on the Fields of Justice; she couldn't begin to imagine it in the real life. "Very slight, to be honest."
They fell silent for a second. A wolf - at least they hoped it was a wolf - howled in the distance. Cold wind blew over their heads, but the fallen logs were thankfully shielding them from it. If it was even possible at that point, they shuffled closer to each other. Ashe's elbow was now awkwardly jabbing at Riven's side.
"How many times have you died to that creature before?"
As the words left her lips, The Exile could swear she felt the Queen shake for a second.
"More than I care to admit," she answered in a dead serious voice. "But most of the times, it was a Summoners' fault... it didn't even matter whether the wrong one was mine, someone else's, or the whole team's."
"Summoners," Riven huffed, leaning her head back against Ashe's. "Who the hell came up with that crazy idea?"
None of them knew the answer to that question; they doubted any champion did, even though all had to have wondered about that.
oOo
"Are you alright?"
Ashe raised her head up to look at Riven; there was concern written all over the Exile's face. Truth be told, she was starting to feel worried herself - for herself - the third time she was forced to stop. She couldn't catch her breath. Her lungs hurt.
It had been six days since they'd left the Summoner's Rift. Six full days since they'd been stranded in the cold Freljord forests. Three days since the snow began to fall for good.
They reached the part of the forest where the vegetation grew less dense; it was easier to navigate and walk like this, but there was nothing to stop the wind now as it blew in incredibly frigid gusts, howling between the trees and against their ears. Riven was a few yards ahead, standing over a hollow in the ground filled with snow, dead leaves and frozen mud. The sickening scent of decaying plants somehow managed to escape the frost.
Ashe looked down at her trembling hands; by the third stop, her whole body had been shaking. The fever she had felt rising the previous evening was now reaching the point where cold shivers ran down her back and sweat dampened the light fabric of her shirt. She leant against a nearby tree, trying to survive the wave of nausea that threatened to break free.
"Ashe!"
Riven's arms were around her as her knees gave in; she was feeling weaker with each passing second.
"Gods, you're burning," the Exile said quietly as she pressed the back of her hand to Ashe's forehead.
No, she wasn't burning. She was cold, so incredibly, devastatingly cold.
"It's just a fever," the Queen forced out, though her voice was just as shaky as her arms a second ago. She freed herself of Riven's steel grip, closing her blue eyes for a second as the horizon swam in her field of vision.
No, she would not fall down again. She reached a hand out to hold on to a tree.
"Just a fever?" Riven's voice held a tone of bewilderment as she caught Ashe's extended arm and snaked it around her own shoulder. The position was uncomfortable - the Freljord Queen was much shorter than the Exile, not to mention Riven still had the backpack on her back - and probably wouldn't last them long, or else they'd break Ashe's arm. "Come on, we'll find some place to stay. You need to lie down and rest, for gods' sake, stop being so damn proud."
"What place?" Ashe moaned as she felt the pain in her arm. Riven was dragging her forward, while the Queen's own feet tried to betray her and kept her glued to the place. She forced herself to take a step forward, leaning— no, hanging off the Exile's shoulder.
"I don't know," Riven barked angrily, but when Ashe looked up at her face there was only concern in the Exile's eyes. "A cave, ravine, some fallen trees or thick bushes— hell, I will dig up a hole and hide you there, if I have to."
She dragged the Queen a couple of feet more, Ashe's legs not exactly following the movement.
Riven silently cursed Leona for making it look so easy. She couldn't even manage to help the Queen walk while she was still conscious; the prospect of actually carrying the woman made Riven's throat clench in anxiety.
Desperation froze the blood in her veins. They had to find a shelter quickly.
oOo
"I can't."
Her lips were pale and almost grey as Riven watched the Queen speak. It had been several hours that they walked like this, the environment around them varying from a not so dense forest to clearings, but nothing that could serve as an actual cover from the cold wind and snow. Ashe was reaching her limits now, they both knew that.
"Just leave me here."
She spoke quietly, taking deep breaths between each word.
"Don't be stupid." Riven intended to sound angry, but she couldn't; looking at Ashe right now, she felt as if something tied itself around her throat and tightened with each word she spoke. "Of course I'm not leaving you here."
A sharp wind blew the archer's hood off her head. She ceased to move forward, forcing Riven to stop as well.
"I..." Ashe started, but a cough interrupted. Her arm had gone numb by now, but Riven held it tight as they slowly progressed through the woods. "I really appreciate—" gasp "—that you try, but I—"
"You will be alright if we just find some place for you to rest."
The Queen's mouth was slightly agape as she stared at the Exile, but Riven's expression made it all clear; she was determined and set to find a shelter, even if it meant dragging Ashe's frozen corpse on the ground.
oOo
She stood in front of the giant beast again.
Her hands trembled with fright as she brought Avarosa's bow up and aimed for its head- for its eye, the head was far too big to take with a single arrow. She would have to take its key points down one by one, the beast was by far too much of a challenge for the tiny human she was in the end.
And she was alone.
Alone in the cold, blinding white void. Icy wind slashed across her face, tears threatening to fall from her eyes as the cold stung them. She placed her feet firmly on the ground, only there was no ground. Just her and the monster in front of her.
"Just me and you," the beast said, a low growl that shook the earth beneath her feet, even though the earth was not there just a second ago. "Just me and you, since they are all dead." Its tongue slid past the sharp teeth, licking the acid spilling from its mouth. "Would you not like to have some company now?"
The need to reply proved more than her fear; she nodded her head vigorously, though careful not to lose sight of him.
"What a shame you killed them all, then."
"I didn't," she replied, gathering all her courage. Her bow was wavering. "You—"
"I would never manage to find them," the beast interrupted, and there was a distinct, sarcastic edge to its booming voice. "But the way you led them... oh, you have proved to be so helpful."
Its massive tail swung at her suddenly and she toppled to the ground that suddenly was there, hard and cold against her body. The beast moved to stand directly above her, covering any light that cascaded from the dull gray sky.
"And now you die as well."
A/N: Thank you for reading. And those of you who waited - thank you for waiting. Please leave a review stating your thoughts, I love reviews!