Deadly Deception

Chapter 16

Gonna do a bit of a weird thing here, I'm not 100% sure if you guys will pick up on it, so you'll have to tell me.

In the early morning, on the beach of the southwestern isle of Ionia, a woman pulled herself out of the water by her giant metal fingertips, struggling slightly on the sand. Her other hand was held protectively around a second woman, and gently let go of her when they were both out of the water. She struggled to breathe, and after a few deep breaths, coughed up a few mouthfuls of salty water before falling onto her chest and watching the soft breaths of the unconscious redhead.

A night of swimming in below freezing temperatures, it was a wonder that the both of them were still breathing.

Vi rested her tattooed cheek on the sand, taking strangled breaths and staring at her wife, trying to will her to be okay. There was no more strength in her limbs to even move, but she tried. She wanted to take Katarina somewhere safe, instead of laying helpless on the beach; but there was no way that she could move. Vi continued to watch Katarina's scarred face; soft, peaceful, but alive. Her own shirt had been disintegrated by Swain's magic, and the burn was never going to completely heal, but it was worth every second of pain.

The soft clicking of claws woke Vi up, blinking a couple of times to focus on a small swarm of crabs that had gathered around her and Katarina. She slid her hands out of her gauntlets, a hiss of steam scaring a few of the crabs away. As she moved to her knees, wincing at the pain from the residual strain of the very long swim in her arms, the crabs swarmed again, trying to catch her pink hair in their claws. One did catch hold of a clump and was lifted off of the ground, and started clicking its spare claw in panic. Vi gently pulled it away by the body until it let go, placing it gingerly on the sand. As she knelt over her wife, a few of the crabs that had been inspecting her scuttled away; the remaining few were moved onto the floor.

"Katarina." The assassin's shoulder was gently shaken. "Please wake up." No response, but the breathing was a good enough sign. Vi worked an arm under her back and lifted her up, holding her tightly and pressing a kiss to her forehead. "I'll make sure that you're better, don't worry." She looked at the swarm of crabs again. They seemed to be watching and understanding the scene in front of them. "What do you guys want?" She asked, laughing as a few of them clicked their claws at her. Laying her wife back down in the sand, Vi pulled the last scraps of her shirt off, grimacing at the lack of cloth that was left on her back. "Do you want nesting?" She asked the crabs, tossing the cloth at them. "Here you go." They all moved around to inspect it, making Vi smile as she attached her gauntlets onto her belt. Standing up took effort, because of a mix of the muscle exhaustion and the pain in her back.

As Vi lifted her wife into her arms, carefully cradling her head against her bare shoulder, she gave the crabs one final look and grin before turning towards the jungle that stretched before them and walked towards it. The first thing to do: find shelter and keep Katarina safe. Ionian jungles were nothing like Vi had ever seen, but she still pushed vines aside with her shoulders, ignoring the cuts from the thorns, and shielding her wife from being hurt. She continuously looked for a cave or something similar as she moved, silently willing Katarina to wake up. Still, the soft breath against her skin was comforting, and gave her the will to keep walking.

The island that they had come to wasn't inhabited by many people, only animals. Most of said animals were also small, having migrated from the mainland years ago to avoid many of the predators. The only ones that Vi saw were small, two-tailed foxes and what looked to be a cross between squirrels and turtles, resulting in small, furry creatures with scaled, clawed feet and hard shells on their backs. They all watched them curiously until the women got too close with Vi's heavy boots, and they ran for their nests in the trees and holes in the ground. Usually, the Enforcer would lay down on the floor and try to call small, fluffy animals over with gentle tongue clicking and offers to pet them, but the only thing she could and would focus on was her wife. Even being completely shirtless didn't matter, because her betrothal necklace was still resting against her skin.

The island wasn't too large, but the sky darkened before Vi saw a cabin in the distance. She had walked the length of the island twice in total before she saw it; a small, stone building almost completely covered in vines. What she would never admit to was the fact that her arms were getting tired, so a safe place to stay was a welcome sight. The door wouldn't budge as she pressed her shoulder to it and pushed, so she took a step back and drove the sole of her boot into the wood just under the handle. Vi grinned at herself as the door swung open and stepped inside, almost immediately catching a cobweb in her hair. She stumbled further into the room and glared at the dark corner of the ceiling before looking around a little more. This house was obviously abandoned in a hurry, with years old plates and cups on the short table, that were sitting on a tattered tablecloth. Vi squinted into the darkness, noticing the outline of a second door and moving towards it. This one did move with a slight press with her knee, but it looked to be a bathroom. The sound of running water brought her attention to a hole in the wooden floor, which opened into a small ravine.

"What kinda ancient…" Shaking her head, she walked back into the main room and looked for another door, and saw one just to the left. That one opened into a bedroom, with a large box of moldy hay covered by a blanket sat in the corner. There was no way that she would put Katarina down there. Vi moved to the covered window and adjusted her wife so her chest was resting on her shoulder and pulled the wood away, letting light into the room. The bugs that were previously unseen scattered, and Vi took another look, sighing in relief at the sight of a pile of (thankfully) clean blankets in an open closet. It took longer than she would like to admit for her to push them into a makeshift bed, and gently placed Katarina down on them.

Finally, the enforcer dropped down, exhaling heavily and pulling her gauntlets off. She watched Katarina's chest rise and fall with each breath for quite a while, so much so, the light of the day started to fade. They have a place to stay, and that's what mattered for the night; Vi had no idea when her wife would wake up, but there wasn't any point in moving her now. The next plan was to find a reliable source of food and water to make sure that they could stay out here for as long as they needed to. Vi pulled her heavy boots off, shoved her socks into them, and got up to close the window. It had gotten cold quickly, no thanks to the ocean, and she was still shirtless. After pushing the wood closed again, Vi spread the last blanket over Katarina and laid next to her on her side, folding an arm under her head and keeping her other hand on her chest, just to feel each breath.

In her fitful sleep, Vi had heard her wife calling out to her and snapped awake, sitting up and breathing heavily. She almost forgot where they were and looked around the dark room, feeling both relieved and saddened by Katarina's sleeping face. Again, she placed a gentle hand on her wife's shoulder and gently shook her, calling her name a couple of times to try and wake her up. When that didn't work, Vi stood up, stretched, and walked over to the bed box full of moldy hay. There was no way that Katarina was staying on the floor, but there was also no way that she would be sleeping on that. After pushing the window open again, Vi grabbed fistfuls of hay and tossing it onto the grass outside. It didn't take as long as she expected, and there was soon an empty box. The next step was to fill it with blankets and place the assassin on top of them, which also didn't take long. Now that the two of them had somewhere safe to stay, the most important thing was to find a good source of food.

There was no way to tell when they would be getting back home, wherever home was now.

Vi leaned over her wife and pressed a kiss against her forehead before quietly leaving the room and looking around the small living room. There was no way to tell how long it had been abandoned. It must have been ransacked years ago, though. There was no food whatsoever, and the only water seemed to be the small river under the bathroom floor. That was definitely not going to be touched. The good thing about being on an abandoned island was that there was no danger of Katarina being hurt when Vi wasn't there, and Vi could walk around shirtless.

She walked carefully down the almost flat incline, looking around to see if she could find anything easily, but it definitely wasn't. Locking her fingers together, Vi stretched her arms over her head, sighing blissfully as her spine cracked in a few places. Her back still felt weird because of the scar tissue, but at least it didn't hurt. Grinning, the Enforcer dashed forward, towards the treeline. She completely forgot about her bare feet and caught her toes in a gnarled root, breaking a couple of them and landing heavily on the grass.

"Son of a bitch!" She yelled, scaring a couple of birds from their branches and turning over to clutch her foot. "This is why trees suck!" Vi tilted her head to the side to glare at the tree root, then punched through it, sprinkling shards of wood into the grass. Cursing everything she knew, Vi got back up and dusted her jeans off, then groaned at the sight of a gash in the front of her leg. These pants are not going to last long in a jungle. Giving one last glare to the now destroyed tree root, Vi started jogging through the small forest, looking for fruits or… whatever they could eat. Surviving in Zaun was so much more different to surviving in Ionia. Still, fruit is safe, right? Vi was too much of a softie to kill any animals, as seen with the crabs when she woke up. The island wasn't too big, so after about an hour of searching, She saw some orange fruits high up in a tree and stood under it, trying to figure out what to do.

The Enforcer didn't like the idea of trying to climb without her gauntlets, and instead gripped the rough bark with both hands and shook the tree, huffing in frustration when the fruit didn't even budge. A second later, her fist connected with the tree, and language that was harsh enough to make a sailor blush was said. This time, Vi groaned and gripped the tree again, this time lifting herself up off of the grassy floor and hooking her legs around the tree, pulling herself up until her hands were at the same level as her chest, then held on with her thighs to lift her hands further up and repeat the process. It took more time than she would like to admit to reach the fruit, but a victory shout scared the creatures nearby into running and hiding as Vi pulled the fruit away from the tree. Getting down was much easier; she just had to jump. Landing made a couple of old injuries ache, but now she had something for herself and Katarina. A leaf falling by her face brought Vi's attention back to the tree again, surprising her as the fruit was growing back rapidly. Within a few minutes if her staring, it grew back completely.

That definitely solves the food problem.

All Vi could think was that the island was weird.

Still, with actual food in her hands, she started the run back to the cabin that she had left Katarina in, avoiding any tree roots, and kicking the door open when she reached it. Vi was thankful that nothing had come in to possibly harm her wife, but was upset when she was still asleep. As the Enforcer sat on the bed frame, watching Katarina breathe, a different thought entered her mind; how the hell was she going to get her to eat?

As she thought back to the training she needed to be a Warden, which included field training, but as she tried to think of a jungle that she had been in before, but everything was fuzzy. There were plenty of people that she had met, but… she couldn't remember their faces or names. Caitlyn was one of-

Caitlyn!

Vi's attention snapped to her partner, and her home. That's where they need to go! Piltover! They'll definitely be safe there from…

They had been attacked, -the large burn on Vi's back was a testament to that-, but she couldn't recall his face. Or anybody other than her wife's or her close friends. Shaking her head, Vi turned to Katarina and placed the weird fruit down and moved to life her up before a thought struck her. It would be good to test the fruit first to see if it's toxic. as Vi bit into it, sweet juice trickled out of the corners of her mouth and onto her bare chest, making it sticky, but she barely noticed. After a few chews of sweet flavour and mushy fruit, she couldn't feel any telltale signs of poison and continued chewing as she Lifted Katarina up and cradled her shoulders. Mentally apologising, Vi pressed their lips together and pushed the chewed fruit into the assassin's mouth, held it closed, and gently stroked her throat until she swallowed it. Not the most hygienic way to feed someone, but it was the only way.

After both fruits were gone, Vi laid her wife back down, covered her with the blanket again, and laid down next to her to stroke her collarbone. There was still no way to tell when she would wake up, but there was no way that the two of them would be separated. Their necklaces proved that. The only thing that Katarina needed to do now was wake up. After a while, Vi sat up again, exhaling deeply. There wasn't anything she could do about it, though. She wasn't magic, or a doctor. The only thing she could do was try and take care of her. She got to her feet and stretched, then walked into the main room of the small house, searching the cupboards for a metal pot. The next thing that they needed was water, and the safest way to make drinkable water was to boil it. There was only one in the kitchen, but it'd be good enough.

Vi slammed the door on her way out in a hopeful attempt to wake Katarina up, but if nothing else had worked, why would that have done the trick? She ran down to the shoreline of the island and washed some of the mud off of her feet before scooping up a pot of sea water from a different area and carefully walking back with it. There was a barbeque rack resting on the side of the house, so that part wasn't an issue. She just needed to collect some firewood to boil it. The pot of water was tied securely to the rack within a minute, and it only took a few more to snap twigs off of trees and gather them in a neat pile. The next problem was actually starting a fire.

Vi had (unwillingly) giving up smoking a couple of years ago, so a lighter wasn't an option. After mulling it over for a few minutes, she picked two of the sticks up and started to rub them together roughly, splintering the wood, but not starting any fire. Sitting back and picking splinters out of her palms, Vi thought about what else she could do. The next option was to kneel on one of the bigger sticks, hold a pointed one between two hands, and spin it quickly. After a few minutes, when she was about to give up out of frustration, the wood started to smoulder. Vi's eyes lit up, and she put more energy into it until she could see smoke, then lifted the stick away, only for it to fade. She swore and stood up, jogging to the treeline again to pick up some dry leaves. kneeling down in front of the pile of sticks, she placed one of the leaves onto the end of the stick and started to spin it again, sticking her tongue out in concentration. this time, when the leaf started to smoulder, Vi carefully lifted it up and gently blew on it, starting a small fire properly.

The Enforcer sat back as the campfire started blazing, heating up the pot of water over it.

They're going to be okay.

Vi is going to make sure of it.

I know that I'm horrible with updating, but I love you guys! Happy 2020, and since I am out of the awkward writing part, I shall be quicker with writing this 'arc' of the story; mostly because I got a chromebook for christmas. The stickers I ordered of Vi will be placed onto it soon.