A Two Foot Reunion
"Seriously? You just went a minute ago."
"Nuh uh, that was pix not me."
A little purple delight pointed at her tiny faerie ally with pouty lips hoping to convince her cantankerous companion to spare some mercy. Bickering viciously amongst themselves, every retort the grouch made was met with whining along a series of flutterous attacks from the courageous Pix, driving the verbal combat to grow. All the while, their silver haired leader grit her teeth contemplating the aerodynamics of a cannon launched yordle. She imagined it in her breath staining the cold air.
"Well then FINE, maybe I don't want to go to the bathroom, how about that, Rumble?" Exclaimed the purple one tongue out in defiance.
"Get this stupid bug off me!" Screamed Rumble as Pix began singing Rumble's furry yordle face with a burning match spear.
"Enough!" Finally the silver haired lead whipped around, boom tube in hand, "I hear one more word out of you pipsqueaks I'm gonna start blasting, I mean it!"
She stepped closer and nudged rumble's mustache with her cannon, killing the little lit ember on his cheek.
The silver haired captain turned around but before she even holstered her cannon, "Tristana…" crept into her long ears.
"Yes Lulu," sighed Tristana, "Go take a potty break."
"Yippee!" Cheered Lulu, and she waddled off into the dark snowed pines.
Tristana picked out the nearest tree and smacked her cannon down on its side crunching the snow violently.
The passing of time up here is so strange— She scanned the stars and reminisced on the moon—The waning moon, at least I remember that from old Heimer.
"So, Tristy, how's tricks?"
Tristana looked over at Rumble. He was small. Then again, most yordles are. For yordles three feet in height was considered tall. Unfortunately, however, Rumble was a pipsqueak, even amongst yordles.
She pulled back one side of her lips and shrugged.
"So-yeah," Rumble stammered, "Where do you think that little guy is hiding? Gnar, was it?"
Her ears perked up at the mention of the name.
"Gnar…—she repeated trying to grasp at something in the stars— "Gnar is..."
She looked over. Rumble and noticed his dismal eyes drudge downwards. She couldn't blame him. Last time she saw Gnar was when Rumble took him for a stroll, and they supposedly got cut off by that monster. The very monster that attacked Bandle City. Gnar hadn't been seen since that night.
He must be tearing himself up about it, —She thought—Poor guy.
"He's fine," Tristana answered, "This is around the place we found him. I'm sure-"
Before she could finish her sentence, a shrill scream rang from the pines. And, without a second spared, Tristana and Rumble sprang into action and charged in the general direction Lulu had disappeared into.
They tore through snowed down thickets, Tristana held her boomer ready for anything, and Rumble his Flamespitter. They found a clearing, and a faint light resonated from a pile of snow. And on top of that pile of snow was Lulu's pointy purple hat.
"Lulu!" Tristana gasped as she ran over and picked up the hat. Her eyes followed the light underneath it. But, before she could analyze the situation, Lulu's head sprang from the glowing pile of snow.
"Guess who I found!" Lulu gleefully blurted in Tristana's face.
Before she could respond, Lulu grabbed Tristana's collar and jerked her into the pile of snow. Her whole body was enveloped in the snow and before she knew it, Tristana was tumbling into a little hollow smushing into the moist ground below, face down. She heard Lulu chatter indistinctly above her, and then plop, she was plastered deeper into the snow covered ground as a pair of soft buns landed on her back.
"Ow! Lulu," grumbled Rumble, still on Tristana, "What the hell was that—gah!" Rumble cut himself short and scrambled to his feet.
Tristana had taken a little comfort in being on the ground, but that was quickly dissuaded as a groan made itself heard aside Lulu's celebratory dance. She pulled her arms near her chest and pushed against the round indent her bulbous yordle head left on the snow.
Tristana gasped, "Poppy!" Lulu chanted the name and began dancing around. A radiance of glee began to fill the hole as Lulu waved her small staff around in the air, whilst her faerie friend began tooting an invisible trumpet. All the while, the hole was lit with only a meek campfire and the licks of flame light upon familiar Demacian Steel.
There be Poppy, sitting behind a flame with sunken eyes and ratty uncombed hair. Hair that would usually be combed neatly into two ponytails, now loose across the floor. A filthy cloak around her shoulders. She bore her eyes into a pan in the center of the flames. Meager berries, the kinds no one bothers to name. Tristana scrunched her nose, the waft of putrid yordlette stench was in the air. The light of the flames lapped the blue velvet on Poppy's face.
Tristana looked over at Rumble, he threw up his hands in confusion. Lulu was still dancing about with Pix who began a conga towards Rumble with a fresh cinder in hand.
"So," Tristana began with an inspiring smile, "What's cooking good looking?"
Poppy barely twitched. She was staring at the flame, her face fixed into a permanent scowl.
"Charming as always." Quipped Rumble at the corner of the den.
Tristana shot a glaring look back at Rumble, before he turned around to investigate the hole they got sucked into.
"Come on Poppers, aren't you happy to see us?" Gleed Lulu, spinning her staff into a comb and challenging Poppy's hellish hair. Poppy quickly blinked and mumbled something indistinctly, while Tristana tried her best not to contort her face on the oncoming fumes.
Over at the other side of the den, Rumble remarked at the den's entrance.
"Wow!" He exclaimed, "Would you look at that? The spell on this thing has been in effect for what, a couple of days?"
"Days?!" Tristana gasped. She turned to Poppy, but, alas, she was already on Lulu's lap, mumbling indistinctly while Lulu patted away grime from her face with a handkerchief.
"Whoa!" Rumble's screams were quickly muffled by snow as the enchantment on the den's entrance waned. The hole now agape, the moon's weak light peered in.
"Lulu." Tristana said.
"Yeeees?" She responded as she cooed Poppy.
"How's about we camp with ol' Stinkbutt for tonight?"
"Yippee!"
Rumble dragged himself out of the debris, but before he could even utter a word, a small pouch was tossed at his face.
Tristana walked up to Rumble, "Alright big guy, you get to sleep out there in the leaf tent, us ladies are gonna stay in here."
"Or," Rumble's mouth curled into a sneer smirk, "we could conserve heat, it's cold out there. Would you have me get sick on your expedition?"
"Or, I throw you and Stink-Butt into the leaf tent and seal the tent until the next day. I'm sure you'll both be happy to wake up next to each other."
Rumble's face contorted with disgust and fear.
"You know what, fine," Rumble responded, and started crawling out of the den. "The tent's more comfortable than this dump anyhow."
Tristana sighed, yeah, the tent is more comfortable than this dump. She looked around. The small dirt dome created by yordle magic only housed a crumpled up thin blanket, no pillow. Meanwhile, there was only a small hole as means of entering and exiting, and it was neatly hidden. But why?
Tristana looked down at Poppy. She was a mess. Unkempt hair, unbathed, armor unpolished. Poppy's always been the cleanest one, what happened? She thought long and hard and circled the other two yordlettes. And...Pix?
"Hey!" Tristana picked Pix by the wings like a little fly. "Sorry buster, boys sleep outside tonight."
She looked up, parallel to Poppy on the ground, she peered at the entrance. Poppy was facing the hole. Tristana blinked and looked down at the sleeping yordle. She scratched her head and stepped around the little campfire. Pix, on the other hand, was fighting for dear life as little buzzes escaped his lips furiously.
"Bye bye Pix!" Lulu yelled from across the room.
She stepped out to investigate the area. The cave faced out towards a clearing. There were shrubs drying to her sides, hiding the entrance from side views. The den was right under a pile of rocks, and the roots of the forest curved inwards towards its entrance.
This wasn't an ordinary fox hole. The moon was directly overhead, and it was setting in the west, it would set in the opposite direction of the entrance. This is a stake out hole.
Tristana scratched her chin before a sudden pop startled her tumbling back onto the ground. She crawled out of the hole once more and was face to face with the newly manifested tent. A leaf tent, on the exterior it looked like a small bush of scrangies.
Scrangies being a plant that invokes a hellish itch that no one would dare touch. Round orange leaves with two protruding spikes usually let those know of its presence, but a leaf tent always had longer spikes than usual. A small subtlety yordles had to learn, the hard way.
She walked up and looked for the leaf that had two red stains. Aha. There it was, it looks just like a yordle's head. She reached out hesitantly, it wouldn't be the first time she guessed wrong.
As she tugged the leaf, the surrounding foliage and vines began twisting and contorting apart to reveal a small homely room, fit for two, housing one. At one end of the room was Rumble, fiddling around with a gadget in one end of the room. He looked up and dropped a thick blue crystal, sparking madly as it cracked.
"Someone changed their mind, eh?" Rumble leaned back on the table and began wiggling his eyebrows.
"Yeah..." Tristana gave Rumble a sultry look which was met with a sheepish wide eyed gulp.
She rolled her eyes and flung Pix in Rumble's direction, "Play nice you two!"
"Wait!" Called out Rumble before she could tuck the scrangy leaf.
"Trist. You know," Rumble paused and got up from his chair to get closer to her. "It's been two weeks. If we were ever gonna find him around here…"
"Don't." Tristana held up her hand and began turning around.
"Listen. What if he's somewhere else? I mean, the portals from Bandle City could lead anywhere if you're not careful."
"But. The thing was last around here. That must mean he's around here too. They must have gone through the same portal."
"Trist," Rumble reached out and put his hand on Tristana's shoulder. "I lost sight of him before I saw the mon-"
"Enough," Tristana held up one hand, "No yordle left behind."
"What if he-."
"Good night Rumble."
"But-"
The leaves shuttered together as Tristana pulled herself away and pulled on the long scrangy leaf.
Poor Rumble. He's afraid of an ugly oaf walking around. If Gnar could scrap with that monster, so can we!
She hummed her soldier's cant and began climbing back into the den while she pinched her nose. Now for the other problem, she thought. The light had already begun waning as the campfire died, Tristana looked over at Lulu who was rolling Poppy to one side of the room. She walked over and helped. Lulu began humming merrily, unfazed by the stench from the unwashed yordle.
"I think she was happy to see us." Chortled Lulu loudly. "When she saw me she flung a plate so we could eat together!"
"Plate?" Tristana gave Lulu a quizzical look then scanned the room. Nothing different, Big hammer next to the fire, meager bedding still in the corner of the room, "I don't see a plate, are you talking about the frying pan, did she throw a frying pan at you?" Tristana pointed at the frying pan next to the campfire, toasted berries and all.
"No, silly," Lulu began hopping to the entrance of the den, picking up a thick disk-like object in the dark, "See? Plate!"
Lulu held up a cracked buckler.
"No way." Tristana's eyes blurted open.
"Yes way!" Lulu happily responded.
She began waddling over, encumbered by the buckler and smacked it on top of the hammer next to the hammer, hollow up. She pulled out a little spoon from her sleeves and picked up the frying pan, serving herself the entire portion of toasted wild berries. She then pulled out a jar of Jellyberry jam and drowned the berries.
She pulled out another spoon and shook it in Tristana's direction with a wink, "want a bite?"
Tristana cringed at the sight of the shield, but she quickly looked down and snarled at Poppy. What was she thinking?! That thing could've easily knocked Lulu into a coma! She shook her head and walked over to Lulu, accepting the spoon.
"I wonder who she was expecting," Chattered Lulu with a mouthful. "This is a pretty big plate, even I can't eat this much!"
Tristana Paused. She looked down at Poppy and plopped a spoonful of heavily sweetened bitter berries. "I don't know, Lulu. There was only one plate after all."