AN: Last chapter of Project Crosspost batch 1. 20-ish more chapters to go lol.

Sivir III

The massive form of the rockbear barreled into the skittering mass of insectoids, the stone and salt encrusting its fur deflecting savage blows from claws and pincers as though they were nothing. For a second, I found myself wondering whether Taliyah's Great Weaver actually existed and if it was responsible for something as surreal as the scene in front of me actually happening.

"Hey, hey, no time to dawdle, silly goose! Kadira pissed off that rockbear real good to get it to follow us."

The boy, for that was what he was, a young boy barely in his teens, tugged on my hand in attempt to pull me away. From the corner of my eye, I could see his companions, teenagers barely older than he was, ushered Taliyah away from the chaotic melee.

We followed the children until the sounds of fighting were too far to be heard. Taliyah was happily engaging them in conversation - something about bones buried in the desert - but I remained silent, ignoring any attempts the boy from earlier - Samir, his companions called him - to converse.

Trust was a precious currency in this world, a luxury even, and though Taliyah has somehow managed to gain mine, the same could not be said for these people.

"So, when we saw some people being chased by xer'sai, Kadira decided that dropping an outcropping on a slumbering rockdoubb was a great idea!" A lithe young woman, clad in a heavy cloak and a cap, complained eliciting laughter from her friends and Taliyah.

"Hm-hm. You're welcome." The burlier woman, who based on the context of the conversation, is probably the aforementioned Kadira, replied, her voice having the signature rasp of someone who spend too long breathing in sand.

The short trek took us to a small oasis, where our new acquaintances busied themselves with setting up camp.

"Hey Grumpy, what's wrong?" Taliyah sidled up to where I sat, back to a large rock and eyes firmly set on the group of teenagers.

"I don't trust them."

"They saved our butts, silly."

"People who save you always want something in return. Always." I chided her and for a few seconds, she just stared at me as though I just said something incomprehensible.

"You saved me, back there." she pointed out. I raised an eyebrow.

"We had each other's back."

"Nasus saved you."

I snorted.

"He saved Azir's descendant. For their once glorious emp-"

"Renekton saved you."

That cut me short.

"I-"

"Their leader, Zaifa? She was the only survivor of a nomad tribe that got attacked by the xer'sai. She spent the last few years rescuing people from xer'sai attacks."

I blinked. The southern parts of Shurima was rife with xer'sai attacks and no one who knew what they were capable of would be stupid enough to put themselves between the xer'sai and their prey.

"The oldest is Kadira. She was the child of a pair of ruin runners who didn't survive their last tomb raid." She gave me a worried glance and I was reminded of her disapproval of my dangerous line of work.

"Zaifa found her dying of thirst in the desert. They've been together since then."

Lucky her. Most people who found themselves alone in the desert died within a few hours.

She gestured towards two similar looking girls bickering under the shade of an outcrop.

"Anit and Sami are twins, the older sisters of Samir." She gestured towards the boy who was speaking to me earlier.

"The three of them got separated from their caravan in a sandstorm a year ago. They've been looking for their family since then."

I turned away from Taliyah's still worried gaze and ended up looking at the group of teenagers. They were bickering, as children were wont to do, but the atmosphere in the camp was far from oppressive.

"Sivir, I know how hard it is for you to trust new people. I know you were betrayed a lot of times before. I know how you feel."

She did. We've spent many a night in that cold, ruined house in Vekaura, telling greatly abridged stories about our pasts. I knew of her past as a naïve young girl from a desert tribe, easy prey for the Noxians who just wanted another powerful mage for their army.

I pulled my eyes away from the group, no, the family of children and back to Taliyah's face. She gave me a cheeky grin.

"Besides, what would Renekton say?"

I knew the answer. He would have told me that we were all children of the desert.

And that was how we ended up travelling with the children towards the port city of Nashramae.

Ahri I

The market of Nashramae smelled of sea salt and burning incense. I scrunched up my nose and buried myself even further into the massive cloak that hid my tails from the world. I could feel the magic buzzing around me, as though the desert itself was standing at attention, awaiting commands from an unseen ruler. Honestly, the sheer power required to blanket an entire desert, and the cities within it, with magic was a terrifying thought.

I eyed the various vendors, their stalls filled with small statuettes of a golden disc on top of a pedestal. The Sun Disc, they called it. The source of this new magic, and the cause of an entire city rising from the sands. The precious sunstone tokens hanging from my neck, the only clues to my origins, felt even more important than before.

The Sun Disc. Sunstone. It was a loose connection, and I have never heard of a vastayan tribe coming from Shurima, but I chased down my past this far, I might was well keep going. I ignored the sea of sound that covered the marketplace, intent on finding passage to the Sun Disc. I tried to avoid direct contact with the people around me, but it was impossible in such a crowded place and it was only through an astounding amount of self control that I did not flinch at every memory that passed through my head.

The pain of losing an arm in battle and retiring to a bustling port city...

The pain of losing three children in an unexpected sandstorm...

The terror of hearing the rumors about a burning city to the south...

The awe at seeing a massive crocodilian figure, straight from legend, proclaiming that the story of Naruto was incomplete without a nine tailed fox...

I ground to a halt. A crocodilian figure? Could it be?

I shook my head. Vastayans were plentiful, especially those with traits of aquatic animals. Bilgewater alone was full of them. I stood there, lost in thought, for a few more moments until a couple of people bumped into me, vague flashes of memory dragging me from my thoughts.

I moved on, trying even harder to avoid contact with people. While not killing anyone by accidentally eating their soul in a moment of distraction was important, it is even more important to make sure that the memory of him, the massive figure they called Renekton who practically announced to the world that he was looking for someone like me, if not me specifically, was not lost in a flood of new memories.

I frowned, my sunstones clenched in one hand. The Sun Disc, and now, a probable Vastayan of such age and might that he was considered a living legend by the locals, looking for a nine tailed fox. Could the answers I've been seeking, about my origins and the tribe I came from, the family I never remembered, be here in Shurima?