The markets outside of the summoners rift were packed with champions and regular people alike, said hustle and bustle made finding that little evil yordle a much harder task.
You were already beginning to regret your decisions, immediately after the talk you had she had begun to storm off again with you giving chase. Yet despite you being almost twice the size of her you managed to lose track of the little malevolent mastermind.
'Good going idiot' you thought to yourself as you made your way through the huge crowds of waiting customers. Her small size might make it difficult to find her in a sea of busy people but you'd think that her being purple of all things would make her stick out like a sore thumb.
All this wandering was getting you nowhere so you paused for a bit and started to study your surroundings. Spices, gadgets, magic scrolls and an assortment of other miscellaneous items were scattered under pitched tents propped up against large towers. Countless merchants competing with each other to grab the attention of any willing buyers walking by yet the yordle you were looking for was nowhere to be found.
You bring your hand up to massage your temples. 'This is way more trouble than it's worth.'
Getting a replacement would probably be much easier but regardless of that thought you feel the need to press onwards. There's some genuine potential in her with all that potent magic, you're sure that she just needs some better direction and she could be a real trump card in the rift. Just as you finish that thought you hear a very familiar voice behind you.
"What do you mean you don't have any of it!?" She seems to be angry at one of the merchants but as soon as you get a view of the argument you stop dead in your tracks.
The merchant in question is…..strange to say the least, you can't help but feel a bad vibe from the cloaked man. He seems to be the only merchant that has distanced himself from the others. Or maybe the other merchants have distanced themselves from him?
It doesn't matter which but you feel the air thicken around his tent and you want to get out of here as fast as you can if you're able to.
"I am sorry small one, I don't have what you're looking for but perhaps I can interest you in some other artifacts? Surely one as clearly powerful as yourself could use some more power?" He gestures to the lined up magical items with his hand, picks one of them off the small carpet and offers it to her.
You're worried that she might buy into this but instead she smacks the magical object out of his hand onto the floor.
"I have no need for useless baubles! Do you have what I seek or not?" She taps her feet on the floor expectantly, she's clearly getting impatient.
The shady merchant retracts his bony hand into his cloak. "I have not what you seek, begone."
She storms out of the tent into one of the poorer sections of the market while you follow from behind.
"Veigar!" You call out her name again but she seems intent on ignoring you. She stops at one of the far walls of the market, She reaches down and plunges her hand into a pile of filth near the wall. You gag at the fierce stench that permeates from the pile. "Veigar, what are you doing? What are you trying to find in that muck?"
"Ingredients." She mutters in a quick, to the point tone. She pulls out a slimy bone out of the garbage mound as you bring your hand up to cover your mouth and nose from the rancid stench.
Before you can ask what she's getting those ingredients for she drops the bone in her pouch and walks out of the market.
You walk by her side for a while in silence, she doesn't seem all that keen to start a conversation but you can't help but wonder where she's going.
The walk back is pretty awkward and lengthy, you've been walking for what feels like hours at this point but she doesn't look like she's slowing down anytime soon. As you feel like you're about to pass out from exhaustion she stops in her tracks, makes a left turn into some bushes and walks into what seems to be a small hut.
The hut seems poorly built from forest scraps, the front garden is filled with an assortment of dead plants and random bugs. You grimace at the horrible state of what is probably her home. 'She really lives here? This place is awful, we have accommodations for all the champions near the rift so why wouldn't she live there instead?'
Your thoughts are interrupted by a loud smash inside, you walk into the hut while making sure to avoid the mound of writhing maggots in her garden. You push the door open and peer inside and see her sweeping the shards of a broken glass vial.
"You alright?" You see her become slightly startled as if you just snapped her out of auto pilot mode but doesn't really respond to your concerned question.
You enter the tiny hut and find yourself having to crouch to even fit inside, this house is definitely built for someone of her size but even this is a bit on the smaller side for her not to mention the fact that she had been strangely quiet since you had talked to her about her behavior prior.
All of this new information was weirdly contradictory to what little you knew about her before. You had never really interacted with her that much in the past, not that she gave you any real reason to with her somewhat grating personality but now this experience had intrigued you quite a bit.
"So this is the great Veigar's abode? I was expecting a grand castle and not a random dirt mound in the middle of nowhere." You mockingly joke while gesturing to the inside of the building.
She grumbles under her breath at your insult directed at her home but doesn't follow it up with anything.
'Really? No response whatsoever?' She had been acting weird before but you had hoped that it would warrant a reaction more in line with her regular personality. 'Maybe she doesn't get visitors often?' That train of thought made sense given that you had only seen her personality when outside.
While trapped in your thoughts you take note of the sack she was collecting random items in being placed on the table near the cauldron at the center of the room.
You begin to question what she was gathering those ingredients for. Food? A remedy of some sort? You're not sure to be completely honest so instead you decide to ask.
"What's with the sack? You've been gathering random stuff in it for a while."
She gives you an irritated look before answering "I am the strongest mage in Runeterra, not an encyclopedia."
Yikes, well at least she's finally given you something other than a one word response however one more thing had been on your mind since you had last talked to her properly.
What was the plan going forward? If you were to be entirely honest with yourself you weren't sure what to do to fix the ego issue and her immediate change in behavior had also thrown you off. You weren't sure what to do with yourself so you decide to ask her instead.
"So what task would you have your minion do first?" While referring to yourself as a minion isn't exactly the most flattering thing you've done it gets a positive reaction from her.
She perks up excitedly "Yes, minion! You shall….Hmm." She pauses and starts to fiddle with her staff. It's pretty obvious that she also wasn't prepared for this sort of thing to happen.
Another thing on your mind was that in all the time following her around, the sun had already set and it had become cold and dark outside. You really didn't plan ahead in the slightest and your sleeping quarters were an hours walk away.
You begin to shuffle your feet before speaking up again. "It's pretty late now and I don't plan on walking all the way back, so I was wondering if you had an extra bed to sleep in?"
She snaps out of her thoughtful pose and exclaims "Ah yes, only the best of accomodations for the minion of the great Veigar! Fehehehe!" She cackles to herself while you follow her through the back door of the hut.
"I'm not sleeping in that." You thought the mound of maggots in her garden was bad but what she had waiting in the back was way worse, how did she even expect you to sleep in this? It was basically a pigsty.
You hear a door shut behind you, It's clear that Veigar wasn't listening and didn't care to. Regardless, You'll have to make due with what you have. Reaching into your pocket you find a magical portable tent, you're thankful that summoners are given a bunch of convenience items such as these just for situations like this.
You toss it onto the ground and it unfolds almost instantaneously and you climb inside. It's a lot bigger on the inside than the outside, almost serving as a little pocket dimension and it's definitely bigger than Veigar's dirt shack.
You lay down after a tiresome day and begin to drift to sleep, hopefully tomorrow you'll be able to start helping Veigar with her ego problem but for now that all starts to become a distant thought.
Just a quick authors note: As you might imagine this is my first fanfiction and I haven't done creative writing in years nor have I ever really written a full story so if you can I'd really appreciate hearing some constructive criticism. Thanks for reading!