You awake to the beaming sun peaking through the opening of your tent, It's bright rays blinding you as you get up. You sit up and stretch your sore muscles, that night in the tent wasn't the greatest sleep you've ever had but you know it's much better than sleeping in the mud.
You exit the tent while yawning and return the tent to it's portable form. "I wonder what Veigar is up to?" You think aloud to yourself, it's still early in the morning so you decide to go find out.
Pushing open the back door of the hut you find yourself immediately being blasted with steam. It's really warm in here bordering on boiling, as you make your way through the steam you get a view of something you weren't expecting in the slightest.
"Minion!? What are you doing!?" You immediately back out and close the door, blocking it with you back while you can hear muffled curses and various insults being yelled at the door.
'The cauldron….she bathes in it. Idiot, of course she bathes in it!' You mentally berate yourself for not realizing sooner. Regardless you're not going back in there anytime soon, at least not until she cools off.
There are things on your mind that you have to sort out anyway, so you start making a mental checklist in your mind of the things you'd want to figure out today. 'Find out why she hasn't taken the accommodations near the rift, ask the other Yordles about her and if there's time you'll find a book on gardening so you can sort out that filthy garden.'
It shouldn't be too difficult and you're clearly not going to get any straight answers from her so you start your walk to the rift.
It takes some time but you eventually make it back to the rift, you find the building meant for giving each champion their own sleeping quarters. To reduce any infighting or murder outside of the rift each faction has a seperate section of the building and the hallways are monitored in case of any trouble although you dread to think about the quarters for Zaun, those must be utter chaos given the dog eat dog mentality of the place. You shake yourself out of those disturbing thoughts and approach the front desk in the building lobby.
The person at the desk seems bored and somewhat tired, probably from all the trouble the champions cause and processing all the paperwork relating to the job. You try to smoothly start a conversation with them.
"Hey, I'm one of the summoners that are currently in charge of one of the teams and I wanted to ask about one of my champions accommodations." The front desk attendant pauses what they're doing and gives you an irritated look, waiting for you to continue so you do just that.
"She's a small purple Yordle by the name of Veigar, got a bit of an ego and anger problem? Has she made any accommodations here?" Their eyes widen slightly in response to your query, you're not sure what to feel after gauging their reaction but they start to flip through a couple of records at their side and pull out a pink form.
They slide it across the table and you begin to read the piece of paper. 'General misconduct? Poor behavior and destruction of property?' It's not as if this is exactly out of character for her, you saw what she did to that forest but you wonder what caused her to do this and whether or not you could possibly get them to accept her back in.
"There must be a mistake, is there any way you can allow her back in?" You're not sure why you're vouching for her but maybe if she shares the same quarters as the team then it might make it easier to help her get along with the others. Any hope of this happening is immediately thrown out the window by what the receptionist says next.
"I'm sorry sir, any misbehavior involving attacking other champions and damaging the building must be punished. We treat all champions the same in this regard."
"Are you absolutely sure you can't do anything? Maybe there's been a misunderstanding of some sort?" You try to rationalize with them in the possibility that an exception can be made.
"Sir, we have champions from warring factions sharing facilities with each other, there's no excuse for this sort of behavior. She can come and go as she pleases but your champion isn't allowed to stay overnight in this building." The receptionist finishes speaking and goes back to whatever work they were doing.
"Dammit." You curse quietly, this is going to make the whole thing a lot more difficult but surely one of the other champions knows more about the specifics of what happened? You make your way to the hallway leading into the different sleeping quarters to find one of your team members.
The door led to a maze of corridors, all leading to different faculties of the building. You'd never explored this side of the building proper so it was all new to you, you stared up at the signs lining the walls marking all the different rooms ranging from personal quarters to gyms and libraries. The sheer scale of things was so distracting that you ended up bumping into something huge. Whatever it was, it was big enough to knock you flat on your ass and leave you dazed.
Your vision was a bit hazy and blurred but it had begun to focus enough to pick out small details. Short brown hair, a shirt with blue cloth and a golden trim, a wide muscular frame that would make most bodybuilders jealous and that wide friendly grin that would make anyone feel welcome. Those features were unmistakable. "Garen of Demacia?" you struggle to say.
"The one and only!" The large Herculean man says passionately while striking a heroic pose. "Are you lost, my friend?" He continues while helping you up.
Most would greet you as a summoner but from what you know of the man from general information and now experience, he treats everyone like an ally unless they directly oppose him and you're glad that you're not one of those people.
'Finally, a friendly face' you think to yourself. You hope that maybe he could help you find what information you're looking for.
"Uhh, I guess you could say that. I had a couple of questions that I hope you'd have answers for." The stocky fellow maintains his smile and responds.
"Of course, I'll answer whatever questions you have to the best of my ability." The man beams with an intense positive energy that he seems to have in spades almost making you envy his attitude towards life.
"I'm in charge of a team of yordles and I've recently tried to help one of them with a small attitude issue, you may have met them? A little purple Yordle by the name of Veigar?"
The man furrows his brow before stroking his chin in thought. "Veigar…..Veigar. Ah yes! That devilish little imp! She once incinerated a cake that I was saving up for my birthday. What do you wish to talk about regarding that small fiend?" The man speaks with complete fervour while sporting a frown.
'That must've been a really good cake' You mentally note before moving onto your next point.
"I just wanted to know if you knew about what happened when she was banned from staying in this building."
The gentle giant ponders before responding. "Well let's see, the last time anything of the sort happened was in the cafeteria. I was enjoying my meal when suddenly I heard large stomps from behind followed by a screech and an explosion, I turned around to see a towering iron giant. The summoners in charge of the facilities then rushed in and attempted to fix up the wall while asking the other champions about what happened. I'm sorry if I haven't been all that helpful."
"No, no! You've been plenty helpful Garen, thanks for all the help." You say gratefully, he gives you a hearty smile and a wink before walking the other direction.
This new information had baffled you completely 'Iron giant? What could that have to do with the explosion? Why would she even react like that in the first place?' This situation is becoming more and more complicated by the minute.
You continue down the halls before running into a familiar face. "Oh hey Pops." She chuckles at the nickname you call her.
"Hi, captain." It seems that most of the team has taken to referring to you as captain, you've never really liked formal titles such as that.
"Poppy, you can relax with the formalities outside of the rift." You remark casually.
"Yes, sir!" She gives a playful salute. You sigh and rub the bridge of your nose. You suppose it was lucky that you ran into her on the way here since it had been a while since you had talked to the other team members outside of any matches.
"I was heading to the library but I was also hoping to run into one of you guys anyway." Her face lights up in response to this.
"I was also heading there, we can walk there together if you'd like." You respond with a nod and walk alongside her through the large building. You both arrive at the library and enter. It's surprisingly cramped, bookshelves filled to the brim looking ready to collapse from the sheer amount of books and tomes inside.
Poppy heads off to one of the aisles in search of something while you do the same, you find a small corner of the room that has books on what you're looking for. 'Gardening for morons 101' You're a bit slow but you wouldn't call yourself a moron, 'Beginners guide on gardening and herbology' This however seems much more in line with what you're looking for so you pick it up and go to sit down at one of the nearby desks.
On the opposite side of the table you see Poppy enjoying a book she's picked out of one of the fiction aisles 'Lightning, Tale of a hero.' It's a pretty typical hero story although that seems to line up with her tastes. You open up the book you picked out of the shelves and start to flip through the pages, taking note of any important information and writing it down. While doing so you decide to strike up a conversation with her.
"Hey Poppy, I'm….sorry" She looks away from her book and her expression changes from one of enjoyment to one of confusion
"For what captain?" She asks in a concerned tone.
"For how Veigar was acting towards you before. I felt bad for not being able to reel her in" She immediately sets her book down in response to your apology.
"No, no! Please don't apologize captain, it wasn't your fault! Really, I'm fine." She hastily blurts out, she seems really worried that she's caused you to feel worried. Both of you sit there in silence before you ask her a question.
"Was Veigar always like this?" You hoped that the Yordle would know the most about Veigar so you'd be able to learn more about her history.
Poppy rubs her arms and looks downward before talking. "This isn't the first time Veigar has done something like this. She's not like the other Yordles, something is wrong with her.." She pauses and she gives you a crestfallen look "Something or someone did something to her and it changed her completely."
You cease writing notes and look up at her. "You knew her from before she was like this?"
"It was a long time ago, a tyrant had conquered most of Runeterra and had destroyed any resistance that dared to rise up against him. I was too young and inexperienced to take up arms at the time to fight. One day his legion found its way to Bandle City, our home. I don't know how they were able to get there since only Yordles knew how but he razed it to the ground and took some Yordles hostage." She grimaced as she recalled the tale, you're sure it wasn't a pleasant experience to talk about.
"I'm sorry Poppy, you can stop now. I think I got the picture, I apologize for making you relive an experience like that." You place a hand on her shoulder reassuringly.
"I'm alright captain, you don't have to keep making sure I'm okay. It was a long time ago anyway." She picks up the book she was reading and puts it in her satchel and gets up from her seat.
Shit, you've made things awkward now. Let's hope that you haven't upset her. "Hey, I'll see at the rift Pops." She smiles and nods at you before walking out of the library.
You finish writing your notes and return the book back to it's shelf. 'Today has certainly been enlightening to say the least.' You think to yourself as you make your way out of the building and back to Veigar's shack.
The front of Veigar's home is silent, you can't tell whether she's inside or not and you hope she had forgotten what had happened this morning or had at least forgiven you for walking in on her like that. You think to yourself that she might let it slide after she sees you fixing up her garden.
Maggots and worms writhe and squirm across the dirt in her front yard, you look around and find a slightly rusty trowel caked in filth. Wincing at all the grime, you begin your work on the garden.
Author's note: I have a LOT of ideas swimming around in my head for this fic, I doubt anyone reading will be able to guess which direction I'll specifically go in for this. Anyway, favorites and follows are appreciated but I'd LOVE to see some reviews. If you have any suggestions I'd like to hear them and if I think they're fitting for the story I'll consider adding them in.