Chapter 27: Kruziik
"How could you possibly know that?" Shyvana asked lifting her gauntlet to stare at its majesty; the dark coloured metal finely detailed reflecting the small mote of flame she held in her open palm.
Connors exhaled heavily and shifted his weight, onto a palm and reached forward gesturing to the gauntlet. Shyvana eyed his hand curiously and nodded removing her gauntlet and placing the heavy metal armor in his hand. He withdrew his hand and stared at the darkened steel armor in his hand, running his fingers lightly over the cool metal. It had been some time since he got to appreciate such fine armor, noting the beautiful layers of unmistakable Demacian steel.
"Lass there is no finer quality steel on all of Runeterra, and this hear is no Noxian steel" he said turning over the gauntlet and staring at the etching of an old Demacian saying, carved into the dark metal a beautiful contrasted silver. "Besides lass this hear is an old saying, it was like a code of arms you could say I member' my grandfather sayin something like this to me when I was a lad" he said pointing to the scribed silver lettering"
"Pretty nice armor for just a farm girl, don't you think Cap" Garrett said leaning forward and swiping the gauntlet from Connors hand, causing the older man to frown and roll his eyes.
Garrett spun the armor around in his palm, testing the weight and trying to slip his hand into the small gauntlet, grunting when he couldn't fit it over his large hand.
Dagonett snorted and grabbed it from Garrett, pushing the young man over in the process "Don't try to fit it on yer fat hand boy, its fer a lady after all"
Garrett just sat up and gave him a crooked smile "Wouldn't mind havin myself o set of that armor tho, yer mom must have served in the military at some point miss Shyvana"
Shyvana cocked her head to the side and pursed her full lips searching her memories of her mother. She remembered kindness and soft violet eyes, nothing of her ever mentioning her former home. "I don't know, my father didn't speak of my mother often and when I questioned him about their past he said little only that she was a simple farm girl."
"Well I'd say daddy might have been keepin some things from ya lass" Dagonett said handing the dragoness back her gauntlet. She frowned as she took it from him and fastened it back around her wrist pulling on the leather strapping.
"Perhaps he was" she snapped her anger rising heat shimmering around her body as her hair began to flutter around her.
Jarvan placed a hand on the dragonesses shoulder and gave it a small shake, causing her head to snap towards him, emotions swirling in her violet eyes. He gave her a small smile "Its alright Shyvana he didn't mean anything by it"
Shyvana snorted and smoke billowed from her nostrils and she closed her eyes shut willing a stray tear to not fall. She opened her eyes and looked at Jarvan, eyes twinkling and nodded "I know, maybe someday I'll find out more about my mother"
Dagonett cleared his throat loudly and slapped his palms loudly on an ancient looking book causing plumes of dust to float into the air "As much as I'd like to wallow about I'd much rather get a good fire goin and not freeze my arse off"
Shyvana gave him a sly grin and flicked her head towards the book in his hands noticing for the first time that he had it splayed open across his lap, the pages stained from ages of neglect. Something swirled in her mind as she stared at the pages, her eyes flicking from the open book to the pages torn from its bindings and thrown into the open hearth. Odd symbols jumped from the pages to her vision, jagged and raw like messy ink blotches and her keen eyesight picked up on every small symbol forming a word in draconian in her mind.
Shyvana shot forward with lighting speed the new weight of her armor doing nothing to slow down her movements as she snatched the book away from the shocked lieutenant. "Whoa easy there girly, meant no disrespect or nothin didn't know the book was important" he said holding up his hands as the dragoness shot him a look of annoyance.
She ran her fingers gingerly over the old weathered pages, a small smile on her face as she remembered her father reading from this very book when she was only but a child. The large book so heavy as she treaded up to her father holding it up for him to read to her. She learned as a child to read and write in the old ways of the dragons and this page was opened ironically to the page of fire.
"Kruziik" she whispered and the ancient book came to life in her palm, the rune etched on the page glowing brightly casting the jagged depiction to alight like a mote of flame.
"Whoa whats goin on, what is that" the blond ranger said scooting forward his blue eyes glued to the dancing flame rune on the page. His hand outstretched fingers brushing it lightly, scowling and pulling his hand back when the rune sparked and burnt his flesh. Shyvana laughed as the glow of the rune subsided watching the young ranger pull his hand towards his face to suck on his burnt finger.
"Don't be such a child Garett its hardly a burn" she snorted and rolled her eyes at him.
"Speak fer yourself your fireproof" he whined while Dagonett rolled his eyes beside him.
"Shy what is that book" Jarvan asked his eyes alight with curiosity as he stared at the ancient text, the rune still glowing brightly as if it was alive, never had he seen such magics before.
Shyvana smiled at him and gestured for him to take her fathers text, he was hesitant as he outstretched his hands to receive it. It was surprisingly heavy, the cover was thick and rough on his palms and he moved his fingers across it, it felt like scales and he flipped it over slightly to peer at a reddish-brown leather like material, small red scales still glittered in the fading light. "Is this dragon scale?" he asked rubbing his thumb over one of the small scales wiping away a layer of dust as he did it. He flicked his eyes up towards the dragoness as she nodded happily.
"Its ancient draconian, its our language and history as well as some rare incantations used by my kind" she said a little pride shining in her eyes "it was my fathers I remember him reading it to me when I was a child"
"Not exactly the same bed time stories he heard as children eh lass" Connors said giving her a weak half smile.
Shyvana turned and looked at the older man, his cheeks were still ruddy, and his eyes seemed dull and glazed over, he looked sick and she felt her heart twist in worry for him. She gave him a small smile "Indeed not"
"What does this mean" Jarvan said gesturing to the open page.
Shyvana leaned towards him and shrugged her shoulders the draconian flowing effortlessly from her mouth and Jarvan was surprised when a mote of flame burst from the page and danced gracefully in the dragonesses outstretched palm.
"It means fire" she laughed lightly and twirled her metal fingers her eyes watching the red bright flame pass through her hand playfully. "All dragon magic, can be spoken aloud and wielded if the user knowns how to channel it, this word is Yol and it creates fire"
Jarvan watched in astonishment as the dragoness played with the flame as if it were merely a child's toy, his own hand wanting to reach out and touch the flame. Shyvana watched him from the corner of her eye and smiled inwardly moving her armored hand holding the live flame towards him "Would you like to try?"
Jarvan snorted and pulled his hand back frowning slightly "That's not funny Shy, I don't want to burn myself like Garrett"
Shyvana laughed heartily "Oh please it won't hurt you Jarvan, just picture it as another form of magic and wield it" he continued to frown at the dragoness and she rolled her eyes closing her fist and extinguishing the perfect red flame bathing them all in semi darkness once again. She pulled off her gauntlets and stared at her pale palms slowly reaching out towards Jarvan taking his hand in her palm and smiled as tiny sparks shot up her arm and warmed her heart.
Her eyes twinkling with mischief she slowly brought her other palm to his and spoke "Yol" the draconian rough and guttural as it reached Jarvan's ear and the flame once again danced in her hand. The heat of the flame close to his skin and he tried to pull back, but the dragoness gave him a firm look and slowly moved her hand over his opening her fingers slightly "Just repeat after me and think fire and it'll come to you, draw in the natural mana flowing through Runeterra its easy"
He snorted and shook his head tousling his long black hair "Easy for you to say you are a dragon, fire is in your blood" he pinched his eyes shut and pictured a flame, bright and beautiful like the ones from home that lite the hearth in his room. He felt something hot in his hand and his eyes shot open to watch the fire spark aggressively in his hand. It felt powerful and dangerous and he suddenly felt himself poor more energy into the flame, almost like conjuring his lightsheild but this was different.
Shyvana was smiling happily as she watched him stare at the flame in his outstretch palm, casting shadows on the faces of her comrades all of whom where staring at their captain. He slowly moved his hand back and forth and smiled triumphantly as the flame danced but refused to go out.
"This is amazing Shy, do you always feel this way?" he laughed lightly as the flame passed through his fingers not burning his skin, but creating a warmth that spread into his very bones and filled him with a renewed energy.
Shyvana cocked her head to the side and smiled at him "Dragon magic is very powerful and addicting to mortals, so it must be handled carefully. Having dragons blood, it doesn't effect me like it does you, I can see it in your eyes its raw and untamed" she said slowly closing his fist around the flame suffocating it.
Jarvan instantly felt colder than before and tired like all his energy was sapped away and he frowned at his closed fist, the dragonesses smaller hand still resting on top of his.
"Well if you two are done holdin' hands id like to get a fire going now" Garrett said coyly giving them a smirk and crossing his arms.
Shyvana shot a small mote of flame at the ranger and sneered at him "There you go ranger"
Garrett rolled dramatically out of the way and pouted at the dragoness "Hey no fair, don't go throwing around fire I can't hold on to it like cap here, I have as much magic in my blood as a Demacian hound"
"Always thought you were more animal than man myself" Dagonett roared a hearty laugh.
"Alright enough, Dragon would you mind starting a fire for us, I don't know about everyone else but id prefer to be dry myself when we start out again in the morning" Hart growled, running a hand over his bald head shooting a glare at the dragoness.
Shyvana exhaled a billow of smoke and nodded choosing to ignore the refusal to use her name once again and made her way to the hearth. She removed the several torn pages from her fathers text, shooting a glare over her shoulder at Dagonett who shrugged in response and placed them safely back inside the ancient book. She looked around the old cabin and settled on a broken chair in the corner deciding it would have to do for firewood, she got up and walked to it quickly ripping it apart.
"Holy Shyvana don't have to take your anger out on the chair" Garrett teased her lying back on his elbows shooting the dragoness a shit eating grin.
"Hardly Garrett this pales in comparison to my anger, would you like to see it?" she challenged as fire flashed in her eyes and she smiled fangs slightly elongated.
Garrett shook his head and quickly lied down on the old wooden floorboards. She sighed heavily and turned back to her task at hand lighting the old wood easily a brilliant flame illuminating her companions as a warmth spread across the room.
She moved to stand beside the entrance to the cabin while everyone got comfortable for the night, staring out into the darkness of night as the storm assaulted the ground and the wind tore through the blackened skies. Soon enough she could hear snoring coming from behind her and she looked over her shoulder at her comrades and stifled a laugh when she saw Garrett use Dagonett's side as a makeshift pillow imagining the smack to the head he would receive in the morning if the lieutenant woke up to such a thing. She turned and peered out into the starry sky, her eyes finding her father shining brightly and she smiled to herself.
Something reached out and touched her gently on the hand and her head snapped to watch Jarvan groggily rub his eyes one hand pulling her downwards towards him.
"You need to sleep Shy, no one is going to come find us here" he half whispered, sleep lacing his voice.
Shyvana went to refuse but he relented and tugged her down, she sat beside him and yawned flashing pearly white teeth.
"Very well, but only for a little while" she said, laying down beside him turning to make herself more comfortable on the floorboards.
Just as she was drifting off to sleep she heard him move towards her and whisper in her ear "Would you teach me to speak draconian"
She turned and faced him, the fire casting shadows across his face, but she could see his eyes and find no ill-will there. She felt happy that he would take the time to learn about her heritage and she smiled brightly
"Of course"