Hi. First of all, I suck. I really, really, REALLY suck. Like, I left you guys hanging just because of a little bit of school work and memory loss, which is so sucky of me. The next chapter will not be so long, I swear. pls dnt h8 me :s

Mordekaiser opened his eyes. The metal knight stretched out his limbs tiredly, letting a yawn escape him whilst slowly pulling on the covers to heave himself up. The bed, as you would guess from Mordekaiser, was made of... Surprisingly normal materials instead of metal. Whilst the hard, shiny substance was his favourite, and proved to be useful in many aspects, being comfortable to sleep on just wasn't one of them. It was for this reason that he slept on a regular bed, albeit one much larger than normal, as well as being coloured completely silver to at least look like metal. However comfortable the bed may have been, the iron man wondered why he had actually gotten a good night's sleep for once. Having a rather unrelaxed personality, he tended to find that the act of staying still in one spot for a long period of time simply didn't agree with him, and thus he normally missed out on the suggested eight hours a day. So what had been different this time? And it was at that moment that his semiconscious brain managed to draw up the events of yesterday's fiasco.

"So that wasn't just a nightmare..." The master of metal groaned aloud, slapping a free hand over his helmet in frustration. Which meant that he still had that annoying pest to deal with until The Shadow Isles got its act together. A though that particularly stuck in his mind was the girl's disobedient actions only hours ago, which barely left Mordekaiser's short fuse intact. He could probably manage with some annoying behaviour for the time being, but going against his orders when HE was the one supposedly in charge simply wouldn't do. Mordekaiser presumed he would need to make up for the little misunderstanding in their relationship before it was too late.

Wondering what compelled him to wake up at such an early hour (it was only around 9am, half a dozen hours before his usual rising time), Mordekaiser headed out of his room to find something to eat. The strenuous activity of recent events really brought up quite the appetite. Just as he was wondering whether to make himself a bowl of Coco Pops or not (chocolate cereal was a close second to meat in terms of its taste), he heard some sizzling in the distance.

that's odd... I wonder what makes that sort of noise? Mordekaiser strolled over to the source of the noise to find a familiar, blue haired maven who was somewhat startled by his sudden appearance.

"G-Good morning, Lord Mordekaiser!" She managed to get out eventually, fumbling between a few bubbling pans to reach for her etwahl. The master of metal have her a brief nod, examining the various equipment Sona seemed to have laid out everywhere.

"What exactly is it you are doing?" Sona frowned as if it were an obvious question, though she changed it to a weak smile after noticing Mordekaiser's positively unamused expression.

"It's just that, I didn't know exactly when you would wake up, Lord Mordekaiser. I thought maybe I would make some breakfast, in case you were hungry..." The maven of strings trailed off from her sentence to glance at the large champion, who appeared to contemplating something. He was in fact wondering how Sona knew how to operate all of these alien devices that he had installed, where in truth, the only one he was sure of how to use was the microwave.

"And you claim that this is what people normally eat?" Mordekaiser inquired, not too surprised that he didn't recognise a lot of what the Demacian girl was cooking. Her choice in food had started to interest him a little.

"Perhaps it does not fit in with the Shadow Isles?" Sona asked worriedly. Mordekaiser had no idea what other people are in general, whether they were one or one thousand miles from him. He did, however, know that wasting food was not to be tolerated whilst he was around.

"I'm sure it will do fine, whatever it is." The iron man replied, glancing suspiciously both at Sona and what she called 'food'. It did seem rather unusual for her to prepare breakfast for him (an action which he would not have mimicked), but also considering that she had no idea when he would get up. Then again , the master if metal thought as he took a seat, I am not the most charitable of people. And maybe this meal would do just as well cold as it would warm .

When he was presented with the meal, he instantly spotted an error that the maven had made. A textbook mistake that Mordekaiser avoided in his sleep.

"Woman." Sona was a little startled by her new 'title', yet did her best to please the master of metal.

"What is it you require, Lord Mordekaiser?"

"I do not require anything." He replied, rather unused to such a polite vocabulary. "I just don't understand why you would make this." He continued, picking up a yellow and white piece of something or other, leaving the greasy object dangling in his fingers.

"You do not like egg? You don't have to eat it of you don't want-"

"I have no qualms with egg." The iron man grumbled, glaring at the substance in hoped it would grow into an animal in front of his eyes. It did not. "But this could have been chicken - as in meat - which is the best of all foods." Sona looked very confused, and rightly so. Of course, the maven was aware of how an egg worked. What would be more helpful, was if she knew how a Mordekaiser worked. He seemed to be glaring through his helmet at her, as if the maven should have realised her mistake. What she did not realise, was this was just how the iron man looked at people normally, though he did also happen to glare at people a lot by coincidence. It was rather difficult to learn the many ways of Mordekaiser culture.

"I am sorry, Lord Mordekaiser. I shan't make such a mistake again." It took the iron man's brain a little while to process the maven's way of speaking. Yet another strange habit of the Demacians, apparently. A few minutes passed, Mordekaiser eating what turned out not to be so horrible food despite the lack of chicken, and Sona watched with a sense of unease.

"If I may ask", Sona played her strings shyly, eyes on the master of metal rather than her instrument as she spoke, "where is it that we will be going today?" Mordekaiser froze. His eyes narrowed as they reached a certain maven of strings, confused as though he had missed something.

"We were outside yesterday." He reminded her slowly, checking both of them were on the same page. Sona seemed to wince slightly at the change of tone. Mordekaiser had seemed a lot happier (if that was even the right word to use when talking about the iron man) when they were talking about food. Sona nodded her head politely.

"Are you trying to tell me..." Mordekaiser grumbled at a malicious sounding tone of voice, "that in Demacia, people go outside every DAY?"

"I believe that is what people do everywhere... Unless I am mistaken, Lord Mordekaiser." She hesitated, and then added, "Perhaps you are not accustomed to leaving the premises so often?" The Lord of the Shadow Isles visibly fought off a violent headache, that he had gained from not only listening to the ghastly way in which Sona seemed to speak, but also that another idea had dawned on him. If he knew about hostages that were not to be killed, which he didn't, then he knew that they had to be entertained. Which apparently, meant going outside. Every day. And outside was full of people. Oh those disgusting, pathetic, squishy little things that insisted on making a racket and annoying the steel knight to no end. Those things, he did not like.

Sona eyed her new companion rather worriedly. For a while now, Mordekaiser seemed to just stare off into no direction in particular, eyes glaring and fist clenched firmly into place. Had she gone over the line? The maven had been told she was to be an 'honoured guest', though maybe that meant something different away from Demacia? Garen had always told her about the different interlocking parts of her hometown speaking different languages, when they lived mere minutes off of each other. At any rate, Sona felt as if she needed to relinquish the silence surrounding them both, for one reason or another.

"I thought, if I am to stay here a while... Would it not be convenient for me to know my way around?"

"I believe you misunderstand." Mordekaiser informed her, currently rearranging toast crusts to try and resemble a familiar helmet. "We are not in Demacia. There aren't just plump little museums you can go and waltz into. The closest you'll get to an attraction is..." Mordekaiser tried to deliberately think of something absolutely no one would like to see.

"A lake with no reflection." The iron man had presumed someone as bright as the maven would not be bothered by such a pointless concept. It was proven there and then that he had no knowledge of what others thought whatsoever.

"That seems even better than any museum I've been to before." Sona said, thinking her interest in the Shadow Isles would possibly cheer him up a little. The unnerving glare she received in response told her otherwise.

"Here we are. As promised, it is a lake. That indeed, has no reflection." Mordekaiser grunted out each word like it were an extraordinary effort on his part.

"It is... As you described." Sona remarked, gazing out upon the vast waters. Besides the surrounding fog, forestry and strange noises that on Sona's part took a lot of effort not to grip Mordekaiser's arm for comfort, the lake looked and appeared normal. When Sona had peered down to inspect the murky waters, however, only the same dull shade of blue stared back. There was no second Sona.

"How does it all work?" The maven asked as she jumped in and out of view, trying to catch the water by surprise in hopes that it might forget not to present a reflection. The iron man huffed as if it should have been obvious.

"It's not actually water." When Sona gave him a blank look, the knight assumed she would need further explanation. "There's just an algae on the surface that shares a similar colour to water covering it. Hence no reflection."

"Why does no one just remove it?" Sona plucked her strings, wondering secretly if she could take some of this stuff back to Demacia. Sir Garen would surely know what it was. She was snapped out of her own thoughts when Mordekaiser went to go and get something, before chucking said object into the water. She was mildly startled to see the moment that the rock had hit the surface, algae had regrown over the gap.

"It easily regenerates. Taking the whole layer off is too difficult to bother with." If Sona were as bored as Mordekaiser right now, she was certainly hiding it. Where did all that curiously come from? It was if the maven were the one to neglect going outside, for even when they walked back, she would constantly bend down to examine something else. Which only made the whole ordeal longer, and made the master of metal more annoyed. Just as they were finally about to end the whole thing, Mordekaiser froze in place.

"Lord Mordekaiser, what is it you have-"

"Shh. Walk this way and don't look back. Now." Rather than being able to choose which direction to go in, the iron Lord roughly took her wrist and set off away from... Whatever it was.

"I-is it a monster?" Sona whispered, being quite afraid of something that would scare even Mordekaiser.

"Much worse." He replied, taking an extra look over his shoulder. He noticeably grimaced before quickening their pace.

Meanwhile, a certain figure galloped (literally) unknowingly in the direction of his 'prey', humming a very non-intimidating tune as he went. Hooves clacked and clicked lightly against the ground, trudging up small trails of dust as the centaur went.

"I wonder, I wonder, what would a Hecarim do on a Sunday afternoon..." He continued to hum. "I wonder if Thresh is still mad at me for releasing all his prisoners. It was his fault for leaving that giant red button sitting there, waiting to be pressed... What kind of a chain warden has all their cells controlled by one button anyway?" The centaur pouted as best as he could, until a sound of very familiar and unmistakable footsteps caught his ear.

"Could that be...? It is, it is! Hey, Mordekaiser old buddy! Heyyyyy!" The shadow of war called out cheerfully, waving a hoof out whole heartedly despite having arms to use for just a purpose. Mordekaiser dragged an armoured hand over his face, wishing the torture would just relieve him and kill the knight off now.

"Oh man!" The centaur huffed, not used to such exercise as catching Mordekaiser up who apparently hadn't heard him (or tried to escape), "Fancy meeting you here! I haven't seen you outside since, since... Well, forever!"

And for good reason, Hecarim." Mordekaiser glowered at the horse hybrid, the fact he couldn't see his dwindling temper only annoying the master of metal more.

"And who, might I ask, is this lovely young lady?" Hecarim chirped, giving a slight whistle that the iron man did not approve of. "Is she your girlfr-" the centaur had to cough up some air as Mordekaiser wasted no time slugging him in the stomach before the sentence could be finished. He then turned to Sona, who luckily was spared by her large amount of ignorance.

"Excuse me, are you alright?" The maven of strings asked, ever so slightly concerned that receiving violence from the Lord of the Shadow Isles was not as fun as it looked. Hecarim nodded, but didn't seem so convinced.

"Maybe you are a friend of Lord Mordekaiser?" She continued, only to be startled as Hecarim used a long arm to whip her around into a whisper.

"Shh! You can't just spring the f-word up around Mordekaiser like that!"

"But i didn't say-"

"Not THE f-word, I mean the F-R-I-E-N-D word! Use acquaintance if you must, but old grumpy face here just doesn't take kindly to those words!" Sona gave him a disbelieving look, and then turned to Mordekaiser. Somehow, that idea seemed to make sense, in the twisted sort of way that Mordekaiser managed to make sense of things.

"I shall do my best to refrain from saying such things in the future, sir Hecarim."

"Sir?" He laughed, startling the maven with a friendly pat on the back. "Hecarim's just fine for me. Hecarim, Hec, Hector, whatever floats your boat."

"I shall do that then, Hecarim." She bowed lightly, and the centaur sighed as he realised this was a girl who did not let formalities slip by. Still, it didn't feel all so bad being treated nicely.

"So anyways, Morde", Hecarim gestured to him as the three started walking together, "if you guys aren't doing the hokey pokey, then what are doing? You play bingo together or something?"

"Not that it's any of your business", the master of metal growled, "but she is with me on official terms. I am told by the Ruined King to keep her out of harm's way until international conflicts are settled. That is all." Hecarim looked to Sona, half hoping there was more to the story than that, and so was dispirited to find nothing more had occurred when she gracefully nodded.

"The King only seems to call you..." Hecarim mumbled quietly. "You've always been his favourite, never me!"

"It's nothing to brag about." Mordekaiser grumbled, secretly wishing that Hecarim had been stuck with his boring job, so the warlord could get back to what he did best: doing absolutely nothing.

"But now you're here Morde, how ya doin'? Me and Thresh thought you'd died or something, we hadn't seen you for so long."

"Well I'm alive. So sorry to disappoint."

"Nah, it's all good." Hecarim smiled, trying to wrap an arm around the taller Shadow Isles denizen. It was knocked off in an instant, but Hecarim remained smug anyway. "So, what do you wanna do first?" Mordekaiser cringed at the sentence he had been dreading to hear.

"Actually, we were just leaving." The iron man stated flatly, giving Sona a tug and an 'agree with me or die' sort of look. Even coming from Demacia, she could guess the gist of what he meant.

"Lord Mordekaiser tells me that there isn't a lot to see here. So I'm afraid we'll have to decline."

"Nothing to see here!? Come on, this is the Shadow Isles were talking about!" Hecarim wailed, waving arms around wildly like Sona had doomed the whole world. She hadn't, of course. She hadn't noticed the silent death threats Mordekaiser had been making to the centaur behind her back either.

"As I said, we were just going." The master of metal restated his claim, trying to move back in front of Sona before Hecarim blocked his path.

"Well, she wants to go? Right Sona?" The maven uneasily looked between the two Shadow Isles denizens. Used to living a life of comfort and simplicity, she'd never encountered a situation where she couldn't please everyone. At first, the Demacian thought about going on Hecarim's side, because she really was interested in the Shadow Isles, despite Mordekaiser's disagreement. But then she didn't want to disappoint Lord Mordekaiser either. Especially after what had happened yesterday, she felt that maybe he was annoyed with her, considering he had wanted to stay inside anyway. There must be a solution where both people could be happy...

"Then, perhaps I could go with Hecarim whilst you returned home, Lord Mordekaiser?" There, that would be it. Hecarim would be able to go out and do what he wanted (as would Sona), and Mordekaiser wouldn't have to 'endure' any of the tedious behaviour he didn't want to. That would be certain to please both-

"Huh? But it won't be any fun without Morde!" Hecarim whined in a very un-Shadow-Isles-y manner.

"There is no way on Runeterra that I can trust you two to go together." Mordekaiser grumbled, looking as if he were trying to decide who was more deserving of his glare. Apparently, Sona was the ringleader in this operation, and she didn't feel too safe with someone nearly twice her size eyeing her in such a way.

"But surely, you would be able to trust one of your friends, Lord Mordekaiser?"

"I do not have friends" he spat violently, hands itching to whip out his mace and smash something to relieve some anger, "and if I did, Hecarim would not be on the list."

"Whaaaat?!" The centaur squeaked, face heartbroken. Sona would have tried to comfort the horseman, had Mordekaiser not continued on.

"And besides", he narrowed his eyes at the maven suspiciously, "you have proven yourself to be quite the trouble maker." Sona didn't feel like pointing out she was actually solving the trouble that had occurred would make Mordekaiser much happier, and so she stayed silent. A few awkward moments passed with Hecarim quietly threatening not to invite the master of metal to his next birthday party, before said knight huffed and began trudging along in what was now a characteristic tantrum.

"Let us get this over with as quickly as possible, if you are so hellbent on raising cain." The iron champion declared, not bothering to check whether anyone followed behind him, or if he actually knew where he was going. He didn't, of course.

"Raising cain?" Hecarim raised an eyebrow instead.

"I believe", Sona began, wary of the fact that Mordekaiser would see no interest in explaining himself, "it is a synonym for making trouble."

"Are we really? What did we do?"

"You know perfectly well what you did." Mordekaiser muttered louder than he had meant to. Sona and Hecarim shared puzzled looks.

"Hey, what's the answer? What did we actually do?" Hecarim whispered in the maven's ear.

"No idea."

Over time, Sona discovered that Hecarim really wasn't someone to be feared. However terrifying he may have been in battle, the centaur seemed to be a surprisingly jolly character outside of that. He ended up telling the maven many a story about how he and Mordekaiser had gone out on adventures together in the 'good ol' days', but all they really seemed to do according to the horseman was 'kick some butt and drink some strawberry milkshakes'. Sona didn't actually know what a strawberry milkshake was, but she assumed it must have been a particularly masculine beverage.

"If I may interject, who is this Thresh person that you seem so fond of?"

"Oh yes, yes!" Hecarim said rather excitably, "I think you'd like Thresh, you know? He's kinda like me, but not really. It's funny, we met because we had similar tastes."

"Do you mean you ordered the same food, or something of the like?" Sona inquired, becoming a little befuddled when Hecarim shook his head.

"Actually, we both thought it would be pretty cool if we had our heads on fire for the rest of our lives." Sona didn't really have a correct response, so she nodded politely as though that were the sort of way you would make friends.

"Would you like to be on fire too?" Hecarim asked with somewhat genuine concern.

"As reputable as combusting may be, I'm afraid it might not fit in with Demacia."

"Ah, no worries, no worries. We were gonna get Mordekaiser in on it too, but he was too cool for us, apparently."

"I never said that." Mordekaiser defended himself. "I just said that you looked fresh out of the circus, that's all." The iron man said it like that was the more kind thing to do. At least Hecarim had a firm grin on his face despite the 'compliment'.

"Speaking of the circus, here we are!" Sona and Mordekaiser both stood stock still at the place Hecarim had lead them too.

"I hate it." The iron man grumbled.

"I love it!" Hecarim wailed.

"I… Don't know what it is." Sona frowned.

'It' turned out to be a theme park of sorts. Mordekaiser was outraged that something so living and bright would actually be allowed in the Shadow Isles, and demanded to know why he had not been informed of its construction. When Hecarim informed the knight that information had been given out by email, he decided not to mention that he couldn't figure out how to start a computer.

"But it doesn't look so bad, does it?" Mordekaiser took some time to open his incredibly narrow way of thinking and take in his surroundings. There was a lot of colour, for one thing. Shades of blue, yellow, pink and green were lavished around the whole place, be it in dazzling light shows or poorly laid out paint. The whole place was laced with people a great deal more jolly that the armoured fiend, who seemed incessant on keeping inside his own comfort zone, could bare.

"And you say..." The iron man mumbled, a sense of disbelief shrouding his thoughts, "this is what other people in The Shadow Isles do for 'fun'?"

"Morde, you're really scaring me right now. How long has it actually been since you went outside?"

"That's Lord Mordekaiser to you."

"Do people actually call you that?" Hecarim raised an eyebrow as he asked.

"Sona has no trouble doing it." Hecarim looked at Sona, who seemed in all honesty totally confused about the whole thing. When she shrugged and gave an unsure smile, Hecarim decided he wasn't getting anywhere; she didn't seem to have trouble doing anything as long as it pleased someone.

"Then you have to call me Sir Hecarim."

"Why?"

"Sona does it." Mordekaiser thought in a thoughtful sort of way, trying to think of a reason why he might not have to refer to Hecarim as... That. After a few seconds, his mind clicked with a mind blowing solution. Something only someone as great as Mordekaiser could think of.

"Shut up and go back to Narnia, you dumb centaur."

Perfect.

After Hecarim had agreed to refer to the iron man as 'Lord' Mordekaiser, so long as he stopped referring to him as Mr Tunlus, the two Shadow Isles denizens and one maven of strings started to head around what Hecarim called a circus (though it was really more of a fair). The objective - aim for something all three of them would agree to do. So basically, anything Mordekaiser actually took an interest in. That proved to be a difficult task in itself, as the only thing they'd actually managed to get in half an hour was food.

"How about... Whack a Teemo?" Hecarim almost pleaded.

"I assure you, I've whacked plenty a Teemo in my day. Just seeing that stupid little face makes me nauseous."

"Then what DO you want to do?"

"I told you, I want to go home."

"Well we can't go home because-" a nearby explosion completely took the words out of the horseman's mouth. A thoroughly singed body was sent skidding across the grass, landing with a particularly loud oomph on his back. Many people turned in horror to recognise what had just transpired, as a blue haired girl called out "She's such a loser, always ready to cry!" And started to hum a little tune to herself. At this point, a normal person, such as the maven of strings, would think to vacate the area as fast as possible. This, however, is quite different from what Mordekaiser thought.

"Let's go there." He declared.

"Yeah! It looks like fun!" Hecarim chimed in, trying to haul in Sona to join them, thought she took a step back to avoid it.

"You two go ahead... I just want to check whether that woman is okay." Mordekaiser shrugged, having no clue of the demacian's intentions, giving the shadow of war a quick tug in the stall's general direction.

It was larger than it appeared from the outside. The thing must have gone on for twenty feet or so, containing a simple target at the very back. The rest of the stall was decorated with poorly drawn bombs and bullets, and a huge banner with the letters J, I, N and X in big block capitals. The girl who owned the stall didn't seem to be entirely sane. Her eyes were wide and bloodshot, skin pale as a ghost, and she seemed to wear a good deal of belts for no reason at all.

"J, i, n and x..." Hecarim mumbled to himself, hands on hips like he were really thinking about it. "What does that stand for?"

"Jinx... Stands for Jinx? Duh." The girl said, re adjusting one of the belts as if she weren't interested in the conversation at all.

"And what does Jinx mean?"

"Jinx is me."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

...

It was at this point that great socialising MLG master known as Mordekaiser, decided to put the conversation back on track.

"Why did someone fly out of here on fire?"

"They lost the game." Jinx grinned, apparently enjoying cleaning a particularly lethal chain gun, and sometimes talking to it like the weapon were alive. The master of metal was genuinely intrigued by this statement. He'd never played this sort of game.

"I want to play."

"Morde..." Hecarim whispered as close to his helmet as he could reach, "I don't think this game is entirely safe. In fact, it looks entirely painful."

"No pain no game." He mumbled back, before turning to Jinx, who was done with polishing her tools of destruction.

"How much is it? I can give you a buck, or Hecarim's unlife."

"Morde!"

"That's Lord Mordekaiser to you!" He shouted, giving the centaur a rather painful looking slap on the head.

"I'd rather have the buck." Jinx intercepted the argument before any more nonsense could spew out. Mordekaiser obliged her request, whilst Hecarim made small whining noises, both happy he got to keep his own life, and sad that what he had kept was apparently worth less than a buck to everyone. Surprisingly, the fact that Mordekaiser had bet away his life didn't seem to bother him.

"So, I just need to touch that target over there?" The iron man asked, cracking his knuckles after handing over the money. So far he failed to see how anyone could catch fire at this point. Jinx nodded vigorously, intent on having someone else participate. He shrugged, and walked nonchalantly towards his objective.

This seems incredibly boring to be a game... He thought to himself, as large strides quickly took him forward. When does the fire come in?

And that was when the fire came in. Dozens upon dozens of missiles that shouldn't have been able to fit inside the whole fair had been aimed on him whilst he wasn't looking, each probably capable of blowing up entire cities. Needless to say, Mordekaiser now knew how someone had set themselves on fire.

"Moooooooooorde!" Hecarim wailed, mourning for his friend beyond the heavy layers of smoke and ash. Tears of manliness streaked his cheeks as all Jinx could do was laugh. "Why do the bad always die young? Oh, Morde!"

"I told you..." A deep voice startled the horseman, "that's LORD MORDEKAISER FOR YOU!" Indeed, the master of metal didn't even seem slightly bothered by the fact he should have been dead. Or... More dead than he already was. Jinx made a sweet whistle as Mordekaiser smacked Hecarim around the head with the target he's managed to bring back with him, though the crazy girl could only note how his armour didn't have so much as a scratch on it.

"I need to get me some armour..." Jinx whispered, and couldn't wait to outsmart Vi and Caitlyn (some of her beeeeest friends) in their next game of cat and mouse. They were her best playmates, after all.

"Woman." Jinx looked up to find the shadow isles lord looking expectantly at her. "Where is my freaking prize?"

"Oh, right. Hold on one second." The destruction expert rummaged around behind the front desk, silently wishing it hadn't been blown up by all the ruckus, before pulling out a very unfitting stuffed bear for Mordekaiser, that barely marched up to the size of one of his gauntlets.

"Merry Christmas!" She smiled a little too much, handing over the doll to one unamused knight.

"You didn't think to get better prizes than this?" Mordekaiser asked, having the thing for moments and already feeling a slight sense of satisfaction practically pulling off the limbs one by one.

"I didn't think anyone would win." The armoured giant nodded, already familiar with how he consistently exceeded people's expectations. He was about to leave and finally be able to rid himself of this ordeal, when he felt a pull (albeit a very slight one) on his arm.

"Whoa, wait a second, big guy." She smiled sweetly, meeting the warlord's glare with an unusual amount of optimism. "Hey, don't give me that look."

"Then be quick with whatever it is you're doing. I have places to be."

"I was just wonderin', y'know, if we could trade phone numbers and stuff."

"Are you asking me on a date?" Mordekaiser asked, annoyance turning to amusement when he saw the bright red shade of Jinx's cheeks.

"No! No, no, no!" She shook her head on each 'no', sighing after the iron man seemed to get the message. "I just thought we could talk about killing, and destroying things. You know, just usual stuff. You seem like a swell guy." Mordekaiser worked through the problems. His instincts told him to say no, because he disliked people, and Jinx happened to be a person. However, it was becoming exceedingly difficult to find someone with both the same interests he had, and enjoyed the iron man's company as well. It would be wasting an opportunity to decline.

"So be it."

"And so then", Mordekaiser heard the centaur proclaim a story excitedly to a phone, presumably Thresh on the other line, "Morde just gets this chick's number out of the blue. I know right? Oh gotta go, here he is now." Hecarim gave a wide grin at his appearance, though the steel giant made nothing of it. That game had mildly been entertaining, but he secretly felt like he was forgetting something. Something very important.

"Lord Mordekaiser?" Oh. That was it. He'd forgotten a certain maven of strings. He turned to see the girl floating around aimlessly as she usually did, staring at the object the master of metal held in his hand. Mordekaiser looked at it too, and realised that it did look quite strange, having the tiny fluffy thing crushed in his gargantuan hand.

"May I ask, where is it you got that from?"

"A game." He replied, tossing and turning the thing around in his hands. Now that he thought about it, the thing would be better off in the trash. Mordekaiser certainly had no use for such things. "It's pretty useless, so I might just throw it away."

"I think it looks quite cute..." The maven mumbled, giving Mordekaiser a look he really didn't recognise. Well, there was no use in wasting something, no matter how useless it may have been.

"Here." The iron man thrust the thing into Sona's hands, without so much as a glance. He ended up missing the fond smile the maven would have given him.

"Now, can we please get out of this place? It's much too jolly for my liking."

"Hold on Mor- I mean, Lord Mordekaiser." Hecarim stopped him, pointing to the sky for some reason. "We need to go on that." Mordekaiser looked at where the horseman pointed, and his eyes genuinely lit up with excitement. Standing tall and proud, was quite possibly the largest roller coaster in all the world. It soared and twirled in the sky like a dragon, and the carts flew by at breakneck speeds.

"Is that… entirely safe?" Sona asked tentatively, knowing that the last time she had followed her Shadow Isles friends, they had not been free from danger in the slightest.

"Hope so". Hecarim said. "Would be totally awkward if we got on and it wasn't." The horseman remained silent for a moment.

"Okay, let's go."

"Wait, I'm sure this isn't such a good ide-"

"Why not." The maven of strings stared in bewilderment. Did they not see how high that thing went up? Where was the fun in spiralling down hundreds of feet, when falling off was a very real possibility? It just didn't make any sense to her. Which was why she would politely decline the offer, and make her way back-

"Sona." She jumped slightly as her name was mentioned, escaping her own thoughts to find a rather inpatient metal giant observing her, scarlet eyes locked in place.

"You're coming too."

"I-I am?" Mordekaiser rolled his eyes, then adopting a shadowy grin as an idea came to mind.

"Unless, that is, you admit the great outdoors isn't as great as you thought?" Sona suddenly found herself between a rock and a hard place. If she disagreed to that statement, then she would be forced to ride the ariel death trap, which just from looking at it made her a little queasy. But of she agreed, then the Shadow Isles Lord would take it as an excuse to stash himself away back inside again. And it was important that he didn't to the maven... For some reason. Sona wasn't actually sure why it was so important to her. Maybe it was because despite his somewhat volatile personality and very, very scary exterior, Sona found the iron man's company to be quite enjoyable. And she felt like if the maven didn't go along with some of his decisions, however strange they seemed to her, then she would lose the possibility of becoming Mordekaiser's friend.

And Sona didn't want that.

"Sure, I'll go." She smiled. She strode along confidently, which was a difficult feat considering her heart beat like a mallet on the inside, and she had a slight temptation to use the nearest restroom.

"Nice going, convincing her Morde." Hecarim laughed up at him.

"I wanted her to disagree..."

"Oh." The duo walked a little more before Hecarim added in some very important information.

"Get rekt."

Mordekaiser wasted no time in rightfully punching the centaur at square in the face.

***

It took five minutes to get to the ride. Not because there five minutes worth of people queueing up, but because that was how long it took for Mordekaiser's patience to snap and threaten everyone else's lives should he not get his way. When Sona quietly told him that maybe the bluff was a little unnecessary, he informed the maven that it wasn't a bluff. As you can imagine, that did not make her feel better.

"This had better be good, Hecarim. I'll be thoroughly disappointed if no one falls off."

"Well, I fell off a couple of times actually." The iron man actually wondered how Hecarim would be able to fit into the thing, before noticing that he just slid his hind legs to the side, taking up two seats instead of one. It looked really weird. Dismissing the image of a flattened Hecarim from his mind, Mordekaiser took a seat next to Sona, and drummed his fingers on the safety bars as he waited. Presumably, the 'fun' would start when they went on the descent, which meant he had a couple of minutes to do what he wanted. He considered what he would make for dinner, before realising he ate pretty much the same thing every day, and didn't feel like switching it up after the whole egg incident either. Sona caused the egg incident. Now that it was there, he couldn't neglect the nagging feeling that he had to think about what he was going to do with her. The maven wasn't a particular menace, and she seemed to have good intentions towards the Shadow Isles Lord at least. What bothered him was that she had managed to persuade him to do things outside his comfort zone, when none of his Shadow Isles buddies or even the Ruined King could do so. What's more, someone else from Demacia with at least half a status would be more important to take hostage, than a simple girl who floated around and played a few notes everywhere she went; why was Sona such an important figure?

Mordekaiser felt a slight tap on his shoulder. The iron man seemed to rouse a little as the roller coaster finally began moving.

"You don't have to grip the handle bars so tightly. Especially when we haven't even started moving downwards yet." Sona nodded thoroughly, but the maven's hands were still white as chalk from squeezing so hard. She also seemed to be shaking a little. Maybe she was cold from the slight rise in altitude? Some armour would probably fix that. Hue.

Seconds turned into hours for the poor Demacian maven, as she closed her eyes, not trusting herself to keep from looking down by any other means. This wasn't the kind of thing she had in mind when asking the steel warlord outside. She didn't expect him to have tastes for this sort of thing.

Finally bringing up the courage to open her eyes (they were still no where near the top apparently), and glanced around, still intent on not triggering any height related fears. Sona found slight comfort in the fact that other people were looking slightly nervous too. There were too exceptions to that rule, however. Hecarim seemed absolutely showered in delight, grinning broadly as they mounted the tracks. And Mordekaiser seemed quite... Bored. Bored! How could someone remain bored at a moment like this? He seemed to notice her uncomfortable shifting about, and raised an eyebrow.

"What is it?" Sona moved her hands in an attempt to speak, only to find she'd left her etewahl behind. She searched anywhere for a piece of paper to write on, which turned out to be unsuccessful. Losing time quickly, she turned to her steel companion, and mouthed the word 'help'. Because of how he looked at the maven, she almost thought that he understood her. It was a real let down to hear him say almost the opposite.
"You know that no sound comes out of your mouth, right?" And Sona sighed in defeat. It was over. She clearly wasn't getting off this ride. She would have to endure all the twists and turns that it held, and hope that it didn't twist anything inside her.

"By the way, Sona." A deep voice spoke from her side. "I was joking earlier. Please don't make an effort to fall off for me." Before she could ponder any of that statement, they were off. In that moment, too many things happened at once. The maven instantly felt a sickly feeling in her stomach. She snapped her eyes shut, hands scrambling for the metal bar that would act as her safety guide for the next few gruelling minutes. Gripping it tightly, the maven couldn't help but hear the cheering and wailing over the wind that whipped her hair around like a rag doll. Other than Hecarim laughing, it was difficult to tell whether they were shouting out of excitement or fear. This went on for a while, the roller coaster performing various loops and twists, stopping at least three times only to start up again at an even faster pace. All the time, Sona clung to her metal lifeline, curling into a ball to prevent her insides making her feel any more uncomfortable.

After what quite possibly could have been years, the torment stopped. Sona still remained still for the next minute, just in case it started up again. The maven only opened her eyes once more when the 'handle bar' she held on to seemed to move. Her cheeks flushed in embarrassment upon the realisation the maven had been latching to Mordekaiser's arm the whole time instead of the actual handlebar. To make matters worse, even Hecarim seemed scared of what Mordekaiser might do next. Sona never got to find out, since her gurgling stomach gave her a free pass to the nearest restroom.

"Why was she in such a hurry?" The iron man thought aloud. Scratching the back of his helmet awkwardly.

"Why do you think, Morde? What possible reason would she have for going to the toilets right now?"

"You're saying the ride was so exciting she had to relieve herself?"

"Morde", Hecarim sighed over some uncomfortable sounding retching noises, "you're such an idiot."

"That's Lord Idiot to you."

Idk if this was as good as the first, but tell me what you think! Reviews make sure I dont forget again, haha