A/N: So I stalled on this. Oopsies. I wrote like three different stories and scrapped them all, because well, often I'm not all that comfortable in my writing. It's a habit of mine, sorry. I looked at the last time I uploaded anythiing, and so i just thought, let's just put something out there. My bad if it's not very good :/
Not to his surprise, it was the second day counting that Mordekaiser had been rather uncomfortably roused from sleeping. The master of metal hated sleep. Not because he had nightmares or anything, but the short period of time between waking and actually feeling rested really bothered him. It also took up time in the day, which he could spend doing more important things: like eating, and watching TV shows for hours on end that he really didn't like that much. Regardless of how much his body seemed to ache, he had slept now and there was nothing that he could do about it.
Whilst putting on his cape (he didn't sleep in it, since it liked to crease when he did so), Mordekaiser thought about what he might do today. No doubt the maven would try to dictate a long and tedious activity for him, which he would shut down. Mordekaiser had neglected to assert who would be the chief decision maker around here, but would start doing so now. Yesterday had been an ordeal in that Hecarim seemed now all too eager to rekindle his relationship with the past Shadow Isles friends they'd shared. The master of metal wasn't really itching to see any of them, even a supposed 'new arrival' that the horseman had described to him. Probably even more tiresome than the last.
Shaking the thought of all these muddled faces from his head, Mordekaiser headed out of his room. Being a Lord of the Shadow Isles, he'd learned that one needed to be organised, and so he'd already thought through the conversation with the Demacian. He would be firm, but fair. Mordekaiser wasn't cruel... All the time... Intentionally. Okay, maybe that was a lie, but he knew being brash with a person like Sona simply wouldn't work. He might even scare her off, which would result in more effort needed on his part.
It was hard to hold a conversation who wasn't actually there. No matter where he looked, which admittedly was quite a lot of places due to his house being absurdly large for one person, he couldn't find any signs of Sona. No one in the cupboards, nothing in the fridge (he got hungry halfway through searching). Of course, he had neglected to actually check the room he'd lent her. That might have been a good place to start.
Losing a little patience now, the iron made sure to stomp a little louder than usual before knocking on the door, denting it out of shape in the process.
"Sona? Are you in there?" It was only after he'd spoken that the iron man realised his mistake. Even if she were there, the maven couldn't actually reply to him. Mordekaiser mentally slapped himself before entering anyway (it was his house, after all, he could do what he liked). It was good news that when he opened the door, the armoured giant discovered that the Demacian hadn't gone running off anywhere. It was strange to note that all he could see from hiding under the covers were a pair of sky-blue pigtails and two eyes of similar colour looking sheepishly up at him. Mordekaiser frowned. Hadn't Sona risen that much earlier than him yesterday? Quickly, the iron man considered every possibility for the maven remaining bed ridden, and suddenly came to a startling revelation; he had no idea why.
"Why are you still sitting here?" He blurted out, eyes narrowing out of natural habit. Mordekaiser was moments away from mentally slapping himself a second time for not noticing the maven's etewahl was actually across the room from her, until he heard the sound of paper scribbled on by pen, and resisted the temptation to tap his foot out of boredom. Sona held up a small notepad, with a simple word drawn neatly in plain black ink, "Sick". As if to make her argument more convincing, the maven sneezed and sniffed a little, dropping the notepad altogether. For a while the two just stared at each other, uninterrupted save for some occasional unpleasant sounding noises Sona didn't really want to make. For all the experience that the steel giant had in making people sick, he had no idea how to actually heal someone out of it. For some reason, he had a sneaking suspicion that metal could not help him here. But what could?
He failed notice how increasingly nervous Sona had gotten when he just continued staring at her without a sound.
I bet The Ruined King would know what to do right now, he thought to himself. Mordekaiser couldn't ask him though, since that would mean he would have failed at taking care of the situation. And if there was one thing Mordekaiser didn't do, it was fail. Or rather, let anyone find out that he had failed. Thinking back, Mordekaiser thought about the only instance he had seen someone ill, on an episode of Scrubs he just happened to catch. There, said patient had needed a new heart; surely that would help Sona too? When he asked the maven, he was a little disappointed to find her shaking her head vigorously, eyes wide as if she feared for her own safety. The master of metal sighed. This would require some more thought.
"I'll be right back." He assured Sona, which in all honesty wasn't too reassuring. The Demacian hid a little further under the covers, her sanity almost dwindling as she imagined the master of metal retrieving the necessary tools for a transplant. Would he listen if she told him the truth?
Had Sona been able to speak, she would have emitted a rather loud "eek!" At the metal clad knight entering the room once more. She became curious, however, when instead of tools, he returned with a rather hefty book in hand. As if it were natural to him, Mordekaiser crafted a metal chair next to the bed in a matter of seconds. The maven could only stare in awe as the cloud of shards glued themselves together, joining piece by piece until Mordekaiser had sat upon it. Secretly, Sona wondered if she might ask him to do it again, but thought better of it. It sounded like a childish thing to ask.
"Now, let's see here..." Mordekaiser mumbled to himself, skimming pages of the book that Sona found to be called '1001 illnesses and their symptoms'. The cover page wasn't particularly appealing. After a while of flicking through, he seemed to stop at a page, and began to read aloud.
Sona cringed when she heard the first word of "diarrhoea" come from his mouth.
"Have you excreted in a rather hurried and liquidised fashion?" Sona's face blew up like a firecracker at this suggestion, and she shook her head so hard it could have very easily fallen off. Mordekaiser might find an illness that caused that, too.
"Okay, moving on..." He grumbled, and had Sona not been so sick, she might have noticed the hint of amusement in the iron man's voice. He flipped a few more pages until reaching a section of 'stomach bugs'.
"Do you have worms crawling around inside you?" It was at this point Sona took the opportunity to hastily scribble down a word and thrust in front of the book, preventing Mordekaiser from outing any more symptoms that really would make her sick.
"Cold? Oh, you are cold. If I recall, that's a symptom of the Black Death." Were she not so scared for her life, Sona would have face palmed right there and then. Instead, she lightly slipped the book away from Mordekaiser, and searched for the right section before handing it back again. He seemed surprised at what was laid before him.
"Oh, the common cold. Yes, of course..." He corrected himself.
"Still, easy mistake to make, I suppose." Sona did not agree.
"Symptoms include sneezing, coughing, snivelling and general tiredness." As if on cue, the maven made a rather hoarse combination of all three noises. Mordekaiser had to check no germs had made their way onto his beautiful armour before continuing.
"There is no specific treatment, but victims are recommended to get a good amount of sleep." With unnecessary force, the master of metal slammed the book covers together, and stood up from the chair. As he walked towards the door, he left it open with half his body in the way, and turned back to Sona with his helmet.
"You have ten minutes to fall asleep. Understand?" Sona seemed confused, and scribbled down something which soon read out as "what if I can't?".
"If you can't fall asleep, then I shall make you fall asleep." The horrified look on the Demacian's face alerted him to how sinister that sentence had sounded. He hadn't meant it like that.
"I'm not going to hurt you or anything." He held his hands up in defence, almost adopting a sheepish look that didn't really fit his normal, grumpy demeanour. "I only meant..." Mordekaiser wasn't really sure what he meant. He relented into a sigh, locked eyes with Sona and mumbled "just get some rest, okay?".
Sona held Mordekaiser's gaze for a little longer. Saying that she was uncomfortable would be a little bit of an understatement. He had scared her with all those illnesses, and that passing comment just now didn't sound too friendly. But the more she thought about it, the less threatening he seemed. Instead of neglecting her presence like he could very easily have done, the armoured giant had gone around searching for her, and tried to find out what was wrong, presumably so he could fix it. He'd also just assured the maven that he wouldn't hurt her...
"I will try my best." she smiled back at him, albeit a little shakily. That was good enough for the iron man, who left more for his own piece of mind and the maven's. This would be one of the first times he had some privacy for what, three days? Mordekaiser believed that he functioned best alone. Everything could concentrate on his needs, his desires, and he could use whatever methods were available to accomplish anything. Perfect.
"..."
Well this is incredibly boring.
***
The forests of the Shadow Isles contained many horrors that kept practically all men at bay from it's murky depths. The dense fog, once shrouding around any trespassers, would likely never reveal them again. It was said that even inhabitants didn't feel entirely comfortable there.
However, none of these threats seemed to affect a certain exile and fox woman.
"So in order to pay for our crimes, or in your case flirtatious behaviour, Jarvan sent us here to check up on their maven of strings. For the third time, Ahri, that is why we are here." Riven spoke calmly and clearly, though inside she could feel a little frustration building. When Jarvan had said he would send someone responsible to keep an eye on her, the last person she expected to be paired with was the least mature person she'd ever come to meet. She seemed to be more skipping than walking right now, as if some part of this gloomy island actually excited her.
"Pokeball, go!" Ahri shouted without warning, flinging her orb at a nearby crow that had just flown into view, and wailed when she found the thing didn't get back up.
"No, I'm only supposed to weaken the Pokemon, not make it faint!" She wailed, falling on her knees in despair. Riven consoled her mildly, though it might be easier to feel empathy for the girl should she stop weeping about everything, which could attract something worse that couldn't be stopped by the single fling of an orb. Admittedly, that orb had been more powerful that the exile had first thought.
"Your outfit was named challenger, not gym challenger. You're not a Pokemon master." She spoke despite the heart wrenching look Ahri shot her, still glancing at the Crimson tails fluttering behind her back. "And last time I checked, your tenth birthday has already gone and passed." Though you wouldn't guess it from your behaviour...
"I wish you'd put your sword away." Riven was mildly shocked at first by the comment, but soon regained her composure.
"This is a dangerous area. It'd be foolish to withdraw my weapon here. Besides, you know of my reputation and what I've done." She paused a little, before adding "I'll be seen as a criminal either way."
"But you've never been to the Shadow Isles, have you?" Ahri beamed, as oblivious as ever. "There's a chance to make a good first impression. Haven't you always wanted a clean slate to start from?" Riven studied the fox girl intensely, trying to sense any malicious or suspicious intent from her, though as expected, she remained smiles all round.
"I... I wouldn't know how to start."
"Every thousand mile journey begins with a single step." Ahri encouraged, to which Riven raised an eyebrow.
"That's probably one of the smartest things I've ever heard you say, Ahri."
"Well it should be, I read it in this week's Cosmo."
Riven pretended to ignore that.
"If you've been here before and I haven't, would you mind describing the place to me?" The exile asked, reluctantly sheathing her sword for later use. Hopefully, like Ahri thought, things wouldn't come to that.
"Hmm... What could I tell you... Basically, it's like a Halloween party all through the year." When Riven didn't look satisfied with that answer, the nine-tailed fox continued, "like everyone wears really spooky clothes and acts all moody, so it's kind of like Halloween. Honestly, they have none of my expertise in fashion, it makes me feel kind of sorry for them." Riven nodded like she understood, considering her self lucky that Ahri hadn't forced any of her outlandish outfits onto her... She had erased the one time the fox girl had convinced her a certain rabbit costume would look good on her from her memory.
After a few minutes more of fashion discussion, which was mostly just a lecture from Ahri and Riven's occasional input of 'yeah' when prompted, they reached what could be considered a village of sorts. Whilst there were a fair few people about, no one seemed to be talking. They all kept their heads down, most of them covered with cloaks, hoods, or anything they could get their hands on. All of the houses were bolted shut, curtains drawn and lights switched off, despite it being the middle of the day. Ahri noted how none of the colours were particularly appealing, and was tempted to put on her midnight outfit before remembering that it was only quarter past two. Riven suggested that rather than taking notes on their clothes, they might ask someone for directions.
"I suppose you're right. We can always conduct our research afterwards." Riven agreed on the condition that she would be the one doing the talking. They walked up to a figure who already seemed to be walking towards their path anyway, coming to intercept his long strides.
"Yo." Riven said, calm and composed as ever. "You seen a girl with blue hair anywhere? Carries around a wooden instrument thingy. Kinda floats everywhere."
"You're in my way." He spoke with a slightly gruff voice, looking as if he were trying to move past them.
"I noticed." Riven huffed. "Have you seen her or not?"
"Move out the way."
"Listen, pal, you either answer the question or get a knee to the-"
"Riven!" Ahri squeaked besides her, shaking her ears and tail side to side as if to say she wasn't getting anywhere soon.
"We're very sorry, sir, please accept our apologies." The cloaked figure eyes Ahri for a moment, before grunting and moving forward, bumping Riven on the shoulder slightly which almost caused her to fume.
"Have a nice day!" The fox called out to him, earning a few quizzical looks from the surrounding crowd. When Riven only scowled, Ahri started to explain to her 'this wasn't how one should go about making friends.', to which Riven said she wasn't trying to make friends.
"Foolish noob, watch how it is done." Riven shook her head in utter disappointment, but could not hide the grin that showed Ahri she was at least vaguely amusing.
"First, we pick the target." Ahri made a camera like shape with each index finger and thumb, rotating on the spot until she found her 'target'. Said creature stood on four heavily armoured legs than two, and very tall ones at that. He also seemed to have an abundance of blue flames engulf the entirety of his silver exterior, but he walked and moved in a way that didn't actually seem all that intimidating.
"I know no one around here looks that friendly", Riven frowned, "but couldn't you pick someone a little less scary looking?"
"Does this mean you're a cannibal now?"
"I'm sorry?" Riven asked with a quizzical expression glued on like a mask.
"Because yesterday we went to KFC and ate chicken, which is exactly what you are!"
"Ahri, you know that's not going to work." She smirked, before dropping the look when the fox began to make high pitched squawking noises and flap her arms about screeching "Scaredy cat, scaredy cat!" As loud as she possibly could.
"People are looking, Ahri, shut it for a second would you?" Riven hissed at her through gritted teeth. "If you wanna go talk to the guy, no one is stopping you."
"But you have to come too!" The fox whined, attempting and failing to drag an unamused Riven along with her.
"Why?"
"Because he's scary, you said it yourself. And besides", she added, placing hands on hips with as much sass as physically possible, "we're partners in crime! You know, like Kate Lynn and Pie."
"Caitlyn and Vi." Riven corrected her.
"Sure, sure, just like those guys. Come on, we haven't got all day!" As she was half dragged half hurried along by the nine tailed fox, Riven quietly hoped to herself that Ahri would muster up an inkling of common sense and approach the situation in a calm and controlled-
"Heyyyyy, Mister Horsey! Wait horsey, you have more legs, that's no fair!" Riven wished an arrow would just hit her in the knee and she could be rid of this embarrassing situation. Somewhere on Runeterra, Ashe laughed to herself.
'Mister Horsey' turned around and gave Ahri an inquisitive look, then glanced at Riven, and back to the fox. For some reason she was out of breath, though this might have been due to Hecarim's naturally fast pace, or as Thresh liked to call it, "2fast5me". After the fox had finished the majority of her panting, she took a breath and struck some sort of pose and began talking.
"Excuse me, mister horsey sir, but could we borrow a moment of your time?" From the way she spoke, moved and dressed, Hecarim could tell that she wasn't native to the Shadow Isles, which interested him because recently the Isles had hardly had any visitors. Whilst she seemed easy going, her partner's look gave off an entirely different vibe of not... Danger, exactly, but tension. And lots of it. Hecarim decided to ignore her for now.
"What for?" He asked with mild concern, as he couldn't tell whether the fox girl really was in distress or if she was merely a talented actress. Perhaps both.
"We're looking for someone."
...
"..."
"Good luck with that."
"Wait!" Hecarim heard a squeak as he was on the verge of turning away. "We were wondering if you'd seen her anywhere."
"Well, give me a few pointers then. What am I looking for here?" He risked a glance at the white haired girl, who looked grim as ever.
"Well let's see here... Blue hair, pretty dress, doesn't talk much, carries a massive string thing everywhere."
"Now that you mention it..." The centaur pondered, rubbing his chin with one hand like he'd seen Mordekaiser do when he was thinking, "I know where she is."
"You do?" Ahri's eyes lit up, and the horseman found it within himself to smile a little. "Sure, I'll take you there myself. Shouldn't be too far from here at any rate."
"Well that's very nice of you, uhh..."
"Hecarim." He added.
"Yes... Thanks, Hecarim." Riven finally spoke, though she sounded more skeptical than thankful. Hecarim watched her stroll slowly forward, and something about her look made him feel a little uneasy. He decided to stand next to the fox girl instead. They'd only been walking a few seconds, when Ahri interrupted the awkward silence that often Shadow Isles denizens would have enjoyed.
"Maybe this is a silly question, but can we...?"
"Hmm?" The horseman raised an eyebrow, before he recognised the fox constantly glancing at his back every now and again.
"Don't be so childish, Ahri, we can do just fine on foot." Riven half glared, half sighed at her.
"Nonsense, it'll be quicker if we ride anyway." Whilst Ahri squealed with delight and leapt onto the centaur's back instantly, Riven was a little les eager.
"Just so you know", she spoke in a somewhat hushed tone whilst accepting Ahri's helping hand up, "I'm not trusting you quite yet."
"The feeling's mutual." Hecarim mumbled loud enough so that she could hear, but then dropped is foul mood after seeing (or rather feeling) the fox girl jump up and down excitedly.
"You might want to hold on tight, things could get a bit rough back there." Ahri practically hugged the centaur's back, but Riven decided she was fine as she was.
It took ten seconds for her to fall off and reconsider her options.
***
Luxanna Crownguard was a woman who as much as she enjoyed her own powers, liked her friends from Demacia. They were bold, brave, and she had fought many a battle with them together, both physically and emotionally. Trying to keep the utmost peace and loyalty within an area such as Demacia was really a struggle, and the lady of luminosity really couldn't imagine any of it being possible without her friends. Each was a force to be reckoned with, and Lux feared for those who were doomed to fight against them.
But however fearsome they were, Lux thought they could be utter poopheads sometimes. She walked into the room her brother had specified, changing out of her battle get up to a pair of skinny jeans, a hot pink hoodie and a pair of bright yellow earphones that matched her golden hair so well, you'd probably miss them from a distance. The room was old, but fashionably so, with rich mahogany floor boards and velvet carpets lining her footsteps. Candles and books lay collecting dust upon the various chest of draws, all illuminated by a single glass chandelier. Considering how little useful things he actually did, it was a wonder Jarvan could afford such exquisite housing.
Noticing the various expectant looks upon entering, the lady of luminosity waved a quick apology, and took her usual seat next to Quinn, who winked at her. She returned it with a brief grin.
"Welcome to the weekly meeting of Justiceeeeeeee!" Jarvan exclaimed so loudly, Lux wished she had kept her headphones on. Despite having just attended probably the least masculine tea party to ever exist, Jarvan continued to sport his full, golden battle armour, meaning he made a lot of clatter whenever he decided to move more than a couple of inches. Lux found that he always had a way of over exaggerating everything he said, making prolonged conversations a little annoying. What was worse was that all the other Demacians were cheering along with him. Great, as if he needed encouragement to be louder.
"By being gathered here today, you have all done Demacia a great service. It is here that we will-"
"Can we skip the intro speech, please? Some of us have places to be, you know." It was Quinn who spoke up, gently tending to her bird, Valor, despite the hostility in her voice. Whilst she could sometimes be downright rude, Lux did hold a small amount of respect for her due to Quinn being one of the few Demacians able to keep a level head in times of distress.
"Now, now, Quinn. You know we'd be doing Demacia a disservice if we were to rush through these important meetings." Lux heard her brother from across the table. Like Jarvan, he saw no reason to take off his armour, and so the chair he was sitting on didn't seem to cope with his weight all too well. Lux had at least tried to persuade him to comb his unkempt hair, but the Might of Demacia had merely insisted that it was a reminder of all the battles he'd thought. Secretly, Lux wondered whether he even washed it.
"Important?" Quinn snorted, though more amused than angry. "We're probably just going to spend another week mourning over how overly attached all the men from Demacia were to Sona." Whilst they didn't reply, Garen and Jarvan did look a little embarrassed. Lux would have laughed, but the truth was, she missed Sona too. She had been one of the first Demacians that her brother had introduced her too, and Lux owed Sona her thanks for not losing faith in the human race. It was amazing someone so kind would befriend her buffoon of a brother, but she was still thankful for that. She feared whether her forgiving personality would protect her in the Shadow Isles.
"Regardless, didn't we just send Riven and Ahri to check up on her anyway?" She added, perhaps suspecting her last comment had been a little harsh.
"Well, they aren't exactly the most trustworthy characters, are they?" Garen replied. "Especially that blasted fox girl."
"Hey, Ahri's cool!" Lux interjected, having herself spent many a good time with the mischievous fox hybrid.
"With all due respect, Miss Luxanna-"
"Lux, my name is Lux, for the fifteenth time!" She protested, appreciating the very encouraging "you go girl" from Quinn beside her.
"What I don't understand", Fiora interrupted, waving her lance around as if it couldn't possible kill people, "is why we don't go over there and merely take our maven back. Don't you all longgggg for a worthy opponent?" (Sorry, had to)
"Look Fiora, as much as we want to rescue Sona from the clutches of whatever evil creatures may have hold of her now, I fear that peace between our two nations is of greater importance right now." Garen stated flatly, eyes levelling with the duelist.
"Sure", Quinn scoffed, "you're only saying that because the last time you went over there the Lord of the Shadow Isles kicked your a-"
"That's a tale for another day, Quinn." Jarvan intercepted the comment before things got out of hand. "Now to talk about justice-"
"Wait, I've never heard this story before!" Lux piped up, jumping up and down in her seat at the thought of finally getting a point over Garen.
"Miss Crownguard, now isn't the time for-"
"Oh you should've been there, Lux." Quinn smirked to herself.
"That's quite enough-"
"His eyes were all puffy from crying, he had a wedgie the size of Noxus-"
"Quinn-"
"Had a mini panic attack if we even mentioned the word metal-"
"Quinn, that's enough!" Garen shouted as red faced as a tomato, though Fiora, Lux and Quinn were already giggling like little school girls, helplessly laughing on the floor. The more anyone tried to calm them down, the more they laughed.
"This is why we need Xin here..." Jarvan whispered to Garen through clenched teeth. "Women just don't take these meetings seriously." Garen didn't reply, adopting a worryingly pale look on his face at the very thought of what had happened. It wasn't a story he planned on telling his grandchildren if he ever had any, to put things bluntly.
"If you're so worried about her, why doesn't someone just call Ahri to se how things are getting on?" Fiora suggested. Previous tension subsided, Lux volunteered to be the caller. It took a few moments to flip the phone out of her pocket, and then three and a half beeps before she picked up.
"Hello?" A rather exasperated voice came out on the other end, though Lux missed what she said next because everyone was violently signalling for her to put the phone on speaker.
"Hey, Ahri. How's it going?" To which everyone heard an excited squeak.
"Oh, it really is you, Lux! I was afraid it was someone boring like your brother or something!" Everyone pretended like they hadn't heard.
"Why is it so windy over there?" Fiora stretched over her seat to ask.
"Whaaaat? Sorry I can't hear you, it's pretty windy over here."
"Why. Is. It. Windy?" The duelist shouted as loud as she could without deafening anyone in the room.
"We found a centaur."
"..."
"So?"
"So, he offered to give us a ride to the place Sona was staying at. What a nice guy huh?" Ahri said in her usual overexcited, high pitch way. Lux was about to say something else, but was interrupted by an alarming "Riven don't steal!" From the other end.
"Approximately five minutes prior to arrival." She stated. Either she was hiding her emotions, or this whole thing was just boring for her. "Will inform you of details afterwards."
"That's very good, Riven." Jarvan nodded calmly. "Just remember, make sure not to try any... Funny stuff."
"Hmm...? What are you implying by that?" Riven's tone was quiet, though her lips had pursed together into a thin line, and she was starting to damage Ahri's phone with her vice grip.
"He means don't tell any jokes, it's considered rude in Shadow Isles culture." Quinn barged on to say before Jarvan could dig a deeper whole for himself.
"Oh. Thanks Quinn, I'll notify Ahri of that as well, shall I? We'll call you with a reply when we can." There was a slight fizz of static, and the call was cut. Quinn mouthed a silent 'you're welcome' to Jarvan, who remained still, but accepted the comment nonetheless.
"Well, now all there is to do is wait."
Good or bad, review me if you'd like. I'll try and get some stuff done over the coming two weeks, since half term is there and everything.
