"An ancient artifact? Hahoo! A Bandle Artifact that THE EXPLORER wants me to analyze. It must be big, it must be amazing… unless this is all some practical joke. I wouldn't put it past him… oh, but this is too good to miss."
It was hard to make Heimerdinger excited about mealtime, sleeping, or small talk (or as he deemed it, meaningless jabbering). But tell him of any form of scientific discovery, or, if you're really brave, ask for a lecture on hextech microstructure, and he gets as excited as if he'd discovered it yesterday – which wasn't far from the truth.
He was on his way to his room to grab a few of his instruments that he had left at the League. Around him, Summoners scuttled, preparing for the new season, even this late at night. He was entering the Bandle Representative dorms, informally the Yordle area, when he noticed a Summoner leading a small group of yordles.
As he came closer, he realized two were the Champions Annie the pyrocentric human and Amumu the psychologically repressed undead yordle. The one closest to the summoner was leaving the train and entering a completely new room, one he hadn't seen before. And it was a young female yordle.
Amazing! It's a new champion! I must introduce my- no no, I have to see this Artifact first… later then! Hopefully she came from the new College of Technology in Bandle. As he thought this, Heimerdinger walked into his room to grab the tools. Oh, to have another technological mind to argue-er-debate with…
On his way out, his ears picked up a little melody. He stopped and smiled at the light tune, and swung a shoe out to walk to the labs.
Recognition of the tune froze the foot in midair. Putting his tools down swiftly but quietly, he dashed to the door and held his ear to it.
"Sleep now, sleep now,
Tellades call you,
With their sweet song
Can't you hear?"
"Tellades?" That's an ancient pillow infused with magic, long-lost magic! And this tune! It must be -
"Sleep is raven-wings
Coasting-over-Bandle
With black feathers
Reflecting stars
Rest is dreaming of
Flowers-in-the-moonlight
Drinking silver
Rays of night
Sleep is maple leaves
Drifting into puddles
Sending little
Ripples to shore
Rest now, rest now,
For-I will watch you,
Little daughter,
'Til the dawn."
Heimerdinger slowly shuffled away from the door, while his robotic arm revealed itself from his hair to pull out a notepad and pen. He took them without looking away from the door, then glanced down as he scribbled some notes. "Pre-Wars tune, lullaby, ancient meter, tellades." Then he handed both pen and pad back to the waiting arm.
"My goodness!" he mumbled quietly. "This… this is incredible. I MUST meet her when she awakens."
Suddenly, his Hextech communicator crackled and blasted, causing both inventor and metal arm to leap a full meter into the air.
"You coming, lemonhead? I finally translated the runes on the side. They say—"
"Shhhh!" Heimerdinger hissed into the mic. "I'm in the Yordle dorm with a new arrival! And she is currently resting!"
"You mean the high-pitched tipsy yordle everyone's talking about? C'mooon! I have the most interesting yordle artifact of the century in the lab. Hurry up."
The second most interesting, possibly…, Heimerdinger mused quietly, eyeing the door in front of him. "On my way," he said into the mic.
Deep in the League Archives, the robes of Summoner Marcus knocked up the dust of the marble floors of the "Older Lore" area. The books were covered in dust, most yellow and aging in their eternally preserved lives in the Institute's Library. The dust sat thick on every one, fiction readers preferring something fresh from the bookstores.
Even Marcus usually ignored this section. He once frequented the Spells and Spell Elements section, or better said, lived there. But he finally had a reason to come to the place of stories and myths.
In the dead silence, the summoner could hear his pounding heart clearly. He had always wanted to find a spell that was once considered myth. But now he had found a whole dimension. He took a long breath to calm himself.
He looked once more down at Nasus's curtsive scrawl, and took a left into a row of softly lit bookshelves. He stood on tip toe, slowing down to a creep as he scanned the titles. His nose took in the wonderful smell of old books.
"Ah hah," he mumbled. It felt wrong to yell in such a venerable place, even if no one was around. He reached and pulled out a book.
The book was titled "The Fae Glade or THE BIG WONDERFUL COLORFUL INDESCRIBABLE PLACE, transcribed from scroll to book". Raising a brow, he quickly flipped to the introduction.
"If you are wondering about the introduction, the first name is mine, the second my brothers. He is the one who fully experienced the Glade. It started with a butterfly he would hang out with, then it turned into him disappearing for weeks at a time. Finally, I discovered where he was hiding himself. This scroll delves into the mysterious, and, as my brother accurately puts it, the indescribable place known as the Fae Glade."
Marcus nodded, satisfied. A smirk took to his lips as he noticed the red tag on the edge of the cover, signifying its designation as "fiction". He flipped back a page, and his jaw dropped. This book was two centuries old, copied from a scroll that was two times older. This was information on the Glade even before Lulu was there. A soft chuckle, not malicious, but the sound of an old scholar biting into a dilectable dish of ancient knowledge, escaped Marcus. He definitely wasn't going to sleep at all tonight.
Lulu loved the sounds of woodpeckers in the morning. There seemed to be a very energetic one nearby.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
She settled deeper into the grass, smelling the morning dew. She felt her ear rub against a flower, and she guessed it was a buttercup. Or a mustardcup. Perching herself on an arm, she found it was the latter. While the woodpecker went crazy on a very nearby tree, she took a lick of the pollen.
Immediately, a spice filled her mouth. "Mmmh, that's a nice one," she said through a yawn.
As she sat up, she felt a tug on her hair. She turned to see a very agitated Pix straining at one of her tangled bangs. She pulled it out of the fae's tiny grasp irritably.
"I can straighten my own hair, thank you," she said in a mock-regal tone, complete with mock-glare. It reminded her of the woman across the street. Wait, she isn't alive anymore…
Pix's frantic pointing caused her to look up, then around. Walls. Suddenly, her environment clicked. She was in the Institute of War. Why do they name it that? It should be the Institute of No-War, or the Big Pretty Building of Stopping Stupid Things.
Two tiny hands on either side of her nose drew her head up, as her eyes crossed and focused on her companion. He turned her towards the door and pointed at it. He then mimed knocking.
"Knock on the door?" She then remembered the 'woodchuck'. "Oh, someone else was knocking!"
She jumped up and ran for the door. Through it, she heard someone mumbling.
"She either is the deepest sleeping yordle in the world, or she ran off to deface some more public property."
She flung the door open, cringed at the bang it made, and then smiled wide at Summoner Marcus. He had jumped back in fright, his hands darting up to his grey goatee.
"Good morning!"
"Oh, umm, good morning," said Marcus. Two fingers went up to rub his temple. There were very dark shadows under his eyes.
"What's defacing mean?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Does it mean to lose your face?"
"Oh! Umm, don't… worry about that- How does breakfast sound?"
"Weird! It's like two words that are really random, but about food."
"What?" Marcus sighed slowly. "It will take a while before I understand your mental process, my dear. How does EATING breakfast sound?"
"Even better!"
"Wonderful," said Marcus through a yawn. His eyes roamed then fixed to something behind her. "Your bed…"
She spun back and looked at it. It had a patch of grass covering its entirety, with flowers garnishing the edges of the surface. It was completely normal to her, but she realized that Marcus probably slept under covers.
She spun back and smiled. "I like sleeping in fields."
Marcus stared at it for a moment more. "Hm. Innovative. What spell is that?"
She tilted her head, perplexed. "Spell? No. That's normal… right?"
Marcus hesitated, then shook his head. "This is the League of Legends, Lulu. 'Normal' is illegal."
She giggled gleefully at that. Finally, a place where magic is free.
"Come! Time for breakfast," said Marcus. With that he outstretched a hand, which Lulu took cheerfully. They turned and took off towards a hall.
Marcus turned and glanced over his shoulder at the still-open door. He snapped his fingers, and the doors slammed shut.
Lulu smiled, as she thought again. Free…
"I believe your magic is still affecting the cafeteria ceiling," Marcus commented.
Lulu smiled and nodded. "Of course! Fae magic never goes away."
"Oh," said Marcus after a moment. "Well, it seems we will have to introduce you to a very unsavory topic then – nerfing."
"Alright Lulu. This is just a simple test. Can you hea—"
"OHMYGOSH SUMMONER MARCUS YOUR IN MY HEAD!"
"Yes, Lulu, this is telepathy. I can hear your thoughts, so you don't have to say anything out loud to me… unless you want to. Alright, let's begin. Today will just be getting used to the field. Usually, we give someone five minutes or so, before turning on minions, but in your case, I think I can give you the full time.
"Can Pix hear you too?" She glanced up at her companion as she asked.
"No, you must direct Pix. I can only summon and link with one champion at a time."
Suddenly the dark horizon lit up and the blue teleportation magic dissipated. Lulu's hand went instinctively to her face, but nothing happened. No water fountain. She looked down. She was on a large stone platform, and in the distance, behind stone walls and stone towers, she could see…
"Welcome to Summoner's Rift, Lulu—"
"A FOREST!"
Lulu was immediately on top of her staff and flying it across the small platform to the steps.
"Lulu, wait!"
Her journey suddenly ended in the form of a giant floating shield rising in front of her.
Oww, was all she could manage to think.
"Don't go flying off then! I had yet to give you a formal introduction."
"Hi," mumbled Lulu from her crumbled heap of robes.
"Hmph. Indeed, this is the baseplate, and you almost made it to the fountain steps. You should feel safe in this area – unless it's a fed Xerath."
"But I like giraffes," said Lulu. She slowly stood to her feet and took some breaths. Marcus coughed in an obvious attempt to hide a chuckle, and continued in his regal tone.
"Well, on the Rift, consider everything you meet dangerous."
"Even those squirrels?" she asked, peering around the shields that encircled the baseplate.
"No—er, yes. They… make you very sick. So don't go near them. Today, we will introduce you to the Rift, and to all of its magic."
"Do I get to go into the forest?"
"If you're a jungler… possibly… no, never mind. Anyhow, let the shield go down. Then, we have a just a tour today for those on their first time on the rift. Now, LISTEN" – Lulu, now even more intrigued, was staring avidly at two small squirrels climbing the far walls. "This is important, Lulu. Certain magic will not work on the Fields of Justice. Especially not ridiculously powerful spells like 'Imaginatio'."
Lulu blinked.
"Huh?"
"Try an 'Imaginatio', see what happens."
"Ok!"
Lulu mustered her thoughts, and imagined some acorns and a squirrel-sized bubble bath. Then she aimed her staff at the ground in front of her.
"IMAGINATIO"
Her words, she felt, suddenly went towards the blue crystal nearby, and were consumed by a blue pulse – no squirrel bath.
"What happened?"
"Imaginatio, Lulu, is a spell you may NOT use on the Rift."
"Why not?"
"Well, simply because we don't know the limits of a mystical spell, especially not one with so much creativity. Even if we put a size limit on it, what if you imagined a tiny needle going right into your opponents' temple—"
"WHAT? That's dreadful! They could die!"
In her head, she heard a sigh. "My point, but… you do know that this is a battlefield, don't you?"
"Yeah, but I was told you don't die, and that because you fight, there aren't any wars. You just gotta destroy a big crystal."
"Yes – GOOD! Those are the basics, but there are towers you have to get through… you know, I'll let someone more suited to your particular… emotional range talk with you."
With that, Marcus stopped talking, and the shields dropped. Lulu stepped tentatively forward, and she somehow felt this was the first time of many. She took a deep breath, filling her lungs with the moment.
Suddenly, there was the sound of a magical thundercrack behind her. Lulu spun and grabbed her hat out of instinct. But there was no forceful wind or big monster. There was however a girl with bright blonde hair who was glowing like a particularly joyful star.
"Hi, my name's Lulu," said the awe-struck yordle.
"Lulu, this is your tour guide."
The girl grinned appreciatively in response, before leaning forward to look the young sorceress in the face. "Hello Lulu, my name's Lux!"
Yay! more Lendi next chapter... totally... wasn't... gone for 4 or sumthin months... (ignores angry scowls)
But I think I've found a direction for the story. If anyone WANTS to hear of Lux's tour, then lemme know, otherwise, I think anyone reading this story knows the rift pretty well.
And yes, I know this story was started during the Old Rift... but I like the new one.
But yeah... Xeraffes...
Jebinnam out.