Chapter III

Soldiers were rushing out on the streets of Demacia, their faces alarmed with fear and anxiety. In the crowd, I managed to spot Fiora and Shyvana (because of their loud bickering) and almost instinctively headed towards them, leaving Jarvan to address us at the front.

The prince of Demacia was still listening to some rushed details from the message that Garen had received, before clearing his voice quickly.

"We were given no time to rest, but I know we needn't any. I trust in all of you to defend Freljord in their time of need. We have received urgent news informing us of that there's something out there, which has posed a threat to the Avarosan tribe." He paused as he searched for his words. "I will be honest, and tell you that we don't know what we will be facing. However, what I do know is that all of you here are capable of doing this, and I shan't tolerate failure."

He raised his spear in the air, and cheered us on.

Almost in unison, everyone marched out of Demacia, bracing themselves for the journey to Freljord. If I remembered correctly, it would take only about a day or so, and with that thought in mind, all I could do was hope that Freljordian forces would be able to stay strong for that time. In no way should I be inferring that they were weak.

Valor rested his head against my shoulder, as he still stood perched on my arm. He let out a long sigh and closed his eyes sleepily.

"I guess there'd be no harm in letting him doze off." I whispered quietly.

"Aww." was Fiora's reaction.

As I looked over at Shyvana I realized that she seemed incredibly distant. Her stride wasn't at strong as it had been, and I suspected that was from the lack of sleep.

"Don't worry, Shyvana." I said, trying to make her feel better. "I'm sure they'll let us rest somewhere. Who knows, maybe we could reach Freljord before dawn."

She nodded slowly, although I knew she was barely taking in half of the things that I was saying.

"How on earth will you fight like that?" asked Fiora. "Guess you'll have no choice but leave the kills to me."

She suddenly snapped awake. "In your dreams, loser."

The beautiful sunset that had once occupied the sky had vanished as night bathed our path in darkness. Every soldier, including us, kept a lantern handy, so we were able to carry on walking through the night, despite our legs aching.

Occasionally, Jarvan would shout a few encouraging words to keep us going, but all hope of reaching Freljord before morning was long gone. Eventually, as our bodies finally gave up, we decided it would be best to stop and rest, or else we wouldn't be of much help to anyone.

We set up a few tents, but unfortunately we didn't have the time to take many with us when we set off, so about half of us slept on the wet grass. Obviously, that wasn't a problem for Valor as that bird could sleep virtually anywhere, but I didn't have the best of times waking up soaking wet.

There was no time for breakfast, as we were up and going as soon as we could. We had to suffer a couple of Fiora's bad jokes, but after that things were ok. Although Shyvana was still not herself.

"Are you sure you're ok?" I asked her.

She sighed. "Yeah, I don't know why I feel weaker than I should. Maybe because it's really cold out here."

"Shyvana, I don't think it's safe for you to fight." I told her.

She gave me an angered look. "I ain't dead yet so I fight. No questions asked."

I shrugged apologetically.

"And you say I'm the arrogant one." Fiora commented, making all three of us laugh.

After some time, we sensed that we had to be nearing Freljord. The air around us became colder as we walked, until our path became covered in snow. We were slowed down by it, as our soldiers were not used to treading through such conditions, and most of us needed to be extra cautious to not slip on a stray patch of ice. Shyvana seemed to breathe more heavily, as every step became harder as the snow deepened.

"I wanna go home." Said Valor, mimicking a small child. I smiled at him and picked some ice out of his soft feathers, patting him gently on his back afterwards. Unlike the rest of us, that lucky bird had had something to eat that morning, all because of my kind nature giving him the snacks that I happened to have with me at the time.

Shortly, we entered a forest filled with snow covered pines. The distinctive smell of such trees was so strong it almost stung. As if that weren't enough, most of the light seemed to be blocked out by them, and we found ourselves journeying through a form of midday twilight. However, there was something about it all that stopped me from hating it - something that made the cold and the dark seem insignificant, but that thing was unknown to me then. I thought it was maybe because I had been there sometime before, during another mission, which was the time when I befriended Ashe, but I had doubts about that explanation.

"We're almost there!" Shouted Jarvan, attempting to encourage the soldiers even further. "The glory of battle is near!"

"About God-damn time." Said Fiora. "I can't even feel my legs, and my neck is too stiff for me to look and see if they're still there."

I chuckled. "You have the worst of problems."

Shyvana stayed awfully quiet, but at least smiled.

Suddenly, every single soldier halted. Distant yells and screams stabbed our ears, as we saw smoke rising up. As soon as we were back to our senses, we sprinted, hoping so hard that we were not too late.

Truth was that we didn't even the reach the settlement of Ashe's tribe, because there was no way in which we could have. We were greeted by fleeing Avarossan soldiers, screaming at us to do the same. We didn't listen.

We advanced forwards some more before we saw them. In the split second in which I lay eyes on them I didn't even have time to recognise what they were. All I could recall was a big mass of... blackness?

I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that Freljord could be attacked by creatures that nobody knew even existed. But it was happening. And I was in the midst of the blood bath.

"To hell with you!" yelled Fiora as she charged, although she didn't get far as she realized just how many there were. She stopped, horrified.

The creatures were closing in on us, forcing the soldiers closer and closer together. We were surrounded by monsters with bloodcurdling roars.

Jarvan was the one to awaken us, dashing forward and driving his spear into one of the creatures. The rest followed his lead, trying their best to make a dent in the monstrosities.

Valor wasted no time in charging at the creatures.

"Go for the eyes!" I yelled at him, and he penetrated what we thought would be their eyes with his sharp beak.

I tried my best to shoot at them, but my arms were shaking so wildly that most of my shots were uselessly off target. My mind had gone blank, and I suddenly knew nothing of combat. Valor was the only one to keep me in one piece.

Then I realized I wasn't the only one that needed it.

As the creatures persisted on attacking us, we fought back, which scattered us across a red-stained battle field. In the corner of my eye, further than everyone else, was Shyvana, desperately trying to take on one of the creatures.

I couldn't do it. I couldn't just turn my head and pretend I wasn't seeing her shaking figure. I had to go and help her.

I called out to Valor and he followed my orders. We headed over to the half dragon and attacked the monster to the best of our ability.

"Go! Run!" I yelled at Shyv, hoping that she would listen.

She hesitated for a moment but made the right choice and turned to flee. Valor and I were left to conquer the being all on our own, as we were too far from the rest now. Panic rushed through me as I spotted another few monsters approaching us, and I knew there was no way we could handle them.

"Val! Quick!" And with that we started running too, following Shyvana.

She had a good lead ahead of us, but we seemed to be catching up to her quickly, almost too quickly. She was weaker than I thought. As I reached her side, I grabbed hold of her arm and almost dragged her forward with me. A look over my shoulder let me know that the beasts were getting close.

"Quinn, I can't. Let go." Said Shyvana, trying to yank her arm free, but my grip was too strong and there was no way I was letting go.

"Just hold on!" I replied.

Just as my pace quickened, I heard Valor shriek a loud warning from above, but it was too late. Just as we exited the forest into some kind of clearing, we felt the ground beneath us disappear as a cold rush of air splashed onto our faces. My eyes had stopped working, and all my other senses followed. The world was nothing more than a black abyss.

Note

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this "masterpiece" (lol). Please tell me if I got anything wrong like spelling/grammar/whatevs.