I became more and more attached to Ahri. A few days had passed, yet I felt as it had been only minutes. Each time I saw her, a smile crept up my face. She was so warm and fluffy I just couldn't be grumpy all the time, even though I tried to hide it. It almost felt like I was a child again, playing with a few of my friends friends in the lush forests near my hometown, where trees grew larger than towers, and grass greener than pickles. That's how I thought of it as a kid- later they all left me because of my masters, who only wanted to weaken and use me, and didn't think I needed such a thing as friends.
"You look worse every day", Ahri brought me from my thoughts back to reality when she brought some dinner.
"Thanks, you too" I replied, not hiding my sarcasm. To be fair, it looked like the cold I caught that night didn't get any better, if not worse.
"Really? Am I pale? Maybe your disease is contagious and has spread to me!" She said, the hair on her tails standing on their ends. She looked so scared it made me chuckle.
"Just kidd…" I tried to say, but suddenly felt nauseous and started violently coughing. A loud crash was audible, that must've been the plates Ahri was carrying, a little drop of soup even reached my cheek. I looked at the arm I used to cover my mouth, and gasped at what I saw. There was blood, and now my throat was burning like hell. Uneasy silence fell over the room, but it was rudely interrupted as Ahri cried out, still in shock. When she saw me looking up at her, she calmed down a little bit, and spoke:
"I told you it was getting worse. We absolutely need to find you a doctor. Else you might die, as you originally intended." She was dead serious.
"I don't need one, it's just a bit of blood, that's all" It felt like a really poor excuse for the social anxiety I've developed.
"I'm taking you to a doctor, and there's nothing you can do about it. You're too weak to resist anyway"
Pain was visible in her eyes, even if she wasn't physically hurt.
"No. I'd rather die without the assistance of a doctor."
"What are you talking about? Did your cold affect your brains as well?"
"Maybe, but I'm not going to a fucking doctor. What good can a doctor do when all I need is a cup of tea?" I tried to avoid the conversation again.
Ahri said nothing, but instead took my leg and tried to drag me. Her resolution was incredible, but that didn't make me change my mind. She barely got me to the door, and stopped to catch a breath.
"This is pointless, you know" I told her.
"Not as pointless as doing nothing and watching you die. Only a few miles through the snow, and we'll be there. "
Now I was angry. I've never liked doctors, and since recently, all people. Maybe I could summon a ball to hold me in place? At first that seemed like a brilliant idea, but when I tried to summon any magic, I felt nothing. Not the warm sensation that would usually fill my veins, but instead, absolutely nothing. Now it was scary. What have I got without my magic? I'm not particularly good at anything else than casting spheres and making castles fly.
"Wait, Ahri, you convinced me. Let's go see that doctor."
"Really? I won't have to drag you through the snow?" She beamed at me. "I know just a place where we can go. They say there's no one better than Shen, Kennen and Akali. You'll see, they will fix you in no time!"
I started coughing again, but managed to control myself as I saw Ahri's sad eyes.
"It's just a cold, they won't have anything to fix." Squeezing out a smile, I went to the wooden clothes hanger and grabbed my white coat. I tried to look happy for Ahri, but I was scared. If I didn't have enough power to draw out any magic, then it was serious. First time that happened, I killed everyone around me, but now it was even worse- I didn't see anyone who stole my power, and didn't know who to kill to get it back.
We started walking, and it turned out Ahri was living a little bit further from the city than I expected. The cold was still quite extreme, and it weakened me even more. I would usually enhance my legs with a little bit of magic, or even fly completely, but now it didn't seem to work. I started coughing once every two minutes, and each time it was worse. A few miles in, I couldn't take anymore and collapsed.
Meanwhile, in Noxus, Swain was watching a few brutes battle in a pit. The winner would be chosen to be Darius' bodyguard, who was also watching the battle.
"I wanna go bash some heads in." He growled.
"Soon. There's no one in Ionia who can defy us now, so we'll go immediately after gathering up our troops."
"Who needs troops? Most of them will only die anyway."
"That's true, but you do need some form of a meat shield. Otherwise you might just get attacked by too many scumbags to handle."
"Draven is the one who's distracting them, even if he doesn't agree. Besides, my axe can slash through anything."
One muscular barbarian emerged victorious, after he finally crushed the skull of his weeping opponent, after breaking every single other bone in the man's body and tearing one leg off. He was purple, about two meters tall, and almost as wide, but still moved with strange ease. He didn't even use a weapon, except a bloody cleaver. Swain looked around, not hiding his satisfaction.
"Look, he's perfect. He shows no mercy, not even to the defeated. I've heard that back in Zaun he tortured animals and others not powerful enough to resist. What's your name, champion?"
"MUNDO WANTS MORE!" The brute replied.
Swain turned to Darius: "Told you. He doesn't think, so he'll be good at following orders, and he's resistant to the new Singed's toy, so he'll be the one to finish off any survivors of the battle. If you don't like him, we can kill him after we've won"
"Fair enough. Just make sure I get some action as well."
"I will. Just don't go in recklessly, or you'll end up regretting it."
A little pale boy approached Swain "General, shall I send orders to begin the preparation?"
"Yes, go do that."
As the boy was going away, Darius caught up with him and drove a foot between his shoulder blades. The boy cried out in pain and fell to the ground.
"I'll do that myself." Darius told Swain and left, leaving the freshly crippled boy behind in tears and piss.
Back at Ionia Ahri desperately tried to wake up her fallen friend. Everything was white: the snow, the trees, the sky, Syndra's face- except the blood that came out of her mouth and immediately froze in the snow.
"No, no, no! Get up!" Ahri shouted at Syndra, shaking her, but got no reply. Instead, a lump of snow fell from a tree on her head. She was absolutely frustrated, angry and sad at the same time.
After a few minutes she almost gave up hope, being exhausted herself from the shaking and turning Syndra. She started uncontrollably crying because of her incompetence. Suddenly, she heard a crack of a branch under someone's foot.
"WHO'S THERE? DON'T YOU EVEN DARE TOUCH ME OR MY FRIEND! I'LL FUCKING END YOUR PITTIFUL LIFE!" Ahri hissed, and drew all her magic to her, melting all the snow around her and Syndra.
"Is your friend hurt? I think I can help." A reply came. Ahri abruptly turned her head towards the voice, and let all of her magic go in the same direction. She definitely hit something: a thud was audible. A woman came, accompanied by a man with an eyepatch. The later had a gaping hole in his chest. Ahri knew this was her doing. What confused her, was why the hole was so small. It was shrinking even further, and only then she noticed a green flow coming out of the woman's staff. She tried to mull it over, feeling totally confused. However, the man wasn't about to let this go, and kicked her in the stomach. She squealed and hit the ground.
"That's for the attack." He exclaimed. "And this…"
"LEE, STOP!" The woman interrupted.
"She attacked us! Didn't you see the hole she made? It doesn't matter how much I meditate, an attack demands a counterattack!"
"You never learn. Let's discuss this later, when they can talk." She turned her head towards Ahri, who was still trying to get up and fight. Her staff lit up once again, and a beam of light came down from the sky and carried everyone away.
A.N. Hey, so I've been away for a bit. Sorry 'bout that, but it shouldn't happen often. I'll try to keep writing at least one chapter a week, but winter break is over, and I have to study again. I sometimes litterally feel dead. Ok, enough ranting, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Again, please write a review, it's suuuper easy. Have a good day!