The ocean seemed to stretch on forever. Garen and Riven had been sailing for over a day and continued to ride the waves deep into the night. They were not making a whole lot of progress as the wind died down and Garen grew tired of rowing. The engine was still humming however, propelling the boat through the deep blue waters at an acceptable pace. Nothing seemed to be around them but more ocean. Garen laid back and rested his head on his crossed arms to let him stare up at the sky. Riven was sitting on the other side of the boat with her arms folded around her tucked in legs; her bottom and feet resting on the floor of the boat.

"Do you sail often?" Garen asked her.

"Huh?" she said, startled out of her thought. Garen considered raising his head to look at her and insure that she was ok, but he knew quite well that he could not read her via facial expression yet; he had not known her nearly long enough. He decided to pry with his words.

"Do you sail often?" he repeated.

"Oh, uh… no. Not really."

"When was the last time you sailed?"

"It was… uh… when I was deployed to Ionia. I never left the island, obviously. So I've just been staying there. I never bothered to explore. I didn't see much point in it. It was just a rough time, so I never bothered to go out and search or anything. It just didn't interest me."

"What DID interest you?" Garen asked.

"Not much. I was fairly… well… depressed really. I dunno, I just… I dunno."

"Is there something you would like to talk about Riven?"

"I uh… no. No not really. I'm just…"

Garen decided that he should at least attempt to read the woman this time, seeing as she had just cut off mid sentence. He lifted his head and looked at her. He saw her face resting on her arms with a hollow look of sorrow borne across it. The moon's soft glow reflected off of her wet cheeks, becoming covered in tears as time went on. Garen casually sat up and turned his entire body to face her.

"I'm just… Well," Riven started. "For the first time in… what seems like forever… I am happy. It is strange. I was just attacked. I just packed up my entire life and left. And looking at it, my entire life was the clothes that I have on my back, and the pieces of a shattered sword. What kind of life is that? What have I been doing?"

"You have been lost. I cannot say that it was I who found you, but I can assure you that you have clearly been found. Everyone has a goal in life. Perhaps you are finally seeing it?" Garen asked.

"Maybe. Maybe that 's it. I just dunno what that goal is yet."

"Well, you are a phenomenal fighter. Perhaps you would like to show that to someone other than me and a strangely animate shadow. Perhaps you would like to join the League of Legends?"

"WHAT! No! I uh, I mean… No I just…"

"Hahaha! No need to be flustered! It was not an invitation, but a proposal. Maybe that is just what your heart desires."

"Oh… Yeah… Well… Maybe. We will see I guess," she replied.

Garen slid over and gently raised his hand to wipe her tears away, but she laid a soft, refraining hand on his wrist.

"No need to. These are tears of happiness. I don't want them to leave me so quickly," she told him. He smiled in response. "Do you have a goal Garen? You said you left the League, right? How did that come about?" Garen looked deeply into her and found that the question was posed out of mere curiosity. She had saved his life enough already. There was no way that she intended to harm him. Not to mention, it is impossible for there to be anyone listening in right then, being in the middle of the ocean.

"I had to leave in order to save the ones I loved. I would have never, in a thousand years, imagined leaving the League of Legends, or my country, Demacia. However, times changed. And a certain series of events left me with the choice of fleeing, or staying to serve the potential punishment for my crime," Garen told her.

"Crime? What did you do?" she asked.

"Crime is relative. It was more so what people would have thought. My only actual crime was quite minor, and that was fighting within the Institute of War. It was more so of a playful fighting, but it was fighting nonetheless. However, the crime spawned from one of whom either did not know it was playful, or simply did not expect for things to end as they did. Somewhere in our fight, a man stepped in between. My sword left a lethal gash in his backside. I was not sure how to respond, but I quickly gathered my thoughts and took him to safety; isolated, and capable of recovery. Until he has fully healed, I had to leave the Institute. If I were to return sooner, they may think that I had murdered him. So, I sought to seek shelter in Ionia. Clearly, that has been discovered," he told her.

"Oh. So where are we headed now?" she asked.

"The only place in which I can think of that may be as isolated as Ionia: Freljord. It is such a desolate wasteland, it would be easy to blend in and not be found. We will most likely land in either Zaun or Piltover. Their ports are close to the east side of the continent."

"Zaun…" she muttered.

"Trust me, it is unlikely that anyone would recognize you. And we can always move through there quickly. I would hate to create a traumatic experience," Garen told her.

"Thanks Garen," she said before lying down in the boat and closing her eyes. Garen turned around and faced the front of the ship. He stayed awake through the night to insure that everything was safe while Riven rested. He watched the bow of the ship cut through dark waters and the soft lines of rippling waves as they splashed lightly against its perimeter. It was quite peaceful and mesmerizing, yet Garen managed to stay awake until morning, when he set the sail once more and cruised along until land could be seen in the distance.

Eventually the shore came into view and Garen gently docked the boat into the sands. He was not sure how long the boat would be able to sit there before being dragged back into the ocean's waters due to the lack of an anchor or nearby pole to tie it to. He got out and scanned his surroundings to try and get a grasp on their location. After a few moments he determined that he was not capable of distinguishing the land he was on to be either of Zaun or Piltover, but he knew both him and Riven would prefer it to be Piltover due to their backgrounds with Zaun. The two cities were similar and polar opposites. Both performed at high levels of technological advancement, but Piltover stuck to a strict level of moral code, while Zaun's experimentation was more of a free reign style. This openness of methods was what led many people away from whatever appeal Zaun may have.

Garen sat in the sand beside the "docked" boat and leaned against its hull. He did not intend to wake Riven and wanted to get some rest himself. He closed his eyes and dozed off for a moment before he was awoken by a tap on the shoulder.

"C'mon! We got places to go!" Riven said to him excitedly. He grinned at her, figuring that she did not know how few hours of sleep he had gotten. He got to his feet and rolled his shoulders in attempt to get his muscles moving. The lack of rest was going to take its toll on his body eventually, but he knew that he had to push forward.

The two walked westward together without very much conversation, and in a similar manner as they did on Ionia; helping each other instinctively and continuing forward at a steady, soldier-like pace. The ground beneath their feet was rapidly shifting from the sands they saw when they had docked, into an infected soil that consisted of a multitude of purple and greenish colors; the resulting mixture made it seem as if the entire ground had been carefully coated in vomit. The air around them was beginning to incorporate foreign chemicals into its composition that stirred up an occasional cough from one of the two marching along, while the sky above them became darker and murkier with their progress. Both Riven and Garen were quite familiar with what this meant; they were in Zaun instead of Piltover.

"Should we turn back?" Riven asked Garen.

"I do not think that we can. We are unaware of our location and unsure of where we docked. I have reason to doubt that we will be making any progress if we continue to sail through the ocean." Riven was not too pleased with this response, but she was aware that it was accurate. As they walked, they dug through their sack of meat and finished off the remnants.

"How could any animal live in an area like this? It's so polluted and volatile… this whole city disgusts me," Riven thought aloud.

"I do not know. But I would not recommend eating any of them. I do not know what has entered their bodies, and I do not want it in mine. However, landing here may be beneficial to us. We need to stay unseen, and the amount of people in Zaun that will care about passing travelers is minimal. We should be able to push straight through without conflict; so long as we keep our mouths shut and our eyes down. They are proud people, and do not take so kindly to the concept of having their ideas stolen and plagiarized." She nodded as if to say that she understood what he meant, and partially because she had hope that nodding in approval would help convince herself that he was right. She had a feeling that the two would find conflict just by setting foot into the city state.

The polluted dirt just grew more polluted and the dying trees became more frequent while the density of them shifted to small sporadic clusters as they marched along. Soon enough, they came to the brink of civilization for the first time in an awful long period. They looked at each other with an excruciatingly similar expression of exasperation. Neither was certain that they wanted to re-enter civilization, and both were certain that they did not want to enter Zaun. Garen gave a sharp nod and a grin that seemed to spark a thousand watts of energy in the young warrior's soul as she quickly replied with a fierce smile that erupted so fast that her eyes had to close for a moment to allow room for her cheeks to spread further across her face. The two looked back towards the city of buildings and toxins and walked forward.

Once inside the city, there was scarcely a soul to be found. The place was definitely not abandoned, but the residents were clearly not the lively type. Garen tried to keep his head low, while taking in his surroundings at the same time. Garen did take note of a grocery store sitting to the side on one of the blocks that they passed by. He stopped to examine it a little more closely and see if it looked moderately safe. He touched Riven on the shoulder with a gentle hand and she lifted her head to see why he had halted progression.

"We are not going to find much food as we hike the mountains into the Freljord," he told her. She nodded and they walked towards the shop.

"Wait," she said.

"What?"

"How will we pay?" she asked. Garen sighed a little louder than he had intended. He had almost forgotten the fact that neither of them had no money, and being exiled, he could not try to persuade someone of his rank and title in order to hand him free goods.

"Ah, I seemed to have forgotten such a simple detail. I apologize. We should probably continue onward instead. Perhaps we can get lucky enough to find some wildlife in the area".

"I doubt that," she replied with a frown. "Do you have any better plans?" Garen thought for quite some time about alternate possibilities. A smile grew across his face as he literally snapped when an idea popped into his head. He immediately turned and ran back out of the town. "Wait up!" Riven yelled as she chased after him. "Why are we going backwards?" Garen allowed her to catch up before he started talking, listening to her footsteps to judge when he should begin. He heard a strange squishing sound as he listened; almost like rubber or goo being scooted along the ground. He turned his head to seek for its source but he did not find it. He made the motion look natural by quickly adjusting his eyes to fall upon the approaching woman and gave her a grin before he started to talk.

"The boat's motor. The people here are obsessed with technology. I am almost certain that we could find a vendor who is willing to trade us gold for the motor. We have no other use of it anyways at this point." Riven's eyes grew wide as she took in his words.

"Wow. I have no idea how you thought of that, but it is brilliant," she replied. Garen laughed loudly at the compliment and threw his head back in exaggeration. His laughing stopped as something in the sky caught his eye. Among the amount of grey and darkness in the sky above them, a bird soared wildly.

"Look," he said.

"At what?"

"The bird. Doesn't it seem odd for such an animal to soar in skies like this?" he asked.

"Yeah, it does. It definitely doesn't look native. It's large and has beautiful blue coloring to it. There is no way that it gained those attributes 'round here."

"Which would mean that it is either horribly lost, or was sent here…" Garen's thoughts were quickly interrupted as he saw a new object to divert his attention. There was a shadowy figure in his path, just like the one that was back on Ionia, but this time, it was alone. There were two of them up front, and a third one slightly behind them but wearing clothes and armor that were entirely red and black with no trace of skin exposed to indicate that it was even a man that stood before them.

"Garen," said a deep, hollow, and echoing voice that came from the man in red. The man in control of the shadows had come back, but he did not intend to just walk away this time. Garen readied himself for combat, despite lacking any weapon still. Riven stood beside him, covering his side and drawing her broken sword. "Do you truly think that you can take on the master of the shadows with nothing more than a broken sword?" he taunted.

"A broken blade is more than enough for the likes of you," she snarled back. The man replied with a horrid laugh that carried the same monotone echo through the air.

"Die." He stated the word plainly, as if it were a command to a dog that was expected to be obeyed immediately. Within an instant he launched himself towards Garen and Riven. The two rolled opposite ways to avoid the lethal blow and stood up to find themselves besides the shadowy clones under the man's control. Garen immediately grabbed onto the wrists of the clone and kneed him in the groin. He half hoped that it would work, but the blow merely knocked the being backwards before it became intangible and slipped out of Garen's grip. He immediately turned about with a fist clenched and swung into what would seemingly be nothing; however, to the assassin's surprise, the Demacian's fist made direct contact with the metallic mask covering his face. The man staggered backwards a few steps from the intense force of the impact. He had clearly thought his approach to go unnoticed by Garen, but he was much too used to assault from behind for such a simple trick to prevail.

Over the staggering man's shoulder, Riven had fended off her shadow assassin with ease as soon as Garen had struck their puppeteer. Garen decided to expound upon the weakness and bolted towards him in a dead sprint to attempt to tackle the assassin. The endeavor proved unsuccessful as the man blinked out of existence and in his place was a phasic shadow that allowed Garen to slip straight through. He staggered to his feet and found the man standing where the shadow that had been fighting Riven was.

"Can he swap positions with his shadowy clones?" Garen wondered aloud, under his breath. In front of him, the two shadows dove straight for him with their blades extended towards his chest. Garen quickly rolled to the side and saw the two shadows phase through one another and land elegantly on the ground in preparation to assault again. Meanwhile, Riven was keeping the real assassin preoccupied with her ruthless sword fight, swinging relentlessly at the man and forcing him onto the fully defensive side as he exerted all of his energy in attempt to counter the swings with his arm's blades. Despite having a weapon on each arm, he needed both to block every attack she put forth.

Turning his attention back toward his own situation, Garen watched one of the shadows slip into the ground beneath him and slide to his backside before reemerging. The shadow clone in front of him shot forward with tremendous velocity and stopped just before Garen. The being appeared to be mocking him by standing so close. After a brief pause it began to thrust its bladed arms towards Garen at every possible angle and direction imaginable; at speeds seemingly unattainable. It took every ounce of might that Garen had in his body to reject the assassins the satisfaction of bringing him down. He continually ducked and dipped around to keep the razor sharp tools from decapitating him, and punched the sides of his opponent's arms to insure that he did not touch the blades, yet he could deflect the blows from approaching his flesh.

After that had persisted for a few moments, Garen realized that he had not addressed the shadow that was not standing behind him. He turned about and swung a closed fist sharply enough that it smashed into the side of the second clones arm just in time to prevent the blade from penetrating his skin. He ducked to the left a slight bit and saw the arm of the first clone extend outward where his shoulder had been moments ago. Garen immediately grabbed the arm with both of his hands and, in one swift motion, crouched down and yanked the body forward with all of his strength in order to pull the entire being off of the ground and smash it into its shadow friend. The two hit the ground in a heap, reacting too slowly at the unexpected vault Garen had forced the shadow to execute to allow themselves to become intangible in time to prevent the collision.

The Demacian turned around and ran towards where the assassin and Riven were still fighting, in an attempt to aid her while the clones were tangled up in a heap on the ground. The man seemed to be half aware of Garen's presence and tried to side step his tackle but was too late to avoid the assault. Garen grabbed the man around the waist in mid dive and landed on top of him on the ground. He positioned himself so that he sat upon the man's back and pinned his arms down with his knees. Riven immediately took her blade in hand and slammed it down onto one of his wrist gauntlets and shattered the metallic tool in half. Garen mimicked the action with his fist on the other hand to successfully destroy both of his primary weapons. Before any more blows could be made, the man's body was replaced by one of his shadows. He had swapped places again, and that meant that the shadowy clones had recuperated.

"GAREN! WATCH OUT!" Riven screamed. Before he could react, the second shadow took a quick slash across Garen's backside. In the distance, he heard the assassin laugh at his success. Garen grinned subtly and embraced their distraction to react as quickly as he could. He reached to his backside and grabbed a hold of one of the sword's shards that he had stored in his clothing back on Ionia. He had never intended for them to save his life in this manner, but he did not plan to question his luck. With the shard in hand, he spun about and propelled the blade through the air so quickly that it tore through the shadow clone prior to allowing reaction time. When the piece of metal made contact with the shadow's entity, the metal glowed with a light greenish tint. Within an instant, the shadow yelled out and caused the hollow sound to resonate throughout the forest before it evaporated into the air. The blade continued to soar through the air until it landed in a tree in the background, just feet from the assassin. He was clearly not amused at the turn of events to the extent that Garen and Riven were.

"Fine," said the assassin. "You can play too." His words were confusing at first, but their meaning became clear in just a moments time. Out of seemingly nothing, a lion-like being emerged. His weapons were primitive and his stench could kill the grass he stood on. He wore a necklace made up of teeth from a wide variety of animals and creatures, most of which Garen could not recognize at first glance. His mane was not large and fluffy like one would expect; it was put into dreadlocks which draped halfway down his back. His fur was all white and he stood on two legs while wearing armor that appeared to be made of leather and hides. His face bore no unique characteristics from a normal lion apart from an eye patch that gave the impression that it was covering up a scar of some sort as well as protecting the eye, or lack of one.

"Step asiiide Zed," the creature announced. He immediately leaped through the air, attaining heights only capable of an animal, and landed just in front of Garen and Riven. He jumped about while slashing away with his bizarre hand crafted tools that resembled a spiked gauntlet on one hand, and on the other he wielded a weapon made up of three spikes protruding from the back of his glove, extending forward from his knuckles. In combination with his own teeth and the occasional kick he attempted to land, he seemed to be quite capable of fighting both Garen and Riven on his own. The two danced about in attempt to dodge his attacks and return any punches they could see an opening for.

Neither party seemed to be making the slightest bit of progress so Zed reproached the fight and kept his distance in order to repeatedly hurl shurikens into the brawl. His shadow clone mimicked his actions and the whole situation appeared mostly hopeless. This insane beast was holding both Garen and Riven at bay, and any time to permit a chance to return an attack was spent dodging the razor sharp shadowy projectiles being tossed their way. Just as the whole situation seemed to be fruitless, the most peculiar thing happened; Zed and his shadow seemed to be distracted from their endless sniping attempts.

Garen looked about to see a massive green goo-like object parading through the forest on top of Zed and his shadow. It was bouncing up and down to pound them into submission. The sight was so strange that even the lion creature halted his beserking attacks to watch what was happening. Garen noticed the creature's distraction and seized the opportunity to land a massive punch across the creatures jaw. The being was caught so off guard that it slammed to the ground from the force of the impact and with one quick kick to the top of the head, the lion was rendered unconscious. Noticing the bleakness of the situation, Zed turned his shadow clone into a black circle on the ground.

"Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy," said the green goo. Garen turned to Riven and cocked his head.

"It uh… it talks?" he asked, as if she would know. Between the rebounding impacts, Zed managed to slip inside of the newly created portal and seal it shut behind him. Garen and Riven had just switched from a hopelessly lost situation to utter confusion. They stood there beside each other and scanned the surroundings in attempt to guarantee that the fight had actually been won. After a pause, they decided to approach the thing that had saved them.

"Hello uh… sir? I am Garen, and this fine woman is a friend of mine, Riven. Please to meet you."

"Sorry to intrude." The thing said in a surprisingly deep and solid voice, considering the form it was currently taking on. The bouncing ball had now settled and was more of a blob on the floor. The blob shifted and molded itself into a human-like being. It extended a hand to Garen, expecting him to shake it. He extended his other to Riven, and after noticing that both people were right handed, he transformed his left hand to be another right hand, which allowed them both to shake hands with him comfortably. Riven giggled at the act and grinned at Garen from the side of her mouth. "I didn't want to step in on your fight, but c'mon; two on three just isn't fair." They finished their handshake and stood face to face for a few moments. "Oh, but where are my manners. Zac's the name. Goo's my domain."

"You have a name?" Riven wondered aloud.

"I'm hurt." he replied.

"Oh, I didn't mean…" Riven started before being cut off by the sound of Zac laughing.

"It's somewhat self appointed," he began. "Technically, I'm a Zaunite Amorphous Combatant. But that makes me sound so rude and hurtful. I prefer Zac." Garen and Riven exchanged confused looks and replied simultaneously with a shrug and a grimace.

"Zac, we seem to be in a bit of a predicament," Garen said. "We are being chased and assaulted and yet we do not know who they are, or what they want. We could, perhaps, guess, but they have not yet bothered to state their business. We seem to also be low on rations and, well, weapons. Would you mind following us for a short while so that we can retrieve some cargo to sell?"

"Well, one of them is named Zed. The smelly lion said so," he replied, while stepping aside to signify that he was prepared to follow. The party continued towards the edge of the continent to get back to the boat they had left on the shore.

"Where are you from Zac?" Riven asked her question with wide eyes as if they would insure that she took in as much information from his response as possible.

"Well, Zaun. More specifically, a laboratory. The place is shut down now. They tried to make me to fight, but my parents wouldn't allow it. Instead, they ran away with me. The lab was run down after they failed to recreate the formula used to make me. I don't know why they didn't just check the logs my parents made. Maybe they just destroyed the place with all of the failed duplications running rampant."

"How did they fail to recreate you? Like, what did they make instead?" she questioned.

"Mostly just angry blobs. Similar to a wild dog. Looks like a dog, but bite like a shark." The blob had an interesting manner of discussing things. He seemed to prefer short and simple sentences, but was fully capable of speaking comprehensibly. Maybe it was the only way they could create the intelligence to speak. The party walked in silence a bit longer before Riven asked another question.

"So uh, how did you find us? How did you know we were in trouble? Do you just go around and help people or something?" Riven posed the last question with a half sarcastic tone in her voice. Zac either ignored the sarcasm, or did not get it.

"Yes. It's what I do in my free time. Not like I can go out to eat or anything. And not many people stroll around town with a large green blob. But I had been following you since you got into town. I suppose you guys didn't notice me slugging across the ground. Not too noticeable if you aren't watching the floor." Garen grinned as he realized that Zac may have been the source of the squishing sound that he had heard before the fight had initiated. "I wanted to insure that you two weren't up to trouble. Not every day that rugged travelers stroll into Zaun you know," Zac said. He had a good point, but Garen had thought the streets to be so empty that they had managed to avoid drawing in any attention.

They came to the shore without any further questioning of the peculiar blobby man and found that the boat had managed to be swept off shore by the rising tide.

"Curses!" Garen yelled. "We needed that ship!"

"You mean the ship out there?" Zac asked while extending a gooey finger to the ocean. He seemed to be pointing straight at the ship that was no longer docked.

"Yeah…" Riven said dully.

"Not a problem." Zac replied. He shifted his mass to incorporate a large amount of goo into his forearms, as weights. He plopped the anchors to the ground and began walking backwards and away from the ocean. "Give me a hand, will ya?" he stated. Garen and Riven, still confused about their blobby friend, grabbed onto his legs and walked backwards through the sand, stretching out his mass to preposterous lengths. "Ok, let go." The two did as they were asked and watched the elastic man slingshot through the air and soar out into the ocean. He landed in the water, just a short distance from the boat, and climbed aboard. He extended his arms out into the water and used them as paddles to push himself to shore. Garen and Riven got to the water's edge and waited on him. They went to the rear of the boat and lifted the motor out of its place and turned back to reenter the city. The motor was much heavier than Garen expected and not forty feet out he had to set it down and take a breather.

"Lemme get that for ya." Zac said as he collapsed his mass around the motor. A moment later, he stood back up, with the hextech machine resting inside of his body. He then continued to walk as if nothing were off-kilter. Garen was not quite sure if his unusual manner of ignoring the fact that his actions were profound to most individuals was a result of the fact that he was a created life form, or just a part of his carefree personality; but either way, it was going to take some getting used to if he and Riven planned to travel with him any longer. Judging by the incredible display of utility that he had already expressed, such an asset would be invaluable to the team. Garen pushed his astonishment aside and caught up to the group that was walking ahead of him.

After awhile, they had managed to reenter the city un-assaulted by any more assassins. Deeper inside of Zaun, it was just as they had remembered it; dark, eerie, and stained with the foul stench of sewage and waste. The three walked around in attempt to find a store of some sort to trade in the hextech engine in return for food or the money to buy it. The entire city - and its neighboring one who also led the continent in technological advancement, Piltover - took pride in their research and development of hextech, the practice being called techmaturgy. Most people referred to hextech, or magic powered technology, as the extension to magic, allowing for an item or object to be powered through a magic rich liquid without the need for a person to continually power the object themselves. As a result, a wide assortment of items became available throughout Runeterra, including transportation vehicles, guns and weapons, and special equipment in the medical field. The technology had not become wide spread enough that hextech items would be found in every household, but it was definitely growing exponentially in popularity and publicity.

The group wandered about awhile longer before they found an old warehouse-looking structure with a sign outside to signify that it was being used as a store. They made their way inside and found the place to be poorly lit, despite the massive amount of lighting fixtures attached to the ceiling. Garen looked about and had a difficult time finding any two fixtures that were the same, and was challenged even more by the task of finding any two fixtures next to each other that were still running. The shelves along the isles of the warehouse were absolutely packed with trinkets and gizmos of all shapes and sizes, and some of the shelves were sagging or collapsed under the weight of the bounty of items placed upon them. The floor was grimy and some particularly slimy spots were unanimously decided to be avoided for their own safety.

They pushed through the cluttered isles to make their way to the counter in the back. Behind it, a short scraggly man sat and stared at his guests with beady little eyes. He was a Yordle by race: small and sometimes fur covered people that hail from an underground residence named Bandle city. He was not startled or taken aback in the slightest at the sight of Zac; he must be used to the obscure, living in Zaun. His voice was high pitched, much like most Yordles, and there was a slight scratchiness about it that was probably onset by being in all of the massive amounts of smog and smoke that rested in the city.

"What's your business?" he asked.

"We would like to barter with you," Garen replied.

"I do such things. What have you got for me?" The small man told his guests. Zac responded this time, but not with his words. He morphed himself into a cylindrical like shape and curled the top portion downward to rest on the counter: he resembled a slinky falling down a flight of steps. The hextech engine was pushed up through his gelatinous body and came out of the top of him. He then retracted his top portion and resumed his human-like form, with the motor on the counter. Without blinking an eye at the peculiar sight, the Yordle jumped up onto the counter and began inspecting the device. He knocked at it, poked it, rattled it, and after awhile he found the button to start it. He glanced back at his customers.

"May I?" he asked.

"Absolutely." Garen said back. The man pressed the button in with a small finger covered in an old, torn, dirty, and red colored glove. The propeller on the back whizzed as it whirled around in circles, with the intention of cutting through the water. The man's smile grew to stretch across his entire face as he watched the mechanism work. He turned to the group of people before him with wide eyes.

"What do you want?"

"Rations. Or money for them. A weeks worth preferably. For two... Err..." Garen paused midsentence and looked at Zac. The blob replied with a grin and shook his head. The sight was quite entertaining; his jelly-like face jiggled about as he shook around.

"Don't worry champ, I got myself covered," Zac said to Garen. Garen nodded and turned back to the Yordle shopkeeper.

"Just for two then. A weeks rations for two."

"I'll hook you up," the man said with a grimace. He turned around and shuffled to a dark room behind him. A few moments later, he emerged from the room carrying a small envelope that he handed to Garen.

"Don't read it. Just take it to the man in the building at the end of the street. He will set you up." The Yordle continued to smile at them as they took the letter in hand and walked out of the building. They turned about and walked to the corner of the street where the building was located. The three of them entered through the shaggy metal double doors and walked into what looked like an abandoned factory. There were parts of robots and piles of boxes strewn all across the room. There were hardly any signs of life at all inside the factory. The three looked at each other slightly confused and began to think that they had been ripped off.

"Erm, hello?" Garen called out. A tall, slender man in a raggedy business suit approached them from the shadows. He kept his face hidden with his hat and skin covered by gloves.

"What," he stated plainly, perplexing one as to whether or not it was a question. Garen held out the envelope and the man snatched it so quickly that the Demacian did not actually lower his empty hand for a few seconds. He quickly opened the envelope and tossed it aside as he read the letter. It was assumed that his face shifted from one of boredom to one of hatred, but the brim of his hat veiled the majority of his expressions. He spun around and walked back into the factory where he shuffled some boxes and threw a few shards of metal. Riven tried to get a view of the man but she was standing behind Garen and Zac and did not get to see a whole lot. She was not missing much verbally however. He was putting on quite a scene as he shouted out things like "I hate that Yordle" and "that little shit, I can't believe that little shit"! After a few moments of searching and cursing, he came back into the room with a small pouch and a device that looked like an inhaler. He handed them to Garen.

"Here. Just take 'em. Leave." Garen cocked his head to signify that he was not sure what he held in his hand. The man sighed and let his shoulders drop. "The bag has pills. Take one once a day. You won't be hungry. There should be enough for a month's worth. It's still a prototype. I guess our little Yordle piece of crap is going to make sure that it doesn't stay secret anymore. The other item is a hextech hydrogen dioxide dispenser. When you push the button on top, it uses a new found magic that can produce water out of air and shoots it out of the hole. They discovered a new race of mermaid-like creatures and when one in particular was observed, she seemed to be able to control tides while on land... We tapped into this resource. But it's gone to me now. Leave." The group decided to take his advice and pocketed the small bag of pills and hextech object. They walked into the street and looked at each other; they all seemed to be asking "where now?" with their eyes. Garen decided to break the silence.

"Zac, we thank you greatly for your help; however, we must be on our way. It is not safe with us, as you have seen, and we cannot endanger you any further. I hope we cross paths again."

"Now hold it buddy, you still don't have a weapon. Without fists like mine, you can't fight bare handed." Zac replied.

"You uh... WANT to travel with us?" Riven asked.

"I'm a protector. It's in my blood; I mean, my goo. I help those who need me. Don't worry pal, I can stick with you a bit longer. It won't hurt me any."

"But Zac, won't your parents be upset?" Riven chimed.

"Naw, they like it when I go out. I spend my time on the lookout anyways. Lots of people to help out there you know. But lately, it's been boring. Not much conflict due to the League being around. So whaddya say? Let an old blob like me scoot beside you? I don't take up much space ya know." As he finished his sentence, he morphed himself down in size, to create a ball about the proportion of a head. He rolled along the ground in a circle around the two. Riven laughed at the playful nature and Garen shot a grin her way.

"Well then Sir Zac, we would be glad to keep you along."

"Excellent. Where to next chief?" Zac asked while reverting to his human-like form. Garen looked about the putrid city before he replied.

"Well, we have our sights set upon Freljord. However, we are not quite sure how we can get there easily. It may involve scaling mountains if we do not have an alternate method…" Up above them, a bird cawed to the wind. The three of them all looked to the skies at the bird as it circled the space above them.

"I never see good things after I see that bird…" Riven stated.

"I am beginning to dislike seeing blue birds in general…" Garen replied.