Chapter 3

Sleep came fitfully that night. Talon curled up between the tall roots of the tree, his stomach felt unsettled and sore. The stolen vegetables he had eaten, though washed in a nearby river, still worried him that he may have made himself ill off of them. His stomach, already struggling, churned uncomfortably. The cold seemed to seep through his clothing more tonight, his hand rested on his new blade, unable to relax.

Occasionally creatures scurried about the area. He was all too used to animals coming close to him as he slept. Pigeons, rats… It didn't faze him. He could hear something he guessed was a fox sniffing around, occasionally a bird cawing from the trees. If anything, it was company in a lonely world. As the hours dragged on, Talon finally slumped into a deep sleep.

A chill crept over him after a while, but it was not the cold. His good eye slowly opened. The first thing he noticed was the silence—no fox skulking around, no crows cawing. Nothing, just deathly silence. It was so still, so unsettling.

Talon slowly sat up, reaching for his blade. His fingers brushed the hilt, pulling it closer to himself. Then he heard it. A whisper, faint and distant, deep in the depths of the forest. It sounded like his name. Talon's grip tightened on his blade as he strained to hear.

"Talon... Talon..." The voice called.

The voice was familiar, yet distorted. He felt a cold dread seep into his bones. He knew that voice. From long ago, a time he barely remembered.

"Come here, Talon…" The voice echoed, it was a woman's voice.

"Who-...Who's there?" Talon managed to rasp. Getting up and keeping his blade tightly in his grip, following the voice as it kept beckoning him. He swallowed, looking back the way he'd entered this forest.

"I'm here... come closer..." the voice called, growing more insistent.

Something about it lured him along. Why was this voice so familiar? It kept coaxing him forward, until he entered a large clearing. "Come, Talon…I'm here…"

This clearing felt …Wrong. There was a thick black mist lingering all over it. When he stepped through it, it dissipated like smoke but seemed to cling to him. What stuck out most to Talon was the smell.

It stank of death.

"Come closer, Talon…I've missed you…"

Talon shook his head, starting to back up the way he remembered entering. That was when he saw them, two red glowing eyes following his every movement from the trees. When he took a terrified step backward, whatever that…thing was bolted towards him. He turned and ran, sprinting through the forest, the trees blurring past him.

The voice pursued him, hissing his name. Taunting him, asking him why he was running? It wasn't a woman's distorted tone now, it was ragged and low. Unhuman and terrifying.

As he ran in his blind panic, he stumbled over a large root, losing his footing and skidding along the forest floor. His shoe came off, but Talon didn't stop to retrieve it. The voice was right behind him now, a sinister whisper in his ear. "You can't escape!" He could hear the rustling of leaves, the snapping of twigs, something unseen was chasing him, but Talon didn't dare look behind him.

Bursting through the underbrush, Talon skidded to a halt at the edge of a cliff. Various tiny pebbles went flicking off the edge, falling into the steep drop below. Talon realized to his horror, he was at a dead end. Below was the riverbed, but he couldn't gauge if it was deep enough to jump without it being a death sentence.

"Nowhere left to run…" Hissed the voice. Those horrifying red orbs were coming closer through the darkness of the thicket. Desperation took hold. He had no choice. He sheathed his blade and took a deep breath. With one last glance over his shoulder, he leaped off the cliff. In that final glance, what Talon saw he could only describe as a demon. Shrouded in mist, deep red eyes…His young mind struggled to comprehend it, as he crashed into the water.

He hit the water with a bone-jarring splash, the cold shock stealing his breath away. The current grabbed hold of him, dragging him downstream. He fought to surface, gasping for air, his small limbs flailing against the pull of the water.

Pulled under once, twice, three times. Talon's strength rapidly waned, as his aching muscles tried one more time to break above the surface. Struggling to get in a breath. Mercifully, the river spat him out onto a rocky shore. He crawled onto the bank, collapsing onto the ground, shivering and gasping for breath.

Talon lay there, drenched and exhausted, staring up at the sky. He took a final look towards the forest edge, which looked so small and distant now. He couldn't see the demon, making him wonder if he had imagined it after all.

As Talon began to slowly half stumble, half walk his way back onto a path, he thought of what he'd tell his fellow slum denizens. They'd probably laugh, telling him he ate bad food and dreamed about a monster. Maybe Sneaks would believe him…

Being drenched was such a miserable experience. The more the fabric dried, the wetter it felt. Talon was freezing, his teeth chattered and he debated just pulling his jacket off. When he found a farmhouse after wandering for so long, it was like a lifeline had been thrown to the boy.

He drew the last dregs of his strength to make his way to the large barn. Keeping out of sight of the light that illuminated through the home's windows. The lock on the barn was laughably easy to pick with his trusty bobby pin, and Talon gained entry.

It stank of animals. Which was the best way Talon could describe it. But it was so, so warm here. A few horses were in pens, sleeping peacefully. They were not phased by Talon's intrusion, as he went to the far corner of the barn. He pulled off his remaining shoe and soaked hoodie. Putting them aside to dry out before settling himself into a large haypile, making a note to himself to leave at dawn's first light.

Despite his best efforts to assure himself it'd been just his imagination, Talon dreamed about the demon. It hissed his name, stalked him in his sleep. Talon didn't sleep easily that night.

Talon felt groggy when he woke the next morning. Light headed and his nose blocked, the harbingers of the dreaded flu. He groaned weakly and pulled the blanket over himself more, blocking out the light. He didn't want to get up yet…But he had-

"Wait…" Talon frowned to himself, looking at the material covering him. He did not go to sleep with this blanket over himself. Talon sat up with a start, panic surging through him. Where did this come from? Where was his jacket? It wasn't on the ground where he'd left it!

As he panic began to reach new heights, a gentle throat clearing got his attention. Talon turned his head, to where an older woman stood. She was probably in her late fifties if Talon had to guess. Brown tousled hair slowly starting to gray and crows eyes gracing her face. She held his hoodie in her hands, now dry and folded neatly. She asked him something, gesturing at the item of clothing in her hands.

Talon gathered she was asking if he wanted his hoodie back. He nodded quickly, letting her place it down near him. She kept a respectable distance as she did so, to Talon's slight relief.

She asked him something else, Talon elected to ignore it. Slipping his new dry and warm hoodie back over himself, feeling warmth envelop his chest. She seemed to frown when Talon didn't respond, now asking something in an even stranger sounding dialect. This time it was more coarse and throaty. When he didn't respond again, she tapped her chin in thought.

The next words she spoke caught him off guard.

"Noxian?" She asked slowly.

Talon's eyes lit up, his gaze snapping to her. She had a moment of excitement he'd understood and she'd sussed him out, before it seemed to rapidly change to concern. Talon wasn't sure why though.

"Yes!" Talon managed to say, though his throat felt like sandpaper right now. "Where…Where am I?"

He expected her to say the name of some village on the Noxian border. There was so many, he'd not be able to pin them directionally even so. But the name she said made the young boy's eyes widen.

"You in Demacia, Noxian." She spoke slowly. "Why you here? Cause trouble?" She asked in her attempts at broken Noxian.

Talon quickly tried to explain his situation, about falling into the crate, being stuck for days. He didn't mention the farm, or the demon. But emphasized many times, he was lost. It became clear however this woman's Noxian was poor, she just looked at him in a helpless way. Barely understanding his sentences.

"Noxus is far now," she explained slowly. "Days on foot. You are far from home."

Talon run his fingers through his matted hair. Far from home. In a place he'd only heard of in Sneak's stories, Demacians hated Noxians. They were a strange, isolated people, People like Talon were dangerous to the Demacians. It made sense now why that man had tried to grab hold of him, no doubt this woman would try to harm him too. He rooted for his knife, only to find it missing from his hoodie pocket.

"My knife?" Talon challenged her. "Where is it?!"

She said something in her stupid gibberish, so he snarled again. Demanding his weapon. She soon sighed and pointed, his knife was placed on a nearby hay bale and Talon rushed to retrieve it. Glaring at her.

"Your eye…" She said gently, gesturing to it. "Looks…Bad. Very sore."

Talon just began to get ready to leave. Shoving his remaining shoe back on. "Go East," she said to him next. "Border is East."

With a curt nod, Talon shoved past her and ran into the break of dawn, her final words to him being "Good luck, boy."

It was still chilly out, Talon was able to see his own breath as he panted with strain. Now he needed to head east, but figuring out which way East was from here…He mumbled a little to himself.

"North…West- no that's North-..." If he had a compass this could be a lot easier. That was when an idea sprung to mind, if he gets into a city, he could steal one. They sold them at every jewelry shop in Noxus, those shops were the harder ones to pilfer from, but Talon had to try if he ever wanted to get back home.

He picked a direction and walked. As all roads often lead to a town or city.

Talon walked for a day, taking shelter in someone's coal storage at night. He stopped a few times to steal from any homes that seemed unoccupied for the day. He struck gold when one had an entire pie just sitting on the counter top.

It was the nicest thing he'd ever eaten. As he walked along the path, scooping out handfuls to chow down on. His hoodie and face eventually became stained with a purple colour. Once the pie was completely devoured, he flipped the tin to lick at any remnants then tossed it aside onto the open road.

"Three breaks in one stretch of land? Has to be related to the attempted robbery up the northern part."

"He said it was a skinny looking kid, barely older than ten. Filthy, stank to the high heavens and feral to boot."

"Probably some teen away causing trouble. Send a team out to look for this little trouble maker, assure the rural communities it'll be swiftly dealt with."

"Of course sir, we'll have a patrol search the area at once for this kid. His little crime spree won't go unpunished."