Forge of worlds - League of legends fanfic

Chapter 8 - Fight for the cause

The morning sun of Shurima rose above the surface of the ground, the bitter cold that slowly heated in it's presence. Two silhouettes were caught afar, walking in the same space though they had been walking for hours. Not even once in their travel now had the even caught a glimpse of a town or camp, which drove Ezreal to realise how much in ruin Shurima had been. In his past travels he remembered how he had crossed paths with that of a royal, long before the news would spread over the entire region if Azir's revival. She had her eyes out for the golden artefact he had stolen from one of the tombs underneath the sun disk and it had apparently aired to the folk praising their past successors. A single flick of her circled blade he would have lost her head, realising that even the royal bloodline grew up in crucial conditions and fought for a price in their world. He managed to retrieve it home, but with a great dent in his ego because she seemed far more skilled than he were and rubbed it in every way but gently.
His shoulders sunk at the thought of her again and the words she exactly spoke. 'Hahaha, you fancy people really have no idea of real combat.' As a little child he kicked some sand away and dug his hands in his pockets.
Kai'Sa caught the sudden movement in the corner of her eye and she stopped to see for his well-being. 'Are you alright? Are you hurt?' She asked dead serious, her face tightened that just a single blow gave you the idea it would crack.
Ezreal frowned at how serious she reacted to his sudden dislike for something 'Hurt? No, I'm perfectly fine, I was just thinking about something.' With his hands still dug in his pants he exhaled the annoyance out of his lungs and recovered back to his normal behaviour. 'Let's go, I can't wait to take a bath after this, there's sand in places where the sun doesn't shine.'
'Like your shoes?' Kai'Sa added as she quickly followed his pace, ending right beside him. Though her distorted voice was sometimes hard to understand, he knew for some reason exactly what she were saying.
A grin lit up his face and he suddenly forgot about the whole encounter. 'Yeah, like my boots. You really don't hang a lot around other people, do you?'
Kai'Sa were quiet for some minutes, the peepholes of her helmet that stared right before her as if now she had been sent to memory lane. 'It's not really a choice of mine, all of the people I met so far were frightened at the sight of me, they even tried to attack me the moment I reached their vision.'
Though he spent his life long in society he oddly understood the rejection she got from others, Ezreal was alike in the different sense. His intention was to live a good life to the bitter end, even if that meant having it his own way and plundering tombs, testing people's patience it never really left a great reputation, aside from the ladies, Ezreal tried not to smile as it would be taken out of context. 'So I'm the first person you meet that is not scared of you?' He asked curiously.
'No,' She mumbled. He did not have to look at her to know that her helmet crawled back it's skin, because whenever it did the awful sound of squashed slime would sound. 'Not long ago I managed to save a small town to the east, but no one had really seen me aside from a little girl. I was worried she would run back screaming to her parents, instead she began to ask me questions of who and what I were.' Ezreal was caught in a stare the moment she had mentioned the little girl, because of the overwhelmed faint smile she had. The wind gently pulled her hair back and revealed her watery eyes. She really did not meet anyone.
'I just hope she's alright. Whenever I'm lonely crossing the dessert our conversation replays in my head, she was so fascinated with these tools.' She raised her arms, the scales of the suit that shone in the morning light and revealed the very fine textures, that skin could catch the fling of a blade and still left in perfect condition. 'Though she was of such young age she reminded me I'm still just like her, underneath the shell I'm still human.'
'So you've never met anyone older than she was? Or like, partied just for the fun of if?' He felt stupid for just asking.
'Do I look like I have the time to party, Azraiel.' He frowned at the pronoun cation of his name and stopped his walk abruptly.
'One, it's EZreal, though I look like a g-' He interrupted himself and quit before he would play more with her innocence. 'We have time right, it will at least take us two more days before we're there, I can spare a few minutes just to see you different.'
'Different?' She repeated, frowning at the idea of it. 'How do you party?'
'Simple, just enjoy yourself. Don't you ever dance from time to time or just yell out of excitement?'
Now this is language that Kai'Sa spoke, her smile was from ear to ear as she fell on her toes and nodded her head. 'Of course, whenever I hit a void from a mile away with a single shot from my canons and kill them right there and then I usually throw in some praising,' Ezreal looked surprised to hear her excitement for battle. She aimed at a rock that was quite far from where they were, sinking somewhat through her knees the canons on her shoulder blades twitched and moved on top of her shoulder, making the same sound as when a gun was getting loaded she shot a missile towards it. When the purple beam had the rock right at it's heart Kai'Sa jumped up out of excitement. 'Yes!' When she fell back on her feet she shuffled from one side to another, each time she did one of side of her suit revealed itself by opening it's skin or the twitch of her canon. Ezreal laughed at the sight of her little victory dance, with no sense of embarrassment it had only made the tension between them more enjoyable. They both laughed, Ezreal catching a tear of laughter in between. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder when her canons sunk back on her shoulder blades and resumed their walk. 'Seriously Kai'Sa, for a second I thought you were as serious as every hunter I met.' Still caught in his laughter he eagerly gasped for air. 'Everyone is usually so serious, but the more time we spend the more you grow on me.'
He had not noticed the happiness on her face when he spoke too enthusiastic about her personality. She had found herself so weird for just speaking in third person whenever she did something wrong. At that moment she did feel the itch of an embarrassing memory when she reminded herself she sometimes introduced herself to the void as if they knew what she were saying. Though they did not understand her, it sometimes called for the most confusing moments.
'I feel like this is the start of a great friendship, let's hope Rakan does not find out.'
'Rakan?' She asked, blinking at the knowledge that he probably new a lot more people, it was so unthinkable to her to know more than one person you could consider of as a friend.
'Yeah, we had some trouble when we met but after all of that was fixed, we became pretty good friends,' With his arm still wrapped around her shoulders he guided her through the desert. 'His girlfriend has the tendency to throw some daggers at me though.' He flinched at the moment when he saw a feather dagger racing his way and actually managing to cut the side of his thumb when he touched one of her wing covers and she had warned him multiple times not to touch it. He then promised to never mess around with a female Vastaya again, since it proved that they were vicious.
'Girlfriend? Do people use a pronoun to specify one's gender related to being a friend?'
'No, when you call someone your girlfriend it means you're in a romantic relationship with them and kind of make a bond to stay faithful to it.' He almost tripped over his own feet when she asked him if he had a girlfriend and he chuckled with a blush on his face, at first not knowing what he had to say. Pulling his arm from her shoulders he scratched the back of his head, seemingly out of breath. 'There is this one girl I really like to be my girlfriend, but she's playing hard to get right now.'
'Hard to get? Do humans have the same rituals as the void?' Her frown quickly changed into disgust. Ezreal laughed at the sight of her thinking of the void and asked what she meant. 'Whenever it is time for the void to recreate, the male battles for the female of their choice, they rip their throat and paint their skulls with their blood and she decides whenever someone is worthy.' Not even a minute into her explanation the blood had left Ezreal out of his face to imagine the same land sharks ripping each other's throat out just.. have some fun?
'No, we humans are a lot more sophisticated. We usually take some time before we realise someone "worthy", I'll give it to you that the women really decide, but we don't have to kill each other for that.'
'Then what is it that you do?'
Ezreal shook his shoulders, digging his hands in his pockets he thought deeply. 'We try to spend time with them, take them to nice places, give her a gift now and then and when you think it's getting more serious, you guys just commit to a bond to stay faithful to each other and do whatever you like.'
Kai'Sa stood still and caught the attention of Ezreal again, her eyes glanced every direction, looking for something while the explorer and waited patiently. When she found the place she were looking for she pointed south, her finger pricking into the direction of the sun. 'There is a oasis not far from here that is beautiful during the night, I retreat there whenever I'm near. There is a perfect view on the moon and has plenty of replenishments. The cactus fruit are the most delicious ones to pluck.' Ezreal observed every bit of her as she pointed in the direction, only looking at it for a mere second only to save the image in his brain. The way she pointed towards the direction had softened every muscle in her face, with a faint smile painting almost a portrait as the shadows danced over her head she looked so vulnerable and innocent, almost adorable to him.
He quickly shook his head to wake himself from the stupid thought, caught off guard it surprised him how human she was despite her looks, more than the average one that fought one another. She allowed herself to fully express what she felt, unless she were in battle, she had such a calm aura to her.
'If you take her there you might have a shot to be considered worthy of being your girlfriend.' He imagined how it would be if he actually managed to get Lux out of Demacia, he doubted that she would like the desert, but the image of being alone with her in the oasis did spark some thought that should not be mentioned and he had the same devious smile again.
'Come on, let's continue. I think there should be a place somewhere we can camp out and rest for the night.'

After hours and hours of travel, the sun slowly sunk back towards the horizon and shed it's last lights. Leaving a palette of warm colours, with a hint of blue and purple from the evening night if was truly a beautiful sight. While Ezreal had made a bed out of the leaves of a palm tree, warmed by the presence of a camp fire, he had retreated himself to dreamland. Kai'Sa did not have to mention that she would take cover over him, since he knew enough about her that the safety of humanity meant more to her than her own well-being. With her knees resting against her chest she looked over the landscapes, it began to chill down and the cold officially cooled the sands. In their path they met with minor inconvenience when small voidlings crept onto the sands from their wake, but what was in their disadvantage, was enough of a advantage to keep her second skin from hunger and consuming her next. It did not sting as usual, a faint shock and a twitch from her second skin was only because it lived just like her body did: to bring all it's resources to it's core. She studied every vein that rested underneath it, followed every scratch and small dent. Whenever she caught for it's blood pressure it all went to one spot: between her shoulder blades, right where the heart was located underneath. She knew the skin considered her as home, sometimes she even thought it might have a mind of its own aside from hunting and feeding itself. A deep sigh made its way out, her eyes staring out to the sky. No cloud to trouble the night, stars that lit the canvas with an occasional bird passing by. She lives for nights like these, where one could close their eyes and wake up to another tomorrow, with the only thing that could stress them being nightmares than death by the void. Her glance fell over her shoulder to the blond male who had rolled on his stomach and his head resting on his arms. Quietly one of her fingers travelled to his face, brushing a strand of hair out of his face to observe the calm state of him being asleep. Never had she met a day where she could see other people and even if she did, she was way too young to even remember. If only, she thought as her fingers caressed his cheek. Wondering what a human would feel like when her hands touched one, she lost sense of touch after the voidling had crawled over both arms, it had saddened her for months on end for not being able to feel what she was touching, but the occasional touch of her own face she knew she still had the ability to feel something. Never did she want someone to suffer as much as she did and though her state was one of the worst, not being able to make use of her own senses than those supported by the void, it brought her great joy that no other child had to suffer as much as she did, for them she kept on fighting, for them another day was ahead of her.
Leaning back to watch the stars from the ground, her darkened hair covering the ground around her head, her lavender eyes counted every star until the darkness gave in once more and her eyelids shut tight.