[Tales of Runeterra]: Malik (Shurima)

Tales of Runeterra is a fan series exploring the inner workings of Valoran's City-States/Major locations. These stories are based on my creative opinion of what "living" in each location would be like. However, instead of viewing it through the eyes of champions, you get to see it from a citizen's point of view (more or less), ones of my creation. This particular story is of Malik, and their life within the Shurima Desert. What you see is just the beginning, and each Tale will be updated regularly after initial release. I hope you enjoy :)

Malik The Sai, Shurima Dawn

I made quick work of our pursuers.

Xer’Sai corpses littered the sands around us, their strange ichor sinking through the ground. This was my doing. The pack had ambushed us, ignoring my provisions for some reason. I signaled my puppets to rise from the dunes. Four Xer’Sai emerged from the sands and were suspended in the air. They were merely hollowed shells from previous encounters which I had sense given new purpose. Where flesh once existed, I replaced with mechanizations, and where muscle had once commanded the vessels, strings of arcane energy now performed the task. I inspected each puppet, but their was no visible damage, nor anything else which might of alerted the actual Xer’Sai of their falsehood.

What had alerted them?

The flesh of the recently killed had nearly been reduced to nothing but sludge by the time I reassessed them. I took a flask containing a grey-blue liquid, and doused the repugnant flesh to prevent damage to the shells. With them, I would be able to make more puppets, and perhaps improve my masquerade to some extent. With a flick of my wrist, I opened the hatch from my largest puppet: A camel which had been attacked on one of our first runs. It had sense found use as a decoy of sorts, but I had not put it to use on this particular run.

An oversight, perhaps.

After storing the shells of the freshly killed Xer’Sai, I took a moment to assess the damage to the merchants. None had died, but one of their mounts were butchered by the beasts. I may have considered making a puppet of it as well if the damage was not so extensive. I would’ve been better off starting from scratch, though it may still prove itself useful by other means. I orchestrated my four puppets around the corpse, each securing itself as best as it could to what remained. The caravan looked to me for direction, and I gestured that we must get moving. The merchants remounted, and began traveling westward to the nearest village. I manipulated my camel puppet as means of a mount, and proceeded to follow, my Xer’Sai dragging behind the bloodied bait which resulted from the confrontation.