[Short Story] Lantern Leap

[[[ I haven't written fan-fiction in a really long time, and never for League. But this has been in my head for a while, so I figured what the heck. Enjoy - and please leave feedback, especially if you are a writer as well. I'd be interested in hearing your comments :) This is a completely unedited first draft, written in the post composer.

Written from Bronze/Silver perspective. ]]]

15... Tall blades blocked out the hot Summoner's Rift sun. Caitlyn stood silently in the brush, listening to the sound of the mindless minions marching by. Her team of five were already seventeen minutes into their hunt. One tier of the opponent's towering sentinels had fallen. The post she had been charged with at the beginning of the hunt still stood proud and strong, if not just a touch chipped.

11... She listened for several seconds before setting her gun down and leaning against the outside of the dragon's pit. Small glimpses of bright blue sky overhead occasionally shone through the blades that touched above her head. On her left the quietly gurgling river tickled her ear, on her right the silence of the jungle prickled her spine.

8... Apprehension began to build in the Piltover Cop's gut. She felt the familiar compulsion and reacted, snatching up her rifle and stepping to the riverside edge of the brush. Immediately the compulsion changed, and she paced back to the dragon pit rock wall. This brush pacing was familiar and soothing - often had she worked with the Summoner that now commissioned her expertise. She trusted the erratic compulsions that came as strongly as she trusted her policing instincts - perhaps even more so. Only when she felt disconnected from the sense did she reluctantly head back toward's their blue nexus and it's safe well. Without the connection, she could only process what was directly before her, in plain sight on the Rift and within reach from where she stood.

5... The roar of leathery wings crescendoed slowly. Cait followed an innate order towards the river once again, getting close enough to the edge of the brush to peek through the stalks and over the shallow water. Fog covered most of the area and obscured her vision of the jungle on the other side.

3... Cait fingered the trigger on her gun. It was almost time, but she could not be the first one to expose herself. She saw the river scuttle crab scurry by but dutifully ignored it. Not yet.

2... A gusty breeze ruffled the brush concealing her. The Dragon's growl echoed off the jungle walls as he came in low and menacing. Caitlyn shuttered in both dread and anticipation, still surveying what she could see of the river.

1... The ear-splitting war cry emitted by the pit dweller did not even startle her. Slim body curled and tensed - the lady predator was ready to pounce. Gurgling splashes across the river reached her ears, but her vision was too obscured by the terrain and fog to see who was approaching. Going to have to trust the Summoner. Again. Cait still had a bitter taste left after the last failed attempt to claim the Dragon's buff. That had been one moment Cait wished she could ignore the inborn compulsion that left her face first in the river's ankle-deep water.

She listened as the sounds of war erupted around her. Dragon screeched. Metal clashed. The opposing Leona's sun flare hit hard, the friendly Lux's battle cry for Demacia lit up the river like fireworks on the Runeterran Lunar Revel. Kha'zix dashed past, too close for comfort as the brush waved with the motion.

Still Caitlyn waited, vision still almost completely obscured. Her body ached with the need to join the fighting. Her prized rifle, outfitted with an Infinity Edge attachment and an almost complete Stattik Shiv, felt hot to the touch. She grinned. Even the tools are eager. But... We must wait. She clenched her jaw. Now she sounded like Jinx, talking to her weapons.

Speaking of Jinx... Cait did some quick math in her head. Her direct opponent should be joining the fray soon, if she wasn't already there. A giggle followed the cry of a dying Lux, and Cait knew. The vandal was close - and going down, if Cait ever got the tug of the call.

The clunk of a large metal object startled Cait out of her brooding. The draw and her response came immediately. Caitlyn eye's followed the chain of the green glowing lantern over the wall of the dragon pit, heart racing as fingers touched cold metal. It was a blind leap of faith. There would be a split second where she could actually see the action. The lantern yanked Cait up and over the wall so fast she almost dropped her weapon - but years of practice allowed her to keep her grip.

Dragon was injured, possibly near death. But the remaining three members of her team were completely ignoring him in favor of the true enemy. Leona had already attached herself to Thresh - her face registering her mistake as she saw Cait hit the ground. As soon as her feet touch land, Cait used the recoil of her net to push herself just out of the Sun Worshipper's shield range, then sent her peacemaker straight through Leona. The woman fell in a brilliant flash of sunlight. Cait had a second to survey the river and noted with mild satisfaction the bodies littered around Dragon's Pit. If Thresh had sent the lantern sooner, maybe she might have had a hand in those kills, and would have received bonus gold. But he had not, and the Summoner had not called her out of the brush.

Caitlyn could only hope the unclear reasoning was well placed.

A small flash of light towards the jungle drew Cait's attention. Thresh was floating off in that direction, grinning and pointing with his sinister light fingers - Cait shuddered. Whether he was on her side or not, he still creeped her out. Cerulean eyes followed him as she took off with him, Dragon left alone in his pit to lick his wounds. Don't worry, I'll be back for you.

Whoever had summoned Thresh into this hunt failed to hold him to warding. Caitlyn had told him time and again to get wards into the bushes for vision, but he had only returned a blank stare to her. She had sighed many times this game - why did she bother? It wasn't like he could do anything about the compulsions his own Summoner failed to send-

The tirade was interrupted by the familiar call of her conscience. Cait looked to Thresh and returned his self-pleased grin. There was a successful Thresh ward placed somewhere where Cait could not see - but where the Summoner's all-seeing eye could. She knelt and peered through the special techmaturgical scope her mother had given her on the day she became Piltover's sheriff. It gave her a beautiful vision through the wall, through the jungle brush and monsters, of the vandal Jinx running past an unseen ward to expected safety.

Cait could not miss, and there were no Dragon Battle survivors to step in the way.

The last of the Reds fell.

Cait and Thresh both let out a holler as the Rift exploded with the League Announcer's voice. Perhaps she could have done more, but the double kill resulted in the rest of her Stattik.

She could feel the acceptance of her Summoner surge through her as she used her recall rune to return to the well. She mentally returned the congratulations - her Summoner may not be the best, but they were learning.