Short Story League of Legends
Hello! The following is a short story that I've written based on a random dream I had last night about the Howling Abyss and some of our favorite Champions. I have never done this type of thing before, but I've felt that dream was almost too real. I realize that it might not be the best, so I'm not expecting much positive feedback on it. But at the very least, maybe someone will find some enjoyment out of it.
Well, that's all! Enjoy!
[slayer-pantheon-popcorn]
The air was dark and dank, but the gripping feel of foulness was finally loosening around her. She knew that she had not been followed. Evelynn 
had the mysterious artifact 
in hand, and it seemed to be the only thing worth taking from this wretched twisting labyrinth, but not for it's value in gold, for such an artifact as this certainly did not deserve to be kept in the light of the world. Evelynn had finally found an alternate path out of the awful mess of mazes that tormented her psyche for what felt like an eternity.
The fates of the others, she could feel the thought nagging in the back of her mind, what would happen to them? It didn't matter. She neared closer and closer to freedom. It wasn't a pleasant feeling as one would have thought. She felt the grim waning from her skin. What would she have gained by going back for them? What would she have lost? She silenced the thoughts as they continued to arise in her mind. Finally, had found an alternate exit, one she had not known of until it called to her, beckoning her. Taunting her. She felt the overwhelming urge to seal the way behind her shut. The artifact she had, for some unknown reason to her, told her it could seal the way shut. Indeed, it seemed to want to. It's eye emitted a brilliant laser beam that melded the magical doors shut air-tight. She would speak nothing of it to anyone. It was time for to leave this place...
LeBlanc's 
imaging had appeared near the anxious and thought endulged figure...
"What happened?"
"It seems our guest has ... Dissappeared."
"How unfortunate. How close were you to success?"
"Victory was in our grasp. At least... it seemed. Unimaginable power, Gone. In the blink of an eye."
"My sources say that your location seems to be stable. We can arrange our mystics the opportunity to extract you and that woman shortly."
"Please. Do so soon. This place stinks with awful magic. A normal man would be driven insane here."
"Very well. We shall begin at once!"
"Hmph."
"I don't know the way out of this place. I don't even know exactly how big this is. It looks a lot bigger on the inside than out."
"The magic here seems to be growing in power. As if we disturbed something that should never have awakened. We must leave. Soon."
"But... .... well... okay. I'm with you. Braum? Are you ok?"
"Always!" His expression seemed unchanged as always. "But, Tristana, what about you! Are you okay?"
"Braum? Please. I've never felt happier now that we can leave. Besides that, there are way more scarier things around Bandle City than this old place could muster up." She didn't want to let her feelings show, but she, too, was quite ready to abandon this cold, hellish place.
"Now if the 2 of you are ready," he interrupted.
"Right!"
"Okay. We go now, ya?"
"This way. I can tell the magic loosens its might in this direction"
The maze of labyrinth was deadly. Traps seemed to erupt in systematic fashion. More than once, various members of the small group would nearly succumb to death's grip. Braum's door had taken a severe beating, even for a door such as that one. Traces of soot and frozen magic had lined its surface. The farthest most corner of the maze was the location everything had come to a climax in. The chance meeting with a supernatural force that ominously watched them all, hungering for new souls not since the abandonment of this place ages ago. The violent clash of Fire, arrows, ammunition, and malevolent dark energy lingered, now inanimate rocks that once formed massive creatures of might and magic. In that part of the labyrinth, an intricately designed shrine was left disturbed and unfulfilled. The presence was left watching it's sacred place robbed of the precious artifact , now seemed to wail in grief over its missing keepsake, in lieu of all that had remained behind.
It all happened so fast. Lissandra's 
words were accurate and true. "You should not be here." Her astral, ghostly visage warned Swain , who was the only one capable of seeing this projection. "You will be lost to this place for eternity for your treachery." For a moment, reflecting on those words, he wished he had not been there, if only for the sake of being outwitted in his mission. glanced over his surroundings once more before the 
spell was complete, removing him and his aide 
from the scene and safely putting them in a location only known to them and LeBlanc nearby on stable ground.
"That evil little wench... I wonder where she got off to..." he mused to himself as he vanished.
"This way is blocked off, but ... is there any other way out of here?"
"I don't want to answer that question. I just want to get out of here. The air is not right, it's only getting worse by the minute." Varus' countenance was distraught. He knew that something was happening inside of this place. It seemed to be alive. It seemed... pissed.
"Keep looking. There has to be another way out of-"
"Uh, I hate to spoil the moment. But this place is beginning to collapse. Can you feel that rumble in the distance?"
"Yeah..." Varus replied anxiously. "That's our way out!"
"Are you mad?"
"I'm not ready to die here. And I definitely am not going to wait for help. Don't worry," he reassured his companions, "I haven't lost all sense of self-preservation."
The labyrinth itself seemed to quiver and quake, like the stomach of a giant beast who had eaten something disgusting. As the trio walked closer to the sound of the structure's vibration, the floor around them began to give, crumbling into loose cobble stone, dropping them several hundred units into another level, a cavernous path way.
"This is most unsettling. What do our mystics say about the source of that magic? It was unlike anything I've ever felt before."
"Unforunately, they aren't able to divine the source. It is as almost as if it predates any Noxus' and Demacia's archives on magic."
"Very well. Take the 2 artifacts we have and ... regrettably, turn them over to the Institute. We have no use of them if we cannot reverse engineer its mystical powers. Perhaps it's better in their hands now. At least we will make a pretty coin from this."
"As you wish, Sir Swain. For the Black Rose."
"This way is caved in as well. I think ... I think we're trapped."
"I wish you didn't say that."
"Don't worry. There is always a way, ya?" The poro on Braum's shoulder seemed to smile with reassured confidence as he looked it over with a bright, positive smile. If there was one thing you could count on about Braum. He always put people's hearts at ease.
"At the very least, those stone creatures don't seem to have any more interest in us. But we're still in the thick of this unnatural mysticism. We have to find a way out of here!"
Pausing for a second, Tristana showed a thought provoked determination. "Braum is right, y'know? Stand back!"
"Wait! TRISTANA, NO!"
Beneath her stilettoed heels, Evelynn could sense something happening. What had become of the others? And what exactly was Swain and Katarina doing in a place like that so suddenly? Why did she let Varus, OF ALL PEOPLE, talk her into coming there in the first place? The prospect of finding unimaginable wealth always got her blood going, but once she got inside, her blue skin crawled something awful and the dank air's spectral chill was nearly immobilizing to her.
"Well, as long as I am alive, I don't think it's worth depressing myself over. They will just have to find another way." The Eye's omnipotence spoke to her mind, urging her to get to freedom. It's freedom. And so she left for the surface up a treacherous precipice away from the howling noise that plagued that deep trench.
In an epic maneuver, Braum had bashed the back of his door to blast through a pile of debris that was piling up high in their path, just before it became insurmountable. Dashing to the newly created clearing in the blue tainted cavern, he held the door up high over his head protecting the pathway he recreated to allow Varus and Tristana safe passage before quickly dashing to Varus' side from under the ton of rocks that had been building up above him. The man was deft in his movements, almost seemingly awkward for a person of his size. There was no going back that way now. Only forward.
"Before we're all rock sandwiches!" he shouted.
Braum, Tristana, and Varus ran like never before, all the while dodging rock to the left after boulder to the right to escape a fatal demise. They saw a faint light ahead of them growing as they made their way in the only direction they could.
"This must be the way out of here..." yelled Tristana, "C'mon! We're almost there!"
Katarina seemed shaken after that fierce battle as they made their way on the horseback ride back to Noxus. When asked by Sir Swain what was the matter with her, she could only reply halfway.
"That creature we defeated... I .... It spoke to me. It spoke to my heart."
"Oh? And what did it say?"
"I don't know exactly. It wasn't really speaking. Something about it just kept twisting my mind... I was ready to stay..." Her voice was shakey. "Swain..."
"You'll be fine. You've been in worse situations than that before, right? Just shake it off and be ready for our next mission."
"Right. I just..." She did not seem to be herself, but her resolute self was beginning to return. "Right. Let's continue."
Swain was writing something in his book, a seemingly impossible task to do on the back of a horse, but he did it with ease. "The poor girl, " he thought to himself, "this trip actually made her think about HIM
! Who are the these watchers who can peer into a human's darkest reaches of soul?"
"I wouldn't ponder such things, Sir Swain. She is not like us."
LeBlanc's intrusive telepathy never surprised Swain, but he did somehow find it irritating how she always popped up at the most convenient moments when he's ready to converse.
"These Watchers are starting to merit my attention, LeBlanc. I feel we might be dealing with something terrible soon. It could mean trouble, not just for Noxus, but for all of Runeterra." His brow was lifted above the other one, showing a type of concern that Swain had not shown for a very long time to a human being. "We'll be home in about half a day's ride. I will begin determining your next mission soon, LeBlanc."
Tristana had to use about the last of her buster shot ammo to leap the great endless chasm below onto the the edge of the steepened crevice that shook violently from the cavern's collapsing on itself. Braum made a death-defying move as well, pounding the back of his shield-door so hard that the fire billowed in an intense stream that propelled him and the door upward over the chasm. Varus' hand reached over the top of the ledge. His only means was to run and make a leap of faith before the rocks came crashing down behind him, forever sealing that cavern's deathly pathway carved out of the side of the chasm. Braum helped him get a footing on solid ground on the other side.
"Wow. Glad to still have you with us, Varus!"
"I told you. I'm on borrowed time. I have no intention of giving it to this place." He released Braum's hand, pulling himself the rest of the way up. As he stood and dusted himself off, Varus looked at the cavern pathway deep down the side of the chasm, seemingly 1000 units down.
"What do you think happened to Evelynn?" he asked, finally breaking the long silence."Do you think she made it out?"
"Positive." Varus said in a one word-response. "Remember, she's from the Shadow Isle, that one. There is no doubt in my mind."
"Eh?"
"Well, thats what everyone says..." shrugged Tristana.
"Let's go. There's nothing more to this place than a crepid old ruin as of now."
As the trio turned and began making their way back to civilization, they passed by Light's camp.
LIGHT: "Hello there! Back so soon?" he asked. "Err. wait. What happened in there? I could have sworn I heard something going on. Are you 4 alright?"
No response. They kept walking some distance away.
LIGHT: "Er... pardon my asking, but, there were 4 of you correct? Where is the other one?"
Still no response, save for Tristana giving Light a quick glancing shrug as she followed behind Varus, and Braum smiled his natural smile towards him as he passed with a wave following behind Tristana. But Varus only looked ahead.
LIGHT: "Oh wait!! What about supplies! Did you find anything?" He was sure his elevated voice was loud enough to be heard. "Ooh... blast... they're already gone..." he said to his old robot, Jeeves. "Hope business picks up."
Outside of that hellish place some parsecs away, Evelynn sat in lush green grass among some roots on the shady side of a tree at the edge of a forest as the sun began to set. In her hand, her prize . She could feel itself telling her its name, "Eye of the Watchers", in a voiceless tell-all.
"Well, well..." came a familiar voice. It was him.
"Tobias! How did you find me?" Evelynn was in total shock to hear his voice from the sunny side of the tree, yet her eyes never left her prize.
"Well, I was just hangin around countin' my cards. Figured I'd drop in to see what you were up to."
Although couldn't see around the tree, she could tell from the sound of his voice reaching around the tree in that forest that he was still hiding his eyes with his hat, and looking down at his cards in-hand as he fiddled around with them.
"What do you want?"
pulled his hat down gently, as if to respectfully acknowledge her presence. "I just wanted to see what you were up to, Darlin'."
She could tell Twisted Fate was actually worried, or at the very least, intrigued.
"I can't let you have it. You know that."
"Eve, what do you have there?"
"I don't know. It's none of your business."
"Hmph. You havn't changed a bit. Still as secretive as ever." His voice only minorly seemed to change. "I thought I wasn't gonna see you again. Had some bad vibes. Really just needed to make sure you were still alright."
Evelynn was silent.
"You and your little 'friends' stumbled into some bad mojo in that place. I just came to warn you about whatever that thing is you found. Don't let it consume you, Darlin. I know you spent some time in the Isles and all, but that lil' doohicky right there goes way back before our time."
"How do you know so much about it, TF?"
"Call it a hunch." Fate pinched the brim of his hat between the tips of his 2 fingers. A smirking smile crept out from under its brim. "Don't suppose I could offer you dinner to help you ease your mind tonight, could I?" He had no idea why he had asked Evelynn that. But it was like him to take a gamble against impossible odds.
stood there for a few seconds waiting for a witty shut down, but there was no response. He couldn't even hear her breath anymore.
"Uh... Eve?" now standing alert, he peered around the tree, only to notice he was talking to himself now. "Hmph... Heh heh"
Twisted Fate stroked his beard in his hand as he held up his card, performing his own disappearing act.
THE END
There was a long time that no one said anything as they walked. All 3 () were trying to shake off the chills they had gotten from being in that place for... how long was it exactly they were in there? Hours at least. Maybe a day.
"Y'know? I'm still pissed that she ran off like that, and with our treasure! We coulda been killed and..."
"She was right to do so." he interrupted, "there was no way she was going to make it out alive. As you can see, we barely made it ourselves."
"Well... I'm still a little pissed-er...no pun intended."
Braum laughed such a jolly good-natured laugh, implying he was happy she made it out as well.
They all walked off into the sunset.