Forge of worlds - League of legends fanfic

Chapter 9 - Almost home

'You need to be careful at any time, Kaisa.' Sitting on the knee of her father the little child almost fell asleep from the gentle combs through her dark hair. Falling almost off of her spot her father wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her closer, as if he were about to tell her a story before bedtime about princesses that lived a horrible faith but ended up with fortune and luck. Instead her father would tell her about the dangers of the world, to keep her safe in times he had no vision over her. 'Below our feet is a word like ours, but different.'
The five year old stared with big, hazel eyes at her father, holding onto his shirt as he held her in an embrace. 'How different papa?' She whispered to not wake her mother sleeping in the other room.
'They're the opposite of us, they have no kindness, no soul. Monsters with fangs, claws, eyes and no eyes, anything that you find scary they are.' Kaisa curled into a ball against her father, her small hands clenched into a fist as she stared at him in horror. 'As long as you watch out and keep yourself safe, nothing will happen to you, little flower.'
'I don't want them to take me, papa.' She whispered, the memory that faded slowly before her eyes, as if being a spectator and no longer a part of the past. Seeing their bodies slowly turn into a silhouette, the contrast of the room and the light of the candles consuming the image it withdrew in her mind, forgotten into the depths of her unconsciousness with the last words of her father sounding like an echo in her mind.
'They will never take you, if they ever capture you I will do anything to get you back.'

Ezreal slowly opened his eyes waking to a new sun, the rays of light almost blinding him. Groaning irritable he shook his head gently and rolled on his side, to his surprise now staring to his travel companion resting right beside him. Her eyes were shut tight, her head resting on her hands folded into a pillow. He wondered if she were uncomfortable lying on her side on the hard ground. Not daring to move an inch he watched her every slight movement that she made in her sleep, her facial expressions were tense, almost sad. Wondering where her mind had dropped itself of to he kept his focus on her breathing, gentle and in a slow tempo her chest followed the same rhythm, her face slowly being at peace again the moment she sighed. Ezreal could watch her for hours, only because it calmed his mind that badly it made him forget about the real world, his purpose travelling around, in hopes to find them.
After minutes spending just watching her at peace her eyelids twitched, her body cramped up from the spot she was sleeping on for hours. Exhaling deeply she opened her eyes and stared directly into Ezreal's. Realising she had fallen asleep while watching over him she quickly got up and recovered herself.
'I'm deeply sorry, I should not have fallen asleep, we could-' But he had already raised his hand to interrupt her.
'Everything is cool, I'm just glad you got some rest yourself, not to offend but,' He got up from the ground, resting one of his hands he shook his shoulders free and quickly stretched himself. '-you had quite the eyebags before I fell asleep.' With his hands resting on his hips he stretched his back by leaning backwards and shook his hands and ankles one more time. 'We would've died sooner because you were too exhausted to fight anyone.'
Kai'Sa could not argue with his statement when the possibilities were most certainly there, she did not know how long she had been sleeping for since the sun was already peeking at it's highest. She rarely got a good amount of sleep when all she did was worry for the next day. It felt good to have the rest she deserved, though she had the feeling that her dreams were like any other day, a night spend dreaming all of her memories of the past, but not remembering a single fragment of it the moment she opened her eyes.
'Are you ready to continue or do you want to rest some more?'
'I'm ready.' She said determined, catching the wind in her hair as their gazed followed the path to his home. If they kept walking they would reach Piltover by evening, but it was a long road to follow and uncertainty for what might cross their path. It would only take a few hours for them to get into another region surrounded by jungle, the question was only if if they would make it in one piece. During their walk through the desert Ezreal had mentioned stories about the roads in Ixtal, he had no seen much of it but just like Shurima did Ixtal had it's long lost places, enriched with treasures and long lost artefacts. A story of a thousand colours as Kai'Sa never had set a foot outside of Shurima, eager to explore the new world. They promised to visit lands, see more of Shurima than the dangers, even the topic of exploring more tombs in the railways of the void. Kai'Sa agreed with everything, so long he promised to always fight together, though their travel might mean their bitter end. The explorer did not back away from death, he had faced many dangers and survived all. Whenever they caught the presence of a fellow traveller Kai'Sa and Ezreal hid, for her protection and the sake of Ezreal if he ever wanted to travel Shurima again without trouble.
'What's the world like outside of Shurima?' Kai'Sa asked as they saw the border in sight, the trees that towered above them, screaming the fertility of the season and humidity being so close to the flaming desert.
'You have Ionia, a lot of monks forming a group and practising magic in a very concentrated way, pretty boring if you ask me. Right now it's a region split in three races, the Vastaya, the Yordles and normal humans, like us.' Kai'Sa smiled happily when he included her into the same race and quickly followed after him as he held onto a tree branch to cross the path.
'There is Noxus, seriously no place to be, not even to joke around. It's basically a region filled with humans with the mind of a voidling, always hungry to battle and get slaughtered. Plus they're often in war with Ionia.'
'Because they're so different from each other?' Ezreal nodded, he climbed up onto a rock ledge and reached his hand out for Kai'Sa to climb with ease, even thought it was not needed. 'Difference is good, you need a key for a door to open, but trying to mix Ionia and Noxus is like trying to open a door with a spoon, there's no way to enter,' with a swift step he teleported ahead to see their current location and signed at her to come closer. 'Then you have Demacia, pretty democratic but very strict and formal. Magic is forbidden, because they think that it is dangerous for even the greatest master, they're not even aware that their princess is a mage herself.'
'Lux?' Kai'Sa said proudly to show the attention she had put into their conversation a day ago.
Ezreal smiled happily and almost melted of the idea to see her again, he had never been as close to her as he was with Kai'Sa right now, for who he had only known for a couple of days now. 'Luxanna, lady of luminosity. You should see her in combat, she is so pretty.'
'What is she like?' Curiosity filled her mind and shaped images of what Lux would be like, if she looked the same as Kai'Sa did. She had not seen a woman as grown as her.
'She's very held back, cares a lot about her family, especially Garen. Pretty shy, doesn't really talk much but she always likes to stay positive.'
Ezreal reached out his hand when Kai'Sa struggled just a bit to climb with him over one of the fallen trees that made the perfect bridge to cross the river. 'Maybe because she know she will never be accepted for who she is.' A sudden silence fell in between them and their eyes stared into the distance of the jungle, from their height there was a clear view over the borders of Shurima. It did not even seem like there were any complications, like it were a large sandbox where you could build castles, without the dangers of the ocean breaking it apart. Ezreal did not have to ask why her joy was quickly clouded by sadness, he spent enough time now to know she had troubles getting accepted, but he did what he was best at and that was finding some way to distract himself.
'Come on, once we pass this tree we'll reach the sea that separates us from the land. Down to the shores are boats that will take us there,' He reached out a hand to help her cross, clearly trees were not part of her parcour kit. 'You're going to like Piltover, there is no one you need to hide for as long as you keep your helmet off. I'll convince people that it's some high tech suit that helped us get through the desert.'

Kai'Sa was noticeably nervous, her heart sinking to her toes as she were to do something that she had never done before: walk among humans, people alike to her. She hoped he were true about his word and that Piltover would mean no danger or harm to her, she had seen enogh pitchforks and fire thrown at her just to eradicate her. The skin underneath the first layer twitched, feelings like these had not overwhelmed her for such a long time, the thought of just being with Ezreal was a blessing to her, to have someone that did not ran away from her. Her grip around his hand tightened, there was no war to fight here, this was purely just here and she did not know how to act or behave.
'Aha! There they are,' Ezreal exclaimed happily and he let go of Kai'Sa to jump into a bush. Her senses sharpened as if she thought a threat would leap out to harm them, instead the explorer's golden head stuck out, his shirt tucked out and filled with something that she recognised from somewhere, but they were not as she remembered them to be. They couldn't be.
Apparently behind those bushes the path cut out and showed that they were following the route on top of a mountain, she knew that they were higher up, but not this high. Ezreal sat down before her, rolling the items held in his shirt out. Fuzzy little balls of what seemed like fruit ended up at her feet. Drawing her weapons back she went through her knees to pick the fruit up in her hands, her mask that slowly crept back into it's skin. Her fingers gently pushed into the fruit and it instantly cracked, fresh water that seeped out and stained her glove. Kai'Sa was in shock at the sight of the fruit when the scent caressed the inside of her nostrils. These were...
'Fresh peaches.' Ezreal said, his mouth stuffed with a giant piece that he just bit out of it. 'I don't know about you but I've been starving, cactus water and roasted insects weren't cutting it out.' The adventurer threw his head back and groaned of pleasure at the taste of the fruit, while Kai'Sa still stared to it as if it were a gem with the value of a thousand fortunes. Ezreal looked back at Kai'Sa who began to drool by now. 'Don't tell me you don't eat either.'
She shook her head mid sentence, dropping fully onto her knees on the ground she carefully brought it to her mouth, savouring the moment. When Kai'Sa fell into the void all she ever had a taste of were rotten peaches, or those that were near to be expired and though they did have a bitter taste, her taste buds still had a taste of the original state. How will a fresh peach taste? She asked herself as she opened her mouth and took a bite out of the fruit. To her surprise it instantly bursted, under just the slightest pressure of her teeth and it welcomed the inner, sweet juices of the fruit. A different hunger rumbled through her stomach, this was her own, she thought and she took more bites in just a short time. After years of eating scraps of food, she finally had something wholesome, fresh and delicious. With no care in the world of what she looked like right now she reached for another one and every time her teeth hit the seed in the middle she got sad.
'Woah, I've never seen a girl this hungry,' Ezreal said happily. 'They're usually too scared to give in to their needs. I'd know.' He mumbled, as if he were referring to Lux.
Kai'Sa took a few more bites out of the third fruit. 'I have never had fresh fruit before, I usualy live off of leftovers or that what I can find out in the open. Peaches have not grown that well in the past years.'
'Well, there are more sorts of fruit down the river.' Ezreal said with a smirk on his face, as if he were bragging that he was educated about the area, but Kai'Sa knew too little of human behaviour to even notice. Instead she looked up as if a dog was just suggested to go for a stroll.
Overwhelmed by joy of the simple fruit she quickly leaned into Ezreal to grab onto his shirt. 'Please tell me where they are, I will be forever in your debt.'
He froze for a mere second, perhaps digesting the sudden movement she made and losing her guard of being a controlled predator. 'There's no need to be in my debt,' He closed his hands around hers and gestured his head into the direction he had crawled back from. 'If you go down that bush there you'll find them yourself.'
Kai'Sa tried to remain calm and let go of him, she kept every limb of her body under control, if she could wield her second skin with the hunger of a thousand flames she too could over her own body. Imagining the bushes and trees with fruit, fresh fruit, water already gathered underneath her tongue and she gulped nervously. Pushing the bushes away she followed the direction Ezreal had given her, walking down towards the river far beneath her. It was so far away, but the reward was more than a thousand riches, she had to see them for herself. Then she realised that she did not have to travel far down, when the sight of strawberries, peaches, grapes scattered over the ground. It had it all. Though the humidity was in a humans disadvantage, the fruit grew strong. Her teeth chewed on her bottom lip and she closed her eyes. 'Deep breaths, Kai'Sa,' Her chest filled with air, she quickly exhaled and opened her eyes. 'They are just fruits, do not lose yourself to it.' Taking careful steps towards the red gems that glistened in the beam of light that peaked through the leaf ceiling above her. Her fingers shook at the thought of what it would taste like, if it were just as sweet as the peaches. Closed her hand around it, she noticed it was weaker than a peach and she could already felt her taste buds longing for the sweetness. With one last deep exhale she brought the fruit to her lips and took a bite out of it, in that instant losing her control to hold back and not attempting to eat everything she could find in her vision that looked remotely like fruit.

Ezreal watched as she had taken the road down to the river to pluck the fruit and tried to forget what just had happened, but he simply could not. Something in the moment that she had pulled on him and stared at him, visibly trying to control her smile, he never realised that there was something about her that moved his guts. Whatever it were, he had to be careful. He did not know what the feelings might held, perhaps that he felt himself getting attached to her, different that he felt for Lux. The more time they spent, the more he looked after her, maybe it were because she had to spend most of her life lonesome, maybe because she were so innocent it had given him an obligation to teach her into a world she was not familiar with.

But again, whatever it were, he would find out eventually.