"I...wanted to apologise for two things. First for freaking out in front of you..." Lanius said, sitting by the fire. After Altair and Yellina calmed him down, they moved to the living room, eager to hear his story.
"...And because I have lied to you. I am not a simple traveller, but the current host of the Winter's spirit..." he said. The couple and the son's eyes widened. Lanius was sure that they'd then start screaming, something that never came, as they just looked skeptical. Lanius allowed them a few minutes to process this.
"But...the Winter was gone for fourteen years now... How did you awake now, all of a sudden?" At last, Altair asked.
"It's still a mystery, even to me. I just woke up, then my right eye froze...then I seemed to be in an ecstatic state, my mind was foggy, my vision blurry. Two people...perhaps of the Kinkou, tried to help me. I didn't realise that and combat ensued...then I found myself in the forest...and woke up here."
"Well...we will try to believe that, for now. You can remain here till you're all right." Both Altair and Yellina said.
"I do not wish to be a burden to you." Lanius then told them, feeling quilty.
"Boy, you're not a burden at all, quite the opposite. We live off from nature and rarely have any guest or visitors...especially after the war. You don't have to worry about us." Altair reassured him.
"So...what happened? When did this war start?" Lanius seemed eager to know.
"Well... According to the Noxians callendar, the year is 998 AN. Noxus invaded Ionia thirteen years ago. They was heavy resistance on both of the waves, and Noxus decided to resort to mass genocide. They used gas and other weapons, even employing children...children! Can you believe this? Kids..." Yellina said, holding her forehead. "The Noxians left, but a portion is still under their rule. People formed resistance groups...and so it stayed."
Lanius remained silent. So did the others and so the day ended.
.
.
.
About a week and a half passed after they found Lanius.
Yellina constantly trended to him and the young man was finally able to walk again and help with daily tasks. Nothing much happened during these days, aside from him staring at the horizon every night on the cabin's roof, thinking about what happened.
Occasionally, he'd swear to himself that he saw a set of amber eyes looking at him and then dissappearing from the first trees of the forest, whenever he looked down from the sky. He always wondered if it was the vastaya that he saw prior to passing out, but never investigated.
It was the morning of the eleventh day that something actually happened. It was a sunny day. Lanius and Casper had been chopping firewood for dinner, the boy carrying the wood and the young man chopping it.
Just as Lanius slammed the axe on the log, a thin line of ice resembling a vein travelled from his right index towards the axe and onto the piece of wood, freezing the axe on it.
"Wow...cool!" the boy exclaimed as it saw the ice.
Lanius, after being slightly puzzled by the small incident, ripped the axe from the wood, before setting it down near the pile and approached the boy. He the crouched next to him.
"Want to see another trick?" he then asked him.
The boy nodded. The young man then opened his palm in front of the boy and snow began to materialise on top of his palm. The boy was fascinated even more. "How did you do that? Cryomancy? " he then asked the Winter.
"Well yeah. Supposedly, I'm a cryomancer." he said. This was kinda the truth. As the spirit of the Winter had been born from The Great Cryophoenix, it possessed deity-level ice magic. Since Lanius was also the host of said spirit, he also held those powers, even if he couldn't master them at that time. Technically, he and Freida could burry the entire Runeterra in snow, and Anivia in ice.
"So Casper, how old are you?" he then asked the boy.
"I'm thirteen, I was born in the beginning of the war. Dad found out that mom was pregnant eight months after the start, when he returned and saw her with a bloated belly. Mom told me that she hadn't seen him happier, aside from their wedding day. " the boy replied. "What about you?" he asked back.
"I'm way older than I look. I was twenty five before the war."
"Twenty-five ?! That must mean that you are..." the boy went silent for a second "...Thirty-nine! You don't look like that at all!" he exclaimed.
"While I was asleep, my body didn't age for reasons even I currently don't know. When I woke up, I thought that I was asleep for a few years, that's why I freaked out."
Casper smiled.
They resumed their log chopping, but stopped after an hour, when a strong wind began blowing. Casper and Lanius started to carry the firewood inside, when somebody whispered into the young mans ear.
"Lanius...we need to talk. " it was Freida. Lanius instinctively spun around, but realised that it came from his head, and not from his ear.
"Give me a minute..." he thought.
He finished carrying the firewood inside and moved towards the door.
"Lanius, the foods about to be ready." Yellina informed him, seeing him from the kitchen.
"It won't be long, I just need some fresh air." he replied to her.
"With all that wind?" she questioned.
"The more, the better." he joked, before opening the door and quickly getting out, closing it behind him. Lanius walked for a few meters, before sitting behind the well that was close to the cabin.
"Freida...look who's finally awake..." he then muttered...