Ahri walked through an endless field of flowers. The warm sun rays fell on her skin and a light breeze faintly blowed, messing up her hair.
The vesani raised her head, smelled the air and let out a sigh full of relaxation. The wind brought a rich aroma composed of cinnamon and lavender with a faint taste of mint. A wide smile formed on the nine tailed fox's face as she laid down on the gigantic flower bed. She wanted this to last forever. She felt so happy...as if she was a different person.
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Ahri opened her eyes, looking directly at the ceiling of the room of the Inn that she and Lanius had rented to stay. The room was well lit, indicating that it was day.
So it was a dream. She pulled the covers of her bed closer to her chest.
Ahri shifted to the right in order to face the young man's bed. It was empty and the covers were messy.
"Did he already go to the council?" she thought. The memories of the last night passed through her head. Once they settled inside the room, they left the Inn to explore the city and only returned after it got dark to eat. They then headed back to their room, where she and the Winter talked more about their past. The talk ended with her breaking down in tears for a reason she couldn't remember and Lanius then comforted her and gave her her "dose". He then put her to bed as she was too tired to stay up any longer. He even sang her a lullaby his mother used to sing to him till she fell asleep.
Ahri sat up on the bed and yawned like a cat with her eyes closed. She then opened them, looking around the room. Her eyes then fell on the young man, who was sitting next to the window, with his back facing her. He was currently topless, and was replacing his bandages with new black ones, starting from the hands.
Ahri looked at him from head to toe. His silver hair that he usually styled into a single braid were let loose and looked wet, the young man had probably washed them. Moving down, she looked at his athletic shoulders, torso and arms. His shoulders and upper back had two square plum patches of short silky hair. A similar patch was also situated on each upper arm. Ahri had never seen him without the bandages and originally thought that the only parts that gave away that he had a vastaya parent were the eyes, teeth and markings, tho he now knew that the 6 patches of plum silky fur also existed.
The young man finished his right arm and turned around to get a new roll of bandages. He saw Ahri that Ahri was awake and smiled.
"Hand a good night?" he asked her as he got up and made his way towards his bed, where he picked up three rolls of black bandages and returned to the chair.
"Mhm" Ahri mumbled. It was the best sleep she had in weeks, maybe even a whole month. She stretched her upper body and then looked at Lanius. He also looked like he had a good sleep.
The Winter finished putting the bandages on himself, got up and left the room, allowing her some privacy, so she could get dressed. Ahri took a deep breath from her nose. The air in the room smelled exactly like in her dream. Cinnamon and lavender with a faint taste of mint...just as Lanius always smelled.
Ahri then realised that she was wagging her tails under the sheets. She took another deep breath. Why was she acting like that? Did she really have feelings for the Winter?
"Pfft, of course not!" she shook her head. She then blamed the wagging to the fact that he was simply attractive...it was simply a natural reflex. She just enjoyed his company, nothing more or less.
The vesani lazily got up and started to get dressed. Once she finished, she got out of the room and headed downstairs, where she joined for Lanius breakfast and then headed out, towards the city state.
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"I have come to you for a reason..." Lanius said, sitting in front of a court of 10 people. These men and women were Ionia's de facto ruling force, composed out of representatives of each big city and the two biggest figures of the land, the resistance leader, Irelia the Blade Dancer and Karma, the Enlightened One.
"And what is this reason, dear Winter?" an elder human among the council asked. Out of all the council members, only one of them was a vastaya.
"Leaders of our magical lands, the time has come. I have come to you in hopes of finally pushing back the invaders out of our lands." the young man said.
"How are you so sure that it's time? What new powers do we have? Rebel groups have been working since the end of the war to try and toss Noxus out of here and nobody has yet succeeded." An young woman replied.
"It's quite simple..." Lanius paused for a brief second and looked at Ahri with the corner of his eye, who was sitting at the wall on his right side with the hood of her cloak on. The vesani did not say a single word since they came in. He saw her bite her lower lip in frustration and turned around to continue.
"We will do something that nobody has tried in these eight years that passed. Something that you great...de facto leaders of the First Lands have not attempted yet." The councillors mumbled something to each other. Lanius looked towards Irelia. She did not speak.
"Please continue." another councillor prompted him.
"Putting aside the fact that, unlike before, you now have the Winter with you, our resistance groups are quite unorganised." he carried on.
"For the Lambs sake! Get to the point..." the old man spoke, both his gaze and voice showed signs of interest. Irelia crossed her arms and waited, still not speaking."
" Very well...in order for us to successfully repel Noxus, we must have a great number of fighters. For that reason, I will unite the whole continent...."
The council began to buzz like a wasps nest.
"How will he attempt that?"
"That is an almost impossible task..."
"United...impossible!"