Chapter 1

Ganked!

"Comon, let me just see your face a little more."

The man grinned. He was tall, strong, almost charming. He reached toward her hood with one long, beefy arm. Riven was not charmed. She tugged her traveling cloak a little tighter and pulled away as she quickened her step, her eyebrows drawing down. She walked with a worn travel pack bound snugly to her back, the bare part of her legs dusty and scratched below the knees.

"Please, sir," she said with a mild edge of apprehension in her voice. "I've been walking all day and I'm just trying to get to the next village,"

He strode along beside her, his longer legs keeping the pace with ease.

"Oughta be more careful , miss. You're obviously not from around here 'cause taking a path through the woods at night, not safe for a pretty young thing like you."

"You're a long ways from home yourself, Ionian."

Now her speech was terse. The bottom of her sandals shuffled along in the dry leaves, trying to avoid trip-ups in the failing light.

"I'm sure I'll be fine, thank you."

The man smiled again. His eyes, clothing, and the long narrow blade at his side clearly marked him as originating from the eastern island continent of Ionia. He looked her up and down, eyes lingering on the toned thighs beneath her skirt.

"It's okay," he said. "I'll get you there safe. I'm a samurai, actually."

She rolled her eyes.

"That's very unlikely."

"Oh, but I've been studying the samurai arts for years! Take a look at my sword." At his

side was a sword of the long, lightly curved shape used by students of the ancient Ionian sword style. "This is my companion, my blade. Come on, slow down and talk to me. What's your name?"

Riven pressed her lips together, hunching her shoulders.

"I just want to get to the village." After a thought she added, "Please."

"Common now," the Ionian man's voice lowered a little as he reached out again, "don't be so rude. You scared to have a little fun?"

Riven tried to pull her arm away from the sudden grip. It was strong! And it did not release.

"Uh!" she whimpered, turning wide eyes on him as her hands clutched the cloak to her chest, "You're hurting me!"

The man's voice lowered a little, "Why so rude?" he struggled with her resisting arm, "Hold still!"

As he tried to pull her closer Riven wrenched herself back with a quick, powerful movement. She tore from the grasp and recovered her balance to strike out down the path. She was fast.

"Heh," without missing a beat he sped after her. "I said hold still!"

Riven's breath huffed as she ran. The path was narrow and winding, but her road-experienced feet picked out the way adeptly. She kept running for almost half a mile, but the man was persistent. She didn't get enough distance to lose him and he slowly began to gain ground. She could hear his curses behind her when suddenly her sandal snapped. Two years she'd worn that thing, and it chose that moment to snap. The sole caught awkwardly under her foot mid-stride and she pitched forward, hitting the dirt. Riven swore softly as she rolled onto her back in a blink, raising her legs as if in defense from the approaching Ionian while at the same time she raised her arms behind her back. Her hands found their mark. She griped tight and with great effort threw every fiber of her body forward, leaping back to her feet as she drew a wide blade from under the cloak on her back. She snapped the heavy blade forward, using the momentum to help right herself. The rune glowed with the same ferocity as her eyes as the man skidded to break his momentum in the path.

"What the hell?" the Ionian flailed to a stop at the tip of her sword, his long hair flying forward as he barely stopped in time.

"Don't e you even try to run," the woman bit out. "Your men will never hear you from here." She stepped up, pressing the sword a little more snugly to his neck. "Bet you wish you stayed with them now."

The eastern man sputtered a little before getting any coherent words out,

"Fucking—bitch- who the hell are you?"

"Hmm, so much for Ionian finesse. Don't you know? I'm here for your bounty."

"You little cunt! I'll cut your tongue out of your mouth!"

In one fluid movement the swordsman drew his elegant weapon and rolled his body around her blade to charge.

"Charming," she smiled, snapping her wrist.

The broad and heavy Noxian blade flashed in front of him with a loud clang. Half of the "samurai" blade sword flew out wide and skittered across the ground a few feet away.

"Disappointing," sighed Rived. "Samurai aren't what they used to be."

Her opponent took precisely one second to sum up the situation and turn tail. A low, dark chuckle escaped the ex-soldier as her red-brown eyes followed him. She bent down, quickly chopped off the remains of her useless shoe, and then darted forward with one bare foot. Riven centered her focus on her target and then with a burst of energy she flashed about seven feet forward in the blink of an eye. Trained, precise, and calm, she resumed her stride seamlessly and began to gain on the man, truly running all-out this time. He was yelling at the top of his lungs for his companions. Riven wondered if he really thought they could hear from this distance, and what he thought they would say if they caught him running from a small woman. Even with the weight of her heavy weapon and pack, her shorter legs closed more distance. But what was that? Movement down the path, rushing towards them. Damn, really? One of his men one of his men had followed them? No matter, Riven redoubled her efforts, knowing she could reach her target before this other unlucky fool joined the fray.

Again she centered her focus and unleashed a series of grand but swift maneuvers: she sprang forward like a gazelle into the air once, twice, three swift leaps until with the third she came right up behind the man and slammed her blade into the ground. There was an explosion of energy and her target was knocked straight up into the air like a rag doll. Perfect shot. Always so satisfying. Riven raised her eyes from her sword just in time to see something very… interesting happen. Right as her target reached the peak of his brief flight, he stopped. Simply hung there suspended in the air, and just as her brain was trying to take hold of this notion another man appeared—just APPEARED in the air beside her target and swung a leg around to kick the living daylights out her bounty's face before both men hit the ground. Her target crumpled to the forest floor while the newcomer landed agilely on the man's back. A strangled yelp was forced from the downed man, and a great plume of ponytail bounced behind the newcomer as he landed on top. Another Ionian, she was almost certain. A man with half his face obscured by a blue cape and tall plate pauldrons on one shoulder was balanced motionlessly on top of her target. He seemed younger, leaner than the other man. His armor was notably more well-crafted, and he was baring a longer, far more dangerous looking sword straight at her. It gleamed, flawless, its tang perfect and its design elegant. To one who lived and breathed swordsmanship, this weapon's presence was nearly tangible. Even at a glance this man was the very image of the ancient and revered swordsmen of Ionia. But out here in the middle of nowhere? She didn't believe it.

"I'll take it from here!" said the newcomer lightly with a sideways smile.

Riven gaped for a fraction of a second before wrenching her broken blade out of the ground and snapping it back up to bare.

"Back the hell off my target," she said. "And explain who you are while you're at it."

On the ground, the man groaned and tried to roll over, at which the caped Ionian simply shifted his weight onto the man's shoulder without taking his eyes off Riven.

"Your target?" he said, frowning a little. "What makes you think you can just walk in and take my bounty?"

"I got here first, Ionian," her voice was low but with an underlying chord of frustration. "This criminal's mine—I don't care what kind of fancy moves you threw out at the last second."

"Well, I'm afraid you're mistaken."

His voice was deep, smooth, with a cavalier note.

"You don't intimidate me," she said. "Prove that you're worth as much as your weapon."

It was at that moment that the downed man made a sudden move, drawing the knife from his belt and swinging back at the younger man's legs. A flurry of movement ensued as the bounty hunter jumped to avoid the blade and came down on top of him in the exact same place again, eliciting a strangled cry from the man. With admirable persistence the knife jabbed at him again, and again, but each time its wielder was rewarded with the full weight of the younger man landing on top of him along with a kick in the face. The prone man snarled and cursed, but the caped Ionian would not give up his perch. He was fast. The man on the ground wailed angrily, "Get off me you fucking monkey!" and tried to roll over, resulting in something of a rolling water-barrel feat.

"Stay still! " said the younger man with more annoyance than anything.

He actually kept his sword raised to Riven the whole time. For her part Riven's eyebrows felt like they were reaching record heights on her face. She watched the angry, hissing, cursing criminal roll until he hit the tree, at which point he gave up. Finally the younger Ionian ended by kicking the knife out of his hand and stepping off only to hand the prone man another rough kick to the head.

He shook his head, "I can roll you all the way into the sheriff's office if you want."

"Fuck off," came the groaned response from the ground, at which the unhappy man received a broken nose.

After that he consented to be quiet and stay still. Raising his eyes again to Riven, the newcomer said, "Tricky bastard, huh? Sorry, you wasted your time. This guy's mine. I like that you didn't try to take advantage of this idiot's stunts though."

Riven frowned, her resolve deepening. This was starting to look like a lot of trouble. She may

have had enough honor to keep her from attacking the caped Ionian while he was distracted, but there

was no way she was going to let this guy step in and just take what was hers. Her posture was straight and strong, her demeanor as clipped and orderly as it had been when she was a field commander years ago.

"Look, Mr.," she said, thumping her sword hilt onto her shoulder and walking right up to his

face to poke him in the chest. Or at least as close to his face as she could manage. He was notably tall and she was notably not, "you've made quite a mistake trying to bully me. Back off or you're going to have a lot more trouble on your hands than this little guy is worth."

"LITTLE?" protested the bounty.

The Ionian kicked his quarry again and turned back to Riven, likewise setting his sword on

his shoulder.

"Ah, I doubt that," he said calmly. His manner was laid back, his shoulders relaxed. "Besides,

I've gotta bust this guy's ass. He's smearing the reputation of Ionians."

She raised her chin without backing out of his bubble or softening an inch to his casual

demeanor.

"You're BOTH smearing the reputation of Ionians."

"I wouldn't say that."

She quirked an eyebrow, "I'll give you credit for being worthy of a sideshow."

The man only chuckled in response as Riven turned around, walked away a few smooth,

balanced paces, and lowered her sword to bear again.

The Ionian narrowed his eyes and said, "I hope you don't think you're about to—"

CLANG!

She'd spun and closed the gap between them so blindingly fast other warrior's parry came

on reflex alone. But this man's sword did not break. It sang savagely with the ring of metal that had been painstakingly crafted, beaten and folded again and again and again until it reached perfection. Just like hers. They stood sword-to-sword, eye-to-eye, straining against one-another's resolve, until with a final shove they broke away. Riven stood with the activated wall of four protective runes circling her conspicuously. The man's head cocked back a little

"Okay, you've got tricks."

He seemed to enjoy the exchange. Then he was gone. Riven tried to parry but she felt a

sickening sensation as the man suddenly moved THROUGH her blade and body like a ghost, breezing by with a gust of wind that blew her hood back. Her rune wall was destroyed by the move, and it was only years of battle-hardened instinct which caused her to spin in time to parry his follow-up strike from behind.

"Hasagi!" he shouted as she deflected a frighteningly fast forward jab.

The hairs on her arms stood up. Death hadn't come so close to her in a long time. CLANG

CLANG CLANGCLANGCLANG! A flurry of strikes and parries were traded with the speed that can only be achieved between two expert swordsmen. The barest twitch in his expression told her of his surprise at her own movements. She was certainly familiar with that response. It comes from seeing a small, light-framed woman wield a 25 pound blade with enough speed and precision to put the best swordsman on his heels. Her sweeping passes were more brutal, more grand than his, but not unlike his own in style in a fundamental way. His style was smooth, elegant, austerely savage. And that jab had left her a little memento on her finger.

"This is ridiculous! What the hell are you going through all this trouble for? Don't

think I won't cut you down!" she bit out as they faced off again, every fiber of her body in full battle mode.

From the moment she'd encountered the man it was apparent that he was skilled, but she couldn't believe that he was a full-on… samurai.

"Kill me?" The man smiled, his gaze flaring with ambition. "You can try."

He really was enjoying this? Damn. Definitely a samurai.

He began to circle around her, edging back towards their bounty {who was sitting up and

watching the exchange with a mix of horror and surprise.}

"Yes," Riven cooed, "and I'll relieve you of that ridiculous hair while I'm at it."

"Keh."

She smirked, eyes moving over the plump plume. "It looks like a vegetable."

The samurai's face contorted a little. "What the-"

That was when Riven shouted her ki word. Her opponent stood locked in position, taking a

painful hit from the ki blast but unable to even move his face, and Riven wasted no time leaping at him. She wouldn't kill him. She'd take his sword-hand perhaps. The savage swing of her blade felt like it hit, but she was startled by the rush of wind that suddenly swept up around the man, scattering the leaves around his feet and deflecting her blade before contact. And it blocked the next leap-strike as well! Damn, he had a shield too?

The wind barrier did not take long to extinguish and she reacted immediately with the

final strike of her charged blade, but suddenly her target was gone. Their bounty yelped in surprise. The samurai had dashed again, leaping towards the sitting man and sparing himself the energy explosion of her sword. The samurai regarded her from several feet away. Riven's mind quickly worked over everything she had seen, and surmised that he seemed to have a blink which he'd used to enter the scene in the first place, a shield, and a dash.

The man backed up a little to pace around her again.

"Well," he intoned casually, seeming to Riven like a coil of white-hot energy beneath a calm

frame, "didn't expect to find a real opponent all the way out here."

Riven tingled. She was surprised. This was a lot of effort she was putting up towards

an unexpected obstacle. But she wasn't angry. The woman lowered her gaze at him; she was ready. She exhaled slowly, her grip tightening on the hilt of her honed blade. Her eyes moved over the dangerous enigma before her. Her body was poised, perfectly balanced, ready to react at the slightest movement lest his relaxation be a ruse. Riven was focused, sharpened in every way. She smiled.

"Neither did I."