Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

~❄️❄️❄️~

"Nunu~" a voice sang his name.

Nunu knew it was his mother's voice. He smiled and snuggled deeper into his warm bed.

"It's time to wake up, today is a special day." Layka was now sitting at the foot of his bed. Nunu could imagine the soft smile on her face as she looked at him, but he kept his eyes closed.

Layka shifted closer to Nunu. Nunu accidentally let out a muffled chuckle, he knew for sure that Layka knew he was awake. He felt some warmth leave him as his mother dragged his blanket away from him. He curled into himself more, missing the warmth of his blanket.

Nunu felt his mother's hand under his arm. He assumed that she was going to pick him up, but she started to tickle him. The vicious tickle attack came out of nowhere. Nunu opened his eyes and started to laugh uncontrollably. Nunu attempted to squirm away from his mother's tickles, but he couldn't get away.

"HAHaha Wait wAit hehe I'm awake I'm awake!" Nunu yelled, his face was red from laughing so hard.

"I knew my tickles would wake you up. Now, go and get ready. I have a surprise for you in the main room." Layka patted Nunu's leg before standing up and leaving his room.

Nunu let out a small gasp, A Surprise! I almost forgot that today was my fifth Nameday! I'm such a goober, I would forget what today is.

Nunu jumped out of his bed, tossed his pajamas into a basket and put on his clothes. He ran out of his room and into the main room.

The main room had a fireplace. There was a cooking pot over the fire cooking breakfast. Lanterns were hanging from the roof, giving light to the whole room. Wooden furniture lined the walls next to the widows. There were blankets and coats hanging off the furniture. Layka was sitting at the table, tying a blue bow in a cloth sack. Nunu guessed that was his Nameday present and went to sit next to his mother.

"What's for breakfast?" Nunu asked his mother. He started drumming his hands on the table.

"I'm making a rabbit stew, an elder from the last village gave me recipe as a gift for singing to the children about The Anivia, so I'm making it for your Nameday." Layka grabbed a large spoon and two bowls. She filled the two bowls up with the golden stew.

It smelled sooo good, Nunu wanted to drool from the smell alone. The bowl was placed in front of him. He grabbed the bowl and was about to start eating, but Layka gave Nunu the 'expectant mom look'. Nunu put the bowl down and grabbed a small spoon and started shoveling the stew into his mouth. It tasted very good.

"Slow down Nunu, your food is not going anywhere" Layka chuckled when Nunu looked up at her. He had stew dripping down his chin.

"Sorry mom, it's just soooo good." Nunu finished his breakfast. He sat still at the table, waiting for Layka to finish her breakfast.

"Can I open my present now?" Nunu asked

"Wait for me to finish my breakfast, then we will open your present."

Nunu pouted, Layka always took a long time to eat. Nunu grabbed his bowl and spoon and put them with the dirty dishes. He sat back down at the table. He stared at his gift impatiently, hoping his mom would finish quicker.

Layka finally finished and put her dishes away. She sat back down at the table and placed the present in front of Nunu.

"Happy Fifth Nameday my little hero!" Layka ruffled Nunu's hair as she handed him the gift. Nunu eagerly untried the blue bow, letting the sack fall to reveal a leather backpack. There was stuff inside the backpack, Nunu could see one of the items sticking out.

"It's a flute!" Nunu grabbed the flute out of the bag. He has always wanted an instrument of his own. Nunu would listen to Layka sing to the music of different instruments from all the villages they would visit. With his own flute, Nunu was now able to play music to the songs of Layka's stories.

Nunu put his mouth at the end of the instrument and blew into it. Nothing happened. Nunu blew harder, his cheeks turned red from his efforts. It finally makes a noise; a loud, off pitch screech. It wasn't majestic, but Nunu counted it as a victory.

Layka watched Nunu with amusement, "I'll teach you how to play the flute later. There are more presents inside the backpack I got for you" Nunu looks up at his mother in surprise. There's more?

Nunu places his flute on the table and checks the inside of the backpack. He pulls out a thick pair of leather gloves and an orange hoodless cloak with golden swirl highlights at the bottom with white fur sticking out from inside the cloak. There was also a light blue hat with two ears, two button eyes, a black nose, and a white tuft of fur between the two ears.

"Woah, these are so cool!" Nunu put on the orange cloak. It was very soft. Nunu grabbed his new hat and looked at it curiously.

"Mom, what creature is this? I don't think you have ever mentioned something that looks like this." Nunu looked at his mom expectantly.

"Well, there is a story behind everything, that includes your hat." Nunu perked up, excited to hear a new story.

"This hat was created to look like a yeti, wise creatures of white fur and ancient magic. There was said to be a large group of yetis in the Freljord, but they have long since disappeared from the Freljord like they never existed in the first place. There was once a song about these creatures, but it was lost to time. Some people say they were stripped of their magic, turned into savage monsters, and lost to the winter storms of The Anivia's wing."

"So, will I never get to see a yeti?"

"Some never will, but if you know where to look, you might be able to find them."

"I want to see a yeti! Do you know where to look to find one?"

"I heard villages of the North-East tell a rumor of a yeti that lives alone in the ruins at Yeti's Vigil. It's said that he guards a very powerful, magic gem that is filled with frozen dreams. Many heroes and warriors have gone after this ancient magic, but all who searched for the yeti never came back."

"Woah, do you think I'm strong enough to fight the yeti and get the magic gem?"

"Maybe you could, how would you defeat the yeti?"

"I would use my trusty sword," Nunu picked up his flute and held it up like a sword, "and I would fight the yeti, he will see how strong I am and give me the gem." Nunu swung his flute around like a sword. "And I'll become a hero to all in Freljord!"

Layka chucked as Nunu pretended to fight an imaginary yeti. "How about this, I'll teach you how to play the flute and together, we will write a song about the yeti and his magical gem."

Nunu stopped swinging his flute and ran over to Layka. He sat next to her, flute in hand eager to learn.

"Alright, first you need to learn how to hold the flute correctly...

~❄️❄️❄️~

Some time has passed since Nunu first got his flute. He learned how to play many of Layka's melodies and has even made his own songs. Nunu tried to play songs for the other Notai children, but they were more interested in playing with their daggers than listening to his music.

It was later in the evening. Layka was feeding their giant, long fur Allocamelus. The other Notain were also getting ready to move to the next village. Nunu ran to his mother, away from the other Notai children.

"Where are we going next." Nunu asked his mom.

"We are going to a village next to the towering citadels, it's where the Frostguards live from some of the stories I've told you." Layka gave the Allocamelus the rest of the feed. "Besides, it's getting late and it's almost your bedtime." She picked Nunu up and walked towards their cartel home.

Once inside, Nunu ran to his room and changed into some pajamas and jumped onto his bed. Layka walked into his room and tucked him.

"Goodnight Nunu." Layka kissed Nunu on his forehead and made her way to the door.

"Mom, can I ask you something." Layka turned around to look at Nunu.

"What is it?"

"Well, while I was playing with the other kids, I heard one of their parents talk about something called 'Noxians'. Do you know what they are?"

"Well, Noxians are a tribe of people not from Freljord. They speak in a different tongue than us, so we don't understand what they say. They are known for destroying villages and stealing from Freljord tribes. There were rumors of a Noxian camp close to where we are traveling, so we are going to travel in the night in order to avoid any conflicts." Her voice was serious, yet soft.

"These Noxians sound like bad people, but all Noxians can't be bad right?"

Layka smiled, "I'm sure there are nice Noxians out there, but it's better to be safe than sorry."

"Oh ok, goodnight mom!" Nunu yelled before pulling his blanket up to his chin. Nunu heard Layka close his door. The caravan softly rumbled as they started to move. The rocking of the caravan lulled Nunu to sleep.

I wonder if I'll ever be able to befriend a Noxian...

~❄️❄️❄️~

BANG!

Nunu jolts awake. Everything in his room is slowly sliding to one side. His entire room was tilted to the left.

In a panic, Nunu jumped out of his bed, almost falling because of the uneven floor. He quickly ran out of his room and into the main room.

The main room was dark, the only light source coming from a lantern Layka was holding. She looked panicked, filling a backpack with items from the kitchen. Nunu could hear loud noises outside, people shouting, some screaming.

"Mom, what's going on?" Layka turned and looked at Nunu, she looked scared.

She grabbed Nunu's backpack and handed it to him. "Someone's attacking the caravans, they-they are destroying the wheels, killing the Allocameluses. We have to leave." Layka was trying to sound stern, but her voice was panicked and stuttered.

More shouts came from outside, they sounded closer. Without warning, the widow to Nunu's left shattered as a torch flew through it. Nunu yelled as glass rained on him, it felt like cold needles on his skin.

Layka quickly picked Nunu up and ran out the door. Nunu looked behind Layka as she ran. He saw people from his tribe running away, some were fighting, some laid in the snow motionless. Allocameluses bellowed in panic, some of the snow was red while the rest of the snow looked orange from torches and caravans set ablaze.

What's happening? Why would someone attack us?

Nunu heard a shout to the left. There were men standing there wearing black mental armor covering their faces and chest. They had bows, axes, swords and torches. They were yelling something at us, but it sounded like gibberish.

Are these Noxians?

Layka started to run faster. She was running towards a rocky hill covered in snow and ice.

That's when Nunu saw something fly by them. Nunu turned and looked back at the Noxians, some of them had their bows aiming at different people, some of them were aiming at us.

They're shooting at us! They're trying to hurt us!

Nunu was afraid. He hugged Layka tighter as more arrows flew by.

Suddenly, Layka fell forward, letting out a yell of pain. Nunu fell forward into the snow, hitting his head on something hard.

Nunu has never felt this much pain. His head throbbed and he felt dizzy. He has only ever scraped his knee or elbow. Nunu started to cry, he felt a warm liquid slowly travel from his head down the side of his face.

Nunu looked up and saw Layka in the snow. She hissed in pain, there was an arrow sticking out of the back of her thigh.

Nunu pushes himself into a standing position, almost falling back down from dizziness. Nunu could see black stars dancing in his vision, but he could also make out a group with torches moving closer to where they were.

Nunu looked at Layka,"Mommy, you have to get up! The bad people are coming!"

Layka sat up, she went to stand but she fell back down, hissing in pain.

"Nunu, sweety, I n-need you give mommy a hand." Layka held her hand out for Nunu to take. He grabbed Layka's arm and pulled with all his strength.

Nunu's pulling was just enough to get Layka back on her feet. Layka grabbed Nunu's hand and limped over to a group of rocks. Layka looked around the place frantically, the shouting behind them got closer.

Layka moved forward towards a large rock with a large crack on the bottom. Nunu saw her wince in pain as she crouched down to Nunu's eye level.

"I need you to crawl in here and go as far into this hole as possible, ok? Don't come out until I tell you to." She said urgently.

"Are you coming with me?" Nunu didn't want to be left alone.

"I need you to be brave, like all the heroes in my stories." Layka kisses Nunu on the forehead.

"I love you, so very much." She whispered.

The shouting was very close now, Nunu could hear the pounding of their footsteps.

"Go!" Layka yelled at Nunu. He turned around and crawled into the hole. The walls were all cold stone and ice. He went as far as he could into the hole before turning around.

Layka wasn't there anymore.

He was alone.

I can do this. I just have to wait for Layka to come back

I have to be brave.

I just have to be brave

I have to be...

Nunu started crying again. He can't do this. He's so afraid. He needs his mom.

Nunu was about to crawl out of the hole, when he heard a group of people walking outside. They were talking, but Nunu couldn't understand what they were saying.

The orange glow of a torch poked through the entrance of the cave. Nunu crawled farther back until he felt the cold stone on his back. He put a hand over his mouth to muffle his heavy breathing.

I have to be brave

The torch stood there for a moment before the glow went away. They were talking again. Nunu could hear their footsteps as they ran away.

Nunu moved his hand away from his mouth as he started to sob.

I'm not brave

I can't even be alone in a cave without crying for my mom.

My head hurts so bad

I'm so cold

So...tired...

Nunu closed his eyes.

...Maybe Mom will save me...

~❄️❄️❄️~

Nunu heard voices outside. He could make out some of the things they were saying. It sounds like they found someone.

Nunu slightly opened his eyes. He saw an orange light dancing at the entrance of the cave.

Why do my eyelids feel so heavy?

He closed his eyes, exhausted and ready to fall back asleep.

I don't feel cold anymore, I just feel numb. Maybe that's a good thing.

He felt something warm grab his arm before falling back into unconsciousness...

~❄️❄️❄️~

"Why does Lissandra want to see me of all people?" Nunu questioned his caretaker.

"Lissandra works in mysterious ways. You should feel honored, Lissandra rarely comes to the villages outside the citadel." She removed the bandage on Nunu's forehead revealing a small pink cut.

"At the rate you're healing, there won't even be a scar left on your little head." The caretaker seemed happy with his progress. Nunu stayed quiet.

It had been two weeks since he had last seen Layka. Nunu was stuck in a little cottage in a village outside the citadel. A group of Frostguards found him in the small cave, almost frozen to death. One of the Frostguard's wife took care of him. He was stuck in bed for days, recovering from his head injury and frostbite.

Nunu rarely left the cottage. The children of this village all teased him for having a flute that he claimed was a legendary sword. He spent most of his days alone playing his flute, imagining his mom singing along with the melodies of his song.

He missed Layka so much. Nunu wished he was a brave hero. Maybe if he was, then he could find Layka.

His caretaker, Naela, would try to get him to play outside more with the other children, but Nunu always refused. Even with Naela, Nunu felt lonely. He felt comfort escaping into the stories of Layka's songs. Naela pitied Nunu, but not even she knew how to help him feel better.

Nunu would always ask Naela's husband if he could go looking for his mom, but he always said it was too dangerous. He wasn't even impressed by Nunu's flute Svellsongur - a powerful sword only existing in his imagination.

Today, Naela was informed by her husband that Lissandra wanted to see Nunu. Lissandra visiting a simple villager, let alone a child, was unheard of.

Naela made sure Nunu got ready to meet Lissandra, Nunu begrudgingly did so. Naela couldn't tell if Nunu was anxious or annoyed. Once he was ready, sat down on his bed. He sat upright, his knees at his chest and arms wrapped around his legs. Nunu rested his head on his knees, he really wished Layka was here.

Nunu heard the door open back up, the sound of footsteps followed. The room felt colder. He hugged his legs tighter. Nunu felt the bed shift from a person sitting down on his bed. He looked up expecting to see Naula, but it wasn't her.

The leader of the Frostguards herself, Lissandra, was sitting at the foot of his bed. She was a lot taller than Nunu thought she would be. She wore a black dress, there were dark ice spikes coming out of her shoulders. Her eyes were covered by the black ice. Straight, white hair flowed behind her back.

It was almost scary how she was looking right at Nunu, but her eyes were completely covered.

"Do you know who I am?" She asked. Her voice was calm, yet cold. Her voice also had a slight echo, like she was talking in an empty room.

"Y-Your Lissandra, leader of the Frostguards." Nunu stuttered.

"Has your mother told stories about me?" Nunu looked at Lissandra in confusion.

"How did you know my mom?"

"This isn't the first time the Notai have traveled to the citadels."

"If you know my mom, do you know where she is?"

"I do not know where she is as of right now, but I do know of a way to find her. That's why I came to you." Nunu perked up when hearing this.

"What do I need to do?" Nunu said, all the shyness disappearing from his voice.

"I need you to tell me about everything you know about the yetis, in return, I'll give you a poem of my own making."

"Mom told me a story about the yetis! They were big creatures that used to use magic. Mom said that no one knows exactly what happened to them, but they just disappeared, like they never existed in the first place. Everyone thought the yetis were gone, but mom heard that there was a yeti that lives somewhere called Yeti's Vigil. It's said that he's guarding a really powerful gem, but how does me telling you about the yetis help us find my mom?"

"That gem the yeti guards is a world rune, one of the most powerful sources of magic. Thousands have died to get the world rune's power. Many get consumed by the promises of power the gem makes. This is why we must find it, so we can keep people away from the gem's temptations. "

"Woah, so we can use the world rune to find my mom?"

"...Perhaps, I simply came to see what else you knew about the yeti before I sent another patrol of men to retrieve the world rune." Lissandra stood up and looked down on Nunu. "And thank you for telling me about the yeti." She handed him a slip of paper. Nunu opened the folded paper and read the poem out loud:

The witch hissed as her spell was spun
And heroes raised their voice as one
'For glory, for freedom!'
They joined the fight,
But their cries were trapped in darkest ice...

"What happened to the men in the poem? It sounds like an epic battle." Nunu hoped that Lissandra would tell him the story behind the poem, but Lissandra was already making her way to the door.

"Wait!" Nunu yelled, forgetting about his question about the poem, "Can I go with the patrol? I've always wanted to see a yeti! I even got a sword called Svellsongur!" Nunu jumped down from the bed, flute in hand, and looked up at Lissandra. She continued to look straight ahead.

"...Every hero has their calling, but this journey is not yours to take." Lissandra left the room.

Nunu watched her leave, disappointed that not even Lissandra thought he was strong enough. He looked down at the folded slip of paper she handed to him, wondering what the bigger meaning behind the poem was.

~❄️❄️❄️~

Naula's husband was one of the men sent on patrol to retrieve the world rune from the yeti. Nunu could hear him say he would be back in about 4 days time. He kissed Naula goodbye as he left to face the yeti.

Ten days passed. The patrol still hasn't returned. Naula talked less, she didn't check on Nunu as often. She only spoke when she needed Nunu for something.

He felt bad for Naula, she didn't deserve to lose her husband. Nunu lost his mom and nothing has felt the same sense.

He knew the Frostguards wouldn't let him go after the yeti, not even Lissandra thought he was strong enough.

I know I'm strong enough to fight the yeti! Mom said anyone can be a hero, I just have to be brave. I'll retrieve the world rune, find my mom, and help everyone on the way! I'll be the greatest hero of all of Freljord!

Nunu waited for night to fall. He packed all his stuff into his backpack and put on his hat and cloak. Naula didn't tuck him in anymore, so he was easily able to sneak out his room through the window.

It was a cold night, most of the villagers were in their homes. Some lingered outside by fires, but they were too distracted to notice Nunu sneak by.

He just had to watch out for patrolling Frostguards. His small size made it easier to stay hidden, but the guards will be actively looking for anything out of the ordinary.

Good news is that the Frostguards were looking for threats trying to sneak in, not people trying to sneak out.

Nunu ran to the outskirts of the village away from all the Frostguards. Once he was out of eye sight of the village, Nunu pulled out a detailed, Freljord map that he took from Naula.

Sorry Naula, but I need this to help my mom and your husband.

He looked at what direction Foundling village was to Yeti's Vigil. Once he found what direction Yeti's Vigil was, he started his journey.

He could hear odd noises from the creature of the frozen night. Ice wolves howled, raptors screeched, Nunu could hear the patter of hooves in the snow.

Nunu ran ahead and saw a pack of Elkury. They noticed Nunu, a large male Elkury moved between him and the rest of the herd. Nunu pulled out his flute, putting the mouthpiece against his lip.

Nunu played a soft melody. He would play this song to his Allocamelus to calm her down when she got startled.

The male Elkury relaxed a little. The other Elkury looked at Nunu curiously.

Nunu slowly approached the Elkury as he played his song. The Elkury towered over him, but they seemed to trust him.

He brought his song to a close. He was to the side of the male Elkury. He quickly grabbed onto the side of the Elkury's fur and lifted himself onto his back.

The Elkury finched from the sudden weight on its back. He simply glanced at Nunu and huffed. The male Elkury moved to the front of the herd and started walking. The other Elkury followed suit.

The Elkury were walking towards the mountain that housed Yeti's Vigil. Nunu decided to rest upon its back.

His fur is so soft and so warm! It's like a portable bed...

...

Nunu felt the morning sun shine on his cheek. He opened his eyes to see that he was closer to the ground. The herd of Elkury stopped to rest. Nunu could feel the deep breathing of the male Elykury he was riding.

He slid off his back and left to figure out where he was. He walked out into a clearing. He was at the foot of the mountain that leads to Yeti's Vigil.

There was a trail that led up through the mountain. It looked like something traveled through this path.

At closer look, there were boot prints in the mud. It looked like a group of people walked through here.

Maybe it's the missing band of Frostguards!

Nunu followed the trail, walking at a faster pace. He followed the trail for a while, until the trail led to a clearing.

Straight ahead was a ruin. There was a strong smell of death in the air. Discarded weapons and armor pieces, some rusted with age, others new. All the armor pieces were damaged with dry blood. Nunu averted his eyes from the scene.

I need to be brave.

Nunu pulled out his flute and walked to the entrance of the large ruins. There were giant claw marks on the ground.

The inside of the ruins smelled worse than outside. Nunu's eyes watered and he left out a small cough.

This was a huge mistake. Something moved inside the cave. There was a creature with white fur on the inside.

The Yeti

Nunu heard a huff come from the yeti. It's blue eyes looked straight at Nunu, but something was off.

It's blue eyes looked so sad.

It must be really lonely, being stuck in a cave with no friends to talk to.

The yeti's eyes suddenly turned angry. Nunu could hear its claw scrape against the cold stone as it stood up. A light blue glow came from behind the yeti causing its nails and teeth to glow.

The yeti let let out a furrocious roar. Blue magic swirled around the yeti, it's teeth and claws grew larger and it's muscles became more defined.

Nunu started to walk backwards as the yeti moved forward. He felt something catch against his foot as he fell backwards onto his butt.

The yeti was now standing over him. Nunu could see drool on his teeth. The yeti raised his hand over Nunu, ready to end the boy.

Be Brave!

Nunu grabbed a handful of snow and threw it at the yeti. The yeti paused for a second. Nunu looked up at the yeti, he hit the yeti directly in the face.

The yeti wiped the snow off his face and started growling at the boy again. Only to get hit in the face with another snow ball.

Nunu was now laughing at the yeti. He hadn't laughed this much since before getting separated from his mom.

Nunu wiped the tears from his eyes and looked back up at the yeti. The yeti had an arm full of snow, ready to drop it on Nunu.

The yeti dropped the snow on top of Nunu. The yeti heard a small 'oof' from the boy. He was buried in snow with only ears from his hat sticking out.

The yeti let out a bellow that sounded like laughter. Nunu stood up and let all the snow fall off him, some of the snow was stuck on his clothes and hair. Nunu put his flute back in his bag and grabbed more snowballs before running away from the yeti. He turned around and started throwing his snowballs at the yeti.

Together, they had a snowball fight! Nunu hasn't had a snowball fight in a long time. The other Notai children always wanted to play with their daggers, pretending to be warriors.

The yeti has never felt such a wonderful feeling before. He was so lost in the misgivings of his past for centuries. He forgot the simple joys of life, like playing in snowball fights.

The world rune glowed as magic swirled through the area, reflecting Nunu's imagination. The yeti could feel his body change from the magic with each snowball they threw.

Nunu ducked behind a rock covered in snow after running out of snowballs. The yeti took this chance to make a giant snowball.

Nunu made an armful of snowballs before returning back out into the open. Nunu looked at the yeti.

The yeti had changed drastically. Most of his fur was a light blue with a long beard of white fur and a big white belly. He had four arms and a pair of antlers that ended in swirls. He looked a lot fuzzier and a lot more friendlier.

That's when Nunu noticed the giant snowball he was holding.

Nunu dropped all his snowballs and tried to jump back behind cover, but the yeti was quicker than him. The snowball hit Nunu in the chest and knocked him on his back.

SNAP

Both Nunu and the yeti went silent at the sudden noise.

Nunu rolled over and looked where his back was. In the snow was the bottom of his flute, broken off from the sudden impact.

Nunu panicked. He grabbed the broken piece and yanked off his backpack. He grabbed the rest of his flute and tried to put the two pieces back together.

They wouldn't stick together. In desperation, Nunu looked through his bag, hoping to find something that could fix his flute.

He found nothing.

His flute was broken.

He could no longer play Layka's songs.

The one thing giving him comfort in the absence of his mother was destroyed.

~❄️❄️❄️~

The yeti watched from afar as the boy tried to fix his flute. The boy was desperately pushing the two parts together only for more splinters to fall from the excessive force.

The glow from the world rune dimmed. The yeti could hear the hushed voice of a woman in the wind.

The boy was crying now, the yeti could tell he was trying to hold back a sob.

The world rune's magic swirled around the yeti and the boy. No longer was the gem swirling with the boy's imagination, instead with the boy's memories

A woman's warm smile, a burning caravan, men in dark armor with torches, an injured woman and her child running, a dark cold cave, the blind one.

These memories filled the yeti with the emotions the child felt. Love, despair, hope, grief. The yeti had never felt these feelings before from any human, not even from the three sisters.

In the moment, the yeti understood everything. The world rune was simply a tool, a key to unlock what was already there. This boy had the power to save all of Freljord.

With a simple gesture, the world rune flouted down to the boy.

~❄️❄️❄️~

Nunu lost track of how long he had sat there in the snow, crying over his broken flute, crying for his lost mother. He kept his eyes closed, no longer able to bare the sight of his broken flute.

He felt a cold wind blow against him. His cloak did nothing to protect him from this sudden gust of cold wind.

Nunu opened his eyes and through his tears, saw streaks of blue surrounding him. All of them were coming from what looked like a bright blue orb in front of him.

He could hear whispers coming from the orb. Promise of adventure, promise of making friends, promise of becoming a hero, promise of finding his mother.

Drawn by the voices, Nunu leaned towards the light. He reached out and grabbed the orb, it's shape felt rigged like a rock.

The orb suddenly flashed very brightly.

All Nunu could see was white.

~❄️❄️❄️~

Nunu felt something tap him on the head

Nunu didn't want to get up. His limbs felt sore and tingly, like he just got trampled by a pack of Elkury.

He felt another tap on his head.

Slowly, Nunu opened his eyes. The yeti was looking down on him, he looked like he was worried. The yeti was holding him like a baby with his two lower arms.

"Are you okay?" The yeti grumbled at him. Nunu rubbed his eyes and let out a small mumble.

"Yah, I'm o-" wait a second "You can talk?!" Nunu yelled. The yeti huffed at him.

"I was always able to talk, you just couldn't understand me."

"O-oh, well, why can I understand you now?"

The yeti looked down at the boy's right hand. Nunu lifted his hand to see he was holding a circular blue gem. There were blue swirls moving inside the gem.

This must be the world rune!

"Woah! I did it! I got the world rune!" Nunu sat up and held the blue gem up dramatically. The yeti clapped in applause with his upper hands.

"Sooo," Nunu put his hand down and looked back up at the yeti, "how do I use it's magic!"

"Just use your imagination! The world rune will do the rest."

Nunu looked around, deep in thought. His eyes landed on his broken flute. An idea popped in his head.

Nunu hopped out of the yeti's arms and walked over to his flute. He fell on his knees and held the two broken pieces together. He closed his eyes and thought of his flute before he broke it.

Thoughts of playing his flute, imagining the melodies of his songs in his head. The tips of Nunu fingers felt tingly. He opened his eyes to see swirls of blue magic flowing from his hands to his flute.

The gap between the two broken pieces glowed white before crystals of true ice froze the pieces together. Nunu stares at his flute in wonder.

He stood back up, placed the flute against his mouth and played a quick melody. Being able to play his flute after thinking he would never be able to play it again felt amazing.

The happiness he felt was overwhelming. He looked back up at the yeti with a big smile. Nunu started laughing as he ran towards the yeti.

The yeti looked at him in confusion as he ran towards him. Nunu jumped as far as he could straight at the yeti. The yeti let out a surprised huff as the boy landed on his belly.

The yeti held the boy up with his lower arms. The yeti sat down, Nunu was still hugging his belly. A moment passed before Nunu looked up at the yeti.

"Thank you so much for the world rune uhhh...Mr.Yeti? What even is your name?"

The yeti's face dropped into a sad frown.

"No one has said my name for a long time. Years for cold isolation and savage thoughts have corrupted my mind. I can't even remember my own name." The yeti grumbled in a somber tone.

"Oh well...what do you want me to call you? Do you have a nickname maybe? My mom would call me her little hero." Nunu rambled sheepishly.

"You can call me whatever you want"

"I think I'll call you...Willump!"

Chapter Text

~❄️❄️❄️~

"Shushir borame!" The small yordle yelled.

He was looking down at a line of small moving rock creatures. These creatures had cracks in their skin, revealing veins of dim magic.  They hoppled through the snow, completely ignoring the rambling yordle.

Gnar was starting to get annoyed with the krugs. They weren't interested in anything he was saying. They just completely ignored him! All they did was walk in a straight line towards a rock dam.

How boring!

Gnar grabbed one of the small krugs and hopped away from the line. Once far enough, Gnar placed down the krug and pulled out his beloved boomerang.

Gnar threw the boomerang over the krug. It spun away from Gnar before making a u-turn. Gnar jumped in the air, catching the boomerang mid-air landing on his feet.

Gnar made a dramatic 'ta-da' pose after performing the impressive stunt. He looked down at where he placed the krug only to see that it was missing. Gnar looked around and saw that the krug was walking back to the others.

Angered by the krug, Gnar let out a high pitched yell and threw his boomerang at the annoying krug. The boomerang hit the krug and caused the krug to be knocked forward on its head.

Gnar ran up to the krug, impressively catching his boomerang again on the way, and looked down at it. It looked like it was napping, staying still in the snow.

Gnar tapped it, but it didn't wake up. Gnar's anger fizzled into disappointment. The krug was too tired to watch his amazing tricks with his boomerang. It was so tired that it was drooling a sparkling blue goop into the snow.

Gnar flopped onto his back and looked up at the sky. It was a beautiful day outside, there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. He let out a quiet sigh, it was rather quiet other than the light noise of the krugs walking in the snow.

That when he heard something in the distance interrupt the quiet.

"Over here Willump! I found what's blocking the river!" A voice said in the distance.

Gnar sat up, ears perked up listening to the new noise. He jumped up on his feet and peeked down past the snow mound. Two figures were walking along the dried up river bank.

One was small with what looked to be a blue head and orange body. The other was a lot larger. It had blue and white fur and large antlers. They were walking towards the cliff.

"That's a lot of rocks blocking the waterfall. Maybe if we move that large one towards the middle the rest will fall with the water pushing against it." the small figure said.

"That shouldn't be too hard. After this we should get something to eat, I'm starving. Raw raptors sound really good right now."

"How are you already hungry? We ate just before leaving to find out what happened to the river!"

The two figures kept bickering at each other. Gnar couldn't understand most of what the smaller figure was saying, but the large figure spoke in a mostly familiar tongue, which he could somewhat understand.

The two figures made their way around the cliff to climb up where it was less steep. They still haven't spotted Gnar yet, their attention focused on the blockage instead of on himself.

Gnar sat there and thought about what to do about these new creatures. Maybe he should go and greet them! Maybe they would like to see his amazing boomerang tricks!

Gnar stood up, more excited than ever to meet these two weird creatures. He began to skip through the snow, walking down to meet these two potential friends.

~❄️❄️❄️~

Couple of months had passed since Nunu met Willump and everyday brought a new adventure!

After their adventure in Naljaäg, they went southwards following the distant whisper of Layka's songs from the world rune. During this trek, they came across another village in need of help.

The flow of the river that provided for their livestock had dried up. A scout had gone to investigate the problem and has yet to return. Nunu had heard of the disappearance while exploring the village.

This was how they found ways to help people. Nunu would go into a village and ask around or simply listen in on conversation. Willump normally stayed out of sight when first visiting a village.

Their first adventure together had a very, very rough start. Nunu spotted a small village and made the decision to go and see if they needed any help. Willump was against this idea for the fact that they probably wouldn't trust him.

Nunu disagreed, saying "They just need to see how amazing you are! I mean, who doesn't want to receive help from a yeti?"

This turned out to be a lot of people, as they were chased out of the village. They thought Willump was a bloodthirsty beast so they tried to shoot Willump with arrows.

This really freaked Nunu out. He decided to let Willump take the lead when deciding on how to approach a village. They came up with a method that worked most of the time, but it wasn't ideal.

First, Nunu would have to be alone when first going to the village. Him being a small child meant that the villager wouldn't attack him on sight.

Nunu was normally able to blend in with the rest of the crowd.

Well, as much as a small child alone in a village wearing a yeti hat could.

He'd walk around for a bit and try and find someone in need of help. They didn't always accept help from the boy, but some people were willing to let the boy help them out.

Not all tribes and villages were the same, but they would always find a way to help!

This current village they were helping wouldn't allow Willump inside the town, but a farmer on the outskirts of the village did accept their help when Nunu offered to bring back the water.

So here they were now, on their way to save the village!

Nunu marched slightly ahead of Willump, they argued about what they were going to eat after they cleared the river of the blockage.

Nunu felt his cloak get tugged backwards.

"Wait a second Nunu." Willump grumbled quietly. His head was raised slightly as he sniffed the air.

"There was something here before us. It smells like wet fur mostly, but I'm not sure what exactly it is. You should probably hop on my head just in case there's something dangerous ahead."

"Are you sure you're not smelling yourself?" Nunu teased. Willump didn't reply, he offered his hand to Nunu who grabbed it. Willump lifted him up onto his head.

Willump quietly continued up the hill, Nunu could feel him tense. He looked ahead and saw something moving towards them. Nunu sat there quietly, wondering what the creature was.

Willump let out a roar of challenge to the approaching creature. The creature stopped approaching them. It was close enough for Nunu to make out what it looked like.

The creature was really small, a lot smaller than it looked from far away. It had orange fur with white and blue highlights on its face, belly, and tail. It had a bird skull for a hat and held what looked like to be a jaw bone.

The creature's large ears perked up when Willumped roared. It continued to move towards them, but in a much slower and more cautious way.

Nunu could feel Willump relax.

"What is it Willump? Do you know what kind of creature it is? It looks pretty harmless." The creature was now standing in front of them, it was staring right at Willump.

Willump tilted his head to the side in confusion. Nunu wasn't expecting the sudden movement and ended up falling off of Willumps head. Willump caught him at the last second by his foot. His hat slipped off his head and fell to the ground.

Willump flipped Nunu right side up before placing him into the snow. Nunu went to walk forward, but he tripped over his feet and ended up falling forward. He fell face first onto the snow.

Willump let out a small chuckle and lifted Nunu back on his feet. He was covered in snow.

The creature was now laughing at him, it was high pitched and loud like it was the funniest thing the creature had seen. Nunu let out a small chuckle at the creature's reaction.

Willump went back to staring at the creature

"I swear this yordle looks familiar, but I can't quite remember where I've seen him before." Willumps mumble to Nunu.

"That's a yordle? I thought they were different looking. Like they wore more clothes and I don't think yordles have tails. At least mom never mentioned yordles having a tail."

Willump hummed quietly, lost in thought. Nunu realized that the yordle was looking at him so he wiped some snow off him and he decided to introduce himself.

"Sorry about what happened earlier, we didn't know you were a yordle until we got closer. Anyway, my name is Nunu and this big fur ball is my best friend Willump!"

The creature stared at Nunu before tilting its head at him.

"Uh, do yordle not speak Freljordian?" Nunu looked up at Willump for answers, but the yeti simply shrugged.

Nunu decided to take a different approach on introducing himself. He pointed at himself and said "Nunu" and then pointed at the yordle.

The yordle stood there for a second before catching on to what Nunu was doing. The yordle pointed at himself.

"Gnar!"

Nunu smiled at the yordle. Gnar then pointed at Nunu and attempted to say his name.

"Na, Noonu!" He babbled happily.

Gnar walked forward and handed Nunu a bird skull that was once on his head. Gnar then picked up Nunu's hat from the ground and put it on his own head.

The hat was too big for him. It covered his eyes, but that didn't seem to bother him. Gnar yelled out some gibberish before holding his arms out and falling forward face first into the snow.

Willump let out a howl of laughter at the yordle. He flopped backwards onto the snow, still laughing maniacally.

Nunu felt slightly embarrassed by Willumps reaction to the yordle mimicking him.

"Come on Willump, it wasn't that funny"

Willump's laughter quieted when Gnar babbled something else to him.

"You're right Gnar, it was a lot funnier when Nunu was the one face planting into the snow"

"Hey!" Nunu lightly punched Willump in the belly. Willump just continued to laugh.

Nunu let out a sigh, and looked back at Gnar. He had a giant grin on his face, his eyes were still covered by his hat.

Nunu took his hat from Gnar before handing the bird skull back to him. Gnar put the bird skull back on his head and pointed at Nunu and babbled something to him.

"I still can't understand what you're saying" Nunu put his yeti hat back on, unsure on how to answer Gnar.

"Tragrú sualño!" Gnar repeated. He was holding out his boomerang.

Willump sat up, "He wants to swap his boomerang for your flute for a minute"

"How come you can understand him and I can't?" Nunu pouted.

"I've learned many old languages, Gnar is speaking in the old yordle language which is kinda odd considering most yordle nowadays just speak common and maybe a couple of other languages" Willump explained.

Nunu let out a hum and reached over his back to get his flute. Nunu grabbed Gnars boomerang and handed over his flute.

"Can you tell Gnar to be careful with my flute? Oh, and also tell him that it's called Svellsongur!

Willump grumbled something to Gnar, who simply looked up and smiled at the yeti before continuing to mess with Nunu's flute.

The boomerang that Gnar had given him was the jawbone of some creature with a worn down animal hide wrapped messy around the handle.

Nunu has never used a boomerang before and had no idea how to properly hold or throw the thing.

Welp, I won't know till I try!

Nunu threw the boomerang as hard as he could straight in front of him. The boomerang sailed through the air straight ahead, but instead of returning to Nunu, it went straight down past a small snow mound.

Willump chuckled at Nunu's attempt at using the boomerang, before watching Gnar try(fail) to figure out what a flute is.

Nunu walked over to where the boomerang landed. He found it at the top of the snow mound. He looked at what was beyond the snow mound and let out a small "woah" at what he saw.

He saw the blocked up river that they were planning on releasing back to the village. There was a grouping of krugs near the rocks and boulders blocking the river. The krugs were all different sizes, but none of them were bigger than himself.

Nunu grabbed the boomerang and ran down the snow mound back towards Willump and Gnar.

Willump was laying down in the snow while Gnar was sitting on top of him. He was whacking Willump's belly with the flute, causing Willump to giggle softly with each whack.

"Guys! I found a group of krugs by the river! Maybe they're the reason why it's all blocked up!" Nunu yelled while running towards them.

Willump stood up at the mention of krugs. Gnar held onto Willump's beard hair and continued to whack at his belly.

They walked over to the snow mound and towards the river. During the trek, Gnar had climbed up Willump and stood on his head. They stopped when they arrived next to the group of krugs.

The krugs mostly ignored their presence, some giving them passive glances. He heard a loud grumble come from Willump's stomach.

Willump grabbed a medium sized krug and shoved the whole thing in his mouth hungrily.

Gnar hopped down from Willump's head once he started eating. He hopped over to a small krug and whacked it with the flute. The small krug fell over, its pebble-like legs swinging back and forth trying to get back on its feet.

Gnar decided to copy Willump and try eating a krug. He shoved the small krug in his mouth and started chewing. It actually tasted pretty good!

Nunu cringed at Willump and Gnar eating the krugs. He could never understand how they could enjoy eating them so much.

Around the time when he first met Willump, the yeti tried to get him to try and eat a small krug, but Nunu ended up chipping his tooth from it's hard outer skin.

Needless to say, he never tried to eat a krug again after that.

Nunu walked away from Willump and Gnar to get a better look at the blockage. The rocks on the river edge were the smallest, being about Nunu's size. In the middle of the river, there was a large boulder. It had large cracks and many jagged points.

If we can find a way to move the giant rock in the middle, the rest of the blockage should just fall apart.

The water is also pretty shallow so the blockage couldn't have been here long.

Nunu opened up his backpack and placed Gnar's boomerang inside of it.

He started climbing up the rocks, making his way towards the middle of the large boulder. He had one of his hands wrapped around the world rune, which was strapped around his neck like a necklace.

This would have been a challenging climb for anyone, but Nunu was able to use the world rune to create mounds of snow to act as foot holders making the climb a little easier.

He reached a lower jagged rock attached to the giant middle rock when he heard what sounded like low pitch chirping. Nunu turned around to see that the noise was coming from the small group of krugs.

The group of krugs were no longer acting passive and started throwing themselves at Willump and Gnar. The krugs were too small to actually harm Willump, but Gnar was forced to retreat to the top of Willump's head.

Nunu suddenly fell when the boulder he was standing on started to shake. He tried to hold onto the surface of the boulder, but he couldn't get a grip on the rock.

Nunu let out a small yell before his descent was suddenly stopped by his cloak getting caught on sharp rock jutting out of the large boulder.

He struggled to try and get his cloak unstuck, but all his attempts failed.

He could hear Willump and Gnar yelling something at him, but his attention was redirected behind him. The large cracks on the boulder were emanating a pale bluish purple light.

That's when Nunu realized

The boulder was a giant krug

~❄️❄️❄️~

It was out of nowhere when the krugs turned aggressive. They started butting their heads against Willump's legs. Even with their rocky tusks, they were too small to actually harm him.

Gnar, on the other hand, was easily knocked down by a medium sized krug that rammed into him. Gnar quickly kicked the krug off him, bonking it on the head with the flute before climbing up Willump's head.

Gnar started yelling swears at the krugs, jumping up and down in anger. Willump was for once glad Nunu couldn't understand Gnar. That's when he realized that the boy was nowhere in sight.

The ground started to shake lightly. He pushed his way past the angry krugs and looked around for the familiar orange cloaked boy. That's when he heard Nunu yell.

"NooNu!" Gnar pointed up at the river blockage.

He looked over to where he was pointing and saw Nunu stuck on one of the jagged rocks blocking the river.

The boulder Nunu was on was moving. The giant rocks shifting were causing the ground to shake. He could see Nunu struggling to get unstuck, but his cloak was't budging.

"Hold on Nunu we're coming!" Willump yelled.

The boy didn't look at Willump when he yelled at him. His focus was directed at the now glowing cracks in the boulder.

Two big glowing eyes looked at Willump as the giant krug rose to its feet. Water rushed under the krug as the smaller rocks blocking the river gave way from the force of the water.

The krugs head was the size of Willump's entire body, it's giant eyes focused on him. Nunu was stuck on the left front tusk of the krug. It let a low pitched rumble before it started charging straight at Willump.

"Willump watch out!" He heard Nunu yell at him. He saw Nunu use the world rune to create a large wall of snow in front of the krug. The giant krug blindly rammed through the wall and straight into Willump.

The wall slowed the krug down enough for the impact to lessen against Willump. He was able to hold onto the krugs head as it continued to run forward.

He noticed Nunu still trying to get the krug to stop it's blind charge forward by creating snow mounds by the krug's feet. It just continued charging forward, the snow mound only slowed the krug down a little.

Willump felt a weight leave the top of his head as Gnar jumped off his head and onto the krugs left tusk.

He watched the yordle slowly make his way to Nunu with the flute in his mouth. He also noticed that the yordle's fur was a darker color, it looked like it was turning a dark red.

Gnar had finally reached Nunu and was pulling on his cloak, trying to get it unstuck. He pulled harder and harder, his fur turning more and more red.

The yordle's eyes were glowing white, he started pounding his fist against the krug's tusk growling in rage.

Gnar's body let out a harsh flash of red light as he let out a loud yell.

"GNAAAR!"

~❄️❄️❄️~

Everything was happening so fast

Nunu watched the small yordle leap from Willump's head to the krug's tusk. His fur was now a dark red instead of its usual orange.

He somehow managed to keep his balance all the way till he made it to Nunu. The boy could feel the yordle tugging at his cloak, but not being able to get it unstuck.

His fur was turning more and more red as he pounded his fist against the cloak in frustration. Gnars growls were turning unnatural low for a yordle his size.

Nunu let out a small gasp when he saw that the yordle's fur was now glowing red

He closed his eyes at the blinding red light that flashed from Gnar. He could feel his cloak being tugged upwards harshly. Something sharp was poking his back.

He opened his eyes to see himself being held above the krug's left tusk. Behind him, he could see rows of large, sharp teeth. His cloak was now hooked onto them.

The sudden added weight on the krug's left tusk causes it to drag in the ground, forcing the krug to a sudden stop flinging everyone off.

The creature continued to hold onto him as they slid onto the snow. He could feel it's hot breath against his back as it let out low rumbles and growls.

He was lowered to the ground. He cloak unhooked from the creature's tooth and he fell forward onto the snow. He turned around to face what once was the yordle.

His fur was dark red, he had two large tusks and a large jaw lined with sharp teeth. He had small ears, small eyes, and a small bird skull that rested on his head.

It was Gnar, but just a lot larger and much more scary.

Gnar was almost double Willump's size, only being slightly shorter than the large krug. His forearms were giant with large hands and sharp claws.

Gnar grumbled something before spitting something onto Nunu. It was his flute! Sure, it was covered in spit, but it was undamaged.

He could hear familiar footsteps approach behind him as he placed the flute in his backpack.

"Nunu!" He felt Willump pick him up from the ground and turn him so he was facing the yeti.

"Are you ok?" Willump started looking over Nunu, checking for any injuries.

"I'm fine Willump, my legs just feel like jello from being dangled in the air for so long" he smiled reassuringly at Willump, pushing his large paw away from him.

They were interrupted when the krug stood up from the ground, letting out a loud noise of anger. Gnar let out a roar and charged towards the krug who also began charging forward.

The two giants clashed, the krugs head hitting Gnars chest. Gnar was trying to push the krug back, but was being forced back by the krug.

"Willump, we have to help him!" The yeti nodded, picking Nunu up and placing him on his head.

"Run close to krug's feet! I have a plan!" Nunu yelled as Willump ran closer to the two giants.

Using the world rune, Nunu and Willump were surrounded by swirls of blue magic. Nunu pointed at the krug's legs. The blue swirls of magic rushed forward.

Spikes of ice formed on the krug's legs. It stumbled a bit, but continued to push the yordle back.

With a simple gesture from Nunu, the ice shattered.

The shattering ice broke and cracked the rocky skin on the krug's legs. It let out a howl on pain, stumbling backwards.

With the krug distracted, Gnar took his chance to get the upper hand. He reared his arms up, fists held over his head before slamming them down right on the krug's head.

The krug collapses under the force of the slam. A purplish liquid dripping from the crack in its legs and head. The glow from the cracks and the krug's eyes dimmed until they were completely dark.

The krug now just looked like a pile of boulders and rocks.

Gnar lifted his fists from the now motionless krug. He was breathing heavily, exhausted from the fight.

Nunu watched Gnar as his body glowed white, shrinking down until the yordle was back to normal size.

Willump started making his way towards Gnar

"Did you know Gnar could do that!?" Nunu asked in amazement. Willump stayed silent.

The boy climbed down Willump and jogged towards the yordle. Gnar sat up from the snow, ears perked at hearing the approaching boy.

"That Was Amazing! I didn't even know yordles could do that! You were glowing red and grew like 1000 times your size and destroyed th—"

Nunu's ramble was cut off from Gnar yawning.

That's when the boy noticed how tired the yordle looked. His eyes were half open and his body leaned and swayed slightly, like he was falling asleep standing up.

Nunu reached into his backpack and pulled out the boomerang. Gnar's eyes widened at the sight of his favorite boomerang. He reached out and took it from Nunu.

"Thanks for saving us from the giant krug, I don't think me and Willump could have taken him down without you"

Gnar looked up at the boy and gave him a tired smile. Gnar looked behind him as Willump approached them.

"We need to find somewhere to stay before it gets dark, we don't have much time until the sun completely sets"

Nunu didn't even notice how late it was getting. The once bright blue sky was now a darker blue with hints of purples and reds. He looked back at the orange yordle, who was staring at Willump.

"What about Gnar?"

"Hmm, I'm sure he has other places to be" Willump shrugged.

Both the boy and the yeti looked at the yordle. Gnar stayed silent looking at the ground.

"Maybe he should come with us?"

Nunu looked up at the yeti for a response. Willump looked deep in thought, he almost looked conflicted.

"He can come with us, if he wants," Willump said slowly. Gnar visibly perks up at the yeti's words.

Nunu turns towards the yordle, "So, what do you say? Want to come with us?"

Gnar let out a happy yowl, jumping straight at Nunu. The boy caught the yordle, almost losing his balance. He chuckled at the yordle's reaction.

"I'll take that as a yes!"

~❄️❄️❄️~

Willump had walked for a bit before they found an overhang that gave enough shelter to sleep comfortably. It was already night by the time he found it, both Nunu and Gnar had fallen asleep.

Nunu was laying in his arms while Gnar slept on top of the boy's chest. Willump thought they looked cute cuddling together.

Finding a comfy corner under the overhang, Willump sat down carefully, trying not to wake up neither Nunu or Gnar.

Willump leaned back and let out a sigh, finally being able to rest. He felt something twitch against his stomach, he thought it was Nunu, but it was Gnar.

He had his half eyes open, ears twitching from sleepiness as he looked up at the yeti.

"Sorry for waking you up," Willump said quietly, hoping not to also wake Nunu up.

"I ok" Gnar mumbled.

Willump was able to roughly translate what Gnar said. His ancient yordle language was somewhat familiar to the yeti, but translating it to common language can sometimes be very tricky.

With Nunu asleep, Willump was finally about to get a moment alone with Gnar. The yordle in question looked confused at the yeti's sudden shift in demeanor.

"You were there, in the battle against the Watchers. I remember seeing you now, after you transformed into that beast. You were frozen by the blind witch, just like everyone else in that battle. It shouldn't be possible for you to escape. How did you get out?" Willump's voice was low and stern, almost threatening.

Gnar looked up at the yeti, not truly understanding the implications of him being able to escape from the True Ice.

He simply said,

"I woke up"

Chapter Text

~❄️❄️❄️~

Step by step, snow crunched under her feet. Her shoes were worn down, her socks wet, making a slight squelch sound every step. The same old crunch and squelch noise made by damp socks and snow.

Behind her was a trail of muddy snow. She remembered trying to play in the snow at her home. She would try to make snowballs, but they always melted much faster from her touch.

Step by step

Her mind aimlessly wanders around. With bland surroundings and the same noises, she marches with no destination in mind. Just forwards, towards somewhere. Some place much colder than her home.

It was springtime when she left her home. She could remember the many flowers that grew next to the river where she played with her step sister.

She remembered how the river swept her away, how she failed to save her because she couldn't control the wild fire magic that courses through her. How that same magic destroyed her home with her father in it.

Annie hugged Tibbers closer to her chest. Tibbers was always there to help keep the sad thought away, but Annie still felt lonely, even with Tibbers to keep her company.

Even if she was mean to Daisy, she really did miss her. She was her first living friend, even if they got into arguments and fights.

Tibbers was the only friend she had left since her dad, Daisy, and her mom all having left her. She could barely remember her mother's voice, it had been so long since she heard it.

All she remembered was that she left to get medicine when both herself and her father had fallen ill with some sickness.

Where is she? Where did she go?

Her father and sister were gone forever, but her mother was still out there. Maybe she could find her out here.

Annie smiled for the first time in what felt like forever. Thinking of telling her mom of all the adventures she had with Tibbers and Daisy.

But won't I hurt her like I've hurt everyone else who loved me?

Not this time. Not ever again. She won't let her power hurt the ones that matter to her the most.

For once after so many steps, she felt like she was moving towards something.

Step by step

~❄️❄️❄️~

"Sooo, what do you think we can trade for with a giant tree ripped out of the ground by a giant yordle?"

Willump stared blankly at the boy, shrugging his shoulders

In front of the duo was a large tree with its roots in the air and a hole where it once stood.

Gnar was sitting on top of the fallen tree with a large smile on his face holding two white squirrels and his beloved boomerang.

They stopped by the small oak grove to try and find some food for dinner when Willump spotted a squirrel in a tree.

Nunu planned to throw snowballs at the squirrel and use his magic to freeze and trap the squirrel, but Gnar thought the plan was silly and took things in his own hands.

Gnar climbed the tree, ignoring the protest of the boy, and gave chase against the squirrel.

The yordle underestimated the speed of the white squirrel. He chucked his boomerang at the squirrel to try and knock it out of the tree, but the squirrel gracefully dodged it and continued to run.

Gnar huffed in frustration, jumping to the tree that his boomerang landed on. He climbed up the tree, looking at his boomerang only for a second squirrel to appear.

Gnar jumped forward to grab his boomerang only for the squirrel to grab it and drag it farther up the tree.

Gnar was now getting very angry, the stupid squirrel were trying to steal his boomerang! He could hear Nunu yelling at him from further down the tree but he was too focused on his boomerang to pay attention.

With one massive leap, Gnar lunged at the squirrel only to be knocked off course by the first squirrel barging into him.

He yelped in surprise as he started falling, the white squirrel stopping its own fall by grabbing a nearby branch.

Nunu reached out from the branch he was standing on and was barely able to catch Gnar.

"That was a close one Gnar, but you should've—uh oh—"
Nunu cut himself off as the yordle blasted into a red ball of light letting off a loud roar knocking the boy and himself out of the tree.

The boy landed safely on the snow below while Mega Gnar charged at the tree that both the squirrels and his boomerang were on.

His claws raked through the ground under the tree. Gnar ripped the roots out of the ground causing the tree to fall forward with the squirrels and his boomerang still on it.

Willump covered the stunned boy with his body, blocking falling dirt, rocks, and branches.

The sound of hundreds of branches snapping thundered through the grove. Willump held onto Nunu until there was silence.

Back to his normal size, the yordle babbled happily leaving the trio with two squirrels and a large tree.

Gnar hopped over to Nunu and Willump showing off the two squirrels he caught. He gave the two squirrels to Nunu while still babbling to Willump.

Willump chuckled softly at the endless chatter from the yordle. Nunu put the two squirrels into his backpack, wishing that he could understand what the yordle was saying.

"How far is the next village Willump" the boy asked

"Hmmm," the yeti scratched his chin, "the next village is a small trading port. It's about a 2 hour walk if we follow the river."

"You think we could bring the tree with us? Wood is worth a lot from what I've seen"

"That's a very large tree, I don't even think I'd be strong enough to drag it all the way there."

"Ohmega wagella!" Gnar picked up a large stick handing it to Nunu.

"I don't think this is enough to trade for anything that we need, but thanks for trying to help." He handed Gnar back the stick who proceeded to start chewing on it.

Both the yeti and the boy sat there in deep thought, thinking of ways to try and bring the wood with them. That's when an idea popped in the boys head.

"I've got it! What if we rode the tree like a raft in the river! The river will take us to the village and it'll be quicker than walking!" Nunu said in excitement.

"You know what, that's not a bad idea." Willump stood up and walked towards the fallen tree.

He started to roll the tree, getting past other trees and rocks with some help from Nunu and Gnar.

Willump rolled the tree into the shallow water and held it still as Nunu created ice supports to stop the tree from spinning.

Gnar and Nunu sat on the tree as Willump pushed it into the river hopping on as the tree started floating down the stream.

The tree and the ice bobbed from the weight of Willump but it successfully stayed afloat. The trio cheered as their makeshift raft floated down the river.

Willump paddled using his four arms making the raft go faster. Gnar splashed the water with his boomerang getting Nunu and Willump wet causing an all out splash war. Needless to say, Willump won with ease drenching both the yordle and the boy in one big splash.

Willump wasn't able to stay dry long as they reached a short rapids that ensured that everyone got wet.

After the rapids, the water slowed and calmed leaving all three soaking wet and giddy after the fun ride.

Nunu pulled out his flute deciding to play it while the river was calm but was stopped when Willump tense up behind his back.

He looked to where Willump was staring and noticed the large amount of smoke coming from the forest. They still had over an hour till they reached the village.

"That's a lot of smoke, I don't think that's a campfire."

"Gnar!"

"Do you think you could paddle us to shore? We should check and make sure no one is caught in a fire. We might even be able to put it out."

Willump nodded, turning the raft towards a sandy river bed and beaching the tree so it wouldn't float off. Gnar and Nunu ran ahead as Willump trailed behind them.

The forest parted revealing a road with a upturn carriage that was slowly burning. Crates of supplies laid scattered and destroyed as smoke rose from slowly dying fires.

Gnar ran forward towards the main carriage and started tossing snow, gravel, and dirt on the main fire. Nunu followed close behind helping gnar by using snow to cover the fire.

"Did you see anyone here by the carriage?" Willump grumbled from behind.

"No, maybe some raider burned the carriage forcing the owners to flee?" The boy responded

Willump mumbled something to Gnar, who then ran off into the forest sniffing the air to see if he could find anyone.

Nunu continued to put out smaller fire from the scattered supplies when he actually found someone among the wreckage.

It was a little girl around his age with red brown hair and light purple and pink clothing. She was laying on her side and she seemed to be untouched by the fire.

She was alive. Nunu could feel heat radiating from the girl, more heat than should be normal. He reached down and put his hand against her forehead.

"Willump! I found someone! I think she might be sick" Nunu noticed the girl flinch when he yelled for his best friend.

The boy waited for the yeti to respond, but didn't receive any. He turned around to glance at his friend only to see a large creature charge into the clearing with a loud roar.

It charged straight at Willump who let out a roar matching that of the firey beast. Nunu instinctively reached for his flute playing a quick battle rhythm as streams of magic flowed from him to the yeti.

The beast looked like a large bear who's interior was made of fire. It tackled Willump knocking both of them to the ground.

Claws of fire and ice ranked against each other. Steam rolled off both the beasts as they landed blows on one another. Willump kicked the bear off him, quickly getting up before locking arms with the bear once more.

"Get him Willump!" Nunu cheered as another wave of magic was sent towards the yeti, giving him enough strength to start moving the bear back.

The bear stumbled backward causing both the yeti and itself to fall into the dense foliage.

Nunu wanted to fight with Willump, but he knew he needed to stay and protect the girl just in case there were more dangerous creatures.

Few moments passed as the fire bear emerged from the forest and started heading towards the boy and the girl. Nunu stood between the bear and the girl, his world rune flaring with magic.

He felt scared not knowing where Willump was, but he knew he had to be brave. He knew he had to protect the girl from the bear. Cold wind started swirling around him.

He threw snowballs at the bear, they almost immediately melted off the bear as they landed. It continued to walk forward.

The bear entered the freezing ice wind as Nunu continued to pelt its fur with snowballs. The storm successfully slowed the bear with it being so cold that the snow was freezing on the bear.

It looked like the fire inside the bear was starting to dim down. Nunu just had to keep his magic focused on the bear until it was defeated.

"D-don't ti-tibers" the girl behind Nunu mumbled.

Nunu glanced behind him, the ice storm starting to slow down as his focus shifted to the girl. She was still on the ground, but her eyes were open as she weakly reached out towards the bear.

The fire within the bear bursted with new energy as it started lumbering towards the girl again.

Nunu backed up. He felt himself fall backwards as he tripped over the girls legs. He laid there, half on top of the girl unsure on what to do. He noticed how calm she was as the bear got very close. He felt her shift as her hands reached out towards the fire bear.

Why was she reaching towards the bear?

The bear reached for the girl, but didn't get a chance to touch her as it unraveled into fire and fur shrinking down into a small teddy bear. The teddy bear fell right into the girls arms.

She weakly hugged the teddy bear, letting out a small sneeze before falling unconscious once again.

Nunu heard a worried bellow as Willump rushed out of the forest back to the clearing. Some of his white fur was singed and tangled, but he seemed unharmed beyond that. Gnar was on the yeti's head with twigs and leaves stuck in his orange fur.

Willump sighed in relief realizing that Nunu was safe and the danger was gone. He looked down at the boy and the girl, tilting his head in confusion.

"I'm a little confused myself Willump" the boy scratched his head, moving his legs off the girl.

"Is she ok?"

"I think so, but she is sick. She only stayed awake for a brief moment before falling back asleep" Nunu sighed as he started explaining what happened while the yeti was away in the dense forest.

~❄️❄️❄️~

Nunu placed his orange cloak on a makeshift stand to dry off by the fire next to his blue hat and gloves. He opened a pot that contained a boiling squirrel soup within. He grabbed the wooden spoon and started stirring.

After Nunu explained what happened on his side, Willump told him how he got his beard stuck in some brambles while fighting the bear. The bear just walked back towards the clearing as he tried to untangle his fur from the spiky bramble bush. He was only able to get out with the help of Gnar.

As the stew finished, Nunu carefully removed the pot from over the fire onto the snow to cool down. He wasn't the best cook, but he knew how to make an editable meal. He wished he could have learned what seasonings his mom added to her special soup she'd make when he was sick.

Willump had to carry the girl as they decided to move closer to the village. It was dark by the time they made it just outside the village. They made a small camp just outside the village, hoping not to draw any unwanted attention from the villagers.

Nunu created an igloo big enough for everyone to sleep in while Willump and Gnar went out to find something more to eat since the two squirrels would only be enough to feed two people.

He managed to save the squirrel hides after skinning them. Hopefully it would be enough to trade for some medicine.

Nunu's thoughts were interrupted by a whimper coming from the other side of the fire. The girl was lying on the other side of the igloo. Her face scrunched up as she curled in on herself, holding onto her teddy bear like it was a life line.

It looked like she was having a nightmare

Nunu stood up from where he was sitting and quietly walked towards the girl. He sat on his knees in front of the girl and slowly put his hand on her shoulder to try and get her to wake up.

He did not expect flames to suddenly burst from the girl. He flinched away from the girl, closing his eyes and expecting to feel pain from the fire licking against his skin. He instead felt layer of frost cover his skin. The world rune activated and protect his skin from the fire.

He could still feel how intense the heat was through the frost, but didn’t feel any pain from burns.

He heard the girl's breathing increase in speed through the crackling of fire. He squinted his eyes open, trying to see through the fire and smoke as he crawled back to the girl.

Nunu thought about how his mother would comfort him when he had nightmares. She would hold him close, hum a song, rub his back, or even run her fingers through his hair.

He laid down next to her, wrapping his arms around her in a gentle hug. Nunu was surprised to feel how hot the girl was to the touch. It became almost impossible to see as steam was rolling off his body as the rune constantly replaced the frost to prevent burns.

Regardless, Nunu hugged her closer, humming a song his mother used to sing to him. He felt his face and arms start to sting as the heat flashed in intensity, before calming. He felt her relax in his hug, her breathing slowed as she went back into a dreamless sleep.

The fire died down around the two. Nunu let out a quiet sigh of relief doing his best to not wake the girl.

He tried to shift away from her, only to realize she had both her hands grabbed onto his slightly charred leather shirt.

Unable to leave the girls side without risking waking her up, Nunu got comfortable, enjoying the warmth that the girl provided before slowly falling asleep.

~❄️❄️❄️~

Willump crawled into the igloo, exhausted from chasing raptors all around the place. Gnar had already fallen asleep after the hunt, happy to rest with a full stomach. He slept on the yeti's head, letting out soft snores every once in a while.

Willump first saw the slowly dying fire with an untouched pot of soup next to Nunu's cloak, gloves, and hat. Past the fire, he saw both the kids.

Willump cood at the sight. Both Nunu and the girl were cuddling with each other in their sleep.

He also noticed the how all the snow surrounding the girl had melted away leaving dry and icy dirt. Nunu’s arms look quiet red as he held onto the girl. He made sure he didn’t actually have any burns and say not injury.

Once satisfied, he reached over and grabbed the boy's orange cloak and laid it on both the children.

He blocked the entrance with snow and lied down in front of it. Willump closed his eyes and dreamed of the adventures that awaited the group when tomorrow came.

~❄️❄️❄️~

Annie came back from her deep sleep slowly. She didn't feel the best, her sickness giving her a sore throat and made her body feel weak and achy. At least she felt very comfortable.

She could feel the weight of some sort of blanket on her. She normally slept without one since they made her uncomfortably warm. It didn't bother her too much though with her hugging a pillow that was nice and cool.

Wait, is the pillow breathing?

Annie opened her eyes to see that her supposed pillow was in fact a boy. She didn't recognize the boy whatsoever.

She pushed away from him, dragging Tibbers with her. The boy mumbled something under his breath before opening his eyes and looking at her.

He looked up at her with surprise as his face turned into a friendly smile.

"You're awake! I was starting to worry about you. You were sleeping for a while." The boy said while sitting up.

She shyly stared at the boy, not really sure how to respond to him. She was wary of him but Tibbers always made sure she was safe before turning back to a teddy bear.

The boy seemed to pick up on her shyness

"Oh um, my name is Nunu by the way. We saved— well, more like found you in the wreckage of a burning carriage..."

She could remember bits and pieces of what happened. She could remember Tibbers reaching towards her and how her legs were being pushed against the ground by something cold and damp.

"... so what's your name?" The boy, Nunu, asked.

"M-my name is An—" broke into a coughing fit. Her throat burned with each cough, "an-nie" she whimpered out quietly.

Nunu frowned in concern at Annie's scratchy cough. He looked around the igloo to see where he placed his backpack before making his way over to it. He grabbed his hat and gloves from the stand and grabbed the canteen from his backpack and made his way back to the girl.

"Here, drink some water" he gave the canteen to Annie, who took it and started drinking.

Nunu grabbed his cloak from the floor and draped it across Annie's shoulders. She flinched when he did this, but relaxed in the soft cloak.

"You know, you probably got sick from the cold. I don't know how you didn't turn into an icicle with only a short sleeve shirt and skirt!" Nunu giggled. Annie gave a small smile at the boy's attempt to lighten the mode, but she heard what sounded like a low grumble behind him. Nunu turned around to see what she was looking at.

Behind him, a large fluffy yeti was stretching out his arms and back. It let out a huge yawn as one of its four arms scratched its back.

Annie initially thought that the yeti was dangerous, but it's fluffy, goofy, and overall friendly appearance didn't make her feel all that scared. It didn't stop her from holding Tibbers closer, just in case the yeti tried anything.

"Oh yeah! I forgot to introduce you to my friends! The big yeti is Willump, he is my best friend and the orange yordle in his beard is Gnar, he can't speak common, but Willump can translate what he says to you."

The yeti, Willump grumbled something at Nunu. He grabbed a pot with some sort of soup and placed it over a small fire pit as he searched through the boys backpack.

Willump huffed something at Nunu.

"Wait, the flint and steel should be in my backpack. Are you sure you didn't miss any pockets?"

A grumble from Willump.

The boy sighed as he looked around the igloo for the flint and steel. That when his eyes landed on Tibbers.

"Hey! We could use your magic fire bear to start the fire!" He pointed at Tibbers.
"O-only if you're ok with that" he added quickly.

Annie slowly stood up and walked towards the firepit. Nunu stood next to her. He watched her with excitement, which confused Annie.

Doesn't he realize how dangerous I am?

She carefully called to her fire magic as flames sparked to life on her palm. She notices Nunu staring in awe at her fire.

She tossed flames at the wood in the fire pit, careful not to hit the pot of soup. The fire pit bursted to life with her flames.

"Woah, so you're magic? Does the teddy bear give you your powers?"

"No, Tibbers isn't the source of my magic... I was born with it"

"That's awesome! So you're just like an iceborn but with fire! A fireborn maybe? Do those exist? I can actually use magic myself too! I hav—"

"You're magic too?" Annie cut the boy's rambling off. Nunu smiled sitting down in the snow. He patted the ground next to him signaling for Annie to sit down.

He held his hand out towards Annie as blue swirls came from his hands forming into a shape that looked like a tiny version of Willump.

The tiny Willump danced around Annie and Nunu. He then created a tiny version of Tibbers. Annie giggled when the tiny Tibbers floated in front of her face and tickled her nose.

She reached to grab the tiny Tibbers. At her touch, the tiny Tibbers dissipated into a mini explosion of blue sparkles like a tiny firework.

Both the children laughed as more tiny magic creatures danced around them. Tiny poros, wolves, bears, elkury, all of them poofing into blue sparks when touched. Even Gnar decided to join in on the fun!

Wanting to create tiny creatures with her own magic, Annie summoned a small ball of fire in her palm. She willed it to change shape to look like a butterfly. Nunu and Gnar watched as the fire ball changed shape to look almost like a butterfly, but the fire died out as Annie went into another cough fit.

Willump grumbled something to Nunu.

"You're right Willump, I really need to get some medicine," he looked toward Annie, " can I leave you here with Gnar and Willump? I won't be too long, the village is really close from here" he asked Annie.

Annie nodded. Nunu stood from where he was sitting next to her and made his way to his backpack. He slung it over his shoulder and dug a small hole in the snow wall blocking the entrance of the igloo and crawling through.

Nunu poked his head back through the hole, "I'll be right back! If the soup is done before I'm back then just eat without me!"

"Bulangalf!" Gnar ran after Nunu clutching the jaw bone he carried around everywhere.

Annie sat there and watched Willump stir the
the soup for a while as it warmed up. The yeti glanced over and noticed her staring. He stopped stirring the soup and grumbled something at her.

She could tell that Willump was trying to tell her something, but she had no idea what he was saying.

Willump huffed, realizing that the girl couldn't understand him. He was so used to only talking to Nunu and Gnar that it was easy to forget that very few could actually understand him.

Willump held out his paw as his claws glowed blue. Magic that was the same as Nunu's flowed out of his hand and created a shape.

It was an image of Tibbers, but he was a large fire bear, Willump looked at her curiously.

"O-oh, that's Tibbers, um, he normally will turn into a large bear when I'm in danger or when I want him to come out. He mainly likes to stay in his teddy bear form though."

Willump hummed as the blue image of Tibbers swapped to that of a burning carriage.

Annie looked away in shame. She is thankful that Nunu didn't ask her about it right off the bat. She didn't even consider Willump wanting to know what happened there either.

"I'm-I'm not happy with what happened back there, but I was scaried and confused. The people from the carriage found me and took me in. I can't remember much, I was already sick, but I remember there being yelling. I felt someone rip Tibbers away from me and I panicked. The last thing that I remember were flames being everywhere, more yelling... Tibbers roaring." Annie looked down at Tibbers.

"I've been alone with Tibbers for several weeks...I stopped counting around the three week mark. After losing my dad, I've been wandering around looking for my mom, she left to get medicine for me and my dad a while back and never returned. I'm not even sure if she is alive or where she is at, but I want to believe she is out there and that maybe I'll find her..." Annie smiled. Thinking of her mom always made her feel warm.

It felt good to talk to Willump about this, she has never shared this much information with any adult that took her in. Sure she didn't tell her full story... but still, something about Willump made him easy to talk to.

Annie heard Willump's heavy footsteps approach her. She looked up to see he was holding a bowl of soup in his paw. Annie grabbed the bowl and thanked the yeti as she put it on her lap.

Willump started scratching something on the ground. Annie watched as it slowly spelled out a message.

Thanks for telling what happened
Don't have spoons
Sorry

Annie chuckled, lifting up the bowl and slowly drank some of the soup. It tasted... pretty bland, but it felt amazing against her raw throat. She was half way through the soup when she heard someone crawl through the entrance.

Gnar jogged up to her, boomerang in one hand and a small vial in the other. He stood up high, chest puffed out in pride as he held the vial towards Annie.

Behind Gnar, Nunu tumbled into the igloo. "Hey! I'm the one who traded for the medicine Gnar!" The boy yelled getting back on his feet.

Gnar turned around and blew a raspberry at him. Nunu retaliated by sticking his tongue out at him. Annie giggled at the two.

Gnar turned back towards Annie and handed the medicine to her. She didn't even get a chance to thank the yordle as a pile of snow fell on top of him. Nunu stood above Gnar with a snarky smile on his face.

The only thing sticking out of the snow was Gnar's hand which turned into a thumbs-up causing both the kids to laugh.

Nunu sat down next to Annie as Willump walked over and picked Gnar up from the snow pile. Willump then handed a bowl of soup to Nunu.

Nunu looked over at Annie who was staring at the vial.

"The women that sold it to me said that the medicine tastes really bad. She recommended you drink a lot of water after downing it. Maybe drink the rest of your soup after taking the medicine to wash away the bad flavor." Nunu told Annie.

Her nose scrunched up at the thought of drinking the medicine. But she knew it was the only way to feel better. She pulled the cork of the vial out and downed the medicine in one gulp.

Annie quickly started chugging the soup down after drinking the fowl medicine. The soup tasted like a high class meal compared to how awful the medicine tasted.

Nunu and Annie ate the rest of their food together while Gnar and Willump went out to hunt for their own food. They finished their food in a peaceful silence.

"So, when you're feeling better, where do you think we can find your parents?" Nunu asked

"My parents?"

"Yeah, I bet they are worried sick about you... umm, you have parents right?"

Silence

"Oh... sorry for assuming. Do you maybe want to talk about what happened back at the carriage?"

Annie sat and thought on whether or not to tell Nunu what truly happened. It was easier to talk to Willump. He gave off an air of wisdom and understanding, but Nunu was her age. She didn't want Nunu to think differently of her.

Even though she has only known him for a couple of hours, she really didn't want to lose what little friendship she has created with the boy. Annie always wanted to find someone like her. Someone that had similar struggles with magic. Nunu is the closest thing she has had to a friend since she met Daisy.

Nunu seems so nice. What if he found out how dangerous I am to be around?

Maybe Nunu would understand, but she wanted to enjoy what little friendship they had before potentially ruining it.

"I don't think I'm ready to talk about it" she answered quietly.

Nunu smiled softly, "That's ok, I don't like to talk about how I lost my mom, but I can tell you if it'll make you feel more comfortable? Just for you?"

He also lost his mom...?

Annie gave a small nod, staring at the boy curiously as he began to tell his story.

"Well, Once upon a time, there was a little boy who loved his mother very much. She sang him stories of heroes, beast and magic. She even gave him a flute that he could use to play along with her songs. One day, bad people attacked their home. The boy wanted to be brave, but he was too scared as he watched his mom be chased away by the bad people... He was alone for a while, he missed his mom so much. He finally got brave enough to leave the safety of his shelter and find a magical rune that could lead him to his mother. There was a big and scary monster that was rumored to guard the gem, but the boy went after the magic anyways. He confronted the beast, ready to fight, only to see that the beast was a yeti. The yeti was lonely, like the boy, so they decided to stick together and become the best of friends! Now with the magic of the world rune, we travel across all of Freljord following my mother's songs in hopes that they lead them back to her." Nunu finished his story.

Annie smiled at the heartwarming story. Even with losing his mom, he still made his story have a happy ending. She wondered if her story of tragedy could ever turn into one of hope.

"What did you think of my story?" Nunu asked.

"I liked it... I'm actually trying to find my mom too."

"Really? Maybe we can find her together!"

"You'd really help me?"

"Of course! If my magic can help find my mom, I'm sure it could do the same for you!"

Annie thought about her options briefly. Traveling with the boy and his friends sounds like so much fun, but what if she grew attached to them only for her to hurt them. The pain for losing her first family almost broke her. Did she really want to risk it again?

I promised not to hurt the ones I care about and I plan to stick with that promise

"Okay, we can find our moms together"

"This Is AWESOME!" Nunu cheered, jumping up from where he was sitting. He held out his hand for Annie, who took it as he pulled her up.

Nunu held onto her hand with both of his. His smile was so big, it seemed to light up the whole igloo. Turns out, smiles are contagious as she couldn't help but smile herself.

"We will get to go on adventures together! Us, Willump, and Gnar, heroes of Freljord!"

Annie laughed along with Nunu as he grabbed her both her hands and started spinning in circles with her. Their chaotic dance ended quickly as Annie let go of Nunu's hands. He wasn't expecting this and fell backwards into the snow.

Annie stopped laughing, afraid she might have upset Nunu, but he started laughing louder. She smiled while looking down at the boy's brown eyes that always seemed to be filled with joy.

Maybe there will be a happy ending to my story after all...

Chapter Text

~❄️❄️❄️~

"Are you sure you feel well enough to go to the village?" Nunu asked Annie

Nunu stood by the entrance of the igloo. It was mid day, the sun was shining through the open hole in the roof. Not much time has passed since she took the medicine, but she already felt a hundred times better.

"I feel a lot better than before. I just want to get out of this igloo." Annie walked up next to Nunu.

"Alright! Lets go!" They both walked out of the igloo. Annie was still wearing Nunu's orange cloak. She insisted that she didn't need it saying that her fire magic kept her warm, but Nunu refused to take it back from her.

Nunu wore a slim leather vest over a gray, long sleeve shirt. The gloves he wore made his hands seem a lot bigger than what they actually were. They swung by his sides in rhythm of his footsteps as they made their way to a small snow forest.

"What are we going to do at the village anyway?" Annie asked. She matched her footsteps with Nunu.

"When I was at the village, there was a woman there selling clothes for children. I thought we could get you some clothes better suited for the cold."

"Won't it cost money? I don't have anything to give."

"Well, After you took a nap at camp, I went back to the burned carriage and grabbed some stuff to trade with." He shook his backpack which was filled to the brim with random different items. Annie could see a flute sticking out of the backpack, she wondered if he knew how to play the instrument. "—If you want me to, I can continue the story from earlier?"

"What story?" Annie asked

"You asked me to tell you another story. I barely started telling you one of my mom's stories before you passed out! That medicine must have made you really tired" Nunu said.

"Oh, I think I'd like to hear the story"

They continued walking forward on a small path. Mossy stepping stone lined the path. Nunu balanced on them jumping from rock to rock as he told Annie about one of the heroes of Freljord. He told her about a man named Braum and how he saved a young troll by carving through a mountain with just his fist.

As they continued forward, the forest started to thin out. Annie realized they were walking towards the familiar sound of rushing water.

The forest opened up to reveal a river. It was a lot like the river that was next to her old home. She remembered how she would have picnics with Daisy by the river.

Nunu kinda remind me of Daisy. Both of them always got excited over the smallest things.

Nunu looked down both ends of the river trying to remember where to cross. Annie stayed further away from the edge than Nunu but he didn't notice.

"I remember taking a small bridge to the village but I think I might know a shortcut!" Nunu skipped along the river's edge with Annie silently following him.

The river got slightly skinner as more rocks appeared to breach its surface. Nunu stopped in front of a line of rocks that went across the river. The water splashed against the rocks, their surface shiny from water and erosion.

Nunu took a step forward and jumped onto the nearest rock. Annie gasped as Nunu jumped to another rock. "Hey! Wait!" She yelled.

Nunu turned around and looked back at her. He was confused as to why she looked so scared. "There's nothing to be scared of! It's like a fun game of hopscotch!" He said hopping onto another rock.

"N-no it's not! The water is too dangerous to cross!" Annie yelled at him.

Annie stood at the very edge of the river. Flames started seeping from Tibbers.

"Please, just come back and we can just cross the river from the bridge" Annie pleaded.

Nunu looked down at the rushing water then looked back up at Annie. He frowned seeing Annie look so worried.

Why does she look so scared and panicked? It's just water. Does she maybe not know how to swim?

He took a step towards Annie, ready to make his way back to her.

He didn't expect his boot to slip off the rock.

He yelled in surprise as he fell. He heard Annie scream as he plunged into the dark rushing waters.

~❄️❄️❄️~

"Yanga Traffa?" Gnar asked Willump while hopping through the snow.

"Nunu and Annie have to go to the village for stuff. They can hunt with us next time we go out." Willump grumbled in response.

They were currently following a trail that Gnar had found. There were drops of blood along the path they were following. They hoped to find a wounded animal to eat for lunch.

There was a quiet shuffle in the snow beside them. The duo froze, ears perked listening to the noises. There was also whimpering coming from that direction.

Gnar stalked forward, moving towards the distressed creature. The trail led them away from the forest and into a rocky, snow covered clearing. The yordle disappeared behind the rock. Willump waited farther back, ready to attack if the creature tried to run.

A small, white creature bulted from behind the rock for the other side of where Gnar entered. Willump was ready to catch the creature, but it ran straight into him.

It ran face first into his leg before falling onto its back. It's four stubby feet flailed in the air, trying to roll over off its back. Willump picked up the small creature and turned it around on his paw.

The small fluffy creature shook its fur, getting snow off of it. It looked like a snowball with fur, two small beady eyes, and a pair of tiny horns. Willump recognized this creature as a Poro.

The Poro looked down, realizing that it wasn't on the ground before slowly looking up at Willump. It let out a startled yelp before curling on itself. It was shaking, it's eyes were closed as it whimpered in fear.

Willump saw how scared the poor thing was. It's considered to be bad luck to hunt and kill Poros, so he decided to try and comfort the small creature.

Willump gently petted Poro. He let out a small coo noise, hoping the noise came off as friendly instead of threatening.

It seemed to work. The Poro stopped shaking.

It opened one of its eyes and looked back up at Willump. He smiled at the Poro, making sure to hide his sharp teeth behind his lips. The Poro stuck his tongue out happily, leaning towards Willump's paw as he pet him.

They were interrupted when Gnar jumped onto Willump and climbed onto his head. The yordle jumped up and down on his head, babbling something about big smelly creatures. His boomerang pointed outwards past the rocks and down a slope.

Big smelly creatures? What could that be?

Willump placed the Poro on his head next to Gnar. The yordle booped the Poro on the nose curiously. The Poro sneezed at his touch. Gnar giggled, giving the Poro a pat on the head.

Willump made his way over to where Gnar had pointed. The air carried a foul smell, it worsened as they moved closer. Willump got down on all six of his limbs as they approached the downward slope. He peaked down the hill to see what Gnar was on about.

Down the slope was a clearing with a couple of rocks sticking out of the ground. Small patches of grass poked out of the snow, the grass was surprisingly green even with the snow and cold weather.

In the middle of the clearing were three large figures. They had blue-ish gray skin with patches of hair on their skin. They wore ragged and torn clothes of fur and leather. The wind blew into Willump's face, filling his nostrils with their foul scent.

Willump was able to recognize their scent from a long time ago.

These creatures were ice trolls.

He could hear their raspy laughter echo through the clearing. They surrounded a pack of Poros, grabbing them and tossing them into sacks of leather.

Willump stood up and started making his way towards them. He growled threatening at the trolls, getting their attention.

A short and bulky troll was the first to speak, "The hell is that thing?" The troll was standing up, a sack of Poros shook on his back.

"Looks like an ugly combination of a bear and an elkury, it's even wearing a silly orange hat" a tall, skinny troll with a crooked nose and long hair said.

"The thing smells like a yeti" the last troll growled. He wore a winter boar fur on his head. He had a large bulbous nose and a large overbite.

"What do you think you're doing with those Poros?" Willump growled, his teeth and claws glowing blue.

"We are going to eat them—Ow!" The tall troll bonked the short one on the head with his fist.

The boar hat troll walked right up to Willump's face, "That's none of your concern, yeti." The troll smiled as Willump held back a gag from the horrendous smell of the troll's breath.

Yetis and trolls have had a rivalry as odd as the Freljord herself. Yetis were always wiser and smarter than trolls, always outwitting them with magic and smarts. That was, until Lissandra happened. The yetis descended to savagery and madness, paving the way for trolls to take over.

The Poro on his head was hiding in his white fur. He could feel the poor thing shaking in fear. Gnar on the other hand, was just staring curiously at the trolls.

He knew without Nunu, it would be difficult to fight all three trolls at once. So he decided to do what yetis did best; trick the trolls.

"Well, I was on my way to my gold vault, but then I saw you had Poros in your possession so I was wondering if we could make a trade?" Willump asked the boar hat troll.

"Gold vault? How much gold are we talking about?" The tall troll asked Willump

"More gold then even Grubgrack the wise had"

Now this got the troll's attention. Grubgrack is one of the most respected and well known trolls, he was rumored to have outsmarted one of the Old Gods of Freljord.

The boar hat troll scratches his chin. Willump could see the cogs in his head turning as he thought deeply about what the yeti had to offer. Something clicked in his head and he frowned at the yeti.

"How do we know this isn't no trick?" He said in suspicion.

"I can prove this is no trick," Willump reached behind him quickly and grabbed the first thing he felt. "I even have a key for the vault" he held the item he picked up blindly.

"That looks like just a rock to me" the troll growled, his patients starting to thin.

"Uh, the rock is magic! It fits into a slot in the door that leads to the cave. Here, look," Willump channeled his magic onto the rock. He made blue strands of magic swirl around the blue rock.

The trolls stared in awe at the rock that was now glowing blue. Even the boar hat troll seemed interested.

"Alright fur ball, I'm convinced. I'll take your deal" he held out his hand waiting for Willump to give it to him.

"Release the Poros from the bags first and then I'll give you the r— key"

The boar hat troll snapped his fingers signalling to the two other trolls to release the Poros. They ran out of the sacks, running away from the trolls straight to Willump. They all hid behind him, shaking in fear from the big scary trolls.

"The key yeti" the boar hat troll growled. Willump dropped the 'key' into the troll's hand. The troll laughed before turning and running away with the rock in hand.

"THANKS FOR THE FREE GOLD FUR FACE!!" the troll shouted. The other trolls followed him while laughing.

"BBBRRRYYYYYEEEE" Gnar yelled, waving goodbye as the trolls ran to a non-existent treasure.

Willump sighed in relief. His plan to trick the trolls worked. It actually went better than he expected.

I didn't even have to tell them where the vault was...I knew they were dumb, but not that dumb.

~❄️❄️❄️~

Nunu held his breath as he fully submerged under water. The strong current spun him in circles, making it hard to tell what was up and what was down. His nostrils burned as water rushed into them.

He flailed around in the water, desperately trying to breach its surface. Even in his panic he could feel the familiar cold that came with using his magic. He quickly imagined a chunk of ice that could float him to the surface. He felt a cold weight push against his chest. He grabbed onto it and held on for dear life as he rose to the surface.

Nunu finally broke the surface. He immediately took a deep breath of air before coughing up some water. The water relentlessly splashed against his face and the true ice block he created.

He continued to hold onto the ice, trying to catch his breath. The water continued to push Nunu farther down stream. He looked up past the rushing waters and saw the bridge.

There was a large man standing on the bridge. From a distance, it looked like the man was holding a large stone slab as tall as him. He heard the man yell something, but he couldn't make out what he said over the sound of rushing water.

Nunu watched in shock as the man dived into the rushing water. He quickly resurfaced, seeming to effortlessly swim against the current towards the boy.

As he got closer to Nunu, he was able to recognize who the man was. The blue tattoos of his arms and chest, his gold and blue armor on his abdomen and shoulder, the iconic mustache.

"Braum! I knew you were real!" Nunu yelled, overjoyed to see one of his heroes. Braum finally reached Nunu, he grabbed hold of the true ice he was holding onto. The boy saw Braum's eyebrows perk up in surprise at the ice block, but he redirected his attention to Nunu.

"Grab my hand little one! Let's get out of this river yeah?" Braum held out his hand for Nunu to grab.

He held onto Nunu with one arm as he used his other arm to swim to the river's edge. Nunu wrapped his arms around his neck, trusting the man to be able to get them to safety.

Braum placed him on shore before pushing himself out of the water. Nunu let out a sigh of relief, finally being out of the water. He shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair so they weren't blocking his eyes. That when he realized he was missing something.

My hat!

Nunu looked around him, frantically looking for any sign of his hat.

"Missing something small one?" Braum placed his blue hat on his head. It felt wet and heavy on his head.

"Haha! Now you look like a yeti boy" Braum now stood up straight, pulling Nunu to his feet. His legs felt shaky from trying to swim against the current.

"Thanks for saving me Braum! My mom has told me so many stories about you! I can't believe you're here! I have so many questions like did you really fight a dragon? Are you an ice born? What happened to the troll you saved? Where's your shield? Was it really made by Orn—"

"Slow down yeti boy! It's great to see someone as bright as you, but I can answer all the questions you have on our way to your home in N'donkund."

"Oh, I don't live in the village there Braum sir. I'm traveling with my friends Willump, Gnar , and Ann—"

"NUNU!" Annie ran into Nunu, crushing him in a hug. Nunu was barely able to keep his balance when she crashed into him. He hugged her back.

Nunu noticed how shaky her breathing was. Her face was buried in the crook of his neck. She was very warm compared to him.

"Hey Annie, I'm okay. See?" Nunu tried to reassure her. He felt her tense up in the hug before suddenly pushing Nunu away. He fell backwards onto his butt, he looked up at Annie in surprise. There were tears falling down her face, but she didn't look sad or relieved.

She looked super angry.

"How are you so calm right now!? You just got swept away from a river because you took a stupid risk! You could've died...And I would've been alone again!"

"Ann—"

"WHY CAN'T YOU JUST THINK BEFORE DOING THINGS DAISY!?" Annie covered her mouth after making the mistake. "—Nunu, I met Nunu..." she looked away from the boy, "I—I'll just meet you at the village..." she wiped the tears from her eyes before walking off.

Nunu watched her walk off. He was still in shock, confused on Annie's sudden change in emotion. He also felt really bad for upsetting her, even if he doesn't understand why she was so upset or who Daisy was.

Maybe there was a reason I could never make friends with the other Notia children...

"She's a spit-fire ain't she yeti boy? Kinda reminds me of my wife" Braum reminiscenced, twirling his mustache.

"We— I should probably go meet her in the village" Nunu pushed himself up, his voice sounding sad and defeated.

"Do not fret yeti boy, she will come around eventually. Let us go to N'donkund." The two of them made their way to the bridge that leads straight to the village.

~❄️❄️❄️~

Nunu stood in front of an Avarosan tent that he saw when picking up medicine for Annie. It was one of the smaller trading carts in the supply market, but it seemed like a pretty successful stand.

Behind him was a larger trading stand. It had wooden carvings of creatures and wooden tools. Annie was at this stand looking at some of the animal carvings.

He was staring at Annie. Anytime they made eye contact, she would just immediately look away. When Nunu first arrived at the village, he tried to approach Annie to apologize to her, but she would always walk off.

"Find something you like?" Nunu turned around towards where the voice came from. The owner of the Avarosan tent stood behind him. Her arms were crossed with a knowing look on her face. "You seem pretty young to already be staring at girls."

"It's-it's not like that! We're just friends" Nunu blushed, looking away from the woman in embarrassment.

"Ha! I'm just teasing you. Don't worry your little red cheeks about it. You want to buy anything while you're here" she gave Nunu a smile and a pat on the shoulder. She felt how damp his clothes were.

"Woah, you're soaking wet! Here, come inside! You don't want to freeze to death." She grabbed the boy's hand and brought him inside her tent.

Fur clothes lined the wall of various sizes and colors. Baskets of different hides were stacked on top of each other. There was a fire pit in the middle of the tent, lighting the whole place up and making it warm.

The owner walked to a table towards the back. She pulled out a knife and measuring tape and started working on cutting some furs.

"Feel free to look around, the more you move around, the quicker you'll dry off." She said as she tossed a cut fur into a basket.

"Hmm," he glanced around the several rows of cloths and furs. "Where are your clothes that are about my size?" He asked.

"Over here in the back" she stood up and walked to the back left corner of the tent. She opened up a crate and started pulling out clothes. The only problem was she was only pulling clothes for boys.

"Oh, the clothes aren't for me, there for my friend Annie"

"The girl you were staring at earlier?"

"Y-Yeah"

"Ah," she started putting the boy clothes back in the crate before opening a different one. "So what size does she wear?" She started sorting through some of the girl clothes.

"I don't know for sure. She fits in my cloak, so maybe something my size?" Nunu guessed.

"Maybe you should go ask her? You don't want to buy clothes that are uncomfortable. She could even try some of them on to see if she likes them." She recommended. Nunu silently looked down at his feet, remembering how she was avoiding him.

"Aww, are you nervous to talk to her?" She cooed at the boy.

"It's not that, I upset her earlier. I fell into the river on our way here and she got really upset at me. I tried to apologize, but she's been ignoring me." Nunu explained to her.

"The river is really dangerous around this time. The water's currents are at their fastest during the spring. She probably isn't mad at you, more like she was scared for your well-being." Nunu was about to ask her what he should do, but he interrupted when someone walked up to the tent.

"Ah ha! There you are! I was wondering where you wandered off too" Braum walked up to the tent entrance. His massive shield was placed on his back, it barely managed to squeeze through the entrance.

"Is this your father?" The tent owner asked.

"No," I wish he was, that would be so cool, "This is Braum! He saved me from the river" Nunu explained, the woman nodded.

Braum walked towards them slowly, trying his best not to knock anything over. He balanced a paper box on one of his hands. It had a sweet smell coming off of it.

"I came to give you a gift before I left to see some friends of mine." Braum opened the paper box revealing a dozen icing covered cinnamon rolls. The smell of the cinnamon was mouth watering enough, but seeing the delicious treats would make anyone drool. He handed a cinnamon roll to Nunu. It was still warm and gooey.

"Here! A parting gift that could warm even the coldest of hearts!" Braum's mustache curled up when he smiled at Nunu. The boy was completely mesmerized by the cinnamon roll in his hand.

"Haha! Don't eat it all in one bite! Be sure to savor the flavor. Until we meet again yeti boy!" Braum walked out of the store, only managing to knock over one crate that he quickly catched.

Nunu was sad to see him leave so soon. He was so wrapped up with how Annie felt that he forgot to ask him about his shield.

He did say we would meet again. Maybe next time we could go on a heroic adventure! We could fight monsters and dragons together!

The sweet smell of cinnamon broke him out of his thoughts. He held up the cinnamon roll ready to take a bite when the woman grabbed his arm.

"Wait, I have an idea. Why don't you share the roll with Annie? You could use it like a peace offering." She recommended.

"Huh, that not a bad idea!" He fast walked to the exit of the tent, "I'll be right back!" he turned around and told the owner, only to run right into someone. Nunu staggered back and looked at who he ran into.

It was Annie.

She looked at him with annoyance. She was hugging Tibbers close to her chest, his orange cloak making it hard to see the bear.

"O-oh, I'm sorry Annie! I was just on my wa—" Annie turned around and was about to walk off, but Nunu quickly grabbed her arm, "Wait please, just hear me out," she stopped moving away. "I'm sorry for how I acted at the river. I-I acted without thinking and I upset you. You don't have to forgive me if you don't want to, but please stop avoiding me." He tore the cinnamon roll in half and held out one half for Annie to take. "I don't want this to ruin our friendship, so I got you a gift." He nervously watched as Annie looked down at the cinnamon roll.

The cinnamon roll was torn sloppily, the piece held out towards Annie was much bigger than the half Nunu kept for himself. She wanted to stay mad at him, to keep her distance from the boy. But it felt impossible to stay mad with how hard Nunu was trying to make her forgive him.

Annie let out a sigh, she reached out and took the cinnamon roll. The cinnamon roll was warm and smelled good. She took a small bite, the taste of cinnamon and sugar filled her mouth. It was really good.

Nunu smiled, taking a bite out his half of the cinnamon roll. They both ate the delicious treat in a comforting silence. Nunu wiped his glove against his pants when he finished the cinnamon roll while Annie licked the tip over her fingers to get the icing off.

The woman from the clothes tent walked up to the children holding some fur covered clothing, "You must be Annie yes?" Annie nodded at the woman, "Ready to try on some clothes that I think you might like?" Annie looked at Nunu confused.

"I wanted you to pick what you wanted to wear, I didn't know what you would like." Nunu explained. The woman was holding three different sets of clothes on her arm, waiting patiently for the girl to answer.

"Okay, I'll try some of the clothing on," Annie said. Nunu smiled, he was about to say something to her, but she cut him off, "besides, your cloak smelled like wet fur. I'd much rather wear anything else right now"

"H-hey! It can't smell that bad!"

Annie untied the sting holding the cloak together and tossed it to Nunu while walking towards the woman. He caught it and took a quick sniff at it. He immediately cringed, his face flushing red in embarrassment at how bad it smelled.

I'm so used to being around Willump that I completely forgot about how he always smells like wet fur! I can't believe I made Annie wear this! Wait, do I smell like wet fur!?

He sniffed his shirt, but it didn't smell like anything.

I wonder if they sell perfume for yetis...

~❄️❄️❄️~

"Anything else you want before you go?" The woman asked. A set of clothes sat on a table in front of Annie. She tried on three different outfits and out of all the three, this one was her favorite. Even Nunu said that he liked the look of this one compared to the other two.

'I think blue would look good on you! It's also one of my favorite colors.' The boy had said while looking through the clothes.

"Nope, this is all I want." She responded. Nunu walked forward, opening his backpack and pulling out part of an Elkury hide and an ice-fanged wolf hide. The woman took the hides off the boy and pushed the clothes towards Annie, "Hope you two have a wonderful day!" The owner of the tent waved goodbye to the two children.

As soon as they got out of the tent Annie joyfully started running out of the village, "Come on Nunu! Let's get back to the camp so I can put my new clothes on!" She hugged her new clothes with Tibbers sitting on top of them. Nunu ran up behind her, "I'm coming I'm coming!" He giggled.

Together they ran back to the igloo. Jumping over rocks and ducking under twigs in a race to see who gets back first.

The sun had started to set when the two made it back to the igloo. Annie ended up at the igloo first, Nunu not too far behind. Both of them were out of breath.

There were noises coming out of the igloo, presumably coming from Gnar and Willump. They entered in together, and did not expect to see what they saw in the igloo.

There were Poros everywhere.

Willump was laying on his side. A pile of Poros laid on top of him. The yeti was watching what was happening in a circle of Poros.

Gnar was in the middle of the circle. He was wrestling a surprisingly buff Poro. The Poros surrounding them cheered them on, some of them were even making bets using pebbles as currency.

Everyone in the igloo noticed them enter and they all stopped what they were doing and stared at the duo. Even Gnar was just staring at them even though he was mid tackle.

Nunu just put his hands up and slowly walked backwards out of the igloo. He dragged Annie with him, who was just stuck staring in pure confusion.

As soon as they were away from the igloo entrance, the noises in the igloo started back up again.

"Leave it to Willump to somehow turn our camp into a wrestling pit," Nunu sighed. He couldn't help but giggle at the sheer randomness of what just happened. "You think you could change clothes here? I'm going to go behind the igloo and try to talk to Willump."

"I guess? Don't even think about looking though!" Annie said sternly. Nunu gave a thumbs up and jogged around behind the igloo.

He went up to the icy wall and imagined a small hole in the wall. The hole appeared and he peeked through. Willump was chucking as he dragged a pile of pebbles towards himself, the small Poro he took them from looked ready to kill him with how angry it looked.

"Pst, Willump," Nunu whispered. Willump's ear twitched, telling Nunu that he was listening. "Me and Annie are going to hang out by that mini lake we saw beside camp, we will be back before it gets too dark." Willump let out a hum and waved goodbye as Nunu fixed the wall with his magic.

"Are you ready for me to come around!" Nunu yelled over the igloo.

"Yeah!"

Nunu walked around the igloo. Annie was just putting on her mitten when he made it around.

She wore a light blue cloak with white fur. The cloak was much longer than Nunu's with it reaching Annie's knees. Her cloak also had a large hoodie. She had gray-blue pants that ended at some furry snow boots.

"So, What do you think?" Annie asked as he walked up to her.

"Wow, you look really pretty." Nunu responded.

Annie blushed, she didn't think it looked that good. Nunu let out a chuckle when he noticed Annie's face turning red. He held out his hand for her to grab.

"Come with me, I want to show you something." She took Nunu's hand. Together, they walk out into a clearing beside the village. The sun was starting to set, beautiful colors of orange and purple painted the sky.

The clearing revealed a large pond. They went down to the shore. Even with the cold weather and snow, there were still plants blooming by the lake. Tiny white and purple flowers bloomed in patches of brambles. The sky reflected against the pond's surface. The wind was still enough to where the surface of the water had barely any ripples.

"It's beautiful out here..." Annie said, her breath taken away by the sight.

"People tend to think that Freljord is just a savage winter waste land, but my mom said that you can find beauty in every place you go, no matter where it is." Nunu said, his face looked peaceful. He was smiling, his brown eyes reflecting the shade purple and orange colors of the lake.

She thought about how she first met Nunu, how he was so nice and caring. He put so much time and effort into making sure she was ok. At first she was scared to get close to him. She didn't want to feel the pain of losing someone close to her after losing Daisy. But maybe it was worth the risk.

She gripped Nunu's hand tighter, lost in thought. Nunu looked over at her, "Is there something wrong?" He asked.

"Oh, um no, I was just thinking is all... I think I'm ready to tell you my story"

"Really? You don't have to if you don't want to."

"It's okay, you told me your story, it's only fair that I share mine"

They sat down in the snow together, looking out at the pond. Annie let out a small sigh as she started her story;

"Once upon a time, there was a little girl. She had a small family, only having her mother and her father. She was lonely, so the mother made her a friend she named Tibbers. One day, the mother left the home, and she didn't come back. The girl didn't know what happened to her mom, but stayed hopeful that she would come back. Her father thought she was gone for good and fell in love with another woman who had a daughter. Her name was Daisy," Nunu's eyes perked up at the mention of the familiar name, "They had lots of fun together, even if they got into fights, but one day while playing by the river, Daisy fell into a river and the girl was unable to save her as she got swept away by the water. The small family was devastated at the loss of Daisy. The girl was very sad, her emotions triggered the fire magic she was born with as it set her home ablaze. Her father was able to save the girl, but wasn't able to save himself. All that was left was the girl and her step mother. The step mother blamed the girl for everything that went wrong, she had nothing left and she wanted the girl to hurt just like her. She took Tibbers and tried to rip him apart and I—I screamed. There was fire everywhere, Tibbers exploded and turned into a giant bear and—and he killed her... I was left alone with Tibbers with everything else I had was all turned to ashes. I traveled alone with nowhere to go, people offered me places to stay, but many didn't know how to handle a girl with fire magic. My dad said that my mom was probably gone for good, but she is all I had left, so I decided to look for her. Then I met you, and together we traveled across all the land, in search of our missing mothers." Annie finished her story.

Annie looked at Nunu waiting for him to say anything. She didn't expect him to pull her into a hug.

"I'm sorry about what happened to your family." Nunu said while hugging her. Annie cried silently in Nunu's embrace. They sat there in silence for a while, only the occasional sound of sniffling could be heard.

Annie was the first on to pull away from the hug. She wiped the tears from her eyes. Nunu stood up from where they were sitting, pulling Annie up with him.

"Come on, I think I know what will cheer you up." Annie held onto Nunu's hand as he walked closer to the pond. Nunu's magic started swirling around them as he walked onto the water. It froze under his feet.

The ice was slippery under their feet. Nunu seemed to have an easier time on the ice than Annie. She had to use him for balance as they slid on the ice.

Annie could hear music coming from the village. The sound of flutes and drums, she could even hear singing.

"Is there a celebration going on in the village?" Annie asked Nunu, wondering if he knew why they were playing music.

"Many villages celebrate the coming of spring, it's the season that brings in the most crops and the herds of livestock grow larger." He explained. "Do you... maybe want to dance?" He asked nervously, scratching the back of his neck.

"Sure, but I don't know how to dance on ice..." she responded, still trying to keep her balance.

"We can figure it out together!" Nunu grabbed her other hand as they awkwardly began to slide on the ice. Their dance started slow with them just holding each other's hands as they slid in circles around the ice.

It started to pick up speed as their confidence grew. Annie could tell that Nunu didn't really know how to dance, but it was still lots of fun swirling around on the ice. Annie lost her balance and fell backwards dragging Nunu down with her. They simply just laid there and laughed.

The music from the village quieted down as the two made their way off the ice. It was already dark out and they needed to get back to the camp. They walked off the iced over pond, the ice already starting to melt without Nunu there. They followed the edge of the forest, walking to where the igloo was located.

"Thanks for everything today, I haven't had that much fun in a while." Annie said. They both held onto an arm of Tibbers as they swung him while walking.

"I had a lot of fun today too. And since you will be traveling with us, everyday could be like this!" Nunu said. They giggled as they swung Tibbers higher.

That's when they heard a noise come from within the snow forest. They both stopped in their tracks. It sounded like talking, footsteps walking towards them.

"I can smell that yeti from over here!" A low and rough voice said. Three large figures walked out of the forest.

Three ice trolls walked towards the duo. Nunu has only heard stories of trolls from his mom and Willump. He has only ever heard bad things about them.

Nunu gestured for Annie to be quiet as they quickly made their way to a large rock. They hid behind it and waited. They could hear footsteps come closer to where they were hiding.

Everything was quiet. Several moments passed as Nunu took a peak from behind the rock. He looked around, trying to find where the trolls were, only to suddenly get hit in the head by something hard. He let out a yell of pain as a rock bounced off his head.

"Nunu!" Annie whispered loudly as she caught before he fell. Nunu leaned against Annie, his eyes wide open in shock. Nunu covered his mouth as he tried to cry as silently as possible. Blood was slowly flowing down his face from the large cut above his right eyebrow.

"Yeti bastard! There was no gold vault! And the so-called 'key' is just a rock!" The troll yelled. Annie felt how all of Nunu's weight was being supported by her. Nunu's eyes were slowly closing as his panicked breathing evened out.

"Don't fall asleep Nunu!" Annie whispered in his ear. Nunu mumbled something she didn't understand, his eyes falling shut. She tried to shake him awake, but he didn't stir.

The three trolls ran around the rock and stopped in front of the kids.

"Uhh, that doesn't look like the yeti" one of them said. He scratched his head in confusion.

"Ya, that just looks like two human children."

"I think you might have killed one of them."

Annie felt her fire magic burn within her. Fire started to emit from Tibbers.

"It doesn't matter! It's probably just another trick! Let's just grab them and go." the middle one yelled. They moved forward only to be knocked back by an explosion of fire.

"TIBBERS!" Annie yelled as the fire bear roared in rage.

~❄️❄️❄️~

Chapter Text

~❄️❄️❄️~

Willump looked at his ever increasing pebble pile in front of him. He put all his winnings towards Gnar, who has kept his spot as reigning champion of the wrestling pit. No Poro has yet to outdo the energetic yordle.

Gnar let out yells of triumph, his fist in the air in victory. Pebbles were passed around as the match closed with Gnar once again being the winner. He scanned through the crowd of Poros, wondering which Poro would be bold enough to challenge the undisputed champion.

Willump's ears perked as he heard footsteps approaching the entrance of the igloo. It had been a minute since Nunu and Annie left for the lake. He sniffed the air, hoping to get the smell of the entity approaching the igloo over the smell of all the Poros.

It smelled like sweet cinnamon surprisingly. The Poros had also picked up on the smell as they all looked at the entrance, some of them had their tongue sticking out at just the smell.

A large man walked into the igloo. He had a large shield on his back and held a paper box that was emitting the cinnamon smell.

"Haha!" The man's mustache curled up into a smile, "I was wondering where you lot went! I couldn't find any of you guys at our normal meeting spot, so I followed your tracks here" the man explained, placing his shield to the side.

Willump actually recognized the man from one of Nunu's stories. Based on his looks, this man most definitely had to be Braum.

The Poros all ran right up to Braum, jumping around happily. Braum opened up the paper box and placed it on the ground. The Poros piled onto the box, dragging out cinnamon rolls and eating them.

"Make sure you save some for everyone!" Braum made sure to grab some of the cinnamon rolls to make sure everyone will get one.

He scanned the room to make sure everyone had a cinnamon roll only to notice the giant yeti and the orange yordle sitting in the back of the room.

"Ah, I see that you guys made some new friends! The name's Braum, care to try a cinnamon roll?" The man asked, holding out two cinnamon rolls. Gnar jumped forward joyfully, taking one of the cinnamon rolls.

Willump let out a hum as he stood up and took the other cinnamon roll. He stood taller than Braum, but the man was still rather tall for being just a human.

He tossed the whole cinnamon roll into his mouth, the sweet flavor instantly melting in his mouth. He purred happily at the taste before gulping it down.

"I'm assuming you're a yeti right? I haven't seen one in a long while, and she looked much different than you do." Braum asked. Willump simply nodded his head. He was aware of how Nunu's imagination jerasticly changed his appearance, but he has come to enjoy his current form way more than his previous one.

Gnar walked up between Willump and Braum, waving his hands and jumping in the air to get their attention.

"Yor tralmpo dranga, brokanga?" The yordle asked the two, excitedly waiting there answer. Braum looked completely lost on what the yordle was asking while Willump started using some of his magic to translate the yordle.

He wants us to wrestle, I'm fine to do so if you want to. The blue swirls spelled out between his paws.

"Sure! I'm sure everyone would enjoy the show, but we should probably take it outside." The Poros and Gnar all cheered as they followed Braum and Willump outside the igloo.

The sun had already left the sky as they walked out, but it was still just bright enough to see.

A large circle was formed around the two, all consisting of Poros. Some of the Poros brought their pebbles with them, already making bets on who was going to win.

Willump and Braum stretched real quickly before getting into position to fight. "Alright yeti, give me all you got" Braum stood guard. Willump ran forward and locked arms with the man.

They stayed stagnant as they pushed against each other with all their might. Willump slowly started to gain ground on the man. Willump smiled arrogantly as he pushed Braum near the border of the makeshift ring.

He was caught off guard when Braum broke the hold and grabbed him by his abdomen. He tried to use his upper body weight to push him to the ground, but the man actually lifted him and suplexed him out of the ring.

Braum cheered in triumph as he won the wrestling match. Poros giggled and frowned as pebbles were passed around accordingly. Willump just laid there in shock, not expecting the man to be so strong.

Maybe there are some truths behind the stories Nunu told me about this man...

Braum stood over the yeti and held out his hand for him to take. He grabbed it as Braum helped him to his feet.

"Want to go for round two?" The man asked. Willump was about to respond with a nod, but they were interrupted by a bright flash of light accompanied by a loud roar that came from the distance.

Everyone looked towards the direction of the roar, many of the Poros looked scared of the loud noise. That's when Willump realized where the explosion came from.

That's where the lake is! Nunu and Annie are there!

Willump let out a worried bellow and started running towards what he now could see was a fire. Braum quickly went and grabbed his shield from the igloo and followed the yeti. Gnar hitched a ride on Braum's shield.

The three of them made their way down closer to the lake and were able to get a view of what was going on.

Fire filled the clearing, it started to spread towards the trees that lined it's edge. In the center was Tibbers, who was currently in his large fire bear form. He was chaotically clawing at two trolls that were attacking him.

He recognized the two trolls from earlier that day, it was the short bulky troll and the tall overbite troll that were fighting Tibbers.

"I have to stop the fire from destroying the forest! The village relies on it to thrive! Try stopping the trolls from getting hurt by that bear!" Braum yelled towards the yeti as he ran forward to where the fire had started burning the forest edge. Gnar jumped off his shield and chucked his boomerang at one of the trolls. The yordle let out a battle cry and ran forwards towards the fight as the boomerang bounced off the shoulder plate of one of the trolls and flew back to his hand.

Willump stayed where he was, still scanning the clearing for any sign of Nunu and Annie. The smoke from the fire made it nearly impossible to see.

Willump decided to blindly charge through the flames and smoke, hoping to find any of them. He felt the fire burn his fur and skin, he winced at the pain, but he continued forward.

He finally broke through the fire and smoke. In front of him, he saw Annie tossing fire and flames towards the boar hat troll. He had burns on his arms, but they didn't seem to slow him down as he dodge fire ball after fire ball.

Willump roared at the troll, getting his attention and Annie's. He charged forward, the magic stored within him pulsed as his claws and teeth glowed blue. His magic wasn't as strong without Nunu and the world rune, but it was still enough to make him real strong.

Willump expected the troll to either meet his challenge or retreat, but he did none of those. The troll instead quickly ran at Annie while she was distracted by Willump. Annie tried to defend herself with fire, but the troll hit her away before she could.

Behind where Annie was was Nunu. He was laying on his side in the snow unmoving. Willump ran as fast as he could towards the troll, ready to kill the beast for even daring to hurt the children.

The troll quickly grabbed Nunu, holding him up by his cloak. The troll turned towards the raging yeti, his face was frustrated and angry.

"Not a step closer fur face! Or I'll cave the kid's skull in!" The troll threatened.

Willump skidded on the ground to an abrupt stop. Willump stood up and his feet, a growl rumbled deep in his throat through his heavy breathing.

The troll's scowl turned into a snarky smile, "HA! I knew you cared for the tiny human!" He held the unconscious boy out towards the yeti to taunt him, "Your fowl, yeti stench was all over him! When I was tracking him down, it confused me why I found a human boy instead of a yeti, but it finally clicked in my head why!" The boar hat trolled explained. The troll seemed very proud of himself, seeming to outsmart the yeti.

"Leave him out of this, this fight is between me and you." Willump growled.

"This fight now has EVERYTHING to do with his human," he yelled at the yeti, "I want to make a deal, fur face."

The troll glanced to the side as Annie started to stand up from where she was tossed onto the ground. She was holding her chest with one of her hands, but she still looked furious. Fire was crawling up her hands and arms as she moved towards the troll.

The boar hat troll flinched backwards a little, pulling Nunu closer to himself, "I-I wouldn't try anything tiny fire witch, unless you want to burn us both alive." The troll kept the boy in front of him, using him as a shield against Annie and Willump.

"What kind of deal do you want to make." Willump growled. His arms were shaking, ready to rip the troll to shreds.

"In three days time, we will meet back here and you will bring 5, wait no, 10 bags filled to the brim with gold. In return, I'll bring the boys back alive and unharmed," the troll glanced down at the boy seeing how half his face was covered in blood, "well, not anymore harmed." The troll quickly corrected.

"Where will you take him in the meantime?" Willump question, hoping that the troll would give up the location.

"I ain't telling fur face!" The troll slowly started moving backwards. He held his hand on top of Nunu's head, daring anyone to make a step towards him.

"Just be back here in three days time and we can both get what we want, and don't even think about following me unless you want to trade for a dead body!" The troll turned around and started running away with the boy in his arms.

Annie tried to chase after the troll as soon as he turned his back, but Willump grabbed onto her arm.

"Let me go! We can't let him get away!" Annie punched at his paw. She could feel his paw shaking as she tried to get away. Only then did she realize she was burning him.

She stopped fighting, her flames dying down around her. Willump sighed sadly and let go of her arm.

Willump sat down among the snow and dying embers. He covered his face with his paws and let out a soft whimper.

Annie slowly approached the yeti. His breathing was shaky and deep, like he was trying to calm himself down. She could tell he was very upset.

I'm not good at comforting people, not as good as Nunu...
What would he do to cheer Willump up?

Annie walked to the front of Willump. She hugged the yeti on the tummy, careful to avoid any burns she caused.

She felt Willump's lower arms wrap around her. Willump curled around the girl, letting out a sad but content hum.

"We will find a way to get him back..."

~❄️❄️❄️~

Braum let out a sigh of relief as the fire finally stopped spreading. Not much damage was caused to the forest, most of it was done in the clearing next to it.

Braum turned back towards where he left the yeti with the fire bear and the two trolls. He did not expect to see what he saw as he turned around.

He watched as a large red creature ripped a boulder from the ground and threw it at the pair of retreating trolls. There was no sign of the fire bear other than a small teddy bear that laid abandoned next to the giant creature.

The creature turned around and looked towards him, it's red eyes filled with rage. Braum readied his shield, expecting the beast to target him next.

The creature's face then suddenly changed from rage to joy as his tail started to wag. It stuck out his tongue and pranced towards Braum.

It gave Braum a big lick on his face as it turned back into a small yordle. Braum caught the yordle as it fell out of the sky.

"Hehe, I didn't know you could do that!" Braum chuckled. The yordle let out a big yawn as he curled into the nook in his arm. He held onto the yordle, putting the shield onto his back.

He walked forwards towards the small teddy bear. He picked it up, it was very warm to the touch.

Why does this bear look so familiar?

Braum hummed in deep thought, staring at the bear.

That's it. This belonged to the yeti boy's girlfriend!

Braum places the teddy bear next to the sleeping yordle in his left arm. He scanned the clearing, looking for the yeti and possibly the little girl.

He finally saw the silhouette of the yeti through the smoke. He approached the yeti, wondering what the yeti was doing sitting on the ground.

He could hear soft whimpers coming from the yeti. He could also make out a small voice coming from the same direct.

The yeti's ears perked up as he got closer to him. The yeti quickly stood up and placed a small figure on his head as he turned around.

The yeti started growling before he realized that the person approaching was Braum. The yeti let out a huff.

"Is that you Braum?" The girl standing on the yeti's head asked. Braum remembered her name being Annie.

"Yah, it's me. What are you doing out here alone? Where's yeti boy, uh Nunu?" Braum asked.

"One of those, ugly creatures took him! They hurt him badly before running away. You have to help us get him back!" Annie slid down Willump back and walked in front of the man. She had a sad tint in her eyes, but fierce determination painted her face.

Braum handed her the teddy bear he found on his way here. Her eyes lit up at the sight of Tibbers. She took the teddy bear and hugged it, letting out a small 'thank you'.

"What exactly happened?" Braum asked. Willump held out his paw, there were visible burns on it.

Blue magic flowed from the paw, but it was visibly duller than it was before.

Ransom
10 bags of gold
Three days here
Or he dies

The blue swirls spelled out. Braum scratched his mustache. He has never heard of a troll taking ransoms before. Then again, the new king of trolls was rumored to be very clever, much more clever than the previous troll king. Maybe this is their new method of obtaining gold and treasures?

Where could we obtain that kind of money in such a short time though...

"Ah ha!" Braum interrupted the somber silence between the group.

"I think I might know a friend that could hook us up with that kind of money"

~❄️❄️❄️~

Nunu woke up very slowly. His body felt like a pile of bricks and his head hurt. He wanted to fall back asleep, but the last thing he remembered was Annie telling him not to.

He opened his eyes, well one of his eyes. He couldn't open his right eye, it hurt to try and it felt like it was glued closed.

It was completely dark where he was. He put his hand in front of his face to see if he could see it. He was barely able to see the outline of his glove through the darkness.

He slowly sat up to a sitting position, instantly feeling dizzy at being up right. Nunu let out a whine before laying back down on his side.

It felt like half his face was covered in some sort of crust dry stuff. Some of the stuff on his face also felt sticky and wet.

He laid there for a bit, counting his breaths. It was quiet where he was, but if he listened real closely, he could hear the sound of water dripping on the ground echo in the dark place. He could also hear the sound of deep breathing.

"Willump?" He wondered out loud. His voice echoed through the dark place. Nunu heard what he assumed was Willump shift on the cold, stone ground of wherever they were.

"Guess again." A rough voice responded. Nunu sat up again and tried to look for the voice, but he couldn't make anything out in the darkness.

"Uh, can I get a hint?" Nunu asked. He didn't feel as dizzy as before, but he continued to stay sitting on the ground.

"Hmm, a cool guy with an awesome hat." The voice responded.

"That kinda sounds like me." Nunu said, chuckling weakly.

"Hey! We are talking about me! Not you, yeti toy!" The voice responded annoyed.

"Yeti toy? My name's Nunu and me and Willump are friends! I'm not his toy." Nunu turned towards where he thought the voice was coming from.

He heard footsteps approach him. He was barely able to make out the silhouette of a tall, bulky creature that seemed to be wearing fur clothes. He felt it grab onto his cloak and lift him up.

He was now face to face with the creature. The bulbous nose, jagged teeth, the boar fur hat, the gross smell. This was definitely one of the trolls he saw by the lake.

"Hey, I remember you! You attacked me and Annie! You threw a rock at me! Why would you do that? Where's Annie?" Nunu watched as the troll's ugly face scrunched up.

The troll carelessly dropped the boy into a leather sack. Nunu struggled in the sack, pushing and kicking against it.

"Stop squirming or I'll drop you." The troll warned. He hooked the sack over his back and made his way out of the cave.

The sack was a tight space. Nunu's legs were squished against his chest and arms squished to his side uncomfortable. It was impossible to get into a more comfortable position with the sack constantly shifting.

"Where are you even taking me?" Nunu mumbled, hoping to get any answers.

"I'm taking you to some, let's say friends of mine. You are going to save me a lot of trouble." The troll hummed. Nunu felt the sack shift harshly as the troll started to move faster.

"How am I going to save you?" Nunu asked, confused. "If you needed help, you could have just asked. Me and my friends would have helped you."

"I made a deal with your fur faced friend. Your life for 10 bags of gold. I gave him three days to do this. He has a little more than 2 days left to give it to me. I could use that gold to pay off my debt to the king. So if you want to help me, all you have to do is listen to me and not die." the troll huffed at the boy.

"That doesn't sound like a good way to pay off your debt, you don't trade people for money." Nunu frowned. The troll simply just grumbled at the boy.

"It doesn't matter how I get the money! The point is, I want Trundle off my back so I can go back to living alone instead of being forced to gather food for some drool covered dead weights!" The troll started to run faster through the snow.

The shaking of the bag amplified Nunu's headache. He tried to rest in the sack, but the constant shaking kept him awake. When sleep failed to come he went back to asking the troll questions. It didn't last long as he shook the bag roughly telling him to be quiet.

After some time, the troll finally slowed down. Nunu sighed quietly, happy that the bag was no longer shaking as much. He had no idea how much time had passed. Maybe a couple of minutes, an hour? Maybe several?

He felt the troll roughly shift the bag, "I need you to stay quiet unless I say otherwise, understand?" The troll commanded.

"Y-yeah" Nunu responded. Not being able to see outside the bag, Nunu simply sat still and listened to the surroundings. There wasn't much to hear at first. Just the sound of footsteps in the snow, the heavy breathing of the boar hat troll, and the occasional gust of wind pushing against the sack.

The sound of footsteps changed to the sound of stone. Nunu could no longer hear the wind wherever they were. He could also hear the sound of voices coming from a distance. Their voices slightly echoed like they were inside a cave.

The boar hat troll was moving towards the voices. They seemed to quiet down as they got closer.

"Back from the hunting patrol Kohlgrif?" A grumbly voice asked.

So that's what his name is!

"Where are the other two?" another voice asked. Both voices had the same accent as Kohlgrif, so Nunu assumed that they were trolls.

He heard one of the trolls sniff the air, "it don't smell like you got any game in the bag." A lower voiced troll growled.

"I have something of greater value than just meat. I would like to talk to Trundle now, so we can discuss what I have to offer." Kohlgrif told the other trolls.

"It better be good. You're on thin ice with Trundle." He felt Kohlgrif start moving forward. He heard a loud shift of what sounded like a large door, or maybe a large boulder being shifted against the ground.

More voices of trolls were coming from where they were heading. It actually was really loud where they were. The shifting of metal, clanking of stone, laughter of trolls. All these noises just made Nunu's headache hurt worse.

Some of the trolls Kohlgrif walked by were asking him questions about the bag.

"Whats he got in that sack that's worth more than a good meal?"

"Kinda smells like human blood"

"You think he killed a human and stole all their stuff"

"Maybe he has the head of one of the tribe leaders"

Nunu felt someone poke at the leather bag he was in. He flinched away from the touch, doing his best not to move the sack too much.

"Hands off!" Kohlgrif yelled at one of the trolls. He roughly moved the sack off his back and to his front. Nunu bit his lip, trying his best to stay still and quiet in the midst of the chaos.

Kohlgrif continued to move forward. Thankfully, he moved away from the loud crowd of trolls towards somewhere more quiet. There was still the sound of trolls moving about, but it was much more calm than where they were before.

The troll finally came to stop. Nunu was really starting to get sick of being stuck in a sack, unable to move or see a thing.

"King Trundle, I have returned with something to pay off my dept." Kohlgrif spoke. There was a slight hint of malis in his words, but King Trundle must not have noticed.

"Kohlgrif, have you returned with the three bags of meat I asked from you?" a troll spoke. Nunu assumed this must be King Trundle.

"No, but what I've brought is worth even more than 20 bags of meat!"

He heard some shifting coming from the direction of Trundle. The king let out a low hum.

"Show me what you have"

Nunu saw as the rope sealing the bag loosen. He didn't even get a chance to react as he was roughly tossed out of the sack and onto the floor. He was able to stop himself from face planting, but he landed roughly on his shoulder.

"Urg, oww..." Nunu whimpered in pain. He could feel the slow movement of a warm liquid on the right side of his face. The sudden impact must have reopened the cut on his head.

"How is a bloody human child worth more than 20 bags of meat?" Trundled growled at Kohlgrif. Nunu slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position.

"I stole him from this magic yeti. The yeti agreed to trade 10 bags of gold for the boy. So we are meeting back up in three days to make the trade." Kohlgrif explained confidently.

"A magic yeti? Did your brain melt out of your ears!? There hasn't been a magic yeti in Freljord for centuries!" Trundled yelled. Nunu looked up at the troll king that towered over him.

The troll was blue with red hair and a red beard. He wore light armor of metal, fur, and leather. He held a massive club of ice that rested on his shoulder. He even had a small stone crown on his head.

He sat between the two ice trolls. Frustration was visible on both the troll's faces.

"You better think of a way to convince me you're not lying or I'll smash you to a bloody pulp." Trundle threatened Kohlgrif. He held the club in front of him now, ready to strike the troll when the time came.

Kohlgrif scratched his head and looked around the room. He looked completely stumped and how to prove his story as being true. Trundle was already growing impatient, taking a step forward. He held his club behind him, ready to strike Kohlgrif if he took too much longer.

I know Kohlgrif isn't a good person, but he doesn't deserve to die!

"W-wait!" Nunu spoke up, slowly getting up onto his feet, "he's not lying!"

Trundle and Kohlgrif looked down at the boy. The troll king let his club fall to his side as Kohlgrif let out a quiet sigh of relief.

"What makes you think I'll believe you human child?" Trundle stood above Nunu, looking down on him.

"Willump has magic, and so do I!" Nunu explained.

Trundle's eyebrows rose when the boy mentioned he had magic.

"If you have magic, then prove it to me" the troll king challenged.

Nunu reached out to his magic, the cold of the world rune came in response. Nunu imagined Willump, blue swirls went around his arms as he held out his hand. With a simple gesture, he created a snow version of Willump.

Trundle let out a curious hum as he walked up to the snow yeti. He quickly poked it, as if checking if it was actually there. The poke made a dip in the snow Willump's arm.

The king then suddenly brought his club up over his head and smashed it down on the snow sculpture. The snow splattered everywhere as the king troll let out a joyous laughter.

"Ha! I love smashing things!" Trundle lifted the giant club onto his shoulder again. He looked down at the child with a smile on his face. "What else can you do magic boy?"

"Uh," Nunu pulled out his pack from under his cloak, "I can play music on my flute, Svellsongur" he pulled out the flute and put it up to his mouth. He played a quick melody, his world rune reacted to the music as blue swirls danced around the boy.

"Anything else?" Trundle didn't seem as interested in the music as he was in smashing things. Nunu tried to think what he could do that would impress the troll. He looked up at Trundle's ice club and thought of an idea.

"How would you like spikes on your club?" Nunu asked

The troll king smiled deviously at the boy. He sat down on the ground in front of Nunu and placed his club between the two of them. Nunu walked forward and took a look at the club and realized that the club was made of true ice.

"You're an ice born?!" Nunu gasped. He winced a little as the sudden movement of his eyebrow irritated his wound, "I didn't think trolls could also be ice borns"

"It is much more fun to freeze enemies with Boneshiver and then crush them." Trundle patted the club proudly.

"That such a cool name for a club" Nunu reached out and touched the Boneshiver. He noticed the troll's face flicker in surprise before quickly returning to the greedy smile.

Trundle watched as Nunu's hands and the club started to glow blue. Nunu closed his eye to help him focus on how he wanted the club to look. Rows of spikes morphed onto Boneshiver's end. Once the spikes grew to the right size, Nunu opened his eye and let go of the club.

Trundle stood up with Boneshiver in hand. The club let off a small bit of steam just on its surface from the renewed true ice. The troll gave the club an experimental swing, giggling in satisfaction at the whistling noise the club made when swung.

The troll king looked up past Nunu and at Kohlgrif. The boar hat troll was just standing there awkwardly, clearly not wanting to be there. Kohlgrif was picking at his fingers before he noticed Trundle looking at him.

"You've impressed me with this gift Kohlgrif, but there is one more thing I need you to do before I let you off the hook" Trundle walked towards his throne made of black stone and carved bones. His upgraded club resting on his shoulder.

"I need you to take a patrol of trolls to where you plan to meet the yeti, but instead of trading for the gold," Trundle smiled maliciously, leaning forward on his throne.

"I want you to take it by force, even if it means you have to kill this magic yeti."

~❄️❄️❄️~

Chapter Text

~❄️❄️❄️~

"And here we are!"

Braum stood in front of a giant cave. It's entrance was huge with sharp jagged rocks lining the mouth of its entrance. It was impossible to see anything within it from how dark it was.

"What exactly are we doing here?" Annie asked. She stood on top of Willump, the yeti staring blankly at the cave idly scratching at his beard.

"Have you ever heard of the Poro King?" Braum asked the group. Annie shook her head 'no' while Willump nodded. Gnar sat on Braum's shield, he was too busy chewing on his boomerang to pay attention to the conversation.

"Well, the old fella said I could help myself to his gold stash whenever I needed. I've never needed the gold before, so what better than to use it to help get yeti boy back!" Braum explained. He walked forward into the cave, dragging his hand against its wall.

He grabbed off the wall from the darkness an unlit torch and walked back to Willump and Annie.

Braum let out a quick giggle while holding a burnt-out torch, "Those silly Poros guarding the place forgot to light the torches! Either that or no one's home."

Braum scratched at his mustache while looking at the torch resting on his hand. Annie kneeled down on the yeti's head and held her hand out towards Braum.

"I can light the torch." Annie said, holding out her hand. Braum smiled and handed the girl the unlit torch. She put her hand on the burnt ends of the torch and lit it ablaze with her magic.

"Ah, I've never seen fire magic before," Braum looked at Annie in surprise, "You and Nunu are like polar opposites of each other. I guess they do say opposites attract!"

"What do you mean by that?" Annie asked as she handed the torch to Braum.

"I mean, you use fire magic and Nunu is an iceborn—

Willump cut Braum off by grumbling something at the man, once again forgetting that he couldn't understand them. He let out a sigh and quickly spelled with his magic;
Never mind

"So, what even is an iceborn?" Annie asked. Braum started to move forward with Willump following behind.

"Ah, I'm assuming you are not from Freljord?" Annie shook her head. "Well, an iceborn is a person born with magic unique to the natives of Freljord. They are more resilient to the cold and can touch true ice without being harmed. Some can even tap into their magic and use spells. They can also have longer life spans. I'm in my early fifties and I still feel young." Braum explained.

More torches lined the walls, but all of them were extinguished. Some of the torches were even knocked on the floor and broken. The ground was covered in scattered chunks of ice.

Annie looked up and saw how the roof of the cave had large icicles, some of them even seemed to have broken and fallen on the floor.

"This doesn't look right. The Poros guards normally never let the king's vault get this dirty." Braum said as his face turned from confusion to concern.

Willump perked his head, sniffing the air before letting out a sneeze. He grumbled something, but not even he looked sure about what was going on.

Gnar babbled something to Willump, like he had an idea. Willump seemed to disagree with the yordle as Gnar let out an annoyed huff while pouting.

The cave started to narrow as they continued forward. The farther they got, the messer the cave seemed to get. That is until they approached what looked like another entrance within the cave.

On the floor was the splinted remains of a large wooden door. It looked like the door was broken down from their side, ripped straight off its hinges. Poro armor and weapons lay scattered on the floor.

Braum picked up one of the Poro helmets, "What could have been strong enough to scare away the Poros and break down the vault door?." He said to himself as he investigated the abandoned armor.

Willump mumbled something at the man before cautiously moving forward through the vault entrance with Braum following close behind.

The vault room was very wide. Even with the torch, it's light wasn't able to reach the walls. Bits of gold scattered across the floor reflected the torch's light.

A crunch interrupted the silence of the vault. Willump looked down and picked up what he stepped on. He held up a light blue disk. It was shiny against the light with a big crack down its middle.

"What is that?" Annie asked, moving the torch closer to the shiny object. Willump seemed to tense up, his eyes widening as he dropped the disk.

"That looks like a serpent's scale to me." Braum answered for the yeti. Willump started that growl as he looked around the room anxiously.

"You don't think it's still here do you?" Annie whispered. The flame on the torch grew brighter as she started to worry.

"Wlook!" Everyone in the vault jumped at the yordle's shout. They looked towards Gnar as the yordle pointed behind them.

Large blue eyes stared at the group from the darkness. The group froze in place as a large frost serpent slithered into eyesight.

With a ferocious hiss, she lunged forward  straight at Willump and Annie.

~❄️❄️❄️~

Nunu tried to push away from Trundle as he effortlessly dragged him deeper into the cave. His large hand was tightly grabbed around the boy's arm. Nunu sped walked to keep up with the troll, tripping on rocks as they moved forward.

"W-wait! Let me go! I need to get back to Willump! I don't want him to get hurt or-or worse!" Nunu struggled against Trundle's strong grip on his arm. He used his other hand to try and pry the troll's hand off his arm, but to no avail.

"You don't belong to that yeti anymore. You were stolen fair and square and then given to me. That means you belong to me now, so quit your squirming!" Trundle pulled the boy forward roughly into the entrance of another room in the cave.

Nunu was barely able to keep his balance as he was pushed forward. The room was completely dark with the only light coming through the entrance. Nunu turned around back towards Trundle, only for the troll to block the entrance with a big boulder.

The room was shrouded in darkness as the boulder blocked the light from the cave hall. Very small slivers of light managed to peek through the cracks under the rock.

"You stay here until I come back, got it?" Trundle didn't wait for a response as he walked away from the boy.

Nunu waited for the troll's footsteps to fade into silence before letting out a sigh.

It was pitch black in the room. There was only the sound of dripping water that echoed throughout the room. The world rune around his neck started to glow as he created magic swirls that spread out across the cave room.

Nunu seemed to be stuck in a dead end in the cave. The roof was covered in icicles, the largest one was dripping water into a mini pool. He decided to make his way over to where the water was.

Nunu looked at his reflection in the pool of water, small ripples disturbed its surface from the occasional drop of water. The cut on his head had swelled up, it was slowly scabbing over again. He didn't really know what to do about the wound.

Willump always knew what to do when I got hurt. What was the first thing he'd do?

Nunu dipped his hands into the water and took a quick sip of it from his hands. He then used the rest of the water to gently wash his face. The water felt cold, but it also felt refreshing.

The water was a dull tint of red once he was done. He was able to open his right eye a little, but his swollen eyebrow only allowed him to open his eye half way.

The cut was a lot bigger than he thought. Nunu heard of people having to get stitches, but he had no idea how to do that.

Maybe I can freeze the cut close?

Nunu lifted his hand and slowly touched the wound. He flinched as soon as his glove made contact with the cut. It was still very tender and hurt a lot.

Yup, definitely not doing that.

Nunu took another look around the room. There was nothing else in here that he could use. He stood up from the ground and walked to where the boulder was blocking his way to the main part of the cave.

He gave it an experimental push against the rock, but it didn't move at all. Nunu then tried to push the boulder with all his strength, still nothing.

Nunu took a couple steps back and started blasting swirls of freezing wind straight at the boulder. The wind wasn't able to move it out of the way, but it did shift against the ground.

Ice was forming on the boulder and the rock around it. Nunu brought the wind to a stop and shatter the ice on the rock. The boulder cracked in several places, bits of it crumpling to the ground.

Yes! Nunu let out a quiet cheer and walked forward. He pushed against the rock again. Chucks of it fell to the floor as the boulder began to give way.

"HEY! The hell are you doing in there?!" A troll yelled from the other side. Nunu gasped and quickly backed away from the door.

The crumbling boulder was ripped away from the entrance. Nunu blinked against the bright light entering the once pitch black room.

Trundle entered the room, Boneshiver still resting on his shoulder. Nunu's eyes adjusted to the new light as he saw how annoyed the troll looked.

"You were trying to escape, weren't you?" Trundle growled at the boy.

Trundle started to approach Nunu. He was now dragging Boneshiver on the ground. The boy started to walk backwards as the troll approached him, but his back hit the wall leaving him cornered.

"Uhh..." Nunu squished himself against the wall, trying to think of an excuse, but nothing came to mind. Trundle hovered Boneshiver in front of him and over the boy.

"I told you to stay here and you didn't listen. I normally just smash those who don't listen, but I still need your magic." Trundle suddenly grabbed the boy's leg causing him to fall on his back. The troll pulled him away from the wall and held his leg against the ground.

"So, I think I'll just smash your leg, then you won't be able to escape!" Trundle brought his club over his head, aiming it towards the leg he was holding down.

"No! Wait-wait! I'm sorry!" Nunu frantically tried to get away from the troll.

He felt a rush of cold in his panic from the world rune as Trundle brought Boneshiver down towards his leg.

Get him away from me!

A burst of blue magic came from the world rune as an avalanche of snow came from above the boy and pushed Trundle away. Nunu quickly got up as blue swirls of magic surrounded him. He bolted for the exit of the room, leaving Trundle behind as he was trying to get out of the huge pile of snow.

Once outside of the room, he quickly turned around and covered the entrance with more snow to hopefully slow the troll down. He could hear Trundle yelling at him from the room, his voice muffled from all the snow.

Nunu started to run through the cave halls. They were lit up with torches with there being random crates of supplies scattered around. He ran past the throne room and took a quick glance behind him. Trundle still hadn't caught up, but he kept running forward.

As he kept running, he ran into another cave hall and created another wall of snow. He kept following the hall, hoping they would lead him to a way out.

Ahead of Nunu were two trolls wearing armor and fur. They had their backs towards Nunu and were talking to each other. They heard the boys rushed footsteps and turned around.

"What the—" one of the trolls started saying when he was cut off by Nunu run between his legs

"Hey! Get back here!" Another troll yelled. Nunu could hear them running after him. He created another wall of snow, but they just crashed right through it.

The boy knew that the trolls were much faster than him so he quickly started to think of ways to slow them down. An idea popped in his head. He started creating a trail of ice as he ran like he did with Annie at the lake.

The troll closest to him tripped on the slippery ice. The second troll tried to bring himself to a stop, but tripped over the first one. Nunu let out a quick cheer at his plan working.

Nunu could hear more trolls ahead, it sounded like the one loud place where one of the trolls poked him while he was still stuck in a bag. The cave hall opened up to reveal a large room.

There were trolls everywhere. Some were sitting and eating spoiled meat, some messing with armor and weapons, others were just standing around and talking.

Nunu just kept going forward. A trail of ice still followed his every step. Some of the trolls notice him running through the clearing.

"Is that a human?"

"How did one get in here!"

"Someone grab it!"

Some of the trolls started moving towards Nunu to stop him. He used his small size to dodge and weave through the trolls. He suddenly felt himself jolt to a sudden stop. A troll wearing a small helmet grabbed his arm and lifted him off the ground.

"I got him!" The trolls called to the crowd. They cheered as they surrounded the boy and the troll.

Nunu struggled against the troll's grip in a scared panic. He kicked at the troll as he held him up like a trophy. A sudden burst of cold shot through his arm.

"LET GO OF ME!" Nunu yelled at the troll. Spikes of ice suddenly burst through the troll's hand. He dropped the boy as he yelled in pain.

Nunu landed on his hands and knees. He looked up at the troll that dropped him on the ground. He was holding onto his hand as blood lazily traveled down his arm. Nunu quickly stood up while the trolls stared in confusion at what just happened.

"S-sorry!" Nunu said to the troll as he turned and quickly ran towards the next cave hall. Some of the trolls snapped out of their confusion and started yelling at him.

They started chasing him again, so Nunu turned around to create another wall of snow. What he didn't expect was a wall of ice to appear instead of snow. Nunu stared at the wall in confusion before returning back to fleeing.

There was a bright white light ahead of the cave.

Finally, a way out!

Nunu smiled as he ran past a large stone door that led outside. He didn't notice any more trolls as he exited the cave. Finally being outside, Nunu slowed his run into a walk.

The boy came to a complete stop, finally taking a chance to catch his breath. He looked back at the cave that he just left to make sure he wasn't being followed. 

Oddly enough, the cave was carved to look like a troll head with the entrance being the mouth of the carving. He thought the head carving would be of Trundle, but he couldn't recognize who the troll was.

The adrenaline in his system must have run out as he was looking at the cave. His headache returned with throbbing of the cut on his head. Nunu also felt a weird weight on his right side.

That's when he realized there were trueice spikes sticking out of his arm. The tips of the spikes were slightly red from piercing the troll's hand.

What's going on with my magic? I was using snow so I wouldn't hurt anyone. Why is the snow turning to trueice?

The ice spikes shrank away as Nunu wished for them to disappear. All that was left were holes in his cloak where the ice tore through the fabric.

Maybe Willump will know what going on

Nunu walked away from the cave, lost in his thoughts. After a bit of directionless walking, he found a trail of footsteps in the snow. Nunu followed them hoping a way back to friends or find someone that can lead him back to N'donkund.

~❄️❄️❄️~

A creature covered in dark ice watched the small human child walk away from Tundle's cave. His dark mistress sent him here to get more trolls for her army, but she seemed to have taken an interest in this small child. A new command from his master rang in his mind.

The Frostguard Thrall whispered the name of his new objective.

"Nunu..."

~❄️❄️❄️~

Willump heard the jaws of the frost serpent snap closed. He braced himself for the pain of the serpent's fangs digging into his skin, but he felt nothing. He opened his eyes to see Braum standing in front of him.

His shield blocked the serpent's attack. Her jaw was now locked onto the shield as Braum struggled to push her away. Gnar sat on his shoulder, staring in awe at the giant snake. Braum punched his shield causing it to glow a dim blue.

A chunk of ice the shape of a ram's head shot forward from the shield hitting the serpent in the back of the throat. She jolted back, letting go of the shield.

The frost serpent hissed angrily. She slithered out of sight of the group, the only thing you could see of her were her eyes. She circled the group, trapping them in a small circle.

Annie decided to take action first. She threw Tibbers in the air as the bear burst into flames.

"Get em' Tibbers!" She yelled as Tibbers turned into a giant fire bear. Tibbers roared and charged forward at the serpent.

The serpent hissed at the bear, lunging right at him. She bit the bear with her teeth, but instantly released the bear as the fire burned her mouth. While she was distracted by Tibbers, Willump moved towards the back of the serpent.

The yeti raked his claws against the hard scales of the snake. He barely managed to break through them, leaving gashing claw marks on her back. Annie burned the exposed skin with her flames as Willump broke through the scales.

The serpent hissed in pain as her skin burned. She quickly turned around towards Annie and Willump and lunged at them. Willump tried to duck out of the way, but the serpent managed to grab his right antler, knocking Annie off the yeti's head.

The serpent flung Willump to the side, flinging him at the cave wall. Willump slammed against the rocky wall, the sudden impact knocking the breath right out of him.

Annie picked herself up from the ground. She saw the serpent slithering over to the prone yeti.

"Willump! Look out!" She shouted at the yeti. Willump looked up as the serpent struck at him, but the attack didn't land. The serpent was yanked back mid strike causing her to slam her chin to the ground.

"You're not eating yeti for dinner tonight!" Braum said. He was holding onto the tail of the serpent pulling her back. She quickly turned back towards the man, only for a small boomerang to hit her on the nose.

Gnar was standing on the serpent's back yelling taunts at her. He stuck his tongue out at her as he caught his boomerang. The serpent didn't even get a chance to attack the yordle as Tibbers, Willump, and Annie started attacking her again.

In a panic, the snake started to frantically roll on the ground. Gnar was forced to jump off the serpent while Braum lost his grip on the snake's tail. The serpent's body flung chunks of gold everywhere.

Willump quickly ran towards Annie, swiftly scooping her up off of the ground. The sudden movement knocked the bright torch out of Annie's hand shrouding the room in darkness. The yeti blindly jumped away from where the serpent was, narrowly avoiding getting crushed by the snake.

Tibbers didn't even bother to avoid the serpent and continued to bite and claw at her scales. This didn't last long as the serpent's body rolled right on top of the bear crushing it under her weight. The bear burst into flames lighting up the room as he was crushed. The flames from the bear disappeared bringing the room back to darkness.

The sound of the serpent's frantic rolling finally ceased. The only things visible were her eyes and the dull glow of Willump's magic. The serpent's eyes were focused on the yeti as she lifted her head from the ground and hovered it above both Willump and Annie.

Suddenly, a bright third light lit up the room followed by a roar. A giant red yordle grabbed onto the back of the snake's head. The frost serpent reared back from the sudden added weight from the yordle. Mega Gnar grabbed the serpent's head and raked his claws against both the snake's eyes.

The frost serpent hiss loudly in pain. It echoed throughout the vault making the hiss sound like a screech. The serpent harshly slammed the yordle against the roof.

The icicles on the roof dug into Mega Gnars back. The impact shook the room as Gnar let out a roar of pain. The yordle flashed white as he shrunk down to his normal size.

Braum acted quickly, catching the yordle as he fell towards the ground. With the unconscious yordle in his arms, Braum ran towards the dim light coming from Willump, picking up Tibbers and dodging falling icicles on the way.

The vault continued to shake as the now blind serpent carelessly slammed her body against the walls and roof. Chunks of ice and rock were flung around as large cracks formed around the room.

"This room is going to collapse in on itself! We have to get out quickly!" Braum said, handing Annie her teddy bear while holding his shield above his head.

"What about the gold? We have to get it to save Nunu!" Annie responded as Willump picked her up and started following the man to the vault exit.

"There is no time! We will have to find another way!" Braum handed Gnar to Willump as he exited the vault. Braum slammed his shield against the ground causing a wave of ice spikes to erupt from the ground preventing the serpent from following them.

Annie created a ball of light to give them a better view of the cave hall as they continued to run away. The sound of rocks and ice collapsing against the ground echoed through the rest of the cave as the vault roof caved in on the serpent.

The cave finally fell into silence. The group slowed their run to a walk as they reached the exit of the cave.

The sun was already starting to set as they left the cave. Willump flopped on his back into the snow letting out an exhausted sigh. Annie escaped from the yeti's hold and stood up from the ground.

She looked out towards the setting sun. At first, she stared at it with a sad look, but this sadness quickly shifted to frustration and anger.

"This is so unfair!" She stomped the ground and turned towards Braum, "We only have one day left to get Nunu back! How are we supposed to find ten bags of gold in that time!?" Small flames appeared on her, melting the snow around her. Her breathing was fast and uneven.

"Hey," Braum kneeled down to Annie's height, "there is no need to worry little one. Just take deep breaths, this was just a small bump in the road." He said to Annie gently.

Annie let out a sigh, her breathing starting to slow down. The tiny flames on her slowly extinguished as she calmed down.

"See? It feels nice to take deep breaths ya?" Braum smiled at the girl, he hoped the girl would smile back, but a worried expression was still on her face.

"We still have no way to get Nunu back..." Annie said quietly while looking down at Tibbers.

"Do not worry, we will come up with a new plan to get yeti boy back in no time! Till then, we should rest before we head back." Braum walked back towards Willump and Gnar, leaving Annie with a tiny glimmer of hope as she followed the man back to the rest of the group.

~❄️❄️❄️~

The next day came and dragged by slowly. Willump, Annie, Braum, and Gnar had made their way back to the lake where the meet was going to take place.

Willump had come up with a plan to trick the trolls and get Nunu to safety. He even made a back up plan for the back up plan to ensure that they would get Nunu back even without the ten bags of gold.

Everyone was in place for the troll's arrival. Willump and Annie were by the lake while Braum and Gnar stayed hidden by the trap. Now all that was left to do was wait.

Annie was sitting on Willump's head. The yeti seemed very insistent that she stay there even when she said she'd rather be on the ground. She stopped trying to get down from Wilump's head, not wanting to stress the yeti out more than he already was.

I guess the fur on his head is really soft, Annie thought to herself as she ran her hand through his fur. Willump let out a quiet hum as she scratched his fur.

For a moment, the tense silence actually felt peaceful. The sun started to set, but the sky was blocked by gray clouds. Annie imagined the sky looking like the day when she went to the lake with Nunu. The wind started to pick up as the sun slowly disappeared beyond the horizon.

The fire magic within her did a good job at keeping her warm, but even she could still feel the chill of the wind as it traveled through the clearing.

Willump suddenly shifted his head to the right, jolting Annie out of her thoughts. Straight ahead where Willump was looking was the silhouette of a large group.

Annie stood up on the yeti's head to get a better look at the approaching group. The shadow of seven trolls stretched across the clearing. They walked towards them with unfaltering confidence.

The trolls worn dark armor and furs. Some had weapons while others had nothing but their fists. In the lead of the group was a familiar troll. The boar hat troll was walking towards Willump with a smug look on his face.

"Great to see you again yeti." the boar hat troll said, patting Willump on the shoulder. Willump let out a quick growl, continuing to stare at the troll with pure malice. The troll simply chuckled as he took a step back from the yeti.

The other trolls circled around them, surrounding them entirely. The boar hat troll looked around the clear, seeming to be looking for something.

"I remember me saying that I'd trade your human child for ten bags of gold, but I ain't seeing no gold." The troll's arrogant smile shifted to one of annoyance.

"I'm not seeing Nunu either," Willump growled back at the troll, "I'm not showing you where the gold is till you show me him first."

"Hmm," the troll scratched his chin before looking back up at the yeti, "guess we are doing things the hard way" the troll snapped his fingers.

Willump suddenly jolted and let out a roar of pain. One of the trolls behind him had slammed his war hammer right onto the yeti's tail. Willump moved forward to get away from the troll behind him only to receive a punch right to the muzzle from the boar hat troll.

Annie held on as best as she could as Willump's head jolted back. The trolls laughed at the struggling yeti as he covered his now bleeding nose. She looked around as more trolls started moving forward ready to beat Willump with their fist and weapons.

Annie was not about to let these trolls hurt Willump more. A burst of fire surrounded the both of them. The trolls jumped back away from the fire. Annie focused on controlling the fire circle around Willump, preventing it from burning him.

Realizing the fire wasn't burning him, Willump took his chance and ran out of the circle of trolls making a break to where the trap was.

"After them!" a voice from behind them yelled. Annie looked over her shoulder and watched as the group of trolls ran after them, the fire shield around Willump dissipated as he retreated. 

Willump ran into the forest, dodging and weaving through roughage and trees. This managed to slow the trolls down but they stayed on his tail. They finally found the landmark of the first trap and ran past it.

Gnar sat hidden on a tree next to a rope. As soon as he saw Willump and Annie run by, he used the sharp end of his boomerang to cut the rope. The trolls bursted through the clearing as the rope snapped triggering the trap.

A barrage of rocks and ice rained on the group of trolls. The trolls were hit on the head and shoulders, stopping their chase after the yeti.

"Where in the—" the troll was cut off by a howl of laughter from the trees. Gnar was on his belly laughing his heart out at the confused trolls. None of the trolls got too hurt from the trap other than dented armor and some bruises, but the yordle just found it hilarious that they were dumb enough to fall for the trap.

Kohlgrif and the other trolls all looked up at the yordle. Kohlgrif growled in frustration as he wiped the debris from his armor.

"I remember you, orange rat!" Kohlgrif yelled up at the yordle. He quickly turned and grabbed an axe from one of the trolls next to him. He held the axe back and threw it at Gnar.

The yordle readied to dodge, but the axe missed him by a long shot and hit the tree instead.

"Ha! 'Ou misd!" Gnar yelled down at the troll taunting him. Kohlgrif's scowl turned into a smirk as the branch Gnar was sitting on suddenly shifted.

"Oh, but did I?" Kohlgrif said back at Gnar as the yordle looked towards the base of the tree. The axe was embedded in the branch he was sitting on, it groaned as it struggled to support the weight of the yordle.

Gnar frantically looked for a place to jump to, but was too late as the branch snapped sending the yordle plummeting towards the ground. Gnar let out a yelp as he fell straight towards the trolls.

He fell on the snow softening his impact, but was quickly pulled from the ground as someone picked him up by his tail.

He swung his boomerang out in front of his chaotically trying to get the troll to let go of him, but none of his swings hit anything. Gnar looked up at the troll holding him upside down by his tail.

"Listen here rat, if you don't want a caved in skull, then you better show me where that yeti and fire witch are hiding the gold!" Kohlgrif yelled at the yordle's face.

Gnar let out a sigh of defeat and mumbled something at the troll. Kohlgrif looked at the yordle in frustration and confusion.

"Speak louder!" Kohlgrif shook the yordle by his tail, so Gnar said it again, but his voice was still quiet and mumbly. Kohlgrif growled in frustration and held the yordle closer to his ear

As soon as he did this, Gnar swung his body forward and bit down on the troll's ear. Kohlgrif let out a yell, letting go of Gnar's tail. He tried to punch the yordle off him, but missed as the yordle climbed down to his back and started biting and clawing at exposed skin.

"Get it off! Get it off me!" Kohlgrif yelled at the other trolls around him desperately trying to hit Gnar off him. The troll with the war hammer walked forward and tried to hit the yordle off of Kohlgrif, but missed and instead hit Kohlgrif on the foot.

Kohlgrif yelled in pain as he fell on his back. Gnar quickly jumped off the troll only to receive a kick from another troll. He was knocked on the floor and left dazed from the sudden blow. He didn't even get a chance to react as he was pinned to the ground.

"I'm putting this damn rat out of its misery." The troll above Gnar said, raising their hammer above the yordle's head. Gnar closed his eyes ready for the hammer to smash down on his head, but then he heard something land next to him.

He opened his eyes and saw a burning arrow that had landed right beside him. Everyone looked up as more flaming arrows landed around them.

A large wave of burning arrows was sailing across the sky right towards them. Kohlgrif quickly recovered from the ground and yelled "Fall back!"

The troll holding Gnar down let go of him and ran to the cover of the trees. Gnar got up to jump for cover, only to feel a sharp pain as one of the arrows cut his leg.

Unable to run away, Gnar helplessly curled in on himself as the arrows continued rained down around him. Heavy footsteps quickly ran towards him as the yordle was suddenly scooped off the ground. Gnar didn't even have to open his eyes to know who had come to his rescue.

"Do not worry! You are safe with Braum." The man reassured the yordle.

The arrows had finally ceased fire as Gnar opened his eyes and smiled at the man that saved him. The moment was short lived as the trolls moved away from cover and back towards the two.

The trolls stood there ground as a group of humans entered the clearing dressed in armor and sporting crossbows and swords. Braum stood up and moved to the front of the small army with Gnar sitting on his shoulder.

"There is no need for more bloodshed. Give the boy back and we can all walk away unharmed." Braum spoke to the trolls. Kohlgrif walked to the front of the troll group. Anger covered the troll's face.

"Not a chance in hell human. With or without the gold, ain't anyone of you getting out of this unscathed!" Kohlgrif yelled. He pulled out his dagger and ran forward.

"Attack!" The trolls charged forwards at the group of humans.

"For Avarosa!" The humans charge forward meeting the trolls half way. The sound of metal clashing filled the clearing. Yells from both the humans and trolls echoed over the trees.

Willump watched from afar, looking for one troll in particular. The yeti watched as the boar hat troll ripped a spear head out of his shoulder, the wound had already started to heal with the troll's fast regeneration.

Kohlgrif looked up towards Willump and instantly noticed him. He frowned at the yeti, letting out growl as he charged right at him. Willump stood still and let him run right at him.

He slashed at the troll's face, but he ducked and stabbed at the yeti's abdomen. Willump sidesteps the stab, only receiving a small cut as the troll slashed at him again.

Willump slashed his claws at the troll's arm, successfully hitting him leaving three large cuts. He used some of his remaining magic to make frostbite appear by the wound, slowing down the troll's regeneration.

Kohlgrif backed away from the yeti, but he still stayed near, ready to strike again when the time came.

"Where is Nunu." Willump said sternly, breathing heavily from all the fighting.

"I'm not telling till you give me the gold." Kohlgrif responded. He still had an arrogant smile on his face, but even he looked exhausted.

"You're not in a position to be making commands, you and your group are outnumbered." Willump gestured towards the main battle. Kohlgrif glanced over to see that the humans were in fact gaining ground on the trolls.

"Grr! Stupid dead weights! Losing to a bunch of puny humans!" Kohlgrif growled with a renewed frustration.

"If you give the boy back now, and we can go our separate ways." Willump moved forward towards the troll.

"And what if I don't?" Kohlgrif challenged, holding his ground.

"I'll shred you apart, bit by bit, until I get him back!" Willump growled standing over the troll. His claws and teeth pulsed blue, ready to rip him to shreds.

Kohlgrif took one more glance back at the main battle before facing the yeti again.

"Fine, you're right," Kohlgrif sighed. Willump relaxed his stance, relieved that the troll had given up.

"We don't win this battle," Willump then suddenly felt his beard get yanked downward. "But I'll be damned if I don't take you down with me!"

Willump's eyes widened as Kohlgrif slashed his dagger across his face. Willump yelped and staggered backwards away from the troll.

Willump lightly touched the gaping gash on his face. The cut stretched across his face over the bridge of his nose. Luckily, Kohlgrif missed his eyes, but the wound still burned painfully.

Willump looked back up at the troll, only to see the troll change right at him. The troll aimed his dagger forward towards the yeti's throat, but Willump grabbed Kohlgrif's wrist and held the dagger back.

The troll's momentum forward knocked the both of them to the ground. Kohlgrif sat on top of Willump, using his body weight to try and force the dagger down into the yeti. Willump desperately tried the push the dagger away from him, but the dagger was slowly getting closer as his strength started to waver.

"End of the line fur face!" Kohlgrif laughed as the dagger got closer to Willump's throat. The yeti continued to push as hard as he could, but he began to lose hope as the dagger inches closer.

Suddenly Kohlgrif laughter was cut off. Willump looked up at the troll. Half of his face was covered in snow. Kohlgrif looked over to the side only to receive another snowball to the face.

"Get off of him Kohlgrif!" A familiar voice yelled from the distance. Willump instantly recognized the voice. With all his might, he pushed against the troll, successfully pushing him aside while he was distracted. Willump stood up and looked to where the voice was.

Through the fog of snow stood Nunu. He stood tall with a look of fierce determination. His cloak swayed in the wind as he created another snowball with his imagination.

Willump let out a bellow of joy as ran over towards the boy.

"Nunu!" Willump cried out as he scooped the boy up into a hug.

"Willump!" The boy laughed out the yeti's name. He melted into Willump's warm and fluffy hug.

A frustrated growl interrupted there heartwarming reunion.

"How did you even get here child!? There is no way Trundle would have let you go!" Kohlgrif yelled in anger as he stood on from the ground.

"Cause when you mess with the yeti," Nunu pulled out his flute, "you get the boy!" Nunu played a quick song on his flute filling Willump with a burst of magic.

A large snowball was created in front of Willump who picked it up and threw it right at the troll. The snowball hit him right in the chest sending him backwards to the ground.

He did even get a chance to recover as a pillar of snow appeared under him and launched him right into a tree. His back slammed against the tree leaving him sitting on the ground and dazed from the impact.

During Kohlgrif's dizzied state, Willump started covering the troll in snow until only his head was visible. Nunu removed the boar fur hat from his head and replaced it with a large snowball with a smiley face on it.

"This has to be one of our best snowmen yet." Willump grumbled as he looked at the snow covered troll.

"I agree!" Nunu said as he placed the boar hat onto the snowman head, finishing their masterpiece.

The duo laughed at the snow covered troll as he snapped out of his daze. He stood up from against the tree and shook the snow off him while growling in frustration.

"This isn't over fur face!" Kohlgrif yelled while stumbling backwards, "I'll be back and I'll destroy everything you love and you with it!" With those final words, Kohlgrif turned and ran away from the duo, the snowman's head still on top of his own.

"Bye Kohlgrif!" Nunu yelled at the retreating troll. The boy felt as Willump picked him up and placed him on his head. Nunu let out a sigh of relief, finally being reunited with his best friend.

Willump made his way to where the main battle was. All the trolls were already gone with the humans regrouping and gathering discarded weapons and loot. Braum and Annie stood in the middle of the clearing. Gnar was being held by Annie as he napped in her arms.

"Yeti!" One of the Freljordians cried out. This got the attention of the whole group as they pulled out their weapons ready to attack Willump.

"Wait!" Nunu yelled at the Avarosans as they moved towards the yeti. He hopped down Willump's head and stood between the two.

"Stand down friends," Braum said as he moved to the front of the group. "This yeti helped us defeat the troll, he has no quiral with us." Many of the humans were hesitant to lower there weapons, but one by one they all decided to trust Braum and the boy.

"Let us go home and celebrate our victory ya?" Braum said to the Freljordians. They all started making their way back towards N'donkund, many of them giving wary glances towards Willump as they left the clearing.

"I'll meet the rest of you lot back at the wrestling igloo-place so we can patch up your wound and such," Braum said as he picked up his shield and turned his back to the group, "it's good to see that your safe and back with your friends yeti boy, I'll be seeing you soon!" He said as he follow the humans out of the clearing.

The only ones left in the clearing were now Nunu, Willump, Annie, and Gnar. Annie walked forwards towards Nunu as the boy watched Braum leave the clearing. He turned towards her and smiled as she approached.

He ran forward meeting the girl half way and gave her a big hug. Annie wasn't able to hug Nunu back since she was holding Gnar and Tibbers, but she leaned into his embrace.

Willump walked over and joyed in on the hug. The hug lasted for a while, but it felt like it only lasted a few seconds for the group.

Willump slowly picked both the children up as the hug came to a close. The kids were both half asleep, happy to rest in the safety of Willump arms. The yeti then made his way towards their igloo camp beyond the forest.

Snow started to fall as it started to cover up the sight of the battlefield leaving nothing but the memories of it in its wake.

Oh, the adventures tomorrow may bring

~❄️❄️❄️~

Chapter Text

~❄️❄️❄️~

Nunu found himself back in a familiar darkness. He knew he was asleep. Ever since he got the world rune, he would have the same dreams.

He could feel his magic, but he couldn’t see anything. The one thing he could do was listen. At first it was all silent, until a woman's voice broke the silence. Nunu recognized the voice belonging to his mother.

She was singing a song about a mountain so high, that it would take you to a city of stars, a song he had long forgotten about. He desperately wanted to chase after her voice, but he knew from countless tries that he couldn’t move towards it, not here anyways. 

He blissfully listened to her song as it traveled through his dream. Nunu listened to each note, pinpointing the direction of the song. This is the only hint he gets at where his mother is.

Nunu suddenly opened his eyes when he felt someone shaking him. He blinked against the morning light, his vision was slightly blurry. He looked to his left and saw Annie.

“Hey, are you ok? Were you having a nightmare?” Annie asked him. She was holding onto his left arm and looking at him with concern. 

He sat up and looked back at her, “Yah, I’m fine, why’d you wake me up?” He leaned back against Willump’s belly and let out a yawn. The yeti seemed to still be sound  asleep with his slow, deep breathing.

“I woke up because I suddenly felt really cold. I realized that the cold was coming from you and that’s when I saw that you were crying in your sleep, so I woke you up.” Annie explained.

Nunu wiped his hand against his eyes and realized that it was wet. He didn’t even realize that he was crying. 

“Oh! I forgot to tell you about this! I can’t exactly control it but sometimes when I fall asleep, I’ll have these dreams where I can only hear the sound of my mother’s voice. It’s how I know where to go when looking for her! Sometimes, I’ll hear her songs even when I’m awake.” Nunu explained to her. “And I guess sometimes it just reminds me of how much I miss her.”

Annie leaned back against Willump’s belly, staying shoulder to shoulder with Nunu. Nunu leaned more towards Annie since she felt really warm compared to him.

“Here,” Annie reached to her side and pulled out Tibbers. She handed the bear to Nunu who gently took the teddy bear from her hands, “Tibbers always makes me feel better when I get sad. Maybe he can help you too.”

Tibbers felt soft and warm in his hands. He hugged the bear and let out a sigh. 

“Better?” Annie asked, tilting her head.

“Yeah, you’re right about Tibbers taking away sad thoughts. I should definitely hug Tibbers more often.” Nunu said let out a small laugh. Annie also let out a chuckle before a realization crossed her mind.

“Wait, you said that your dreams lead you to where your mom is, so do you know where she is now?” 

“Not exactly, I just know what direction to go to look for her.” Nunu took a quick look around the igloo as his eyes landed on his bag. He grabbed the strap and dragged it towards him.

He dug his hand into the bag and pulled out a compass. He held it out where he heard his mother’s voice come from causing the red arrow to point behind him.

“Hm, she’s still somewhere south. We’re almost outside of Freljord at this point. Me and Willump have been looking for months and we still haven’t found her. Willump thinks she is stuck in Noxus and I was hoping he was wrong, but I’m starting to think he might be right.” Nunu said with a hint of concern in his voice.

A rumble interrupted the two's conversation as Willump’s stomach grumbled hungrily. The yeti rolled onto his back before sitting up. His fluffy white fur was messy and sticking out in random places. 

He let out a huge yawn while stretching out all four of his arms. He grumbled out a tired ‘good morning’ as he scratched at the bandage covering the bridge of his nose.

Gnar rolled down Willump’s belly from his beard and landed on the ground. He mumbled something under his breath before walking to a snow pile and sitting down.

Gnar’s eyes seemed to perk up as he realized he was missing something. His beloved boomerang was missing!

He sniffed the air, hoping to catch the familiar smell of his boomerang. As soon as he did, an overwhelming sweet smell filled his nose. Gnar looked down and realized the smell was coming from the snow pile.

He dug up the snow and found his boomerang sitting on top of a box. Gnar let out a happy yip as he picked up his boomerang getting the attention of the rest of the group.

“What’s in the white box?” Nunu asked. Willump stood up and walked over to the box. He opened the box to reveal a bunch of baked goods inside.

The yeti hummed happily at the sight of all the delicious food in front of him. There were all kinds of different baked breads in the box including cinnamon rolls. A small note sat on top of the baked goods with Nunu’s name on it.

Willump picked up a piece of paper and a cinnamon roll and handed both of them to Nunu. The boy realized there was a message on the paper and started reading it as Willump gave breakfast to everyone.

Dear Nunu

Glad to see that you were able to get away from the trolls and back to your friends! You fell asleep after the small skirmish with the troll patrol so I left you this note. Make sure you guys change your bandage every day, especially you yeti boy. I’m surprised the cut on your head didn’t get infected! I put extra supplies in your bag and even gave you guys breakfast. I recommend you spend the day relaxing before you continue your travels.

~From Braum

“What does the note say?” Annie asked before taking a bite into the fresh baked bread. 

“It’s a note from Braum telling us to enjoy the breakfast and wishing us luck. I wish I wouldn’t have fallen asleep before he left. I never got to ask if he had any more stories of his adventure” Nunu said as he ran his hand over the bandage on his head.

The gang enjoyed their sweets in a comfortable silence. Annie finished first and decided to light the fire in the igloo to warm the place up. She stacked wood together in the small pit and was about to set it on fire when she felt a cold tap on her cheek.

She looked up at the hole in the roof and saw as snow started to lazily fall from the grey clouds.

“Look! It's snowing outside.” Annie held out her hand as snowflakes fell into them. Them instantly melted at the touch of her warm skin.

“Really?” Nunu stood up and walked next to Annie. He looked up as tiny flakes of snow fell into the igloo from above. He held his hand out and let a snowflake fall on his hand. Unlike with Annie, the snowflake didn’t melt on contact with his skin. 

That’s when a fun idea popped in Nunu’s head. 

“Hey, we should go outside and play in the snow!” Nunu suggested. 

“Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun.” Annie smiled at the idea of playing in the snow.

“Gnar!” The yordle jumped between the two, seeming to pick up on their conversation. 

The group started heading towards the exit of the igloo before being abruptly stopped by Willump. “Not so fast you two,” Willump grumbled as he picked Nunu and Gnar off the ground. “We need to change out your bandage before you can play in the snow.” 

“Go ahead and go outside. We will meet you out there when we are done!” Nunu called out to Annie as he was carried away by Willump. She nodded and made her way outside.

Willump walked over to Nunu’s bag as he placed the two down on the ground. Willump pulled out some bandages and water.

“Take the bandage off your head while I help Gnar.” Willump instructed as he started to undo the bandage around Gnars leg. 

Nunu grabbed the end of his bandage on his head and started to unwrap it. He felt the cold air meet the wound as he removed the old bandage. 

It felt a lot better than it did yesterday. It was no longer swollen and it didn’t sting as bad. He tossed the old bandage to the side and watched as Willump struggled to try and help Gnar with the bandages.

“Quit squirming so much. The more you move the longer it’ll take.” 

“Natrago ulang?”

“No, you can not eat the old bandages.”

Nunu giggled at the two as Willump finally finished helping Gnar. The yordle quickly ran out the igloo as soon as the yeti let go of him. 

“Alright, it’s your turn now Nunu.” Willump said.

Nunu stood up and walked over to the yeti. He sat down in front of him as Willump grabbed a wet cloth. Willump took his hat off as he pushed the cloth against the cut on his head. Nunu flinched at the initial contact, but managed to stay still as Willump finished cleaning and bandaging the wound.

“There we go, now you can go outside.” Willump said as he put the yeti hat back on Nunu’s head.

Nunu got up and walked towards the exit of the igloo, “Are you going to come with us?” Nunu turned around and asked Willump.

“I’ll be out there once I’m done changing my bandage” Willump said as he started taking the bandage off the bridge of his nose.

Nunu exited the igloo and took a deep breath of the cold morning air. He took a look around and saw Gnar jumping around in the snow. The yordle slapped his boomerang against the snow, sending snowflakes flying into the air.

Nunu then heard an annoyed sigh. He saw Annie sitting on her knees in the snow. It looked like she was trying to make a snowball, but the snow kept falling apart.

“What’s wrong Annie?” Nunu asked as he walked over and sat down next to her.

“I’m trying to make it to where snow won’t melt so fast around me, but nothing I try is working. I can’t even hold a snowball for long before it melts apart.” Annie explained in frustration. She scooped up some snow in her hand and held it out towards Nunu as it melted away. 

“Willump knows more about magic than I do, maybe we can ask him and see if he can help?” Nunu suggested.

“I guess it won’t hurt to ask him.” Annie said as she stood up. Nunu followed behind her as they made their way to where Willump and Gnar were.

It looked like Willump was helping Gnar make a small snowman. The yordle put his bird skull hat on top of the snowman and started to draw a face on it using his boomerang.

“Willump! We need to ask you something!” Nunu yelled as they got closer to the yeti.

Willump turned towards the two flicking his ear ready to listen to what Nunu had to say.

“Annie wants to know if you can help her with her magic.” Nunu explained.

“What exactly does she want to know about?” Willump asked.

Nunu whispered something into her ear as she picked up more snow. She tried to prevent her magic from making her hands too warm to hold the snowball, but the harder she tried, the faster it seemed to melt.

“I can’t stop my magic from causing the snow to melt so fast around me and the harder I try, the more the snow seems to melt around me.” Annie said with frustration. She let the now wet slush fall from her hands.

The yeti hummed in thought before grumbling some instructions to Nunu. The boy then turned to Annie and started retelling what Willump said to him.

“Ok, so first let’s sit in the snow.” Nunu said as he sat down facing her. Annie sat down on the ground doing her best not to get any mud on her clothes from the melting snow.

“Now, close your eyes and focus on your breathing.” 

She did exactly that. Annie was starting to get confused on how this will help her with her magic, but she trusted Willump’s advice.

“Just think of calm thoughts. Oh! And hold out your hand for me.”

Annie held out her hand as she tried to think of calming things. First thing that popped into her head was a calm stream, but then that just reminded her of Daisy.

She then thought of the beautiful sunset Nunu showed her. She smiled at the memory and how much fun they had at the lake. 

Annie felt a weight on her hand, but she was too wrapped up in her thoughts to worry about it.

“It’s working!” Nunu said with excitement. Annie opened her eyes only to see that she was holding a snowball.

The snow wasn’t melting immediately to her touch. She smiled in joy as she gave the snowball an experimental toss.

“Yes! Now we can have snowball fights!” Nunu cheered. 

Annie smiled mischievously at the mention of a snowball fight. Before Nunu could react, Annie threw the snowball that was in her hand directly at the boy.

It hit him dead center in the chest. Nunu staggered backwards in surprise before reaching down and making a snowball himself.

“Oh it’s on!” Nunu yelled as he threw the snowball at Annie. She quickly dodged and grabbed a handful of snow.

Nunu was able to create snowballs much faster than Annie even without his magic, so he was able to get some hits in on her while she struggled to dodge and create snowballs all at once.

She still put up a good fight, having more and more funny with each passing second. But Annie started having the same problem with her magic as before.

Annie huffed in annoyance at her magic. The extra warmth she created was normally nice, but now it was just getting in the way.

Nunu seemed to notice her struggling and stopped throwing snowballs at her. 

“Sigh, guess that didn’t work for long.” Annie said as Nunu ran towards her. 

“I think I have an idea.” Nunu said. He held out his hand as he created a snowball using his magic before  handing the snowball to Annie.

The snowball glowed a pale blue in her hands. She expected the snowball to just melt on her hand, but it actually kept its shape. 

“Woah,” Annie said, staring at the snowball.

“Maybe we can play in teams. We can be on one team and we can go against Willump and Gnar! That way, you don’t have to worry about your magic getting in the way.” Nunu said as he gestured to Willump for him to join them. 

“Wait, where’s Gnar?” Annie asked Willump as he approached them. 

The yeti just simply shrugged while grumbling something to Nunu.

“You sure? It's going to be one versus two if we don’t play with Gnar.” Nunu warned. Willump just smiled arrogantly as he stretched his arms.

“Alright! First team to surrender loses and magic is allowed since Annie is having trouble creating snowballs” Nunu explained.

The swirls on Willump’s arms started to glow as he created two large snowballs in his hand.

Nunu responded by creating a large barricade of snow in front of him and Annie. He walked over to Annie and handed her a handful of snowballs.

They were caught off guard when Willump smashed through the barricade sending snow flying everywhere. 

“Run!” Nunu yelled as he turned around and ran. Willump giggled as both Annie and Nunu scattered away from him.

The yeti first threw a snowball at Nunu who quickly jumped out of the way. The boy lost his balance when landing, giving Willump the perfect chance to strike.

The moment was lost when Annie managed to hit a snowball directly at his cheek, distracting the yeti enough for Nunu to recover. 

Willump desided to focus Annie this time creating two large snowballs. The girl was still throwing snowballs at the yeti, but they didn’t slow him down.

She threw her last snowball towards Willump as the yeti threw one of the snowballs at her. Annie tried to dodge but she was still hit in the side by the snowball knocking her to the ground. 

Willump quickly ran over to her and dropped a pile of snow on her. He heard a small ‘oof’ followed by muffled laughter as Annie wiped the snow off her face.

One down, one to go! Willump thought as he turned around, only to run face first into a large snowman. He fell forward on his belly crushing the poor snowman under him.

“Ah ha! I got you now!” Nunu yelled as he jumped on the yeti’s back. Willump let out a dramatic sigh of defeat as he patted the ground surrendering the snowball fight.

“Did we win?” Annie asked as she walked over to the two still wiping snow off of her clothes.

“Yeah! We did it—” Nunu suddenly fell backwards as Willump stood up from the ground. The yeti grumbled a quick apology before scooping the boy out of the snow.

Willump also picked Annie up and put both the kids on his head. Willump grumbled tiredly as he walked back towards the igloo ready to relax for a bit. 

“That was a lot of fun.” Annie said as she held onto one of Willump’s antlers. Nunu hummed in agreement as he idly messed with the blue gem on his necklace.

“Hey, have you heard me play my flute yet?” Nunu said with renewed excitement.

“Nope.” Annie responded. A large smile appeared on Nunu’s face as he reached behind him and pulled out his flute.

“This is my legendary sword Svellsongur!” Nunu said, holding out a wooden flute. Annie looked at him with slight confusion.

“Well, it’s only a legendary sword in my imagination. Willump likes to just call my flute Snowy since Svellsongur is hard to pronounce.” Nunu explained. “Any requests?”

“Uhh, I don’t really know any song names. I just listened to whatever my dad listened to on the radio.” Annie explained. Nunu looked at her in confusion.

“Radio? What’s that? Is it some kind of instrument?” Nunu asked.

“It’s a machine that plays different music. Have you really never heard of  a radio?” 

Nunu shook his head before a realization crossed his mind.

“You’re not from Freljord, are you?”

Annie let out a small giggle, “I thought that was obvious. I mean, I was walking through the snow in a skirt, I haven’t seen anyone else here do that.”

“I guess you’re right, I’ve just never met anyone outside of Freljord. Other than raiders from the south.” Nunu said. “Well, if you're not from Freljord, then where are you from?”

“Oh I’m from Noxus”

Annie watched as Nunu’s jaw dropped as soon as she said where she was from. She even felt Willump flinch slightly. For a second, Annie thought she said something wrong, but Nunu was quick to break the awkward silence.

“I knew it! Not all Noxians are bad! Not only that but I made friends with one!” Nunu cheered. Willump lightly laughed at the boy while rolling his eyes.

“What makes you think Noxians are bad?” Annie said, still slightly shocked about the boy’s reaction.

“Before you, every Noxian I’ve met has been up to no good. Not only that, but a Noxian raid was the reason I got separated from my mother.” Nunu explained.

Annie scratched at her head thinking about her old home, “My family was isolated from any other Noxians in the area. I remember sometimes we’d see people pass by, but I don’t really know why they’d raid your family.” 

“It’s probably just some evil complicated adult stuff. All that matters is what they're doing is wrong and it's up to us to stop them in their tracks!” Nunu cheered.

Willump finally entered the small igloo and sat down on the floor letting out a big yawn. Nunu and Annie slid down the yeti’s head and sat by the fire. Nunu pulled out his flute and got ready to play some music.

Gnar soon walked into the igloo covered in snow and shaking. The yordle gladly sat down next to the fire with the rest of the group as the evening air was filled with songs of stories told throughout the ages.

~❄️❄️❄️~

“Pssst, Willump, are you awake?” Nunu whispered. The yeti opened his eyes in the pitch dark igloo. Gnar and Annie were still asleep, but Nunu was awake sitting right in front of Willump’s face.

“What is it Nunu? Can’t fall asleep?” Willump asked while rubbing his eye.

“There’s just something that is bothering me that I hope you can help me with.” 

“What is it that’s bothering you?”

“When I was escaping from the trolls, something weird was happening with my magic. The snow I created was turning into ice. I even accidentally stabbed a troll through the hand with ice when he refused to let go of my arm. I-I just don’t want to accidentally hurt any of you guys with my magic too…” Nunu explained.

Willump was surprised to hear this at first, but he knew something like this would happen with the world rune.

“Well magic can be very complicated to explain and control. Magic doesn’t like to be used, but it wants to be wielded and shaped. The inspiration rune is one of the most powerful sources of magic, so it could easily bend reality to the shape of the user's imagination. But the intention behind your imagination can be altered by your emotions. So things like stress and fear can cause the magic to shape into something more dangerous and destructive. It’s similar to Annie’s magic with how fire will start around her when she is angry or sad.” Willump explained.

“Oh,” Nunu yawned tired, “so everything is okay?”

“Yup, as long as I’m here, I’ll always keep you safe when you're scared or stressed out” Willump said as he pulled Nunu close to his chest. “Now, go to bed, we have a long day of traveling tomorrow.”

Nunu curled up against Willump’s fur as the yeti draped his arm over the boy.

“I love you Willump.” 

“I love you too.” 

~❄️❄️❄️~

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

~❄️❄️❄️~

The wind whistles against the sharp tips of icicles that cover the walls. Once beautiful carvings of stone are now chipped and cracked, held together by dark ice.

Lissandra knew of all these little changes that happened around here day by day. Though she could not see, she still had a great sense of her surroundings and understanding of what happens around her.

She has seen more without her eyes than she has ever seen before. Through magic, ice, loyal followers, even mindless thralls, the many secrets of Freljord always found their way to her.

Speaking of Thralls…

Lissandra’s thoughts were interrupted by a group of heavy footsteps approaching her. It was easy to tell who was coming but … anyone with a nose probably could tell also.

“Lissandra! I brought the trolls you requested.” Trundle said as he entered the cavern. A small group of battle wounded trolls followed him.

But it wasn’t the trolls that caught her interest, but Trundle's true ice club. She is familiar with the frozen weapons magic, but something about its presents has changed.

“Interesting, your club has changed troll king” Lissandra comments.

“Oh yeah, boneshiver got a nice upgrade!” Trundle grinned, bouncing the club on his shoulder. 

Trundle put his arm on the back of the troll standing next to him, this troll being none other than Kohlgrif. 

The troll king harshly shoved Kohlgrif. He stumbled forward towards Lissandra, letting out a growl of annoyance at Trundle.

“This slug brain almost made a smart decision for once, but not only did the magic boy get away, he couldn’t even collect the gold!” Trundled growled in anger.

Kohlgrif whipped his head around facing back at Trundle, “I am not a slug brain! That ransom deal was the smart decision you’ve probably ever seen coming from any of your dead weight followers!”

“Ransom?” Lissandra hummed in interest, “I’ve never heard of troll resorting to ransom before”

“Yeah, it’s smart isn’t it” Kohlgrif quipped before receiving a nasty punch to the face from Trundle.

“Shut your mouth Kohlgrif!” Trundle yelled, holding Boneshiver over him.

“Wait Trundle” Lissandra held up her hand to stop him. “I wish to hear more about this… ransom ” she requested with a smile pointed towards Kohlgrif.

Said troll was rubbing his now even redder nose as he looked back at the ice witch.

“Well, it all started when this magic yeti. He thought could trick us and get away with it. So, we tracked him down to put the furball in his place, but the scent led to these two human kids!”

“Thought I killed one of them, but the thing was alive and so I took it and told the yeti I’d give it back for 10 bags of gold. I should have asked for more gold considering the boy also had magic, but as far as improvised plans go, this was by far my best one!”

“Trundle decided to keep the boy and sent the rest of us out to collect the gold and kill the yeti, but they ambushed us with a bunch of humans! I almost killed that damn yeti, but that fur-face’s boy toy used his stupid magic to stop me!” Kohlgrif finished with a scowl.

“Thought you’d be interested in the magic yeti boy” Trundle said to Lissandra, “but the little rat somehow got past all my trolls! He made so many damn ice walls, took forever to smash through, but hell if I didn’t enjoy smashen through it all with the upgrades to boneshiver.”

“Ah, your tuition was on point Trundle, would have been nice to have the boy with me” Lissandra sighed. “It’s no matter though, I’ll take these ‘dead weight’ trolls off your hands. Once I’m done with them, they won’t be so useless anymore”

Trundle chuckled at the witch, “Don’t have too much fun with ‘em. Let me know when you're ready to whip more slug brains into shape” the troll turned around and walked off leaving Lissandra alone with the trolls.

Lissandra turned around and started making her way deeper within the cavern, “Come now, you don’t want to keep me waiting” she called to the trolls behind her.

She could sense the uncertainty coming from the trolls as they hesitantly followed behind. The cavern filled with their heavy steps as they blindly followed the witch. 

The only light shining through the cavern was from small cracks covered in ice in the roof. The hall went on till it finally opened up to the main area.

The trolls walking stopped suddenly as the familiar sense of confusion and fear surrounded them.

“The hell is all this!” One of the trolls exclaimed. The large cavern was full of other trolls, most of them frozen in dark ice, others turned into thralls.

Lissandra quickly blocked the entrance with dark ice spikes before the trolls could run out.

“Awe, don’t panic now, it’s not that bad'' Lissandra tried to reassure them. Of course it did nothing, but it’s worth it to try anyway.

Most of the trolls tried to smash their way through the dark ice, but all they achieved was a slow frostbite that climbed from their fist up their arms.

One troll, the one Trundle called Kohlgrif, stayed forward facing the witch. He walked towards her, ready to attack.

“If you really think you can trap—

Kohlgrif never finished as Lissandra entombed him in dark ice. He already told her all she needed to know, there was nothing left for him to offer her from that blabbering mouth.

She quickly did the same with the remaining trolls, their struggling silenced. For this was the first step to turn from a useless troll, into a useful Thrall.

The Thralls already patrolling the cavern silently moved the now entombed trolls deeper into the cavern with the others.

Finally alone with her thoughts she calmly unblocked the exit and let herself out.

Oh Nunu, who would have known such a small Notia boy could get into so much trouble. To not only get the world rune and not succumb to its power, but to befriend the beast itself! I would have never guessed the drive to find your mother would take you so far. I do anticipate the day we cross paths again little one…

~❄️❄️❄️~

“Wow! Look at all the flowers!” Nunu said, looking down at the small field. There were many different shades with so many flowers just bunched up together!

“I didn’t know you liked flowers, isn’t that kinda girly?” Annie said as she walked up behind him, giggling slightly at Nunu excitement. 

“But flowers are so pretty! It definitely beats the miles of nothing but snow” Nunu walked forward closer to the flower while taking a deep breath “smells a lot better too.”

“Are there even flowers in Freljord? I’ve only seen small patches of grass and some crops, but no flowers” Annie asked as she followed.

“My mom drew a picture of one before, but I’ve never really seen one before in person, or if I have, I don’t remember it” Nunu said as he picked a flower. “She said that they would show off lots of flowers during important weddings, but we traveled a lot so I only saw weddings for other Notia which were much smaller” 

Willump let out a small hum catching the attention of the two kids, “There is a flower that is unique only to Freljord” the yeti pitched in. Gnar bolted from behind Willump and jumped right onto the flowers happily.

“Really! Why haven’t we seen one yet?” Nunu asked.

“Well, they only really grow in places with high densities of magic. They could absorb the magic and use it to survive the harsh weather. They’re called Crystal Ice Lilies” Willump explained, taking a seat in the opening of flowers, “we can take a break here for now, I need a nap” Willump grumbled as he flopped on his back.

“You know,” Annie started, “me and Daisy used to have picnics out in clearings like this. We would make flower crowns and chase pixie flies” she said to Nunu.

She had already picked two flowers and started tying them together. Nunu silently watched her repeatedly fold the stems together. 

He even tried to do it himself (emphasis on tried) with tips from Annie as she continued to create her own. Annie giggled as she watched Nunu struggle with getting the stems to stay in place and ended up having to help him finish his crown.

Nunu took his hat off and placed the flower crown on his head.

“How do I look?”

“Probably not as good as me” Annie teased as she took her head band off and placed the flower crown on her own head.

“Hey!” Nunu playfully pushed Annie’s shoulder as she continued to laugh at him. The boy had a light dusting of pink on his cheeks as he looked at her.

“Y-you do look cute in the flower crown, my hair is probably all messy from always wearing a hat so I didn’t stand a chance” 

Annie blushed at the comment and looked away shyly. “You look cute in a flower crown too,” Annie responded, her voice as quiet as a whisper.

The silence between them seemed to stretch forever even though it had been only a couple of seconds, Nunu opened his mouth about to break the silence but was interrupted by Gnar.

The yordle was yipping and yapping nonsense loudly as he bounded over to the duo. At first they thought he was just being playful, but his tone sounded more panicked than joyful.

Nunu looked from where Gnar had run from and saw a large dark figure that was standing behind the foliage. He stood up from where he was sitting pulling Annie up with him.

“Who’s there?” Nunu shouted towards the figure.

The figure still just stood there, it looked like it had horns and one glowing blue eye.

“Hello?” Nunu tried again to get the figure to respond. It was unsettling that the figure just stood there silently. Enough to where Nunu slowly started to walk back toward where he knew Willump was sleeping.

Speaking of the yeti, Gnar’s yelling must have woken him up. He was growling as he walked in front of both Nunu and Annie. Willump roared at the figure, but there was still no response.

It had become a silent stand off after that. Willump seemed hesitant to make a move not even knowing what the figure was. Surprisingly, it was Gnar who broke the stand off, hopping from Willump beard and approached the figure.

Everyone held their breath as the yordle slowly stalked towards the figure. The only sound being Gnars light footsteps against the grass.

With only a few feet of distance, Gnar finally stopped in front of the figure. The yordle stood up straight and looked up at the figure. They all stared as the yordle slowly put his hands over his face and——

“Peekaboo!” Everyone jumped (besides the figure) when Gnar yelled, throwing his hands in the air.

A moment passed before the yordle simply turned around looking back at the group and just shrugged. 

“Wait, are we even sure that it's a creature? It could just be a statue.” Annie said, peeking from behind Willump.

Annie started to walk forward but was scooped up by Willump who placed her on his head. Nunu was already sitting there and moved over to make room for her.

“Willump still wants to be cautious, we’ve never been beyond the border of Freljord so we don't know what to expect.” Nunu explained.

Willump got closer and it became easier to make out the details of the supposed statue. It was a pale blue troll with a white beard covered head to toe in black ice spikes. In the middle of his face was one glowing blue eye and it was most definitely breathing and not a statue.

Willump had stopped moving forward when they were finally able to figure out what the figure was. Gnar met them half way and jumped on the yeti, climbing up and perching on one of his antlers.

“What’s wrong with that troll and what’s it even doing this far from Freljord?” Annie asked, her distaste for the troll evident in her voice.

“Maybe he needs help!” Nunu responded, excited about getting a chance to be a hero for the troll.

“Why should we help him? The trolls don't deserve it after what they did to you!” 

“Not every troll is bad! Sure, they can be mean and kinda stupid at times, but that doesn’t mean they dont deserve help! I used to think that with Noxians but then I met you.” Nunu smiled at Annie. 

She let out a sigh knowing that she couldn’t change Nunu’s mind.

“Well, how are we even going to help it? It’s just standing there”

“Maybe he’s shy?” Nunu shrugged, turning his attention to the troll. “Hello Mr. Troll!” Nunu waved, “is there something you need?”

No response

“Do you…need help?”

No response 

“Anything”

“...”

“Maybe he can’t talk,” Annie whispered to Nunu.

“Maybe not but not being able to talk hasn’t stopped me from helping people!” Nunu proclaimed, jumping off Willump’s head and started making his way towards the troll. “Me and Willump even managed to help a whole village of people made of stone!”

Annie and Gnar followed behind Nunu while Willump hesitated. He bellowed something to Nunu, his voice quiet with concern.

“He looks scary but that black ice isn't a problem! I see Frost Guards wear this armor all the time, even Lissandra wears it!” Nunu reassured the yeti. 

Even the troll’s helmet looks like Lissandra’s!

This only made Willump more concerned.

“Oh come on you big fur ball! I know you don't like the Frost Guard but they’re not that bad.”

Willump huffed at the boy, following everyone as they stood in front of the troll. Still, the troll made no sound with his only movements being his slow, shaky breaths. 

Rubbing his chin, Nunu tried to think of a way to help the troll. Annie and Willump stared in suspicion at the troll and Gnar was simply watching a bee buzz around the many flowers.

Think Nunu, what does it look like he wants?

Nunu squinted his eyes as he looked at the troll. That’s when he noticed that the troll’s blue eye was staring directly at him and not at anyone else.

Maybe I have something that he wants?

The troll was really tall, taller than Willump tall! That’s like triple my height! The troll was looking down at him as if staring at the top of his head… Oh! Maybe he wants the flower crown!

“I got it!” Nunu said as he clapped his hands together, “give me a quick lift, Willump!” 

Willump lifted Nunu from under his arms and held him at eye level with the troll. Nunu took off his flower crown and hovered it over the troll's head.

Nunu suddenly flinched as an odd feeling went over him. A low hum started in the back of his mind followed by chills traveling down his spine. The world rune glowed dully, Nunu bit his lip at the sudden ominousness of the situation.

Willump stiffen, noticing Nunu’s sudden mood change.

“What’s wrong?” The yeti grumbled to the boy. His eyes wandered to the dimly lit rune hung around the boy’s neck.

Nunu shook his head, his face returning back to the previous determined glow, “I’m fine! Just got a small chill.”

Willump squinted at the boy, not entirely believing that something so small would make him react like that. They were connected through the same magic.

Nunu finished placing the flower crown on the troll's head. Willump set the boy down while Nunu was looking up at the troll in anticipation.

The troll still didn’t react, even as the flowers started to freeze from contacting the black ice. The flower crown looked more like a black thorned bush crown once it was completely frozen.

“I don’t think that really helped him” Annie said gazing at the troll skeptical, “but if we want to help him, then my guess is that he is lost and maybe needs directions back to Freljord?” 

“He seems pretty brain-dead, maybe he was cursed? If that’s the case, there isn’t a lot he can do.” Willump grumbled.

“I guess you guys are right, plus we need to get moving soon” Nunu sighed, “if he is still here after we find mom then maybe she could help! She always found ways to make others happy!” 

After Gnar made an arrow pointing to the Freljord out of sticks and grass for the troll, they all hopped on Willump as they got ready to move out.

Nunu pulled out his map and compass before pointing Willump in the right direction.

“Just a heads up Willump, we are heading towards Ironspike Mountains, so the terrain will probably get a lot rockier and steeper.” Nunu warned the yeti. Willump hummed softly in response.

“Ironspike? That’s where I’m from!” Annie peaked over at the map Nunu was holding. He let her take the map as she pointed to roughly where her home was.

“My fathers cabin was set up around this area. He worked in the mines north west of the Delverhold''

“That pretty close to where we are headed, we can stop there rest for the night when we get there”

“Well… there isn’t much of a cabin left…” Annie mumbled.

“Oh, it’s okay though! We can just make a camp outside of it. Unless you’d rather avoid it all together”

“It’s okay, I'm kinda curious on how much has changed since I left. Plus, it’s smart because there aren’t any Noxian sentry stations near my house. They focused the majority of them on the border and by the main mine deposits. Luckily, my dad worked in the lower deposits where there weren’t many people.”

“Alright! Then that’s where we are heading!”

Gnar jumped down from on top of Willump antler. He landed on Nunu lap, the boy flinching back a little from the yordle’s sudden appearance. Gnar was standing on Nunu 's leg looking over the boy's shoulder behind them.

“Noonu! Look look!” The yordle babbled, jumping up and down the boy’s leg while pointing.

Willump turned around giving everyone a view of what was rambling about. A large figure was slowly walking towards them. They were being followed by none other than the ice troll.

Willump grumbled in annoyance once he realized who was following them.

“Do you think he needs help now, Willump?” Nunu questioned. 

“If he wanted help, he would have made it apparent by now. And regardless, I don’t really trust him anyways. He rubs my fur the wrong way.” Willump grumbled, turning his attention away from the troll and back on the path.

“Are we just going to ignore it?” Annie asked

“For now I guess, Willump doesn’t trust him even though he hasn’t done anything to suggest that his intentions are bad.” 

“Shwall wangya” Gnar said as he sat down in Nunu lap. Gnar leaned back as he let out a sigh, completely relaxing against the boy like he was a comfy chair.

Annie giggled at the yordle antics. Nunu smiled at the yordle, bringing up his hand to light scratch behind Gnars ears. The yordle leaned against his hand, melting into the pets. Seems like it isn’t just yetis that loves ear scratches!

“If the troll keeps following us until we stop, maybe we can try more things and see if anything might help him if you want?” Annie asked.

“Sure! We can brainstorm ideas until we get there!” Nunu responded.

“So here what I’m thinking we try first…”

~❄️❄️❄️~

It was odd, watching Willump take a familiar path that would lead home. Familiar was putting it strongly though as grass and weeds had conquered most the path. At the end of it once stood a cabin, but instead laid the ashen remains of home. 

Black charcoal like pillars showed the outline of the cabin. Flowers and vines had taken over the cabin’s foundation.

Annie hopped off of Willump with Nunu and Gnar following suit. Everyone was quiet, unsure what to say to the girl. The moment felt too delicate to interrupt.

She walked towards what remains of the front door. What’s left of the roof rested over everything in the house, making it hard to distinguish where the living room ended and the hallway to the bedrooms began.

Annie felt a gentle hand rest on her shoulder. She turned back and saw Nunu behind her. He smiled at her.

“Are you okay?” 

She looked down at the splintered wood and debris blocking her way. It was the debris that was stopping her from entering her home but what laid underneath it all. 

“I’ll be fine,” she whispered. She started picking at her fingers, unsure on what to do next. “Now that I’m here, it’s just… I don’t know. I feel like I should do something, but I'm kinda scared to touch anything. The last time I ever saw my dad was when he tossed me out of the house right before the roof caved in. So unless someone came before us, that would mean he’s still stuck under there.”

Willump came up behind the two and placed something down in front of the entrance. A medium sized rock now stood there as Willump mumbled something to Nunu.

Nunu gasped and nodded enthusiastically at what the yeti said. Annie just watched on in confusion as the boy placed his hand on the rock. 

The world rune glowed as true ice covered the stone. Nunu drew against the surface, the ice retreating under his finger leaving indents as he wrote. 

Annie peaked over the boy’s shoulder to see what he was writing.

Hastur’s

Home

Nunu even drew a small flower under the words before standing up and letting Annie see. 

“Me and Willump sometimes visit Yeti’s Vigil and leave trinkets there for all the friends Willump lost. Willump couldn’t remember there names but we made something like this for them” 

Annie smiled down at the ice stone engraved with her family’s name. She took off her flower crown and set it on top of the stone. Frost crept over the flowers. The true ice preserving the flowers in a perminate bloom. 

“Thanks guys, you did have to do all this. Besides, home is not the place but the people.” Annie said. Willump responded with a grumble and gave Annie a small noogy messing up her hair. 

“Pft, Willump just called you a sap” Nunu giggled into his hand. Annie rolled her eyes and looked back at the yeti.

“I’m trying to be all nice and sentimental and this is how you thank me?” Annie sasses back at the yeti, who is attempting to look as innocent as possible. 

~❄️❄️❄️~

The sun was setting by the time Annie finished showing them around. They decided to set up camp in a clearing close to Annie’s old home. Nunu made the igloo, Annie made the fire, and Gnar and Willump went out to hunt. With nothing to do but wait, the two kids simply sat by the fire and idly chatted with each other.

“We should really consider eating something other than just meat,” Annie said. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I kind of miss vegetables.”

“To be fair, there aren’t a lot of other options when you live in Freljord and I don’t know what’s considered editable here in Noxus. Do you?”

“I know a little but not a lot. Before meeting you, I just used people’s pity against them. Noxians may not be the nicest, but they are not monsters. Seeing a poor orphaned child made it easy to score a hot free meal.”

“I don’t think I’d have the heart to trick people like that.”

“Probably not, but luckily I won’t have to do that anymore with you guys around. Seeing you try to help everyone motivates me to be a better person. If I was as nice as you, I’d probably have gotten along with Daisy.”

“I think you’re nice,” Nunu pouted.

“Thanks, it’s nice that you see the good in people. I still don’t think I deserve it with the things I’ve done” Annie said, petting the soft fur on Tibbers.

Nunu frowned but didn’t get a chance to respond as heavy footsteps approached the igloo.

“Willump’s back!” Nunu stood up and walked outside with Annie and Tibber close behind. 

Outside was in fact not the big furry yeti, but the ice troll that was following them. In the dark, the troll looked even more intimidating with its large figure and one glowing eye. It was staring right at Nunu.

“O-oh, um, hello?” Nunu stuttered. 

The troll bent downwards closer to the children.

Nunu felt Annie grab his hand. She was tense and her hand felt hot even through his glove. Tibber dangled in her other hand, an iry smile made of flames crept on the toy’s face.

“Do you need s-something?” 

The troll took a step forward

Annie and Nunu took one back

“Why don’t we just wait for Willump and Gnar to get back okay Mr. Ice troll?”

The troll kept moving forward slowly.

Nunu and Annie kept their distance until their backs hit the wall of the igloo. There was nowhere to go.

“It’s rude to ignore people you know? I know trolls can talk so why can’t you!?” Annie snapped at the troll from beside Nunu. Flames were flickering against her body as her anger started getting the best of her.

The troll was right in front of them before stopping. The troll kneeled down, but was still much taller than the kids.

Not wanting a fight to break out, Nunu stood in front of Annie. He turned his head back towards Annie and gave her a reassuring smile, “it’s okay, I don’t think he wants to hurt us. If that’s what he wanted then he would have done it by now” 

Nunu felt a low hum start in the back of his mind as a pale glow illuminated on his chest. Chills raced against his skin making him want to run. He couldn’t run though, he had to stay with Annie, but something’s wrong. 

Nunu was frozen in place. The hum was louder as it turned into harsh whispers. Voices…? It was just like when he first got the world rune, except instead of words of promised desires, it was panicked confusion. 

Nunu turned back from Annie to the troll only to see it reaching out at the boy, or more specifically, towards the rune resting against his chest.

It layed a single dark ice finger on the surface of the world rune and the whispers of the world rune screamed .

Nunu felt like a spectator of his own body as his arm shot out and grabbed the troll's finger. Ice shot up the troll's arm in long and jagged spikes freezing it’s arm all the way up it’s shoulder. With a flick, the ice shattered like fragile glass taking the arm with it.

The troll screeched, it fell backwards as its single arm clawed at what remained of the other. 

Annie pulled Nunu behind her as she now stood between the boy and the frantic troll. She took a quick glance at Nunu and immediately saw something wrong.

She expected there to be a look of horror on the boy’s face, maybe fear or at the very least shock. There wasn’t a single emotion painted on the boy's face. He was just staring blankly at the squirming troll. His face stoic and arm still slightly raised. 

Annie forced her eye away from Nunu as the troll started to stand back up. Its inhuman growls echoed in the clearing. She felt the air temperature dropping even when she let flames dance up her arms. 

She sent a wave of flame at the troll, forcing it back. It grasped the stump where its arm once was. Blood leaked sluggishly from the stump, its color was unnaturally dark almost as if the blood itself was black. 

A low whistle sounded in the clearing. The troll jolted forward with the sound of a loud slash. It was once again screeching as its attention was directed behind it. A large spear was sticking out of its shoulder.

It roared and charged at the forest line. Men were yelling orders at each other as the sound of shields and swords rang through the clearing.

Crap! Things can’t get any worse can they!? Annie thought.

  With the troll and mysterious men ( Noxians?) distracted, Annie turned around to Nunu. She let her flames go out as she grabbed the boy’s shoulder forcing him to look at her. 

He must have snapped out of whatever haze he was in a moment ago as he stared at the girl with disbelief in his watery eyes.

“Hey! Hey, what’s wrong? What did it do?” Annie said. She did a quick look down on Nunu. There weren't any injuries, but there was black frost on his glove where grabbed the troll. It didn’t look like it was spreading like it did when the flower crown touched the black ice so that probably was not the main issue. 

That’s when she finally noticed something wrong with the world rune. There was frost on Nunu’s chest where it rested, moving up and down with the boy’s shaky breath. The gem now had a small black crack in it. She had no idea what that could mean for Nunu’s magic, but probably nothing good.

Could explain what happened earlier, his magic reacts to his emotions kinda like mine. But isn’t this more like his emotions reacting magic instead? Dang it where’s Willump when you need weird magic things explained!?

Tears finally fell from Nunu’s eyes as he shakily tried to respond.

“I-I d-don’t …I—” the boy stuttered, seemingly unable to get a sentence out.

Annie cut him off by grabbing his hand, “We need to go, we can stay here” she said as she started dragging the boy to the opposite tree line of the fighting. As much as she wants to just focus and help Nunu with what just happened, they couldn’t do it here. No matter if the troll won or the men, one thing is  for sure is that neither side had their best intentions in mind. 

She could hear the yells of victory from the men behind her as they ran away. They were just about to break the tree line when of course something went wrong.  

Right where they were running for, a man steps out of the tree line. He had a black spear with green runic writing on it. He was an older man with long white and grey hair and baggy but well made leather armor. He also had a white beard with a metal Noxian symbol on his shoulder.

He almost had this wise grandpa look at him, giving off an air of wisdom instead of violence like other Noxian soldiers, but that doesn’t matter because he is in our way.

Flames came to life on her arm. Tibbers was on fire, ready at a moment's notice to tear the man to shreds. Her hand holding Nunu's felt really cold. The world rune was still glowing on his chest.

Annie made sure that she stood in front of Nunu. She felt the boy shutter as frost crept from his hand up hers. She snuck a glance at the boy as he tucked the world rune under his shirt. Frost was still spreading on his chest and arms. In his other hand was a rough ball of ice that he held onto with a tight grasp. He released a shaky breath that was cold enough to be visible in the air.

There is most definitely something wrong with his magic. He must have tried to make a snowball but it turned into a block of true ice. We have to get out of here quick before he gets worse!

“Move” Annie commanded the man, standing her ground. She let the flame get as large as they could without burning Nunu. 

The man looked at her in shock at first, but his features soon turned into that of joy and excitement.

“Ha! I can’t believe it! I came out here following half-assed rumors expecting to find nothing only to find exactly what I was looking for!” The man cheered, his arms open in ecstasy.

Annie’s eyes widened in confusion before she focused back on the goal.

She threw a fireball at the man. Annie braised herself to run when the man dodged, but the man stood his ground. If he decided to stand there and get burned like a stubborn idiot then it made no difference to her. It would still give a window for Nunu to run. 

The man slash his spear against the fireball. The runes on the spear glowed as wind bursted from the spear dispersing the flames. The man stood still looking at Annie.

“You have good instincts. The few that say they’ve seen you describe you as a hell beast disguised as a child but I see much more than that. You must understand that I’m here to help you.” The man explained. 

“If you wanted to help, then you would have moved and let us go.” Annie growled at the man. Nunu still stood silently behind her.

“But don’t you want to know more about Amoline?” 

Just like that, Annie’s flames extinguished entirely. The man smirked at the absolute shock on the girl's face. Her grip on Nunu’s hand somehow getting tighter.

“How do you know my mom?” She gritted her teeth, still trying her best to look intimidating. 

“I helped her with her magic back at the school I run. I chased rumors of a child holding the same power she did running rampant in the woods. I am here to take you in and help train your magic like I did for your mother. I’ll even let your friend come with”

“No, we need to get back to N— our parents. We can’t go with you.”

“Hmm,” the man said, walking to the side of the girl. Annie made sure she was between him and Nunu the whole time. The man's attention was instead on the igloo camp as he turned slightly to talk to her.

“What it looks like to me is that your ‘parents’ aren’t from here are they?”

“…”

“As you figured I didn’t come alone because I joined a patrol of Noxian soldiers. I came to investigate rumors on you but these soldiers were sent here to investigate Freljordian invaders”

“So, it would be smarter to come with me now and I can turn a blind eye to the boy’s origin, but if you go running back to your parents and are found later…well, I can’t promise you anything.”

Annie took a look around looking for a possible exit. The Noxian soldiers were loitering around the area. Some watched closely while others just looked bored or disinterested. 

There’s no way I can take all of them alone like this and keep Nunu safe. They have enchanted weapons that can just blow my fire away! And Nunu can’t fight, not in the condition he’s in and I’m not sure Tibber will be enough for us to escape. Maybe I can stall to give Willump time to—

“We’ll go with y-you” Nunu stuttered to the man, making the decision for them.

“Wait, what about—”

“T-trust me, Willump and Gnar will be fine. I trust them. We need to focus on guaranteeing our safety. We can’t let them find out who our ‘parents’ really are. Going with them is the best option to protect all of us.” Nunu whispered in her ear.

Annie deflated as she nodded her head. She turned to the man who stood patiently next to them. 

“Fine, we will go with you.” Annie said to the man.

“Excellent, I see you also have your mothers intelligence. Come now I’ll take you back to our camp. Hope you like bread and boar broth stew.” The man walked forward, Annie and Nunu followed behind. Three more Noxians followed behind them while the rest dispersed. Within the woods they heard Noxian men shouting at each other but they soon were too far away to hear much more than that.

Please don’t let them find Willump and Gnar!

“Ah, I knew I was forgetting something. I have yet to ask for your names. Believe me when I say I’m not usually this disrespectful.” The man said, looking back at the children.

“Annie Hastur” 

“I’m just Nunu”

“Names Flynn Retrick, but you will refer to me as Master Flynn”

~❄️❄️❄️~

Chapter Text

~❄️❄️❄️~

The thundering of his paw steps and the roaring of blood in his ears was almost all the yeti could hear as he sprinted towards camp on all six of his limbs. The crushing of grass, snapping of twigs, and the harsh hiss of the underbrush against his fur. 

A tug on atop his head helped filter the roar in his ear as he was reminded of the yordle desperately holding onto him.

“Go go goo!” Gnar babbled over and over. Hints of his original language started to spill from his mouth mixed with the common Nunu and Annie slowly tried to teach him. 

Past all the noise he was currently hearing, Willump made out the shouts of the men that sent him running in the first place.

Just the thought of them brought about a rush of anger and fear. The frustration pushes him to move faster, to ignore his exhaustion from running on an empty stomach.

~~~

Willump and Gnar had made it some distance away from camp. It was supposed to be a simple hunt, one that should be much easier than any hunt done in Freljord.

The Noxian forest was lush and full of life. It would be easy to find game and there were even various veggies and fruits to choose from.

Though, if they were both being honest, they would rather go hungry before resorting to veggies over meat.

Gnar split up from Willump to check an area with dense foliage, an area where Willump would struggle to get through without getting his fur caught in every bramble. 

Willump, on the other hand, went to where the trees opened up more. He smelled the fresh air and twitched his ear, hoping to pick up any trace of possible game.

There!

Close to the wood line in a small clearing was a single buck. His antlers were small and he looked young. The perfect game to bring back to camp.

The buck was unaware it was being watched, mindlessly grazing on the endless grass. Its ear flicked every once in a while, its guard completely down.

Willump knew he stuck out like a sore thumb. His white and blue fur gave no cover with all the greens and browns of the forest. Not to mention his large size made it difficult to traverse without announcing his presents with every step.

The fact he wasn’t already spotted was a merrical, but he wasn’t one to look a gifted horse in the mouth.

Not wanting to ruin his chance, Willump tapped into his magic. He imagined a clear path that moved closer to the deer. He even altered the fur on his paws to be thicker and fluffier to muffle the sound of his paw steps. 

He thought about helping Nunu further his ability with magic by teaching him how to alter things other than snow with the world rune. 

He hadn’t before now since the stronger the ability used, the stronger the influence the world rune had on the individual’s emotions and actions. 

He trusted that Nunu was the right one to wield its power, but no one was infallible. He doesn’t want to rush the boys progress when he isn’t ready to control its influence.

Close enough to the oblivious deer, Willump sent a trail of frost through the grass. The frost touched the deer, startling it but by then it was already too late.

The deer's hoof froze to the ground as thick ice climbed up the deer's leg. 

Just like that, the deer was caught!

Willump chuckled at himself in satisfaction. Regardless of Gnar finding anything, they would be eating well tonight. He peeked out of his cover, ready to finish the deer off.

Willump’s ear twitched suddenly, hearing a quiet high pitched ‘wiz’ in the air. The deer let out a short yelp in pain as an arrow pierced its heart.

Its legs shaked as it slowly lowered itself to the ground. Its rapid breaths slowed till it was still. 

The deer dying isn’t what bothered Willump though but the arrow. 

The arrow itself was all black but shiny. Frost bite surrounded the puncher wound, slowly spreading farther on the flesh of the deer. That’s when the familiarity struck Willump.

The arrow looked like the black ice that covered the ice troll from before.

A loud thunk sounded next to Willump as an arrow landed right next to his head. He jumped backwards as he watched several men charge out of the forest line across the clearing.

They had the same black ice armor as the ice troll and bore the insignia that Willump wished he’d never see again.

He had just ran into a Frost Guard ambush.

~~~

He knew he shouldn’t have trusted that dark ice frost troll they came across. He should have chased it off instead of humoring Nunu in his attempt to befriend it. 

That husk of a troll was some sort of scout with only one order in mind. 

To find them

“Get that yeti and find that boy!” A distant shout echoed from behind.

Willump knew it was that frost troll who led the Frost Guards to them and now he was leading them to Nunu. 

He needed to lead them the wrong direction and somehow lose them so he could circle back to Nunu and Annie and get them as far away as possible.

Willump heard more men yelling as he continued sprinting forward through the forest, but something was off.

He heard men behind him, but also heard men in front of him. Not only that but there was torch light in the distance.

Taking the risk, Willump charged forward towards the torch light. If the torch lights belonged to who he thinks they did, then it would make the perfect distraction. 

Breaking through the tree line, he was greeted with the sight of a small group of Noxian soldiers. Perfect

Willump skidded to a stop once the soldiers noticed him. The soldiers at first just stared at him in surprise. The majority of soldiers surrounded a large body with spears sticking out of its back.

The black ice made it obvious that the fallen creature was the frost troll that had been stalking them before.

One of the Noxians yelled as the other men jumped to action. The men lifted their weapons and started to approach the yeti. 

He needed to stall until the Frost Guard arrived and somehow avoid getting caught in the battle all the while. 

So Willump stood his ground and stared at the men approaching him. The men started to run at him. Gnar pulled at his fur in fear, not knowing why the yeti was holding still.

He puffed up his chest, stood as tall as he could and—

put his paws up in the air in surrender

This is the most suicidal idea I’ve ever come up with 

To the yeti’s surprise, the Noxians actually stopped running at him. They seemed to all look around at each other before one of them started laughing. 

Then, they all started laughing 

Willump awkwardly joined in on the laughter and Gnar even joined in, though the yordle sounded much more cheerful than the yeti, seemingly not fully understanding the context of the situation.

The laughing didn’t last long as shouts coming from behind the yeti caused the men to pause. Willump quickly jumped to the left, already knowing what was coming and preparing to make a run for it.

Willump let out a startled yelp as a sharp pain jolted through his side. He staggered a little bit from the pain, taking a second to look behind him. 

His improvised and frankly dumb plan actually worked. The Frost Guard could no longer focus on the yeti with the Noxian now hell-bent on killing the invading Freljordians.

It sucks that he still got hit, but he can worry about himself after he makes sure Nunu and Annie are okay.

With a slight shake in his paws, he continued forward with a hasty but cautious paste. Gnar kept watch behind him checking to make sure they weren't being followed at  Willumps request.

The yeti’s concern for his two kids only grew worse as more Noxinas rushed from the direction of their camp to battle the Frost Guards. In his head he prayed to every god he knew of that the Noxians didn't get to them before they had.

What left like hours but was probably minutes, he finally made it back to the ruins of Annie's old home and where they made their little camp. The clearing was empty and almost completely silent.

He didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing though.

Willump booked it towards the camp. Gnar jumping off his head ran in front of him making it to the igloo entrance. 

The yordle entered the igloo in a hurry shouting “Noonu! Ana!”

Willump heart sored with hope with Gnar’s excited yell. Yet, as he looked into the igloo, all he saw was Gnar looking under their things repeating Nunu and Annie’s names like they’d appear out of the blue.

Willump swore he heard his heart shatter when seeing both the kids gone. 

No, they're just missing, not gone. 

Willump looked around the outside of the igloo entrance. He notices the various footsteps outside ranging from the tiny tracks of Gnar, Annie, and Nunu to bigger steps left by adult men, himself, and even the Frost Troll.

That when, above the smell of smoke, the stench of cold iron hit him coming from the side of the igloo. 

Peering to the side of camp, a black puddle with chunks of ice met his gaze. The black liquid gave a stench of old and dead blood. The ice wasn't just ice but instead frozen flesh and bone shattered on the ground. The grass both had frost and scorch marks.

The more the yeti looked the worse the scene in his head became. The blood definitely belonged to the Frost Troll and luckily he saw no signs of Annie and Nunu’s blood. What worried him the most was the ice chunks that were scattered across the ground. He immediately knew that the ice was made from Nunu’s magic, as he possessed the same magic himself and could recognize its presence anywhere.

He knows that Nunu will sometimes use ice offensive given the situation like the one where he staggered the giant krug to help Gnar, but he tends to only use snow since it caused less harm to others. He has been especially avoiding the use of ice for offense after an incident with a troll he unintentionally injured during his escape.

~

“The snow I created turned into ice. I even accidentally stabbed a troll through the hand when he refused to let go of my arm.”

“I-I just don't want to accidentally hurt any of you guys with my magic too…”

~

Whatever that frost troll did while we were away somehow stressed Nunu enough to completely freeze his arm. Did the frost troll accidentally shatter its own arm after it got frozen?

Willump shook his head, he could ask a question later. Right now he needs to find Nunu and Annie. They couldn't have gotten far.

Willump got Gnar’s attention from his fruitless search for Annie and Nunu in the igloo and asked the yordle to try and pick up any trace of their scent. He trusted Gnar to possibly get a trace of their scent even above all the other smells knowing that the yordle had a stronger sense of smell than himself. 

Willump released some of his magic from himself hoping it would flow towards its origins which would lead them to Nunu. The magic flow hovered towards the opposite tree line deeper into Noxian territory. 

With a better idea at what direction they went towards, Gnar was able to pick up a scent and lead the way through the woods. 

Hang in there Nunu and Annie, we’re on the way!

~❄️❄️❄️~

It was pitch dark out as Willump and Gnar continued to follow a seemingly endless chase to find Nunu and Annie. The hope had been to find them somewhere in the forest away from the Noxians, but that hope quickly diminished as Gnar smelled several unknown scents following the two children. 

It was unclear if they were being chased or were already captured. The good news was they had yet to find any sign struggling so regardless of if they were being chased or were captured, they were at the very least unharmed.

Gnar still led the way through the dark. The forest was quiet yet loud, filled with the unfamiliar sounds of the Noxian wildlife. The yordle’s pace was hasty, but he was forced to make speradict pauses to let Willump catch up. The dense forest was always difficult for the large yeti to traverse, but with the added wound on his side and the overall exhaustion, it made it difficult to keep a speedy pace.

Hunger gnawed in his stomach. Without food, Willump couldn't speed up the healing process for the slash on his side. But still, the yeti refused to stop until he found Nunu and Annie. They can stop and eat when they have no other choice. 

A loud crunch broke through the background noise of the forest. Both Gnar and Willump had their ears perked from the sudden noise. The noise had to have come from something at least as large as a deer. Willump could only hope that whatever made the noise was more afraid of them then they are of it. 

The yeti’s paranoia only grew as the forest grew quieter than before. Not wanting to give away their position, Willump told Gnar to make his way back towards him. The yordle quickly scampered towards the yeti as they both scanned the area that the noise originated from. 

Listening closely, Willump could make out slow, but quiet footsteps on the forest floor. The creature out there was not only moving closer, but it also seemed to know that they were on guard and knew of its presents. 

The footsteps finally came to a stop, but Willump still couldn't see who or what was approaching them. The pace of the footsteps seem to come from something bipedal, so possibly human, but it could just as easily be a creature unknown to the yeti. They were in unknown Noxian territory, so anything could happen.

It also meant that there was no way of knowing if the creature could understand his tongue and if it were human, it would be up to Gnar to try and communicate which was a challenge in itself as the yordle is still learning common.

All this assuming whatever was watching them would even be interested in hearing them out. It is Noxian land after all

Taking a chance, Willlump decided to speak up first.

“You can stop trying to hide from us, we know that you’re there.” Willump grumbled into the dark forest.

His voice seemed to echo through the woods. He waited a moment for a response before giving Gnar a shot at trying to talk.

The yordle didn't even get a chance to speak a word as what looked like a black piece of metal armor came flying out of the dark and slammed against Willump’s head. The yeti let out a started roar as more metal seemed to fly towards them from the forest. 

With magic thrumming through his body, he swiped at the metal pieces with glowing claws sending sparks in the air as he slammed the armor pieces to the ground. The metal armor pieces that he missed would always end up pushing against his body with immense force.

He never got a chance to pry the metal pieces of his body before the fallen pieces of armor he swiped out of the air rose and flew at him once again. 

Gnar helped Willump by trying to pry any metal pieces off the yeti with his boomerang, but the metal pieces were pushing against the yeti much too strongly for the yordle to do much to help. 

Willump let out a sharp cry as one of the armor pieces slammed onto the wound on his side. The pain proned the yeti as the other armor pieces forced him to the ground.

Willump tried to pick himself up from the ground only to find himself stuck because of the random metal armor pieces. In a last ditch attempt, Willump froze every piece of armor pinning him to the forest ground. Spiky ice grew from the black metal, but the force still remained. With a roar, Willump shattered the ice on the metal as wisps of blue mist flowed into the air.

Yet despite all that, the black armor remained untouched and unwavering in its force. 

Willump could hear Gnar banging his boomerang against the metal. He lifted his head and looked where the yordle was by his side. Gnar’s tail was pinned by what looked like a metal shoulder plate. 

Gnar was growing more and more frustrated as he slammed his boomerang against the metal. His fur was growing darker with each swing.

Willump smiled as he knew that the yordle was close to snapping into his giant form. The metal was unaffected by magic but Gnars brute strength should be enough to fight back against the magicmetal.

“You know, bashing your stick against the metal over and over again isn't going to do anything right?” a voice said from the forest.

Gnar’s onslaught against the metal stopped as both the yordle and the yeti looked up to where the voice came from. 

“If anything, it kinda annoying. So you should just, you know, stop.”

The voice was female and relatively young sounding. The girl finally moved into eyesight from the forest line.

The most noticeable part of her was her hair. It looked like the sun and stuck out against her dark skin and amber eyes. She wore heavy metal armor with pieces of it noticeably missing. She held a large metal lance that was bigger than she was. Regardless of who this lady was, she is definitely someone who is strong. 

“Huh, you guys stopped struggling. Maybe you’re both not mindless beasts after all.” the girl said.

Willump huffed at the girl calling her a beast. It wasn't something that he wasn't used to by any means. If anything, it bothered Nunu more than it ever bothered him. He could already hear what the boy would say to the woman.

Something like “Willump’s not a monster, he’s my best friend!” Willump giggled to himself. Yeah, that definitely is something he would say.

“Guess the big blue one has a sense of humor.” she commented with a hint of boredom. She walked forward to the side of the yeti and held her lance to the yeti’s neck. 

“Since you can understand me, this will be much easier.” she poked Willump’s neck threateningly, the yeti growling at the girl in retort. 

“So why are you following me?”

“Wat?” Gnar responded in confusion. Willump stopped his growling as he tilted his head in confusion. A flash of confusion flashed in the girl's eyes at their response, but it was quickly replaced by frustration. 

“Don’t tell me that you’re after the Noxian patrol led by that Ravenbloom scum with the two children–” Willump perked his ears with his eyes widening.

“Noonu and Ana!” Gnar yelled happily.

“And of course you are,” the girl pinched her nose. “I can never pull off a raid without some annoying bumps in the road.”

The force from the metal pushing Willump to the ground lightened. “Don’t try anything stupid or this lance is going right through your throat.” She threatened. Willump slowly stood up as the metal pieces lifted from him. As he stood he noticed that the girl was rising from the ground as the metal hovered underneath her. The metal pieces formed a horse that the girl was now saddled on. He was still taller than the horse but the girl was now able to look at him at eye level with the lance still pointing at him. 

“I don’t know what your deal is with this Noxian patrol or the two kids you're interested in, but you need to stay out of my way.” the girl demanded.

Willump furrowed his brows at the girl. No matter how strong she was, there was no way he was going to let her stop them from getting Nunu and Annie back. He shook his head in response.

“We are not leaving.” Willump growled. The girl, not understanding the yeti, took his growls as some sort of challenge.

“If you don’t leave, then I’ll make you.” 

Both took a defensive stance ready for the other to attack. The tension only lasted for a few seconds as a loud banging noise of metal came from below them. 

“No no!” Gnar stomped his foot angrily, banging his boomerang against the metal hoove of the horse. His fur was now a dark shade or red from the building frustration.

“Want Ana and Noonu! Stop fight! Trilenga shershia! Gnar!” 

The girl’s resolve seemed to falter as she watched the yordle throw a tiny tantrum at losing two of his friends. She still pointed the lance at Willump, but Gnar seemed to have her attention with her only somewhat being able to understand what he was ranting about. 

“If it's those two kids you want back, then listening to me is their best shot at ever seeing you again. I’m going after the school that they plan on taking them too and I can't have you blowing my cover. It's more than just the two’s lives on the line.” she explained.

“Come wif” 

“No, I work alone”

“We come width!”

“No, are you dense or something? You’re not coming with me.”

Gnar was now growling unintelligible nonsense as his fur began to glow. Willump made sure to stand clear knowing what was about to happen. The girl quickly followed suit with her metal horse stumbling away from the yordle.

“We come WITH!” 

Gnar exploded into his mega with a loud roar. The girl’s metal horse staggered farther away from the hulking beast. Her eyes were wide and her mouth agape in shock at the once tiny yordle turning into a giant creature right before her. Willump simply smirked at the girl’s bafflement as he stood off to the side. 

Gnar roared loudly, slamming one of his fists in the ground creating a small crater. The tantrum echoed through the forest, shaking the earth with each slam.

“Holy shit! Okay fine, you can come with me! Just stop making so much damn noise before we catch more unwanted attention!” The girl plead to the yordle.

“With?” Gnar grumbled. He instantly calmed down, choosing to sit in place surrounded by craters created from his own fists. 

“Sure” The girl responded, the annoyance in her voice wasn't unnoticed from Willump as he chuckled at her predicament. She shot the yeti a harsh glance, but resigned to her fate of being forced to work with not one, but two Freljordian beasts.

Gnar stuck his tongue out in a happy pant right before shrinking down with a burst of white light. The now sleepy, but happy yordle sat on the ground with his boomerang held in his mouth and tail wagging.

The girl let out a sigh before taking a deep breath, seeming to take a second to collect her thoughts.

“Alright, I can work with this.” she said before suddenly pointing to Gnar.

“You, give me your name.”

“Gnar!”

“Great, okay your name antlers” she stated pointing to Willump.

Willump responded with the name Nunu gave him only for it to come out as grumps and grunts that he knew the girl wouldn’t understand.

“Yup, no clue what you just said so you will be called Antlers until further notice. The names Rell and you will be listening to every instruction I give you in order to save the kids from that damned school. You two seem like you can hold your own but just know I will not hesitate to leave you behind if it's for the betterment of destroying the school and saving the students. We clear on that?” 

Willump nodded and Gnar did nothing as he fell asleep during her explanation.

“Good enough. Now, let's go kick some Noxian ass.”

~❄️❄️❄️~