Baron's White Christmas
Walter had selected a location at random from the list. Now that he was there, through magic shenanigans, he realized that it might not exactly have been the easiest of deliveries to pick.
Baron Nashor, Summoner's Rift
Baron Nashor is the big bad villain employed in the league of legends. He himself doesn't pose a problem to us, and we don't mind him detecting us. Any heroic passerby will be a problem though, and the high likelihood of a teamfight doesn't make it better either.
The instructions had come with a postcard of a lush, green area with a treacherous river and dangerous beasts lurking. However, the landscape Walter was currently looking down upon was covered in snow, waters frozen over and beasts likely to have hibernated. Or so he'd like to hope. Else he'd simply have to convince the poor animals that they should leave him be! No problem.
Ronald really didn't know what he was getting himself into. He had dreamed of exploring the human world for ages, but he didn't expect to end up in an arena for blood sports. Especially not while wearing a teal robe and a wizards hat. He had taken out, and not in the murdery kill way, but in the distract him and take his place way, one of the little dudes before he was able to dress up. He was now indistinguishable from the others he walked around with. His little staff with a blue crystal at the end of it was still a mystery to him. The other two wizard hatted guys in this group had the same wands, but he didn't know if they were just for aesthethics or if they actually had a purpose. It did look cool, though, he would definitely take it home with him.
The guys around him were dead silent, and didn't speak at all. Which Ronald liked because while he probably did speak minion, or English, or what ever language they'd speak, his voice would be a dead give away. The North Pole accent was a very distinct one.
A creaking sound was heard, and a door opened. The guys around him quickly started moving, in what seemed to be a set formation. Ronald was second in line, but he quickly got poked in the back by the guy behind him. He seemed to have a different dress, and a melee weapon. He agitatedly signaled to Ronald that he should move back, and the penguin quickly did. As he took place at the complete back of the lign, he sighed. With such strong sense of formation, he didn't really get the chance to explore, did he?
On the other far end of the map, similarly dressed up creatures in red started to march down the streets of what Walter assumed to be some kind of base camp. There weren't really any places to sleep though, not even much shelter over your head unless you were tiny like those robed creatures and could fit into the towers that stood guard over the base here and there.
He looked down at his instructions again. This "Baron" was apparently living somewhere close to the center of this winterland. Which would mean heading out into that forest and tracking him down. No problem! Walter had trekking through rough landscapes and faced fearsome foes before. Hoping that the Baron's home wasn't too far off, he snuck out from the strangely empty base together with the robed figures but as they continued marching down a wide road, Walter instead ducked into the forest.
The snow deep in places, but it was still cold enough in the air for him to not get warm simply from trudging through it. When he had been going for a while, he started hearing suspicious noises ahead. Perhaps she should be more sneaky - if there was company in the forest, he wouldn't want them to notice him before the Baron did. Or at all, for that matter! Secret Santa duty.
Ronald had marched past three towers that seemed to be turrets at this point. He now stood at a point where the path split into two, either straight ahead or taking a corner into a frozen river. The road ahead mirrored the one he had just come from it seemed, and he knew that this Baron was at the middle somewhere. He decided to take off into the river. Behind him he heard a multitude of voices yelling at him.
"What is he doing?" he heard, at a very high pitch. "Minion off-track, minion off-track! Someone get him!"
Ronald tried to ignore them, and just glid over the ice. A glance at the left revealed a big dragon to him. A dragon could be a Baron, right? He quickly took a turn, and slid up to the dragon. He stood up, took off his wizard's hat and grabbed a small present out of it.
"Well, am I allowed to assume that you're Baron? If you could guide me to your christmas tree, that wou-" a fireball hit Ronald straight in the face. His costume caught on fire, and he didn't even get the chance to defend himself. He just fall over, and it went dark for his eyes. When the darkness disappeared he was in the same room he had started in earlier again, only his robe seemed to have changed from blue to purple.
"Okay, I don't think I'm fully comprehending the situation," he thought to himself.
Meanwhile, Walter had reached the other end of the river. There was an area among the cliffs on the opposite side that was suspiciously reminiscent of a place for a cool, magical, super strong creature to hang out. A good place to check out!
The post-apocalyptic warrior jumped down into the water below but had only taken one step before a loud warcry hit him. Turning his head, he noticed a huge man coming towards him, sword swinging. Another warcry, or screech perhaps, was heard and Walter noticed someone running through the waters from the other direction too. This person, however, was a tiny furry creature with a hat and goggles.
Quickly adding 1+1, Walter jumped back into some tall reeds by the beach behind him. His conclusion seemed to be right, because if the oncoming warriors had noticed him, they didn't care. Instead the man with the sword swung it as he approached the smaller creature, who tried to get a shot in at its opponent with some kind of blowdarts. Walter watched them for a while, battling it out merely a few meters in front of him, while he tried to figure out how he should escape the scene unseen. After all, Santa's elves had said for him to not be seen by anybody other than possibly the Baron himself...
From a distance, Ronald could see the same fight happening. They seemed to completely ignore him and his minion squadron while they were engaged in battle with a group of blue dressed minions. He tried to sneak out and slide over the ice towards the fight. He could see a big monsterous creature rise up above the cliffs, and recognized what seemed to be a lonesome christmas tree on the clif next to it. That monster must be Baron, Ronald thought.
"Oh, no, you're kidding, right, again?" one of the blue minions yelled out.
"I'll call it in," a purple answered, while he shot what seemed to be just pure magic from his wand. "Man, these new hires don't know what they're doing."
"Get back in line!" one of the minions yelled towards Ronald, who blissfully ignored them. It wasn't like he would be out of a job if he didn't return. The fuzzy creature Ronald had spotted from the distance earlier was awfully close now. He was around Ronald's size, and seemed to shoot blowdarts towards the sworded warrior. Without any warning, the fuzzball turned around and shot at Ronald, who quickly dodged out of the way, and started running in circles, until he found his way into the bushes, where he bumped up against a rugged, well built man.
Automatically, Walter drew his switchblades and jumped up. Unfortunately, he had still not quite learned that one of the daggers wasn't for stabbing anymore. The magical blade touched a straw of reed and in the blink of an eye, the man was completely gone from sight.
Ronald was utterly confused as to what happened. Just coming up to the man made him disappear. It seemed that confusion was the best word to describe this whole mission with. Ronald didn't have time to asses his next move properly, as he had to dodge out of the way for more blowdarts that followed him.
The grass straw which was now Walter wiggled, also confused, before it decided to break out from the ground and dodge an incoming blowdart as well. He couldn't quite communicate with the minion in this form but - hey, was that a penguin? Sure, they were in some kind of winterland, but he hadn't seen any beaks on the other minions marching out from the base. In any case, the robed penguin seemed to want to hide from the fighting man and creature just as much as himself, so Walter made a quick decision.
He jumped out from the straw form, probably surprising the penguin and the fighters once again. He quickly stomped a hole in the ice surrounding the reeds, grabbed the penguin by the arm and pushed him down into the cold water at the same time as he dipped the edge of his magic switchblade into the liquid. The next second, the man was gone again. Walter was now one with the river, which was a very odd sensation. To be smeared out over a large distance, to not quite have a proper shape, and to be composed of a lot of disconnected molecules. It was a marvel he could form thoughts at all. Perhaps there was such a thing as a soul, after all?
No time for philosophy now, though. The penguin was gasping for air inside of Walter (again, a truly odd sensation) so the post-apocalyptic warrior exerted what force he could to swiftly push the bird towards another hole in the ice, further away. Hopefully they would have escaped the fighters here.
Ronald was pushed up through the other hole, which seemed to be across the river near some other patch of reeds. Following him was Walter, diving up into human shape again. He immediately sheathed the magic switchblade.
"Enough from you for a while," he muttered to it. "Are you alright?" he then asked the robed bird on the ground.
Ronald coughed out water. Normally he would be totally fine when swimming underwater, because penguins swim, that's their whole thing. Giving a penguin the time to breath would be more proper etiquette though.
"I am fine, although I do appreciate you asking," Ronald said, "Now, please continue your doings and forget about me, while I take off."
"Hang on there," Walter said and grabbed the little bird's shoulder before he could skedaddle off. "You don't happen to know where the, um, the Baron lives, do you?"
"I happen to be going in that direction, I suspect, although I do not know for sure. But you're free to follow me. Just, ehm, make sure you really do forget about me when we're done okay." Ronald sighed. He had been seen, and a talking penguin like him was sure to leave an impression. Slowly he started to make plans as how to silence this person if he saw him delivering the actual presents.
"Ah, yes of course!" Walter laughed heartily. "And you will probably forget about me too, as soon as we're there, right? But lead the way then! And once we're there, we'll forget. As I said." He scratched the back of his head. Oops, why did he have to save that penguin from the fighters? He wasn't supposed to be seen! He'd just have to deal with it somehow.
"Because you ask so nicely. I guess one could say we have arrived now," the penguin said, and he bowed towards Walter. When he looked up again, he had a look of utter confusion on his face. "Oh my, it looks like I've been comprimised. Please turn the other way and forget about, if you would so kindly." He put one leg up, and did a fantastical spin on the other, and started marching towards the cliffs again. He reached the outer side of the reeds, and slid on his belly between the fuzzy creature, sworded warrior, and a blue trident wielding fish thing that had now joined the brawl.
"Wait-" Walter called out, but the penguin was gone before the word had even ended. "Did you just... Forget me? I said when we're there..."
He looked around, struck by a realization. "We're here? Where?"
Not wanting to go back to the fight (did none of them ever die or run away?), Walter instead started climbing the cliffs until he was at their top. No match for a well conditioned male! Something glimmered in the corner of his eye. Was that a Christmas tree? Standing lonely on a cliff just a little bit further ahead?
But there was also something more. A huge monstrous demon who was now rising up from the ominous area Walter had spotted earlier. The one where he thought this Baron person would likely hang out in. So... That must be the Baron's Christmas tree. Now, how do get the presents there without getting detected by the giant snake like monster hovering over it?
Yep. Poor Walter grew up after computers and computer games were already dead and gone with the apocalypse. Keep playing your games, kids, and stay tuned for the next part of Ronald & Walter @ Summoner's Rift...
![[PokeCommunity.com] The RPT Secret Santa! [Event][Icy]](https://i.imgur.com/a6SUHlo.png "[PokeCommunity.com] The RPT Secret Santa! [Event][Icy]")
