Lamb absentmindedly adjusted her mask as she sat on the bough of a tree, legs swinging idly. Blank white eyeholes gazed down at the pair of children sparring in the field below, no indication of the thoughts that lay behind the wooden façade.

Hearing the scrape of wood next to her, she turned her head to see Naruto standing on the branch next to her. Lamb tilted her head – she was currently between him and the trunk of the tree, so either he had somehow snuck past her on the thin branch without her noticing, or he had managed to get to his current position without using the trunk. A second later, she put the thought from her mind – she had been around the human long enough to know that he was more than capable of doing such things and trying to figure out exactly how or why he did things was nothing more than an invitation to a headache.

"May I?" he asked.

Lamb shrugged agreeably.

"Since when did you need an invitation?" she asked with a trace of humour, "It's not like you'd leave even if I said no."

"That's right," grinned Naruto ruffling her hair, which she half-heartedly batted away.

He plopped down next to her.

Lamb eyed the unpredictable human warily, but when he didn't say anything - instead opting to also watch the twins practicing their hand-to-hand skills under the watchful eye of a clone - she turned to do the same.

"…must be hard," Naruto said presently, causing Lamb to turn her head to him.

"Living so long, and not even being able to talk to anyone without hurting them. Lonely."

"We have each other," replied Lamb sombrely, "I have Wolf, and Wolf has me. That is how it is, that is how it has always been, that is how it will always be."

Naruto was quiet for a moment.

"…okay," he agreed softly.

"There is no need for anyone else," continued Lamb, a sudden urge to justify herself in the silence, "We are Death. Death stands alone."

"You don't have to," said Naruto gently.

"You saw what happens!" snapped Lamb, a rare flash of actual heat entering her voice, "No one can bear our very presence, save the mightiest of beings or Runeterra's chosen Champions!"

"Or me. I can be here with you."

Lamb's eyes searched his face, and for once, saw no playful grin, no trace of mockery or humour. He was serious.

"For how long?" she asked wearily, "For sixty years? A hundred? Two hundred? All of that is nothing but a grain of sand in the eyes of Kindred."

"And does that mean it doesn't matter?" Naruto's eyes gleamed passionately as he grabbed her hand in both of his, "Is my presence just a passing memory that you will forget as time goes on? What about Nell and Pell? Aren't you as invested as me in seeing them grow, seeing them thrive?"

"I-I…" Lamb's words caught in her throat.

For once, her heart was in turmoil. Everything she knew, everything she believed in, teetered on a precipice. To let someone in, or to continue on the Eternal Hunters' solitary road.

"Even if it is only for fifty or a hundred years," continued Naruto, "Don't you think it's worth it? To share your life with someone, to have someone to talk to, to laugh with?"

"It seems most of the laughing comes from you and Wolf at my expense," interjected Lamb weakly.

Naruto waved it off with a wry smile.

"You're too fun to tease," he acknowledged.

Lamb felt a small smile grow underneath her mask, finally being back on familiar light-hearted territory. The human being serious and heartfelt was something she wasn't used to at all, and he was asking questions she had never considered, questions that made her think hard about her existence, and about the way of life she had lived for millennia.

"Like I said before," she said lightly, "It doesn't matter what I say, does it? You'd still annoy me your whole insignificant life even if I said no, wouldn't you?"

Lamb felt such a surge of gratification at the surprised look on Naruto's face that she didn't even object as he grinned widely and ruffled her hair again.

"You got it! And hey, I've lived through a few millennia before, who says I won't live through a couple more?"

"Oh spare me," said Lamb in mock horror, swearing to herself that the warm glow in her chest and wide smile on her face was simply a product of her imagination.

Evelynn exhaled deeply and turned over, pulling the thin cotton sheet to cover her shoulder as she tried in vain to get comfortable.

Despite her best efforts, she just couldn't seem to settle down.

The faint chirping of night-dwelling critters seemed inordinately loud, and the blades of grass upon which she had made her bed, although soft, were tickling her waist through her nightgown in a most annoying way.

And most of all…

Evelynn allowed her eyes to slowly travel over to the slumbering figure sitting with his back to a tree at the edge of the clearing, illuminated only barely by the dim glow of the embers from the fire around which they had eaten their dinner.

She couldn't lie to herself.

She knew the reason why she couldn't sleep.

She could feel the emotions bubbling under her skin, even as she washed the dishes from dinner, watching the sky slowly darken as the sun slipped below the horizon. With the gloom settling around them and everyone getting ready for bed, Evelynn could feel the excitement growing with impatient expectation, like a caged lion pacing as it watched its food being prepared.

She had picked her sleeping place carefully, purposely choosing to be a fair distance away from the children, but fairly close to where he decided to sleep.

Close enough to see his face by the dying light of the coals.

Far away that he wouldn't be able to notice what she was doing.

The wait was torture, of course.

It was easy to tell when the twins fell asleep – Pell tended to snore softly, and it was clearly audible even from across the clearing where Evelynn was. And she knew that when Pell fell asleep, Nell was sure to already be – she was a fair bit smaller than her brother, after all, and tended to conk out almost instantly after a long day of training, chores and travelling.

He was harder to judge, as he invariably slept soundlessly in that uncomfortable looking position against a tree trunk. Evelynn could only wait and watch until she felt like an appropriate amount of time had passed, watching his motionless body like a hawk. If not for the barest motion of his chest rising and falling, she could have mistaken him for a corpse.

But eventually her impatience got the better of her, and she decided to just throw caution to the wind and go for it.

She couldn't wait any longer.

She needed it.

She couldn't forget it. The feeling from the previous night, running through her like liquid fire in her veins.

She had felt alive.

Had felt like a shadow of herself again.

That electrifying feeling… the enrapturing climb, that euphoric peak, the blissful post-climax daze… in a single moment it had cut through the fog that had surrounded her for so long.

All of the doubts and questions and strange emotions clogging her head, all the uncertainty and darkness laden on her shoulder, in that moment, it disappeared.

Evelynn.

Pleasure and pain.

Just a taste of the former was enough to remind her of who she was.

But only for as long as that taste lasted.

She had spent a good portion of that night stretching that period of incredible clarity for as long as she could - riding wave after wave of pleasure until her fingers ached and her core throbbed with satisfied fulfilment. And with the end of her fun, so too did that mark the end of the feeling of addicting lucidity.

While under its spell, she felt powerful, irresistible - overflowing with confidence and desire, connected to the world in all the right ways. This was where she belonged. This is what she was meantto do, where she meantto be.

But as that glow slowly ebbed, the truth once again sank its loathsome tendrils into her.

She was nothing but an unremarkable human woman, who had just worn her fingers out masturbating, fantasising about a man who she could not even bear to name even in her thoughts.

And, Evelynn thought, biting her lip, for some reason, that doesn't feel so bad.

Her imagination sparked, conjuring a vision of him watching her as she masturbated wantonly, desperately.

Her thoughts leapt ceaselessly from possibility to possibility, each one more depraved than the last, and yet twice as arousing to her lust-addled mind.

Begging to kiss his feet as she grovelled on the ground, face in the dirt as he watched on imperiously.

Taking him in her mouth until her eyes watered, staring up at him as she knelt, fingers pumping in and out of her dripping sex.

Bound spreadeagle on a bed, covered in a sheen of sweat, edged for hours by skilled fingers, only for it to stop just short, her blessed release cruelly being kept from her despite her desperate pleading.

Permitted only to pleasuring herself as she watched him pull his hardness out of another woman, a scandalous desire arising inside her as she bent her head to attend to…

Evelynn's eyes flew openas she realised she was moaning audibly, her fingers already moving purposely between her drenched thighs. She eased herself up to cast around the cleaning, but Pell's snoring continued unabated, and more importantly, he did not stir.

She lowered herself down, and with her free hand, reached into her pack, searching for and pulling out the first item of clothing she could find.

Pressing the cloth into her mouth as a way to muffle any further sounds, Evelynn allowed herself to sink back into the inviting arms of her fantasies, of imagined lovers and very real pleasure.

Naruto forcibly tried to calm his breathing but found he could do nothing to still his racing heart. He closed his eyes, but the image of Evelynn's heaving body was firmly seared into his retinas.

He had predicted – or perhaps hoped that last night's events would repeat themselves, but when they did so, he found himself once again completely unprepared for the experience.

Mentally, he had come to terms with it – with the discussion earlier that day, he understood Evelynn's relationship with pleasures of the flesh, and her motivations and connection with it.

But understanding it and seeing it (not to mention hearing it) was an entirely different beast.

Driven with a perverse curiosity he didn't want to admit, he had sent a clone to 'sleep' in his place, while he hid himself from view behind a tree, conveniently placed so he could peek around the trunk and look into the clearing where everyone was sleeping.

And then he bided his time, watching, nerves taut as he waited for something - for anything. His blood thumped crazily in his ears as his imagination conjured up crazy delusions, even as his rational mind tried to temper his expectations – cautioning that nothing was going to happen, that he was being ridiculous and crazy, and not a little bit immoral.

As the moon crept higher and higher in the sky, each agonising minute seeming to drag on with its torturous uneventfulness, he gradually started to calm himself, slowly convincing himself that he had simply lost his head in his lust.

Then, out of the corner of his eye he saw Evelynn's hand move; heard her breathing quicken.

Naruto's mouth suddenly felt dry and he wet his lips absent-mindedly. He could already feel himself getting hard, straining against his belt. He gripped the tree trunk tightly, consciously reminding himself to blink.

Chakra thrummed in his veins - sharpening his vision, heightening his hearing, responding to a need that only grew the more he watched.

With how high his senses were dialled he could see with superhuman clarity every detail of the scene in front of him – even down to droplets of sweat sliding down flawless skin. And even more stimulating than that, he could hear Evelynn's muffled moans so well that they could be mistaken to be coming from right next to his ear, and that sweet forbidden facsimile of intimacy was almost too much for him to bear.

He sucked in a shameful breath, and with a half-conscious internal surrender, started to fumble with his belt.

However, this proved to be a more challenging task than he expected, what with him keeping his eyes and full attention on the scene in the clearing, while also not exactly having full ownership of his mental faculties at the moment.

Biting off a muffled curse, he tore his gaze away from Evelynn to unbuckle his pants with a desperate speed, finally allowing his hardness to spring free.

Sighing in relief, he looked up from his pants… only to come face-to-mask with a motionless Lamb.

Eyes wide, Naruto made to shriek, only for Lamb to dart forward with lightning speed and press up against him, covering his mouth with her hand.

"Shh!" she whispered, "What are you doing? She'll hear us!"

Naruto reached up and ripped her hand off his mouth, his other hand making a sweeping motion with two fingers to create a sound-suppressing wind barrier.

"What am I doing? What are you doing? Don't scare me like that!" he whispered back furiously.

"Well," bit back Lamb, "It's not my fault that someone was too caught up in watching that demon'sself-pleasure to notice me standing here!"

Naruto flushed a deep red but refused to take the verbal loss.

"What are you standing here for anyway?" he retorted, "Are you watching her 'self-pleasure' as well? Looks like you're as guilty as I am!"

Unfortunately for Naruto, Lamb's mask prevented him from seeing her expression, whether it be as embarrassed as he was or as indignant as she sounded. Normally she was very expressive with her body language and vocal intonation, but with the whole conversation being carried out in whispers despite the soundproof barrier and her being far too close to him for him to see her body, he couldn't really gauge her thoughts.

"So what if I am?" asked Lamb stoutly after a brief pause, "I told you I was curious about hu-human self-gratification. I was just trying to learn more… thr-through observation."

Naruto made a face and decided that with how undeniable his position in the situation seemed, it was the best strategy to just bite the bullet.

"Fine," he whispered back fiercely, "Yes, I was watching her… t-touch herself. I know its wrong, but it's so… so… you know. Ugh…can you really blame me? There's no way I can just sleep through that."

He jabbed a finger back at the clearing to emphasise his point.

"I'm no saint," he continued, "I'm just a guy. I've… I've only kissed one girl, and that only happened this year."

"Calm down, human," cut in Lamb, "I'm not one of you mortals. Matters such as k-kissing and… and self-pleasure are not within the domain of Death. I do not judge. I am merely curious."

Naruto took a breath to steady himself, Lamb's words reassuring him.

"Phew… okay, okay," he said, mostly to himself.

Then he felt Lamb's body shift against him a little and realised with a sense of horror that his pants were still around his ankles, and he was still rock hard. Furthermore, the little movement that Lamb had done had made him twitch.

…her fur was really soft.

Something about this situation felt strange and wrong, but the thoughts and feelings currently flooding his body made mere 'strange' nothing but an afterthought.

"Uh, Lamb?" he said with a wince.

"Yes, human?"

"Can you… uh… move off me please?"

"…you're still holding onto me," pointed out Lamb drily.

Naruto realised that this was indeed true and he was still holding onto her wrist from when he had pulled her hand off his mouth.

Almost like he had been stung, he released her wrist, almost throwing it away from him.

He got the impression that Lamb was smiling wryly as she nursed her wrist with one hand and stepped away from him.

However, that movement, brushing that damnably soft and springy fur against his throbbing cock, made him twitch again - very visibly.

The absence of a slender, warm body against his, of the feminine voice whispering close to him, made him realise with the subtlety of a thunderbolt that Lamb, too, was a girl.

He blushed a deep red and made to pull up his pants.

The whole situation was unbearably embarrassing, but also… somehow ridiculously arousing.

He needed to go.

He needed to sort out his thoughts, sort out his feelings.

It was bad enough that he was perving on Evelynn, knowing that he was a huge part of her identity crisis, of her worldview shattering, and the reason why she had been reduced to this shell of her normal self, but even Lamb too?

Sweet, naïve Lamb, who despite her years maintained an innocence that was so fun to poke at and tease?

Something was definitely wrong with him.

But as he reached for the hem of his trousers, inhuman fingers grasped his wrist softly but firmly.

"Lamb?"

"Um… you were going to self-pleasure, right? C-can I watch?"

"I – uh…" Naruto spluttered, completely blindsided by the request.

He looked at Lamb's unreadable eyeholes, but there were no answers there. Unable to keep eye contact for long, he cast around the gloom of the forest as thoughts blew through his head at a hundred miles a minute.

"Uh… I… uh… dunno, um… I've never… ah, gods."

For some reason, words were failing him.

The whole time, Lamb was silently watching him. He couldn't tell if she was excited, judging him, or just curious.

Desperately, he looked back at the clearing, initially just to look at something that wasn't Lamb's blank mask, and the flash of a near naked flesh and the searing imagine of Evelynn's alluring face contorted into a mask of ecstasy was enough to make his mind up for him.

Ah screw it.

"Fine," he growled, turning away from Lamb to press his back against the trunk of the tree, his gaze pointed determinedly towards the scene in the clearing.

It didn't take long for any thought of his unwelcome spectator to be banished to some back corner of his mind.

His hand fell into practised motions, and he closed his eyes briefly, Evelynn's body writhing on the back of his eyelids as he bit his lip to stop a moan escaping.

"It's so big," said Lamb, a note of what almost seemed like wonder in her voice, "And it sticks straight up? And you handle it so roughly…"

Naruto's eyes flew open and he shot Lamb a venomous glare.

"Lamb!" he hissed, "No commentary! You're killing my vibe!"

Lamb fell silent, but the tilt of her mask made it clear her attention was completely focused on his erection.

Naruto turned his attention back to Evelynn, and this time, without any interruptions, he could feel himself getting close to release in almost no time at all, his pace speeding up in tandem with his breathing.

"Wow… so fast, so violent," blurted out Lamb, "Can't believe that doesn't hurt…"

Naruto whipped around to tell her off again, but with his attention fixed securely on Evelynn, he hadn't noticed that Lamb had moved since the last time he had seen her.

Instead of standing in front of him, she had moved to a kneeling position next to him, most likely so that she could stare more closely at his penis, which she evidently seemed fascinated by.

And so, with the sudden turning motion he had done and her new kneeling position beside him, he ended up sliding the tip of his member across her chest.

And that was the exact moment that Naruto discovered that underneath her thick chest fur, Lamb had a very nice bust. Modest to be sure, but soft and alluring all the same.

"Ah!" he exclaimed as the sudden stimulation was enough to take him past the brink.

His muscles tensed and his eyes squeezed shut as thick ropes of white liquid pumped liberally from his cock onto Lamb's chest, splattering all over the pristine white fur.

Both watched as the load slowly petered out, Naruto still panting while his racing heartbeat gradually began to slow down to a reasonable level.

"Ah, sorry," he was quick to say as soon as he had recovered enough of his wits, "I didn't see, didn't know… ah… let me…"

"No matter," said Lamb calmly, a stark contrast to his incoherence, "I will clean myself in the river. Um… thank you for your demonstration."

She stood up and turned to walk away in the direction of the river, leaving Naruto to stare after her, feelings once again in flux.

Hearing a stifled moan coming from the clearing, Naruto gave a short glance towards the source, but not even the sight of Evelynn still in the throes of satisfying her lust could distract him at the moment.

Things just got weird.

He hurriedly pulled up his pants and left, running up the trunk of the nearest tree and bounding away using the branches.

He needed somewhere quiet to think.

He didn't expect he'd be getting much sleep tonight, and not in the same way he had initially thought.

Lamb made it all the way to the banks of the river before her composure left her.

"What was that?!" she squealed to herself quietly.

Her cheeks were so red she felt like she was surely burning a hole in her mask, so she pulled it off, allowing the cool night air to caress her flushed face.

She didn't know what to do with her hands but felt like she surely must to something, so she balled them up into fists and drummed them against her thighs in agitation.

"Ooooooh," she cooed in frustration, trying to organise her thoughts.

She started to pace back and forth, running her fingers through her hair.

The events of the last few minutes were running through her head like a replay, and when it stopped of its own accord to focus on her memory of the human's … thing, she blushed deeply and shook her head roughly.

"What is wrong with me?" she moaned softly.

She pressed her fingers into her cheeks and sighed heavily.

"Stupid human," she said aloud, "It's all his fault."

She thought about him, with his stupid spiky blond hair, and stupid expressive blue eyes that crinkled up whenever he teased her, as well as his stupid bright grin that could light up even the gloomiest of rainy days. She thought about his stupid effortless strength whenever he picked her up to spin her around, and his stupid rough palms that ruffled her hair in a way that used to be annoying but had somehow become something quite comforting without her noticing. She thought about his stupid solid body and his stupid big muscles and his stupid throbbing thing that shot out the white liquid while he made that stupid sounding moan as he stupidly climaxed…

Lamb noticed with a start that she had stopped pacing and had idly been rubbing her thighs together, which had felt… oddly nice. Her mind, acting with a stroke of lightning agility, snatched an image of Evelynn from the previous night, and introduced a deviant thought to the embodiment of death.

Her finger, acting of an impulse not quite her own, drifted across her leg and then slowly traced a line up the inner thigh. It slowly reached a patch where the fur in the area was matted and wet with a mysterious liquid, and tremulously explored only a smidge further. It touched something, something that sent a shocking current of electricity running through her body, and Lamb moaned in spite of herself.

"Ah!"

The sound was louder that she had anticipated, and it completely dislodged her from the strange mindset she had found herself in.

Slapping a hand to her mouth, she pulled the offending digits away from her core almost as if she had been stung.

Looking left and right, Lamb made sure no one had heard the sound of her indiscretion before she finally calmed down.

"All his fault," she said to herself, trying to return to her normal self, "And he showered me in all his… stuff. Gross! It's going to take forever to get it out of my fur!"

She raked a hand over the affected fur, wrinkling her nose in disgust at the gloopy liquid that had congealed her fur into a sticky mess.

Leaning over to the river to grab some water to start trying to salvage her appearance, Lamb was greeted by an unfamiliar visage in the moonlit reflection.

She narrowed her eyes at the person looking back at her and shivered uncomfortably when the reflection mirrored her. Fingers explored the ridged and shapes of an unfamiliar landscape, and Lamb made expressions to see how they looked on her… face.

It didn't take long for the strange thing in the reflection to unnerve her, and she hastily snatched up her mask and resecured it to her face, taking comfort in the familiar coolness of the lacquered wood.

"All that stupid human's fault," she repeated as she started to finally clean herself, a phrase that was starting to become her mantra.

So focused was she on cleaning up and getting away from the river, Lamb never noticed that even after she had replaced her mask, the reflection in the river that stared back at her did not.

It stared at her with luminous yellow eyes - gleaming, cruel eyes that concealed dark, sinister thoughts.

And when she was done and had turned away from the river, the reflection remained there, staring after her with a calculating glint.

The small, delicate mouth of Lamb spread into an unholy grin that spread wide, showing off teeth that were far too sharp for any human.

"How interesting," the reflection remarked from its place in the river, a deep twanging drawl that did not fit the soft, feminine face it came from.

"How interesting indeed."

The archmage sat down to take a moment's rest, scratching at his beard as pulled out a piece of traveller's bread from his satchel.

"Greetings!" came a voice from behind him, a jingling of musical bells accompanying the owner's movement.

Taking a bite of the hard loaf, Ryze turned his head to see a handsome white-haired man dressed in a colourful yellow outfit.

He nodded in greeting but did not deign to say anything, choosing instead of focus on eating and refilling his energy.

Saving the world was a fairly taxing exercise, after all.

"Would you care for a tune, good sir? Only a bronze coin for you!"

Ryze shook his head and turned away.

He had no time to waste on frivolities and his coin had better uses.

"Oh come on, sir, I can guarantee you will enjoy it!"

"Go away," said Ryze gruffly, "I'm too busy to spend time on these things."

"Oh but sir. I must insist."

The bard trumpeted out a note on the strange horn instrument that Ryze had seen hanging from his belt.

"I'm not paying you," growled Ryze irritably as he took another wolfish bite of his bread.

"Oh it's free," replied the bard casually, his flamboyant cajoling tone replaced by a colder impersonal one.

Something felt wrong to Ryze, and it was when he realised that the musical chime was still resounding through the air even though the bard had literally just spoken and was definitely not still playing that he spun around.

He was met with the face of the bard, but his eyes had been replaced by two large circular yellow disks that stared out unnervingly. Ryze recoiled, magic sparking from him inadvertently.

"What the…!" he spluttered.

He gathered up arcane power, but the bard gave another blast on his instrument, this one also joining up with the first note, which was somehow still sounding all around them. Instantly, Ryze felt the accumulated magic leave him, and he fell back in surprise.

This wasn't like the effects of petricite, where magic was absorbed and stifled as soon as it left the body – Ryze literally couldn't feel the magic within him. Whatever the bard had done, was unlike anything the archmage had ever seen before in his long life.

"Be calm, Rune Mage," said the bard, his mouth smiling even as the bulbous yellow discs in place of his eyes stared unblinkingly at him.

"What do you want?" asked Ryze, still unsettled from having his magic stripped from him, "What did you do to me?"

"I didn't do anything to you," replied the bard, "I have simply removed the concept of magic from this place temporarily. Do not worry. You will regain your powers when we are done."

"That's impossible! How does your magic…"

"I do not use magic," said the bard, cutting off Ryze's protests, "But that is irrelevant."

The strange being turned his head to look towards the west.

"I have need of your assistance, Rune Mage. Two beings have invaded this world. They must be repelled."

Ryze stared in confusion.

"Why do you need my help?" he asked, "You seem plenty capable yourself."

"My powers are powerful, but limited," replied the being, "I have need of those who are able in the ways of combat to fight these foes."

There was a pause.

"Besides, are you not seeking to find the World Runes?"