Even squatting down like an aloof cat, Caleb was still taller than most yordles.
That gave him a height advantage while haggling.
Some of the little gadgets creatively made in Piltover were selling pretty well here, at least by the look of it.
Meanwhile, Kai'Sa was clutching an adorable yordle doll and clearly didn't want to let it go.
Caleb sat cross-legged and took a short nap.
The trip all the way here had really worn him out.
Food and lodging weren't a problem anymore. If he really wanted to settle down somewhere, he could even build a proper house with a foundation.
The trinkets he had brought from Piltover this time could only do so much, just enough to keep him afloat and cover Kai'Sa's spending.
After all, yordles had portals all over the world. To them, this kind of trade was nothing special.
Caleb couldn't help thinking that if only he were a yordle too...
With portals like these to travel back and forth...
Wouldn't he be rolling in money by then?
But then again, given how long yordles lived, spending their lives chasing wealth was probably the truly boring thing.
It would make more sense to do something more meaningful.
Like Heimerdinger, maybe, seeing a city develop with your own eyes and taking part in it.
"Oh, excuse me, how much is this?"
A voice spoke up in front of Caleb.
He looked up and saw another fuzzy face, only this one looked like a... cat?
It was staring at a cat teaser with obvious curiosity in its eyes.
"Whatever you think is fair."
Caleb gave it a casual glance, but in the next second his expression changed.
What was under this little creature's paws, a spellbook?
Well damn. So it was Yuumi, that pocket enchanter every jungler loved dragging around.
That freeloading cat who never really had to suffer as long as her teammate stayed alive.
Caleb stared hard at the grimoire beneath Yuumi's paws and realized it looked extremely similar to one of the items he had gotten from the system.
That was right, Lost Chapter.
Using the most basic runic language, Caleb had already figured out that it was a page containing a portal to some distant place.
But he wasn't reckless enough to just dive straight through it.
There were far too many places in this world that could get a person killed.
Caleb was not the kind of man who would put himself in mortal danger just because something looked "interesting."
Yuumi's nose twitched twice, then she looked at Kai'Sa in surprise.
"You've seen that monster too?"
Kai'Sa just looked confused. Monster?
After all these years in the Void, what kind of monster hadn't she seen?
Yuumi stood on the Book of Thresholds and kept circling around Kai'Sa.
She sniffed hard, again and again, and kept stretching out a paw as if to touch Kai'Sa's body.
But the Void skin made her quietly pull her paw back each time.
"I mean, I mean..." Yuumi stumbled over her words.
Only after the book beneath her let out a rustle of turning pages did she calm down again.
"In the desert, there's this huge monster with a really long body."
"I think it burrows underground, and it lets out this sharp scream."
Rek'Sai?
Caleb frowned. What did that have to do with Yuumi?
The magical cat's book seemed to record quite a few portals too.
So did that mean Lost Chapter had been torn from this very book?
The material and the writing definitely looked extremely similar.
"Yes. In Zuretta, I lured her away."
Kai'Sa answered honestly.
Caleb's expression grew heavier.
The place where he had found Kai'Sa and treated her was still several days' travel from Zuretta.
Rek'Sai's territory probably hadn't expanded that far yet, because they still occasionally saw signs of human habitation.
So why had Kai'Sa appeared before him in such a badly wounded state?
After thinking it over, Caleb finally spoke.
"We're headed that way anyway. We're planning to get rid of that monster."
"You've run into her too?"
"You're going to kill it?" Yuumi's eyes lit up like stars as she looked at Caleb expectantly.
If that was true, then maybe she had finally found a lead on the person she was searching for.
"That's great!"
Yuumi leaped straight into Kai'Sa's arms and rubbed affectionately against her face over and over.
Watching Yuumi get that close, Caleb felt weirdly jealous.
Damn it... I want to snuggle up to Kai'Sa too...
That simmering resentment didn't last long. A moment later, Caleb asked, "Then... could you take us to find someone? He should be in Bandle City."
Now that they had run into Yuumi, it was time to take care of actual business.
"Or if not, you could just help us deliver this to him."
Caleb pulled out a letter. The name written on it was Corki.
"Him? Who knows where he's flown off to this time."
Yuumi pouted, then jumped back onto the Book of Thresholds.
"But I can take you to see someone. She can pass the letter along for you."
...
Bandlewood.
The forests here nurtured the seeds from which life itself was born.
They also housed the portals leading to every corner of the world.
The yordles relied on the portals here to reach all those distant places.
"Hi, Yuumi!"
A witch wearing a pointed mage hat lightly waved the wand in her hand.
"Hi!"
Yuumi sprang forward lightly and hugged the witch-like yordle.
"These two... are they humans who wandered in by accident?"
The witch looked at Kai'Sa and Caleb, then shook her head.
"No, that's not right. Neither of them is ordinary. They probably didn't wander in by accident."
"You're so smart!" Yuumi praised her without the slightest hesitation.
"They have a letter, and they hope you can pass it on to Corki."
As Yuumi said that, Caleb stepped forward and handed over the envelope.
"Hi, I'm Lulu."
"And this is Pix." She pointed to the little fae fluttering beside her wand.
"I'm Caleb." Caleb returned the greeting with a friendly smile.
"The one behind me is Kai'Sa."
"You're pretty amazing too, you know," Lulu suddenly said.
"I'm all right..."
Caleb hadn't even finished speaking before Yuumi hurriedly cut him off.
"Then we'll be bothering you. The three of us need to make a trip to Shurima."
Lulu froze for a moment, then smiled.
"No problem!"
The little witch waved her wand and pointed it at the two of them in turn.
A rainbow burst from the tip of the wand, turning into ribbons of color that swirled around them.
"Humans in Bandle City often return home much older than when they came in," Lulu explained with a smile.
"And the Whimsy Pix helps me cast will protect you," she added.
Yuumi hurriedly said, "Come on, let's go."
With that, she flipped open a map page in the Book of Thresholds, and a violent pull instantly dragged Caleb and Kai'Sa away.
In that brief instant of being pulled through space, Caleb saw Lulu waving to them.
"It was nice meeting you."
And though it felt like only a moment had passed, the two humans and one cat were already back in the middle of the endless desert.
"Can you tell where this is?"
Caleb pulled out the map, and Yuumi pressed a paw down on one spot without hesitation.
"Here." Her face was full of pride.
"Then..." Caleb tapped Zuretta, the location of Rek'Sai's nest, then marked the direction where he had sensed that presence before.
"We head for the Sun Disc first."
Caleb's voice remained calm. Even with an extra cat and an old grimoire on their side, their strength still wasn't enough to challenge Rek'Sai.
Even her offspring could easily ambush and kill an unprepared traveler, much less the monster herself.
Fighting on hostile ground, Caleb needed to be careful. He would only march on her once everything was ready.
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