Chapter One

 Vayne sighed, rolling over on her now-sandy towel. She had been forced to take the three Void monsters out for their weekly fun day, and this week they intended to visit a beach far south that was always sunny and balmy, regardless of the season or weather anywhere else. The beach was, of course, the absolute last place she wanted to be, lounging around in revealing clothing getting skin cancer and watching the Voidlings in their water skins splashing about mindlessly. But, she had managed to get out of the past two babysitting sessions, and the League officials weren't having any of her excuses this time. All the AD carries were tasked with accompanying the Voidlings and ensuring their safety, which was really an excuse to prevent them from eating entire villages while seeing if they could be acclimatized to normal Runeterran life that did not involve digesting cities.

Her Dragonslayer outfit was suitable enough for lying on a large towel on the beach, waiting for Kog to get hungry and demand they leave for food. Unfortunately, it had been several hours, and he was still happily splashing around with Cho'Gath and Kha'Zix. Perhaps she should have brought a particularly savory snack with which to lure his appetite out, in the unusual event he didn't start talking about food within an hour of arriving.

Cho batted the beach ball over to Kog, who hit it with the lantern dangling on his head, their webbed feet allowing them to traverse the water much faster than Kha'Zix, who grumbled often he needed to adapt to the ocean properly. At least they hadn't asked her to play with them or go for a swim - the Voidlings were oddly polite thanks to Cho'Gath's manners lessons and fascination with being a true gentleman. They allowed her to sit, ever-observant, reading a novel on the seashore and didn't bother her with their games. Which, she supposed, was the benefit to actually going along with her responsibility to babysit - it let her catch up on reading and get away from the nagging hoards of other champions.

Just then, the familiar signal of the end of the outing rang out from the ocean - Kog'Maw's somewhat-raspy muttering, "I hungry."

Glancing out over the top of her sunglasses, Vayne smiled, ever-so-briefly, at the other two Void monsters shaking their heads in dismay.

"Really now, Kog, you just had your breakfast but a few short hours ago," Cho protested, slapping his webbed claws down to the water, making quite a splash.

"He eats more than your mother did, ha HA!" Kha'Zix cackled, quickly leaping away as the larger Voidling lunged at him, toppling over into the water. The trio began wrestling as the Night Hunter smirked, returning to her novel, before a fourth movement caught her eye.

Her attention darted far down the shore, to a strange splashing in the water approaching them. From the distance, she was unable to make out what was swimming towards, but she hopped up, deeply regretting her decision not to bring her larger crossbow along, and ran to the gently-crashing waves.

"Get out of the water, something's coming at you, I can't tell what it is yet. If it's anything like Fizz's stupid shark friends I want to be on the opposite side of the continent from it," she yelled, struggling to grab the attention of the Voidlings over their loud laughter and eerily inhuman shrieks of delight as they rolled about in the sea.

Kog'Maw noticed her attempting to signal them first and sent out an ult like a flare to get the other two to focus and together they trudged out of the surf, staring down the coast at the swiftly-approaching disruption in the otherwise-glassy ocean surface. It neared the shore before slowing and cautiously approached. Vayne was expecting to see some hideous fish monster, along the lines of Cho and Kog's skins, but what popped its head out of the water surprised her even more.

"Hello, m-my name is Nami, do any of you have a Moonstone? I really need to find one," an oddly-human face queried, glancing around in confusion at the four figures staring down at her. Vayne jumped back, a very un-Demacian thing of her to do, but the shock of seeing a woman with fins for hair was too much. There were rumors, of course, of mermaids existing, but as fiendish sirens waiting to lure men down to the bottom of the ocean. If this one wanted to lure the likes of Cho and Kha to the depths below, well, Vayne would've seen everything then.

Finally she regained her voice enough to glance around at the absent looks on the Voidlings' faces and affirm their lack of knowledge, "No, I'm afraid none of us have ever heard of it."

The creature hauled herself out of the water, onto the shore with them, revealing her shimmering green tail. It really was a mermaid, but she had no ominous look about her, and in fact appeared quite young and scared.

"Oh, oh I just don't know what to do then. Do you know anyone who would have the Moonstone?" the mermaid asked, looking even more depressed than she had before.

"Never heard of it in any legends or myths, perhaps you could tell us some information about it, and we could piece things together if there is such a stone?" Cho'Gath reasoned, extending a webbed hand to shake Nami's in greeting.

"Well, my people thrive on the light of the Moonstone to protect us, and we must trade a pearl for the stone every hundred years. I've come with the pearl," she explained, dragging a magnificent pearl out of a kelp bag wrapped around her upper body and holding it up, "But there was no land walker in this cove of enchantments. I waited and hunted around and nobody came. I don't know what they're supposed to look like, or even what the Moonstone is like, but I know someone has to have it. If I can't find it, I'll never be able to return home, not even as a failure, because I won't have a home to go back to."

"That sound horrible! There, there," Kog lamented, reaching out his stubby arm to pat Nami on the back in an effort to comfort her. Vayne once again let a small smile break through at the kind gesture before turning back to the mermaid, who looked extremely downtrodden, "We know of someone who deals with the powers of the sun, and a moon follower as well, perhaps Leona will know something or be able to take us to the Solari Library, where an old book in the archives might have information on the Moonstone?"

"Indeed a wise suggestion, though the Solari seem to despise the moon. It's possible they even got rid of this stone themselves. But it can't hurt to ask," Kha'Zix concurred, fluttering his wings as the other Voidlings nodded their heads.

Nami tentatively looked around the shore, suddenly realizing she was in the company of three rather frightful monsters, only being held in check by a slender woman with a small crossbow left on her towel. Sensing her discomfort, the Night Hunter copied the actions of her fellow women when cooing over puppies and small children, raising her voice to exaggerate her words and throwing her arms around Kog's cylindrical figure, "Oh don't worry about these three, they're harmless, unless they think you're food. But they won't eat you, will you, Koggy?"

The shortest Voidling thumped his foot against the ground, relishing in having his head and neck scratched. Kha'Zix shook his head at the display of affection, leaping off to start the long walk back. Cho'Gath followed him, beginning on a long explanation of the surface world to Nami, who somewhat reluctantly tagged along, floating slightly above the ground on a ripple of water as if she was swimming through the air.

"Ah yes, we should introduce ourselves to the young Madame. I am Cho'Gath, the lumbering lummox with wings is Kha'Zix, the squat one is Kog'Maw and our caretaker for the day is Vayne," the largest monster turned around, realizing his manners had been sorely lacking.

"It's... a pleasure to meet all of you. Are you sure Leona will know where I can find the Moonstone?" Nami timidly asked, pausing to look back at Vayne and Kog'Maw, bringing up the rear of the party.

"No, not at all, but perhaps she can give us a clue of where to go next. There's plenty of eons-old champions in the League, one of them may remember something," Vayne shrugged, making sure everything she brought was safely tucked into her bag.

"The League?" the mermaid cocked her head, looking about in confusion.

The other four just smiled - "You'll learn about it soon enough."