origin
The bizarre and fantastical home of the Yordles—Bandle City
Bandle City was bathed, as always, in an eternal, honey-colored golden sunlight, the air thick with the intoxicating aromas of candy, baked cookies, and some exotic flowers. In this fantastical land of incredibly vibrant colors, time seemed to flow at its own pace.
In a clearing covered in fluffy, colorful grass, a group of furry little Yordles were playing a chase game with enigmatic rules, their squeals merrily loud. At the center of their chase sat Alice, perched a few inches off the ground on a "mount" made from a giant dandelion! Her silver hair shimmered in the sunlight, and her face radiated pure joy.
A small, round yodel, running incredibly fast, suddenly accelerated, its short claws finally touching Alice's leg. It shouted excitedly, "Got you, sparkly sister! Now it's our turn to run! You'd better hurry and catch us!"
Alice was amused by this sudden role reversal and immediately commanded her dandelion mount, which seemed to understand her, to make a "whooshing" sound and begin to enthusiastically capture the little yodels that scattered and fled like startled colorful spores.
Her gaze locked onto a tiny creature that thought it was well hidden, with only its furry bottom and half its head peeking out from the glowing grass. Alice spurred the dandelion, gliding silently over, her little hand slowly reaching towards the trembling ball of fur…
Just as her fingertips were about to touch the soft down—
"Rocket Jump!"
A crisp, yet fierce, shout came from afar! Immediately followed by a deafening boom, a figure descended from the sky like a cannonball, landing precisely on the glowing grass! The grass instantly ignited, sending up a small plume of smoke, turning charred black.
The little yodel who was hiding was startled and jumped up, clutching his head which was burning hot, and yelled with tears in his eyes, "What the hell!"
As the smoke cleared, a strikingly beautiful silver-haired Yordle appeared, kneeling gracefully on one knee. She had light purple skin, wore a well-fitting uniform, and carried a rocket launcher larger than herself on her shoulder, wisps of smoke rising from its muzzle. She swiftly shielded the little Yordle, whose hiding place had been scorched, behind her, the imposing muzzle pointed directly at Alice, who sat atop a dandelion.
"Level One Alert! Report target information!" Tristana's voice carried an undeniable authority. "What! What do you intend to do to this poor child?!"
Alice was startled by this sudden turn of events, blinking her large red eyes in confusion: "?"
“I won’t ask again,” Tristana said, pressing the cannon forward threateningly when the other party didn’t answer, her tone becoming even more stern. “Besides, ‘Boom’ never misses its mark!”
Although Alice was confused, she still answered honestly with her uniquely simple logic: "I have to catch him! Once I catch him, it's my turn to run!" She felt that the rules of the game couldn't be clearer.
"You... despicable outsider!" Tristana clearly misunderstood the meaning of "grab," her sense of justice overflowing. "How dare you attack an unarmed child? If you've got the guts, come at me... Huh? Teemo? What are you doing at my feet?!"
Only then did Tristana feel something wriggling beneath her feet. Looking down, she saw a Yordle wearing green goggles and covered in soot, weakly twitching as he stretched his hand out of the crater loosened by her rocket jump.
“Tristana…” Teemo’s voice trembled with pain, “Could…could you…get off me first…”
………………
A moment later, at the edge of the clearing, beneath a giant, glowing flower.
"So you've just been watching her for days? And doing nothing? Letting her interact with the children!" Tristana, hands on her hips, questioned Teemo, who had just cleaned his charred face and looked utterly disheveled. She found it unbelievable. "Do you know what her security clearance is? Has she been scanned for dangerous items? Could she have Noxian tracking beacons or... bouncy bombs on her?!" She listed all sorts of terrifying possibilities with her vivid imagination.
“My scouts reported her presence long ago.” Timo sighed, brushing the dust off his ears. “I was going to handle it according to procedure at first. But Elder Feng Pulu personally confirmed that she meant no harm and was ‘safe’.”
After listening to Pok and Jimmy—two young Yordles who were present at the time—stammeringly explain the bizarre "rescue"—how they dragged the unconscious human infant back to Bandle City through a portal next to a violent explosion caused by humans themselves, and how the portal was subsequently destroyed—Tristana rubbed her forehead and sighed deeply: "So… you 'rescued' a human infant… from an explosion caused by humans themselves? And the only way to return her was destroyed?!… Oh well, since it's done, I'll put her on the main city patrol's watch list." She ultimately showed her responsible side.
Just then, a Yordle wearing a large, crooked, pointed witch's hat came bounding over like a joyful whirlwind. Beside her was a creature that looked like a small bird with broken wings, or perhaps a glowing sprite—Pix. She chased after Pix, her laughter like silver bells, hopping and spinning in circles across the open space. After spinning two or three times, she seemed to suddenly spot Tristana, who was waiting in ambush, and Alice, who looked utterly helpless.
"Wow! When did you guys appear?!" Lulu stared wide-eyed at Alice with curiosity. "Little Cannon! Why did you suddenly grow taller?!"
Tristana's lips twitched slightly: "...Lieutenant Lulu, I haven't grown taller, I've always been standing here..."
"Oh!" Lulu glanced at Tristana, then her attention was immediately drawn to Alice. She circled around Alice sitting on the dandelion again, exclaiming in amazement, "I still think you're cuter when you're bigger! Like a walking, sparkling moving castle!"
Then, Lulu suddenly had a brilliant idea. She leaned closer to Alice and asked mysteriously, "Do you like squirrels? I can turn you into a super-big squirrel! I guarantee it will be fluffy! Or I can cast a spell on your beautiful hair and make it dance like happy tentacles!"
Alice was touched by Lulu's enthusiasm and whimsical ideas. Although she didn't quite understand what "tentacle dancing" meant, she nodded happily and said, "I like it!"
So all the Yordles present watched as Lulu waved her wand, muttering incoherent incantations. A flash of rainbow light appeared, and Alice, sitting on the dandelion, instantly transformed into a gigantic squirrel—silver-white fur, several times larger than a normal squirrel! Then Lulu herself seemed to be affected by some kind of magic, becoming about the same size as a squirrel, and the two furry creatures happily danced an impromptu, chaotic dance in the open space.
However, the joy didn't last long. As it hopped around, the giant squirrel's movements gradually stiffened, then its limbs began to twitch, and finally it collapsed with a loud "whoosh," vomiting in agony…
"Level One Alert!!!" Tristana's combat instincts were instantly triggered. She grabbed the rocket launcher, performed a perfect rocket jump, and soared into the air again, blasting another innocent patch of grass nearby to charred black. "Enemy attack!! Someone used a vicious vomiting spell on the squirrels!! All personnel, prepare for battle!"
Looking at the chaos before him, Teemo silently pulled down his goggles to cover his eyes, letting out a sigh of utter despair: "...Destroy this world that's anything but hidden..."
……………………
Alice, now back in human form, was taken once more to that infirmary in Bandle City that always reeked of sweet, medicinal fumes. She was placed on a small bed covered with soft moss and vomited uncontrollably. The small ward was packed with Yordles who had rushed over upon hearing the news, chattering and discussing amongst themselves.
"So this happens just from touching the ground?" Tristana crossed her arms, still unable to believe this explanation that sounded too simplistic. She was more inclined to believe that Alice was under some kind of malevolent curse.
A deep, disillusioned voice suddenly came from the darkest corner of the room: "Ha. A bunch of optimistic idiots." In the shadows, Vigus, with her signature dead fish eyes that seemed utterly indifferent to everything, complained to the living shadow at her feet, "...Shadow, do you think she might actually...want to find a dark corner, stay quietly away from this endless, foolish revelry? Sigh...whatever, what does it have to do with me...I thought something serious, noteworthy disaster had finally occurred in Bandle City..."
A yodal, who was huddled in the room watching the commotion, heard the muttering from the shadows. He twitched his long, sensitive ears, looked in the direction of the sound, and his face lit up with surprise: "Little Miao Miao!" A loud and enthusiastic voice came from below the ears, "Is that you, little girl!"
"Oh dear," Vigus's expression darkened even more upon hearing the name and voice. She hung her head dejectedly, almost wanting to disappear into the shadows. "Don't tell me it's..."
The striking ears, bobbing merrily up and down, stubbornly pushed their way through the dense crowd toward her. Finally, the owner of the ears—a smiling, elderly Yordle in a flamboyant shirt—stood before Vigus, who was trying to huddle up, and opened his arms wide in ecstatic joy.
"It really is you, little girl!" Uncle Milty's voice was filled with undisguised joy.
“It’s me, Uncle Milty.” Vigus looked at the familiar yet troublesome face with disgust, and corrected him weakly, “And please, don’t call me that.”
Milty didn't care about any of that. He enthusiastically grabbed Vigus's wrist and tried to drag her outside: "Now that you're back, come on, let's go see your parents! They've missed you so much!"
Forced to interact with so many compatriots brimming with "positive energy," Vigus felt like she was being roasted on a fire. She struggled desperately, letting out a desperate wail: "No! I don't want to! Let me go! Don't drag me into this endless, noisy, and terrifying vortex of hell!"
Timo watched as Vigus was dragged away by the energetic Uncle Milty and disappeared down the corridor. Finally, he thoughtfully stroked his chin and said, "Recently... it seems like a lot of our compatriots that we don't usually see have returned to Bandle City?"
Tristana seemed to have been reminded, and suddenly slapped her forehead, excitedly saying, "That's right! Lieutenant Lulu and I were on a mission to protect an ancient portal on the outskirts when I suddenly received an urgent message through the gardenia—saying that Bandle City had been breached by a group of terrifying humans!"
Teemo: "??? What breach? Where? Who breached it?" He looked around, completely bewildered.
The other Yordles around looked at each other and shook their heads, indicating that this was not true.
“No?” Tristana frowned, trying to recall, but her tone remained very certain. “But I swear on the barrel of a 'boom' cannon! I absolutely didn’t mishear!”
Just as they were wondering about this, another anxious yet excited voice came from outside the ward: "Make way! Make way! Important research sample!" A Yordle with a huge head and an explosive head of blond curly hair struggled to squeeze through the crowd of onlookers. The moment he saw Alice lying on the bed, pale-faced, his eyes lit up like searchlights. Professor Heimerdinger quickly adjusted his goggles and pulled a magnifying glass and various faintly glowing instruments from his seemingly bottomless toolbox, immediately beginning a comprehensive scan and study of Alice.
“Incredible! A stable, living biological sample from the Prime Material Realm!” Heimerdinger muttered excitedly as he recorded data. “We must record all the data! Heart rate, magical affinity, metabolic response to the high-sugar fantasy diet of Bandle City! This unexpected event provides us with an unprecedented and excellent opportunity to study the adaptability of interdimensional organisms! This is a major breakthrough in interdimensional biology! It has immense scientific value!”
He became increasingly excited as he spoke, and finally began waving his hand to shoo away the other "unauthorized personnel" in the ward: "Get out! Everyone, please get out! Unauthorized personnel should not interfere with important scientific research! I'm about to begin in-depth analysis!"
……………………
The following day, beneath the largest ancient tree of wisdom in the center of Bandle City, Professor Heimerdinger summoned several key Yordles and announced his preliminary research findings. He cleared his throat and said in as serious a tone as possible, "Through preliminary analysis of the magical source spectrum, I have made a significant discovery: this human possesses a magical imprint within her that originates from us, but manifests in a peculiar way! She can actually... be considered an extremely special 'Yordle-like' life form!"
The Yordles: "???"
Tristana was the first to express her doubt: "I am absolutely certain, absolutely certain, and without a doubt, that she is a human being from every angle!"
Lulu, however, got caught up in her own logic: "Ah! Did she use some incredibly advanced shapeshifting magic to turn herself into a human?! I knew it! She might be what you'll look like when you grow up, Little Cannon!"
Tristana: "...No! And that doesn't make any sense at all!"
Lulu pointed at Alice's hair: "But she has silver hair! Who here has silver hair?"
Kooch, the ace pilot, added with his arms crossed, "And yesterday I invited her to ride in my aircraft to experience a quadruple rotation at high altitude, but it couldn't even take off properly! Her weight clearly exceeds the threshold for a standard Yordle passenger! She's definitely not a Yordle!"
Tristana nodded and looked at Heimerdinger: "See, even Corki thinks so..."
Kuchi, however, solemnly concluded: "She must be at least two! Or more Yordles!! Otherwise, there's no way to explain why my precious plane refused to take off!"
Tristana: "..." She felt like her rocket launcher was about to shut down in exasperation.
Heimerdinger waved his hand, interrupting these increasingly bizarre speculations: "Quiet! Let me finish! The key point is that I detected a very pure 'earth affinity' property within her! This is one of the very ancient origins of Yordle magic!"
Tristana was even more confused: "Earth affinity?...Wait, how did she do that???" She couldn't understand how a human could possess the magical essence of a Yordle.
Tristana's thoughts immediately turned to the worst possibility, her eyes sharpening: "You mean... she might... have killed a fellow Yordle who possessed the Earth's affinity and then stolen that power in some evil way?" The thought sent chills down her spine.
Pix was so startled that he darted into Lulu's big hat and hid. Lulu hugged her wand tightly and whispered, "This...this is terrifying!"
Timo's expression also turned serious. He touched the blowgun at his waist: "How long will she remain unconscious? We must find out the truth as soon as possible. I... I'll go prepare some mushrooms..." He clearly believed that some drastic measures were necessary.
Heimerdinger adjusted his glasses, a flash of white light appearing on the lenses: "How exactly this magical essence transferred to her is still a mystery. But what is certain is that this 'earth affinity' characteristic makes her extremely popular in Valoran. Whenever her body comes into direct contact with the ground, earth elemental energy will involuntarily and frantically surge into her body. The problem is that she doesn't seem to have any talent for actively controlling or using magic, like a bottle with a very small capacity but connected to the ocean, completely unable to channel this excessively large flow of primal magic—the result is a violent magic overload rejection reaction, which is what we commonly call... stun magic."
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