Interlude - "THE SIBLINGS"
The earth felt soft beneath Auru’s palms, yet firm. It was resilient and powerful, but also gentle and quiet. It was his material to sculpt from. It was his clay.
He lifted his hands up, dragging two small pillars of dirt with them. He leapt up, kicking his feet out, and stood atop the two pillars with balance and might. His massive Toa form threatened to collapse the fragile dirt structures, but he held on with his power and kept them upright. He drew his fingers into fists as he summoned pieces of soil to build up around his towers, lifting him even higher. From up here, he could see the town below. Despite the frosty winds of the Iron Mountains, Auru’s core felt warm seeing his home.
Granite Town was a simple village of houses protruding from the stony side of Basalt Peak. They were formidable in structure, but welcoming in appearance, with their rough wooden roofs pointed into steep cones to discourage build-ups of snow. From every window glowed a lazy light of fire, and from every chimney poking out of the cone roofs, a short pillar of smoke.
As Auru was admiring the scene, it was suddenly blocked by a dark shape rising from the bottom of his vision, a great rounded object eclipsing the homely beauty of his town.
“Bread?” a voice called from below. Auru glanced beneath the encroaching loaf to see Ouphri, his sister, looking up at him patiently.
Auru smiled beneath his mask, causing a twinkle in his green eye, and took the bread into his hands. Still warm.
After finding a flat rock to sit on, Auru broke the grain into two, watching the steam rush out of it enticingly. He felt his stomach chamber buzz at him in excitement.
“You haven’t changed much, Ara,” said Ouphri, struggling to leap up onto the rock.
Auru lowered his hand so that she could use it as a foothold. She easily jumped from it to the spot next to him. Auru gave her the other half of the bread, which she took after a second of reluctance.
“What are you trying to say?” asked Auru. “I am a great Toa, now! I can move earth with my mind, and shape stone from my hands! Governor G’Nauli says that I may one day be able to twist metal with nothing more than a finger! I would say I have changed quite a lot from the little Matoran you knew a month ago.”
“You still run off on your own,” noted Ouphri, “though now you’re ‘training’ instead of climbing mountains on your own.”
“It is very important for me to train!” Auru protested. “I don’t know when I’ll meet the other Toa, but I must be at my full strength! What do you think Toa Kidoma is doing right now? Or Toa Narale? Do you think they are preparing to protect their homes without training every day?”
Ouphri shook her head. “I wasn’t trying to make an argument. It was just an observation.”
“Oh,” said Auru. It was always different with Ouphri. She wasn’t like their other siblings. She was the youngest in the family, but it was sometimes easy to forget that. She was performing incredibly well in her classes, and sometimes spoke with the wisdom of, well, of their father.
“You also still spend your life putting others before yourself,” Ouphri continued. “Like those hikers you saved. You could have died, jumping into an avalanche like that.”
“But so could they,” said Auru with a nod.
“There’s one more thing,” Ouphri said. She pointed up, her finger mere inches from the Auru’s covered right eye. “You still don’t talk about that.” Beneath the patch, she knew there was a horrendous scar he had earned when he was very young. It was before she was even crafted.
Auru pressed two fingers through the eyehole of his Kanohi and felt the coarse fabric of the eyepatch. “What is there to talk about? There used to be a working receptor there, and now there isn’t. It was damaged in an avalanche.”
“But you never talked about it. Baurn says you used to talk about everything , and now you only never talk about yourself. You never talk about what you’re feeling or afraid of. You never say when you’re sad or lonely, you just pretend you never are. Ara, Auru, you are the Toa of Earth, but it’s more than just a set of powers and a responsibility to you. It’s another mask to hide behind.”
Auru squinted at his sister. Wow, she reminded him of Dad. Auru and Baurn and the others were much more like their mom; friendly and gentle with their words but strong and fierce with their actions, while Ouphri and Dad were blunt and smart with what they said. They thought they knew everything, and would tell you they did.
“I’m sorry,” Auru said with a weak smile behind his mask. “I know you want me to pour out some weary story about my childhood, about what happened to me, about this-” He pointed to the patch. “But there’s nothing to tell. It happened, and I’m trying to move on. I’m okay, you don’t need to worry about me.” He took a large bite of the bread, but was disappointed to find it had gotten cold.
Ouphri looked down at her own piece, and set it on Auru’s lap. “There’s more at home,” she said as she pushed herself off of the rock. She landed in the snow and took a glance back. “Do you think Toa Kidoma keeps it all in? Do you think he doesn’t have people he talks to?”
Auru shrugged. “I talk to people. I really do, Ouphri.”
“I don’t care what the stories say,” Ouphri said as she began to return to Granite Town. “You’re not a superhero. Superheroes don’t get hurt. You just pretend you don’t.”
Auru watched as she left, clutching the bread within his heavy armored hands. The hands that could sculpt earth, but could still be emptied.
Here it is, the final interlude before I begin Chapter 2! Enjoy!