Where the Mountains meet the Seas
It rocked back and forth, through the crashing waves. A groggy Lewa stumbles from one side of the ship to another, then slam! He projectiles directly towards another ship mate and falls on the floor wasted. The fog was so thick, that a crew member couldn’t view another across the ship.
Tahu: “Why’s it so foggy?”
He yells angrily.
Tahu: “At this rate, we’ll be the victim of a shipwreck!”
Gali: “It’s called the marine layer. It happens when hot dry air meets cool ocean water. It’s actually good news, since it means that we’re getting closer to Onu Koro, where all that hot dry air is coming from.”
Tahu: “Tell that to the boat once it crashes, Mrs. know it all.”
Gali: “We won’t crash, Onu Koro’s smart enough to designate different bodies of water to ships heading in or out of their bays.”
Lewa gets up from his fumble, but is still groggy. He runs to the right side of the ship, where he throws up overboard. As Lewa brings his head up, he feels a warm feeling touch the left side of his miru. He turns his head and notices the fog beginning to dissipate. The gray and blues of the ship turn to a mellow white.
Lewa: “Hey guys?”
Gali and Tahu continue with subtle arguments.
Lewa: “Guys!”
Tahu: “What Lewa?”
Lewa: “Look.”
Golden yellow light dissipates the borderline fog as Lewa points to an endless landmass stretching for as far as the eye could see. On most islands, coastline’s usually led to flat interiors, where the land would then gradually assimilate to become more hilly or mountainous. But in Onu Koro, beaches would lead instantly to cliffs, or sometimes there wouldn’t even be a beach at all. To Lewa, Mount Tyfus or the mountains he encountered in Ta Koro, were the highest he’d ever seen, but in Onu Koro, the ‘hills’ were considered that size, and that’s only the beginning. Even from the ocean, Lewa could see towering mountains roughly four to five times the size of the ‘hills’ wedged against the coastline.
Once there, the boat lowers a large plank connecting it to a small dock in the mainland.
Tahu: “Okay, plan is-”
The earth begins shaking and a bulge appears on the ground in front of them, until suddenly,
“Yaa hoo!”
The lump of earth explodes into debris of sandy dirt, flying all over everyone’s face. A large black figure emerges from the rubble and wipes the earth of his body.
Tahu: “Okay, gonna be completely honest, I just peed a little.”
Lewa: “Same.”
Gali: “Whenua!”
Whenua: “Hello.”
Tahu: “OFF COURSE SHE KNOWS HIM TOO!”
Lewa: “I mean, who doesn’t? Are you here to help us to find the third mask piece?”
Whenua: “On the mark.”
Lewa: “Thank Mata Nui, already better than all other islands I visited.”
Tahu and Gali: “Hey!”
Whenua laughs.
Whenua: “Oh chucks, don’t be like that. I’m not half the toa Vakama and Nokama are. Except when it comes to strength, I rock that stat to the Pakari.”
Tahu and Lewa look at each other confused.
Gali: “It’s the name of the tallest mountain in Onu Koro, named after the kanohi pakari.”
Whenua: “She’s got it.”
Tahu notices the deceptively small town they’re in.
Tahu: “What’s up with the city? I thought Onu Nui would be a bit bigger.”
Whenua: “That’s because we’re not in it. Follow me.”
He holds Gali in one hand, Tahu in the other, and gives Lewa a ride on his back.
Whenua: “Hold on Lewa!”
He jumps into the hole he had just come from, sliding down the walls of the artificial tunnel like a slide. Lewa looks behind him, and sees the walls of the tunnel caving in on themselves as they slid down the tunnel. With his earth manipulation abilities, Whenua was forming the tunnel behind them as if it was never created in the first place. Once down, they watch in awe as to what Onu Nui really was. A gigantic cavern littered with roads, buildings, and matoran. Roads were indented and the buildings looked as if they were put on a stone pedestal. They start walking the roads, to see the culture and environment.
Lewa: “Woah.”
Tahu: “How’d you kohli heads do it?”
Whenua looks at Gali.
Gali: “What are you looking at? I’m not the toa of earth here?”
Whenua: “Well, our matoran were always cavern dwellers, all it took was makuta raiding to have us migrate below.”
Tahu: “Okay, I might be an ignorant fire spitter, but I do know that technically you’re islands closer to Makuta Nui than ours. So how come we’re the one’s facing the firepower?!”
Whenua: “Um… I don’t know.”
His voice shrinks towards the end of his sentence as he moves his vision to Gali.
Gali: “Seriously? Fine, so there’s many reasons as to why. First off, ocean currents-”
Tahu: “Don’t care, didn’t ask.”
Gali: “But you did ask.”
Tahu: “Fine, but make it quick.”
Gali: “Okay, so from the island of Makuta Nui, ocean currents move west, meaning that it’s easier to transport supplies and rahi to the island of Ta Koro compared to Onu Koro. Second reason is the island’s geography. It’s big, Alone it’s bigger than the landmasses of Le Koro, Ta Koro, Ga Koro, and Mata Nui, combined. Technically, the makuta have more territory on Onu Koro, but since Ta Koro is so small, they have a higher percentage of Ta Koran land in comparison. Also due to the geography, Onu Koro is incredibly difficult to invade. Mountains bordering the island coastline are incredibly difficult to maneuver around, meaning that they can only attack through sea, which we just found out is infeasible due-”
Tahu: “The kohli heads building their cities underground, quick question, why don’t the makuta just barrel through the center of the island?”
Whenua: “Ooo, I can answer this. It’s because the interior is a massive dessert.”
Gali: “That’s right, the mountains of Onu Koro only form a thin ring around the island, most of the island, aka the interior, is an extraordinarily harsh desert. No makuta can survive those conditions.”
They hear a large crowd cheering towards what looks like a massive dome towards the city’s center.
Tahu: “Is that a stadium?”
Whenua: “Yup, we’re called kohli heads for a reason. Who do you guys think is playing?”
Tahu: “Us fire spitters don’t meander with such things as sports.”
Gali: “I don’t know, never really been into sports.”
Lewa: “The Flying Garrobos versus the Nui Jagas.”
Whenua: “Way to go Lewa! I knew you vine swingers cared about sports.”
Lewa: “Actually, I only knew because of that.”
Lewa points to a sign advertising the game.
Whenua: “Oh…”
Lewa: “No but in all seriousness I do like sports. In Le Koro we have a big sports culture. I knew the Flying Garrobos before I learned how to read.”
Whenua: “Still not as good as us, though?”
Lewa: “True, but don’t tell that to another vine swing-”
Lewa’s bag slips from his fingers. An onu matoran, concealing his identity with a skakdi mask, sprints through the street with Lewa’s bag.
Lewa: “Hey, that guys got my stuff!”
However, before they run after the thief, Lewa’s bag glows a yellow light, and in an instant, the thieves right arm transforms into a slimy tentacle, allowing the bag to fall on the floor. The thief yells and falls to the floor in disbelief. He glares directly into Lewa’s eyes, His skakdi mask hiding any emotion the matoran held. The thief then runs off, never to be seen again. Lewa sprints to the bag and carries it once again.
Whenua: “Huh, was wondering where the mask of life was.”
Tahu: “You put the Ignika in a bag?!”
Lewa: “Yeah, we don’t want anyone knowing we have it. Besides, the mask gets cold, I think.”
Gali: “I’m pretty sure just the meer site of you’s a dead giveaway as to where the mask is, Lewa. On top of that, I’m pretty sure Onu Koro has the highest crime rate of any island, so bagging that mask’s probably more of a hassle than anything else. Is that right Whenua?”
Whenua: “Gonna have to agree with you on that one, I often fight off matoran crime families more often than rahi or makuta. As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure the crime rate has probably rissen a few percentage points, just from me helping you guys.”
Lewa: “Fine, no bag. Why was that guy wearing a skakdi mask?”
Whenua: “Two reasons. one, to hide his identity. And two, because he’s a member of the largest gang in Onu Nui, the Piraka. They idolize the skakdi, and wear crudely made skakdi masks to show their devotion.”
Lewa: “Interesting. Anyways, I think about the time we start exploring. The Ignika’s only been getting brighter ever since I got here.”
Tahu: “Do you know where your metal caverns are? You know, the ones that are super spooky, hardly explored, and are basically a death sentence traveling in them?”
Whenua: “I know exactly what you’re talking about.”
Whenua takes the matoran to the edges of Onu Koro, where they find huge portions of the metal tunnels excavated. Without the stone surrounding the tunnels, they looked like thousands of metal veins intertwining with one another, leading to massive rooms which looked like organs. It was like being up close to a tumbleweed.
Gali: “Mother of Mata Nui!”
Tahu: “Did you guys dig the whole thing out?”
Whenua: “Not quite. Our government has funded projects to excavate and explore large portions of the mechanical tubes, but still we haven’t even gotten close to the source of it. Some estimates predict that we’ve only discovered 3% of what’s left, so it will probably take centuries before we map the Onu Koro section of it.”
Gali: “This is above acceptable. With this much done, this might be the quickest job yet.”
Tahu: “Let’s go.”
As everyone walks into one of the many entrances to metallic caverns, Tahu notices Lewa not following.
Tahu: “Aren’t you comin?”
Somethings wrong and Lewa knows it. The mask had barely increased in brightness on their way to the caverns, but he rides it off as a coincidence.
Lewa: “Yeah.”
They all enter the caverns.
Gali holds a map given to her by one of the onu matoran miners.
Gali: “Okay, so we’re in room A24, and the passages we choose from here are either between A290, B23, C7, and… 32 other tunnels. We’ve already been in F18, so now we have… Oh wait, I was holding it upside down, my bad, we’re actually in room C26.”
Lewa: “I think we should go back.”
Gali: “What, why? We’ve already gotten so far.”
Lewa: “Yeah, but I don’t think we’re making any progress. Back in Ga Koro, the mask glowed bright when traveling the metal caves, and the mask clearly got brighter in tunnels which would eventually end up leading to the third mask piece. But here, We’ve been here for 4 hours at this point, with barely any fluctuation of light from the Ignika.”
Tahu: “I think we should still stick with the tunnel strat, it’s the safest option we got and we have precedent of it working before.”
Lewa: “In Ta Koro we didn’t find a mask piece in a metal cave, same with Le Koro. I have a feeling that there’s no pattern with where these pieces are hidden.”
Whenua: “So what do you suggest we do?”
Lewa’s feels a bit out of place. Usually he was the one sitting quietly taking others orders. But this time, since he knew the mask better than anyone, he realizes that now he has to take initiative.
Lewa: “I think we should move around the island. See where the mask gets bright.”
Tahu: “Hope it’s not another volcano or mountain again.”
On land, the team learns nothing special. All they find out is that the mask becomes less bright closer to the shore, and more bright the closer they venture into the mountains. This gives Lewa an idea.
Lewa: “As much as I’d hate to do. I think we should go back out to sea again.”
The team journeys back on boat and washes further and further away from the coast. The farther they got, the duller the mask became. The closer they were to the shore, the brighter the mask became.
Lewa: “Let’s patrol the coast.”
Tahu: “What good’s that going to do?”
Lewa: “We cover more land on sea, so it’ll make the process of finding the sweet spot quicker.”
Hours would go by with them scanning the shore, yet the mask wouldn’t brighten. It would only brighten depending how close the boat was to shore.
Gali: “Oh I see what you’re doing. You’re using the Ignika like a magnet. Honestly, kind of smart.”
Lewa doesn’t say anything.
Tahu: “So, what’s going on?”
Lewa finally opens his mouth.
Lewa: “What’s going on is that I’m about to tell you all some very bad news. That uninhabitable desert you all were talking about earlier, that desert that’s bigger than the entirety of Le Koro. I think that’s where our fourth mask piece is.”
Whenua: “Woah, woah, woah, hold on there, Lewa. What makes you so sure?”
Lewa: “This mask only seems to be brightest the closer we get to the mountains, and even then the brightness is somewhat dull. On top of that, the brightness of the mask doesn’t change no matter how far we follow the coastline, it only changes depending on how far away we are from the beach, where the closer we get to it, the brighter the mask gets.”
Gali hold her hands over her kanohi cau cau in frustration.
Tahu: “Shoot.”
Whenua: “Well I hate to break it to everyone, or I guess, happy to break it to everyone. That we can’t travel to the desert.”
Lewa: “Why not?”
Whenua: “It’s illegal. Anyone who ventures into the desert and comes back faces a death sentence.”
Lewa: “What the? Even if the purpose is to save Mata Nui from his slumber?”
Whenua: “Even for emergencies such as those.”
Tahu: “What kind of government are you kohli heads running?”
Gali: “It’s because, generally speaking, Onu Korans are the least religious out of all other matoran.”
Whenua: “What she said. Look, I don’t make the rules around here.”
Tahu: “But you’re a toa, you can’t just smack a bit of sense to your politicians?!”
Whenua: “A toa’s power comes from the acceptance of the matoran he lives among, not the other way around.”
Tahu: “Makuta dung! Vakama never said anything like that.”
Whenua: “Me and Vakama think very differently, Tahu. But hey if it’s a desert trip you want so badly, I might be able to arrange something like that.”
Gali: “You just said it’s illegal.”
Whenua: “Who said it was supposed to be legal? After fighting crime for so long, let me just say, I know a guy who knows guy, but I’m warning y’all, we’ll be dealing with some real goonish individuals, it’s nothing in the novels let me tell ya that much. But hey if no one cares about that and we’re all willing to maybe put our lives on the line to save Mata Nui, then yes, I do have my methods.”
Note: This is the fourth part of my Bionicle fanfiction. This chapter will be much faster pace than the previous ones. This sections heavily inspired by media like Breaking Bad, Better Call Caul, and ATLA. Whenua’s probably my favorite toa to write so far, since he’s a very imperfect character relatively to his brothers. I love the world I created for Onu Koro; I was very heavily inspired by the American west coast while writing it. Also, final thing to mention, the Paraka in this story are NOTHING like they are in the original source material, which might be disappointing to a lot of people.
