Prologue
Whakerewa waddled along the overgrown jungle path, relying on the patches of silver moonlight shining through the thick canopy to see in the darkness. As he walked, the Fe-Matoran tried not to think about the horrifying creatures that called this place home. It was why he carried a knife. Whakerewa never had to use it before, and the hoped to Mata-Nui that he never would.
A wet, sucking noise from ahead startled the Fe-Matoran and brought him out of his thoughts. Recognizing the awful sound, he darted behind a nearby bush. Pearing through the leaves, Whakerewa saw an orange, slug-like creature inching across the path. He clapped his hand over his mouth and suppressed a squeal of terror. His other hand gripped the hilt of his knife so tightly that the grooves began to dig into the organic tissue in his fingers. The creature- a Kraata- was not moving. Had it heard him? Could it smell him? Whakerewa closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see what came next. The creature would open it’s hideous jaws, let out it’s high-pitched scream, and the monsters would come and drag him away into the darkness. They’d wrap him up in their sickly green webs and shoot a poison into his veins that would send him into an eternal sleep. He would never reach his destination, and the other Matoran would live in darkness and fear for the rest of their days.
Whakerewa heard the sucking noise again. Cracking open his eyes, he saw that the Kraata was moving off the path and into the dark jungle. He let out a breath that he hadn’t realized he’d been holding and mumbled a quick prayer, thanking Mata-Nui for his good fortune. He crawled out from behind the bush, straightened the bag on his right shoulder, and continued walking. His destination couldn’t be far off, if his memory was correct.
The path grew more and more unkempt as Whakerewa continued. Large bushes and saplings had grown between the stone, and he had to cut through them with his knife. The well-sharpened blade cut through the foliage with barely a whisper.
Slicing through a thick bush, Whakerewa took a step forward, unaware that the cobblestone path had given way to a set of stairs leading into a shallow ravine. He let out a yelp and tumbled down the ancient steps, coming to rest at another path at the bottom. Whakerewa sprang to his feet, eyes wide and alert. Surely, something must have heard all the noise he had just made. The Fe-Matoran whipped out his dagger, glancing around at the trees and anything else not cloaked in shadow.
Nothing. There was no movement save the rustling of the ferns in the slight breeze; not a sound except for the chirping of insects that Whakerewa had heard every night of his life. No monsters jumped out of the trees, or grabbed him from behind, or sank it’s fangs into him and poisoned him.
Whakerewa resisted the urge to laugh. He couldn’t believe his luck! Whispering another prayer to Mata-Nui, he turned to continue his journey.
In the center of the ravine, a cone of weathered and moss-covered stone- about double his height- stood. The top of the cone was flat, and shallow grooves divided the circle into sixths. In the center of each section, a large pillar jutted directly towards the sky, each carved with a symbol representing the six main elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Stone, Ice, and Air. Smaller obelisks lay between the pillars, standing for the many secondary elements in the universe. Whakerewa spotted the emblem of his patron element, Iron, to the right of the Stone pillar.
In the center of the circle stood a dome, mysteriously untouched by creepers, it’s surface flawlessly smooth in contrast to the worn corners and cracks of the rest of the temple. Six deep holes were carved into the Suva, for that was what the dome was, each one lining up with the six main pillars. Whakerewa had not seen the temple in a thousand years, yet he faintly remembered a mask being carved into the top of the dome: the Kanohi Hau, the symbol of Mata-Nui.
Whakerewa gazed upon the aged temple for many seconds, then shook his head and started up its steps. He didn’t want to push his luck, however bountiful it might seem, and he couldn’t afford to waste any more time. Stopping in front of the Suva, Whakerewa reached into his bag and pulled out a cylindrical red crystal about the size of his fist. Almost immediately after doing so, a crimson light shone from the slot facing the Fire pillar. He stumbled over to it, and placed the stone inside.
The stone almost seemed to fly out of Whakerewa’s hand, and hovered inside the slot. He looked up as a beam of red light shot up out of the top of the Suva and into the star-dotted sky. Whakerewa gasped, then reached for his bag and pulled out another stone, this one a deep blue. The niche in front of the Water pillar instantly lit up. Inserting the stone, a blue beam of light shown next to the red; touching, yet not overlapping.
Whakerewa repeated the task with four more stones, and soon white, brown, silver, and green light beams joined the red and blue ones in the Suva, surrounding the Hau and bathing the ravine in multicolored radiance. Whakerewa looked at the lights with a mixture of apprehension and curiosity. He hadn’t been told much about this process; and, in hindsight, he probably should have asked. Was something supposed to happen next?
All this light is sure to attract the monsters, the Fe-Matoran thought worriedly, perhaps I should get going-
Then the lights in the Suva began to spin around the Hau carving; slowly at first, then gradually they rotated faster, until Whakerewa could barely make out the individual colors. He stood transfixed as the six beams swirled together and, with a bright flash, merged into a brilliant grey-blue light that lanced into the night sky. It was brighter than day, brighter than any light Whakerewa had ever seen in his life, and he instinctively thrust his hands to his eyes to protect them, but it did little to help. Peering through his fingers, the Fe-Matoran watched in awe as the light left the Suva and rose into the night, focusing into a tiny dot almost indistinguishable among the thousands of stars, then exploded outward with a resounding CRACK that Whakerewa was sure could be heard across the island. He shut his eyes, but he was not nearly fast enough, and spots bloomed across his vision.
Whakerewa stood with his mouth agape as his sight cleared. Then he looked down and readjusted his bag, any sense of wonder and awe replaced with stark terror. The monsters would definitely be coming now. No amount of luck could have kept them noticing that! If he hurried, he would be long gone before they got to the ravine.
Whakerewa turned to leave, and started to sprint down the temple steps when a wheel of sickly green energy slammed into his chest with the force of a Kane-Ra bull. He let out a strangled cry as every muscle in his body froze and he slid down to the bottom of the ravine. He struggled to rise, but to his horror, he could not move! All he could do was watch as a green, four-legged, sharp-eyed creature with hideous pincers eagerly crawled toward him, mucus-colored webbing dripping from it’s jagged fangs. It came to a halt at his feet, then raised it’s body upward and let loose a terrible shriek. As the creature looked hungrily upon Whakerewa, another scream tore through the night. Then another. And then two more. And then what seemed like hundreds of horrible cries that threatened to deafen the Fe-Matoran as scores of the monsters poured into the ravine from all sides.
So, as the title would suggest, this is a prologue to a Bionicle fanfic I started writing in 2015, inspired by Bionicle’s return that year. I wanted to write a story similar to the “Golden Years” of G1, with the same feeling of wonder and mystery that that those years are praised for. I had only written short-stories and scripts before this, and after 15+ rewrites, I realized I wasn’t ready to write a full-fledged novel just yet, and I abandoned the project in the spring of last year.
However, I was particularly proud of the prologue, so I thought I’d share it with you all and see what you have to say.
Please tell me what you think. I’d like to see what I can improve upon for future projects!