Chapter 4
I began to investigate. I go out of the barriers of town with the Toa Viatra as we begin our search. There are few obstacles as we tarry through the beach, besides the occasional small stream of water or hopping across rocks. But besides those things, it was a fairly easy trek. We arrive at a section of the beach, about 2 Kilobios away from the city, that is very rocky and has towering caves, with drooping stalactites. Water filled open holes in the masses of earth that stood out in the sand.
As I admire these features of the great creation created by Mata Nui, Viatra alerts me of a discovery of her’s. I rush on over to her in the cold sand.
“Look, Chronicler,” Viatra says with her finger pointing at the shiny parts of the sand, “it’s glass. Pure glass. Someone who has intense amounts of heat on them must have been here.”
I put the former evidence with the new in my mind. “It has to be a Toa, then. A Toa of fire or something. Question now is this: where did he go?”
Viatra turned around to look at the ocean, when grew alerted by something in the distance. Quickly she stood in front of me, and took her twin Water Spikes together to make a burst of water at her opponent. My head turns around to see her bring her blast at the opponent. However, she is soon blasted by a hot, orange energy and is knocked over. Then an orange and white flash sped in front of me and knocked me out cold.
~~
I begin to regain consciousness on a cold, stone slab. My finger twitches.
“Is he still alive?”
“Not sure. We should wait.”
“I have no time to wait.” I hear foot steps coming my way. Suddenly, a figure of great strength shakes me with great force. Then he drops me back on the slab, my head falling painfully on it. “Wake up, Matoran. We have no time for this.”
I lift myself up and open my eyes. I was in a dark cave, littered with weapons and supplies that seemed to be stolen from the Xians. My awaker stood before me, wearing orange and white armor with a Kakama. I rubbed my head as I looked around to see the other Toa. One was a disfigured female Toa with a mixture of white and blue armor, as well as a Kaukau. The third one, who was also a female, had a unique armor of green, yellow, and silver, and wore a Kiril, quite an odd mix for a Toa.
“Where am I?” I asked the female Toa, ignoring my awaker.
“We cannot disclose that,” said the Toa with green, yellow, and silver, “all you need to know is that you’re gonna be sticking with us for a while.”
“What happened to Viatra?” I asked with a raspy voice.
“I left her on the beach,” the Toa of Plasma said with an annoyed voice, “there’s no way she’ll be able to find you, anyways, We’re hidden quite well, so even if you escape, you will not know you’re way back home.”
I became a bit angered about what happened to Viatra. “You just left her there? All alone? With no medical attention? She’ll die!”
“Yeah, I don’t see why not,” the Toa of Plasma said, “it would be a whole lot easier for us Toa to allow our enemies to die than just leave them to cause more destruction.”
I sighed by this declaration. These Toa must be rogue, I thought to myself.
“I ought to know your guy’s names if I’m going to be your prisoner,” I say after a moment of brief silence.
The Toa of Plasma speaks up first. “Salis.”
The Toa with white and blue armor speaks next. “Nakina”
The somewhat beefy Toa with green, silver, and yellow armor ended this name-saying. “Husli.”
I nodded my head at the conclusion of the Toa testifying their names. Then I looked at the Toa of Plasma. “You must be the leader of this band.”
Salis nodded. “Yes, I’m the leader. I’m the only one here who-” Salis was cut short by a purple energy engulfing his body. His body began to look crippled, with his hands clenched and his back stiff, and he fell onto his knees. He yells in pain as his mask slowly becomes gray. He looks off into the shadows, and my eyes follow his direction.
Fiery orange eyes glow in the darkness, as well as a globe of fiery orange energy stuck into a rib-cage. The armor of this being is cluttered, just as in order as a cabinet of fine ornaments after being rammed into by a Kane-Ra. In the crevices in his armor the fiery orange antidermis leaked, but didn’t fully escape his body. The being’s back was straight, but his legs bent as he walked. As the light showed his mask, it revealed a bat-like shape. A Kanohi Avsa, no doubt. As he stood over Salis’s weakened figure, I became quite perturbed by his presence. He was a Makuta.
The Makuta’s mask stopped glowing the purple essence, so Salis was freed from the mask’s influence. Salis tried to get up, but his arms he used to lift him up collapsed and he was back to the ground. Furtaan grinned under his Avsa.
Nakina made a comment about this under her raspy voice. “Looks like you took away too much of his elemental energy… Again.”
“He’ll be fine,” Furtaan remarked, “He’ll regenerate his powers soon enough.” The Makuta looked at me and stepped forward. He inspected by golden armor, mask, and my chronicling pack. “You seem to be a chronicler of this island. It’s fortunate we came across you, chronicler. You know the histories of this island… You could possibly lead me to what I want.”
I still was shocked by his brutality with his Avsa. “W-what would that be?”
“The Mask of Power, Matoran. Fatorak, is it?”
“How do you know my name?” I asked out of suspicion and terror at the same time.
Furtaan stood still while answering. “All Makuta are designed to know. Mata Nui created us to know how Matoran feel, to understand them. We were programmed to know every Matoran’s name. But I can understand Matoran not knowing such things. We Makuta are often ignored by Matoran.”
I looked around at the other Toa. They were helping Salis up while he portrayed a sickly look. Furtaan caught my eyes. “Don’t worry about him,” Furtaan said, “he’ll be fine. But I must tell you how important it is now that I have you here.”
I just looked at him as he explained his plan. He had come from Xia to capture the Kanohi Karhi so the League of Six Kingdoms doesn’t get it’s hands on it, and that he needed to know the location. “That’s when you come in, Chronicler. Thankfully, I know that you would know the location of such a mask, since you are the chronicler and you record all things.”
I finally spoke up. “What makes you think I’m going to show you where it is?”
“Oh, you will, Matoran.” Furtaan points to Salis. “Otherwise that will come upon to you.”
I shudder as I looked at Salis. He was still weak, but he was managing to regain his strength. Furtaan looked onward with a smirk. I shook my head out of disagreement.
“I won’t do it. I will not betray Karhi Nui to let you have such a mask. Besides, you’re a Makuta. You can defeat those idiots anyday. The people of Karhi Nui are suitable to keep the mask in good hands.”
Furtaan nods his head and rubs his chin. “So this is a matter of national loyalty. What is so special about this place, Matoran?”
“I’ll tell you,” I said, and pulled out the Legends of Karhi Nui, one of my uncompleted works. I read it off. “Karhi Nui’s beautiful plantlife is retained by the power of the Kanohi Karhi. The culture of Karhi Nui is based on the simplicity of such life.” I finish reading. “If you take the mask away from us, we loose our distinction. We will no longer be the Karhi Nui the Matoran here love. Even if it be the will of Mata Nui, I will not lead you to the mask.”
Furtaan quietly laughs to himself and continues his words of twisted wisdom. “So you would rather be lazy as Matoran to retain all this pointless plantlife? One of the virtues is duty, Matoran, and from what I’ve seen, the Matoran indulging themselves here is the opposite of that philosophy. You are only united because of your stupid mask keeping the island habitable with life. If that was gone, you’d all turn against each other. The Ballacka group of Matoran already show such things. And your destiny is ignored, as you all only depend on what comes to you at the moment. You don’t work up to it. In truth, your Kanohi Karhi removes the good virtues your Turaga teach. And it sickens even me as a Makuta.”
I thought about what Furtaan said for a few minutes. Everything he said was right. The longer I thought, the longer Furtaan’s smile grew. But I still felt that it wouldn’t be right to lead him to the mask. It wasn’t exactlly him that made me uncomfortable with doing it. It was the outcome. I felt if someone else saw where the mask was, or if they stole it, chaos would riegn in the universe. It was safer here on Karhi Nui then in the hands of the Makuta.
I told Furtaan exactly what I felt with these thoughts, and he seemed amused. He nodded during each good point, but after my rebuttal was done, he simply closed his eyes and thought. “Well, Matoran. If I cannot have you do it on your own will, i’ll simply make you. Nakina, Husli. Take him away. I’ll see what I can do with him.”
Nakina and Husli grab my arms with considerable strength and haul me into a room where Salis was resting. Furtaan looks at me for a couple of seconds, but then turns around and looks into my stuff. Energy cuffs are put on my hands, restricting me from getting up.
Salis faces the ceiling as he lays on a bed-shaped rock. Furtaan locks us in the room. Salis laughs a bit to himself as Furtaan walks away.
“Makuta, Makuta,” Salis says to me as he stares at the drooping rocks from above him, “they always have to get their way. Unfair. Unjust. Cruel creatures that force things to go their way. All because they’re jealous of the great Mata Nui.”
“You’re one to talk,” I say to Salis in a sarcastic tone, “you don’t even live up to the Toa code.”
“Have you ever thought about the restrictions given to Toa by that code, Matoran?” Salis asks me. “I’ve saves plenty of Matoran lives by killing a dark hunter or a skakdi. The Toa who don’t often live in guilt or pain. You thank your Toa for saving your life, but you don’t consider what pain and agony they have to go through once they realize evil is still out there.”
“So what’s your point?” I ask Salis.
“My point is this, Matoran: Toa live in constant anxiety about evil still being out there, but I don’t. Because I kill my threats. And as of right now, I want to kill Furtaan. But I can’t. I am enslaved by that tyrant. But you’re the only one who can help me, Fatorak. Help him find the mask, and I’ll make sure to frame him as a tyrant and your Toa and I on this island can stop him. Therefore, you can keep the mask.”
I thought about the deal, but I was suspicious of Salis. Still, I knew Furtaan needed to be stopped so he doesn’t make the terrible mistake of letting others get the mask. Even if it did involve killing, it was only letting an outlaw continue to be an outlaw.
“How will you escape from him?” I ask.
“You’ll need to distract him. Once I regain enough elemental energy, I’ll blast myself out of here and escape. You just need Furtaan’s trust and guide him to the mask, and then I’ll take over everything.”
I nodded. “How will I get Furtaan to become distracted?” I ask.
“He’ll give you the talk soon enough,” Salis said with a grin.
