Sunrise on a Thousand Years

Book 1 in the Of Legends and Destinies saga

(Some of the following events have been revised to fit with the story. It is not part of the official cannon whatsoever. I am NOT Greg F. and no, I do not own Bionicle.)

Chapter 1

As Noah was walking off of the school campus, she noticed how bright and warm the weather became all of the sudden. She was really delighted that the weather cleared up the fog and grey clouds from this morning. It really was no fun living in a world without color, after all. Sometimes, she just wished that she could live in a world where the sun was always shining almost every single day.

"Hey, Noah!" called one of her classmates on the soccer field "I accidentally kicked the soccer ball onto the upper woods trail. Since you're already right by it, can you go get it for us?"

"Sure, no problem!" said Noah

At the entrance of the school grounds, there was a long, winding trail in the woods that surrounded half of the entire campus. It was often used in PE for when the teachers made them run for "warm-ups". All of the kids at school hated running the upper woods trail. Since Noah was already right by the beginning of the trail, she took a right and started walking down the forest road.

By the time she arrived only a quarter of the way through, she found a regular black and white soccer ball leaning against a tall, pine tree. She placed her beige-colored backpack, picked the ball up, went to the edge of the trail where the soccer field was below and kicked it towards the players who thanked her for returning the ball to them.

The moment she turned around to head back, Noah gasped with surprise. There was a small boy that appeared to be around the age of eight or nine years old. She never even heard him walk up to her. He was wearing a white long sleeve shirt with a pair of baggy khaki shorts and brown sneakers. He was looking at her eagerly with his shining, sky blue eyes. Noah didn't know why but there was an odd gentle and calm aura around this boy.

"'Scuse me, miss," he said "I got one of my prized possessions stuck in this big, ol' wall thingy. Will you please help me get it out?"

Noah tilted her head slightly, puzzled. Prized possessions? Those were two big words that grade school kids never used. She felt something was up. But thinking that he might have been some sort of a child genius or something, Noah simply smiled. She seemed to have enough time to help him and get home so why not right?

"Uh, okay." she said

"Great, follow me!"

In an instant, he sprinted off down the woods with Noah chasing after him. The boy ran a fast as a wildebeest! Noah could barely keep up with him; then again, she was one of the slowest runners in her class so it wasn't exactly a surprise to her. As they were coming around the bus barn (where they kept all of the school buses) which was beyond the soccer field, the boy led her to a trail off of the upper woods trail and into the woods itself.

"Over here!" cheered the boy

He continued to lead her down through the forest while jumping over fallen logs and running up and down steep hills. After minutes of running, she felt completely lost. She feared that she might've gone too far off campus; probably for miles. The boy was far ahead of Noah but thankfully, he was easy to find because of his light blond hair. The boy stopped on the left side of a fork in the road motioning her over to him.

"This way!" he said who then dashed off again

"God, I hate running." Noah muttered to herself as she was beginning to wear out

She then followed the boy to an enormous tree that was as wide and thick as ten feet had collapsed right on the path. There was no way they were going to leap over that. She then noticed the boy crawling under a small space that looked like someone his size could fit through. Noah thought he was crazy if she was going to fit under there.

"Under here!" said the boy as he crawled through

Once he was done crawling through, Noah quickly threw herself onto the ground and crawled through the tiny space which surprisingly, she managed to fit through. She then sprinted after the boy who was still far ahead of her. She wondered how long she could keep this up. She was beginning to lose breath. What was he in such a rush for anyway?

"Almost there!" cried the boy

Finally, once they arrived at their destined location, Noah stopped to catch her breath and looked all around her panting. They were in some sort of a meadow like the ones seen in fairy tales. But it seemed too real to be a meadow as gorgeous as this one. It had lush green grass with many different types of colorful flowers sticking up from the ground. She thought it was beautiful.

Then, something mysterious and peculiar caught her eye. There were strange, ancient statues covered in moss standing in two straight lines to form a sort of row. What culture their origins were, she could not tell. They were so detailed and so beautiful, that words cannot even describe what they look like. She walked down the row looking at the statues left and right until she came across a set of stone stairs. She climbed to the top of them to see the boy waiting for her in front of a massive stone wall with many pictures and writings of a language never before seen in this world.

"Is… this the place?" asked Noah

"Yep, this is it!" said the boy cheerfully

"So where's your prized possession or whatever you call it?"

"It's right in there."

He gestured to a small niche in the wall. She looked inside and saw a strand of beautiful teal colored beads hidden inside. Noah reached in for the beads and tried to pull them out but to no avail. It seemed to be stuck. She then stuck her hand inside the hole feeling for whatever it was that was preventing the beads from being freed. She felt her hand touching a flat, smooth, circular, stone surface. Thinking it was part of the beads as some sort of a necklace, she struggled to yank it out. The necklace was really, really, stuck. She had to push her foot against the wall just to get it to budge slightly. It slowly began to let itself be dragged out of the hole.

"Come on, you're almost there," urged the boy "Just a little more..."

Little did Noah realize that the object inside the hole began to glow a misty, light blue aura.

"Almost, almost..." said the boy

Finally, the necklace sprung out of the niche and hit Noah in the face as she was falling over. She felt the cold surface of the circular item she found in the recess against her nose and forehead. She picked it off of her face and sat up to examine this thing… whatever it was. Attached to the beads was a black, circular, stone talisman that if you held it up against the light, it seemed to shine a very dark shade of midnight blue. On the stone, was a white, mysterious symbol that was comprised of three circles (one that was larger than the other) in the center of two wide, wavy lines. Her bright green eyes were sparkling with wonder as she stared at this talisman.

"Pretty…" she whispered to herself "Does this really belong to you, kid? It's really beautiful if I do say so myse-"

When Noah turned her head to face the boy, he was nowhere in sight. It was only her all alone in these ruins. She looked left and right to see any sign of him, but there was no trace. She was a bit concerned that he had disappeared for two reasons; the first being that she had to return this talisman to him. The second being that she didn't know her way back from here.

Suddenly, something happened. The wall engraved with mysterious hieroglyphs began to glow white. She stood up and gasped in alarm. A slow yet strong breeze began to roll in. As it grew stronger, so did the light from the wall. It began to glow so bright that she had to shield her eyes. It soon began to envelope her body and within seconds, she vanished. Everything then became as it was before.

The boy slowly came from behind his hiding place from behind one of the old, moss-covered statues. It all seemed quiet. Had he succeeded in doing what had to be done? He decided to check and went to the spot he fled from. When he saw that the child he met had finally disappeared, he smiled warmly. Everything was all going according to plan. He stared up at the sky with signs of hope in his eyes.

"It has begun," he said softly "Noah, whatever part of the island you may be on, may you find safety among those who dwell there. May you let love guide your path."

In the blink of an eye, the boy's eyes changed from sky blue to a soothing pearlescent white.

Noah felt a strong heat pounding on her body. She opened her eyes and stood up looking at the area around her bewildered. She seemed to be in a cavern of some sort where there was a lava river flowing through it and large rocks lying on either side of the river. It felt like the inside of an oven in here… wherever here was anyway. She didn't understand how she came from being in some ruins into being in an area surrounded by rocks… and lava… and steam… but really, mostly lava.

She tucked the talisman into her pocket, put her hands on her hips and glanced left and right at her surrounding before letting out a sigh. She decided to look around for a while. She was stuck here so she might as well get some answers on how to get out. She strolled around in the tunnel looking for any signs of intelligent life; that is, if there was intelligent life. But as the minutes of walking passed by, she started to wonder if there was any sign of life at all.

She grew bored after walking a while. How long was this cavern? She wasn't planning on being stuck here forever. It wasn't until she got bored that Noah saw a peculiar object hanging on the wall of the cavern. It looked like a mask of some sort but she didn't know the origin of which it was from. It wasn't like any of the masks she saw in her social studies books. It was a dull, grey color with a very unique design. She wanted to try it on but she thought it was best to leave it alone since she thought that it might've been part of a memorial or something.

But before she decided to walk away, she heard a loud hiss behind her. She slowly turned around to find a HUGE purple mechanical scorpion with a mask on its face similar to the one she saw on the wall. However, this mask was different in some ways. It seemed to be covered in rust or at least, something slimy that looked like rust. It was glaring at her with its beady, blood red eyes; and they did not look friendly. Noah was stunned with fear. Her heart was fluttering against her chest rapidly. She wanted to run but she couldn't; she was frozen in place.

Toa Tahu walked through the cavern anxious to hurry up and get the Great Kanohi mask. According to Turaga Vakama, the next mask was hidden somewhere in the lowest cavern beneath the Mangai volcano. He had been walking for hours and he still hadn't found it. Neither did he find any Rahi wearing infected masks. It looked like this part of his quest would be smooth sailing. It was at this moment when all of the sudden that he heard a high-pitched scream. Someone was definitely in trouble.

Surprised, he raced through the tunnels trying to track down the source of the voice. Eventually, he came across an infected Nui-Jaga threatening what appeared to be the strangest creature he had ever seen. It had a very light colored face which was the same color as most of its arms and hands. It had green shoulders and a green and white torso with deep blue legs and black and white feet. The top of its head seemed to be covered in string-like thread that was a very odd color (he couldn't tell if it was black or dark brown). It also seemed to have a strange black and silver ornament around its neck that looked as if it could easily fit on top of its head. Whatever this thing was, it most certainly wasn't Matoran.

Judging by how its light green eyes gazed upon the Nui-Jaga in fear, he knew that it wasn't his enemy; apparently it didn't seem to be an ally either. But he felt that if he didn't disinfect that Nui-Jaga now, it might come across Ta-Koro and possibly attack it. That was something Tahu wasn't going to stand for. In an instant, he dashed onto the scene with his fire sword in hand.

The Nui-Jaga quickly turned its attention to him and readied its stinger to attack. When its stinger lunged, Tahu immediately blocked it off with his sword and leaped over the possessed creature landing right behind it. It turned around and attacked but was once again blocked. When he was holding the block, Tahu turned his head to the organic creature.

"You, foreigner, do you understand me? he asked

"Um… yeah." said Noah

"Are you alright?"

Noah nodded her head shyly.

"Good; because after this, you and I are in for a long talk."

She didn't know this weird robot-like warrior person was talking about. She just hoped that this guy wasn't the kind that would first pretend to be her friend and then stab her in the back while she wasn't looking. She stood from a distance and watched as the robotic warrior and the crazed scorpion-zilla beast battled each other. She thought she was dreaming. But was she dreaming? She wished she knew the answer to that.

As the Nui-Jaga repeatedly jabbed its stinger at Tahu, he swiftly dodged its attacks attempting to swing his sword at the infected mask but they were always blocked by its protodermis-hard pincers. After a few minutes or so of fighting Tahu, it grew bored and decided to turn its attention back to Noah. It formed a sphere of toxin on the tip of its tail and hurled it in the girl's direction.

Tahu saw this and quickly changed his mask from a Kanohi Hau to a Kanohi Kakama. Then, in the blink of an eye, he dashed at Noah and managed to carry her out of the way of the attack. It happened so fast that Noah found herself completely speechless. She looked up at the fire Toa in awe and utter confusion. Who (or more importantly, what) was this robot guy? He gently set her on the ground and then spoke.

"Please try not to get yourself killed." he said

After that he switched back to his regular mask and jumped right back into battle. The Nui-Jaga started lunging not only its tail but its claws as well and this time it was attacking at a faster rate making it a little more difficult for him to block and dodge. After Tahu had managed to perform a back flip to get away from one of its claws, he had noticed an opening to the infected mask. Taking the opportunity, he charged up his sword, its blade consumed in blazing yellow, orange and crimson flames. He then jumped up towards the large Rahi and swung his sword downward in a single agile move.

The Rahi froze in place for only a brief moment. Then the mask that was attached to it broke in half and fell onto the ground. The beast also fell, its red eyes reverting to yellow and closing. Noah approached it cautiously, hoping that it wasn't going to spring back to life in an instant. It never did. It only lied there motionless as if it were only a mere statue and nothing more. The flames on Tahu's sword died down and he sheathed it away on his back.

"Is it… dead?" asked Noah

"No," said Tahu "It is only unconscious. The infected mask it was wearing must've took a lot of its strength. Judging by how it's not in its territory in Po-Koro, I'd say it was sent to protect the mask I was searching for."

"Po-Koro? Infected masks? What are you talking about?"

"You really aren't from around here, are you?"

"Uh, no, not really. I don't even know where here is."

"Come to think of it, you're not even a Matoran, a Rahi, a Turaga or a Toa."

"Wh-what…?"

"What are you exactly?"

"Whaddya mean 'What am I?'? I'm a Human! Can't you tell?"

"A… human?"

"Yeah, that's what I am. You know, we got hair, skin, that type of stuff."

Tahu didn't seem to get it.

"I… see… anyway, since you are not a threat and you seem to be new around here, I should take you to Ta-Koro. I'm sure many of the answers you seek lie there. But first…" he added

He started looking around for something; the mask he was searching for earlier. He looked behind Noah's shoulder and found a dull grey Kanohi Akaku hanging off of the canyon wall. His eyes lit up with surprise and relief. He walked over to it, picked it right off the wall, examined it for a minute to make sure that it wasn't infected and then turned to Noah with a small smile on his face.

"Now then, shall we?"

He began leading the way to Ta-Koro.

"Got a name?" he asked

"Yeah, it's Noah. And you are…" replied Noah

"Tahu, the Toa of Fire."

Unbeknownst to the Toa and Human, something was watching from deep within the shadows. The Makuta, in the form of two glowing red eyes, was brimming with intrigue. A Human, huh? You don't see those around anymore. He started to wonder whether or not she could be useful enough to him. Sure she was too small to take down a Toa but she did at least have some intelligence unlike those mindless beasts he was always controlling. She could probably be some sort of a commander perhaps? Probably so. Probably so indeed.

(Author's notes: Dawn of Metamorphosis is still happening. Just need to organize my thoughts while struggling with school and life at the same time.)