Chapter One
First Contact
Ciox strolled down the coastline of Ruta Nui, his mask glinting silver in the setting sunlight. As a De-Matoran, he had silver and black armour, but it was slightly rusted and scratched in numerous places. Still, he liked the scars. They reminded him of past kills.
On Ruta Nui, food was hard to come by. So were Matoran, for that matter. A small village of 50 near the center of the island, where the extinct volcano was, held the bulk of the population. Ciox knew, though, that other Matoran lived elsewhere on the small, ravaged island. He'd found discarded broken tools lying in swamps, or a Rahi carcass that had the telltale scrapes on the bones that could only have been made by Matoran tools.
He was on the trail of one of these nomad Matoran now.
The Matoran made no effort to disguise himself, as if he knew Ciox was there and wanted him to follow. The beach Ciox walked was clean of footprints, and kio away from the village, so the Matoran had to be a nomad. Ciox had spotted some footprints, and, figuring that they meant a Matoran was nearby, Ciox followed. Once a shadow flitted over him, but when he looked up, there was nothing there.
As he walked, Ciox tried to remember how he'd arrived on Ruta Nui. He recalled a ship, and weapons flashing, and screams, then the feel of cold water. He could remember no more. He had washed up on this very beach, and would have died except for a Ga-Matoran who found him when she went to check her fishing nets.
He started as he saw a flash of white in the trees. He would have thought nothing of it and walked on, but the footprints led into the forest near the beach, then stopped. He dashed over to the trees, and, thinking the white flash may have been a Ko-Matoran, cried:
"Hey! Come out of there, brother Matoran!"
This time, a flash of blue.
"I won't hurt you!" His eyes darted down to the hunting spear he held in his hand. "Look!" He stabbed his spear into the ground and released it. He raised his hands, as peacefully as he could.
The blue shifted, and so did Ciox's gaze. "Are you hurt?" he asked the blur.
He hadn't been expecting an answer, but one came anyway. "No..."
The voice was distinctly female. Ciox realized he had said 'brother Matoran'.
"Are you a girl?" As he was saying it, he felt stupid at the wording. If they were a girl, they'd be offended at his stupidity. If they were a boy, they'd be angry at the accusation. "Sorry, I meant..."
Laughter rang from high in the tree. "No problem, I am a girl. What's your name?"
"C-Ciox.." (Guess who?) stuttered.
"I'm Wildr," said the Matoran, apparently named Wildr.
"Wihldr?" Ciox repeated.
"No, Wyl-der," said Wildr. Ciox felt himself blush. What was wrong with him? He wasn't normally this soft. He had killed Tarakava and ash bears without fear, but this girl had coaxed a blush out of him. Ciox decided he wasn't very good at talking with girls.
"Um...can you come down here where I can see you?" Ciox said sheepishly. He felt like a moron.
"Sure," said Wildr, and fell to the ground right in front of Ciox, bracing for the impact with her whole body. Then she stood up and flashed Ciox a grin. Contrary to what he had suspected, she was a Ro-Matoran, with blue and white armour and mask. He felt like he should remember her mask from somewhere, but he couldn't recall from what.
"Nice mask" was all he said.
"Same to you," Wildr grinned again. "What kind is yours?"
"Um, I think it's a Kanohi Mahiki," said Ciox, glad they were talking about something he knew.
"Mine's a Kanohi Iden," Wildr announced proudly. "I haven't got a clue what it does, but I like it anyway."
"Same here." Ciox smiled back before remembering what he had followed her for. "What are you doing out here?"
"I'm a nomad," said Wildr like it was the most normal thing on the island (it wasn't, but almost).
"Do you like it?"
"No..." Wildr said, almost wistfully. "I know there's a village somewhere on the island, but every time I go deep into the forest, I get attacked by Rahi. My knife isn't much use against bigger Rahi, unlike your spear." Wildr gestured first to her knife, which may have been made of bone or fire-hardened birch-wood, then to Ciox's spear. She blinked once to shed her self-pity moment, then said to Ciox, "We nomads should stick together, right?"
"That makes no sense. If we stick together we're not nomads anymore. But, uh, I'm not even a nomad. I live in the village." Wildr's eyes lit up visibly. "I can take you there if you'd like." Ciox already knew she'd say yes. "But we'd better go fast; the big Rahi come out when it gets dark."
And with a quick "Yes!" from Wildr, the two set off to get back to the village, lit by the setting sun.
...
High in the air above the island, Toa of Air Brulaz shut off his Mask of Concealment, which he had used to avoid detection by the destined De-Matoran.
So, the two Matoran meet again, he thought. Let us hope the rest of their team will slip-fall into step quick-soon as well.
He called on his elemental power and soared toward the flickering torches of the village.
