Find Him Again

I miss him, him being my father after all. My mother never talks about him, though she says that I'm a splitting image of him and how he would be proud of the young woman I've become.

It's been thirteen years since I last saw him, last talked to him, but I don't remember what it was like to be with him. I remember, however, my family. My father and mother, aunt and uncle, and my twin cousin, Jocelyn. I miss them all and I wish we could be a family again, but an invisible force has driven us apart, one of the seven deadly sins. Jealousy.

Jealousy. It's amazing what it can do to a person. Drive them against the people they love the most, turn them against their own friends and family, and cause them to lose sight of what it means to be with each other. Maybe…maybe if my father hadn't been so important, so honored, this never would have happened. If he had just been normal, we would still be together and Jocelyn and I would have grown up together, the best of friends.

But since my uncle's betrayal, life was never the same again. After his attack, Mother and I fled to her world, where she had been born and raised. From the time I was five to today, she watched me grow up and become more and more like Father. I had his eyes and the color of my hair matched the color of his armor. Oh, how much I wish I could see him again.

Thirteen years is such a long time to go without a father who helped to bring you into the world of the living. Thirteen years and I have not yet returned to the world of my birth, my home. With my eighteenth birthday only a week away, I have begun to pack for my journey to see my loved ones again. Maybe swing in a side trip to see my boyfriend, Kopaka, again. If he's not already dead…

And yet, and yet my heart aches for those that have been lost in fighting for liberation of their people. Is my old teacher, Dume, even still alive or has he perished in one of those battles. And Arista, what about him? My guardian couldn't have died, could he?

My memories are starting to only just return from the darkest depths of my mind. With them, I see my family, my cousin and me playing, when Father gave me Bella, my silver mare, when she was just a colt. My aunt and mother constantly talking about how they would survive the two of us in teenage years.

Somewhere in all of this confusion, I see my uncle casting out Father, sealed away in a mask headed for some distant world. Whether this is the future, part, or present, I cannot tell, but either way, this cannot spell anything but trouble.

How could he do this? Turn against his own family for something that he didn't have? He's changed from a kind, caring figure into a horrible monster, destroying those that stand in his way.

He's turned against his own brother, his own kin. I don't think he even knows I'm alive. The only blood of his brother, his only niece. I wouldn't be surprised if now, he cares only for himself.

I have been told that what I have seen is true. My father has been cast out of his own universe and is on course for another. I bristle at the fact and my blood runs cold whenever I see those that once stood by him. Kopaka often asks me if I'm feeling all right, the way I pale whenever my uncle's name is mentioned, but I tell him it's nothing. At least Dume's alive, but he is a Turaga now. He never lets on, but he recognized me the moment I met them.

We began to discuss plans on how to bring Father back, but I ignore them. The only way to bring him back is to find him, but it would require one of us to leave. I'm the only one willing to do it, the others looking at me as if I had grown two heads. They ask me why I'm so keen on finding him alone and I tell them that they are needed in their world.

So I am supplied with roughly a week's worth of food and water. I worry for my friends as I take off into the unknown. I worry for the fact that I may never see them again. But I swear I will find him.

My father, the Great Spirit.

My father, Mata Nui.

Wow, that was my first one-shot and it actually turned out pretty well. Again, read and review and tell me what you think. Constructive criticism welcome!