Author's note: Anyone who's read my stories on bzpower have probably read this one. The Mahi in this story are the little goat-like Rahi in the MNOLG and MNOLGII. The Po-Matoran Amadis is fashioned after the ferry guy in MNOLG, but the rest of the Matoran in this story are made up just for the purpose of this story. Happy Halloween!
Ghost Story
The setting sun spread a red-gold hue across the horizon of a rocky edge of the Po-Wahi desert. Small canyons rose and fell across this area, creating a large trench-like aperture between the sea and the desert. Unlike the wide expanse of sand that covered the desert, here vegetation grew in abundance. Several kinds of Rahi thrived here, including both migrating wild and tame Mahi goats watched by Po-Matoran goat herdsmen.
Amadis walked towards this oasis. He was traveling back to Po-Koro, as he did at the end of every week. He ran a ferry at the far eastern end of the Po-Wahi desert, so he had to return to Po-Koro every week for supplies to use or sell to the travelers who used the ferry. Amadis was very familiar with the landscape and knew that here at this oasis he could get a supper from the friendly goat herdsmen.
The chorus of bleating goats told him that a shepherd was near. Amadis approached the goats, looking around for their caretaker. The goats scattered at his approach and bleated loudly in dumb fear of the newcomer. As Amadis expected, the herdsman appeared in answer to his frightened herd. Amadis had gotten to know many of the herdsmen, but this one was new. He was dark tan with dark brown legs and wore a dark brown Matatu. The herdsman had a disk at ready in case a predator had upset his herd.
"Hello," Amadis greeted with a smile.
The herdsman jumped because he hadn't spotted Amadis yet. Seeing that he was just a Matoran, he lowered his disk. "Hi. My name's Kenban," he said, returning Amadis's smile.
"Mine's Amadis. You had anything to eat yet?"
"Nope. If you'll help me round up my herd I'll cook us both up something," Kenban offered.
"Sounds good."
Kenban began herding the thirty-odd Mahi with a staff, and Amadis chased down the wanderers and stragglers. Soon the two had the goats blocked in a makeshift canyon corral. Then the two began cooking a stew of vegetables and goat meat. As their supper cooked, the evening darkened. Soon the only light would be the stars, moon, and the fire. Amadis noticed that Kenban seemed wary of the dark and would start at the shadows that flickered against the canyon wall from the fire.
"Not afraid of the dark are you?" Amadis asked with a grin.
Kenban looked insulted. "No, of course not!" A log in the fire fell, causing the fire to pop. Kenban jumped and looked around. Amadis chuckled. Kenban turned back to face him. "Well, I'm not."
Amadis kept quiet, thinking. So, his new friend was afraid of the dark. He was a bit of a prankster, and he could not pass something like this up. As he ate his supper, his mind went to work.
"So, are you staying here for the night?" Kenban asked. "I have some extra blankets."
"No," Amadis answered, looking around. "I wouldn't really want to stay here." He looked back at Kenban and saw an inquiring look on his face. "Not that I have anything against this territory," he added quickly. "It's just that this particular spot just sort of gives me the willies." He looked around again, and glanced sideways at Kenban. His words had gotten the response he wanted.
Kenban looked around, a bit of a scared look in his eyes. "Wh-why?" he asked.
Amadis had to keep himself from smiling. Kenban was falling for the bait. He feigned disbelief. "You mean you don't know what happened here?"
Kenban gulped and shook his head. His eyes portrayed nervousness.
"Why, you mean that you never heard about the ghost that got Gaules?" Amadis asked in a whisper.
Kenban began shaking his head when he stopped, staring at Amadis with a look of terror. "Ghost!" he fairly shouted. Then he composed himself. "Aw, there's no such thing as ghosts."
"Well, then you'll not get scared by the story of the ghost that got Gaules," Amadis said with a reassuring tone.
"Who's Gaules?"
"He was a herdsman, just like you," he answered, emphasizing 'was.'
"Was?" A bird call pierced the night, making Kenban jump.
"Now then," Amadis began, "It all happened a long, long time ago. Gaules was just like any other herdsman, minding his own goats and such. But then, he started telling the other herdsman about his seeing strange glowing lights along the canyon wall. The others told him that it was probably just some luminescent Rahi, but Gaules refused that answer.
"He told them, 'No, it can't be. I've inspected the area where it was in the daylight and it's impossible for any Rahi to get to where I saw the light. The cliff walls were smooth as anything. And it hovered. I sure don't know of any Rahi that hovers.'
"The others tried to convince him that it was just his imagination, and for a while Gaules believed that it was. But then, he started saying that the light kept on getting closer to him. He said that, at first, the light stayed far away, but now it was getting closer and it was starting to scare him. Some of the other herdsmen began to believe him and kept a look out for the glowing thing, but no one except Gaules ever saw it. One day they found Gaules a nervous wreck.
" 'It's a ghost,' he told them, quaking. 'A Matoran ghost. And it's got a knife with it and it keeps on looking at me!'
"The others tried to calm him down, but he was too much of a nervous wreck. They tried to remind him that it must be his imagination because no one else ever saw this light-ghost thing, but he couldn't be calmed down. Finally, they told Gaules that they'd assign someone to stay with him, and he calmed down a little.
"That night the Matoran staying with Gaules later said that Gaules was positively stark scared to go to sleep. He said that Gaules kept on trying to stall going to bed, saying that the ghost was going to get him if he went to sleep. The other herdsman finally coaxed Gaules to go to bed.
"They had both been asleep for quite some time when suddenly the other herdsman was awakened by Gaules screaming. The other herdsman jumped out of his bed and grabbed his staff, but the clearing was silent. There was no sign of any glowing ghost either. The herdsman went over to Gaules bed to see what upset him, but when he got there he found that Gaules wasn't. Puzzled, and slightly afraid of the truth in Gaules's ghost story, he looked around. He called out Gaules's name.
"Then he noticed something that both frightened and puzzled him. It was silent. Even asleep, the goats would be making noise. He slowly approached the pen where the goats were being kept, staff and disk at ready. When he peered over the side of the gate he stumbled back, terrified and overwhelmed. All of the goats in the pen had been slaughtered, torn to tatters.
"The herdsman ran for all he was worth. He didn't stop until he came across another herdsman camp. The other herdsmen, started awake by his terrified yells, listened to the horrifying story he gasped out. The other herdsmen were quite shaken by this, so they decided to stay there that night and look for Gaules in the morning and inform Turaga Onewa (you see, Toa Pohatu wasn't around back then) that some mad Rahi was roaming and killing the goats for no apparent reason. But the next day, when they examined the area, they found all the goats torn up but no sign of Gaules. His blanket wasn't even tussled, it still lay as if he he'd never been there. They looked for him for weeks after, calling his name, but they never heard from him again."
Amadis leaned back, and watched to see Kenban's reaction. Sure enough, Kenban was petrified. "And the last place Gaules was ever seen, where he slept that fateful night, was right here."
Kenban looked around as if a ghost was going to pop out of one of the many shadows around. Amadis almost felt sorry for the poor herdsman.
"Well, I'd better get going," Amadis said, getting up and putting his stuff together. "See you later. Good thing you don't believe in ghosts."
Kenban looked around fearfully. "Yea-yeah. B-bye."
Amadis walked away, chuckling to himself. The stars and moon provided good light for him. He arrived at Po-Koro late that night. He just reached the gate when the guard hailed him.
"Who goes there?"
"Amadis, Po-Matoran," he answered. He peered more closely at the guard then started laughing. "Oh man, Gaules, when do you get off duty? I've got just about the funniest tale in all of Mata Nui to tell you."
The End