I am sorry for the ridiculous long wait. Several things happened all from a brief writers block to trouble with the computer. However, I am currently revising chapter four and will soon start (I have actually already started) chapter five. For now, I give you the only part of this story that is not written in first-person…
Enjoy.
"What!" Teridax exploded, "A human? Here?"
Seated on his demonic looking throne, the master of shadows had a very intimidating look about him that the Rahi and most others who came into his presence quickly saw. Moreover, they would never forget about it when they left, well if they did leave.
"That is what I saw," squeaked the shaking Rahi who had delivered the report.
"Then again, a human here might be good," replied Teridax. Lowering his voice as a plan began to unfold in his mind. "Tell me, how old did this human look?"
"Young," was the reply.
Teridax smiled, "Good, yes that is good." Going silent, he seemed to forget completely about the mutated Rahi waiting in front of him.
"Master?" It asked quietly after a long moment of silence.
"What do you want?" Teridax snapped, turning his gaze on the beast.
"Nothing," the Rahi squeaked jumping backwards and lowering its head.
"Good. Prepare some of my Rahkshi sons," Then smiling he added, "We're going to invite a guest."
"Yes master," The Rahi said before dropping to all fours and racing out of its master's presence.
After it had gone, Teridax turned towards the only other being noticeable in the throne room.
'Let him think he is alone with me, it will do him good,' he thought motioning the being forward.
"Chirox," he acknowledged, "this might be the perfect opportunity to try it."
"Yes, my master," Chirox spoke with a voice almost as cold as Teridax's, "What do you command?"
Teridax studied the black Makuta standing in front of him. Chirox was an average sized Makuta, with silver streaks detailing his armor and knife-like claws stretching out of each of his fingers.
"I will conduct the experiment myself."
"And me?"
"I have need of you elsewhere," Teridax said, standing up, "I've appointed five other Makuta to go with you to the core. Once there, you will await further orders."
"It will be done." Taking a short bow, Chirox turned and walked out, completely unaware of the second set of eyes watching as he departed.
"I want you to take care of the human's training." To anyone watching it would have seemed like Teridax was talking to himself, if anyone. At least, until a form started to take shape in the shadows against the wall, not five feet from where Chirox had stood moments before.
"Easily done," came a deep voice from the form as it finished taking shape into a tall being. It stepped out of the shadows, powerful tail twitching slightly, and into the light caste by a nearby lightstone. The being took the Rahi-like appearance most Makuta had a step further. Unarmored, he was the shade of a moonless night with a muscular body. Slanted green eyes stared unblinking above a mouth full of sharp pointed teeth. The pair of horns on his head resembled that of a crown. Although Teridax could not see them now, he knew the being had very sharp claws that were rumored to be sharper than a Ta-Matoran's sword fresh from the forge. His nimble tail made to strike quickly and fatally. The way the tail looked when it had armor, and his fighting style reminded Teridax of the way a certain Rahi used its own stinger when it hunted.
"I hope you haven't been killing any of my sons, Wraith?"
"Losing my edge is not something I'm interested in doing." Producing a toothy smile, Wraith added, "Besides, if they wanted to live they would have kept a better eye on their surroundings."
"Perhaps, but I'm losing more bodies to your enjoyment then any other source, including Toa."
"Good, I don't like competition."
"Really? You being a Viztrak and all, I would have thought you would absolutely love it. In fact, were not the very lives of the Viztrak centered on competing against one another to become the chief warlord?"
"And what would you know of my species?"
'Did he just growl at me?'
Teridax knew a challenge when he heard one and this one was no different. Glancing at the being standing in front of him, Teridax could almost see every muscle in Wraith tighten as if to strike. With any other being that made such an act to him like that, he would have struck him down himself immediately. However, Wraith was too valuable even if he was sometimes defiant. With a sigh, Teridax faced him and replied, "Sadly not enough as I would like."
"And don't get your hopes up about learning more," Wraith hissed. Nevertheless, he seemed to shift back into a less threatening posture. 'If there is such a thing for him,' Teridax thought to himself.
Gali seemed to follow the river as we walked across the green, slightly hilly, countryside. To the east, which just happened to be on my left, a tall mountain reached up to the sky with its snow capped peak. Learning from Gali, the mountain was more or less in the middle of the island.
"Mata Nui, isn't it?" I asked.
"Yes, an island composed of six Wahi. Ta-Wahi, Ga-Wahi, Po-Wahi, Ko-Wahi, Onu-Wahi, and lastly Le-Wahi."
Gali had already told me the different Matoran words for each element and about the different Matoran and Toa living in each, so I had no trouble matching them together.
"What do the Po-Matoran do besides taking care of a museum?" I asked a spilt-second before realizing my mistake.
Gali whirled around with a smile on her face, but kept her laughter in check. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but the sound of not at all controlled laughter drowned out any words she might have said. Simultaneously turning our heads in the direction the laughter was coming from, Gali and I looked at a tall tree just in time to see a green blur drop like a rock and onto the soft ground with a thud.
"Lewa?" said Gali, joining me at staring wide eyed at the fallen Toa rolling on the ground.
"I…ha, ha"
I watched as the robot - no, Toa - tried to talk over his laughing fit with very little success.
"I'm sorry," Gali sighed and turned to face me, "That's Lewa, Toa of Air, and at the moment he seems to be more interested in playing on the ground than saying hello."
"I see," my earlier irritation replaced with a little amusement at the scene in front of me.
As Gali went over to help her friend, I put my back to them to get another look at the grassy landscape. We had crossed the river not too long ago and after leaving it behind the terrain had become nothing but open fields and scattered trees. The sun, which had just come up when I first arrived, was slowly disappearing beyond the horizon. Then I realized someone was trying to talk to me.
"I'm sorry," I apologized, turning back around, "What did you say?"
"It will be dark soon, so I've decided we should stay here for the night and continue on in the morning," the Toa of Water repeated.
"Until then," added Lewa in an energetic voice, "you can say-tell more jokes!"
It took me a minute to understand what he had said. In that minute, Gali noticed my confused look and gave a soft smile with a shake of her head.
"You'll get used to it," was all she said.
"Get used to what?"
"Don't worry about it, brother," Gali soothed him.
"Don't fret-worry about what?" asked the green Toa sounding confused.
Night had fallen and Gali had retired for the night after Lewa had flown off saying that he would be back in the early morning, yet I remained awake. Sitting up and staring into the small fire at the bright embers as they sent waves of warmth into the nights' cold air. I thought over the events that had occurred in that day. It had been dark when I left, no taken from, my world and yet it was day when I arrived here.
'Strange,' I thought, 'it's almost like wait…no it can't be.'
I made a mental note to think about that later and moved on. As I thought over my conversations with Gali I suddenly become angry. 'She's not telling me something,' I hissed softly between my teeth.
I only have her word that there is this…Turaga, and this whole thing is what she says it is. For all I know, she could be taking me to become an experiment or something. Moreover, she seemed excessively eager to have brought me into this world in the first place.
'There were plenty of places we could have hidden from the car,' I thought vigorously. 'How do I know there even was a car? It could have been Lewa or any other one of her friends.'
That night was to become one of the longest nights I have ever experienced.
Thanks to my kind beta readers and LokaCola who is the first reviewer out of several people who have giving alerts to my story.
~Dave~