Lehon let Kent go. Sam looked around. "Isn't this the city Turaga Velin talked about. The City of Legends?" Sam asked awe struck at the city, even though it was in ruins.
Green webbing draped across most of the structures, like a spider's web.
"We're here." Lehon spoke quietly. "See Kent, we didn't get stuck in the middle of a building, and this is a real place." Haylie said in an 'I told you so' sort of voice.
Kent glared at her. Ten glared at him, though it was clear that she was exhausted from the effort.
Lehon looked in awe of the city. What could have destroyed such an enormous city? Surely they had toa to protect them. Were the toa killed? Lehon shivered at the thought. What kind of monsters could kill toa and destroy such a beautiful city?
'Dark Hunters little one.' A kind, but deep voice said. Lehon jumped and turned to face it. There standing a few feet away was a red and gold toa. Lehon could tell that it was a spirit by the blue aura around him.
"Who are you?" She asked warily, her voice was quiet, not drawing her teammate's attention.
'Who would you be?' he countered "She who Walks Among Spirits." She answered.
'Really? Odd name for a toa.' He commented. 'I'm Lhikan, Toa of Fire, and when I was alive, Protector of Metru Nui. You're the first I've met that can speak to the departed.'
"How did you know that?" She asked surprised.
'you give off a light blue aura, unlike your teammates.'
"We're looking for Mata Nui, the island." Lehon spoke.
'I know where it is.' He responded, amusement in his eyes.
'Can you show us?" She asked.
'Why?' He questioned.
"Our villages were destroyed by someone named Alikin he took the Mask of Nightmares and we think he's trying to take it to Makuta. We're trying head him off o get there before him." She explained quickly.
Lhikan looked at her grimly 'This is ill news. There are toa there, older than you are, but they have not been anywhere beyond their island and have not experienced much.' He said doubtfully
"We've been to a lot of places. We came to get back the mask, we can help." She insisted.
The toa looked at her for a long moment. 'I do not doubt you. But as young as you are and as inexperienced as the toa on the island, this just makes your task harder.' He said grimly.
He shook his head slightly. 'it makes no matter. Come, I will show you how to get you to the island above.' Then the ghost toa walked off.
"Guys…" She began, then realized they were all staring at her. "Lets go." She said quietly.
She began to follow the red and gold toa her siblings following her. 'And by the way She who Walks With Spirits' He called
"Hm?" Lehon said looking intently at him. He gave her a small smile 'welcome to Metru Nui.'
Lehon followed the Toa of Fire for what seemed like hours through the grand city. But everyone followed, not complaining at all, lost in the sheer size of the buildings.
Everyone but Haylie.
"Guys, come on what are we doing following Lehon around? She doesn't know where anything is here." Haylie complained.
Kent cast her an annoyed glance.
"Haylie, were following Lehon cause she's following a spirit of the city." Mithra explained patently, while keeping her eyes on the fast moving Toa and trying not to trip on any rubble.
"Phhh. You actually believe that she can see spirits? Come on Mithra, the dead are dead. You can't see them, let alone talk to them. They sit in their graves rotting away like dead things should." Haylie said bluntly.
Mithra glared at her.
"Haylie! How could you say such things? Do you think she was just acting when she was crying back at Lika-Nui? Of course she can talk to the dead. Not all of the dead stay in their graves. Don't you believe in angles?" She asked incredulously Haylie cast an annoyed glance at her.
"I didn't say that I thought she way faking, I just said that the dead are dead, you can't talk to them. And no I don't believe in angles. Couldn't she be schizophrenic of something?" Haylie asked sullenly.
Mithra gasped and glared again at her. "HAYLIE, what a stupid thing to say. Do you honestly think that she's insane?" She demanded, her voice unusually hard and unfriendly.
"Whatever. Of course I don't think she's insane." Haylie sulked. "But I think she might be-Oh never mind." She muttered.
As Mithra continued to follow Lehon, she couldn't help but notice that Ten was avoiding Kent largely, and almost went out of her way to not be near him.
She bit her lip and hoped the two could patch things up between them. They were usually good friends and the way Kent spoke back in Lika Nui, his words might not have been intended to cut deeply, but they did.
To her, he was saying he didn't trust her or have any faith in her. And that was not an insult she took lightly. It was deep hurt, and from a close friend. She could brush off an insult like a mistake she made in practice, but not trusting her meant one of two things.
She had somehow lost your trust through serious act of betrayal, and if you were a friend, she would try hard to regain your trust. Or you had no trust in her in the first place, then she didn't bother to try to regain your trust and detested you.
Mithra bit her lip. She hoped that it wasn't the second choice. Right now, they needed to be UNITED not go off on their own and do whatever. But Mithra knew that Kent had really hurt Ten dispite what she was showing.
Trust was an important thing to her. Since she was a mute she had to trust someone not to mistranslate what she was saying, and trust someone in battle not to kill her, because she had no voice to cry out. They seemed petty to her at first, her reasons, having to trust someone in a battle fighting next to you because you had no voice. But, so many times she now realized that her voice saved her. She would cry for her companions for help, and they would come. Ten however was powerless to cry out, she lost her voice, and that, she was sure was devastating, not being able to have someone understand you , unless she was there, translating gestures into words.
"Mithra?" Sam's voice broke into her thoughts.
She looked up at her friend, his eyes were worried.
"We need to keep moving, I don't like this place." He whispered to her softly, touching her shoulder.
"Sorry." She whispered back, though why she whispered, she wasn't sure.
This place, it seemed to foreboding, so….so ominous, so dark. She shivered slightly then continued to jog on, through the silent dead remains of a wreaked city.
Lehon was doing her best to keep up with the fast moving spirit, which was not an easy task. He ran quickly through the city, stop. Then change directions. Like he wasn't sure where he was going.
"Lhikan…What are you doing?" She panted out, stopping next to the now still fire spirit.
'I…I can't find the right way through here…' The spirit said uncertainly.
'Why can't I get to the gate to above? I've lived here for thousands of years!!!' He raged, frustration taking over.
"Lhikan…just calm down, ok? Relax." Lehon soothed, and on impulse rested her hand on his shoulder.
Or, at least, tried. There was a cool air where his form was, but her hand passed through him. Lhikan turned to face her, confusion on his mask.
'What…what are you trying to do?' He asked, his expression puzzled as he looked at her. Lehon blushed slightly
"Sorry." She apologized
"I was just trying to- Sorry, I-I should've known th-that I couldn't touch y-you." She stammered out, a blush clear now on her mask.
To her surprise, Lhikan smiled sadly at her.
'Don't apologize. It doesn't matter.' He told her
"Hey! Are we resting or are you two flirting with each other?!" Haylie shouted from behind them.
Lehon spun around, her mask now red in color.
"One, we are NOT flirting, two, shut up will you?" Lehon retorted, her voice was quiet, but it carried to her black and yellow sister.
Lhikan chuckled at her, but he too had a very, very faint blush on his mask.
"Let's go before she says something else stupid." She muttered half to herself, then without another word, set off at a rather quick pace.
'You're upset about what your sister said.' Lhikan observed quietly as they ran.
Lehon kept her eyes on what was in front of her, but responded quietly "Well, yeah. Haylie does that a lot and it just really just end up annoying me. Out of all the toa, she's the hardest to get along with." She left it at that as she scrambled over a collapsed building, while Lhikan simply walked through.
"OK, do you know where were going now?" She gasped out, trying to get air into her lungs as they ran.
'Yes.' He responded. 'But you'll need to be extremely careful as soon as you leave Metru Nui.' He warned her, casting her a glance.
"About what?" She panted.
'there is something following you. I've been trying to lose it, but it keeps finding us again. What it is I'm not sure, and why it's following you, I don't know either.' he said shortly
. "So that's why were running around this city wildly." She breathed.
'if you want to put it like that.' He responded.
Finally, they came to a small dock, which looked more like a wreaked bridge and hut, pieces of drift wood floating around. It took Lehon a few minutes to figure that those pieces of driftwood were rotted boats.
"Whoa…" Lehon breathed.
Then the realization of just how OLD this city was sunk into her mind. 'Look.' He instructed her, pointing out to the sea.
Lehon obeyed and gazed out to the silver and blue sea. It all seemed dark, like a tunnel. Lehon peered out. Did she just...yes there it was! She turned to Lhikan
"So.. were headed there?" She asked, pointing to the small gap of light towards the north.
The fire toa nodded.
"Lehon!" Sam's voice called out. She turned to see her brothers and sisters run up behind her.
"Man lady…. You were runnin' fast.." Haylie gasped as she leaned over to catch her breath. Ten seemed the most unaffected by their run.
'So… are we heading towards the light?' She gestured, asking her, her mask questioning, but Lehon could see the hurt that remained from earlier on in the day.
"Yes towards the light is were we will find Mata Nui." She confirmed.
"Not now though." Sam walked up to her.
"It's nearly dark we've been running all of today walking all of yesterday."
"Yeah…" Lehon agreed, realizing just how tired she was
. "We'll camp here tonight. We leave in the morning." He decided.
"But-" Lehon began "No." Sam cut her off. "What ever it is we'll figure it out tomorrow. Ok?" He told her firmly.
"Yeah, OK Sam." She said quietly.
The six of them set up a small camp, lighting a fire and eating a small bit. "Thank god you can cook Mithra." Kent muttered through a mouthful of stew.
There were "Hm's" of agreement around the fire as they ate. Lhikan watched them eat, sitting next to Ten.
'What is wrong with this one She who Walks along spirits? She never seems to speak.' He asked, gesturing to Ten.
Lehon looked up briefly at him
"She's a mute. And by the way, you can call me Lehon. That's just my formal name." She answered.
Everyone stared at her. Lehon sighed
"Lhikan asked." She said shortly.
Inwardly she sighed. She had never totally gotten use to the fact that she was seeing the dead, and what bothered her the most is that everyone stared at her like she was a freak. Not even her teammates really got use to her talking to-seemingly- thin air.
'Oh.' Lhikan said, surprised. 'I'm sorry.'
"Don't be. In a way, were all just a family of freaks." Lehon said bitterly.
"Hey! I'm not a freak Lehon, speak for your self." Haylie defended indignantly.
"Haylie…you can't control your element at all. You barely can summon it to help you." Kent pointed out bluntly.
Lhikan looked surprised at the young Toa of Storms.
'She can't control her powers?' He asked Lehon.
Lehon shook her head. "No. But when she releases it, it's amazingly powerful. Dangerous to everyone, but highly effective." She explained.
The ghost toa nodded in understandment, while Haylie sulked quietly.
"Oh cheer up Haylie. Kent has that nasty habit of critising people, he can't control gold or tin, yet he's a toa of Metal, Sam is extra sensitive to vibrations in the ground, he can tell what- or who is making a noise, I can't lift anything much heavier than a short sword, and I'm not much of a toa as I am a guardian of nature." Mithra said airily, a small smile on her face.
Kent was glaring at her, Sam was looking a little smug with himself, Lehon gave her a small, sheepish grin, Ten just looked down at the ground, silent as always.
"So we are all freaks in our own way." Mithra concluded, looking at everyone. "happy?"
Haylie muttered something quietly, and Sam started to chuckle.
"no, there is no degree of freakiness Haylie. You can't be the less freaky of us all."
Ten rolled her eyes at the comment, Lehon sighed and lay down were she was. "I'm going to sleep. Good night." She declared softly
There were a chouses of "'Night Lehon." Then it when quiet.
Sam stared into the dying fire, clearly lost in thought, while Kent stared up at the stars.
Mithra sat next to Kent, while Ten sat apart from everyone else, still staring at the ground, completely still.
Mithra leaned over and whispered softly in his ear
"Kent, you might want to talk to Ten. She's never going to admit it, and she's gonna kill me for telling you, but you hurt her a lot more than she's showing. Please, just try to talk her." She begged softly.
Kent looked at her for a long moment before finally, reluctantly nodding. Mithra smiled wearily, but gratefully at her metal brother.
Kent stood up and made his way over to his mute sister. What did he say that would've hurt her?
She looked up at the sound of footsteps, but her eyes grew darker as he approached.
He stood in front of her, for a long moment before he finally spoke.
" may I?" He asked her, gesturing to the spot next to her.
She glared at him, and for a moment he though she would refuse, but she finally nodded shortly. Kent let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding, and sat next to her.
"Sister…" Kent let out an weary sigh.
"If I have offended you, please, forgive me. I was simply being practical." He apologized, looking evenly at his mute sister.
She glared back at him, her eyes aquamarine eyes cold.
"Ten…" Kent sighed when she turned pointedly away from him.
It was clear that she wasn't going to accept his apology. Her body was tence, arms crossed back facing him. He smiled at her back, irritation and expiration held in him. She was as stubborn as ever.
"Ten…arrgh, I can't believe you sometimes." He muttered, and then finally stood up
"Night Ten." He muttered to her, then returned back to his place by the fire. The one thing that he couldn't stand about her, yet seemed to endearing was her trademark stubbornness.
A pair of pearl colored eyes watched the fire from a distance. They could barely see it from where they were, but they could see it. The being turned to its companion.
"Come one Cara, we need to move." A soft voice hissed in the dark.
"I know." Another voice responded tiredly
"I know." It repeated.
"When we get there, then we can finish" The first voice said shortly.
"I know." The second voice repeated again, then moved up next to the first figure. It peered out into the dark.
"Is that them?" It whispered, its voice scratchy, but hopeful.
"yeah. It's them." The first voice retorted quietly.
"were almost there." The second voice breathed.
"Almost." The first one whispered in the dark, slipping down the the pile of rubble into the pitch black night, pearl eyes glowing briefly, before closing, returning the city into a complete black. "Almost."
….Ok I guess. Hope you liked it. Review please.
