A voice rang off the icy walls, sounding as boyish and curious as ever. "So, how far are we?"

Hunarr groaned at what was perhaps the hundredth question for today and continued down the tunnel. He didn't bother to answer the question nor face the questioner, not when the icicles on the ceiling shivered slightly. The voice sadly didn't stop and went on, "You know, it would help if you told me where we're going."

"I've already told you," Hunarr finally replied.

"Yeah, but I don't know what this great 'City of the Mask Makers' is like. A description might help… Maybe a history lesson…?"

There was time for neither. Using the man-made tunnel under the Great Divide was already time-consuming. It took Hunarr about a quarter of a day to get to the Temple of Time, and the journey to the City of the Mask Maker became twice as long, thanks to the constant stalling of his questioning companion. Speaking of whom, a strange tink, tink, tink of metal drew the Ice Protector to the Toa, the tall being's bronzen form clashing against the pale surroundings.

Hunarr noticed the sickle in the Toa's black hands. "Why do you have that?"

The Toa peered from atop the copper-colored half-mask on his lower face. "Oh," the Toa said, no longer tapping his finger on the crystalline blade, "it was just something I found back at the Ice Region… I thought I'd take it with me since, you know, I don't really have a weapon…"

Annoyance rose in Hunarr's voice. "And I thought I told you leave it. We can't bring such things with us."

"Why not?"

"Because where we're going is a sacred place. Weapons and the like must be left behind."

"But why?"

Hunarr shot an icy glare. "Has anyone told you not to ask too many questions?"

"Um, no," the Toa spoke up. "Other than your wife, you're the only person who has ever talked to me."

Something that Hunarr was quickly regretting as he returned down the path, his cloak breezing behind him. Four days ago, when the Toa first appeared on the frozen doorstep Izotor's Glacier, everyone had kept their distance. This Toa easily clashed against snow, with the copper hourglass sign in the center of his bronzen body. Those legs of his, also covered in copper, carried him from one crystalline building to the next, waving his blacken arms around and asking the residents why he was even there and-more importantly-what he was.

It was only the intervention of Hunarr's wife that the Toa received a few of the answers he wanted. It sadly didn't stop the Toa from talking, even when Hunarr offered to take him to their destination a day ago. "This tunnel is very helpful," said the following Toa after sometime. "Do the other Protectors know abou itt?"

"No, they do not."

"Maybe it would help if they did-"

"Absolutely not," Hunarr cut the Toa off, whirling to the taller being. "If the others knew, they would fight over it, and this place would be lost. The secret of this passage has been handed down from one Protector to the next for over three hundred years, and I won't let it fall in the hands of those who had no hand in caring for it!"

The shuddering stalactites brought Hunarr back to reality. He glanced up to see nothing had fallen, yet he suspected the ceiling wouldn't merely shake from his voice. He looked back to those white eyes frowning at him as the innocence in the Toa's voice echoed softly on the freezing walls.

"But… they're your allies, right? Your friends?"

It was at that point Hunarr kept silent. His feet strode down the tunnel, trying to distance himself from anymore questions. Fortunately, the Toa followed in hallowed silence. It made the rest of the walk quick and easy for Hunarr taking the lonesome path. It dipped slightly then rose increasingly to a bright light at the end of the tunnel.

"Hey, I see a light!" Hunarr heard the Toa who rushed past him and towards the end.

Hunarr reacted with unflinching calm as the Toa fell forward and vanished into the light. Taking slow steps, he left the icy tunnel and stopped when he felt the warmth of the outside world. From the tip jutting from the darkened mountain, Hunarr stood, and his eyes went down from the orange-lit sky to the great sand-stone city situated in the valley.

Just past the cliff's edge and below Hunarr's feet, the Toa asked, "Uh, hey! How much farther-?!"

"We're here," was all Hunarr said before he left his Toa to hang there, the sturdy sickle imbedded in the mountainside.


It took several minutes for Hunarr's Toa to get back on track. After climbing back up with just a sickle, he was too tired to say anything, and his attention caught by the boxed-in city on the slope, he followed Hunarr down one level of the mountain to the next and the next until they at last made it. "Woah," the Toa breathed once they made it through the arch-shaped gate.

The inside of the City of the Mask Makers was covered by golden cubic complexes built into the ancient stone. Sounds of the elongated marketplace rang with calls of merchants and clatter of goods. In fact, the entire city had been a mecca for Okotans of all colors, many of whom conversed freely and with friendly calm in the widened streets. Chatter of course ceased when all eyes rose to the strange Toa in awe of his surroundings.

"This place. It's… it's amazing!" he exclaimed, eying the lines sprawled on the buildings that formed overlapping geometric shapes.

Ahead, four or five children ran past Hunarr, throwing a stone ball back and forth. The protector grunted in response. "Stave off your awe, Toa. You're not here to see the sights."

"Well," Toa briefly paused to eye the passing children, "I can see why you didn't want me to bring anything. It looks like everything's fine here-"

"Watch out!" cried a young voice.

The Toa whirled around. The ball that passed by him moments ago was flying through the air. It rose then it arched and fell with a rapid trajectory towards the Toa. The target stared back, legs held firmly and eyes focused on the ball.

For a long moment, the ball was descending rapidly. Then, it slowed and slowed, its path remaining the same. It was as if the ball was in slow-motion instead of stopping and dropping straight to the ground.

It was more than the ball slowing down. The children, the people, the marketplace nearby were unaware of their own existence lacking the same speed. The Toa, in the center of it all, was just as oblivious to them.

That was until a voice called out. "Toa!"

White eyes glanced to the side. It was a Protector. This wasn't Hunarr- moving at his delayed pace like everyone else around the Toa did. This one was cloaked in blue, and he was distant and out of range to witness the event before him.

"Toa!" the Protector in blue called out.

The Toa turned away, realizing what was going on and releasing his control unknowingly. "Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't-"

BONK!

"Ow!" cried the Toa who rubbed his head and watched the ball bouncing away at its normal speed.

Sound once slowed to almost a halt resumed with the marketplace and everyone in it, Hunarr included. "Torren? When did you arrive here?" he addressed the blue Protector now in front.

"Hunarr, I've been here," Torren said. "I was here when I saw you and everyone. Didn't you notice it?"

Hunarr frowned. "I don't have the patience for your riddles, Torren. We have no no time to waste. Come, Toa."

Rubbing his aching head, the Toa walked behind both Protectors, one impatient and the other glancing back with a perplexed expression on his mask.


The ache lingered on the Toa's skull by the time he and the two Protectors reached their meeting point. Resting atop a large hill, the great anvil-shaped structure laid further away from the marketplace and the majority of buildings. Its ancient tan stone was perhaps the only thing not covered in gold… well that and the other Toa waiting at the structure's base.

"So you're one of the other five Toa, huh?"

Hunarr's Toa glanced at the purple lancer who asked the question. "Uh, I guess I am."

The other Toa rose from the stairs he sat on, proudly holding onto his spear. "I am Voriki, Toa of Lightning," he said. "And who might you be?"

Hunarr spoke before his Toa could. "Save your introductions for when the others arrive."

"It shouldn't take too long for now," Torren added to assure his own Toa. "They all should have received Ignar's message. For now, Hunarr and I will head inside."

So the Protectors went up the flight of stairs, leaving Voriki to watch them with impatient eyed before he sat back down on the steps. Across from him, Hunarr's Toa stood there, unsure of what to do or say. He had heard about the other Toa summoned to Okoto, and he now met one. "So, uh… what exactly is going on here?"

"You're probably the fifth person who's asked that question," Voriki sighed. "Honestly, I don't know what's the problem, but I'm guessing it has something to do with what the leaders around here want taken care of. It seems to be pretty standard for whenever we're summoned."

"But what are we doing here? I have no idea what I'm supposed to do!"

"You don't?" The nameless Toa shook his head. Voriki rubbed the chin of his mask. "Well, it basically comes down coming in and saving this place, I suppose. It's what Toa do."

"Really?"

Voriki casted a curious glance. "You have no idea what you are, do you?" he asked and was given another headshake. "I guess amnesia? Do you even know your own name?"

"I do. It's-"

"Hail, fellow Toa!" bellowed the voice of a cheerful white giant striding towards the two Toa, accompanied by a smaller, greener figure.

The Toa with white eyes and who wasn't Voriki fearfully eyed the giant's broadsword. "Uh…"

"You have no need to fear. We are all Toa!" the giant happily proclaimed to the smaller and more relieved Toa of copper and black.

"Speak for yourself," murmured the green Toa, who looked more like a hunter than a warrior.

Voriki stood to greet the two newcomers. "I take it your Protectors already went on in?"

"Yes, they did. I believe they said something about a secret tunnel," the giant replied.

Hunarr's Toa washed off feeling of deja vu. "Well, that's four of us," he counted. "So that leaves with two more, right?"

"One more," said a new chipper voice, causing everyone to look.

"What do you me…?" The ever-questioning Toa didn't finish as a black scythe popped from behind the giant and out stepped a petite female holding it by the S-shaped rod.

"Oh, sorry about that!" the female apologized, putting her scythe on her back.

The Toa's white eyes widened at the black figure. "Um, when did you get here? And… Are you another Toa?"

"Oh, sometime after he showed up," the shadow woman pointed to Voriki, and her eyes smiled, "and why yes, I am a Toa!" She looked up the giant and waved at him. "Ah, hello there! Nice to meet you, big Toa sir!"

The giant kindly smiled back. "Nice to meet you too, little shadow."

The no-name Toa gave up on being flabbergasted when a new voice chimed in. "Well, this is a nice gathering. Can I join?" The new interruption was a silver female, the last of the Toa, who was… limping? And shouldn't there have been a Protector with her?

A brown cloak fleeting by answered the unspoken question. "I'm off to see everyone else! Take care and don't get into trouble!" the Protector called, running up the stairs.

In the brief moment of silence that followed, the giant glanced around to the other. "It seems like we're all here… I suppose introductions are in order."

"I'll start," Voriki offered, leaning a little on his spear. "I'm Voriki, the Toa of Lightning."

Next was the silver-handed smith with the small and blocky hammer on her hip. "Keela, Toa of Iron."

"Zala, the Toa of Shadows at your service," the small shadow said with a flourishing curtsey and pink eyes perked upward. "Oh, I've always wanted to say that!"

"I am Maram of the Light," boomed the white giant, resting his equally massive blade on his shoulder.

The green hunter scoffed, bow resting on his back. "Kaze, air."

"Really? I thought it was jungle," Zala said.

Arms crossed, Kaze shook his head in annoyance. "No one else could be thinking that," he muttered.

"I did," the unnamed Toa chimed in. Everyone turned their masks on him, and he hesitated. "I mean… you have the green color and everything…"

"And who are you, exactly?" Kaze retorted.

"Oh, I'm Rhem, the Toa of Time!" the new Toa finally announced with a smile in his white eyes. That smile fell down when the other five Toa stared at him, their shock easily seen on their masks.

In that moment, Rhem felt as though he had said something terribly wrong.