Tahu's Journal

Chapter 10

We rushed through the maze, the iptasaer far behind, but catching up. As we'd decided, we were following the Nuva symbols Lewa'd left as a path. We began passing through crossroads we remembered; we were getting close.

We were about to start down a new path when we heard something strange. The pattering of the iptasaer's small legs seemed to... double.

"Oh, no..." Vastus said.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's the others... the other swarm of iptasaer!"

"There are more of those things?!" Pohatu cried.

Vastus nodded. We started running again, headed once more down the path marked by the Nuva symbols. Behind us were the two swarms of iptasaer. I'd kind of hoped that, as two seperate swarms, they' want to fight one another,as if they were enemies. Unfortunately, they were both set on capturing us.

They began to fuse together, amazingly, both of the swarms. There were twice as many iptasaer this time, so tunfortunately for us, they merged into one of the giant insects we'd seen before... twice the normal size. And even with its new, giant form, it was still able to give chase, and fit into the passage ways.

We finally saw the tunnel from which we'd entered, just a little bit ahead of us.

"There! Straight ahead!" I yelled to everyone. "Onua, Pohatu, we're so close! Buy us some more time!"

They turned around and brought up another huge wall of earth and stone. They turned back to us and ran away from the wall. just in time, too. It was no help, as the iptasaer burst through it like it were paper.

We reached the exit, and ran up the slope leading to the light outside. The iptasaer followed, not worried about leaving the place where it was strongest. It shot forward, getting a hold on Takanuva. It pulled him backward, back into the dark.

"Ah! H-help!" he said as he tried firing bolts of light at the beast. We rushed back, trying to pull him from its grasp. But, it over-powered us, and pulled him once more. They disappeared quickly into the darkness, as we tried running, flying... whatever means we could to catch up. But it still managed to get away, taking a turn in a direction we didn't even know.

Onua looked down at the ground, trying to find the iptasaer's tracks. "It looks like they split apart again," he said after a moment or so. "Back into two swarms... but, I'm not sure why they'd do that without... er, splitting the catch, or fighting over him."

"Another thing is that they wouldn't have had enough time to, either. At least not without us getting a glimpse of them," I said.

"Well, its also a possibility that these tracks are older. I mean look at the dust on the ground. If you looked close enough, there could be millions of them going back and forth."

"But we would still see those ones; they'd be huge compared to the rest!"

"We've seen lots of strange things before, Tahu..." Pohatu said. "Those bugs are definitely up there. But even Tarix and Vastus here know only so much. There could be more, unknown abilities the iptasaer have that no one around now know about."

"Pohatu is correct-right," Lewa said. "Think about the Makuta. When we encountered-met on Mata Nui, we were confronted with but a Matoran-villager. Then he... you know... got weird..."

"Yes, and we later discovered many more enemies with unknown powers. These bugs could for all we know have teleported, or found some kind of... hidden passage..." Onua said. He walked back to the tunnel leading up, and looked for the iptasaer tracks again.

"What are you doing?" Tarduk asked him.

"These bugs are smart; really smart... they've got these complex passages, stairways, doors.. and maybe even HIDDEN doors..." He went back to tracking the iptasaer. Finally, he stopped. "Look. These huge tracks end right here at the 'entrance,' but even though it looks like they split apart, they may've just taken a hidden path."

He activated his powers over earth, shifting and changing the ground below our feet. We were surprised to see when he was done, there was a second tunnel going even deeper down in the entrance to the passageway ahead of us.

"This place never ceases to amaze me..." Pohatu said. "One surprise after another... and I was thinking we weren't gonna have any excitement on this trip up north."

"This isn't really a time for jokes, Pohatu," I said. "Takanuva's got to be somewhere down there, and we have to hurry and get him back." I took a step forward toward the tunnel, when a few iptasaer crawled out.

"Oh, its not that many," Tarduk said, taking a step forward himself. Even more crawled forth from the tunnel.

"That cannot be a good sign..." Lewa said. He was right. Many more iptasaer crawled out, nearly as big as the two swarms we'd seen before.

"I'm beginning to think that this cave isn't inhabited by two... or even three swarms of these thing..." Vastus said. "But rather, there is one great one, filled with," he gulped. "Thousands..."

"That would explain much," I said, stepping back. "And I'm starting to think he's right..."

More and more came flowing out of the tunnel, and they started merging like the others we'd encountered.

"Retreat!" I yelled. "Head for the entrance!"

We turned around, once again running from the iptasaer. Only this time, we seemed to be getting farther from them and closer to the jungle outside.

"What about Takanuva?!" yelled Pohatu behind me. "We can't leave down there, can we?"

"We're... we're going to probably have to, Pohatu..." I said bitterly. "As much as I'll regret it, we have a job to do... for the Matoran, the Agori; everyone back in the united city."

Pohatu hung his head... at least, as best he could while we were running for our lives. We burst through the entrance, nearly falling off the island and into the lake, but we managed to keep are balance and stay up.

"Now get to the chariots!" I yelled.

"Tahu, what's going on?" Gali said.

"The creatures down there... they're coming! We have to get away!" The others were already running to the vehicles, passing a confused Crotesius who looked to be keeping an eye on them all.

"Where is Takanuva?" Kopaka said. I was surprised he was the one who first noticed of the two, and even more so that he actually cared to ask.

"He... was lost... to the creatures down there..." I replied solemnly.

"What creatures?" Gali asked.

"We'll explain once we're moving!" I said to her, in a rush now, as I saw a single iptasaer crawling out, with other following behind. They must have defused, but why?

I got my answer soon. They swarmed around the island, covering the rock that formed the cave's mouth. They'd get to the 'bridge' leading to the chariots soon.

"C'mon!" I said, beginning to run for the 'bridge.' We crossed it in a rush, and found the others were already slowly moving, getting ready for a burst of speed for our escape.

We all jumped on, and the chariots sped off almost immediately. We were heading through the trees opposite the side of the lake we'd originally come to, when we first entered this jungle. They seemed to be farther spread, making for a much easier trip through them.

We kept going, for hours, until we came to the edge of the jungle, and when we were sure the iptasaer had stopped following. We explained everything that had happened down there, and what the iptasaer were. Lewa and Vastus told their story as well. But, we saved the loss of Takanuva for last.

"They dragged him down that passage," Onua said. "We would've followed, and retaken him, but the iptasaer... they started flooding out... there were just too many."

"We had to leave him," Pohatu continued. "Unless those iptasaer were ones we'd encountered before, which I doubt, there were at least three swarms of them, all part of one bigger one."

"If we'd followed, we would've been caught just as easily," I said. That path was probably hidden because it probably leads to their nest."

"How could you not handle a few simple bugs?" Kopaka said. "We've fought Rahi, Bohrok, Rahkshi, and tons of other threats the universe have thrown at us... and you run away in fear of a few insignificant bugs?"

I glared at him. "Kopaka, those were different... with them, there weren't hundreds, or millions at a time. With them, they didn't seem immune to every, single attack that we could use. With them, we weren't on completely unknown territory!"

"He does make a point..." Gali said. "We've battled many foes, and prevailed each time eventually."

"But those times, that was the entire goal," I said. "Our goal here is to find how far north we can go, and find places where the Matoran and Agori can travel to and live."

"We tried dealing with those insects, Kopaka, Gali..." Pohatu said. "But we failed. We only had so much time down there, and we'd spent enough in those caves. From what you said, we were down there for two days... we couldn't have used more time to delve deeper, and perhaps get lost."

"Yes," Tarix replied. "The iptasaer could've easily sealed us down there, unable to escape... and then the mission in its entirety would be a failure. You'd have to continue without us, and most likely meet the Skrall again, or some other threat. And with two Toa and one Agori... you'd hardly stand a chance."

"Let's just get off this subject..." Onua said. "Takanuva... he defeated the Makuta in battle and won... He used to travel the jungles, the mountains, the desert, all of those places, on Mata Nui... alone, as a Matoran... he should be able to take care of himself down there."

"We can only hope," Vastus said, climbing into the chariot. "We should get moving. We wasted more time in this accursed jungle as we should've..."

"Yes... let's leave this place... it may be a jungle, but I don't want to linger here any longer..." Lewa said.

We all climbed aboard the vehicles, and started north once more. Somewhere underneath our feet, Takanuva was hopefully wandering the labyrinth of those monsters. We could only hope that somewhere along our way, whether on our way back, or ahead of us, we'd get a chance to go back down there and find him...

Stay tuned to ToaChristor on deviantArt, or Toa Christor on this site for the continuation of Tahu's Journal!