Chapter 4: The Secrets of the Walled Village

AN: Well, here's chapter 4. It took way too long to do this one. :P Oh well, here you go! Please review!

Rikini sat on a small bench just under the wood and straw roof of Turaga Ania's hut. Her long blond hair was tied back with a light purple ribbon, long bangs framed her round face and drew attention to her large purple eyes. She wore a brown caplet over her yellow dress with purple trim and matching cloth boots to keep the mud that covered her village from getting all over her.

The small girl, who was no older than fourteen, sat on the tiny wood bench petting a small cat-like creature. It had purple fur with a blue mane and purred softly as the small girl stroked it on it's tiny head. She looked at the ever raining village she lived in. For as long as she could remember, the village had always been isolated from the rest of the island. Sometimes, it was hard to believe that she even lived on a island because she had never seen a shore in her life. She had only ever seen water fall from the sky, and when it rained it poured in her tiny village.

At night, she would go to bed dreaming about what the other villages of Mata Nui looked like. Her mind often wandered at the thought of the world beyond the high rock walls. She wondered what the animals were like, what the other Matoran were like. When she was younger, she would try and ask Turaga Ania what was beyond the walls and why they had to live inside them. Unfortunately, the turaga would never tell her anything beyond an enigmatic "We live within the walls because we have to."

Little Rikini only say there petting the small cat creature when a tall young woman dressed in a longer version of her own dress, sans caplet, came walking towards her. Her blond hair was tucked underneath a scarf with wisps of hair peeking from it. She carried a large basket filled with various vegetables.

"Rikini! Everybody's harvesting, what are you doing?" she cried to the little girl.

"Nana Ania and I harvested our gardens two days ago, Nikai."

Nikai walked over to Rikini and petted her on the head. She had known the girl since she wandered into the village. Besides Turaga Ania, she was the only one alive that knew the truth about where the girl came from. She was eight when the girl walked into the village and had treated her as her little sister. Her mother was the Tuhunga of Ri-Koro for years, so she, Rikini and Nikai's younger brother Naki had grown together as close siblings. She looked Rikini in the eyes.

"What's wrong little sister?" she pulled back a wisp of hair that had fallen in front of her cherubic face.

"I was just thinking," the cat jumped from her arms and walked into the hut through an open window, "About the island."

"Turaga Ania knows best. That wall keeps us safe."

"It keeps us prisoner."

"Rahi can't attack what they can't find."

"Yeah, but no one elsecan find us either."

"That's the price we pay for protection."

"Our warriors can protect us. Naki could."

Nikai sighed and looked at her foster sister, "Rikini, I know you want to see the rest of the island. We all do. But…we just…can't. Turaga Ania has her reasons."

"I know. I just wish…there was some way to see the outside. Even Matoran from the outside."

"Outsiders!" a young man's voice shouted from the far end of the village where the entrance to Kini-Nui was.

Rikini hopped from her seat on the bench and looked over from where the voice had called. She could see several figures walking inside the village. While they looked like young men and women, she noticed there were six older looking figures among them. They were dressed in garb she had never seen. Judging by how different all their clothing was, they came from different regions. Immediately her young face lit up, this was what she had been waiting for her whole life. These were Matoran from the other six villages. She watched the old man in red robes push away a young man's hand on his arm.

"Get off! We are here to see Turaga Ania!" he pounded the ground withhis wooden staff with a still burning flame atop it. As hard as the rain was, the flame didn't go out.

What wonders the other villages hold, she thought.

She immediately ran into the hut, she was determined to bring the good news to Turaga Ania.

"Nana Ania! Nana Ania!" she was jumping up at down, her yellow dress swayed around her pale skinny legs.

An old woman dressed in light purple and yellow robes was busy pouring a pink colored liquid through a piece of white cloth into a bottle. She seemed rather annoyed that the young girl had decided to jump and shout in the hut. Large as the hut was, her high pitched squealing still bounced off the wooden plank walls.

"Yes Rikini?" she gently sat down her work and turned around to the small girl.

"What's that?" she pointed at the pink liquid.

"It's medicine for Sotii's son. He's had a bad throat for a few days now," she capped the bottle and looked back at Rikini, "Now what was so important that you had to scream for high heavens?"

"Matoran from other villages are here!" she clasped her small hands together and smiled a wide happy smile.

Unfortunately, the Turaga did not seem as happy as her young ward. She looked even angry, "Bring me to them Rikini. Let me see them."

Rikini opened the door for the elder and led her to the village center where the party of eighteen was standing. Nikai, who had been seeing to their comforts, ran to Turaga Ania. She bowed down as soon as she was in front of the village elder.

"Turaga Ania. The elders say they are Turaga from the other villages and they wish to speak with you in private." The tall woman led the Turaga to the large party.

Turaga Ania walked over to the group of elders sitting in front of the younger party members on wooden plank benches that Nikai had had brought to them. She looked at all their faces with a leering eye.

"Come with me to my hut," she spoke in an angry, almost spiteful voice to the turaga.

Almost immediately, the seven tuhunga began to walk behind them. The turaga all stopped and turned around to face the young tuhunga. Turaga Ania looked at all the tuhunga, studying them with an angry eye.

"There will be no need for the tuhunga here. You may go where you wish in the village. We are going to discuss things, in private." She turned back around and walked back towards her hut, the purple woodenwalking stick with the lighting stone on top hitting the ground just as angrily as Ania herself was.

They turaga reached Turaga Ania's hut in several minutes, old bones made it hard to get around like they had in their youth. The years were finally taking their toll on the once young and able bodies. Looking around, they knew that the days of their youth were long gone. Although they had known for years they were no longer the young warriors they had once been, seeing how long it had taken them to reach the hut halfway across the village, they were forced to realize they were truly the elders now. Not just in wisdom, but now in body. Ania showed them all to chairs and benches in the room where she did most of her reading of ancient scrolls and such.

"Well," she sat herself on a nearby chair, "Why did you all come here? Were the walls not an obvious enough statement that I do not wish to have anything to do with any of you or your villages?"

"We know you do not wish to be disturbed Ania," Vakama said as he made himself comfortable on a bench seated next to Nokama, "Unfortunately, the circumstances have forced us here to try and coax you out of your seclusion."

"They had better be good circumstances or you may see yourselves out of Ri-Koro with the help of my gaurds," Ania said in a defensively angry voice.

"Is the Makuta about to bring hardluck to Mata Nui good enough circumstance for you healer?" Matua said with sarcasm dripping on his voice.

Ania did not even glance in his direction. Instead she faced Nokama, "Makuta sleeps. We defeated him."

Nokama shook her head sadly, "I'm afraid he has awoken dear sister. The prophecies are being fulfilled. The toa will be needed soon."

"It is only united that they will finally be able to defeat him", Onewa told the youngest amongst them.

Ania lowered her head down, "I had hoped that the prophecies were false."

"We all did Ania," Vakama said, "Unfortunately for us, and them, they were not."

"Do you know who the Toa of Thunder will be?" Whenua asked the now solemn looking Ania.

"Yes. She is young, but she is defiantly blessed with the power of thunder," Ania told the others.

"Then we must go to Kini Nui," Vakama began to rise from his seat, "It is the only place for the new toa to be blessed by Mata Nui." "

I only said I knew who she was, I never said I would let the girl go," Ania told Vakama.

"What do you mean? She has to go, Ania," Onewa said with a stern voice, "It is the only way."

"She is too young," Ania sounded frightened, "I cannot let her go!"

"Why not Ania? We have to protect our island and the Great Sprit!" Onewa pounded the bottom of his hammer down on the ground in anger.

"I have to protect her first!" Ania shouted at him.

The other turaga looked at her. In their hearts they knew. Ania had always resented being a toa. She had dreamed of having a family, and at one time had come so close to it. They all knew what had happened. The one thing they had all been afraid to happen. Ania had seen the child and raised her as her own. She had become so attached to the girl and would not risk her young life.

"Thunder…it has a mind of it's own," Ania spoke in a soft solemn voice, "I could not control it then, and I've never had complete control over it. I can't…I can't put the child through that. At least…not now…not yet."

"Ania," Nokama went to her sister turaga and placed a loving hand on her shoulder, "The Makuta will not wait for her. You know that. He will take the island and the Great Sprit prisoner even if she's not old enough tohandle that power yet."

"I know," Ania put her own hand over Nokama's, "I just wish…I hope…I pray that she will be able to wield thunder better than I did."

"It was not your fault, Ania" Vakama still stood up, using his staff for support, "It was a different time and place."

"I know," Ania said, "I just hope that they will be better suited for their quest than we were."

"We all do," Nokama said in a soothing voice, "We all do."

"Well then. We should quickspeed to Kini Nui," Matua told his brother and sister turaga. The usual jump in his voice was missing. He remembered all to well what had happened that day, many years ago.

"Indeed Matua. We must gather the tuhunga and the toa," said Vakama.

The turaga all slowly walked out from Ania's hut. Nokama and Ania stayed at the back, walking closely together as they had in their youth. As the only females in a primarily male party, they had become as close as sisters. Their time apart had not dissolved the deep sisterly love the had for one another.

"Nokama," Ania faced her blue robed friend, "Do you think they will be able to handle the powers of Mata Nui? I mean, we were barley able to." Even in her old age, Nokama relized, Ania was still the timid and shy woman she was in her youth.

"You have seen and read the prophecies haven't you?" Nokama asked the yellow and violet robed elderly woman.

"I have."

"Then…you know why Mata Nui will trust them at even this young an age."

"Yes…I just wish it was different."

"So do I thunder sister. So do I."

The two walked out of the hut, as Ania closed the door behind them. She took a final glance at her table of potions and medicines. Deep inside her heart, she wished there was a potion for keeping the new toa from ever having to become toa. A potion that would let them live the normal life she and the other turaga had given up to protect the Great Sprit. A potion that would let her keep the daughter she had raised and loved for twelve happy years. A potion that would have let her be happy when she still was in love with him. A potion that would give her back the life she had given up. A potion that could mend the mistakes of the past.

AN: Sorry this chapter took so long. I've just been busy with my Hellboy story. Well, I'll try to have the next chapter up soon. Review please!