Lewa grimaced as he rubbed the back of his head, feeling the goose egg of a bruise that Matau's staff had left behind the previous day. All things considered, the issue of letting Mekoki keep the bird had gone fairly smoothly. Matau only hit him twice – it would have been once had he not said something stupid about catching a few more pokawi – and if he had considered dealing further damage it had been handily stopped by the timely arrival of Hlahlu, who had proceeded to coo and giggle about the 'featherball' in delight.
Needless to say, Mekoki got to keep the bird.
Now, however, Lewa was starting to wonder why he hadn't heard anything about the kolhii match. A couple of his friends had gone to see it and promised to give him a play-by-play recount the instant they reached a designated meeting point in Le-Wahi. But even with the Toa watching for them, even after outright sitting down with Tamaru and figuring out exactly how long it would take for them to return, there was no sign of them yet. Had Lewa done the math wrong? Granted, he very well could have going by how easily distracted he was, but Tamaru typically had a better head for numbers even with distractions, so surely they'd figured it out properly.
He sighed and shook his head purely out of boredom. They were taking far too long with this. Maybe he would simply have to go retrieve them. He could fly pretty quickly with his mask power, after all; he'd be at Ta-Koro in no time.
Yet some pesky part of him was determined to stay put, as though his gut was telling him that leaving now would be unwise. And after years of experience, Lewa knew better than to ignore gut instinct. The whole reason he had landed himself in so much trouble before was not listening to such things. That, and possibly not paying attention, but he wasn't too worried about that aspect just yet. As of the present moment, he would stay right where he was and watch. Besides, Onua was always saying it was better to observe than react if nothing solid was around to work with, and he seldom found himself in trouble, right?
It wasn't entirely clear how long Lewa stayed there, idly debating with himself over what to do, but the longer he sat the more his mind wandered. It drifted from his conundrum to wondering where his teammates were, and from there to the villages they protected. Everything and everyone had been fine last time he'd flown around to visit them, but the longer he thought the more the overall peace of the island began to feel less relaxing and more like the calm before a particularly ugly storm.
No, he was just being silly. Everything was fine; he was merely jumping at shadows.
Shadows that had glowing eyes and were staring at him.
"UWAAAHGH!"
Toppling from his perch with all the elegance of an inebriated gukko, Lewa flailed clumsily for several moments before finally remembering that he did, in fact, have a mask power he could catch himself with. Still, he did wind up lightly hitting the ground, where he proceeded to lay for several seconds, staring wide-eyed towards his freshly vacated spot in the trees. Had he really just seen that? He hoped not; glowing red eyes in the shadows were never a good thing. Ever.
The Air Toa shuddered as he picked himself up and continued to stare skyward, as though half expecting the spooky spectator to become more than a phantom and drop down after him. Luckily, no such thing happened and he eventually lowered his gaze to his new surroundings, rubbing the back of his neck as he did so.
"Well… that was creepystrange…"
A distant, bellowing roar made Lewa jump, then groan faintly as he set off towards the noise. After all, even a typically reasonable sound to hear in the jungle could be a threat when there were creepy eyes watching from sneaky places. For all he knew it could be as mundane as two rahi playing, or as dangerous as a horrific beast intent on devouring an innocent and unsuspecting bystander.
Well, maybe not unsuspecting anymore after hearing that guttural racket.
"I saw Toa Tahu do this once!"
"Jaller don't-!"
Another roar from the beast echoed forth, this time accompanied by a war cry from who could only be presumed to be Vakama's nephew, punctuated the air with the sort of reason to worry that Lewa had been hoping to avoid. Pushing himself to move faster, the Toa of Air swiftly found himself beholding a scene that, had he not just been badly startled, probably would have made him laugh.
There before him was the largest ash bear in all of Le-Wahi, frantically and angrily trying to throw Jaller off her back whilst the Ta-Matoran held on for dear life. Lewa was quite familiar with this particular beast; she was not only named – he had called her Graalok a couple years back and the name just stuck - , but she was also the closest thing to a pet he'd ever had. Sure, his first few encounters with her had been a bit disgruntled, but that was behind them now and no longer a major worry to him. No, the real worry that Lewa had now was whether or not Jaller would be inclined to bring out the large knife he always carried with him. It had been a habit that Mihkoro had more or less encouraged through his own personal practice during the Visorak Crisis, and now Jaller made every intention of carrying on the trend.
The bear would back down if Lewa moved to intervene; Jaller might not be as predictable if the situation got out of hand.
Lewa watched for a few moments longer before deciding he should probably stop the pair from hurting each other, lifting a hand and – with a strong puff of wind – knocking Jaller from his perch as he stepped out into view. "Easy there, motherbear." The Toa practically crooned as he caught the attention of all who were present. "There is no need for any harmdoing."
He couldn't help but grin when he noted the surprise on Jaller's face, as well as the fact that Takua was peering out of a nearby bush with his pet, Pewku. However, he could deal with them after Graalok was safely on her way. Gently he stroked her back, lightly massaging her cheeks and muzzle as the bear turned her head to look at him properly. "Be on your way now." Lewa soothed, smiling brightly as the ash bear growled some form of contented noise in his direction. "These three meant no wrong here. Go on."
He smiled even more as Graalok trundled away, and burst into laughter when he heard Takua sputter out. "Can you teach me how to do that?"
"Maybe someday." He answered as he looked back at the pair of Ta-Matoran, as well as the ussal that was with them whilst she and Takua clambered out of their hiding place. "But you should quicklearn how not to make her angrymad first." He flashed another boyish grin before focusing on Jaller and offering him a hand up. "Now, where does a firespitter learn to bearfight like that, I wonder?"
The young guard gave a dazed groan of sorts as he got to his feet. "Here, just now… Not the smartest move, I'll be honest. But why did you let that crazy thing leave? It's dangerous!"
Lewa laughed again at the answer he received. "Her? Dangerous? Notnever! Graalok was just protecting her home, much as you do yours. It's not every day that crazy firespitters wayfind her and get into angerfights." His smile turned to confusion. "But what brings you two out here? You were supposed to be in the kolhii tournament; shouldn't you be partygoing?"
"We should." Jaller replied with a small frown. "But Takua found some fancy crown and now we're looking for the Seventh Toa."
"Jaller's the Herald." Takua put in hastily. "I'm just here to chronicle the story."
It wasn't hard to see that this tidbit caused Jaller some annoyance, and Lewa caught on quite readily. Clearly there was a story there, but for now it would have to wait; there was something more noteworthy to him than a seemingly small squabble. "Seventh ToaHero? Huh… I wonder if Matau and Hlahlu-Friend know about this." He beamed excitedly. "Let's go find out! Besides, I made a gamblebet with Matau on the match and he'll want to know if he lost again." He turned and set off at once. "Come, firespitters! We leave for Le-Koro! We can partygo and settlesort this ToaHero business all at once!"
^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^
"Nooooo!"
Lewa grinned as Turaga Matau dramatically flopped back in his chair, a theatrical display almost good enough to wave the owed widgets.
Almost.
"I was surecertain I had the right cleverguess that time!" The turaga's cherry red eyes peered suspiciously at Lewa. "You sneakcheated! You had to have!"
Jaller just stared at Matau in disbelief as Lewa gave a shrug. "How could I sneakcheat on a gamblebet I wasn't even at the match for? They didn't know we were moneybetting."
The turaga spluttered a few moments in denial before simply huffing and tossing Lewa the owed amount. "I still think you sneakcheated…"
At present, the trio were comfortably situated in Matau's living room, whilst Takua and Hlahlu were in the kitchen making tea and keeping the children occupied, as well as likely having their own conversation about the Seventh Toa. Lewa had half a mind to check in on them, and surely he would have done so had it not been for Jaller speaking up before he had a chance. "Turaga Matau, what do you do when someone is keeping secrets from you?"
Matau blinked curiously at him. "Eh? I suppose that would depend on who is doing the secret keeping. Why? Is someone troublebothering you?"
Jaller nodded, shifting uncomfortably as he glanced toward the kitchen before answering. "Yeah, Takua actually. He said that telling me would put me in serious danger, but he knows I don't care about that sort of stuff. This whole Avohkii business is supposed to be about some mythical light-bringer, but so far all I've gotten is being left in the dark and pushed into an adventure that wasn't mine to have. I never asked for this, and I wasn't even the one who found the wretched thing in the first place."
Matau's expression shifted from curiosity to concern right away, and Lewa knew exactly why. He could remember all too clearly what happened when Vakama got pushed unwillingly into leadership. To this day it remained one of the biggest regrets the turaga carried from their days as Toa. "Jaller," Matau asked almost tentatively. "how exactly did this all happen?"
Thus Jaller began to explain the situation, or at least what he knew of it, and with every detail he mentioned Matau's concern grew. Lewa's was growing too; Jaller had effectively been shafted with a duty that was not his to bear, something that, when coupled with the amount of secret keeping as well as Takua's reason for it, painted the whole scene as suspicious as well as unhealthy, if not outright toxic. By the time Jaller was finished, both Lewa and Matau were blatantly expressing their concern.
"It soundseems like Takua is deeptroubled most by this darkspooky person you mentioned." Matau concluded after some deliberation. "Rightly so, I thinkfigure."
Jaller frowned in exasperation. "So you think I shouldn't know as well?"
"Notnever did I suggest that." The turaga corrected. "I think you learnknowing would be an everwise thoughtplan. However, this whole thing has far too much deepshadow to be even close to random chance."
Lewa grimaced as he recalled the glowing eyes he had seen earlier. Had his guess really been true? "Turaga Matau," he asked, frowning slightly. "you don't thinkfigure the Makuta is trying to cause troubleproblems, do you?"
"I do." Matau grimly assured. "Only the Makuta could cause so much deepfear that it would bring about such desperate secret keeping."
"But why would the Makuta tell Takua to find the mask if it is his polar opposite?" Jaller asked. "That makes no sense at all."
"Why indeed?" Matau mused thoughtfully. "It would be dangerbad for him to create his own worst enemy. I believe there is another piece to this little playgame; one that does not play by the rules. This darkshadow stranger Takua met might be in league with the Makuta, but he might also be in league with us."
Both Lewa and Jaller were confused by this statement, the latter asking. "What? How does that work?"
Matau offered a vague half-smile. "I think the Makuta has an underling. More specifically, I think he has an underling who wants him to lose. And if they are desperate enough to giftgive us the Avohkii, they are no enemy of ours."
Lewa could only think of one previous subordinate of the Makuta's who would be crazy enough to do something as dangerous as blatant treason, and his mind strayed back to the glowing eyes once more. Was there a new Shadow Toa in their midst? Or had the previous one cheated death against all odds?
"So who exactly is this mystery person?" Jaller pressed. "Who could be that reckless?"
Matau merely shrugged. "Your thoughtguess is as good as mine."
