A large dam had been naturally built by thick wooden logs and leaves filling the gaps. Hoei and Cas removed the structurally important logs and watched the others fall and crash into the ice. Looking into the hole, only the top of the river had frozen, and the cold water below was moving west, toward the ocean. Cas stomped her foot on the ice and shattered it. The tiny chunks of ice floated down the river, away from the Toa.

"How far did you shatter the ice?" Hoei asked, looking eastward, inland.

"As far as I could," Cas responded

"Let's hope it unfroze that swamp Stohn mentioned."

"This river should lead us right to it."

So the two Toa kept walking eastward, looking at the stream of ice and water flow. It was a long walk and a particularly boring one. The only issue was getting over piles of loose rocks just to find another long stretch of nothing. When the sun was past the Canyon walls, the sky turned shades of orange and yellow. Looking up, it seemed that the walls were the edges of the sky or the end of a painting.

Hoei looked forward as the canyon dimmed and saw something strange. A while away was a small yellow light, faintly illuminating a square, almost window-like shape.

"Cas look!" Hoei pointed towards the dim light.

"A light? That's strange. It looks like a"

"A window."

"Yeah, and buildings have windows. Hoei, hold on."

Hoei turned to face Cas and was shocked. "You want to investigate?"

"We'll just do some recon. No way the two of us are going to make ourselves known to whatever is making that light. I'll teleport us near and we'll sneak up."

Hoei reluctantly agreed and held onto Cas. A blink later Hoei opened his eyes and situated himself. The light was larger. Way larger, and closer. Hoei and Cas were practically underneath it. The light was from a window, and the door was next to Cas. Looking around, other windows and doors and buildings could be seen. They had reached Po-Kyla, the canyon city. Looking up, the buildings stretched high up, almost touching the top of the canyon walls. The buildings were not rectangular but were organic and pointy. From an away view, the buildings would blend in with the walls.

Cas examined the door. It was old, falling, and rotted wood. Any movement to it would probably knock the whole thing down and make noise. Cas leaned against the wall and silently shuffled to the edge of the building. Cas signaled for Hoei to follow and once he was there he saw an open window on the ground floor. Cas slowly put her head in through and looked around.

It went back into the canyon more than it jutted out. It seemed like a meeting or a large living room. An old, faded green rug stretched across the entire floor. An old table was in the middle and twelve fiber seats surrounded it. By the door and sparsely through the room were lightstones, dimly illuminating the room.

Stairs in the back right corner went up and looped around to the second floor. A closet door was built into the stairs and in the far back was an open doorway into another room. Cas looked down and saw a small pot. The plant inside had gone brittle and dead, with water being all but abundant. It was a large pot, however, and Cas couldn't maneuver around it. She picked up the pot and brought it out. After setting it on the ground by Hoei, Cas climbed in through the window and landed in the room.

She walked over to the stairs and saw they were solid stone, and wouldn't creak if stepped on. Hoei had climbed through the window and was investigating the open doorway. It was a furnace room, with a large fire pit and chimney that went up. Hoei looked into the chimney and saw dark soot lining the walls and there was no top or light. Just darkness. Hoei left the room and followed Cas up the stairs.

The second floor was a hallway with three doors in front of the stairs, two doors to the left and right of the stairs, and the stairway going up. Cas and Hoei saw that the left door across from the stairs was open, and a light was shining inside. Cas crouched down by the side of the doorway and slowly peered inside. Once a single eye was past the wall, the doorway shot up in flames.

A large blast of fire had shot through the door from the room. Cas quickly teleported in front of Hoei and went up the stairs, whispering "Pincer."

Hoei laid down on the stairs and peeked his head out to watch the doorway.

A voice spoke. It was calculating and imposing. The speaker had power and knew it, the voice of a commander.

"Lousy infiltrators you two are." The voice said, teasing the two Toa, "First thing first, your teleporting makes a noise. A very, very audible pop. That alerted me. Next, that plant you moved was rigged. I knew that window was appealing and made it ring a bell up here when moved. Your blank white mask shines in the dark, your footsteps are too loud, the chimney echoes, and finally, the presence of Toa makes me shiver."

The voice never moved, it was in one place, almost daring the Toa to move.

"You can speak, Toa of Ice and Earth. Did I scare you with that? With my perfect guess?"

Hoei backed up from the stairs so he wouldn't be visible from the door, "Name. Now."

"Oh my bad, I am General Firecougher, presiding over the Grand Army of Barordak. I take orders from myself, and occasionally do what Lord Takan wants."

"You took an order from me," Hoei said back

The voice went cold and flat, "Funny."

"Comedy isn't my strong point, I leave that for the others. What's a General doing in a desolate place like this?"

"Simply a resting point, I'm needed more inland."

"Oh really? Where?"

Firecougher's silence was the answer. Hoei looked past the stairs, the door stopped burning and was a barely standing plank of charred wood and ash. Hoei got up, braced himself, and inched towards the door. Cas followed behind. Hoei bashed the door down with his hammer and charged in.

The room was empty. Completely devoid of everything, there were no tables, no beds or hammocks, no carpet or rugs. Nothing even storage related was here, it was never used. The only notable thing was burn marks across the walls and floors, where Firecougher probably shot flame. A trail of burn led out the window, where Cas was looking out.

Looking up and around the building, and down the canyon, Cas saw no sign of Firecougher. Until he came flying down past the window with Lopek's spear through his chest. Firecougher landed with a thud on the ground and ripped the spear out. Lopek came down quicker than anything Cas had seen before and slammed into Firecougher.

Both stumbled around and fell to the ground. Lopek's spear had fallen into the river and was floating away from Lopek. Firecougher got up, and Cas got a good look at him. He had a green mask. Oval-shaped, the sides were rounded to the back, where it ended in two long points, almost like an antenna. Red eyes glowed furiously in the dark and glared at Lopek with murder.

He wore silver armor and was between the height of Turaga Stohn and the Toa. In the center of his chest, there was a hole where Lopek had dug his spear. In his left arm was a large shield that could cover his entire body, and his right arm was twice as long as his left, ending with his fingers touching the ground. In that hand, he held a sword of fire, eerily similar to Tadan's.

Firecougher pointed his sword at Lopek and yelled at him "Get up you lousy Toa! Fight like a warrior!"

Lopek laid on the ground, cradling his head in his arms, "Not yet! I'm spin-headed! Give me a moment!"

Firecougher started walking towards Lopek, dipping his sword into the river and boiling the chunks of ice. Cas and Hoei started down the stairs and exited the house.

"Ah! Three Toa at once! I've been waiting for this moment, the moment to test your mettle." Firecougher turned his glaring eyes to Hoei and Cas, "Oh my, let's take a look at your weapons. That Toa of Air had a spear, the Toa of Earth has a hammer, and the Toa of Ice has nothing. You're just like the ones before."

Hoei charged forward, "We're better."

Before Hoei could raise his hammer Firecougher swept his arm and sword at Hoei's legs and knocked him over. Cas teleported behind, but Firecougher turned around and bashed her with his shield. While dizzy, Cas was struck by Firecougher's sword. Cas fell. Hoei used his powers over earth and made a thick dust storm in the canyon.

Hoei walked over to Lopek and sat him up. Lopek then fell onto his back.

"Please just let me *hrk* lay down."

"What are you doing here anyways?" Hoei asked

"Uh… Stohn thought that there might be evil here."

"Stohn's right as always." Hoei stood up and saw Firecougher leaving the dust storm, with a KO'd Cas in his shield hand.

"Toa of Earth, I suspect a better fight from you." Firecougher threw Cas to the side and she thudded against a rock.

Hoei got angry but didn't lash out. He stood his ground and held his hammer tight with both hands. "You attack first."

"That wouldn't be fair, you go first."

"I insist." Hoei stayed where he was.

Firecougher didn't say anything back but looked at Hoei for a minute. "Smart move, but I must decline."

"Hmph," Hoei chuckled and dropped his hammer to the ground and outstretched his fingers, "Ready to fight?"

"Ready to die?" Firecougher asked, taunting Hoei with his blade and stance.

"You know it."

As Firecougher lifted an eyebrow in response Hoei dashed forward. Firecougher slashed his long arm and sword towards Hoei who dived forward, underneath the blade. Hoei slid and grabbed Firecougher's ankle. With a burst of his mask, Firecougher's body went limp and fell over. Hoei stood up and dusted himself off.

Cas was watching from the rock, "Did you… did you put the evil guy in your MASK?"

Hoei bent down and dusted his shins, "Yep."

"Do you think that's fine?"

"You think he's going to burn the place down?"

"Can he?"

"Oh. Uh. Hold on." Hoei then went limp and fell as well, getting dusty.

Firecougher was in the main room of Hoei's pocket realm. He examined Lopek's room connecting to the meeting room, and then the training hall. He entered the hallway and opened every door until he reached Nekora's. Inside were the long and numerous bookshelves.

Firecougher picked some books off the shelves and opened them, only to be met with blank pages. More and more books had blank pages, and soon he got mad. Then, Hoei entered the dimension and sneaked into Nekora's room where he heard Firecougher angrily tossing books to the floor. Hoei made himself known by slowly closing the door and letting creaky hinges pierce the room. Firecougher whipped around and faced Hoei.

"What IS this place?" He asked, pointing his sword towards Hoei's neck.

Without flinching, Hoei replied, "This is my world."

"Your world? If this is it, I don't want any part of it."

"Good."

Hoei imagined a hole in the floor where Firecougher was, and it appeared. Firecougher fell into a small room with blank, eight feet high walls. As Firecougher strained to get out, Hoei covered the floor with imagined stone and carpet, as if the hole had never been made.

From the bottom, Firecougher yelled to Hoei. "Let me out!"

"Tell me about Lord Takan."

"He's more of a Toa than you'll EVER be."

"Really? I thought he wasn't a Toa anymore, just a diseased corpse."

"His disease will spread like wildfire and kill everything you know. Destroying the Glacier removed the one obstacle between safety, and him."

"The Glacier protected us from Lord Takan? But didn't he make it?" Hoei was trying to make Takan seem dumb, to get a rise out of Firecougher. "If Takan is so smart, why would he put an obstacle in his way?"

"The Glacier was pushing you out of your home. Soon you would have no home to sleep in. Then, you would die. Now that the Glacier is gone, Takan's fire will spread and burn everything."

"Hmph, impossible," Hoei said

"What?" FIrecougher was confused. "Barordak will burn with your corpses. All of it!"

"We'll see about that. Anything else you want to say? Maybe a tip-off about where Takan is?"

"I'd rather die."

"We'll see about that." Hoei popped out of his mask and left Firecougher in the dark, surrounded by stone.