"How the Rahi do you build a boat?" Hoei asked, staring blankly at the river while his hands rested on his hips.
"Great question." Tadan grabbed Hoei and dragged him into the Dock warehouse, "There are boats in the back. We grab one that works and copy it."
Weaving through the towers of crates, in the back of the warehouse we're fallen and ruined boats. Hooks and ropes were strung around the ceiling, hoisting the boats up. Now eroded, the boats had fallen and splintered.
Hoei surveyed the wrecks and lifted a few with Tadan. When none of them were in any repairable condition and hope seemed thin, Tadan noticed a door in the back. Pushing the creaky door open, he found the holy grail. A boat made out of stone which the Matoran used as a template. Tadan burned the door down and compared the different wrecks to the template. Hoei brought in the more crafty Matoran and with Tadan they found boats that had salvageable parts.
With Tadan busy Hoei left the workshop and was guided over to a thin tower near the outskirts of the village. Entering the doorway, it seemed to be an armory of sorts, as the walls were piled high with all sorts of weapons. Going up the stairs, Hoei entered a meeting room, where a table of stone emerged from the floor. Sunspike looked dreamily out the windows.
"A guard tower. Nifty." Hoei said
Sunspike turned to Hoei and pointed towards the opposite end of Po-Kyla. "Gawae is checking the other tower."
"Good, I wanted to talk to you alone,"
"Is it about Tadan?"
"No. I was wondering if you could defend here while we went to Baror-Kyla?"
"Am I not coming along?"
"Well…" Hoei trailed off as Sunspike puppy-eyed him, "Gawae, Tadan, and I are going to Baror-Kyla once the boat comes back with Matoran to reclaim Baror-Kyla. We three won't be here to protect if something attacks. You're a godsend being here."
"C…can… would it be fine if Gawae stayed here?" Sunspike turned their body to Hoei and looked somber.
"We need Gawae on our journey."
"Well, I need her here! She's been so kind to me. I felt like a freak without life, just useless garbage sent out to be burned before I ran into her. I finally feel… united."
Hoei looked up and down at Sunspike. A creature that lost limbs and was sent out on a suicide mission finally finds unity. Unity, that word was spoken for a reason. One of the Three Virtues! Shocked, Hoei walked up to Sunspike and patted their head.
"I get it now, Sunspike!"
Looking up, Sunspike was confused, "You… get it?"
"Unity! I thought you would be united to us, the Toa, but in reality, you're united to Gawae. Your destiny is with her somehow. I can't break that, it would be useless! You go to Baror-Kyla with Gawae and Tadan, I'll stay here! After all, Po-Kyla is my village, I should know it!"
"Are you sure about that? Should I be going up there instead of you?"
"I'm a Toa, my Duty is to protect. I don't know Rahkshi, so my best guess for your duty is something other than to protect."
"To kill." Sunspike's usually happy demeanor vanished, and their eyes scowled into a glare. Their whole body posture changed from relaxed to the shape of a predator.
Hoei was shocked and saw Sunspike's change, freaking out, he grabbed Sunspike's head and sent their consciousness into his Mask. Sunspike's body fell limp and Hoei left to find Gawae. As he was running past the Dock, the Matoran were floating testing the hodgepodge ship they built by slowly stepping onto it. When they had gotten 10 Matoran or so on, Tadan slowly moved aboard and sank the ship.
Hoei ran on the sand and stone, feeling the solid ground beneath him. He also felt his mask, feeling sorry for Sunspike. Had he activated some primal instinct? Was Tadan right? If any of that was true, Gawae knew Sunspike best and she would have the best course of action. He saw the same tower design from the east end of the village and bolted into the room, crashing into Gawae and a rack of weapons.
Pushing Hoei and some spears off of her, Gawae asked what was wrong. Hoei helped her up and explained that he was talking to Sunspike about them staying behind to protect Po-Kyla, but then he realized that he should be the one to protect the village while they, her, and Tadan went to Baror-Kyla. Sunspike had an objection but Hoei brought up Duty which sent Sunspike into a predatory mindset.
"So… what do we do?" Hoei asked, panting from his lack of breath.
"Well, where's Sunspike!"
"Oh, in my Mask."
Gawae grabbed Hoei's mask and shook him, and within an instant, she too went limp and fell into Hoei's arms.
"Uhh… good luck"
Hoei carried her out of the building and was bringing her to Sunspike's tower, so they would be together when they left his mask. As he walked by the Dock again, Tadan noticed Hoei walking with a limp Gawae in his arms and ran over.
"What's going on?" Tadan asked, catching up to Hoei.
Hoei kept on walking towards the guard tower and didn't look at Tadan, "I… Something wrong was said and Gawae is fixing it."
The two kept walking in silence before Hoei spoke up again, "I'm not going to Baror-Kyla with you. Not yet."
Tadan stopped walking, "What!? That's stupid! We need you! One for all!"
"It's our Duty as Toa to protect the Matoran. This is MY village. I protect it, not a Rahkshi."
"So you don't trust Sunspike to defend here?"
Hoei turned to Tadan and glared, shifting his stance to tower over Tadan, "That's not at all what I'm saying. Sunspike is more than capable of defending here, but it makes more sense to have the destined defender of a village than someone else."
"If we kept ourselves to our 'Destined Villages', Gawae wouldn't even be here right now. She would be back at Ga-Kyla, not here, a village completely out of her domain. Cas would teleport herself to Ko-Kyla and Lopek would spin his way to Le-Kyla. Nekora and I would wander our way to Ta and Onu-Kyla and once we were all squared away we would become hermits never leaving our shells. Barordak would fall again because we didn't help the other villages. To Takan with that destiny Hoei, Unity comes first."
"That's not!... no, you're right. But before we make a decision, we do it as a group."
With Gawae and Sunspike leaning up against the wall of the guard tower, Hoei wandered around Po-Kyla, checking in on all the warehouses and residential buildings. A large archway with pillars engraved with running Matoran kicking spheres. Past the arch, where the gateway should be was an uncut wall.
Hoei looked around. A warehouse was nearby. Walking in, the tables and floor were filled with mining tools and loose stones. Dust filled his nose and he sneezed loudly, echoing through the room. Going through a small door in the direction of the archway, it opened up into a large expanse of nothing. To the outside was a blank stone archway with no way through. The room itself was mostly empty, except for the stone bleaches wrapping around the sides and the back. The arena was a blank floor with each corner having large stone columns reaching out from the ground. The goalposts as they were had numerous engravings in them, ranging from simple words of encouragement to the three Great Virtues.
Everything seemed complete. The stadiums, rooms for the players, a scoreboard that would hold painted pieces of wood. There was a balcony where the Turaga would probably watch and even lightstones were embedded into the room. All that was left was to remove the wall. Did the Glacier come right when construction was nearly completed?
Hoei left the arena, and Gawae and Sunspike were still in his mask. He saw Solurae pacing around, so he went over to him.
"What are you doing here, all alone?"
Solurae looked up at Hoei, clearly annoyed. "Can you believe that the Po-Matorans don't have a library?" These houses don't even have bookshelves!"
"Maybe they had more important things to do than read and write. It seems like that was a job for the Ko-Matorans,"
"The Ko-Matorans are fools, Hoei. Knowledge should be shared, not trapped collecting dust."
"What would a Po-Matoran want of useless knowledge?"
"Useless? You dare call Star Theory useless?!"
"What now?"
"Ugh, the theory went that the stars in the night sky foretold destinies and the future. One of the shapes that were found in the sky was the Great Volcano. They thought it meant when Takan was defeated, but I think it's talking about a different destiny."
"Ok then, but why would a carver need-"
"Maybe the carver could see a different destiny, maybe the stars will only let themselves be read by a special Matoran. The lucky few never knew their gift because the Ko-Matorans were hungry for another idea!"
"Woah Woah," Hoei saw Solurae was mad and sat down, face level with the Matoran, "It sounds like you're mad at the Ko-Matorans."
Solurae didn't look at Hoei but turned his head to the river. "I was a prominent figure in that theory. Another noted destiny was a Matoran in a cave."
Hoei's eyes burst open and he let out a gasp, "That Matoran was you!"
Solurae sighed and looked at Hoei, "None of us knew it was about me, but the others called me insane and degraded me to a simple navigator."
"I thought they took any theory, why banish you?"
"They took it as a dust collector, a book to get my name in the library forever, they thought it was a joke! I doubt they thought much of my disappearance. It was a common sight to see navigators vanish in a snowstorm."
"Someone probably missed you,"
"Probably doesn't make an idea. My theory didn't have past destinies and star maps that came true, it was too new,"
"Well Solurae, whoever did that to you doesn't remember, and they aren't in the library right now. You could become the new curator."
Solurae thought about that for a long time, pacing back and forth while Hoei watched. Eventually, Solurae stopped mumbling to himself and asked Hoei if he remembered anything from before the Glacier.
"No. It was… I was somewhere in the desert when a flock of Matoran of every type came rushing past talking about a Glacier. I followed them and didn't look back. At Ga-Kyla Stohn was leading the effort. I was a memoryless drifter given the task to create metal spikes."
"Well then, that's good."
"How is that good?"
"Cas was on the Council of Archivists who banished me."
Hoei rolled his eyes and fell backward creating a cloud of dust from his collision. As he stared into the noon sky, he let out a sigh, "Of course she was."
"But I will take up your offer on becoming the new Head Archivist,"
"That's nice."
As Hoei relaxed on the ground he heard a loud commotion from the Dock. Frantically getting up, he realized it was a celebration and when he looked over, Tadan was triumphantly standing on a boat. The Matoran started piling on testing how many of them they could fit. The air grew silent as more and more got on. The boat started sinking but not too dangerously, Hoei walked over with Solurae, and once near, Hoei picked up Solurae by the head and placed him onto the boat.
"I see the boat works," Hoei said, looking at all of the Matoran.
"Sure does. It's all ready to head out whenever we make a decision,"
"Perfect," Hoei said smiling and looking over at Solurae said, "Do you remember how you play Kolhii?"
"Yes… you aren't thinking about playing that silly game are you?"
Hoei looked both ways quickly and said, "Well, I did find the arena,"
So Solurae found some sticks and balls and showed everyone the procedures for a game of Kolhii: the four teams, offense and defense, points, and general rules. After watching the Matoran play a few short rounds, getting used to the throwing and blocking, Hoei went high up in the bleachers and took a nap.
Waking up in his realm expecting to see Gawae and Sunspike, he was shocked when the meeting room was empty. Walking into the hallway he heard chatting from Gawae's room. Instead of knocking on the door, he walked past and silently entered his room.
It was barren, with stone grey walls and a flat ceiling. A lone wooden bed with a green bed sheet was in the far corner, and nothing else was there. Why would there be, Nekora's library is filled with books he's thought of since you can't bring real things in. Hoei exited his depressing and empty room, turning back to the meeting hall. Stohn had made another room, the training hall, but no one had ever used it because they needed Hoei to transport them.
Everything coalesced into one thought, "Why make a home if no one will live in it?" Then Hoei got to thinking on that, and realized it applied to Barordak, why refill the Kylas? So the Matoran can get back to their lives? Only two people remember the lives lost. Would this new Barordak be a mockery of the old? Hoei shook his head and let the thoughts fall out.
Hoei was hesitant, standing outside Gawae's door. He heard them talking but couldn't make out the words. He slowly raised his hand and formed a fist.
Knock. Knock.
The voices stopped, until Gawae spoke up, "Hoei?"
"Yep."
Hoei opened the door and slowly crept in. Gawae's room was not as vibrant blue as he expected it to be, but more passively light blue. Not straining on the eyes, it was tranquil, something Hoei was hoping for. The room itself was barren except for Gawae and Sunspike lying on the carpeted floor which was a soft green.
"Are you still thinking about protecting Po-Kyla alone?" Gawae asked
"Er, uhh. That's why I'm here. I uh, I'd like to revoke my previous offer of protecting myself to come to a better decision,"
"Oh! Alright!"
Shortly after that, Hoei thought them out of his mask and heaved a sigh. Now was never. Thinking himself out of his mask, his eyes opened to Tadan lying down on the seats in front of him. Off on the court, Solurae was teaching the Matoran the purpose of Kolhii sticks, and how to block.
"Get up heat bag, we're going to make a decision," Hoei said standing up and walking down the steps.
The two groups met in the guard tower. While walking Hoei noticed how dark it had gotten. Shadows from the canyon ledge grew over the ground and houses. Matoran had set up lightstones around the ground and inside the homes. Windows were glowing yellow and sometimes the silhouette of a Matoran would grace by
