"Don't stop running…" Lewa thought, hugging his little sister close as he stumbled out of a tunnel and into the hazy light of the fog-ridden city he had once called home. "Gotta keep going, for Hahli's sake!" Now was one of the few times in his life where he actually wanted Kopaka to keep him company. Split apart due to more Visorak showing up, the fourteen year old Toa of Air now only had his little sister with him, and though he was happy that she was alright, Lewa would've felt a lot better if he had someone else nearby to help him out.

"Big brother…" Hahli asked quietly, resting her small her small chin on his shoulder as she clung to him. "Are we gonna be okay?" The Toa blinked at her question. He wasn't fully sure how to answer that. On one hand he could say yes and they could end up captured, killed, or mutated. On the other, he could say he wasn't sure and leave his little sister feeling uneasy or nervous, but without a potential lie. Deciding quickly which would be the lesser of two evils, Lewa gave a small sigh and replied.

"I'm not sure-certain, to be honest. But I promise that I'll do everything I can to keep you safe. Does that sound okay-fine for now?" The silence that followed, broken only by the sound of Lewa's footsteps, indicated that Hahli was thinking over what her older brother had said. It took her a long time to come up with an answer, preceded by a quiet, though drawn out yawn.

"Yep… That's okay for now… Where were you before, brother? Why didn't I ever meet you before?" The Toa blinked a few times more as he once again considered her question. She probably wouldn't understand that he'd needed training, but what else could he call it?

Finally he came up with an idea and smiled a little. "I and my Toa-Hero friends went on an ever-long camping trip. We lost track of time for a while, but eventually figure-guessed how long it'd been and came back."

Hahli giggled at his explanation. "Sounds like it was really fun… Maybe when things are nicer, we could go camping together. All of us, even Mom and Dad." The thought of a family camping trip made Lewa grin. He could still vaguely recall his first camping trip. Sure, he couldn't remember all the details, but he could certainly remember a campfire, singing, and eating too many smores.

"Camping with everyone sounds like an ever-fun plan-idea, Hahli. We should totally do that sometime!" Lewa piped, slowing to a walk and smiling even more as his four year old sister giggled in his ear.

"Can you teach me how to make a… um…" Hahli paused, trying to remember what she was asking about. "… One of those chocolaty marshmallowy things?"

The Toa tilted his head a little before smiling and nodding. "A smore? Sure, I'll teach-show you as soon as we get a break-chance. Sound good?"

The four year old nodded, smiling a bit more. "Yep…" She burbled tiredly. "Sounds good…" There was a long pause before Hahli spoke again. "I'm really sleepy… Big brother, where are we going?"

Lewa grimaced at the question. Normally he'd be the one asking that. Thinking for a little while and making a quiet humming noise, the green haired boy finally replied. "We'll find somewhere to sleep-rest for a bit. We're both kind of tucker-tired from all the quick-running." Hahli just burbled quiet nonsense in reply as she drifted off to sleep. Lewa couldn't help but smile at this, though as he looked around he was beginning to wonder if there was anywhere safe enough to settle down for even just one or two hours.

Judging by the surrounding area, the tunnel exit had landed them in Po-Metru, just on the outskirts of the statue fields. There was considerably less fog here too, allowing very brief glimpses of the evening sky, still faintly glowing with the light of the setting sun. For a while, Lewa just stood there, staring at what parts of the sky he could actually see. With no way to really measure how long he'd been back on Metru Nui, the Toa Mata couldn't help but feel as though he hadn't seen the sky in ages. Briefly, he wondered if he should wake his sister up to point it out to her, though he decided against it when he paused to consider that the Ga-Matoran may not have gotten much sleep in the past while. This being the case, he just stood there for a few minutes in silence, a small smile on his face as he stared up at the patches of orange-kissed sky that sometimes peeked through the fog. It gave him an oddly calm feeling, as though the tears in the foggy shroud were glimmers of hope and a promise of better days ahead.

Eventually Lewa snapped back to attention, his small smile on his face still as he started to walk again, gaze scanning for somewhere he could tuck himself and his sister away for the night, and hoping beyond hope that he could find somewhere on ground floor, or at least close to it. The last thing he wanted was to be found by the Visorak on or in some high up structure. Sure, he still had his mask ability, and Hahli was quite light weighted, but all the same it was one of those times where he felt it would be safer for them to be on the ground, a feeling that seldom came to him. As he thought about it, Lewa smiled a bit more as he remembered something Lhikan had told him while they had been away.

^v^

Falling flat on his face seemed to be a natural occurrence by now, and try as he might Lewa still couldn't get the hang of manoeuvring through the makeshift obstacle course Lhikan had put together. Of course, not being allowed to use his wings only made it worse. Groaning as he got up for the umpteenth time and spitting out a few rocks, the young Toa of Air plodded over to Toa Lhikan, his expression downcast. "Toa-Hero Lhikan… I can't do this."

The Toa Mangai blinked a few times at the boy's words. "What do you mean, Lewa? Of course you can do it."

"No, I can't." Lewa persisted. "My head speak-tells me to do one thing, but my gut-thought says to do something else, and I just end up getting bad-hurt."

"Hmm…" Lhikan mumbled, thinking over what he'd just been told. "Which do you normally follow, Lewa? Your head, or the other feeling?"

"My head." The boy replied, his expression a confused one. "My gut is only supposed to speak-talk when I'm hungry, isn't it?"

The Toa of Fire started to laugh quietly as he smiled, gently resting a hand on the younger Toa's shoulder. "You're thinking about your stomach, little one. Having a gut feeling is different. It's like a hunch or instinctive thought, actually. Does that make sense?"

"Uhm…" Lewa had to think over what he'd just been told. He'd never really heard of a feeling in his gut other than hunger. All the same though, it did make a bit of sense. He remembered how often his older brothers, Baku in particular, would claim he 'had a bad feeling' about different things, mostly when it was something that could get he and his siblings in trouble. Now that someone had actually explained it to him, the concept seemed much easier to grasp. Finally a small grin crossed the boy's face as he nodded and replied. "Yep. But I've got a bad feeling now…"

"You do?" Lhikan asked with notable concern.

"Yeah… It says I'm hungry."

^v^

As he recalled this memory, Lewa's smile became a grin. "Those were good days…" That was when he heard a faint growl somewhere behind him, and the fourteen year old knew from personal experience that creatures that made unhappy noises were very bad news. Forcing himself not to shriek like an upset baby due to the surprise of being found, the green haired youth bolted, holding onto Hahli tightly as he went. Praying that his new problem wasn't hungry, the boy started looking around frantically for somewhere to hide, or at least escape the evil beast that was now trying to chase him down.

"Please give up… Please give up…" The teen puffed under his breath, his yellow-green eyes wide as he scanned the surroundings. Again the creature growled, now sounding much closer. Lewa sped up, his face paling notably as he began muttering something else. "Please don't eat me, please don't eat me!"

Up ahead he now saw a partially finished statue that seemed to be a promising location to be on top of. His eyes began to glow brightly as Lewa activated his mask power and lifted off the ground, heading towards the monument and only turning to look back at the beast that'd intended on making a snack out of him and his little sister once his feet were planted firmly on the rocky surface.

The creature, not standing at the base of the unfinished statue, appeared to be covered in a thick, dusty tan hide, and judging by the hunch in its back it had a shell of some sort. From Lewa's angle, it looked like the Rahi had messy brown hair, though it was covered by… a cowboy hat? The Toa of Air did a double-take at that, his gaze now noticing the blue bandanna around its neck, the black, fingerless gloves on its hands, and the fact that it was also wearing what looked to be dark brown shorts and dusty tan boots.

That was when the creature spoke, crossing his arms as he stared up at Lewa with a look of amusement and surprise on his sharply featured face, and a gleam of almost mocking laughter in his dusty blue eyes. "Geez, I thought you would've been bigger than that by now! It's been six years since I saw you last and you're still a toothpick!"

Lewa blinked, eyes widening in shock. He recognized that voice! Hardly able to believe just who he was looking at, the Toa of Air just stared at the being in surprise for several moments until finding his voice once more.

"Onewa?"