"Hey look! Look what I found!"
"It's a rock, Jaller."
"Tahu, you have no clue about children, do you?"
Ignoring the glare his comrade gave him, Kopaka stepped forward to take a look at what their four year old charge had discovered. It had been this way for the past few hours, and as time wore on, it was easy to guess that Tahu's patience was, as per his usual, growing steadily thinner. Kopaka was used to such things, even to the point of being seemingly immune or ignorant of it, but he knew quite well that children Jaller's age were far less receptive. Crouching down and smiling a little, Kopaka motioned for the younger boy to come closer. "Here Jaller; Tahu's being a meanie and isn't having any fun with us. Want to show me what you found?"
Nodding and walking over to him, Jaller held out the piece of rock in his hands. "See? There's shiny markings on it." He smiled happily, likely glad that Kopaka was sharing in the discovery. "Kinda look like words, don't they?"
The Toa of Ice blinked at the boy's words as he carefully took the stone from him, studying the golden markings with blatant curiosity. The more he studied them, the more like words they seemed to become, and while he had no idea what the words were, it wasn't hard to guess they were off something important. "Tahu, come look at this."
The redhead groaned. "Not you too..."
"I'm serious, Tahu; Jaller found something really important." Kopaka said with a frown. "Get over here and look at it."
"It's just a rock, Kopaka." Tahu remarked stubbornly, frowning over at him before shaking his head. "It probably fell off one of the walls when everything started breaking apart. Not everything is worth getting excited about; it's all junk now, and that's all it ever will be. So stop getting his hopes up." Not even giving the paler youth a chance to comment, Tahu started walking away. "The only good stuff left here is whatever moth-eaten blankets there might be left over that didn't decay yet."
Kopaka frowned after him, huffing quietly in frustration before looking back at the rock he was holding. "Jaller, do you remember seeing any markings like this anywhere else in here?"
The four year old thought on it for a minute, frowning a little as he tried to recall. "Maybe... um... oh!" He smiled and nodded. "Down! Somewhere with stairs going down! There were a bunch of rocks with shiny words all over them, and I think Mr. Norik was reading them before he disappeared." He shivered, his smile fading quite rapidly. "Before the spider things took me away... Is... Is Daddy gonna be okay?"
The fifteen year old nearly said 'I don't know', but caught himself before any words actually formed. Thinking on it for a moment, he tried to come up with the most reassuring answer he could get away with. "If anyone is going to be okay, it's definitely your dad. I can't count the number of times he escaped otherwise certain disaster, but I do know that it was often enough to give him the skills needed to be a good leader." He offered one of his rare, genuine smiles. "Your father is going to be just fine, Jaller; if there is anything I am certain of, it is that."
These words seemed to do the trick, because after a moment of thinking, Jaller's expression brightened as he nodded. "You're right; Daddy can do anything! He might even be on his way here!" He took hold of Kopaka's arm and set off down the hall, the Toa of Ice stumbling a little as he stood and followed him. "Come on!" Jaller piped. "We've gotta find the shiny words before Daddy gets here!"
I'm coming, hang on a moment." The Toa of Ice replied as he trudged along. "I'm right here." Even as they walked, however, Kopaka couldn't help but wonder...
Where had Tahu gone?
^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^
"... Where the Pit am I?"
He was lost. Hopelessly lost. Just how big was this place anyway? To make matters worse, he couldn't even remember which directions he'd even gone to get where he was now, and that meant having no idea how to retrace his steps and track down the others. Huffing angrily, Tahu paused to look at his surroundings more carefully, only to huff again shortly after in indignant dislike for his situation.
"I should have just looked at the stupid rock..." He grumbled. "I'd be just bored then instead of bored and lost. Stupid rock... stupid temple..."
Stomping along in his own little frustrated world, Tahu paid even less attention now that he did before, not caring about the where, so much as the when. After all, he was bound to find them eventually; all he had to do was keep wandering around.
'You're an idiot, Tahu.'
Onua's voice rang clear in his mind as he huffed along. "Shut up, Onua."
Wait... what?
Pausing, Tahu looked around in bewildered confusion. Onua wasn't here, was he? A small shiver ran down Tahu's spine as he looked around, searching for his Brother and seeing nobody. "Great..." He grumbled hotly, crossing his arms as he glanced about. "Now I'm hearing things. That's just great."
The voice chuckled at him. 'You should have stayed with them.'
"I know that." Tahu snapped crossly. "I'm not that stupid."
'You're arguing with a voice in your head. That can't be normal.'
"Of course it isn't!" He half shouted, now highly annoyed as he started off again. "So shut up and get out of my head!"
'Where's the fun in that? I've been getting so lonely. Besides, weren't you just complaining about not staying with the others?'
Tahu glowered at nothing in particular, trying to block out or ignore the voice. He knew it wasn't Onua; the earth user wasn't a telepath, nor was he this annoying to speak with. Normally, a rational state of mind would go through a list of possibilities as to the source of his woes. Tahu and his temper, however, were far from normal, and definitely far from rational. As such, the boy simply continued storming along down the corridor, doing his best to ignore the voice in his head.
'You might want to turn back.' The voice advised.
Tahu kept going.
'This part of the temple isn't safe.' It persisted.
He still ignored it.
'The floor is crumbling.'
"Wait what?"
Before the hotheaded Toa could do much more than pause and comment, he found himself scrambling, the tiles beneath his feet crumbling away, dropping into unknown darkness below. Tahu let out a yell of alarm as he started to fall, barely managing to twist himself around and grab the edge. "Not good!" He gasped out, struggling to pull himself. "So very not good!" It didn't help that the floor was, while unpolished, fairly smooth, providing very little to try and grip. His palms began to sweat, his hands slowly beginning to slide on the stone floor, threatening to drop him into the darkness below. To make matters worse, Tahu distinctly made out a soft clicking or tapping noise, as though there were a steadily approaching creature that wanted to take advantage of his helpless state. Images of some terrifying beast looming from above, or below, filled his mind, horrific monsters that all tried eating him as he dangled between life and whatever lay in the impending blackness underneath him. "H-Help!"
The clicking noise grew louder, faster, the source clearly moving in on its prey. Tahu held his breath, sweat beading on his face as he struggled even more frantically to pull himself up onto the ledge. This was it; he was doomed either way. If the creature didn't kill him, the fall certainly would.
A large set of pincers entered the young Toa's view, followed by the front legs and face of the Visorak who owned them. Tahu screamed, accidentally letting go of the ledge and dropping into the blackness. The Visorak screeched in what Tahu could throw a wild guess out as annoyance, though it soon did something he couldn't make out... until something thick and sticky splattered against his chest, shoulders, and stomach. A sharp jerk shortly followed, and Tahu found himself hanging from a veritable rope made of webbing. Impulse and reflex took first initiative, leading him to grab at his chest, effectively getting his hands trapped as well. Panic clouded his mind as he was slowly reeled back up, back towards the ledge and the Visorak who had ensnared him. "No no no no no no no no no!" Struggling even more, Tahu fought against the webs with every fiber of his being, desperate to escape. Images of what happened to Frigus hurtled through his mind, reminding him just how bad of a situation he was in, and what might happen if he was brought in range of the Rahi's pincers.
And then he heard the voice again.
'I told you this hallway wasn't safe. Why didn't you listen to me?'
Tahu froze, eyes widening in alarmed confusion as he stared at the Visorak up above. Was it really responsible for the voice in his head? He thought back to his earlier encounters with other Visorak, quickly remembering that there had been a point when, in the midst of battle, he'd heard what he thought was Toa Lhikan's voice telling him to surrender, something he knew was a falsehood. Was this the same thing?
"Did... did you just say that?" The fifteen year old spluttered, too confused to continue his squirming.
The black-shelled Rahi just stared at him, almost boredly, as it kept reeling him in. 'Does it look like anyone else is around?'
Tahu was torn between arguing his defense or being freaked out that there was a Rahi speaking in his head. Finally, however, he managed to at least say something. "That has got to be the creepiest thing I've ever heard." He then realized something else. "Wait... you're that Visorak that Vakama sent me here on... why are you helping him? Shouldn't you be trying to eat us or something?"
'You're an idiot, shouldn't you be jumping off a cliff or something?'
"Hey!"
The voice kept talking, stopping any further argument. 'I'm helping him because I know the Toa are nicer to deal with than Roodaka. Besides, I liked the Earth-Shaker, and Vakama promised I would see him again.'
"Earth-Shaker?" Tahu repeated as he was finally pulled up onto the ledge and away from the cavernous hole he nearly fell into. "What Earth-Shaker? You mean Whenua?"
'No.' The Visorak replied. 'The one I am using the voice of. The merciful one.'
That made the boy pause. This Rahi had met Onua, and lived? How? And perhaps more importantly, why? Deciding he could worry about that later, he asked instead. "Do you know when Onua will be here?"
'No, but Vakama said he would come, so I will wait. You should have waited for your friends too; you found what they were looking for without knowing you found it.'
Tahu blinked. "I did what now?"
The black-shelled bug scuttled closer to the edge again and peered down. 'A room full of shiny rocks and stories I can't read. Funny how the answer everyone wanted was here the whole time, and never found.' It paused. 'Do Toa always find things by accident? You all seem very clumsy.'
Tahu frowned, trying to pull his hands free again as he sat there. "No, we are just very busy trying to stay alive. Reading isn't high on my list of priorities."
The Visorak whirred in amusement. 'Silly Toa would be smart to slow down; they would win faster that way.'
"What's that supposed to mean?"
'Time thinking is better than time running. Time thinking saves time running, saves time everywhere. It's just better for Toa to think.'
The teenager was about to argue, when he heard Kopaka shout from down the hall behind him. "What in Mata Nui's name did you do down here?"
Tahu glanced over, spotting his Brother and Jaller drawing near. "What did I do...?" He glanced back at the gaping hole in the floor, debating how best to respond. Finally, a smile crossed his face.
"Found shiny rocks."
