I really shouldn't be up. I really should be sleeping, but i couldn't so i figured i might as well finish chapter 7. its been a whole year since my last update...that's just sad. well anyway i hope you enjoy and it is to your liking.
Have fun!
Chapter 7
"I'm a She, Not an It"
As they entered the village, Takua looks around and narrows his eyes.
"Something's wrong, it's never this dark."
Jason yelped as she tripped over a rock. She shakes her head and looks at him, "are you sure about that?" she gets up and dusts herself, "well, what ever the case, let's talk to the turaga. He may have an explanation."
Takua nods and leads the way. They walk to the hut and noticed that the stalls where covered in candles. Takua shook his head, what happened to the light stones, he thought.
As if reading his mind Jason asked, "Takua, don't they have a better light source? The candles aren't really working."
"They do, but something must have happened to the light stone mine."
"A light stone?"
"A rock that emits light."
"Makes sense."
"Here we are," Takua points out the hut. It was the largest compared to the surrounding buildings. As they came closer, they heard several voices in it. Inside were three matoran and, with his back turned to the door, the turaga.
"He looks busy," Takua pointed out.
"Aye that he does. Wait a minute, listen."
"What is the progress with the mining of the light stones?" asked the deep gruff voice of the turaga.
"Nothing has happened, sir, we still cannot reach the light stone mine with the lava flowing in the pathway; and because of that, we cannot fix the pump to stop it," informed one of the matoran.
"Does this affect the path to Le-Koro?"
"Yes sir, without them, we can't move on. Our strongest digger cannot see without them. Not only that, we can't figure out what this mysterious disk is in the mine shafts."
The turaga sighed, "Find a way to stop the flow; we need to fix those pipes!"
Takua and Jason looked at each other. Jason let out a soft whistle. "This Turaga got his work cut out for him."
"It looks like we won't be able to talk to him any time soon. Not with all those issues." He sighs, "so what now?"
They sat against the wall thinking. Then Takua snaps his fingers and looks at Jason, "Lets help them out. We can take care of the problems ourselves!"
Jason blinks, "okay, but how do you propose that we get across the pool of lava? Neither of us is exactly fire proof."
"I have a solution for that," he said with a wink as he stood up. "I have a lava board at home in Ta-Koro. If we stop by there, we can get it."
She stands up dusts herself off, "I don't see why not, do you know how to get there through these tunnels?"
He nods, "Yeah, I have an idea where to go."
They went to the other side of the village seeing the exit of the cave with more symbols on the top of the exit.
"This way," motioned Takua.
"How do you know? What does that say?" asked Jason.
"I'll tell you when there's better light. Come on." He grabs her hand and leads the way. As they left Onu-Koro, the matoran took out a glowing stone.
"Hey, isn't that-
"A light stone? Yes it is."
"How long did you have that?"
"Um…" he looks to the side remembering, "Before I met you. It was back in Ga-Koro"
She nods, "but…why didn't you use it in the village?"
"I didn't want to be swamped by the villagers. Imagine the chaos."
"Good point," Jason nods in understanding.
Takua continues leading her through the tunnel, keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings. You never know what could be hiding in the shadows he thought.
A few minutes passed and they finally say a reddish glow at the end of the tunnel.
"Is it me, or did it get a little warmer in here?" she asked.
He shook his head, "No," he smiled, "we're home." Outside of the cave was Ta-Koro. Jason looks around her jaw wide open.
"Wow! Not a bad place you got here besides being inside a volcano." She sees the village huts, "ha, lava rock, clever." Takua smiles as he watched his new friend examine the huts. He never would have thought a creature, a fox, like her would be this curious.
"Takua!" called someone. He turns around and grins. One of the villagers came up to him holding a board. "I fixed up your lava board like you asked."
"Thanks a bunch!" said Takua "is there any way I could repay you?"
The matoran holds up his hand "There is no need for that. What are friends for? Well, love to stick around and chat, but I got things to do," he waves to him, "make sure you stop by Vakama's place before you leave. See you later." He runs off, leaving Takua with Jason.
"Friend of yours?" asked Jason.
He looks up at her "somewhat."
"Who's Vakama?"
"The Turaga of this village," he points to the hut, "I need to pay him a visit."
"Can I come?" she looks at him with pleading eyes. Takua couldn't help but smirk.
"Of course, let's go."
Her tail wags as she follows him. The Turaga's lava rock hut was a lot larger than the others, but it was still a light small for Jason to fit into. She shrugs and sits down by the door while Takua went in. He bows as Turaga Vakama turns to him.
"It's good to see you again, my friend." Vakama greeted. Outside, Jason felt goose bumps crawl under her fur. His voice was soaked in wisdom. She couldn't help but smile. It's very hard to find people like that back at home.
"Greetings, Turaga, and thank you," replied Takua.
"I take it your trip to Ga-koro went well?"
"Yes Turaga, we managed to get the village fixed thanks to Gali."
Vakama smiles and nods and looks out the window, "Why don't you introduce me to your new friend out there, Takua. Word has it that she looks like a rahi." Takua turns just in time to see Jason's fur on the end of her ears stand up from the window. They smile at her as she shyly crawled to the door. She waves a little. "Hi, my name is Jason Fox. Just call me Jason." She bows, "and I'm not a rahi, sir, I'm a fox."
He and the turaga chuckle, "What an interesting creature you are, why don't you come in?"
She shakes her head, "With all due respect sir, I had a bad experience with low ceilings." She shrugs and smiles sheepishly, "better safe than sorry."
Vakama nods, "I understand." He looks at the matoran, "So, what brings you back here Takua?"
"Well, Jason and I got back from Po-Koro solving a mystery there." His mask darkened, "It's the Makuta again, sir."
He nods "I see…what was the mystery?"
"Something was causing the Po-Matoran to fall ill. Turns out it was a brand of koli balls that were infected by one of the Makuta's rahi. Luckily, Pohatu was there to help."
Vakama sighs in relief, "that is good indeed."
"Now, Jason and I are helping out the Onu-Matoran. They have a lot a work ahead of them so we thought we could give them a hand."
The wise Turaga smiled gently, "I hope it all works out in the end."
"Me too."
"KYAAA!"
Takua and Vakama looked at the door. That sounded like Jason! Takua ran out of the hut and looked around. To his left, matoran were gathered around something.
"Jason!" called Takua running towards the crowd. He manages to see a paw rise up from the huddled matoran before it fell into the crowd once more.
"Takua, help me!" Jason yelps.
He pushes and shoves through the group trying to get to his fox friend. If they hurt her…if they did anything to her…the thought was unbearable. She screams again. His eyes widen as he hurries to her
"Jason, are you okay!" As he got closer to the center, he heard her not crying but…giggling?
At the center of the crowd, he saw Jason Laughing as three matoran were examining her tail, feet and paws. She managed to free one of her paws to grab his leg.
"Takua…make them stop! They're t-tickling me!" she gasped between giggles. Takua sighs and puts a hand over his eyes. What a strange fox this girl is.
Jalla was running towards the scream when he saw the huge crowd surrounding…something. He shooed the Ta-Matorans away while making his way to the center. He figured that a matoran tripped over something. But this is too big of a crowd for a simple tumble he thought. He soon found out the real reason as the matoran dispersed.
A creature was lying on the ground gasping. Jalla blinks and blinks again not believing what he was seeing. He was even more shocked when it sat up with the help of his blue masked friend Takua and said, "Thank you…I never thought it would end. One minute they were inspecting my tail, the next think I know they were tickling my feet." The rahi like creature sighed, "Thank you for getting rid of the audience as well."
"That wasn't my doing," said Takua. He nods to Jalla, "that was him."
The rahi turns around and gives him a toothy smile. "So, you're the one who was the crowd control." She said standing up. The rahi was just a foot shorter than toa Tahu. It held out its paw "thank you so much. The name's Jason Fox. Call me Jason."
Jalla looked at the rahi, Jason Fox as it called itself, then its paw, then back at it. Jason looks at him with concern then at its paw. "What? Is there something on it?"
Vakama chuckled as he walks to them, "Don't mind him, Jason. The Captain of the Guard has never seen a being like you before. This is Jalla, leader of the guards in Ta-Koro."
Jason looks back at him, "Is that so? Well then "sir" it's an honor to meet you," she said saluting him.
He was speechless. Jalla wasn't sure what to make of this "Jason Fox". At least he wasn't hallucinating, for the turaga and Takua saw the same thing along with the whole village.
"Hey Jalla, you okay?" Takua asked nudging him a little. He blinked and looked at his friend.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." He looks back at Jason. "W-what exactly are you? I've never seen a rahi like you before."
"I'm a fox Captain, not a rahi." Her face got closer to his mask, "And for the record, I'm a she not an it." His reaction must have been ridiculous because she started laughing. "Well, it's been a pleasure Captain, Turaga Vakama, but I believe we have a lava leak to fix. After you Takua."
"I'll see you later Jalla," said Takua waving good bye.
Vakama smiled as he walks over to Jalla. After Takua and Jason disappear into the tunnel Jalla looks at him.
"Sir," he finally said, "what just happened?"
Vakama Laughs and pats his shoulder.
Poor Jalla (Jaller if you want to be current) having no clue what was going on. i do have chapter 8 done, its all a matter of typing it up. I do have a life so it might take a bit. until then, ciao!
FFox
