Kora: Mata Nui

Chapter Seven:

Stone Spirits

"Telem! Look-"

Whack!

"-out..." Pohatu finished his warning. The Toa of stone sighed as he put his hand over his masked face, clawed finger tips clicking as he dragged his hand down before stepping over two Matoran and then over to where his Kora was now sprawled out on the ground. The somewhat hunched stone giant leaned down with hands on his knees, quirking up an eye ridge quizzically, "Sister?"

"...Ow." Telem said from under the tree branch that had fallen on her.

Pohatu gave a Bionicle smile as he lifted the branch, and with more ease then he had a right to pitched it off the trail before carefully grasping the Kora under her arms with one hand and lifting her back up to her feet, "Are you okay little stone sister?"

"I'm okay!" The Kora announced, staggered a moment before getting her balance back. With the kind of determinacy that said she was perhaps responsible on part for that what just went wrong and didn't want to show it, Telem grabbed her Kolii ball, made of wood just for her by a Po-Matoran just after she was first introduced to the game. She marched off as if nothing happened.

The Toa chuckled watching for a moment before glancing over at Turaga Onewa and shrugging. Telem tripped and face planted at that exact same time.

As the closest Matoran yelped Pohatu slapped his hand over his mask again. Once he waded into the thick of things, and after Turaga Onewa inspected the Kora for damage from the tree branch of a few minutes ago, the Toa grasped his younger sister by the back of her 'shirt'. It was a very flimsy armor thing that did no good other then blocking good sunlight in his opinion, but Telem was attached to it and didn't want to take it off. Anyways, it made a good handle to lift the Kora up and over Pohatu's shoulder.

"I think you should just ride for a while sister." Pohatu chuckled, "We do not want you to keel over before we even make it to the Kini Nui." The Toa grinned as he heard soft grumbles from behind him as the Kora settled down in that spot between his shoulders and below the neck, the same place the Matoran like to cling to.

Pohatu wondered why that was as he shortened his stride once more to stay even with the group, Turaga Onewa in the lead. Oh sure he could Mask-of-Speed to the Kini Nui but then he'd miss out on the interesting little things, as well as listening to the latest Matoran news he hadn't lately been able to hear. Running after a Kora that wanted to know what everything was and who everyone was, was surprisingly time consuming.

More so after Telem started to show a liking to things that could very well be fatal in her currant organic body in all like.

Programming.

Pohatu shook his head, Turaga Onewa had said it was perfectly normal for a Kora to act like this. More so that Telem's health was now improving, recovering in leaps and bounds from the Makuta's sickness, if she wasn't over it already.

But really, did his Kora sister have to annoy Rahi bigger then her? …And him? True it was nothing Pohatu couldn't handle, yet as a general rule of the sane you don't toss rocks at something with teeth and/or killing bigger than your arm!

The Toa of stone reached up to rub the back of his neck, the wish to be properly up right never entered his head. He had evidently been built, made, whatever, with this hunch and was perfectly adapted to it, he could look all his siblings in the eyes. Well, except Onua but he was abnormally tall even for a Toa according to the Turaga and without his hunch Pohatu would be just the same. He was technically, having the same mass and weight as his earth brother.

The weight on Pohatu's back shifted, Telem climbed up until she could prop her forearms on his right shoulder, feet braced on unmoving armor to save her toes. "Pohatu?"

"Hmm?" The Toa reached up, the backs of two claws brushed against the Kora.

"Where are we going again?"

Pohatu laughed, he couldn't help it, "The Kini Nui, to meet with the others." He nodded to the Po-Koro's elder, "The Turaga, the other Toa and all Kora."

"I thought you said not all the Kora were here." Telem frowned and waved her hands, meaning the island of Mata Nui. She had the grab back onto the moving Bionicle being. The Kora pushed herself up and after a moment she was sitting on the Toa's shoulder, legs hanging down and she thumped the heels against his upper chest.

"According to Turaga Onewa the Kora of Ice was found an eight-day ago." Pohatu said, reaching up again to make sure his stone-sister wouldn't fall off.

Telem made a face, doing some rapid math. Days on Mata Nui were longer then on Earth, being basically 36 hours from sun up to the next sun up. The Bionicle equivalent of a week was eight days not seven. So that would make it… 288 hours, thus 12 days.

Why hadn't she heard about this like with the news of the other Kora?

No wait, she did remember something, but she'd been in the middle of learning a Kolii move from a Matoran at the time, something that involved much falling on her back and rump but that was beside the point. Other then she still couldn't do a flip like that… yet.

"Pohatu?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think, um..."

The Toa patted the Kora's side, "I'm sure the others will like you as much as I do." Pohatu assured, smiling as his stone-sister started muttering that that wasn't what she was going to ask and oh never mind. Yet he felt some of the tension in the younger elemental spirit on his shoulder ease. After a minute of walking he felt Telem lean over and rest her against the side of his, Pohatu smiled, guessing she'd picked up on the Bionicle equivalent of a 'kiss' where two would tap mask to mask. She didn't have a mask, but it still counted, and this was her way of saying thanks for the reassurance.