Hordika Under the Bed
It was all Whenua's fault, really, but at least he seemed to be a bit more relaxed about it. The bigger Hordika hadn't protested Mic walking on her own the next morning... or it could have been the evening as it was impossible to tell in the Archives unless you asked the earth elemental, and no one had yet. But after the first hour of walking, Whenua had suddenly sighed as he slowed his pace even more to drop back behind Mic where she was beside Vakama.
Mic had an urge to not appear as 'dead weight' to the hordika ever since the attack with the Visorak. Now, having been reduced to an even smaller size, the motivation had only increased despite the fact her legs were aching. She glanced at Vakama then over her shoulder at Whenua before focusing on walking again. 'I really hope we get there soooooon...'
"Mic," Whenua said, to attract her attention as well as warn as he ducked his head down to her level.
The human unknowingly did what the hordika had wanted; she turned to face him giving him her attention. She blinked. "Yeah?"
What she got, instead of words was the black and grey striped hordika gently closing his jaws around Mic. He lifted the human up with such a calm, relaxed way- not nervous at all like Vakama the day before. Mic let out a startled/fearful yelp, the thought that she was going to be eaten momentarily coming to mind before she pushed that down. Silly thought.
"What are you doing?"
Whenua rumbled, using one large paw like hand to stop Vakama before lifting his head. When the earth elemental 'let go' of Mic she was now right in the middle of the red Hordika's spinner patch, in front of the improvised bag/pack that Vakama was caring. "Sorry about that, but you're starting to slow down."
So he had noticed. Mic shifted a bit, glancing at the spinner patch beneath her. "I tried not to... guess I'm still tired."
"And you do have a shorter pace now," Vakama added with a half smile, craning his head back to look at Mic with one eye and still focus on where he was now walking to.
"Heh, not funny," Ironic how compared to her family members and friends, she was pretty tall. It was weird being so short now, and getting the 'short jokes.' Mic looked ahead. "How much longer?"
Whenua lifted his head, sniffing as the two Hordika stretched out their paces back to normal, "Maybe about thirty clicks... ah, 'minutes' I think."
"Not too bad," Mic muttered to herself. Thirty minutes from now promised a meeting with the rest of the legendary and popular (to humans) Hordika, the Rahaga, and maybe even another nap depending on how long they'd be staying at the Suva.
"You might want to stay close to the Ragaha," Whenua said as he nudged Mic with the end of his muzzle, "At least at first." He stared pointedly at Vakama, who ducked his head.
Mic smirked. "Alright. Long as they know I'm just a shrunken human." She sighed. "I hope I return to my normal size soon."
Vakama shrugged under her, "We'll have to wait and see, I don't know the effects of Kanoka disks on pure organic matter."
"Oh, lucky me," Mic snorted before flopping against the pack of her stuff.
"It could have been a high powered disk." Whenua pointed out, lifting a clawed finger before chuckling.
Mic shuddered. "Ehh, I don't even wanna think about what would have happened had it been one of those."
"You wouldn't leave the Rahaga's arms." Vakama supplied, rumbling.
The human smiled slightly. She didn't say anything for awhile, occupied with her own thoughts. If not for the excitement of meeting the rest of the team soon, she would have probably been lulled back to the sleep by the Hordika's smooth movements.
A roar echoed down the hall then, making Vakama and Whenua both freeze for a moment and then relaxed. The black colored Bionicle looked over at the other two, "What do you want to bet Matau just landed our dear stone brother's tail?"
The human grinned with a small giggle. "He do that often?"
"Yes," Vakama said with a deep, long suffering sigh as Whenua chuckled in amusement.
Rough housing must have been common for the hordika. Mic patted Vakama with a smirk. "Well then, I'll have to watch out around him."
"We'll make sure he knows better," Vakama said and gave that deadly, predatory smirk from that first night Mic had met him. Full of dark promise as well as deadly fangs, with a glimpse of his unfolding killing fangs.
Of course had she been as small as she was now on the first night, the fangs might have given her nightmares. The human ended up smiling at the red hordika before settling back again. Any minute or 'click' now she'd see her first Suva and all that waited there.
The passage they were in slowly started to widen out, the lights were farther and farther spaced out, but the light didn't dim. In fact it became softer, more 'warm' as glowing moss on the walls and ferns on the ground started and then became more abundant. Under foot, the Hordika's claws stopped clicking on the ground as the flour changed to softer earth.
'Almost forgot about that,' Mic thought looking at the glowing moss, remembering having seen it in the movie. The human looked at Whenua. "Why's there so much growth down here?"
"Elemental energy," The Toa said, head lifting as he smile, enjoying being able to teach, "All the oldest places of the Metru's, from Kini, Suva, and other places that have more than normal elemental energies. The bio-luminance plants down here respond healthily to the earth elemental power."
"Coolie," Mic replied, gazing at the plants and knowing they were something she'd never ever find at home. But wouldn't it be awesome to take some home? Frowning at the little twing she felt on thinking of home, Mic distracted herself by staring ahead as they neared the Suva.
Rounding a corner and there was a short passage to a hight, arch like doorway, beyond it was open space. Echoes of voices where heard, but it was the stark white form, looking more ghost-like in the glow of ferns he was sitting in this side of the door way. The Hordika's gaze was two shaded, having red and orange on one side and dark blue and teal on the other. Unlike the movie, a very distinct spined sail was on the Hordika, from head and down his tail, that was far longer than Vakama's despite the two being the same size.
'Nuju,' Mic thought feeling the same kind of excited nervousness from meeting Whenua for the first time. The human moved slightly and swung her gaze off of the white hordika for a moment before going back to the mutated Toa of Ice.
...that was some tail he had.
"Vakama?" Nuju asked, rising up and coming right over. The two Hordika didn't exactly head-but, yet there was clank of armor as they rubbed against each other once they got closer. Whenua leaned over and deftly picked up Mic and put her down in front of him just in time because the white and red forms fell over as in stinks took over.
Mic watched, interested always by the Hordika instincts of the Toa. It certainly looked like they were glad to see each other again, and so would the rest of the hordika no doubt. She glanced up at Whenua before looking back at the hordika of ice and fire.
"Let's go," Whenua said using the side of one foreleg to nudge at Mic, hurrying her forward through the door. A quick glance around and he picked her up and leapt to the right, putting the human down into the lap of a startled red form.
Sending the black hordika a quick glare, she really was getting tired of being picked up like that without warning, Mic then turned to look up at the red being. "Uh hi"
"What is this?" The hunched being asked, blinking down at Mic, who was smack dab in the middle of his lap. His aged form as well as the wedged shaped head, and vaguely Rahkshi like look to him all but screamed this person's name. The Rahaga tilted his head, arms already moving to wrap around Mic, "You currently are the strangest Hordika gift I have had given to me." Amusement filled the elder being's voice as Norik smiled in his own way.
Mic offered a shy smile at the Rahaga in return. "I'm a human actually. My name's Mic... I've been traveling with Vakama and Whenua," Oh, she hoped she wasn't that much of a 'cute little thing' in his eyes. Still, it was neat to actually be meeting Norik.
A darker black head, and a more slender blue one peered over Norik's shoulders on either side, Gaaki and Bomanga. The later chuckled saying (and shattering that hope), "Aw, it's a youngling."
Face slightly heating up Mic replied, "Um, I'm not a, ah... 'youngling.' I'm just shrunken actually." She somehow doubted telling them her age would help, since human age was already waaay younger than a Bionicle's, as Vakama had explained a few days ago.
"She's young," Whenua said, ever so not helpful from the side, "I thought she would be safer with you wise ones-"
"VAKAMA!"
"Ah-!"
Impacts sounded and there was now a pile of Hordika that had... energetically pounced on the fire Toa that had walked in.
After shooting Whenua a 'Come oooooon!' glare and staring at the pile of Hordika armor, colors, tails and such, she muttered moodily, "I'm not very young, Whenua..."
"Relatively speaking than," The big black Hordika flashed a grin before he turned essentially headbut the bounding green blur. At once the Hordika were growling and mock fighting, or wrestling.
In Whenua's place the paler form of Nuju extracted himself and with a few somewhat delicate looking hops (amusing to watch at least) the mutated ice elemental was behind the safety of the Rahaga.
Mic watched the wrestling for a moment, in amusement, before looking around the place then turned to glance over at the white Hordika. 'He must not like that kind of play-fighting, I guess. Figures.'
Norik shifted his hold on Mic as he reached behind him to pat Nuju's foreleg, though his eyes were on the human, "I am Ragaha Norik little one. Now, while the Hordika are engaging in the joys of reunion, I think you should tell us you story."
"Sure," Mic replied. She shifted slightly and started from the beginning, meeting Vakama and how Whenua later came in and the 'hole' they found leading back to Metru Nui, as well as everything else that had taken place after that, once in awhile glancing at the hordika reunion.
"You said there was a Makuta in your world?" Gaaki asked, frowning a little as she glanced at Bomanga and Norik, the other three Rahaga were no were to be seen at the moment.
"Yes. But not anymore I don't think. I saw her again, and she gave me something to give to you," Mic glanced again at the hordika, "Vakama has it with him."
As one the Rahaga looked back at Nuju, who sighed a long suffering sigh and held his tail closer, "I'm assuming it's in that pack then?"
"Uh huh," replied Mic. "With my stuff. Why?"
The slender Hordika stood, arching his back in a reading stretch before leaping over the four, jumping almost all the way over to the other Hordika and then landing right on top of Matau. Bomaga chuckled as he settled down on Norik's left side, "If you can help it, send another Hordika in, instead of yourself."
Mic grinned. In her current situation, that was probably best. She sighed. "Um, anyone know where the water is?"
"Come with me child," Gaaki said, lifting herself up with the help of her staff. Mic climbed out of Norik's lap and got up to follow the blue Rahaga. The fact that she was so small made everything else around look enormous, as if made for giants. The Suva already being large itself only added to the feeling. The human stared around as she walked behind Gaaki who was leading her to where the water was.
The Rahaga led her to a side room, one short flight of stairs down. It looked, more like a bedroom and living room mashed together. And it was, this was a place for a Toa to rest. It had both resent and not so resent use to it on a whole.
"Here," Gaaki said retrieving a goard shaped canteen and offering to Mic, "I'm sure Whenua doesn't mind sharing."
Turning from looking round the room, Mic took the offered water container with a smile, before taking a few deep gulps. "Are there other rooms like this?" She asked when finished.
"There's a store room," Gaaki said with a moment's thought, "The inner Suva of course, and the energy chamber, though I don't think you should try to get in there little one."
Mic nodded as she set the container down, not really wanting to go near any kinds of energy after what had happened with the Kahoka disk. "Good idea. How long do you think we'll stay here, at the Suva?"
"I would give the Hordika one last good hunting," Gaaki said, but she sighed as the elder looked back the way they came, "To let the Toa re-bond, but we may need to leave before night falls, when the Visorak are resting in the evening."
"Okay," Mic mumbled. She wasn't all that happy to be traveling while still in this state, but if it meant avoiding Visorak she could handle it.
A warm hand was rested on Mic's shoulder as Gaaki leaned on her staff to lower her head to the human's new level, "It is alright child," she said, "Whenua and Vakama were wise to bring you to us, the Rahaga."
"I know. I'm just not used to being sooo small like this," the human replied offering a small smile. "I should be taller than you."
"Being the size of a young Matoran will be more of a gift then you may guess." Gaaki chuckled before she led, more gently pushed Mic ahead of her to the long, wide and low bed. Urging her to get up on it.
'Oh really?' Mic thought before replaying the question out loud as she did as implied of her, and got up onto the bed and sitting.
"With old Hordika instincts at the moment," Gaaki gave a sad smile, "It is far better for than to think of you as a cub, you as a pure organic with no armor may not fare well in their rough housing. Nuju and Nokama get enough scratches and bourses as it is."
"I suspected that, from what Whenua and Vakama mentioned," the small human replied, crossing her legs Indian-style. She suddenly wondered something, "Um, what about my pack?" If the hordika rough housed that much, it could get damaged.
"It is fine," Gaaki chuckled as she sat up on the bed as well, nodding at the pale form coming into the room. Mic raised an eyebrow, flicking some messy hair out of her face as the white hordika came in.
Nuju was holding the pack in his hands and standing up right as he came over to the two females, "You should check to see all is in here little one." The ice Toa said as he set the pack down in front of Mic before moving to get up with them. Mostly because it was far less active down here and there was an irresistible urge to curl up around the two, which he did.
Why she hadn't expected that, Mic didn't know, but she didn't mind the closeness. "Thank you," she said to the Hordika, glancing at him which wasn't all that hard, as she checked her things. Thankful her clothing was all there for whenever her body would grow back to normal.
The Toa glanced over at the Rahaga when Gaaki chuckled, and reflexively flicked his sailed tail closer, but realized too late that would put it right over Mic's lap. Nuju gave the human a leery look, like he was expecting the appendage to get bitten. Of course he received none, only a smile as the human shifted her legs better. Mic made no moves to even touch it unlike her curiosity with Vakama.
"It too rough up there?" she asked, remembering the rough housing.
"It's calming down, more story time." Nuju admitted.
"You can't hurt him Mic." Gaaki chuckled, "He's use to the other Toa's bites, it's alright to investigate. I imagined the same happened with you?"
"Whoo, yeah," Mic nodded with a grin, remembering how strange the first invasion of personal space was with Vakama. Mic used a careful finger to touch one of the sails on Nuju's tail, not bothering to hide her curiosity, but giving a gentle all the same. The webbing of the sail was tough yet soft at the same time, the spines were harder yet weren't bone-hard. Nuju curled his neck to sniff at Mic's side in return. Mic didn't recoil, no matter the tickly feeling from the sniffs, knowing it was only fair to be investigated as well. All the same... his tail was pretty cool.
Gaaki was chuckling again, shifting closer with her staff across her lap as she reached over to scratch the mutated Toa's eye ridge, "Toa Nuju has an impressively strong assertory. That is why he has a sail and the others do not."
"Really? Cool," Mic hadn't exactly gotten a good look at the other Hordika's forms and tails, mostly because of the happy reunion and play fighting that followed after.
"I don't understand why the others are obsessed with my tail, just because I have a sail..." Nuju huffed, but he was, slowly, curling up closer to Mic as a steady purr started. For all of how he and other ice Toa were normally portrayed in the stories of Mic's world, Nuju now seemed no less effected by that strange 'cuddle' reflex as Vakama had been.
"It's a cool sail," Mic answered, leaning with her back against the white Hordika. She smirked silently on hearing the purr start up. Nuju purring... why did the books never talk about this side of the hordika? They always made it sound like it was a horrid curse of something.
"Now, Mic was it? I am Gaaki, sorry I did not introduce myself properly. Why do you not tell me and Nuju about how you met Toa Vakama and Whenua, and about this female Makuta?" True she had already heard the short version but the elder thought Nuju should hear this as well.
"Sure," Mic replied, though she didn't say that she already knew the Rahaga's name. This time however, she wasn't going to keep the fact that they were known to her world from them. "Well meeting Vakama happened when I kinda saved a dog he was trying to hunt. It took awhile to get used to him since I kinda made him... wary. I don't think he was expecting me to already know his name," she added more to herself.
"You know us?" Nuju tilted his head, and though his actions were still just as... well, Hordika-like as the others there was something in his softly glowing eyes...
Meeting his gaze she answered, "I know a lot about you guys. Bionicle is merely a storyline back home. Just a fiction really... in a way it's a good thing I happen to be a fan, otherwise who knows what might have happened with Vakama." The human glanced at Gaaki a bit sheepishly. "I already knew who you were, too."
"Hmm, well that is entirely passable," Nuju said with a thoughtful sound, "Is your world a place Mata Nui has been to before?"
"Dunno," Mic muttered, thinking. "It's race is younger than yours, I know that much thanks to Vakama," She grinned slightly remembering the questioning. "Anyways, I showed him what stories we had about this world... according to him they don't match up in some areas... like now for instance."
"I've heard some talk of the older Ko-Matoran, those who are most experience in the way, or perhaps more theories of dimensions," Nuju said, "They said energies can and do pass between those worlds, sometimes giving beings on either sides glimpse of the other."
"Whoa, really?" Mic's brows went up for a moment before she tipped her head. "That would explain things." She went on, all the way to having Vakama try to fish for his next meal, going through that part hurriedly, not liking to think about the event afterwards. "...so once we got back I showed him a story displaying events to come from now, on the island of Mata Nui."
"It sounds like a wonderful island, from what I heard." Gaaki said, gently easing a back in the story, sensing Mic needed a moment.
"Read about it, it does sound wonderful," Mic remarked, momentarily wondering if she would be stuck in Bionicle long enough to see it. Right now, she didn't know even if going back would be possible. The human knew she could use a bath for one thing.
"It is," Nuju confirmed, nodding, "No towers except those trees Matau fell in love with at first sight."
"I bet they're a sight," Mic said with a half smile, the image of Toa Matau glomping a tree coming to mind.