Story Co-Authored by Omicron the IceQueen and Sinead Rivka
Love in the Light
Chapter One:
In with a Bang!
The overlook was pretty in its own right, not completely and utterly stunning like some areas, but still very nice.
River O'Malley hated her name. She hated that her parents had the bad taste to name her after a water feature. All through her young years in school, she had been teased because of her looks, her unusual yet bland name, everything, and her parents had never listened to her, thinking that she was just looking for attention.
Snorting, wavering even though she was sitting on a log overlooking her favorite valley, River took another draw from the bottle of raspberry Schnapps. Frigging parents. She sniffed, glad for the foresight of bringing a blanket to wrap around her shoulders on the early fall night, knowing that it was going to start to get cold once the breeze kicked up.
Some shifted in the air, not a true breeze the young woman was expecting but more... almost like some unseen hand was tugging at the air, drawing it forwards and upwards, making the air pressure increase enough to make one pop their ears.
Through her inebriated state, Riv blinked slowly at the odd air currents. It... wasn't s'possed to do that...
It wasn't supposed to start becoming visible either for that matter, but become visible in trails of white and green (odd). The transparent streaks in the air where joined with other barely visible colors. Traces of blue, red, brown and black slowly started to rise up and curl into something not unlike an image of a black hole in the air some ten or so feet up.
Dude. What the hell was she drinking? Looking down at the bottle again, River squinted at it, vision blurring, and then looked up at the 'black hole' again. Mindlessly, she took another swig. Might as well enjoy the show.
In the time between one heart beat and the next, the transparent formation became solid and twice as large. A pulse of energy surged out, making the air vibrated and the ground shiver in protest as the now clear vortex exploded in size again and opened wide enough to let the stormy sounds of inside come to sudden life... as well as a male voice screaming.
"-Oh fragging Makuta bones IiiieeeAAHHH! OPENING!"
Never let it be known that who was coming couldn't make an entrance, even when he wasn't trying.
Spitting her drink out and staring, Riv put the bottle down. This HAD to be watched!
The vortex essentially spat out a flailing, brightly colored form that was reflecting what dimming light extremely well, there was only the impression of gold and silver and metal.
A yelp of, "Gravity!" was heard before the form dropped... Just beyond the edge of the cliff.
The mid-air form twisted summoning his staff from sub-space and with a mental command the end snapped forward. Using all his strength, the being used his staff to slammed the scythe end in to the edge to stop his fall, the sharp edge sliced through the guardrail and into the ground itself.
The body slammed into the cliff face and the fall was stopped. After a moment a muffled, "Ow." drifted up.
If the twenty-one-year-old was sure of her feet, she was also quite sure that she wouldn't go over there. Since she had the feeling that she was drunk as a skunk, and knew from the rubbery feelings in her knees that she wouldn't be able to stand ... she just sat there, staring at the staff. Did ... someone seriously just pop through a vortex? That only happened in science-fiction movies!
The air was smoothing back to normal as the male voce started to grumble and evidently cursing in a different language (or four) before there were sounds of scrabbling and scraping.
Running would be a good idea... but she was faaarrr too curious and her drunken mind was sure that she could handle anything that came up over the cliff.
"Ow! Fragging- I am going to strangle the other Nuva..." A golden hand reached over the edge, five digits like a human hand but it was metal and had distinct claws and had a glowing quality to it as it reflected the dying sunlight. The claws scraped on the ground before digging in and getting a firm grip.
It didn't help that the hand was about twice as big as a normal human hand.
"Shiiiiiit," River moaned softly. Now would be a good time to run. Maybe she couldn't handle this. Not good.
The scythe like blade was unloaded and tossed over the edge before another hand dug its claws in and the very much glowing being that looked more metal than flesh pulled himself up and over.
Calmly replacing the cap on the bottle of Schnapps, River placed it to one side. She was scared enough that it was burning her mind sober.
The being was humanoid in shape, and armored. A golden mask with three ridges clung to it's...hisface...no, it was his face. Bright eyes- copper iris like rings on a vivid white back drop and yellow center, scanned around as he sat up on knees while lifting his scythe up again, grasping it in his right hand.
Those copper and white eyes landed on the human, before blinking.
She stared at it in silence for one long moment before muttering, "That's it... I'm never drinking alone again. Weird fucking shit happens."
"Try dimension hopping." Takanuva snorted as he stood and gave himself a good shake to dislodge dirt and a few leaves from his frame.
"Who the hell are you? Where did you come from? What... the hell... was that vortex-thingie?"
"I am Takanuva, Toa of light." The living elemental said leaning on his staff, the scythe blade snapping up to its vertical position. For someone that almost fell to his death and fell out of the sky he was remarkably calm, "I came from Metru Nui in the Matoran Universe, and that was a gateway of time, space and dimensions."
"You... are strange." River replied, gathering herself and trying to get to her feet, wavering back and forth as she caught her balance, then pointing up at him. "An'... an'... you're strange."
"And you look like you had some of Le-Koro's pink drinks." Takanuva said looking down at River, tilting his head a little with a lifted eye ridge.
"Iunevenknowwhatchertalkinbout," she slurred, moving to sit carefully upon her log again. "Had some razzburry shhnooops... shnoppsss, I mean. Is my birthday! Girl c'n celebrate on 'er birffday, right?"
Takanuva frowned and stepped forward, kneeling down in front of the human he let his staff rest in the spot between shoulder and neck. Wrapping his fingers around one of River's hands in his right, his other reached out and was pressed against her forehead. Warmth spread out from both his palms, but not body heat it was something else.
Unexpected tears began to well up in her eyes, and she just let them fall. That... whatever it was... felt so good, so right. She let herself lean forward into this person from her dream, closing her eyes. At least he was solid. She wanted to ask so many questions, but she was so tired of trying to figure out the world on her own.
"Whatchu doin'?" she murmured, too tired to protest the good feeling.
"I'm not as good as my sister Gali, but light is just as much a healing element as water." Takanuva said as he let go of River's hand only to wrap his own hand around the young woman side, spreading out his fingers. "Whatever you did to yourself, this is worse than the pink drinks..." The Toa trailed off as he focused on purifying as well as healing.
Sniffling, she shook her head against his palm. Whatever he was doing, it was clearing out her head, and... "Can't heal heartbreak. Can't heal hurt." She rubbed at her face, clearing it of tears as best she could.
"That takes time and friends." Takanuva agreed softly, understanding all too well.
"Don' have much on the friends side of things," she murmured, shaking her head again and looking up the road. "Gotta get home... don' wanna sleep out here tonight..."
"It's a nice night," Takanuva said pulling his hands away, and leaving a trail of light in the air for a moment, "Er, where is 'here' by the way?"
"Colorado," she murmured, looking up the road again, seeming to make a decision and standing up again, picking up the bottle, squinting at the top and twisting it so that it was secure. "Home is just that way... but you c'n come if you want."
The Toa stayed in his kneeling position and looked like he was considering 'Colorado' with deep interest, paused and shrugged as he stood, "Never heard of it. By the way, what kind of Rahi are you?"
"Rahi? Th'hellizzat?" She shook her head, then found herself wavering again. No, shaking the head was a bad idea. "I'm human."
"...I think I heard that term somewhere in the Great Archives." Takanuva muttered, fallowing behind River and watching around him and the human with an eye for detail that came from his time as the Matoran Chronicler.
She walked on towards her home. It was a cabin that rested at the end of the road, which, as it would turn out, was a very long driveway. She walked up to the front door, which was unlocked, then wavered again and looked up at the dream-person. "You should fit. Jus' don' break the furniture." Walking in through the door, she opened the other half of it so that he could fit through.
The Toa flipped his staff and slid it over one shoulder and into his subspace pocket before bending his many-foot frame and peering in, judging for himself. Taking a breath, shrugged again since he had nowhere else better to be as he waited for the other mask he had to recharge, he stooped and squirmed in. Granted he'd never squirm around the other Toa, or the Matoran but they weren't around that he knew of so his dignity should be safe.
The entire house was open, with only a few places where walls were set up for the intent of privacy around bedrooms or bathrooms. A wall of windows facing southwest, supposedly to catch sunlight, were reflecting the now-two occupants of the house. The living, kitchen, and dining areas all had ceilings that were anywhere between ten and twelve feet tall. The rooms were off to the right, and Riv made her way towards one of them, and thankfully didn't look to make it up the stairs.
After a moment of looking around Takanuva dimmed his eyes and the near vivid gold and silver coloring of his armor dulled and melted into rusty orange, red and black. Now that he didn't stand out as much he watched the human staggered off, but didn't say anything. Hoping that River would still know where to go to rest, despite her mental and physical fog.