Gatanuva and the forgotten TOA team: chapter 6

Chapter VI: Sarah’s stories: The arrival of a water spirit

The first thing I remembered was awaking from the feeling that water was touching my feet. The canister I was brought here in had plunged into the deep waters of Lake Naho. Stress began to take over as the water rose, and I was desperate to get out. I looked around inside the canister, but there were no release mechanism nor any way to open it. As the water began to hit my nostrils, I thought to myself this was it. This is where I’ll end; at the bottom of the sea. But then, as if my prayers had been answered, the canister opened. What I hadn’t been thinking about, was the intense amount of water I would be struck of. The canister was flood in mere seconds, and with the small pinch of oxygen I had, I tried to swim to the surface. Mata Nui it was incredibly hard to swim, and it was dark. But I kept going for the surface. After that I don’t remember anything more of being underwater. I must have fainted; or at least that was what Palegia, the ferry driver told me.
When I woke up afterwards, I found myself lying on a boat deck with two heads hovering over me. They seemed worried, and feared. Most certainly, they had never seen anyone or anything like me coming out of the ocean.

They turned out to be matoran.

As I tried to get back on my feet, one of the matoran jumped away from me in fear, and drew a Weapon that I would later refer to as a .
The other one also took some steps back, but she must have been paralysed from shock since she just stood there.
“Stay back! Stay away from me, or I swear by Mata Nui I will eviscerate you, cut you into little pieces, and sell you to the Po Koro villagers!” she yelled to me.
This seemed to awake the other matoran from its state of shock. She rushed over to her fellow matoran and tried to grab the power sword.
“Stop! Put that down!” she yelled. The other matoran ignored the message. She shook her fellow matoran off her, and charged towards me.
Fear built up really quick, and got released as one big scream of: “No!”
I covered my face with my right arm and looked away, as I prepared to be shred to pieces. I don’t know for how long I stood like that, and I started to wonder what took this matoran so long to reach me. when I eventually opened my eyes, I saw the matoran; caught inside a bubble of water. Surprised at what had happened, I saw a hovering machine thingy hovering over the deck. It was it who had caused the bubble. It turned its head towards me, and said: “Nice to see you again. I am Sermiah. You might wonder how I got here. I’ll explain. The device you have on your right arm summoned me. Since you don’t know how to activate me yet, your device detected that you were in danger. This mechanism will be deleted when you know how to wield it properly.”

“Uhm…OK…” I replied. I figured out this was not the time for questions, so I told Sermiah to kindly put the Matoran down. “You can withdraw now. We can talk later. OK?” “Of course.”
As Sermiah disappeared, and the Matoran got back on her feet, the other Matroan approached me, and knelt. “So it really is you. The TOA we have waited for for so long.” Confused as I was, I asked her: “What is going on? What are you talking about?”
She replied with: For a long time, we Matoran lived a life of peace and harmony, until Makuta invaded the island and released his shadows. Since that day we have been terrorised by his dark creatures. Every new day was a matter of life and death. Many were lost to the shadows, and fear had a tight grip on us all. Turaga Nokama spoke a lot about you, and the other TOA. That one day you should fall from the skies, defeat the shadows and Makuta, and awaken Mata Nui.”

The thoughts were spinning wild, and picking the right questions seemed impossible. Therefore, I just replied with. “I’m Sarah! Nice to meet you.” “I am pelagia, the ferry driver. You have already met Galek, the guardess.” Galek didn’t look at me. it was obvious she wasn’t very happy about what she had just been through. “We are on our way to Po-Vahi. Recently, Po-Koro have lost many of their guards. Since Galek is our best, she has decided to help train new guards.” I asked her: “These Po-Koro guards… How exactly did they get lost?” “Killed.” Pelagia replied. “By Nui Jaga, dangerous Scorpion creatures. Some of them were taken capture by them and brought away. It takes skilled Matoran to be able to defeat them, and with a little help from Onu-Koro, and Galek’s teaching, Po-Koro’s defence will be back in shape in no time.” More questions appeared to me. “I really hope you know that I have almost no idea what you are talking about Pelagia.” Pelagia turned to me with a small shock expression in her face. “You don’t?” she asked. “But… But…” “But what? When you came to this place, did you know anything about it then?” I asked with a little harsh tone. “No.” Pelagia replied with a whimpers voice. “Well then. Who thaught you of all these creatures and places, stories and legends?” “The Turaga did. They are the wisest of us, and they are in possession of great knowledge. I will take you to ours when we return to Ga-Koro.”

Galek kept sitting in the bow for the whole trip. She didn’t say a word for the whole trip. Probably she was busy sharpening her blade, because that was the only thing she was doing. After a while, I started to see that land was approaching us. We had reached Po-Koro. At first glance, the only thing I could see resembling a building, was a small half of a sphere, with small circles in it. Maybe this was some kind of a home. Some weird-looking sculptures, and a shelf containing some figurines surrounded it. The rest of the surroundings were plain dessert, with some mountains rising in the distance. Outside stood a Matoran. He was a bit different from Pelagia and Galek. Instead of blue armour, his was brown and tan in colour.



“Ahh! You are finally here. Welcome to both of you, Pelagia and Galek of Ga-Koro.” He said as  the three of us got out of the boat. While Pelagia secured the mooring lines, The Po-Matoran drew his attention to Galek. Whatever they talked about, it must have been related to the training of Po-Matorans. I helped Pelagia securing the lines, and when we were done, Galek took farewell with us. But before she left, she said to Pelagia: “I will tell Po-Koro about the arrival of the TOA. I am sure Turaga Onewa will be glad to hear this. With these news, things will certainly change around here. And who knows? Maybe I will get home sooner than expected?” Then, she started walking down the path towards Po-Koro.

When she was gone, the Po-Matoran drew his attention to me. He looked at me strange for some time, inspecting me, before turning to Pelagia. “That’s an… unusual creature you have found there Pelagia. I have never seen a Rahi like that before. Tell me, where did you catch it?” With a hint of offence in my face expression, I turned to Pelagia to ask what he was talking about.

“Don’t worry Sarah. I will take it from here.” Pelagia replied before returning towards the Po-Matoran. “Pekka.” She said in a laughing manner. “Don’t be silly. How could this ever be a Rahi?” Pekka, now looking a bit confused, began to study me more closely. But no matter how hard he studied me, he was still just as confused. “I don’t understand Pelagia.” He said. “If this isn’t a Rahi, then what is it?” Pelagia’s reply was to grab my right arm, and hold it up high. “Tell me you don’t recognize this, Pekka.” She said, pointing at the device on my arm. Pekka’s eyes widened up, and he bowed down before me. “You have come! You have finally come, Oh glorious TOA!” I stared awkwardly down at Pekka, who seemed to be out of his mind. He kept praising me, and saying weird things that I didn’t understand. I turned back to Pelagia. I could understand that these Matoran had waited for a long time for me to come, but even Pelagia thought this went a little bit too far. But we let him have his moment, and when he stood back up, he went inside the hut. From what I could hear, it seemed like he was looking for something well hidden away. When he eventually returned, he held up a trinket with a pink stone. “I made this for you, TOA of water! This is a very rare stone. I found it out in the dessert within a sandstone. He told me to bow down, and he attached the trinket around my neck. “Oh. It really suites you!” Pelagia told me. I looked down at the stone. It was very rough and edgy, but indeed it was beautiful. “Well then, I guess your work here is done, Pelagia.” Pekka said. “Go back to Ga-Koro now, and show Turaga Nokama that the TOA finally have arrived. May Mata Nui watch over you both.” We took farewell with each other, and went back to the ferry.

On the journey back to Ga-Koro, Pelagia told me of how I had ended up in her ferry. On their way to Po-Koro, they had all of a sudden seen a huge beam of light coming up from the ocean. Galek had jumped overboard to investigate what it was. She had seen me flowing around without any sign of being conscious, and with help from Pelagia, they had managed to get me on board the ferry.
She also told me a bit about Ga-Koro, But no need to tell. You have already seen most of the village myself.

When we returned, Pelagia took me to Turaga Nokama’s hut. She greeted us both. She didn’t even seemed surprised to see me, whereas the other Matoran I had passed nearly stared at me. She told me the story of Mata Nui and his brother, the prophecy, and of the other five TOA. Also giving me some geographical information. She also told me about the KPDS device. Some days later, I began my search for the Kanohi masks. So far I have managed to find three of them. Akaku, mask of x-ray vision. Komau, mask of mind control. And Huna, mask of invisibilty. That mostly covers my adventures so far.

“say, do you think the other TOA have arrived too?” I asked. The sun had begun to set, and its low rays were shining into one of the windows. “I’m not quite sure.” Sarah replied. “Turaga Nokama told me that the Turaga would inform each other if their respective TOA was to arrive. But none of them have heard anything…until you came, of course. Just like Nokama lit my suva to tell the other villages that I have come, I’m sure your suva in Ta-Koro will be lit pretty soon, if it’s not already lit. If we go look outside, we might see it.” We went out, and looked to the South. In the far distance, we could see a very thin beam of light. “I guess The whole Mata Nui now knows that I am here. Let’s hope the others will arrive soon.” Sarah stood by my side switching her glance from the beam, and back to me. “I hope so too.” She said, a little bit scared. When I asked her what was wrong, she told me that not long ago, Ga-Koro had been attacked. One Matoran got severely injured, and many buildings were damaged. “I see.” I replied, lying my arm around her shoulder to make her feel a bit more comfortable. “We will stand together in unity. If we do, nothing will defeat us.” For a while, we just stood there, enjoying the sunset, watching the stars slowly beginning to appear. With them, came also a chill, and we both began to feel cold “Well, let’s go back to the hut.” I said, taking Sarah’s hand “Like I promised, I’ll tell you my story.”