HOME | DD

Description
Warning: This fictional work contains descriptions of violent acts. If you are really sensitive to this, it's advised not to read this.

Chapter 4: I don’t know.

Two toa stood at the high edge of their homeland, looking out over the seemingly endless ocean. The light of the stars reflected from the ocean’s surface onto the sword of one of the toa, which was planted in the ground, serving as support for the crippled one of the duo. The other one stood just behind him, leaning against the cobblestone wall of a small house.

They both kept staring at the huge body of water. But it wasn’t the reflection of the stars, nor the mesmerising waves, tha caught their attention. No, the source of their concern was a huge fleet, creating the sight of a thousand lights on the horizon.

“Brother,” the crippled toa said. His voice sounded old, almost ancient, even though he was the youngest of his toa team.
His companion shivered, unintentionally or not. He stood up from his leaning position, and walked to his friend. He looked down, taking in the damage of his friend’s leg: a huge chunk of the lower leg was bitten off, teeth marks visible in the protodermis bone. The flesh had been covered up with thin layers of metal.

When he didn’t say anything, the crippled one continued. “They are coming,” he said, pointing at the huge fleet. “And that’s not even all of them. They are homeless, seeking refuge on our islands.” He turned to his toa friend, his face having trouble hiding the pain in his leg. “I won’t be able to rule this kingdom anymore.”

He stepped backwards, towards the edge of the cliff. His brother didn’t move, didn’t go after him. He didn’t know what to do. He just faced the crippled toa as he walked backwards, his face showing pain with every step, but nevertheless smiling.

When the crippled one stood at the very edge, he stopped. “You know, I’m not quite sure if I’m done with my life because I have seen too much to want to keep on living, or if it is because I haven’t seen enough to know my life is worth living.” He then pulled out his sword from the ground, making him lose his balance for a second, then threw it in the ground in front of his brother, who still hadn’t moved. The crippled one smiled. He lifted his good leg over the edge. “Take care of my kingdom for me.” Then he fell plunging to the rocks.
The last thing he heard was the scream of his friend.

M’azzal woke up. Her mind was a total mess, and she had to blink several times before her vision turned from nauseous and grey to sharp and colourful. Her head was thudding in pain, keeping her out of focus and leaving any comprehension of her situation just outside her grasp. She began to recognise her environment, albeit with effort, looking for anything familiar. Unfortunately, even the stars were different, leaving the colours to be the only familiar things around. It seemed to her that she was surrounded by a desert, with several craters, rocks, cacti and one weird looking pillar scattered around.

There seemed to be something off, it looked as if she was surrounded by a shivering liquid, with small bolts of energy shooting through it. With painful effort in her arms, she managed to turn herself on her side, expecting to face the night sky. She did, but that was not the only thing she saw. She stared right into two black, lifeless eyeholes, that were placed in a dark red mask. Although the face didn’t show any sign of life, she could feel the alerting presence of the being who was wearing the mask, which was bowing over her. She inspected the being’s body, careful not to move anything else but her head, fearing that the seemingly frozen red statue would suddenly come to life and attack her. She quickly came to the conclusion that it was an out of proportion toa of fire. The toa had his right arm replaced with a mechanical version, and the toa’s heartlight was buried deeper into his crimson armor than usual. The light also didn’t shine.

Her first reflex was to quickly crawl away from under the dead toa, but she then realised why her environment seemed so distorted: she was surrounded by a forcefield, which was not much bigger than the area where she found herself in together with the dead toa. Which meant he couldn’t be dead to keep the forcefield stable. Then again, his mask didn’t glow. M’azzal’s head started to hurt even more. It just didn’t make sense to her. On the other hand, a lot hadn’t made sense in the last couple of hours. Was it really just a few hours?
Reality suddenly pressed down on her. For one, she didn’t know how long she’d been unconscious. And for two, she had been warped to another dimension, in which the skies were apparently filled with hovering cilinders, and dead toa could use mask powers somehow.

Once she realised her situation, she quickly crawled backwards as fast as she could, ignoring the burning pain in her arms. She didn’t come far, as the forcefield held her back. A stinging pain went through her whole body, paralysing her while she got electrocuted. She knew she was screaming, but for some reason she couldn’t hear herself. It was as if the forcefield was slowly deactivating her senses one by one. The pain lessened, but the fear only grew stronger. Was this how she would come to her end? Being electrocuted by the forcefield of a dead toa, in another dimension, separated from her unreachable home?

Then it all suddenly stopped. The pain of her electrocution returned, but it didn’t feel as if she was still being pumped with electricity. She fell with her back to the ground, the forcefield having disappeared. Her hand found a shaft burried under the hot sand, and M’azzal pulled out her scythe. Instead of feeling joy, she surprised herself by feeling sad, the scythe being the only thing left of her home now. Nevertheless, she didn’t cry. In a mix of dreary emotions, she felt determination coming up. She would find a way out, get back to her home and kill Maurak and everyone who worked with him.

She couldn’t work out her plan any further however, not that she cared to do so, when the sound of screeching metal reached her ears. She stood up from her laying position, and looked down at the bowing red toa. With a mix of fascination and fright, she looked at a hole in the toa’s back, black smoke rising from the alien machinery inside. The toa slowly stood up, more harsh squeaking noises coming from his joints as he towered above M’azzal. His arms hung beside his body in a lifeless manner, and neither his heartlight nor his eyes had started to glow yet. Another gaping hole right in his shoulder, which M’azzal hadn’t noticed before, started to close. She couldn’t figure any bits of metal actually moving or changing shape, and yet the hole was closing. It was as if new metal was growing over the wound. The trail of black smoke rising out of the toa’s back got thinner, and M’azzal could only guess that the wound there was also closing.

She held her scythe ready, expecting the dead toa to jump at her at any moment. Then he suddenly stopped moving. The trail of smoke had disappeared, and the toa stood still. At full height he stood roughly two heads taller than M’azzal.
A loud crack, as if lightning hit the ground, came then from the red toa, and his green heartlight began to light up. The toa lifted his head up, and M’azzal could now see narrow green lines widening in his eyeholes. Even though she couldn’t see his eyes very well, she had the unsettling feeling that he was staring at her.

Then, without any warning, he threw his head in his neck, the muscles and pistons in every part of his body stiffened. He let out a high pitched shriek, the tone didn’t seem to fit to the gigantic proportions of the toa. Fear went through M’azzal’s body. But through her fear she knew this was the moment to overthrow the impressive toa. She charged at him, her weapon in front of her and quickly closing in. Then the shrieking stopped. The toa was now looking straight at M’azzal, with a blank expression. She scrapped her plan to push him over, and instead pressed her scythe against the toa’s throat. I’ll do it the classic way.

As soon as the cold metal touched the red toa’s soft black flesh, his expression turned scared. He looked down at M’azzal, his green eyes filled with disbelief.
“Can I.... help you?” the toa asked carefully. M’azzal didn’t know how to answer.
“I am the one asking the questions here, you understand?” she snapped at him.

The red toa nodded, careful not to cut himself. “So, here’s my first question: where am I?!”

“I don’t know.”

The toa looked around him. “Seems like a desert to me.”

“Yes, I can see that, too! I’m not dumb, you know. Second question: are you with Kaine and Maurak?!”

“N-no! I don’t know them. Are they friends?”

“I’m asking the questions!”

“Okay, okay, calm down, will you?”

It annoyed M’azzal that the red toa could act so calm, even though he was clearly scared and confused. “Yeah, whatever. Third question: What’s the deal with you seeming dead and shielding me. And from what were you shielding me anyways?”

“I’ll give you a moment think about it.”

“What the... oh, right, you don’t know?”

“Yes.”

M’azzal didn’t like how the red toa seemed to quickly get used to her. She would get rid of him as soon as she was done asking questions. Which was soon. “Last question: who are you?”

The red toa didn’t reply. His lips moved, but no words sounded. His eyes shot left to right, as if he was digging through his mind. M’azzal lowered her weapon. “Don’t tell me..”

But the red toa confirmed her thoughts. “I don’t know.”

Description
Warning: This fictional work contains descriptions of violent acts. If you are really sensitive to this, it's advised not to read this.

Chapter 4: I don’t know.

Two toa stood at the high edge of their homeland, looking out over the seemingly endless ocean. The light of the stars reflected from the ocean’s surface onto the sword of one of the toa, which was planted in the ground, serving as support for the crippled one of the duo. The other one stood just behind him, leaning against the cobblestone wall of a small house.

They both kept staring at the huge body of water. But it wasn’t the reflection of the stars, nor the mesmerising waves, tha caught their attention. No, the source of their concern was a huge fleet, creating the sight of a thousand lights on the horizon.

“Brother,” the crippled toa said. His voice sounded old, almost ancient, even though he was the youngest of his toa team.
His companion shivered, unintentionally or not. He stood up from his leaning position, and walked to his friend. He looked down, taking in the damage of his friend’s leg: a huge chunk of the lower leg was bitten off, teeth marks visible in the protodermis bone. The flesh had been covered up with thin layers of metal.

When he didn’t say anything, the crippled one continued. “They are coming,” he said, pointing at the huge fleet. “And that’s not even all of them. They are homeless, seeking refuge on our islands.” He turned to his toa friend, his face having trouble hiding the pain in his leg. “I won’t be able to rule this kingdom anymore.”

He stepped backwards, towards the edge of the cliff. His brother didn’t move, didn’t go after him. He didn’t know what to do. He just faced the crippled toa as he walked backwards, his face showing pain with every step, but nevertheless smiling.

When the crippled one stood at the very edge, he stopped. “You know, I’m not quite sure if I’m done with my life because I have seen too much to want to keep on living, or if it is because I haven’t seen enough to know my life is worth living.” He then pulled out his sword from the ground, making him lose his balance for a second, then threw it in the ground in front of his brother, who still hadn’t moved. The crippled one smiled. He lifted his good leg over the edge. “Take care of my kingdom for me.” Then he fell plunging to the rocks.
The last thing he heard was the scream of his friend.

M’azzal woke up. Her mind was a total mess, and she had to blink several times before her vision turned from nauseous and grey to sharp and colourful. Her head was thudding in pain, keeping her out of focus and leaving any comprehension of her situation just outside her grasp. She began to recognise her environment, albeit with effort, looking for anything familiar. Unfortunately, even the stars were different, leaving the colours to be the only familiar things around. It seemed to her that she was surrounded by a desert, with several craters, rocks, cacti and one weird looking pillar scattered around.

There seemed to be something off, it looked as if she was surrounded by a shivering liquid, with small bolts of energy shooting through it. With painful effort in her arms, she managed to turn herself on her side, expecting to face the night sky. She did, but that was not the only thing she saw. She stared right into two black, lifeless eyeholes, that were placed in a dark red mask. Although the face didn’t show any sign of life, she could feel the alerting presence of the being who was wearing the mask, which was bowing over her. She inspected the being’s body, careful not to move anything else but her head, fearing that the seemingly frozen red statue would suddenly come to life and attack her. She quickly came to the conclusion that it was an out of proportion toa of fire. The toa had his right arm replaced with a mechanical version, and the toa’s heartlight was buried deeper into his crimson armor than usual. The light also didn’t shine.

Her first reflex was to quickly crawl away from under the dead toa, but she then realised why her environment seemed so distorted: she was surrounded by a forcefield, which was not much bigger than the area where she found herself in together with the dead toa. Which meant he couldn’t be dead to keep the forcefield stable. Then again, his mask didn’t glow. M’azzal’s head started to hurt even more. It just didn’t make sense to her. On the other hand, a lot hadn’t made sense in the last couple of hours. Was it really just a few hours?
Reality suddenly pressed down on her. For one, she didn’t know how long she’d been unconscious. And for two, she had been warped to another dimension, in which the skies were apparently filled with hovering cilinders, and dead toa could use mask powers somehow.

Once she realised her situation, she quickly crawled backwards as fast as she could, ignoring the burning pain in her arms. She didn’t come far, as the forcefield held her back. A stinging pain went through her whole body, paralysing her while she got electrocuted. She knew she was screaming, but for some reason she couldn’t hear herself. It was as if the forcefield was slowly deactivating her senses one by one. The pain lessened, but the fear only grew stronger. Was this how she would come to her end? Being electrocuted by the forcefield of a dead toa, in another dimension, separated from her unreachable home?

Then it all suddenly stopped. The pain of her electrocution returned, but it didn’t feel as if she was still being pumped with electricity. She fell with her back to the ground, the forcefield having disappeared. Her hand found a shaft burried under the hot sand, and M’azzal pulled out her scythe. Instead of feeling joy, she surprised herself by feeling sad, the scythe being the only thing left of her home now. Nevertheless, she didn’t cry. In a mix of dreary emotions, she felt determination coming up. She would find a way out, get back to her home and kill Maurak and everyone who worked with him.

She couldn’t work out her plan any further however, not that she cared to do so, when the sound of screeching metal reached her ears. She stood up from her laying position, and looked down at the bowing red toa. With a mix of fascination and fright, she looked at a hole in the toa’s back, black smoke rising from the alien machinery inside. The toa slowly stood up, more harsh squeaking noises coming from his joints as he towered above M’azzal. His arms hung beside his body in a lifeless manner, and neither his heartlight nor his eyes had started to glow yet. Another gaping hole right in his shoulder, which M’azzal hadn’t noticed before, started to close. She couldn’t figure any bits of metal actually moving or changing shape, and yet the hole was closing. It was as if new metal was growing over the wound. The trail of black smoke rising out of the toa’s back got thinner, and M’azzal could only guess that the wound there was also closing.

She held her scythe ready, expecting the dead toa to jump at her at any moment. Then he suddenly stopped moving. The trail of smoke had disappeared, and the toa stood still. At full height he stood roughly two heads taller than M’azzal.
A loud crack, as if lightning hit the ground, came then from the red toa, and his green heartlight began to light up. The toa lifted his head up, and M’azzal could now see narrow green lines widening in his eyeholes. Even though she couldn’t see his eyes very well, she had the unsettling feeling that he was staring at her.

Then, without any warning, he threw his head in his neck, the muscles and pistons in every part of his body stiffened. He let out a high pitched shriek, the tone didn’t seem to fit to the gigantic proportions of the toa. Fear went through M’azzal’s body. But through her fear she knew this was the moment to overthrow the impressive toa. She charged at him, her weapon in front of her and quickly closing in. Then the shrieking stopped. The toa was now looking straight at M’azzal, with a blank expression. She scrapped her plan to push him over, and instead pressed her scythe against the toa’s throat. I’ll do it the classic way.

As soon as the cold metal touched the red toa’s soft black flesh, his expression turned scared. He looked down at M’azzal, his green eyes filled with disbelief.
“Can I.... help you?” the toa asked carefully. M’azzal didn’t know how to answer.
“I am the one asking the questions here, you understand?” she snapped at him.

The red toa nodded, careful not to cut himself. “So, here’s my first question: where am I?!”

“I don’t know.”

The toa looked around him. “Seems like a desert to me.”

“Yes, I can see that, too! I’m not dumb, you know. Second question: are you with Kaine and Maurak?!”

“N-no! I don’t know them. Are they friends?”

“I’m asking the questions!”

“Okay, okay, calm down, will you?”

It annoyed M’azzal that the red toa could act so calm, even though he was clearly scared and confused. “Yeah, whatever. Third question: What’s the deal with you seeming dead and shielding me. And from what were you shielding me anyways?”

“I’ll give you a moment think about it.”

“What the... oh, right, you don’t know?”

“Yes.”

M’azzal didn’t like how the red toa seemed to quickly get used to her. She would get rid of him as soon as she was done asking questions. Which was soon. “Last question: who are you?”

The red toa didn’t reply. His lips moved, but no words sounded. His eyes shot left to right, as if he was digging through his mind. M’azzal lowered her weapon. “Don’t tell me..”

But the red toa confirmed her thoughts. “I don’t know.”