Chapter 36: An old alliance
Chapter 36: An old alliance
Takua wandered through the empty streets. The Matoran were hiding inside of the buildings, of course. The Toa of light sighed. Not that he wished an attack on Ta Metru or any of the other remaining cities but the last he wanted was this feeling of having nothing to do than wandering around empty streets like a prisoner in a very big cell.
“Takua, hey Takua!”
The golden Toa stopped. Who would still call him by his old name beside his best friend Jaller? Or the members of the little group he once led to defend the Kini Nui but that couldn’t be possible. He turned around and saw a few Matoran running over to him. It could be possible.
Maku was the first one to reach him. “Oh, we’re so glad we’ve found you”, she gasped. She sounded as if she had run through the whole city. “Vakama said that you are the one who stayed to protect the city, so we searched for you.”
“But why did you want to see me?” Takua was surprised but not unhappy. His gaze wandered over the Matoran in front of him. Hafu, Taipu, Tamaru, Kopeke, Maku, nearly all of his old group. Only Kapura was missing but he never was one of the fastest and Takua was sure that he would come as well sooner or later.
“We have something we want to show to you”, Maku said.
“Fight with you like in old days we want”, Tamaru continued.
“We all thought that you Toa just can’t do everything all alone”, Taipu meant.
“We once were a defender team and we always will be”, Hafu threw in.
“…”, was Kopeke’s opinion.
“Whoa, wait, not so many of you at the same time.” Takua lifted up his hands. “What do you mean, you want me to help? It’s true that we once were a team but now there are so many different enemies out there which not even we Toa can handle and you are … I mean…”
“Don’t say, we’re just Matoran”, Maku stood with her hands on her hips. “You were once the same as we and you had no problems leading us into fights back then.”
“Those were just a few Rahi and I was always supposed to be a Toa.”
“Maybe we’re supposed to be Toa as well. Everything could happen.”
“I don’t want to lead any of my friends into danger. A Toa won’t have any other choice but you are Matoran.”
“And we have chosen not to sit on our asses and wait for the death to come. Listen, we have seen that Makuta has given you Toa a really hard time. You can’t fight like that forever. A Matoran might be weaker but together we can be strong. We have proven it often enough during times when we had to fight back enemies until a Toa could come for help.”
Takua sighed but still a little smile wandered over his face. This was giving him memories of his past life. “Alright, I give it up. But do you have any plans how you will fight?”
“Come with us then you’ll see what exactly we’ve planned. Kapura is still staying with the Kewa. We have trained them for a long time because they once were the best animals we could use to ride into battle, fearless as they are. And we also have chosen discs as our weapons. We fought with them on the Kini Nui, can you remember?”
“But discs on a Kewa were just good for battling the Rama swarms”
“Discs and Kewa aren’t the only things we wanted to use. That’s why we needed training with them. But you will see when get there.”
Now the Toa of light was curious as well. What could his old team have planned?
Normally Kewa lived in the jungle but the Matoran had brought some of them close to the city of Ta Aro. Standing on the snowy ground close to a city near a volcano instead of sitting on jungle trees they looked as out of place as a Kane-Ra in the ocean. And they all looked as if…
“Are they burning?” Takua asked, eyes widened.
“No, burning discs they carry”, Tamaru answered, “Once I not good was at flying. But I learned while Kewa training. Like the Kewa not to fear fire learned. Show you we can, Kapura and me. Always together we trained.”
Kapura who already had been sitting on a Kewa’s back waved his hand as he saw the group coming and jumped off. “Good to see you again, chronicler, although you aren’t the chronicler anymore. You have come with my friends. Does that mean we will be a team again like we once were? The defenders of … whatever is to defend.”
Takua still couldn’t take his eyes off the Kewa. “First I want to see how your idea works. A bird with a flaming disc shooter on its back might look amazing but I don’t know if the enemy can be impressed just by looks.”
“Alright, show you we will. Kapura, your position.”
Tamaru and Kapura climbed on one Kewa, the red Matoran took place at the shooter while the other one took over the steering. The bird started moving its wings and lifted off. Because of the wind the flames now grew a bit higher. It was like a Phoenix was flying over the city.
“We won’t show you how the discs will work because they are just shot the same way like always”, Kapura shouted down to Takua, “And I think you already know how that works. The only difference is that they are burning.”
The Kewa was flying a few circles over their heads then landed again.
“Nearly all of our enemies fear the fire”, Maku explained, “That’s why we got the idea to use burning weapons. And the ones which are living in fire hopefully won’t come out of the volcanic regions as long as there’s still coldness and snow.”
At first Takua was still standing stunned then he suddenly laughed.
“This idea is a great one. We should be able to create an army of fire beard riders. How many have you trained so far?”
“Just the six you see here”, Kapura answered. “Kewa normally aren’t too fond of fire as well. We would need more time to train more of them.”
“Six is good for a beginning. If we always need one pilot and one shooter then we would need six more Matoran in our team so that all of the Kewa could be in action.”
Takua couldn’t think his plans any further because another Kewa appeared on the horizon, flying to the city very fast. The pilot jumped off before the bird had fully completed its landing process and ran over to the group. “Toa, Le Metru is under attack.”
“What? But weren’t Kongu and Lewa on the way to the jungle? Haven’t the creatures there seen that two Toa are running around in their territory?”
“They were on their way, but then they changed their route and headed for the flying island instead.”
“Then they must have had a reason.” The Toa of light turned around. “It looks as if I’m the only Toa now but I won’t fight alone. Take three of your Kewa and come with me. It’s time for the old alliance to test their new weapons. And I hope you all have learned how to fly.”
Maku nodded. “We have always trained together. Maybe we’re not as good as Kongu was but it still is good enough. But what’s with you? Don’t you need a Kewa as well?”
“I’m a Toa now. I want to use my own weapons and my own flying ability even if one of those birds would want to carry me. The last three should rather stay at the city and guard it as long as I’m not there. And they can give incoming enemies a peck from me.”
The Matoran climbed on their Kewa and the team headed for the town in the jungle.
