BC4 - Tunnels

They followed the tunnels deeper and deeper into Mata Nui. The farther they went, the hotter it became, until the walls were too searing to touch. Even a Ta-Matoran, who farmed lava all day and surfed it all night, would have turned back by now.

More than once, Whenua had to stop to catch his breath. Onua waited patiently, not wanting to risk getting separated from him. There was no telling what might live this far underground.

“One day, I will walk along a beach in Onu-Wahi,” the Toa said at one point. “And I will spot a Kanohi Mask hanging from a tree. I will pluck it like a fruit and my search will be done.”

Whenua laughed. “Yes. The same day Makuta decides he would like a little sun, and perhaps a friendly game of kolhii.”

“Why are the masks so hard to find? If we are meant to have them —”

“You are meant to earn them, Toa of Earth. That is the answer.”

Onua stopped and held out a quake-breaker to block Whenua’s progress. “Hold, Turaga. Do you hear that?”

Whenua could, indeed, hear something, but wished he did not. It was the harsh, ugly sound of massive claws snapping. He did not need his Noble Mask of Night Vision to know the source.

“The chamber of the mask is just ahead,” he whispered. “But, like fish to a reef, the presence of a Kanohi has drawn the Manas.”

Onua and Whenua edged closer, their backs flat against the hot tunnel wall. The sight that greeted their eyes made both regret having such keen night vision. Two giant Manas crabs clashed in a huge chamber, striking at each other and then scuttling away, only to strike again. Both were easily three times the size of the Toa, and infinitely more powerful. Beyond them, the Kanohi Kaukau Nuva rested on a rocky outcropping.

“Makuta’s guardians,” said Whenua.

“They were,” corrected Onua. “We Toa defeated them and drove them away. But it took the six of us, merged into the mighty Toa Kaita, to do it.”

“When they cannot fight others, they fight among themselves,” said Whenua. “Before you came to Mata Nui, none had ever seen them and returned to tell the tale.”

Onua slumped against the wall, not even noticing the intense heat now. The powers of six Toa combined had barely been enough to defeat these creatures before. How could one Toa, stripped of his elemental energies, hope to win? It was hopeless…

Whenua winced as one of the Manas just narrowly missed the other with a snapping pincer. “Too big to slip by. Too fast to avoid. If only the other Toa were here…”

“Even if the others were near, they could only delay those beasts, not defeat them,” Onua said sadly. “I can see no way to…”

Whenua turned and looked up at the Toa of Earth. Onua was silent, staring intently at the Manas, his quake-breaker resting against the wall. His eyes glowed with twin points of flame in the darkness.

“I have been looking ahead,” Onua said, more to himself than to the Turaga. “I need to look behind.”

“What are you talking about?”


- BIONICLE Chronicles 4: Tales of the Masks, Chapter 2