The Feral Plains/Volume IV

The Feral Plains: Volume IV is the fourth part of The Feral Plains. It was first written in five episodes by CaptainLandr0ver on the Lego.com Gallery working under the alias "tomatopaste101", and was later proofread, edited and combined into a volume to be released onto the Custom Bionicle Wiki.

This Volume follows up a month after the previous episode, showing the aftermath of Keelo's taking over of the lower part of the Feral Plains. It delves deeper into story arcs and explores the personalities, personal and inter-personal struggles of several characters.

Faith
Detras and Ga-Matoran Shensii were slowly trudging up the long-ago flooded Cordak River. Although their feet were heavy, their minds were mostly calm. But every so often Detras would remember something scathing from the past month.

The battles that had occurred. Seeing his friends and former enemies alike captured. All of that had happened a week before Keelo took over a month ago. The words of Turaga Maroona's explanation on the stranger events:

"I believe that our tormentor Makuta Hysterix was trapped as a spirit on the astral plane for quite a while, and soon learned the benefits of his situation. He has used his Mask of Possession to wage a war against us and between each other without ever lifting a finger, since his body was destroyed long ago."

Detras blinked a couple of times and the thoughts went away. He looked back at the old hideout, known as The Washout, which had become a water runoff into the valley during the flooding and earthquakes Keelo had caused. There was once greatgrass there, but now it was barren and muddy. An excellent way of describing the current state of the island.

"This looks like a good spot," said Shensii. She and her protector found a large tree limb and broke it up, and Detras lit a fire to keep them warm. They sat on the edges of a ditch. Shensii could see the cold water evaporating off of her armor, which made her a bit uneasy. But she’d rather be dry than cold, she decided.

Her mind began wandering into darker and darker thoughts. She had no idea what had become of her friends… if they could even be considered her friends anymore. They always used to joke about how the Po-Matoran always won the Kohlii tournaments. They used to have fun together. She decided to spark a conversation with the Toa sitting across from her, knowing that if she kept pondering tears would well up in her eyes.

"What is it like to have elemental powers?" Shensii asked shakily.

"Huh?" replied Detras. He was looking elsewhere, staring into oblivion, waiting for it to stare back.

"Y'know, to be able to control fire and everything?"

"Well, having powers isn't all it's cracked up to be..." Detras began to stare into the fire. In it he saw phantasmagoric imagery of Keelo's overtaking of the lower valley lands.

Shensii was about to remind him of his question, but she saw faintly under Detras' visor that his eyes were welling up.

After a while, she said, "Can I check your burn? I want to see how it is.”

Detras removed his mask, revealing from under the splotch of ash on it the burn on his head. Keelo had given it to him when the Toa tried to free his captured brothers and sisters the first time.

"It's getting better," said Shensii in a positive tone of voice. In reality, it looked the same as it did yesterday, but she knew that he couldn’t see it anyway. The Toa was having a hard time, and so she decided that good news, even about something like this, would ease his misery.

Shensii herself was not in good shape, either. She had mud all over her body from multiple experiences with Keelo. He has proclaimed himself the Emperor of all the island of Powai, but all he was was just a ruthless dictator of a broken conglomerate of Toa and Matoran. His speeches were about creating a better world, using stories from his time as a thief and saying that "he had to steal so he wouldn't go hungry", but they knew the truth. He was, in fact, hungry. Hungry for power and position.

"It looks like it might rain tonight," Shensii said, looking up at the sky. A warm wind was starting to blow, cutting through the cold pre-twilight air. She remembered the day when she declared that she had chosen to be a pacifist, and everyone looked at her with awkward eyes. But she stood up strong and eventually everybody got used to her.

Now she was free from the grips of Emperor Keelo. She wouldn't have to fight, because she trusted Detras, a trust that had been constructed through their last 3 days together.

"Aren't you tired?" asked Detras. She nodded and laid down in the river bank to rest.

Her dreams were calm, unlike the night-terrors she'd had before, the ones about the bombs and the fires and the destruction. She dreamt that in the morning, they would wake up to all of their friends and allies, and the sun would be shining again, and they would all run down the river to talk in the gardens with no sign of Keelo. They would play all Kohlii together, and then she and the other Ga-Matoran would gossip about Tura and Jeko. The shops would be alive with business and trading and bargaining, and Vandir would be scouting the horizon, which was devoid of any sense of danger.

Somehow she had a certain feeling that this dream would come true. Having no courage to face Keelo, nor enough knowledge to know what had come of her friends, she had faith in it coming truth, and faith can overcome all.