The Feral Plains/Volume II

The Feral Plains: Volume II is the second part of The Feral Plains. It was first written in three episodes (one with two parts) by CaptainLandr0ver on the Lego.com Gallery under the name "tomatopaste101", and was later proofread, edited and combined into a volume to be released here.

Thievery
Keelo dashed through the field away from the market. When he arrived at the pile of boulders before the Desolation River, he didn't hesitate one bit and rapidly slid down, being sure to land in the right place as not to sprain his ankle. The two angry Matoran chasing after him, Tura and Jeko, stopped, giving Keelo time to escape and hide.

Behind him he heard Tura slip on a smooth boulder face and yell.

Keelo sprinted across the Desolation River and into the condensed overgrowth of creepers on the other side. He tried his best to keep quiet, but his breathing was still very heavy. Toa Vandir had told him numerous times that thievery was a very bad crime, and that the only reason he hadn't exiled him from his colony was because he was a skilled night-time guard. But Keelo was still doing it, and now was the perfect chance to steal a hardy mushroom and a couple of fruits, since Vandir was gone. He was about to inhale his mushroom when he noticed a long piece of dilapidated black Protodermis. His first though was that he'd just found a vein of Protodermis that had risen to the surface, but then he realized that it was a Kanohi mask... a very eerie looking one.

He stuffed the mushroom into his mouth and inspected the mask. There were a bunch of incomprehensible markings on it. Keelo removed his own mask and put this peculiar one on, and continued chomping down on his mushroom. Before he could adjust the new mask onto his face so that it fit comfortably, a surge of extreme power flooded his body. Everything he saw began changing colors, turning gray and briefly vanishing. All of this lasted for a split second before something even more bizarre occurred.

Keelo saw a vision. He'd never seen one before. It didn't feel like a dream, or a nightmare, or even an illusion. It felt like something was simultaneously toying with his emotions and showing him something that was doomed to occur.

A large Toa-like figure was standing in the midst of rubble. There was broken earth, raging fire, snowy ashes, and the air was blacker than a Makuta's heart. He felt trembling, lots of heat, and a large gust of wind.

He awoke and realized that the shaking and the wind were really happening. He felt the earth underneath him begin to sink, and the Pashak creepers around him began to wither and burn away, the leaves catching fire.

He quickly tore the mask off his face and stomped the fires out. His heart was pounding and he felt cold. The earth was still growling and the wind had picked up considerably. He could hear the other Matoran outside screaming to take cover.

At that same moment, standing in the small floodplain further up the river, were Maroona, Navahko, Corduk, Omakah, and Arvos. The two Matoran were unable to stand up because of the wind's ferocity, and Maroona had to thrust her wizened staff into the sand to keep balance. Even Navahko and Corduk were swaying from the ravenous, forceful wind that followed the earthquake.

Navahko began to speak, "Corduk, was that tremor caused-"

"No," said Corduk immediately.

"Then what was that?" said Navahko. “I think it was just nature acting up.”

"That was nothing natural," spoke Maroona. "I believe it was something that is likely much stronger and more ferocious than you Toa."

Nightprowler
Toa Vandir did not expect to have come back to his camp at such a late time. He hoped that Jeko had done a good job taking the camp over for him. Vandir didn't feel as ill as before, but his disliking for the natives was still there. This couldn't be a misunderstanding. Yedrin, the Ga-Matoran medic of Camp Vandir, rushed up to Vandir. She definitely had something to say. And before Vandir could ask about Jeko's health, she said this thing.

"Sir, there's been something, some sort of ferocious Rahi beast, entering our camp every night." she spurted. Her voice was husky and cracked occasionally. "Last night it fought something and left scratches on a boulder."

"Uhh, okay..." said Vandir. He was somewhere in between confusion and disbelief. "Right, I've got to check on Jeko and make sure everything's okay."

"No, you must see!" Yedrin pleaded. "It's stealing our food too!" She grabbed the Toa by the arm and pulled as hard as she could. Vandir reluctantly decided to follow.

"It's up there!" said Yedrin, and she nodded to a boulder which Vandir then reluctantly climbed onto.

"Well, I guess you were right." said Vandir as he studied the jagged white lines one the boulder. "What kind of Rahi do you suppose it is?"

"Most likely a predator," replied Vandir. "But I wouldn't know which exact one. You better get to sleep, Yedrin. If I hear anything strange out here, I'll look out for this thing."

Yedrin nodded and nervously retreated to her sleeping quarters.

That night, Vandir did in fact hear something strange. It sent chills down his spine. It sounded like a hoarse howl. Vandir went outside. The sun was just beginning to rise, just enough light to see something horrifying. It was a deep blue, slender creature with it's chest low to the ground and it's hips raised above its head like a jaguar. It's limbs were thin and it looked like a blue skeleton. It's devilish eyes were dark red, almost impossible to see against it's grim face of hunger and demise.

Vandir knew instantly that it saw him as prey.

It shot forward, swiping at Vandir. It struck him, and sent him tumbling into the gravel. His chest had received a painful wound. The beast jumped on top of him, and was about to bite down on his throat when he sent a burst of high-speed wing into it's chest. He pushed with his feet and flipped the creature onto it's back.

It quickly wriggled itself right-side-up and made a raspy growl. It was subtle, but ghastly and creepily piercing. It made Vandir want to retreat.

But he didn't retreat. Instead, he used his Kanohi Foari, the Mask of Perfection, which allowed him to perfect any task he was performing. And his current task was bringing down this beast.

The beast lunged, but Vandir hit it in the center of the head, knocking it unconscious instantly.

Upon closer inspection, Vandir was able to tell that it was not a Rahi at all, rather a mutated Matoran, a very mutated one. And there was only one Matoran with such a shade of blue that he knew: Yedrin.

Fading Part One
Turaga Maroona had sent Corduk and Arvos to travel down the Desolation River to the colonist camp to see what had happened yesterday.

"I wonder what that was anyway." said Arvos.

"I doubt it was anything delightful." said Corduk. "From what I felt in the ground, it's pretty powerful. I've never heard of anything that can move the earth and anger the wind like that aside from Mata Nui himself."

"Maybe Turaga Maroona should've sent Navahko instead of me with you." said Arvos. "Right?"

There was no answer.

"Corduk?" he said again. Corduk was not there. He hadn't run and hid, as his footprints ended right there and led nowhere else.

"Mata Nui, where’d he go?!" thought Arvos. He ran back to Salatis Washout, where Navahko, Maroona and Omakah were.

"What is it?" said Maroona. "Where is Corduk?"

"Precisely," said Arvos, "I don't know where he is. He was walking beside me and then he vanished."

"Did you follow his footsteps?" said Omakah.

"No. They ended right there."

"Strange." said Maroona. "Sometimes I wake up in the middle of night and I notice that Corduk is missing. I always assume that he just needs some alone time, but now I think otherwise."

Finally Corduk landed on real ground. He didn't know where he was or why he was there. He felt sick, as if he had been tossed around in the air.

It was very bright outside. He was sprawled on some sort of large pile of rubble. Inside the rubble it was dark, damp and hot. In the gap nearest to him, he heard something moving...

Where the air wasn't humid, it was dusty. He could hear bits and pieces of stone still falling down, sheets of gravel and ground-up rock shivering down the smooth faces of the much larger chunks of of the same material. Occasionally the whole collection would jolt as one of the slabs at the bottom would crunch into a different position.

On top of that, there was dry dirt that had most likely been turned up during whatever caused this cataclysm.

After a minute he found the strength to stand up. He was still shaken from his oddly erratic trip. The loose dirt made it hard for him to stand or walk.

Using his mask power, he heard something else near him that was trying it's best to keep still and quiet. And then he saw it.

It was Wreshi, Toa of Stone. He was lean, and looked like he could outrun anyone He had quite a few fins that hinted at great agility. He was not only the fastest runner on the Toa team (in which Navahko and Corduk are), but also the lightest on his feet.

"Wreshi, how are awake?" asked Corduk. "How did you get out of the Shrine of Salvation?" Wreshi looked very focused on Corduk for some reason. Corduk used his mask power a bit and identified some sort of foreign animosity in him. He wasn't sure if this was the same Wreshi, but it seemed similar to whatever had influenced Vandir.

Corduk suddenly zipped back to the Shrine of Salvation. Everyone else was there, babbling and making predictions about where he went.

"Corduk!" exclaimed Maroona. "Where have you been?"

"I- I don't know." said Corduk. "The same place I always go when..."

"When what?" she asked.

"Sometimes I go there. On accident, I don't know why at all. Listen, Wreshi's been awoken, and something's definitely not right about him. He’s acting… strangely… and I mean stranger than he normally is. He stares at me for minutes at a time, not making a move, and it scares me."

"Tell me more," said Maroona. "And then we must fix this quickly."

Fading Part Two
After Corduk told Maroona everything he knew, the Turaga got right to explaining.

"I don't know why Wreshi is acting that way. But I do know that there could be someone hijacking the Shrine and causing you to transport into it." she said.

Arvos and Omakah looked confused.

"Oh, I don't believe you know the Shrine's true purpose." she said to them. "The Shrine is really a low-power transporter to a small pocket dimension -essentially, a room-sized dimension that acts as a rest stop- and from there you can access other locations. There can only be six beings occupying it at one time, and thus when we forgot how to use it for it's true purpose we used it to store things. You remember the air raids? When that came when we needed to hide our Toa team, and so we hid them in the Shrine's dimension."

Omakah was catching on, but Arvos seemed lost.

"Inside the Shrine, they are put into hibernation and performing a “ritual”... which is really just utilizing the machine’s voice command... will transport one of them out." Maroona finished. "Corduk, see if you can get in there and collect some more information."

Corduk nodded. Arvos, Omakah and Navahko stepped back while Maroona activated the Shrine and Corduk disappeared into the red ball of light.

Much time passed. They didn't know exactly how long they had waited, but their shadows had become noticeably longer.

After this time, Navahko broke the silence. "Something's not right."

"You want me to get you in?" asked Maroona?

"Yes," said Navahko, and Maroona got him inside.

Navahko passed through the main pocket dimension and into another opening. He went through this and found himself kneeling atop a chunk of rock. Wreshi and Corduk were below him, with the Toa of Stone pinning Corduk against the stone by pressing his Recoiling Pickaxe into his throat. He was sure that Corduk couldn't breathe.

"Wreshi!!" yelled Navahko. He was appalled. Wreshi's head whipped back to view the Toa of Ice.

Before Navahko could speak again, Wreshi careened up the rock face, performed a flip by planting his pickaxe in the rock, and threw a planter kick at Navahko. Navahko blocked and threw Wreshi to the side.

Wreshi got back up quickly, bouncing off the wall and surprising Navahko, who was struck in the chest. He fell onto his back and grabbed the edge just in time.

Wreshi walked to the edge. He was charging up his mask power. He had the Kanohi Vorpin, Mask of Touch, which allowed him to touch an object and manipulate it with mighty power.

He grabbed Navahko's hand and Navahko was launched into the side. He yelled in pain.

Corduk got Wreshi in a headlock, and Navahko used his mask power to launch them all to the highest point.

Navahko pushed Wreshi against the wall as hard as he could.

"That's not Wreshi!" Corduk said. "He's ill with something!"

"How will he recover?" said Navahko asked. Wreshi lashed out at him, and he narrowly dodged it.

"I don't know, just hold onto my hand!" yelled Corduk. "I'm about to transport back to the Shrine!" Wreshi was sending all of the rocks towards the two other Toa. His mask was charging, and had grabbed Navahko's spear. He yelled, and all of the rocks began flying towards Navahko's head.

There was a burst of light, and all three had been spat out of the Shrine. Wreshi was about to attack when Navahko knocked him out cold.

Characters

 * Keelo
 * Jeko
 * Tura
 * Maroona
 * Arvos
 * Omakah
 * Corduk
 * Navahko
 * Vandir
 * Merdana
 * Yedrin
 * Wreshi

Trivia

 * Yedrin's transformation into a beast is one event CaptainLandr0ver hasn't explained. He plans to not reveal why it happened, to add to the "accursed" theme of the story. Other such events are the result of a certain being who is revealed later in the story.
 * The description of Yedrin's voice was inspired by voice actress Jenny Slate, specifically her performance as Assistant Mayor Bellweather in Zootopia.