Spirit Shadows: Power

Rivals is the fourth major story in Spirit Shadows, and the sixth chapter overall.

Chapter 1
The hot summer sun had disappeared behind a blanket of grey clouds. Now these clouds could hardly be distinguished in the dark grey sky, and that was the least of anyone’s worries. On a small wooden boat, everyone on board was thinkinging about the downpour of rain upon them.

The hood of Jetera’s thick black cloak helped keep the rain off of his face. He was consistently finding himself surprised with the number of practical uses his cloak had – even though, when he had first arrived among the group of people he now called his teammates, he had no concept of what this hood was, or the purpose it served. The others on his boat weren’t so lucky. Drainu, Master of Stone, had tried to create an umbrella of stone to shield himself from the torrent, but soon found that it could not stand on the boat without sinking it, so he held it up with his elemental power before becoming so weak he had to throw it away. Now he sat on the deck, arms folded, feeling every drop of rain that fell on him. The powers of Saidon, Master of Earth, could not really shield him from the rain at all, so he was sticking to the mast and trying to stay out of the way of the storm as best he could. The Matoran guiding the ship through the storm tried their best to ignore the rain, knowing that if they continued to work they would be on shore and out of the rain soon. The only person Jetera could see that was still unfazed by the downpour was Shaju, the Master of Water. Since it was his natural element, the giant of a Toa was only growing stronger elementally in the storm.

It had been three days since the three ships had left the island kingdom of Erkelon. The Toa Vihagu, Erkelon’s resident guardians, were joining hundreds of other Toa and Matoran in a strike on the island of Talis, far south of Erkelon. Talis had fallen under the control of The Malevolent, an army of strange shadowy beings that had swept across the Southern Islands, taking colonies of Matoran and turning them into their servants. It was The Malevolent’s conquest that had forced a small body of Matoran to colonize Erkelon in the first place. The strike on Talis, conducted by representatives of all the islands still free of the Malevolent, was the first serious attempt at pushing back the shadowy foes. The first two days had been a fairly pleasant voyage. But on the third day, the storm had started, and had raged for several hours. Jetera had received word that one of three boats had been separated from the others by the storm, although likely had not been wrecked. Although he was not as exposed to the rain as others, the rain had dampened his spirit some. From what he knew of Talis, he knew he would have to fight knee-deep in rain, and his last experience fighting against Malevolent in water – as The Malevolent had attacked Erkelon itself two months prior – had almost killed him.

Jetera was interrupted by his thoughts by a shaking on deck. He turned around and saw Shaju walking towards the back of the ship. He had thought he heard the Master of Water speaking a moment before. Shaju pulled back his arm, then unleashed a massive jet of water out of the back of the ship, which began to speed away from the second ship, and at a dangerous speed through the stormy ocean.

With a “crunch” and a gradual weakening of the winds slamming into his face, Jetera felt that the boat had reached a halt. When his eyes came back into focus he saw sand… all around the boat was sand. The force of Shaju’s water blast had driven the boat into the land. He heard the shouts of the Matoran aboard, and saw them grabbing supplies, jumping over the side of the boat (assisted by Shaju) and racing for a cave about seventy meters away. Drainu and Saidon had already jumped over with the largest containers of supplies. Jetera grabbed another container, slung his own personal belongings over his back, and raced after them. The cave was quite spacious, and already had mattresses for sleeping and a few torches placed. It had obviously been prepared for their arrival prior. The crew and Toa started to dry themselves off, using whatever they could find. Then they began to set their supplies in order and prepare the place for their own living. Half an hour later, the second boat arrived, and its crew began to race towards the cave. Jetera saw Ayen, the Toa Vihagu’s deputy, giving a stern look to Shaju, saying with her eyes her displeasure for his action, but the hulking Toa seemed barely to notice.

It was another hour until the third boat finally arrived, during which time the Toa and crew passed the time with playing games with rocks on the stone floor, playing music, and practicing combat. After that final crew was settled, they all took seats along the wall or on the floor, while Emekal prepared them for what they would do the following day. “Preliminary fighting over the past few days has cleared most of the streets between here and the city’s center of enemies,” he explained. “The Malevolent army is holed up in the center of the city, but they are at an advantage. They have taken the city’s largest and strongest building, the Temple of Artakha, and placed their power core in it. The power core must be destroyed before their power here is broken, so we will have to fight their whole number and scale the Temple for our victory.”

“The Turaga Council has requested volunteers to make the attack on the Temple, while all others will secure the ground around the Temple,” Eikaal continued, with graveness in his voice. “He has said that, of those that lead the attack, at least half will die. Think carefully about which party you will join.”

There was a moment of silence as all those there pondered their options. Then Zerkah, the team leader, rose to his feet, saying, “I will join the attackers.” Therina followed his lead – had Zerkah’s decision swung her own, perhaps? Shaju and Saidon also joined them; all the Matoran, as well as Mokatu and Ayen. It was during this time that Jetera noticed the conspicuous absence of Makaen, the Master of Ice -- although he was never sure whether or not she truly was a member of the Vihagu. Then all eyes were resting on him. Everyone expected him to refuse the option - after all, he still had no elemental powers, a particular drawback against Malevolent enemies. However, against their assumptions (and his own?) he stood up.

"I won't serve any more good on the ground than I will in the attack," he explained to their unspoken question of "Why?" "And I can use my tactical skills to scout out the battlefield and watch for enemy attacks."

"You are choosing this, even though it will probably be your death?"

"Yes."