The Rise

[Taipu1]

The Rise Chapter 1 The twin suns set high over the knowledge towers of Ko-metru, sending beams of refracted light scattering across the city, before both fading into patches of cloud. Up in the upper levels of Metru-Nui life continued, as lights along the chute system lit the great city. In the shadows at the feet of the knowledge towers, it was silent and dark. This silence was broken by the footsteps of the odd Matoran making their way to their homes. Then another sound, an unearthly sound sliced through the air. At the same time the windows of a small building lit with flickering blue light. There was a crashing sound from within, and then the flickering light faded. The night became dark and silence fell once more. *** 3 years later Taraka walked down the corridor with his protective Toa Akfen, who was carrying several stone tablets.“Are you saying it destroyed everything?” asked Taraka. “The Fader Bull panics in cramped environments,” Akfen said. “It basically charged about attacking everything. If it’s any consolation, there was more of your stuff left over than mine.” “My stuff is more important though,” Taraka said. “And you only had one thing in there.” “Won’t be easy for me to get a new Toa tool though. Contrary to your various destroyed possessions, I am not very important.” “You’re far to hard on yourself,” Taraka said. “There are far more Toa tools out there than Toa, and you aren’t yet on the bottom rung of the protectoral ladder.” Taraka opened the door to his office. It wasn’t a pretty sight, the desk was over turned, and the shelf was lying across the floor. There were shards of broken tablets everywhere and there was a huge gouge in the drawing board in the wall. “How’d it get in?” asked Taraka. “As a top level archivist, you should know Fader Bulls can teleport.” “Only when they think they’re in danger though.” “Apparently it was under examination elsewhere in the archives, but it woke up and panicked.” “And my office took the brunt of it,” Taraka said vaguely, lifting the shelf and pushing it back up against the wall. He began to pick up the tablets that were still intact, placing them back on the shelf. “Don’t you normally organise those?” asked Akfen. “No point, not without keeping track of which I still have and which are broken, it’ll be a more time consuming job,” Taraka replied. “That’ll be something for me to do for the next month then will it?” Akfen said, rolling his eyes. “Did you have other plans?” asked Taraka. “Perhaps dying heroically to protect you sir, rather than passing away from boredom in your storage room.” “Storage room,” Taraka said, confused. “Sorry, Taraka, I was under the impression that was what you called my office.” “Ha ha, perhaps you should go over to Po-metru and rally the builders with your hilarious stand-up act.” “Won’t be long, I’ll soon get demoted to city comedian.” Akfen joked, but at the same time with a rather bitter tone. Taraka laughed, turning the desk the right way up before placing a tablet upon it. “Show a little support then,” Akfen said sarcastically. “Oh, no. Sorry, I wasn’t laughing at you, it was this tablet,” Taraka said smiling. “I wasn’t aware that Rahi anatomy was such a humorous topic,” Akfen said dryly. “Well, we never examined this particular Rahi in great detail,” Taraka said, abandoning the tablets on the floor. He turned his chair the right way up and sat down at the desk, picking up the tablet again and reading through it. “Care to share?” asked Akfen “Remember the so called ‘Lion of Ko-Metru’,” asked Taraka. “The one that terrorised the Ko-Matoran, then was mysteriously gone the day we paid a visit to search for the thing?” “The very same,” said Taraka. “Trust such a pointless tablet to be one that survived. I bet that report that the Kanohi dragon turned up in a Ga-Metru classroom is perfectly fine as well.” “There were twelve witnesses for that…” Akfen said. “Twelve Matoran who had been breathing the fumes at the Great Furnace probably.”Akfen nodded, picking up the two splintered halves of his Toa tool, hooking the office door open with his foot. “Akfen,” Taraka said, raising his voice. Akfen paused and turned around. “Why is it made of wood?” Taraka said scathingly, gesturing at the two halves of a Toa tool in Akfen’s hands. “I was on Stelt, and I was in a fight with this group of trolls,” “Trolls?” ”Well, dim-witted locals. Smelt awful too, they were basically trolls. My tool was broken, but I won the fight still. As repayment the locals I was helping made me a new tool. It wasn’t going to turn it down. After all, it was one of my few successes.” Taraka tutted, and then resumed reading the tablet. *** Akfen sat in his office, examining the Toa tool with a mixture of regret and relief. It had been surprisingly faithful to him, despite being so primitive. He sighed, and threw the halves into a crate by the wall. There was a small stack of tablets on the desk in front of him. He picked up the top one, and stared at it without taking the information in. It wasn’t like it mattered, every bit of work he did somehow went wrong and he ended up being assigned to protect someone who was in less danger. The incident with the Fader Bull had been the most danger Taraka had ever been in, and he’d been a kio away in a separate archive. Truth be told, Akfen’s life was better this way. He had been with Taraka for almost two years now, and in that time he had managed to improve what was left of his reputation to the point that Taraka trusted him with most tasks. The fact that the Matoran Taraka was so much more important to him was bit insulting to his position as a Toa, but at the same time, Taraka was the only person close to a friend Akfen had.As he stared in a trance at the tablet before him, three words stirred something recent in his brain, and he became alert and re-read them.“Lion of Ko-Metru…” he muttered under his breath, before moving his eyes to the top of the tablet to read it through again. *** “It’s back!” gasped Akfen, out of breath as he burst into Taraka’s office. “What’s back?” asked Taraka dazed at the sudden interruption. “Wait, why are you bursting into my office without knocking or at least a spoken warning?” “Sorry Taraka,” Akfen said, “But one of the tablets that was left for me to look through in my office-“ “Storage room,” cut in Taraka snidely. “Yes, if you like,” Akfen said hurriedly. “This tablet is about the Lion of Ko-Metru.” “So throw it away,” Taraka said. “That’s a myth that’s long since gone.” “According to this it’s back. And there’s a witness.” “Twelve witnesses for the Ga-Metru Kanohi dragon remember?” Taraka said patronisingly. “This witness has injuries caused by the lion,” Akfen said excitedly. “It was a Ko-Metru scholar too, not a Ta-Matoran with cooked brains.” “Who was this witness?” asked Taraka, now giving the matter some serious attention. “A Matoran, named Nuju.” ***Review Topic Edited October 18, 2011 by Taipu1