User blog:Gordax/Hashta's Chronicle, Parts 1-5

Here's my Bionicle story, Hashta's Chronicle. If it gets positive comments here, I'll keep making blog posts for it. If it doesn't, anyone interested can just read it on the MBs here.

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Part1

I was headed on a trip with Hukan to further investigate several anonymous reports of a mysterious tunnel network that supposedly laid hidden under the sands of the Mullaka Territory. We rose and fell with the dunes, with sand crashing onto the three-wheeled desert vehicle like water over the bow of one of those boats in Ga-Mya. The air was surprisingly cool and humid, desert though it was, and all signs indicated the coming of a large storm, perhaps in as soon as three days' time.

I made known my concerns to Hukan, and he agreed through gritted teeth (due to the amount of sand that would enter his mouth if he replied in any other fashion). "It rains only about once a year here," said he, "but when it does...." His voice trailed off as a rock formation came into view over the horizon. One of many. But Hukan excelled at not finishing his sentences, perhaps even more than I.

The rock formation measured about five hundred bio wide and three high, and it required a prolonged detour westward. The sand began gently to slope up as Hukan veered right, and soon we were atop the rock. I was rather familiar with these rock formations: they seemed to be portions of some enormous tectonic plate that had been uplifted in what must have been a nearly cataclysmic event and then covered with sand. It marked the boundary between the dunes and the more treacherous area of the desert which was dotted with vast sinkholes and enormous canyons that one could spend a year in without ever finding his way out.

We continued on like this for several hours more, until the reddish pink of the setting sun poured over the horizon. All the while neither of us spoke much. My emotions were too stirred over the death of one of my particularly favorite Po-Matoran. He had been my friend for years and years: as long as I care to remember; and he was a very dear friend of mine.

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Part 2

It was night by the time we arrived. We had received--again, anonymously--very specific directions telling us to travel north until we reached a dried riverbed which we had to follow downhill until reaching the threshold of a canyon. Hukan told me to get out of the vehicle and take my pack with me.

No time was to be wasted, and seeing as neither of us were tired, there was no desire to camp and wait till the morrow. Reaching into the compartment in the back of the vehicle I found exactly what I had put in: a walking stick and a pack filled with Chronicler's tools. While I was there I lifted Hukan's staff onto my shoulder, and I walked to the Toa fully equipped.

As Hukan was a Toa of Earth, there was no difficulty in seeing in the dark (the sky had become clouded, and what little light there was seemed to die immediately after entering the canyon). We made our way down an old rockslide with ease and began walking along the sandy bed of the canyon.

"Hashta," said Hukan, at length.

"Yes?" said I.

Hukan stopped walking, and so did I. He looked around warily. Not one sound could be heard. As I looked forward, I began to get a quaint sense of foreboding. The walls seemed to have begun slanting inwards to eventually close in entirely and become a tunnel. More than this, the ground just ahead was canted at a severe angle downwards, and the darkness of the night seemed to pool into it. If only I had known beforehand exactly what we were faced against.

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Part 3

Once again my thoughts turned to my deceased friend, the real reason I had agreed to travel with Hukan from the beginning. He had disappeared only days ago, and I thought this was the best chance I could get of ever finding him again, even if it were only to bury his remains.

Hukan hesitated for several moments before telling me to stay close, and we resumed walking. The severe angle of the slope caused much effort on my part, as my short legs could only have so much control on the loose sand. The angle only seemed to become steeper the farther we walked, and as the darkness and claustrophobia grew, so did my sense of foreboding and anxiety. The walls soon afterward completely closed in, and the light of the moon receded behind us.

I could not tell how long and far we walked, but it is a rather good estimate that the sun was just peeking over the eastern horizon by the time Hukan told me to stop. It took considerable effort to obey his command, as the angle was now so steep that the sand seemed to have slipped off the hard rock floor, and I nearly slid into the dark abyss that lay before us. I could see only about five bio ahead: it was far too risky to light a torch in a tunnel that could well be full of dangerous Rahi.

Hukan's eyes were far more developed at seeing in the dark than mine, and he appeared to have caught sight of something moving just beyond the wall of shadow that stood before us. As I strained my ears, I thought I heard a slithering noise, as if a heavy object were being dragged across the stone. By the sound of the echoes, there seemed to be a cavern just ahead.

Hukan motioned me to stay put, and soon he was out of sight.

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Part 4

What happened next I cannot accurately describe, as the proceeding series of events so confused me that it took me several minutes--or hours--to gain back my senses. In a frenzied succession of noises, movements, and violent sensations, I found myself on the ground, bruised and battered, my entire body seeming to weigh twice as much as before. It took me several minutes more to have the ability to look around. It was only then that I noticed a soft, pleasing green light emanating from atop an exceedingly tall obelisk that nearly reached all the way the cave ceiling (as I, indeed, found that I lay on the smooth floor of an enormous cavern).

There was no sign of Hukan or my dear lost friend (though I don't know precisely why I had expected the latter to be there in the first place). The obelisk stood so tall as to nearly disappear into the mist that hung above, and the mist diffused the green light just enough so as to dimly illuminate the entire cavern. It was far taller than it was wide (this statement is not entirely accurate, as I soon discovered that the cave was perfectly cylindrical), and the ceiling was only just visible.

"Hukan?" said I as I managed to support myself into a somewhat upright position. There was no reply. I coughed and began walking directly toward the obelisk, taking no heed to the fact that there were many exits placed at regular intervals around the circumference of the room.

When and only when I realized that I had that uncanny sense of being watched did I take my eyes away from the green light at the top of the cave. Ce-Matoran have the ability to sense, to some extent, the presence of other beings in the relative vicinity, and I had the distinct feeling that I was not alone but was, in fact, surrounded by many incredibly powerful presences. But not a single shape was visible anywhere in the room.

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Part 5

I circumnavigated the room several times, seeing no one, and was satisfied with the conclusion that it was simply my imagination, and that there were, in fact, no other beings present. I then turned my attention back to the top of the obelisk. The green light had begun pulsating slowly.

There was something that seemed to draw me toward it, almost involuntarily, like a magnet, like a moth to the flame. Something about it made me unable to wrench my eyes from it. I walked around and around the room, just staring and wondering. For a moment everything else seemed to disappear, and the only thing that existed was that soothing green light.

Just then I heard a sound from one of the passageways--a heavy thunk. I would have completely disregarded it and continued on my merry way if it weren't for the sheer intensity of it. Whatever landed on the ground had fallen from a significant height and must have weighed ten times as much as I. I followed the direction of the sound, through a short tunnel (one of the many that I previously described to line the wall), and into a room vary similar to the one I had just come from, but smaller and without a light atop the obelisk.

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:12px;line-height:15px;">I looked around in the darkness for a few moments. There appeared to be a dark mass on the other side of the room, laying on the floor. I hid behind the obelisk and watched it intently for any sign of movement. No sound nor any movement came from it, so I began to approach warily, taking little notice of the pool of silver liquid at my feet that had collected in a depression in the ground.

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:12px;line-height:15px;">As I approached, the figure became more and more familiar. It took several moments for me to finally realize that it was Hukan; but he was significantly different from when I last saw him: his armor had turned a dull grey, all traces of its former black seeming to have been drained out of it.