Chapter Text
Onua remembers waking up alone.
The room was cool. There were barrels ringed around the sides of the cavern, bats sleeping above him, stalactites beginning to form, never mind that the room was carved by labor, not nature. He knew this instinctively. He sat up.
For several minutes he was alone, stepping around the room. There were stairs leading up, but he did not feel the need to move. Someone had arranged his body down here, and there was no sign of a struggle, so they would be back to get him. There was no hurry. He had slept a long time, after all. What was a few more minutes of rest?
“Oh, you're up,” said a monster, coming down the stairs towards him. Onua cocked his head at him.
He did not remember anything from before his sleep, but he knew he had never seen a creature like this. He was enormously towering, black and fervently green in color, and built as though made to be sharp, with fangs in his mouth and shaped into his mask. Onua's eyes were drawn down to his chest, where he saw with a blink that the monster's heart was completely exposed to view. A convoluted orange organ pumped in his chest, connected to a mass of body-transport tubes. The light of his torch flickered as he approached, and Onua saw that the heart was beneath a shield of transparent armor, silver ribbing clutching around it, and his heartlight connected to it beneath his throat, beating in time.
“Thank the Spirits I was able to get the Earth Toa,” said the monster, coming to stand before him. Onua shielded his eyes from the torch with a wince. The monster pulled his hand away and grabbed his shoulder urgently.
“Listen, earth-shaker,” he said. “A long time ago I made a Rahi called a Blade Burrower. They're all over Nakasa, and really throughout the whole of the Southern Islands. And a lot of other places, okay, it's a good fucking Rahi. Don't interrupt! Oh, you weren't going to. Listen, listen. Someone – and they were probably out of their mind, okay, I don't know if they were on to anything, it's certainly disturbing if they are, the point is – someone once tracked their motions and thought they might be making patterns. Crazy, isn't that? Isn't that – I mean, they're just Rahi. But here's the point, listen. I want you to go get an eye on those patterns yourself and report back.”
Onua glanced down at the stone. Shifting his feet, he could feel the deep rich earth beneath him, all around him, and yes, Rahi working in the soil. He had claws attached to his hands, but not weapons, not the claws that the monster had, made for tearing. No. He was made to dig.
“Oh, yes, and I'm in charge of you now,” said the creature, releasing him and straightening up. “Technically you're supposed to be doing other things, but you're not needed right now, so you'll work for me for a while. Okay? Go dig.”
Sure. That sounded okay to Onua.
“Alright,” he said.
He struck the ground with his heel and the stone cracked in a circle around it, making the creature yelp and leaving enough space for Onua to start making his way into the earth. He pulled stone aside and all but dove into the dirt.
“Oh, great, now that's a security risk,” grumbled the creature. “I'm covering this back up! You find a way back into the caverns on your own, got it? Oh, and listen! If you see anything with tentacles, run right back to me and tell me. Or kill it! Then come back.”
Sure, thought Onua, burrowing deeper, deeper, the earth pulling him in like a friend for a hug. I'll be back when I need to be back.
That was plenty for him.