Entry Five

If a Chronicler told me this story, I would never believe it.

The Shadowed One’s story amounted to this: he had possessed the item we sought, the Staff of Artakha, but he had given it to the residents of the island of Xia as payment for a supply of weapons. He was willing to set us free and tell us where to most likely find the Staff, if we did a service for him. It seemed Roodaka, one of Xia’s “leading citizens,” had been selling the Dark Hunters information — and doing the same for their enemies, the Brotherhood of Makuta. The Shadowed One wanted her eliminated.

To my surprise, Tahu agreed. It was only later he told me that he had other plans for Roodaka, plans that involved sending Lewa Nuva back to Metru Nui. Meanwhile, the rest of us headed to Xia. (Pohatu, of course, had to leave a little gift behind for the Dark Hunters. He told me later that within an hour after we left, every stone in the Shadowed One’s fortress was going to suddenly crumble to dust.)

I had never been there before, but I had heard the island was an industrialized nightmare. As it turned out, the accent was on the “nightmare” part — a massive beast called the Tahtorak was rampaging through the place, and an even nastier Rahi matching the description of the Kanohi Dragon was battling him. Buildings were collapsing, factories burning, even their famed Mountain had chunks torn out of it. It was utter chaos.

Tahu sent Onua tunneling into the island to find the Staff in its underground hiding place. The rest of us did what we could to rescue the natives and get them out of the way of the beast battle. It was Kopaka who had the “good fortune” to find himself saving Roodaka.

“Toa,” she spat, as if hating the taste of the word. “I don’t need your help!”

“Perhaps not,” Kopaka replied, with an icy smile. “But we are going to get yours.”