Excerpt Thirteen

Vakama spoke slowly, as if every word he uttered was a knife stabbing into his heart.

“We thought the Bohrok were a myth… a tale to be told around village fires. ‘Follow the laws of the village, or the Bohrok will come for you,’” he said. “Now we know they are all too real.”

“But what are they? More Rahi? Servants of Makuta?” Tahu asked.

“No, my friends. The Bohrok stand apart from the evil of Makuta — they are a force of nature, like the floodtide or the windstorm. They come, they tear down all that nature has built… and then they depart.”

“Monsters,” muttered Gali, surveying the devastation of the lava plains.

“Do not presume you know them from their actions,” Vakama warned. “Do not ever assume you know what they will do next, or where they will strike, or why. The legends say the Bohrok can appear anywhere, at any time, in numbers that dwarf the grains of sand on the beach.”

Vakama closed his eyes and began to recite the tales from memory. “Six swarms are the Bohrok, and fear is the gift they bring. They will lay waste to your villages, crumble mountains to dust, and turn rivers to parched earth.

“Beware the swarms of Bohrok. Lehvak, whose claws spray acid that can dissolve our world; Kohrak, whose icy blasts can freeze our fires; Tahnok, whose heat can melt or char our hillsides; Pahrak, whose power over stone can level our mountains; Gahlok, whose watery powers bring the flood; and Nuhvok, who toils beneath our feet to bring all of Mata Nui crashing down.”

Onua frowned. “Six swarms… numbering in the hundreds of thousands, no doubt. And only six of us to stand against them.”

“But oppose them we must, if Mata Nui is to survive,” Tahu said. “Vakama, there must be something more in the legends… some hint of how they can be defeated.”

“The Bohrok’s greatest strength is also their greatest weakness,” the Turaga replied. “Inside of each Bohrok there is a small creature called a krana. This krana confers great power to the Bohrok, and gives it direction. Remove the krana and the Bohrok will wander as if mindless.”

“So we have to steal the krana out of each Bohrok?” Lewa said. “That should only take us… years.”

“Not all,” Vakama corrected. “You must gather eight krana from each of the swarms. Those will be the key to the defeat of the Bohrok.”

Tahu’s eyes locked on those of the Turaga. He knows more than he’s telling, the Toa of Fire thought. Why? Why is he keeping secrets from us?

“And what do we do with the krana once we have them, Turaga?” Tahu said quietly.

“I can say no more,” Vakama answered, turning to head back to the village. “You will know the answers when the time has come.”