This is a first, two replies for one chapter! I'm definitely now encouraged to keep up this story. Here's the next chapter!
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Chapter 19
A Strange Discovery
Takua was too terrified to move. He knew he needed get up and run away, but his body wouldn't respond. As the pack of Fast-Biters slowly approached him, he knew he was going to die. Suddenly, one of the Fast-Biters rushed to him and used his foot to hold down Takua's head.
Littlefoot and the others were watching from atop the cliff above. They could hardly believe what was happening, and they knew what was going to happen. Petrie covered his eyes and said, “Me no look!”
Takua knew what would come next. The Fast-Biter bit down on Takua's neck as hard as he could. Strangely, Takua felt pressure, but no pain on his neck. What happened next was even more strange. The Fast-Biter let go of Takua's neck and squealed in pain. What just happened? thought Takua.
Up on the cliff, Chomper was the first one to notice what had happened. “Takua is alright!” he exclaimed.
“How do you know?” asked Littlefoot.
“That Fast-Biter broke all of his teeth trying to bite Takua's neck. He says that Takua's neck is tougher than a rock.”
Takua looked up to see the Fast-Biter shaking his head around, apparently, in pain. The pack then said a few things to themselves in their Sharptooth language. After that, they all ran off to find better food. Takua then stood up and felt his neck. He barely felt any scratches at all!
“Takua!” shouted Littlefoot. “Are you alright, Takua?”
Takua looked up to see the others staring at him in disbelief. “Surprisingly, yes,” he replied. “I barely felt anything at all.”
Cera then remembered that Takua's body, like those of other Matoran, was covered almost entirely in some kind of armor. “What's your armor made of, Takua?” she asked.
“Protodermis,” he replied. “That's why it's called the stuff of life, because every creature is made up of it. At least, in the Matoran universe.” Takua now realized that if those Fast-Biters had such a weak bite, then dinosaur bodies must be very fragile compared to Matoran bodies.
Takua then looked at the cliff he had fallen from. Seeing all the rocks he must have hit, he was actually glad that he was the one to fall instead of one of his friends. Although there were many rocks, the cliff seemed too steep for him to climb up. Besides, he didn't even have proper climbing equipment. “Well, I guess climbing back up is out of the question,” he said to his friends.
He looked to the left and noticed a small cave opening at the bottom of the cliff. He then said to his friends, “I see a cave over there! I'm going in there to see if it's a way back up there.” Before anyone could protest, Takua headed right towards the cave entrance.
As Takua took his lightstone out of his backpack, Littlefoot asked, “Are you sure about this?”
“Not really,” replied Takua. “But it's the only plan I can come up with. Besides, I think I see the other end of the cave up there to your right.” Everyone looked right and, sure enough, there was another cave entrance. “You guys head down that cave and I'll head up this one. Hopefully, we'll meet up somewhere in the middle.” Takua then walked into the cave.
Everyone then looked into the cave they would have to go into. Petrie was uncertain about going underground, as expected. “We have to go down there?” he asked.
“Like we have a choice,” replied Cera, sarcastically, before heading into the cave. Everyone else soon followed.
“I don't know about this,” said Chomper, nervously. “We don't even have a lightstone.”
“Do not worry, Chomper,” assured Ducky. “Takua has his lightstone, so when we find him, he will get us out of here safely. He will, he will.”
“Me hope Takua seek-finds us before something else does,” said Petrie, nervously.
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Takua had been walking through the cave for a few minutes. His hopes weren't looking too good. He was going forward a lot, but hardly going up, which was the direction he wanted to go. Maybe he was taking a few wrong turns.
Suddenly, he heard a quiet hiss. Takua turned to his right and, thanks to the light from his lightstone, saw an underground river. He had heard about what kind of creatures could be lurking in such waters in this universe, and he knew they were usually not good. He then noticed the water ripple a little, so he aimed his lightstone at where the ripples came from.
After a few seconds of eerie silence, a large jaw full of sharp teeth sprang forth from the water. Takua jumped back and the jaw snapped shut at where he stood only a second ago. The glow from his lightstone revealed what this creature was. Based on the descriptions he had heard, he knew what this creature was: a Belly-Dragger.
Takua quickly looked back and noticed a small cliff that he could climb up onto. Without considering alternatives, Takua quickly turned around and scrambled up the cliff. Fortunately, the climb wasn't too difficult, and his panicked state allowed him to get up there quickly. Once he was atop the cliff, he looked down to see the Belly-Dragger hissing angrily at him. Since the Belly-Dragger couldn't get to him, Takua couldn't help but chuckle and say, “Tough luck, Belly-Dragger!” Takua then turned to his left and continued on into the cave.
The next few minutes saw better luck for Takua. He was now heading up almost as much as he was heading forward. The ground soon leveled off as he continued on forward. At the moment, there wasn't a cave wall to his right, but a massive cavern that stretched so far out and so far down that his lightstone couldn't pierce the darkness. If he walked too far to the right, he would fall down a steep slope, and who knew how far he would fall? He then noticed the entrance to a small cavern on his left. He decided to enter it to see what was inside.
As soon as he walked inside, Takua saw something amazing. Sitting on a pedestal at the other end of the cavern was a stone tablet. A hole in the ceiling allowed sunlight to enter the cavern and shine directly onto the tablet. Although he didn't know how this tablet came to be here, he knew it must be something of great importance, so he decided to bring it with him.
Takua walked up to the tablet and picked it up. Suddenly, the pedestal sunk into the ground and he felt the ground start to shake. Uh-oh, that can't be good, he thought. Large rocks began to fall from the ceiling. He knew that if he didn't get out of there fast, he would surely get crushed by all these rocks. He rushed to the cavern entrance while dodging all of the falling rocks. He managed to get out just before a large rock came down and blocked the entrance. Then, as suddenly as it began, the quaking stopped.
Now that things had calmed down, Takua decided to read what was written on the tablet. Despite having his lightstone, he couldn't figure out what the words meant. It was written in an ancient language that he couldn't read. Perhaps the Turaga might be able to make some sense of it. He put the tablet in his backpack and continued on through the cave.
Unfortunately, the recent tremors had weakened the rock of the cave floor so much that Takua didn't go far before the rock crumbled away, sending him and a small rock-slide down the slope. Takua decided to ride atop one of the larger rocks, hoping to avoid as much injury as possible. He then noticed a large rock jutting out of the slope, and he was headed right for it. Just as he expected, his rock hit the other rock and the impact caused him to get launched into the air. He was launched so high into the air that he didn't think he would start falling for quite a while.
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Littlefoot and the others had been walking down the cave for many minutes by now. To their left was, instead of a cave wall, a massive cavern that stretched endlessly out and down, and the slope down it was clearly too steep to be able to climb back up. Suddenly, they felt a small earth-shake which abruptly ended only a few seconds after it started. A few seconds later, they heard the sound of rocks falling. They then noticed a light emerging from the dark cavern, along with the sound of someone screaming in terror.
What happened next happened unbelievably fast. By the time the light revealed what the screaming object was, it was only a fraction of a second away from them. The being slammed head-first into Cera, knocking the wind out of her as she was slammed aside. The being then slammed into the cave wall, upside-down, and fell to the ground on his back.
They soon realized that the being was Takua. “Hi, guys,” he said, weakly. “I just thought I'd drop in.”
“Are you alright, Takua?” asked Ducky.
“I'll be fine,” he replied as he managed to stand up and readjust his mask.
Cera had also recovered from the hard impact. “Alright, Takua, what happened?” she asked, a little irritated.
“Not much. I got chased up a cliff by a belly-dragger, I nearly got crushed by a hail of rocks, I got dragged down a slope by a rock-slide, launched into the air, and slammed head-first into you. Oh, and did I mention that I found something interesting?”
“What is it?” asked Ruby.
“This,” replied Takua, as he took the tablet out of his backpack and set it on the ground for everyone to see. Everyone was filled with awe and wonder as they looked at the tablet and writing etched onto it.
“What does it say?” asked Littlefoot.
“I don't know. It's too ancient for me to understand it. I was thinking that we should take it back to the Great Valley and have the Turaga take a look at it.”
“You actually want to go home now?” asked Cera, a little confused.
“Like I said, we came out here to find something of importance, and I think this tablet might be that. Now let's head back the way you came so we can get back home.” Everyone agreed with him. After Takua put the tablet back into his backpack, they turned around and headed back in the direction the gang had come from.
However, they didn't go far when, suddenly, the ceiling of the cave ahead of them collapsed, blocking off their intended path with a wall of rocks. Apparently, the earth-shake had weakened the rock that made up the ceiling of the cave. The rocks were clearly too large to move.
“Too bad we don't have Taipu with us,” commented Takua. “He would be able to move these rocks aside as if they were pebbles.”
“What are we going to do now?” asked Chomper.
“I guess we'll just have to go the other way, and hope that it's a way out of here.” Takua then turned around and headed in the opposite direction through the cave. The others followed him, having no other choice.
After a few minutes, they actually managed to find a way out of the cave system without encountering any dangers, but not where they wanted to end up. They were now at the same cave entrance that Takua had originally entered. Despite this, they still wanted to find a way to get back to the Great Valley. After Takua put away his lightstone, they turned left and headed in what they hoped was the right direction.
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