Time for the next exciting chapter!
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Chapter 26
An Explosive Return
Nuparu and Chomper were still walking down the same dark tunnel. As soon as they could find Takua and Littlefoot, they could head back to the cave-in and, hopefully, find the others waiting for them there. It was now taking a long time to find them.
Suddenly, Chomper picked up the scent of two creatures. He sniffed the air to determine whose scents they were. It was a Longneck and a Matoran. Takua and Littlefoot must have passed by here!
Nuparu noticed Chomper sniffing the air, so he asked, “What is it, Chomper?”
“Takua and Littlefoot have been here,” replied Chomper. “Follow me.” He then ran forward into the tunnel. Nuparu followed. Surprisingly for Nuparu, Chomper always seemed to turn in the exact direction the tunnel turned, despite the fact that it was obviously too dark for Chomper to see where he was going. He was definitely on their trail.
After about a minute of tracking, Nuparu suddenly noticed something up ahead in the tunnel. “Wait!” he shouted.
Chomper immediately stopped as soon as Nuparu did. “What is it?” asked Chomper.
Nuparu looked more carefully at the shape up ahead. He soon noticed it was two shapes. Then he recognized those shapes. It was Takua and Littlefoot, but something wasn't right. “I see them up ahead, but... why are they running this way?”
Takua and Littlefoot were still running from the large swarm of Kofo-Jaga. Takua looked ahead and saw Nuparu in this tunnel. He assumed Chomper was with him as well. They weren't moving and he had to warn them of the danger they were running from. “Run! Kofo-Jaga!” he shouted.
Less than a second after they heard this, Nuparu and Chomper saw the dozens of scorpions quickly chasing Takua and Littlefoot. Nuparu knew how dangerous Kofo-Jaga were, but Chomper didn't. However, the fear everyone else showed was enough to convince him to show the same amount of fear. Soon, all four of them were running from the swarm of Kofo-Jaga.
They ran down the tunnel, running in a new direction without realizing it. This tunnel eventually led to a dead end. Nuparu was the first and only one to notice this. “Dead end!” he shouted.
The others didn't react quickly enough. They collided with the end of the tunnel and fell to the ground from the impact. Then to everyone's surprise, the end of the tunnel seemed to come down on them like a wall falling over. All four of them were buried in earth and rock. As the wall collapsed, a large hole that revealed the surface opened up, letting in a lot of sunlight. The sunlight was too much for the Kofo-Jaga, so they turned around and fled.
Soon after the Kofo-Jaga fled, Nuparu emerged from beneath the rubble, followed by Littlefoot. “Ow, my head,” groaned Chomper as he also emerged.
Takua noticed the huge amount of sunlight as he emerged. “Well, at least we got rid of the Kofo-Jaga,” he said. He then realized that this was a possible path out of these tunnels. “Hey, look! We just found another way out of here.” He headed for the exit. “Come on, let's- woah!” Takua suddenly fell out of sight. The others rushed over to see him hanging on to the floor of the cave. “Bad idea! Bad idea!” He was on the side of a tall cliff, and it was a long way to the ground below.
Thinking fast, Nuparu pulled a small pickax out of his backpack. Holding onto the end of the handle, he held the head of it on the ground right in front of Takua's hands. “Grab on!” he said. Takua managed to grab onto the head of the pickax. Nuparu then pulled him up to safety.
After thanking Nuparu, Takua said, “Well, I guess we can't go this way.”
“At least now we are together again,” stated Chomper.
“But what are we going to do now?” asked Littlefoot.
“We're going to go back to the cave-in,” said Nuparu. “If the others haven't dug through yet, then I guess we'll have to dig through, ourselves.”
“What about the Energy Stone?” asked Takua.
“Don't worry, we already have it.” Nuparu pulled the Energy Stone out of his backpack for everyone to see. Takua and Littlefoot were amazed to see such an item. Nuparu then suggested that Takua should hold onto it.
Takua agreed and put the Energy Stone in his backpack. The four of them then headed down the tunnel, hoping that they would soon be out of these tunnels.
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Taipu was still clearing away the cave-in. Despite the vast amount of progress he made, it was now seeming that he would never reach the other side. Taipu was close to giving up when some of the rocks shifted and collapsed. Had he finally broken through?
Meanwhile, Onepu, Ruby, Ducky, and Spike had just arrived at the cave-in. To their disappointment, it was still there. They were about to think about what to do next when, suddenly, some of the rocks of the cave-in collapsed. A hole had formed in the cave-in, and someone familiar was standing in front of it.
“Taipu?” asked Onepu.
“Onepu!” exclaimed Taipu. “Thank the Great Spirit you're alright!”
Cera and Petrie also emerged through the hole to see Ruby, Ducky, and Spike were okay as well. Everyone was glad to see each other.
However, they couldn't help but notice that four of them were still missing: Takua, Littlefoot, Chomper, and Nuparu. Onepu reminded everyone that the tunnel was split in two directions, so perhaps they were in that other tunnel.
Everyone agreed that they had to clear away the rest of the cave-in. This time, everyone was pitching in, although Taipu still had to move the big rocks aside. As they dug, everyone hoped that they would not be too late.
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Takua, Nuparu, Littlefoot, and Chomper arrived at the cave-in to see that it was still there, to their disappointment. “I guess this means we'll have to dig,” said Nuparu. He took two pickaxes out of his backpack and gave one to Takua. They both began to dig through the rock. Takua was very reluctant to dig, but knew he had no choice. Chomper couldn't help because he was too small, and Littlefoot couldn't help because he didn't have hands.
About a few minutes later, Takua was already becoming exhausted. He was on the verge of giving up when, suddenly, some of the rocks shifted and collapsed. A large hole opened up in the cave-in, revealing some familiar faces on the other side. “Guys, look! We found the others!” exclaimed Takua.
The four of them quickly moved through the hole to find everyone else alive and well. Both groups were excited to see each other again. Everyone was relieved to hear that no one was even slightly injured.
“Now that we're all together again, we can continue our search for the Energy Stone,” stated Onepu.
“No need to worry about that, Onepu,” said Takua. “We already found it.” He took the Energy Stone out of his backpack and showed it to everyone. Everyone was amazed to see such an item. Takua then put the stone back in his backpack and said, “Now all we have to do is get back home.”
Takua was about to go down the tunnel they had all originally taken when Onepu stepped in front of him and said, “We've found a quicker way back home. It's down the tunnel my group was trapped in. All we have to do is dig a small hole in a cave wall and we're home.”
“Great, more digging,” grumbled Takua. “My arms are tired already.”
Only a few seconds after entering the tunnel, the ground began to shake a little. Onepu quickly looked up and saw the ceiling was going to collapse again. “Run!” he shouted. Unlike last time, everyone ran in the same direction. The ceiling caved-in, trapping everyone in this tunnel. Now their only option was to continue on down this tunnel and hope that it would lead them home.
As they all walked down the tunnel, each group talked about what had happened in the tunnel they were each trapped in. Littlefoot chose not to tell anyone about his encounter with Makuta, thinking that telling his friends about something so frightening would be unnecessary.
After a few minutes, they arrived at the small cavern. Onepu pointed at the correct cavern wall and said, “Ducky confirmed that the Great Valley is right on the other side of this rock. All we need to do is dig a hole through it. What kind of digging equipment do you have, Nuparu?”
“I've got something even better,” replied Nuparu. He took out of his backpack a long cylinder-shaped object. The gang didn't know what this was, but Onepu was clearly shocked to see such an item.
“Explosives!?” exclaimed Onepu. “You brought explosives with you!?”
Nuparu just shrugged and replied, “You never know when they might be useful.”
“Nuparu, the objective here is to dig a hole in the wall, not blow ourselves up!”
“Don't worry, I've thought of everything that could go wrong and came up with solutions to all of those problems. We'll take shelter behind those large rocks over there when the blast occurs. I didn't bring much with me, so even if the blast was somehow directed right at us, those rocks should be more than enough to protect us. I'm an engineer, so I'll be able to determine precisely where to place each of the explosives to create the most effective blast. And, best of all, we don't even have to worry about how big of a hole we make. The other end of the tunnel is blocked off, so even if we create a hole big enough to let any Sharptooth in, they wouldn't even be able to get here in the first place.”
“Wow, that is a great plan you came up with. You come up with great plans,” commented Ruby.
“Yeah, even I'm impressed by how much thought you put into it,” agreed Cera.
“I'm an engineer. It's what I do,” said Nuparu.
About a few minutes later, everyone but Nuparu was sitting behind the rocks, while Nuparu was setting up the fuse. As soon as he finished, he said, “Alright, as soon as I light this fuse, I want all of you keep every part of your body behind those rocks. I also recommend that you try to cover your ears. The blast will be very loud, considering the fact that we're underground.”
Nuparu then left his backpack behind one of the rocks and took an item out of it that would allow him to ignite the fuse. He grabbed the end of the fuse and used the item to ignite it. As soon as the fuse was lit, he rushed back to the rocks and shouted, “Take cover!” Everyone did what Nuparu told them to do and he did likewise.
The fuse continued to burn until the flame reached the explosives, detonating them. A massive explosion shook the cavern and everywhere else nearby. A huge cloud of dust was quickly raised, filling the entire cavern. As everyone coughed from all the dust, they heard the sound of many rocks falling. The explosives seemed to have worked.
Once the dust began to clear, everyone emerged from behind the rocks. Soon, enough dust cleared away to reveal that nearly the entire cavern wall had been blasted away, letting in a lot of sunlight. Everyone approached the giant hole to see most of the Great Valley in front of them.
“I'm still not sure if this was a good idea, but at least we saved some time,” said Onepu.
“I may not be someone who likes explosions, but at least it's better than digging,” commented Takua.
“Look! All of the rubble from the blast has created a pile of rocks we can use to climb down!” exclaimed Taipu. Everyone followed him down the pile of rocks and pebbles.
“You'll probably need to do some explaining, Nuparu,” said Cera. “I think everyone in the valley heard that explosion.”
“I knew you would say something like that,” said Nuparu. “I guess I'll just stay here and explain myself to everyone when they come here.”
“In the meantime, Taipu and I shall return to Onu-Koro and confirm that we have found the Energy Stone of Earth,” said Onepu.
Before they left, Takua wanted to give back the throwing disk Onepu had given him, but Onepu said that he could keep it. Takua then took the Energy Stone out of his backpack and said, “Here, take the Energy Stone. Give it to Turaga Whenua because I know he'll keep it safe.” He gave the Energy Stone to Onepu. Onepu accepted it and urged Puku to take him back to Onu-Koro as quickly as possible. Taipu followed on foot as quickly as he could.
Everyone else chose to stay with Nuparu. Most of the dinosaurs in the Great Valley soon arrived, wondering what had caused such a loud explosion. Nuparu explained to them about the situation that made him use the explosives. Once he was finished, he headed back to Onu-Koro.
Takua and his friends were now the only ones there. They had wanted to tell everyone about how they had found the Energy Stone, but it was getting late so they had to head back home. However, Cera couldn't resist telling her father about Taipu's humiliation she had seen.
As each of them slept that night, they wondered what the next Energy Stone would be, and where they would have to find it.
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Read and review, as always. The quest continues in the next chapter.
