[center][h3][color=green]Lewa[/color][/h3][/center]

Thinking about it more critically, it really wasn’t all that reasonable for Lewa to expect that the others might have all the answers about the current situation. Nor that they could possibly understand or emphasize with his perspective, since everything that seemed totally foreign to him must be taken for granted by them. Still, the Knight Witch offered him a thread of hope: the possibility that the same power that brought him here, the ‘goddess’, could send him back. Of course, that meant that his fate could very well be at the mercy of this unknown entity. That left Lewa feeling very uncomfortable, his future completely uncertain. The only silver lining that he could see to this situation was that it seemed like he’d been brought here for an altruistic purpose, to save those who could not save themselves. Hopefully that pointed to this ‘goddess’ being a benign entity who’d live up to her end of the bargain. After all, she could be some callous manipulator who’d carelessly pull people out of the ether to do her bidding on the chance that she might someday send them home.

Some of the others broached a subject Lewa hadn’t really wanted to explore. He could tell as much from the sounds that reached him while he stood watch in here, but evidently those who’d ventured outside the church had taken a number of lives. As the protector of Le-wahi, he knew better than anybody the law of the jungle. “Kill or be killed,” he murmured. At the same time, though, it sounded like these were people that died. Thinking, intelligent beings. Did that mean they deserved special treatment, and to be given more of a chance? Or that they were more culpable for their acts of cruelty and violence than, say, rahi, and deserved to be treated in kind? Lewa had no idea. Matoran squabbled, sure, but in the history of his island home there had never been enemies like these. Not creatures like the Bohrok built solely for mindless destruction, nor rahi that knew not the difference between good and evil, but intelligent beings that chose to commit evil acts. Lewa didn’t feel like it was his place to act as judge, jury, and executioner. At the same time, though, he knew he wouldn’t sit idly by if some attempted to take his life, or that of a small, helpless creature. If doing so was the difference between going home or not, though…

It sounded like that was a matter he’d have to confront soon, too. Some of the others were ready to leave. Though those summoned here had managed to protect the little ones, it would appear that their task was far from over. There were evidently others that the ‘Raven Heralds’ could threaten in lieu of these youngsters, and the thought that his involvement could lead to others paying the ultimate price, even directly, made Lewa unhappy. It seemed like he had no choice but to press onward. Once that was decided, the toa started to move straight away. “In that case, we’d better go quick-fast,” he suggested. “The longer we delay-wait, the worse things will get.” He considered both Anne and Sanae’s suggestions. “I’d like to help keep the little ones safe,” he thought aloud, “But I am most swift-footed when it comes to swinging through tree-tops. I can join you as guide-scout, fellow green one. Besides, if innocents are in risk-danger, I couldn’t possibly take it easy-slow anyway!”

And there was not a moment to lose. After catching wind of the crisis in progress, Sanae quickly left the church behind, speeding off over the forest. Lewa was right behind her. As he passed the dead bodies, he barely spared them a glance. The gore of organic beings meant nothing to him, beyond the suggestion of a vaguely unsettling feeling. He sprinted toward the woods with long, quick strides, then jumped into the trees, where pushed his biomechanical body into overdrive. His iron grip, exact movements, and inhuman strength meant that he could swing from branches and jump from trunk to trunk with uncanny speed and precision, making only marginally worse time than Sanae did with no obstruction at all. True to the title of Spirit of Air, he moved like the wind. There were only two problems. One was that this forest was nowhere near as thick or lush as the tropical jungle of Le-wahi, meaning he had to push himself harder and caused more damage to his surroundings as he made his way through. Still, these were trees at the end of the day, and in a forest Lewa felt much more at home. The bigger problem was that he couldn’t always be quite sure where he was going. Every so often, while swinging from a branch, he engaged his Kanohi Miru in order to fly upward from the canopy and get a bead on the smoke. Eventually, though, he could rely solely on the sounds of terror and violence lancing through the trees, macabre as they were. Heartlight pounding, Lewa closed in on his destination, dreading not just what he might find, but whatever he might have to do.