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

Somewhat to Lewa’s surprise, the poor man relented in the face of Rayne’s suggestion, putting aside his feelings on the matter to accept the little witch’s reason. Consenting to a one-way trip back to down courtesy of Rayne’s teleportation ability guaranteed (or at least, reasonably assured) his safety, but it also left Lewa without his guide through the woods or much to go on in his absence. [i]Wife…hair…child…all words I definitely know.[/i] Uncertainty had plagued the toa the moment he involuntarily set foot in this alien world, but right now he felt it more keenly than ever. At least the crisis in the village could be resolved by axe swings and air blasts, inasmuch as he could resolve it, considering the Raven Heralds decided to leave. Now someone’s safety rested on his ability to parse the unknown and find a lost person. Lewa took a deep breath. Would that he could draw strength from being in his element, but these temperate woodlands had less in common with the humid jungles of Le-Wahi than he would have hoped.

Still, it was his duty to help those in need. Lewa nodded a moment after receiving Elaine’s description, holding his splayed hand over his chest just beneath his glimmering heartlight. “Never fear, Marcus. We will see your ‘wife’ home safe!”

When the villager vanished, Lewa was left with nothing but Rayne, the rain, the trees, and the whispers of the wind through their boughs. Though typically outgoing and chatty, the toa knew when to hold his silence and listen close to what guidance the winds could give him. To someone who knew how to listen, the currents that flowed through and pored over every facet of the world had a lot to tell. But if these winds had anything to say, their words were not his own. No voices filtered through these trees, nor the sounds of a struggle. Well, no matter. Bearings or no bearings, Lewa had a job to do. “Yes, it looks like we’ve got our work laid out for us,” he told Rayne, his tone jocular despite the clouds hanging over their mission. “Let’s pick up the pace!”

Lewa moved quickly, utilizing his Kanohi mask to make himself weightless and leap across great stretches of ground at once. He swung between the branches and sprang between tree trunks, annoyed and at times hindered by the ease with which the wood tended to buckle beneath his weight. Every so often he paused to listen and scan his surroundings, but no voices reached him. Reasoning that the organics couldn’t have gone too far, he did not go too far in any one direction, but instead focused his search around the various desolate ruins that littered the forest. Most of them seemed too barebones to serve as any kind of shelter, so he zeroed in on the ones that seemed to be the biggest, or in the best shape. Eventually, the duo’s efforts bore fruit. When they reached a collection of sinking, eroded masonry that once stood tall amongst the forest giants, Lewa finally heard something. Crying might not elicit the same inherent biological reaction in him that it did in mammals, but the pitiful sounds of distress told him that there was something at the bottom of those stairs that needed saving. “Not a moment to waste-lose,” he said aloud. “Let’s get to the bottom of this!”

Before either of them could, Lewa found himself confronted by another tiny organic biped. The few that the toa had seen during his search-and-rescue in the village had all been drab in appearance, and terrified, but this one was neither. She seemed languid, with striking colors, and in a way she reminded him of Lily. One thing was for certain, though: nothing about her was light brown, and she wasn’t carrying anything but splotches of the same red fluid that leaked from slain organics. The searchers had found someone, but not who they set out to find.

Remilia broke the tension by saying something that Lewa understood very little of. When she said ‘green’, though, she probably meant him. Rayne took initiative before he could, expressing concern and then mentioning that yes, she and Lewa did know Sanae. She hadn’t been the one to send them on this mission, though. “I am Lewa, Toa of Air,” he informed Remilia, hoping to clear up any misconceptions about his identity. “We are looking for a wife named Elaine, and something called a child. To help-bring them home safe to Marcus, who is alive and well! Have you seen them?” He eyed the murky shadows beneath the ruins, anxious to see where -and to who- these stairs led. “We were just about to venture down there in hopes of save-finding them.”