Prologue

"Stay away!"

The mask maker stepped back, holding his hammer threateningly as the living skeleton lurched towards him.

"I'm… I'm warning you!"

As he spoke, he could tell his voice shook.

"I have… I have a hammer, and, and I know how to use it!"

He knew for a fact the monster—whatever it was—could sense his fear.

"I'm—not afraid of you!"

It knew he was afraid.

Before the mask maker could react, another huge skeletal figure shot out of the sand, twitching its tail and hissing. With a thud, his hammer fell to the ground. His hands quivered. His eyes widened in growing terror. "G-go away!" he cried as the two beings began to move toward him, closer, and closer.

In a final attempt to save himself, the mask maker cried out one word at the top of his lungs, hoping against all hope someone—anyone—would hear and send him away from his grave…

"HELP!"

Ekimu woke up with a start. What was that sound? he wondered. Getting out of bed, he looked around the forge to see what could have made such a noise. Wait, no, not just a noise, Ekimu realized. That sounded like… my brother?!

Ekimu ran over to Makuta's room, where he found his brother huddled in the corner of his bed, eyes wide. "Makuta, are you alright?" he whispered, sitting down. Makuta didn't answer but continued staring into space. Stupid question, Ekimu thought.

Closing his eyes, he held his brother tight. "There, there, your brother's here now," Ekimu soothed. "It'll be alright. It's going to be alright…"

Chapter 1

"So you don't remember anything at all?" asked Ekimu, banging his hammer on another piece of metal.

"Nothing," Makuta answered. He lifted an energy crystal to the light to confirm its purity. Nodding in satisfaction, he tossed the gemstone into a pile of others he had checked. "But if what you said about last night is true," he continued as he picked up another, "I don't think I want to remember."

"You've got a point, there." Ekimu examined the metal closely with his tongs. "Alright, I think this mask is ready. Jungle crystals?"

"Of course," Makuta said quickly, glad to change the subject. He grabbed a small handful of green crystals and put them into the hand of Ekimu, who nodded with a quick "thanks" and placed the crystals onto the future mask in a specific pattern. Closing his eyes, Ekimu then began to concentrate. As his mask began to glow, so did the metal. And the metal didn't only glow—it almost danced as it began to take form.

Though Makuta had to shield his eyes from the light, he wasn't annoyed about it. In fact, he was proud his brother was perfect at masks. Doesn't have to put any work into it either, Makuta thought, sitting down. He just makes his mask glow, and out comes a perfect mask! Man, would I love a power like that. Say, if… if he has a mask power, why don't I have one? I mean, both our masks are—

"This will do," Ekimu said, breaking Makuta's train of thought. Ekimu then dunked the new mask into a vat of water, sending steam fizzling out of it. After waiting a few moments, he pulled out the steaming mask and set it down. "Perfect," he smiled. Stretching his arms out, Ekimu sat next to Makuta. "Anyway," he said at length, "I'd say we've worked enough this morning. How about we take a lunch break?" He paused. "Makuta?" he asked, his voice a little more sharp.

It took a second for Makuta to realize his brother was talking to him. "What? Oh, sure."

Ekimu nodded, then got up and began to put away his tools. "You go ahead and get something to eat. I'll clean up for you."

"Thanks," Makuta replied, and quickly walked out of the forge. But his mind wasn't focused on lunch.

Perhaps I do have a mask power, he thought as he walked, but I don't know how to use it. But if that's so, then what's my power? Having the same power as Ekimu, I suppose, would make sense, but… what if there's more to it than that?

Makuta then realized he was about to walk into a wall.

The mask-maker frowned. "Out of the way, wall," he muttered. But his annoyance became shock when his mask began to glow with some form of internal illumination. The wall, too, began to glow, and it simply moved aside, as if waiting for Makuta to ask. Finally, the glow faded.

Makuta's mouth gaped open. "Did… did I do that?!" he gasped. He felt his mask and stared, first at his hands, then at the wall. "I… I did that," he realized. "I actually did that!"

From the forge, Ekimu heard Makuta crying out again. "What?" he wondered. He ran to the forge door and looked over the city to find a figure, his brother, whooping and jumping with joy, punching the air and… hugging a wall?

Confused, Ekimu hurried down the steps to meet Makuta, who, catching sight of Ekimu, ran to him and hugged him closely. This caught Ekimu off-guard, to say the least.

"I HAVE POWER!" Makuta cried in ecstasy. "MY MASK! IT FINALLY WORKS!"

"You, er— what?" Ekimu said, startled.

Makuta let go of his brother, still excited. "My mask… You know, the mask power you have? Well, guess what… I have it, too!"

Ekimu's eyes widened with realization. "That's… Wow, I don't know what to say, Makuta! Except, perhaps, one thing… is that why you'd hugged a wall?"

Makuta glanced at the wall, then laughed a little. "Yes, I used my mask on it! It's amazing, isn't it?"

Ekimu nodded. "Yes, I suppose… But that wall's been there for years."

"Oh, no, I don't have the mask of Creation like you," Makuta said, holding up a hand in dismissal. "It's even better than that. I have a mask of…" He paused, thinking of a word. "…a mask of controlling, I think."

"The Mask of Control," Ekimu said, nodding again. "Yes, you do have this mask, given the way you are."

A few villagers behind Makuta snickered. "What's that supposed to mean, Ekimu?" Makuta asked in a dangerously soft voice.

"Oh no, I didn't mean anything offensive!" Ekimu said quickly. "I just thought you'd, you'd have some fun with that mask power, you know? Wait, no, what I mean is…" He sighed. "Never mind. We'll talk about this later."

Makuta's eyes narrowed. "Of course. I understand completely."

Ekimu smiled faintly. "It's nothing. Well, meet me at Junak's."

"Of course I will," Makuta said coolly. As Ekimu left, Makuta turned away. Why was he so unhappy with me? he wondered. Was he … mocking me? It's almost as if he doesn't like my power. He's… he must be jealous of this power. Why, he must want it for himself!… He even said himself… "It's nothing," to try to make me disregard it...

"Master Makuta, are you feeling okay?" asked a young villager, making Makuta's train of thought into a train-wreck.

He scowled. "Leave me alone," he growled. "I'm trying to think."

"Geez," muttered an older Okotan. "For someone with the mask of Control, he sure doesn't have much self-control!"

Makuta clenched his fists. The two villagers stepped back cautiously as his mask began to glow. "I said… leave me… ALONE!"

Both Okotans' joints suddenly locked into place and began to move against their will. Makuta continued concentrating until he had forced them to walk far enough away they would no longer annoy him. He sighed, lacing his fingers behind his head with a smile. Perhaps he shouldn't have done that to them. But when he used his mask, they didn't matter.

Nobody mattered anymore.

His eyes opened on the glare of an endless desert plain. Upon standing up, Makuta noticed the immense heat beating down on him, feeling like a thousand suns all concentrating their rays on him. Figuring he wouldn't get anywhere playing in the sand, he began to walk.

After several minutes of walking, with no real understanding of where he was or why, he almost tripped over the bleached carcass of a huge rahi, mostly buried in the sand. Then he saw another. As he proceeded, he continued to see more and more skeletons of long-dead rahi, all bleached white and stripped of any fur down to their gleaming bones. Makuta noted the skeletons varied in size: some looked like small desert wolves, while others grew almost as tall as him. The ribcage of one skeleton towered over him, bones digging into the sand like a giant claw. Another was so small it amazed him sand hadn't covered it. Makuta could pick it up with his hand if he wanted to. But then again, maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea.

His eyes no longer heeding the path, he tripped on a skull and fell into sand that opened like a famished mouth to swallow him, drawing him down, down, down…

"Agh!" grunted Makuta as he landed. He looked around and found himself in some sort of cave. Text in his own language covered every wall; but it must have been ancient, since he could not read it. Makuta closed his eyes and tried to focus. What was going on here? Where was he? It was almost impossible to think.

A rattling sound caught Makuta's attention. Tensing, he whipped around. Perhaps he was simply overreacting, and it was just a small snake.

It wasn't just a small snake.

Makuta ran to a corner of the room, where he found his hammer. Without thinking about how it got there, he quickly grabbed it and held it threateningly towards the skeletal monster. "Stand down!" he yelled at it, no fear in his voice this time. "Just because I can create doesn't mean I can't destroy!"

With those words, he charged at the skeleton, roaring in defiance as he crashed his hammer onto the being. As soon as his hammer hit the skull creature, it dissolved into shadows. Makuta smiled, his eyes narrowing. "That's what you get for picking on a mask maker," he chuckled.

But his feeling of triumph was short-lived, turning into dread as the room grew darker. It was almost as if some invisible monster swallowed the light itself, with an insatiable desire to feed on anything good and true.

Makuta jumped, as a booming voice suddenly echoed across the room: Oh, what's wrong? It asked teasingly. The voice sounded like nothing Makuta had ever heard before. It was chilling and scratchy, like lizards sliding down a metal tube. Scared of the dark? A cold, mirthless laugh filled the room, making his throat tighten like a fist. Still chuckling, it then said, You're more pathetic than I thought.

Makuta got his nerve back at that sentence. He tried to say he wasn't scared, and the voice—along with whoever it belonged to—couldn't hurt him. But the words couldn't escape his mouth; only a whisper came out. He couldn't even move. That's when Makuta realized: only a dream could do that.

The voice laughed again. Ah, so now you've figured it out. Yes, this is a dream. But I'll be here next time, and the time after that, and so on…

Makuta gritted his teeth. "So? That doesn't matter! You're just in my head!"

Of course I'm in your head. This is a dream. The voice spoke as if to a five-year-old. But that never meant I'm not real.

A new voice suddenly called out from the darkness. "Makuta?"

I have to leave. But you won't forget me,the voice said.

I won't let you.