We were walking back to the beach to set up camp for the night, it was getting dark and Garnet still hadn’t shown up. I was starting to get worried, we reached the beach to find Garnet laid next to the female Atquean from the market, they were both asleep in front of a campfire and Garnet had his reptilian wing draped over the Atquean and a soft smile on his face.

“Well, would you look at that” I said “looks like things turned out alright between those two after all” Autumn had a more troubled expression on her face.

“What about her colt friend?” she asked, looking at me.

“She probably saw sense and left him” Minion said “Although I don’t know what we’ll do when the time comes to leave”

“Let them be for now” I said “I’ll discuss it with them in the morning” I then got a thin blanket from the landing craft and placed it on top of them, the Atquean snuggled closer to Garnet. I then walked back towards the landing craft to get changed and to get a hammock. I was now dressed in shorts and a white shirt, Natrix walked over.

“They certainly make a cute couple” he said, nodding his head towards Garnet and the Atquean.

“Well, you know what they say” I said “liebe ist für alle da” Natrix tilted his head.

“What?” he asked, half laughing.

“It’s German for ‘love is for everyone’” I said, Natrix shook his head and rolled his eyes.

“Why do you always make quotes in German?” he asked.

“Do I need a reason?” I said, shrugging whilst picking up a hammock and hefting it over my shoulder “I personally like the way it sounds, although some people say it’s a brutal, guttural language, I say it’s all in how much force you put into pronouncing it” I picked up a hammer and some nails and walked towards a couple of palm trees that were reasonable close to where Garnet and the Atquean were sleeping, a few moments later I had the hammock set up. Autumn made a hammock out of clouds and Minion attached a hammock to some trees a small distance away. He was now lying in the hammock, smoking his Tabaco pipe with all of his armour in the sand nearby. He was now wearing shorts and a loose, unbuttoned shirt, with a bandana decorated with a ‘skull and crossbones’ pattern on the top of his head and looking for all the world like an stereotypical pirate. Piercings, tattoos and all.

“Why is Uncle dressed like a pirate?” Ruby asked, quietly, lying down near Garnet and the Atquean.

“It’s always been one of his little perks” I said, getting in the hammock “back when we were still living on earth he dressed like that all the time”

“What did you used to dress like?” Ruby asked.

“Formal trousers, formal top and a knee-length fleece trench coat” I said “I like to look formal”

“Well, all you succeeded in doing was looking like Hitler” Minion said, I glared at him.

“You know how much I hate that man” I said “and Hitler didn’t wear a trench coat, he wore a jacket”

“You know” Minion said “whenever Hitler was in his car being driven around and he stuck his hand out, he wasn’t giving the Nazi salute”

“Oh, really?” I said sarcastically.

“Yeah” Minion said “He was simply telling the driver to take the third Reich” after a few seconds of silence Vapaa and Natrix burst out laughing and I face palmed.

“Oh my god, Brother” I said “that joke was terrible and you should feel really bad for that”

“I did Nazi that joke coming” Natrix said.

“If I wanted a comeback I would have gone to your mum” I said, smirking, he frowned before laying back down in his hammock.

“What do you mean?” Ruby asked.

“Don’t worry” I said “you’ll understand when you’re older” Autumn glared at me, maybe I went a bit too far with that one.

I woke up early the next morning, before everyone else in fact. I checked the time on my phone, it read 6:30. I got out of the hammock and glanced towards where Garnet and Atquean were laid, they were still fast asleep. In the night Ruby had snuggled closer to her brother, who had draped his other wing over her. The campfire had died down in the night, so I put on my armour. Got my hunting knife and spell pistol and walked into the jungle to get some firewood and a meal. Half an hour later I returned with a large bundle of wood on my shoulder and the gutted carcass of a medium sized herbivorous dinosaur, most likely a Hadrosaur or Iguanadont, dragging along behind me by the tail. When I reached the camp I saw that Minion was now awake and sitting on a log in front of the extinguished fire, smoking on his pipe and deep in thought. I dropped the man-sized carcass on the sand in front of him, the carcass landed with a dull thud and shook him out of his musings. His eyes widened when he saw it.

“Morning, Brother” I said, quietly “ever wondered what barbequed Hadrosaur tastes like?”

“Not particularly” he said.

“Well, you’re going to find out anyway” I said. I then began cutting off slices of meat, it was a very dark meat. As I began cooking, small green bipedal dinosaurs began to appear from the jungle. My brother and I were very wary about them, if you’ve seen Jurassic Park you understand why. Thankfully these ones didn’t seem interested in us, they were more interested in the food that was cooking. I cut off a large piece of meat from the carcass and chucked it into the distance, most of them ran after it but one stayed behind.

“Heh, cute little fellah” I said, the dinosaur walked over and laid down next to me. It was about 2 feet long, and therapodic in appearance, I stroked it under the jaw and it leaned into my hand. Garnet stirred and noticed that he had his sister on one side, and the Atquean on the other.

“What happened last night?” he asked, the confusion evident in his voice.

“We came back to the beach to find you laid next to her” his cheeks flushed and I soon got a pretty good idea as to why, apparently Minion did as well and chuckled.

“Heh, Garnet got laid” he said, Garnet’s face exploded into red and I whacked Minion on the head.

“No need to tease him about it” I said, I then turned to Garnet “so, what’s her name?” he hid his face and mumbled something behind his arms.

“What was that?” Minion asked.

“Thel D’jagaar” he said quietly.

“Okay” I said “not now, but at some point we need to discuss what will happen when we have to leave” he got a determined look on his face.

“She’s coming with us” he said “she already explained it to me”

“Was this before or after you got laid?” Minion asked, smirking. I rewarded him with another whack upside the head.

“Would you please stop teasing my son” I said.

“It’s not like you weren’t thinking it” he said, I turned back to Garnet.

“You were saying?” I asked.

“Thel said that once they reach 15 they are no longer under the care of their parents and are a part of the community” Garnet said “by Atquean law, she’s technically an adult and can make her own decisions, and she was looking for a place to stay anyway”

“And what about her boyfriend?” I asked.

“Ex-boyfriend now” he said. Before nuzzling Thel, who sighed and snuggled closer to Garnet.

“I’ll repeat my earlier question” Minion said “but this time I’m being serious” Garnet didn’t answer straight away.

“Erm…before” he said “she dumped him straight after the ‘market’ incident”

“Good on her” I said “there’s something not right with the way he said ‘I’ll deal with you later’”

“He reminds me of so many people back home” Minion said.

“Garnet actually managed to scare the life out of him” I said, I then turned to Garnet “Don’t let Autumn know I told you this, but well done” his eye widened in surprise.

“Really!?” he asked.

“He was in the wrong” I said “by all rights you would have had my permission to knock the living shit out of him, were we not in a public place I wouldn’t have stopped you” Garnets eyes widened when I swore.

“But” Minion said “that doesn’t mean you can go around whacking anyone that looks at you wrong” I nodded in agreement

“what he said, it isn’t about being able to win every fight” I said “it’s about knowing when it’s better to just walk away and forget about the matter. Up until the point he insulted us it would have been better to walk away. After that moment, you had the right to beat the shit out of him, and you actually gave him something to remind him not to mess with you”

“Really?” Garnet asked.

“You gave him quite the scar down his face” I said, Minion gave a low whistle.

“Good on you, kid” Minion said, at that moment some of the food was done and I passed a plate to Garnet, who then nudged the Atquean awake. He then began to share the food with her. I gave Minion a look before he could come up with a witty comment, soon everyone started to wake up. The moment Ruby realised how close she was to her brother was rather hilarious.

“Err…what?” she said, startling Thel in the process.

“Err, who are you?” Thel said.

“Garnet’s brother” Ruby said, glaring at the Atquean “and you are?”

“Thel” she said “I’m his girlfriend” Ruby gave her a death glare

“Not even a day after what happened in the market and you’re already lifting your tail to him” Ruby said. Garnet looked helpless, and Thel looked hurt.

“Ruby” I said “please don’t do this, who your brother decides to be with is his choice, even if you don’t like it”

“Well it’s true” Ruby muttered, Thel stormed off and Garnet glared at Ruby before following after the Atquean. I glared at Ruby.

“You have half an hour to think of a proper apology or your grounded, young lady” I said.

“But…” Ruby went to object but I cut her off.

“No buts” I said “apology in half an hour or you’re staying at the camp for the remainder of our time on this continent” Ruby snorted before storming off, silence reigned around the camp fire.

“Bloody hell” Minion said “that’s the first time I’ve ever seen you threaten her with punishment”

“And I intend to follow through with it” I said “if she doesn’t apologise to Thel, she’s staying at whatever camps we set up during our time on this continent, no exceptions”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea, Vuur?” Autumn asked.

“It’s less than what she deserves” I said “not even 1 minute and she practically called Garnets girlfriend a slut”

*pov 3rd person*

Garnet followed after Thel, who refused to stop.

“Thel, wait!” Garnet called, he run up to her and grabbed her shoulder, stopping her in a clearing in the forest. Garnet turned her around and looked her in the eye “look, I’m sorry about what Ruby said, it’s just she’s not used to anyone ‘taking’ her brother, and she feels threatened”

“But she didn’t have to say it like that” Thel said, her eyes watering. Garnet walked forward and began nuzzling Thel.

“Just…give her time” Garnet said. Thel rested her head on his shoulder before freezing, her eyes reduced to pinpricks and her blood turned to ice.

“Garnet” Thel said, her voice full of worry. Somewhere at the edge of the clearing an hissing could be heard.

*pov 1st person Vuur Koning*

We were sat at the camp fire in full armour, planning a route to the next camping spot when we heard two young voices scream, one of them was Garnet’s, myself and the rest of my Toa team all jumped up and grabbed our weapons before running towards the direction of the screams, the other two teams stayed behind in case they turned up back at the camp. We were getting near a clearing where the screams originated from when Minion stopped dead in his tracks, a scared expression on his face.

“Oh shit!” he said.

“What?” I asked, stopping.

“What’s 14 foot tall, biomechanical, and has a slug for brains?” he asked, chuckling nervously. I shook my head in denial.

“No fucking way! They were all destroyed” I said, I then opened communications with the other Toa “Guys, we need back up, NOW!”

“What!?” I heard Vapaa say “Why?”

“I’ll give you a clue” I said “it begins with ‘R’ and is the bastard child of a certain master of shadows” I heard Vapaa and Natrix curse really loudly.

“No fucking way!” Vapaa said, his voice laden with panic “we’ll be on our way with Mata Nui as soon as possible” I then heard him barking orders to the guards about protecting the civilians whilst they were gone, several agonising minutes later the rest of the Toa ran over. Mata Nui was also with them.

“Alright” Vinyl said “what the BUCK has got you four so spooked!?” I walked to the edge of the clearing before turning around and looking at all the Toa.

“Rahkshi”

*TO BE CONTINUED*

My keyboard is on fire!!!