I woke up and climbed out of my hammock before donning my armour, several Skakdi, Skrall and Bone Hunters were also awake and chatting amongst themselves.

“Hey” I called quietly, gaining their attention “I need you help with something”

“What with?” one of them asked, not looking very interested.

“Do you want food or not?” I asked, crossing my arms, they took the hint and grabbed their weapons, the weapons of the Skrall and Bone Hunters were standard bladed weapons, but the weapons of the Skakdi were double ended, with a ranged weapon on one end and a blade on the other, I nodded to them and we headed into the forest.

*POV 3rd person*

Garnet awoke to a commotion and saw the young male Atquean from the market trying to pull Thel away from the campsite, any thoughts of sleeping in were forgotten and he charged towards the pair. He barrelled into the male, knocking him off his feet and winding him.

“Well…if it isn’t…the freak” the Atquean sneered between gasps.

“Look, can’t you see she doesn’t want you anymore?” Garnet said, the male scoffed

“She just doesn’t know what she wants” he said, Garnet growled, by now a small crowd had started to form.

“Look around you” Garnet said “I’m sure they would have no problem in helping the son of their leader, especially to get rid of scum like you” the Atquean growled and charged at Garnet, who changed his arm into a Rhotuka launcher and fired a paralysis spinner at the teenager. Who proceeded to face plant in the sand, Garnet hobbled over and turned his arm into a fire claw

“HEY” a voice said “what the hell is going on!?” Garnet turned to see his dad’s brother; Minion, who looked pretty intimidating in the bulky, black and gunmetal-grey armour.

“I was just claiming my girlfriend back, you freak!” the Atquean shouted, the crowd promptly took several steps away from Minion whilst muttering. Minion drew his sword and walked towards the Atquean.

“So you’re the little shit that picked a fight with my nephew in the market?” Minion said, lifting the Atquean’s chin up using the flat of his sword “may I ask why you are even within a mile of Garnet

“Thel’s mine!” he said “and no others” Minion growled before punching his fist right next to the Atquean’s head and leaning in close.

“People are not mere possessions!” Minion thundered, the Atquean’s eyes reduced to pinpricks “she part of our family now, so if you come within 100 yards of her ever again I will personally beat the ever-loving shit out of you, DO YOU HEAR ME!?” the Atquean didn’t say anything, instead starting to hyperventilate whilst staring wide eyed at the human, who stood up before grabbing the Atquean by the tail, spinning on the spot several times and then launching him deep into the jungle. Garnet and Thel stared at Minion slack jawed as the Atquean’s screams faded into the distance, followed by a dull thud and a laud yelp.

“Uh…” Garnet said.

“He reminded me of a chav” Minion said simply before walking off, the crowd gave him a very wide berth before they also dispersed.

*POV 1st person Vuur Koning. Later that day*

I was preparing some of the Spherus Magnans on the sorts of things we would be coming across and the appropriate way to act in certain situations, and joy of joys I had, amongst others, the Lower Steltians to deal with (that’s Krekka’s species for those that aren’t aware).

“Right” I said “You’ve just stumbled into a canyon filled with dragons, one at the top of the canyon has spotted you and you are about to be the guest of honour at a barbeque. What are you going to do?” before anyone else had a chance to answer a lower Steltian butted in.

“Smash him?” he asked, several of the more intelligent individuals pace palmed whilst muttering.

“He’s up there” I said, pointing to a nearby cliff “you’re down here” I pointed to the beach that we were stood on, the lower Steltian actually looked up at the cliff as if a dragon would magically appear.

“He’s not up there” the lower Steltian said incredulously “did he run away?” I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed in exasperation.

“No” I said “but why don’t you?” the lower Steltian shrugged.

“Because I like it here” he said, every intelligent being including myself face palmed and groaned in exasperation.

“Someone else?” I asked, a Skakdi spoke up.

“If you are close enough to the exit, get out as fast as you can, if not then try and find a good enough hiding place that is well protected” the Skakdi said.

“Thank you!” I said “yes, another alternative would also be to try and fight them off, but that is extremely foolish and I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have a death wish”

“Erm” a Skrall said “why not?”

“Dragon fire is half as hot as the surface of the Sun” I said “even a toa of fire will have a hard time surviving that, alright, next creature, who can tell me what this is” I pointed to a whiteboard with a depiction of a Wyvern stuck to it.

“A dragon?” a Bone Hunter asked.

“Close, they are even in the same family of Rahi, this is a Wyvern” I said, I then wrote out Wyvern in the Matoran language “although smaller, Wyvern are much more dangerous, they can’t speak and are much more primal in nature. Their tails not only have a poison stinger at the end, but they can also flick spines at prey or opponents, however they have the upside of not being able to breathe fire, alright, next” I pointed to a picture of Princess Celestia.

“Scary Fire Rahi” a lower Steltian said.

“Well” I said, chuckling “I won’t argue with the scary part. This is Princess Celestia; one of the leaders of the Nation of Equestria. She is Immortal and powerful enough to move the Sun, in fact, her role is to keep the Sun on its correct orbit”

“I thought planets revolved around Suns, not the other way around” a Votixx said.

“They should” I said “but something screwed with the order of this solar system and now this planet is the center. Anyway, what should you do if you meet Princess Celestia?”

“Run away?” a Bone Hunter asked.

“Run really far away?” a lower Steltian asked.

“Be polite” I said “if you meet her, bow, and be formal, but don’t act brunt…”

“Thank you, Vuur Koning” Celestia said right next to me, I promptly jumped several feet into the air and yelled in surprise.

“Bloody hell, Celestia!” I said, trying to control my racing heart “I thought you were back in Canterlot”

“I was just having a quick look around before I headed back” she said, before walking off. Once she was out of earshot they all gave me an odd look.

“I thought you said we should be polite” a Vortixx said.

“And you should” I said “the difference with me is I’ve known her for a while”

*POV 3rd person*

Ruby was having a really bad day, the Bone Hunters, Skrall and Skakdi wouldn’t stop staring at her and to make it worse a lower Steltian would not stop following her around.

“Would you please leave me alone?” Ruby said.

“But I want to be the pretty Rahi’s friend” the Steltian said in a deep voice, Ruby groaned in exasperation.

“For the last time, I’m a Kirin, not a Rahi!” Ruby said “and my name is Ruby”

“I want to be pretty Ruby’s friend” the Steltian said, Ruby growled before taking off and flying right in the Steltians face, the behemoth actually looked intimidated for a few moments

“Don’t you get it!?” Ruby said “I don’t want to be your friend, just leave me alone!” she then spun round and sped off, using the Steltians chest plate as a makeshift launch pad to kick off from. The Steltian whimpered. Ruby landed a short way away and began walking again, only to bump into a red Skakdi.

“‘Ello, Missy” the Skakdi said, leering at the Kirin. Ruby tried to walk around him only for the Skakdi to block her path “whoa, where are you ‘eaded in such an ‘urry?” Ruby began to back away only to bump into a green Skakdi.

“Come on” the green one said, giving her a predatory look “let us show ya a good time” Ruby began to panic, this was not good. The red one chuckled sinisterly before picking the Kirin up by the tail.

“Let go of me!” Ruby said, thrashing around “do you have any idea what my Dad will do to you if he finds out?”

“Who says ‘e’s gonna find out?” the green one said, at that moment a large shadow covered the green Skakdi

“I do” a voice said, the green Skakdi gulped before turning around to see the Lower Steltian from before “you leave pretty Ruby alone” the Red one sneered.

“Or what?” the red one asked.

“Or I hurt you” the Steltian said, the red one rolled his eyes.

“Oh I’m so scared” the Skakdi said, the Steltian growled before shoving the green Skakdi out of the way and taking a couple of steps toward the red Skakdi, who now looked slightly nervous “now, now ma’e, lets no’ ge’ to ‘asty” the Skakdi dropped Ruby before walking away.

“Thank you…err” Ruby tilted her head “What is your name?”

“Skohka won’t let mean bullies hurt pretty Ruby” the Steltian said “pretty Ruby friend?” Ruby giggled before nodding.

“Yes, ‘pretty Ruby’ friend” she said, rolling her eyes.

Garnet and Thel were walking along the beach when they saw something that made them do a double-take, Ruby was sitting on the shoulder of a 15 ft. tall lower Steltian with orange armour.

“Err, who is this?” Garnet asked.

“Me Skohka” Skohka said, smiling “me pretty Ruby’s friend” Garnet raised an eyebrow.

“Pretty Ruby?” he asked, Ruby just shrugged.

“What? He keeps the Skakdi away from me, but he’s really a big softy” she patted his shoulder plate as she said this and he smiled “Skohka, this is my brother Garnet, and his girlfriend Thel”

“Pretty Ruby’s friends, my friends too?” Skohka asked. The Kirin and Atquean gave him wary looks, Ruby saw this and frowned.

“He might sound stupid, but he’s not” she said, crossing her arms.

“True, me not smart as Vortixx or Skakdi” Skohka admitted “but me smart enough to know right from wrong, me just have trouble saying so” he gave a shrug as he said this.

“Ruby, a word please?” Garnet asked, Ruby flew over “care to explain how in Tartarus you managed to befriend one of those things?”

“At first I wasn’t so eager to accept him as a friend either” she admitted “right up until the point where he saved me from a couple of Skakdi, he can be useful to us”

“You mean he can do the dirty work” Garnet said, dead panning.

“I’m not the type to exploit him like that” she said “look, he cares about me, I don’t know why, and frankly, I don’t care either, if it means he can protect us. What if Mum or Dad are off fighting and it all goes to shit when they are gone?” Garnet simply sighed before nodding.

“Alright” he said “but you’re telling Dad, okay?” Ruby nodded.

*Meanwhile*

The Toa were searching for Vapaa, last they heard he was in his room but when John went to check he wasn’t there. Orca was currently searching in the service tunnels.

“Vapaa?” she called, her voice reverberated along the tunnels, but other than that there was no response. She rounded a corner and found herself in a rather large junction room, she eventually found Vapaa sitting in a corner “Vapaa? What are you doing here?” she asked, walking over

“Just leave me alone” Vapaa said, Orca sat down next to him.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, Vapaa didn’t answer “Vapaa?” Vapaa sighed.

“My family just found out I’m still alive when I didn’t exactly want them to know” he said, Orca gave him an incredulous look and he rolled his eyes “my brothers have given me hell for most of my life and my Mum only cares about getting money from the government because of a certain…condition I have”

“What did your brothers do?” she asked, Vapaa scoffed

“Breaking my stuff, stealing the money that I’d earned. And telling me that no one will ever care about me because I have Autism, and don’t even…” he didn’t get to finish his sentence as Orca leaned in and kissed him, silencing whatever he was going to say. Orca pulled away and smiled.

“I guess you and I are just going to have to prove them wrong, aren’t we?” she said, Vapaa didn’t say anything at first.

“Uh…” he said, Orca giggled before speaking into a com.

“It’s alright guys” she said “I’ve found him, but don’t come looking for us just yet”

*POV 1st person Vuur Koning*

With Vapaa found we could relax now, and he and Orca were now in a relationship, not sure how the Atlantian King would react to that but whatever, their choice. I was currently sat on the beach under a palm tree writing out an official moral code for the Toa, or Neu-Toa, as we would be called from now on to differentiate ourselves from the original Toa. I’d had to address the whole killing thing, I’d discussed it with Mata Nui and the Turaga and they’d agreed that because of the common use of lethal force amongst enemies nowadays it would be acceptable to use lethal force in return. But, it would only be allowed if the opponent was A; armed. B; using, or attempting to use, lethal force and C; they showed no signs of surrendering or retreating. This would also extend to anyone who tried to kill any of our family deliberately, so with that changeling that tried to kill Garnet, I would have, by rights, been allowed to use lethal force to stop him if necessary.
I was interrupted from my musings by a shadow looming over me and I looked up to see a hulking behemoth of a lower Steltian with Ruby riding on his shoulder.

“Who’s this?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Me Skohka” the Steltian said “me pretty Ruby’s friend” I gave Ruby a look and she blushed.

“Dad!” she exclaimed “it’s not like that, he’s just a friend. Besides, you should be thanking him. If it wasn’t for him, I would be with a couple of Skakdi whilst they did gods know what” she shuddered and I soon realised why.

“Oh my god!” I exclaimed, jumping up “Ruby, are you okay, they didn’t do anything to you, did they?” she giggled.

“I’m fine, Skohka stopped them before they could drag me away” Ruby said, I turned to the Steltian.

“Thank you, Skohka” I said, the Steltian nodded and Ruby began to hang upside down from Skohka’s Shoulder pad and look me directly in the eyes whilst giving me the ‘puppy dog’ look, I swear she has super natural powers over the mind.

“Please, can I keep him, please?” she pleaded, putting her claws together in a begging manner. I resisted her charms…for all of 1 second.

“Fine” I said, I then turned to Skohka “Skohka, henceforth you are to protect Ruby, her brother Garnet and any of their friends, is that understood?” Ruby fist pumped and the Steltian nodded whilst smiling softly.

“Yes, Sir” he said, nodding

“Well, as you were” I said, Skohka nodded before walking off, I returned to writing out the moral code.

Skohka is pronounce 'Skow-ka' and looks like this:

except with orange armour instead of Green/blue, and he still has both eyes. He's kind of a gentle giant, but that doesn't mean he's unwilling to protect his friends. expect to see a lot of scenes with Ruby (and sometimes some of the other kids) sitting on his shoulder.