‘Djon?’ Eto asked, surprised as he looked at the pirate standing next to him.

'It's me alright,’ he said with a smile but he was overwhelmed by Eto, who jumped up and grabbed his neck.

‘Djon, I’m so glad you are okay,’ Eto said with a smile and some tears.

Djon laughed with how Eto reacted but quickly tried to put him down, even though Eto tried to keep hanging on.

‘Yeah, well. Nothing I couldn’t handle,’ Djon answered.

When he finally got Eto down, they both looked at the Tortoise while the tree creatures continued working.

‘They are helping us. She took quite some damage in my escape.’

Both Eto and Djon kept looking at the ship.

Eto started to feel bad. Why was his first intention that the creatures were doing the ship harm? He could have thought it through before jumping in.

‘How did you get here?’ Eto asked slowly and Djon used two of his four arms to presentate the Tortoise.

‘I crashed here. Luckily the Kojo tribe were very supportive and they helped me with my wounds, ' he said as he showed some leaves wrapped around his belly as a bandage.

They kept watching at the ship for some time until Djon started to talk.

‘So how did you get here? I was afraid I would lose you guys for sure.’

Eto looked around and saw that the princess called Morinojo was still standing a little further, watching Eto and Djon.

Eto pointed at her. ‘She found me,’ he said and Djon looked at the princess, smiling as he did.

‘Quite a catch Eto,’ he said but Eto didn’t understand.

TYO was struck with fear. As the pair of red eyes moved in closer, he could start to hear a sound of an animal growling.

‘Oh no’ TYO kept thinking as he slowly tried to ride backwards but everytime he moved a little more, the creature approached him.

What can I do? He kept thinking that but everytime he started to think for a solution, he had a feeling he would end up broken here on this jungle planet.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Some steps could be heard and the creature almost had to show himself outside the bushes.

‘What would Eto do?’ TYO thought in desperation and he was afraid of the answer.

Eto would fight the creature but TYO wasn’t brave enough for that.

‘No’ he thought to himself. He had to be brave, for the rest of the group. They had to know what was happening here and TYO was the only one who could tell them.

TYO steadied his wheel, making sure his spark was active to maybe attack the creature.

The growls of the creature became louder and he moved in closer.

‘This is it’ TYO thought and even though he never was this scared, something in him flickered to press the attack.

Suddenly without thinking, TYO jumped to the front and apparently, the creature also decided to attack.

Out of the bushes, a reptile-like creature appeared.

He ran on four legs, was a little bigger than TYO and had two big black eyes of which you couldn’t tell where they were looking.

On his back were spines that stuck out to both the left and right.

‘Die creature!’ TYO screamed with fear as he jumped towards it.

The creature opened his mouth and TYO pointed his arm with the sparks, hitting the creature in his mouth.

As the spark ignited inside his mouth, the creature screamed and backed down.

TYO stopped and he looked at the creature who was trying to spit something as his tongue hung out of his mouth.

‘There is more where that came from!’ TYO yelled as he showed the sparks again on his arm. The creature was shocked and curled up, giving a squeak as he was afraid.

‘That’s right!’ TYO yelled with a little unconfident at the creature.

‘I am the boss now!’

The group of the ricu clan kept walking and even though they stayed behind the group, Morning Python walked alone, not facing Veronica or Hawk.

Soon, one of the ricu creatures moved to the back and walked beside them.

‘Don’t take it so seriously that she won’t speak. I can tell from her aura that she has troubles she needs to deal with.’

‘A lot of troubles,’ Veronica said with an angry face, looking at Morning Python.

‘Yet you saved her,’ the creature said and Veronica felt a little shame coming up.

‘Yeah, well. You know. You have to save everyone. It’s part of being a good person.’

The creature started to laugh.

‘If only our enemies would think that way, we would not be at war.’

‘Your enemies?’ Hawk asked as he heard the conversation and Veronica had a feeling it had something to do with the giant tree they saw earlier. They told her it was dangerous there.

The creature’s face turned serious but he kept walking.

‘Those awful creatures of the Kojo tribe. We wouldn’t be at war if they shared their treasures with us. Like our ancestors always did.’

Hawk noticed it was a sensitive topic so he was cautious with his questions.

‘Yeah, Lowe told us something when we saw that big tree.’ Veronica heard the word and kept her attention to the conversation.

The creature mumbled a lot but some words were heard.

‘Hideous tree creatures. Evil in nature,’ he mumbled and Hawk looked at Veronica who kept looking back from the jungle they came from.

She only thought about Eto and hoped he wasn’t in danger.