Chapter 3

Cole stared down at his plate. He just let it sit there, not even touching it, like it was some dead animal. Suddenly, he lost sense and began to stare at the food.

"Are you just going to let it sit there? Let it go cold?" Dust's voice asked, snapping Cole back into reality. Dust picked up his fork and brought it up to his mouth.

But Cole didn't respond, he looked up and pushed his chair back. "I'm not hungry," he said and stood up, walking away. Right as he opened the door, he turned around to see Dust raising a brow. Turning away, he closed the door.

Cole headed straight for his bed and buried his face in his pillow.

"Like this," Dust instructed him, bending some of Cole's fingers to create a curved hand formation.

After Dust had taken him away, he began to feel safer; but at the same time, not. Dust was mean at sometimes, and that had scared him when he was smaller. But as he got used to it, he became braver; although, he always wondered about his real family; if they missed him.

Time to time, he would learn to become more like Dust. Cole always regretted it.

"I just…" he said softly, closing his eyes.

"I think we've really been making progress," Jay grinned as he tied the last bag of coins, tossing to Zane's lap. "I'll soon have enough money to make something good enough to impress Nya!"

The droid watched as Jay stared off into space, his eyes just wandering over her name. "What are you planning to impress her with?" Zane asked him.

Jay hadn't considered that thought. He looked down, "Something amazing! Bright and bold! Something that shouts: Jay and Nya! Jaya!" He squealed with excitement. He nodded willingly at the droid, Zane tilted his head.

He walked over to the front of the stall and gazed into the trees that stood in front of him, "Hey Zane, remember that kid, about the same age as me, who came up here a few hours ago?"

"Cole," Zane said.

Jay's head shot up.

"What was that?"

"His name was Cole."

"Cole… like, burning coal in the mines and stuff?" Jay joked walking towards the back. Zane blinked. "I'm just messing with ya. Kinda tired though," he paused for a yawn, "You heading to sleep mode of something?"

Zane shrugged. "If I must."

"Kai, do you think the village will now be safe?" Nya asked her brother, lifting the covers of her bed. Kai shook his head at Nya.

"What do you mean? If he has some sort of trainee, then chances are no," Kai frowned and fell backwards onto the bed. "But, you can hope…maybe sometime soon something will change for the better."

Nya sighed. "You could be right," she whispered softly.

A second later, Kai jumped and hopped off the bed. "I'll be back soon!" he yelled to his sister, stuffing on his shoes and leaving the house.

Walking down a couple stalls, he came across a large house with lanterns set up nicely around it. She knocked on the door.

Hearing thudding, footsteps, he smiled as the door opened. A boy with blood shot green eyes approached her, sword tied to a belt around his waist. "Kai?" The blacksmith nodded solemnly. He cleared his throat, "Come in."

Opening the door wider, Kai took of his shoes and stepped inside, aweing. "What brings you here late at night?"

"I was just wondering about that young sorcerer you have to keep dragging out of the village."

Lloyd motioned for Kai to follow him. "His name is Cole – and, be very quiet, my parents are sleeping," he told Kai.

"Then, what are you doing up at this hour?"

"Reading comics," Lloyd grinned and turned at a hallway. They stalked pass some rooms until Lloyd took another turn. "My room," he informed Kai, arms presenting the room. "What you want to know?"

Kai sat down on the bed. "Just tell me what you know; you're the protector of this village, after all." Lloyd smirked and sat down in front of Kai.

"Way back when we were all little, my father and uncle were the guardians of this village. They made sure he didn't get in here. When I was younger, I was training to become this villages' new defender. And why was that? Because of the sorcerer who lives at the far end of the forest. He was tricky, played mind games – he would use you without you even knowing. He even almost got me, but luckily, my uncle and father were there. Unfortunately, no one was there to protect Cole. No one knew why he was running around the village, but he had bumped into him –"

"Maybe it was his plan. Maybe he wanted Cole to run into him."

"Great share, now… after that, Cole had been living under his rules for the rest of his life. I couldn't imagine being stuck with him –"

"Poor little Cole, was what I thought," a voice spoke from the doorway.

Lloyd huffed, "How many more interruptions?" He paused and the room went silent.

"I just heard talking and woke up. Look on the bright side, son, at least it wasn't both me and Misako!" Garmadon laughed and walked in to meet them. "Telling the story I told you ages ago, hmm?" he asked.

"It wasn't that long ago, Dad! More like 10 ish years!"

Garmadon smiled, "That's still quite a while."

"Anyways! Since Cole was now under his roof, he taught him all his tricks; how to become just like him when he grew older. Maybe he hoped Cole would do something evil in his life. Soon, I became old enough to actually take my father's role. I made Cole agree to never hurt anyone in this village, until he nearly killed someone I loved," Lloyd eyed his father. "He kept saying it was an accident, but I added another deal in: never come back to the village. He couldn't come in; he couldn't even take a peek. But of course, Cole went against those rules."

Garmadon added, "I believe Cole isn't what everyone thinks; even you, Lloyd. I believe that he is good; he just doesn't want to show it – or at least, all of it. We all know he is yin and Cole is yang. We must give him a chance."

Kai stuck his hand out. "Since when did me coming here lead to this talk about what to do with Cole?" He asked, arching a brow.

"I don't know, but what I do know is that I need some rest. See you tomorrow, Kai." Lloyd yawned, following Kai to the door. "Night."

And the door slammed shut.

HEY! I'm back! Didn't leave, just was busy for quite a while. My mom's cousin arrived today and we're gonna go shopping and "stuff" over the weekends. Um, might not be able to update then since Avengers Age of Ultron comes out! YAY! Also really busy since Track has been taking up most of homework time aside from Wednesdays. And am planning out movie dates with friends, so ya. You get the idea now. *whispers* and MLP stuff... *little laugh*

And, ALERT! My collab story with Shinxs will be updated soon! I just gotta get the chapter in, still! Gah, boo me! If your interested in the story, PM me or Shinxs.

R&R