"Well I must say Branch, you are one lucky troll," the doctor said in a relieved tone, "no broken bones, no stitches needed, you just need to rest your tail for a little bit, okay?" Branch sat on the bed in the doctor's office, he should have been relieved about his tail's condition but he didn't say a single word. Iris was beside him, stroking his shoulder. "I'll give you two some time." the doctor said as she left the room. Iris knelt down in front of Branch, meeting his eye level.

"I'm so sorry about Spirit, Branch," Iris apologized, Branch looked up at her. "Do you have any idea why she would have bit you like that?" 

"It wasn't her fault," Branch sighed, "she was stressed and upset about Askar and I shouldn't have put her through that. I should have just talked to Clay when I had the chance." Iris looked at him with compassion, gently stroking his bandaged tail. "I'm just worried about what's going to happen to her now." One of the nurses poked her head through the door.

"Branch, you have a visitor," the nurse chirped. It was Poppy. She immediately opened her arms to give Branch a hug and kissed him on the cheek.

"Oh Branch, I've been worried sick about you. How's your tail?" Poppy asked.

"It's fine, no critical damage, just a little sore," Branch replied, hugging the pink troll back. Tekai soon followed in.

"Well, I don't call you Tough-tail for nothing," Tekai laughed, Branch rolled his eyes, smiling. But the expression on Tekai's face wasn't the same as Poppy's. "Clay wants to see you." Tekai sighed. Branch and Iris immediately looked at each other with worried faces.

"Uh oh," they both said. They knew exactly what this would be about.

The trolls made their way to the rivered trolls village, Branch was nervous about what Clay was going to say, he knew it was going to be about Spirit. They entered the village square where there were crowds of rivered trolls; Branch couldn't make out exactly what they were saying but he did here Spirit's name floating around. Right in the center of the square was Clay staring at Branch.

"Don't worry about Clay," Tekai reassured Branch, "his bark his worse than his bite." Branch took Tekai's advice but still felt his stomach turn as Clay looked at him; but to Branch's surprise, Clay didn't look as angry as he anticipated.

"Hello Branch," Clay greeted sternly, but not aggressively. "I hope you're healing well from the incident." Branch felt a little relieved to hear Clay's slightly calmer tone. "Now, I suspect you know why I called you here." 

"Clay," Branch interrupted, "It wasn't Spirit's fault. I pushed her when she wasn't ready, she was stressed and upset about Askar-" Branch realized he said too much, Clay glared at him, confused.

"Who's Askar?" Clay said suspiciously. Branch knew there was no way he could hide this from Clay anymore.

"A-Askar was another lykar who got into the lagoon," Branch confessed, judging by Clay's reaction, he knew he should have just kept his mouth shut. "He was in the same marine institute as Spirit and somehow escaped and found his way into the lagoon."

"Right," Clay looked strangely calm, "and when were you planning on telling me about this?" Branch felt tense and nervous so Tekai decided to back him up.

"The plan was to release him along with Spirit without anyone knowing," Tekai explained, "that was until he got captured by the snatchers from that boat the other day." Clay looked disappointed at Branch and Tekai, but took a deep breath.

"Well, back to what I was saying," Clay said, Branch knew this was where the bad news would chime in. "We can't release the lykar back into the wild." Branch's eyes widened.

"What? But this is why we should release her! She is clearly too dangerous for captivity, therefore we should free her." Branch argued.

"I overheard that she was a captive. If we free a lykar who has been in captivity for the majority of her life, she'll surely die and I'm sure that's the last thing you want to happen." Clay stated.

"That's why we wanted to try and find her pod and reunite her with them," Tekai argued back.

"Trying to find her pod specifically will be like trying to find a needle in a hay stack!" Clay raised his voice, almost shouting. He calmed himself down. "Besides, after what happened yesterday, I doubt she would even want your help." Branch didn't respond. Clay did have a point, he still didn't know what made Spirit attack him like that. 

"You don't understand," Poppy started. "Spirit really trusts Branch, you should see the way she interacts with him." Branch smiled at Poppy, giving her a thankful look.

"Poppy's right, I don't know what convinced Spirit to behave like she did yesterday, but I do know that she would never do anything to hurt me on purpose," Branch said firmly.

"And yet you were the one she attacked," Clay said, Branch's ears drooped as he felt defeated. "I'm sorry Branch, but we can't release her into the wild," Clay turned to one of the mounted lykar riders. "Tell the marine institute that they can come collect the sea lykar in the morning." Tekai barged in.

"You can't do that! Spirit was just relying on her instincts, all this proves she shouldn't be in human care, no lykar should!" Tekai shouted. Clay glared at the young rivered troll.

"They attack because they are beasts and should be punished for it," Clay said through gritted teeth. 

"No, they attack because we have forced them to do what we say and it's not right, we ride them like horses and have them slave away for us, it's why so many rivered trolls have been attacked during those awful races!" Tekai paused herself before starting again, "it's...it's the reason my dad was killed." 

"Tekai, do you honestly think I am going to stop lykar racing that has been a tradition to our people for generations just to make lykars feel happier?!" Clay bellowed, looking down at Tekai face to face. Tekai let out a sigh.

"No, you wouldn't do that" Tekai admitted, "but a good leader would to protect their people." Tekai turned away and left the village with Branch, Poppy and Iris. Clay was wide eyed.

Branch was looking down at the ground, there was nothing he could do for Spirit now. 

"So what now?" Iris asked, Branch looked doubtful.

"I don't know," Branch sighed, "Spirit's going to be sent back to captivity and I don't know what to do." Tekai stepped forward.

"Look, I know I'm not the most positive troll in the world," she said firmly. "But I know for a fact that we can't just give up on Spirit and let her die swimming in circles in a concrete tank. We have to try." Branch knew that Tekai was right, they had to try something to give Spirit a second chance.

***

Branch, Poppy, Tekai and Iris went to the shore of the lagoon. It was so quiet and this time there wasn't a usually happy sea lykar dancing through the water. The pen that Spirit was in couldn't be seen through the glass panels, Branch climbed up onto one of the narrow rocks nearby the pen, his heart twinged when he saw Spirit. She was floating in the water, near the gate of her small pen, only her dorsal fin, her back and the top of her head were visible from the surface. Branch glanced back at Poppy, Iris and Tekai who were a few paces behind him.

"Branch, be careful," Iris said, Branch nodded and turned back to Spirit, he patted the side of the rock he was kneeling on, trying to get Spirit's attention. Spirit slowly turned around to face Branch.

"Hey there, girl," Branch said softly. Spirit slowly drifted over toward him. Branch took a deep breath and reached his hand out; Spirit poked her head out of the water and moved her head slightly toward Branch's hand, he pulled his hand away slightly as Spirit grunted, then moved his hand to meet Spirit's snout, he gently stroked her as she closed her eyes and made a purr-like sound. Branch sighed in relief as he turned to his friends. "She's okay." Branch unbuckled Spirit's muzzle and threw it aside. Spirit opened her eyes and caught sight of Branch's bandaged tail and became overwhelmed with guilt.

"Branch, I'm so sorry about yesterday," Spirit apologized, "I don't know what came over me."

"Don't worry about it, Spirit." Branch smiled, "I'm just glad you're okay." Branch glanced down at Spirit's back, she was covered in scars and scratches from when Thunder and the riders forced her into the cramped pen. Spirit still looked guilty.

"No, it's not alright," she sighed, "I could have got you killed, I'm a monster." Branch couldn't help but feel sorry for her. He placed his hands under Spirit's chin and raised her head to meet his eyes.

"Spirit, you are anything but a monster," Branch stated to her, "it wasn't you're fault at all, you were just stressed. It won't happen again." Spirit shut her eyes and turned her head away from the blue troll. 

"This...this isn't the first time this has happened," Spirit sighed, Branch looked confused. "I've done this once before and it's the reason the snatchers are looking for me."  Branch looked back at his friends, not believing what he was hearing. As Spirit shut her eyes horrible memories started to flash through her mind.

"It was just after my mom was taken, she developed an injury in her lower spine that limited how high she could jump, this resulted in her being very little value to the marine institute and they had to take her away." Spirit started.

"Where did they take her?" Tekai asked. 

"No lykar has ever come back from that place to tell the tale, all we know is that it's a place where they put lykars on display, some perform in shows, some just swim in the tanks in circles. Usually only older lykar go there to spend their final years but they do take some younger lykars to entertain the visitors." Spirit stopped as a tear started to fall out of her eye.

"I'm guessing that's where Askar was taken," Iris said carefully. Spirit nodded sadly as she sniffed.

"When my mom was taken I felt terrible, less like myself. I refused to perform in shows for a few days, until one day. One of the trainers forced me to go out into the show pool and perform, I tried not to go at first, but I couldn't. He jumped onto my back and forced me to swim around the perimeter of the pool." Spirit explained, the trolls looked at each other in surprise when she mentioned a perimeter swim like the one that happened yesterday. "There was banging on the glass, it was from one of the other trainers trying to control me from the other side of the glass. As a sea lykar, I have sensitive hearing, these bangs caused me to get irritated really easily. I tried to contain myself, but I couldn't help it; I thrashed the trainer off my back and tried to head-butt him and jump on top of him, I couldn't control myself. One trainer kept on smacking the glass to try and distract me, after a while the bangs were driving me crazy so I swam over toward them and then the trainer dragged me back into the back pools using a rope. The trainer I attacked was okay in the end, he suffered a broken elbow but managed to escape with his life, but since I attacked him I had to be sent to the same place my mom was sent to, I was going to be in isolation but still be on display to the public, then after a few months I will be killed. That's why I escaped and came to the lagoon."

"The situation yesterday reminded you of that day didn't it?" Branch asked sadly. Spirit nodded.

"I just never though it would result in hurting my friend," Spirit whimpered as she looked at Branch with sad eyes. "And I guess now my fate is sealed." Spirit's words made the trolls' hearts ache. Spirit was just going to give into her fate just like that.

"What if we free you ourselves?" Iris suggested, everyone turned to her direction looking doubtful. "Hear me out, all we need to do is find a way to get Spirit out of the lagoon and find her pod."

"Could you find out where her pod are?" Branch asked.

"I can try," Iris replied, "while I was at the scouting academy I would always see them every now and then, I took notes about them and managed to work out their route. My notebook is in my backpack in Branch's bunker, I can find the notes." 

"Guys," Branch interrupted, "if Clay finds out that Spirit is gone, he's going to be furious." Tekai placed a hand on Branch's shoulder.

"I'll take the blame," Tekai said sternly.

"Kai, are you sure?" Poppy asked with a concerned expression. Tekai nodded firmly.

"Believe me, I just humiliated Clay in front of the whole village, I'm going to be scolded by him anyway. Don't worry about it." Tekai smiled at the other trolls. 

"What about finding her pod? How would we get to them? Spirit can't carry us all on her back?" Iris doubted. Tekai had an idea.

"I can sail!" Tekai stated, "I have my own boat, we might need a few more trolls to help out though."

"Alright then, the only question is how are we going to get Spirit out of here?" Branch asked. Everyone was blank. How were they going to get her out? The algae on the rock wall was way too slippery for Spirit to climb and they could easily get caught if they took her through the village. 

"Wait," Poppy broke the silence. "What if we lifted her over the rock wall?" The trolls thought about it for a second.

"That...could work," Iris exclaimed, "If we get more trolls, we could all get her out of here!" 

"Okay then!" Branch announced, "Poppy, gather about three or four more trolls to come with us. Tekai, get your boat ready. Iris, look through your notebook and see if there's anything to help find Spirit's pod. This is going to work." All the trolls nodded at each other.

"We meet here at dawn," Tekai stated. Branch turned to Spirit and hugged her head.

"I promised to get you back to the wild and that's exactly what I'm going to do, no matter what it takes." He stated to his lykar friend.

"Thank you, Branch," Spirit sighed happily as she nuzzled her face into him.

***

"Why did we have to meet so early?" Guy Diamond complained, "the sun isn't even up yet!" Poppy had brought Guy, Biggie and Smidge to help on the journey.

"Because if we don't leave before the rivered trolls wake up then we'll get caught and I highly doubt you would want to deal with Clay when he's angry," Tekai explained, jokingly. Branch and Iris joined up with the group with their backpacks around their shoulders. 

"Okay, are we ready?" Branch asked.

"Pretty much, Correy's over by the boat," Tekai stated.

"Wait, Correy?" Branch was confused.

"Yeah, he's coming with us. Something wrong with that?" Tekai raised an eyebrow.

"No, I just wasn't expecting it," Branch replied.

"Besides, you really need a few rivered trolls on this mission," Tekai laughed. 

"Speaking of which, where's this talking dog?" Biggie asked.

"Spirit's not a dog, Biggie. She's a lykar." Poppy explained. Branch snickered a little and tapped the glass panel, before they knew it Spirit surfaced near them and rested her head on the top of the glass panel. She looked curiously at Smidge, Biggie and Guy, not recognizing them. She placed her paws on top of the panel and leaned her head towards them, sniffing them.

"They're friends," Poppy reassured Spirit, scratching behind the lykar's ear.

"Hello. Lykar. I. Am .Guy. Diamond. " Guy Diamond exaggerated as if Spirit couldn't understand him. "We. Are. Going. To. Free. You. Now." Spirit tilted her head at Guy, not having a clue what he was doing.

"Why. Are. You. Speaking. Like. This?" Spirit copied, completely confused. 

"Guy, she can understand you. You don't need to emphasize every word you say," Branch explained. 

"Hate to break up whatever...this is," Tekai butted in, "but we need to get going, the sun will be coming up soon. Correy and I will take the boat to the other side of the rock wall while you guys try and lift Spirit out of here. Got it?" The trolls nodded and Tekai ran over to her boat which was on the shore nearby the rivered troll village. The rest of the trolls went to the back of the lagoon, near the blockage, Spirit following behind in the water.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Iris asked Branch.

"Nope, not in the slightest." Branch replied. He turned to the rest of the trolls. "Okay guys, carefully wrap your hair around Spirit's body, just keep clear of her neck."

"Yeah, I kind of want to be able to breathe," Spirit chimed in. The six trolls wrapped their hair around parts of Spirit's body, from her chest to the base of her flukes. Spirit looked up at the rock wall and gulped, feeling a little nervous and worried about the trolls losing grip and dropping her. 

"Okay, on the count of three!" Poppy announced, "one..." All the trolls joined in.

"...two...Three!" The trolls counted as they used all their strength to haul Spirit into the air. Spirit felt all four of her paws leave the ground. 

"Try to keep as still as possible, Spirit!" Branch called to the lykar. The trolls were straining beneath her. Being about five times the size of the trolls, it took a lot of strength to lift Spirit.

"Come on gang!" Smidge yelled, "like we did in boot camp!" The trolls grunted as they pushed Spirit higher into the air, occasionally losing balance and nearly dropping the lykar, casuing Spirit to whimper. "One more push!" Smidge yelled again. Altogether, they pushed Spirit one final time, Spirit grabbed onto the top of the rock wall with her paws and hauled herself on top of it. The trolls panted as they let go of Spirit and hooked their hair onto the top of the wall and reeling themselves up, Spirit helped by offering her tail for the trolls to grab onto and pulling them up. 

"Now we just have to find a way to get down," Branch stated.

"Well, we can just climb down with our hair, what about Spirit?" Iris asked. 

"Relax, I got this," Spirit smirked. She turned tail and leaped off the rocks, not really realizing how high the rocks were, but that didn't stop her. She dove nose-first into the water, leaving a huge splash behind her.

"Problem solved," Branch said to Iris, earning a smirk and an eye-roll. Tekai and Correy sailed to near the bottom of the rocks where Spirit was and looked up at the trolls.

"Wow, Spirit got down here before you guys and she's five times your size!" Tekai laughed.

"Yeah, that's because we're all worn out from pushing her up here!" Branch replied.

"Alright, stop arguing you two, we've got to get going!" Correy announced. The rest of the trolls climbed down the rocks and made it to the boat. Tekai saw the sun starting to rise over the horizon.

"We need to get going now!" Tekai shouted. Correy tugged down on a rope by the mast of the boat, opening the sail. The boat started to skim the surface of the water as it started moving quickly. Spirit followed close behind the boat in the water. Tekai's boat was small and made of wooden planks, but it was big enough to fit the eight trolls on. It had a tall mast with a large sail patterned with swirls and zig zags. "Okay Iris, you need to tell us where we're going. What route do we need to take to find the pod?" Iris scanned her notebooks, she took out a compass out of her pocket and handed in to Tekai.

"We need to keep south-east, I'll let you know if we need to change direction," Iris said, she knelt down and spread her notes and maps out onto the floor. 

"Now I need to know," Branch came and knelt down next to Iris. "How do you know how to do all this?"

"It's pretty easy when you think about it," Iris replied. "There are many different types of lykar with different colors, markings and each type lives in a specific area. Considering Spirit and most of her pod were 'southern shadowed lykars', they would tend to live in the south in warmer waters. So that's where we need to go." Branch didn't fully understand what Iris had just said.

"Okay," Branch said a little bit confused. "But you're completely sure we'll find them there?" 

"It's our best chance," Iris said hopefully, "besides, southern shadowed lykars go that direction all the time, so there must be something out there that they're going to, maybe something attracting them." 

"One more question. How did you know what type of lykar Spirit is?" Branch asked, pointing at Spirit who was swimming alongside them.

"Her colors and her markings, her underside and her chest are a different color compared to the rest of her body, for lykars that means they're 'shadowed'." Iris explained.

"Now I have a question," Guy Diamond interrupted, "how long does it take to get there?"

"Well, we can't be too sure, but at least around two days," Iris replied.

"What?!" Guy, Biggie and Smidge blurted.

It was going to be a long journey.