"This place really is amazing, isn't it?" Iris admired. 

"Yeah, I know Spirit is sad at the moment, but I really do think that she'll be happy here," Branch replied.

"I just wish we didn't have to say goodbye to her," Poppy added. "Maybe we can visit her." Branch frowned. He stared down at his bandaged tail then started to unravel the bandage. The teeth marks weren't bleeding anymore but were still red in color, sadness spread across his face as he thought about how much he was going to miss Spirit, but the marks on his tail were proof that she's a wild animal and has to be free.

"No, this place should be kept a secret, it's a safe place for sea lykars that no hunter can find-" Branch was cut off when he saw Spirit sprinting towards them. "Spirit, are you okay girl?" Spirit reached them and was panting.

"We-we have...to get...away," Spirit tried to say, but was so out of breath that she was barely understandable. 

"Is she okay?" Ali asked. Branch placed his hands on Spirit's jaw.

"What's going on girl?" He asked, Spirit whipped her head around and pointed to the boat coming over the horizon.

"A boat? What's it doing here?" Corkscrew asked. Luna stepped forward, almost shielding the others.

"That's a hunting boat," Luna gasped, "lykars!" All lykars around turned their heads immediately to their leader. "Get to the bowl, quick!" She commanded. All the lykars that weren't in the bowl already were rushing trying to get to there, some with calves by their sides. Spirit, Ali and Corkscrew helped the other lykars to the bowl, while the trolls tried to take a closer look at the boat. 

"Snatchers!" Branch gasped.

"How did they find us?" Tekai asked.

"We have to get the lykars to safety," Branch ordered. Suddenly a huge net was flung from the boat, headed right for the lykars. Luckily enough, it had missed. But more nets were thrown from the boat, this time tangling some lykars and pinning them to the ground. The trolls tried their best to free them from the nets, but noticed that the boat had collided with the island and the snatchers dismounted, carrying tranquilizer guns and nets. Their boat was bigger than anything the trolls have ever seen, it was loaded with cages for lykars. The lykars panicked and tried desperately to get to safety.

"Find the blue one, she's the one we're after!" One snatcher commanded, the other snatchers charged for the lykars, trying to capture as many as they could. All the lykars sprinted to the bowl, caves, anywhere they could find to hide. Ali turned her head and noticed a young lykar calf struggling to keep up with the others and the snatchers were coming right towards it. Ali turned sharply and ran back to get the young calf, she slid on her belly and head- butted the calf away from the snatchers, leading to herself getting tranquilized.

"Ali!" Spirit cried. Ali stumbled, trying to pull herself upright but soon collapsing on the ground. She looked up at the snatchers who were standing over her and growled at them, but she grew tired quickly and her eyes fell shut. Spirit stopped as she saw more lykars getting tangled in nets and tranquilized.

"Boss!" One of the snatchers called out, "there she is! That's the blue one!" He pointed at Spirit who still wasn't moving. 

"Spirit get away from there!" Corkscrew cried. Spirit had enough, she couldn't have anyone hurting her family. She started snarling and barking at the snatchers, Corkscrew came by Spirit's side and joined her. "Spirit, you have to get out of here! It's you they're after!" 

"Come on trolls! Let's hold them off!" Tekai yelled. Some of the trolls used their hair to defend against the snatchers while the others tried to get the other lykars away to safety. Spirit and Corkscrew ran toward the snatchers and pounced on top of them, pinning them down. They didn't notice that another snatcher had a tranquilizer gun aiming straight for Corkscrew! Spirit reacted quickly and pushed him out of the way, instead the tranquilizer dart hit Spirit, she yelped as it struck into the base of her tail. 

"Spirit!" Branch shouted. He saw the snatchers heading right for her, he used his hair to catapult himself to Spirit who was losing consciousness but was fighting to keep herself awake. Branch put himself in front of Spirit, protecting her. "Leave her alone!"

"Well isn't that a sight for sore eyes," sounded a way too familiar voice. Branch looked around, confused to who was talking. He looked up and saw a troll perched on one of the snatcher's shoulders.

"Creek?!" Branch spoke angrily through gritted teeth. Creek smirked at him. Then nodded to the snatcher he was standing on.

"Stand down!" The snatcher commanded to the rest, "take the tranquilized lykars back to the boat. We've got the one we needed." The snatcher then lowered Creek to the ground with his hand.

"Get the trolls! Especially the little blue one," Creek ordered, referring to Branch. The snatcher grabbed Branch by the hair and restrained him whilst Creek tied his hands together behind his back. Branch struggled to break free, but it was no use. The snatchers grabbed the rest of the trolls and brought them to where Branch was. Creek smirked at them, then at Spirit, who was still partially awake, she growled at him.

"You're mine now," Creek spoke as he placed his hand on Spirit's snout. "Your going to be very helpful to me."

"Get away from her!" Branch yelled as he tried to struggle out of his ropes and go after Creek, one snatcher pressed his finger down on Branch's tail, stopping him from moving away.

"What are you doing Creek? You traitor!" Poppy snapped. 

"How did you find us?" Branch barked. Creek laughed.

"You don't know, do you?" He questioned, smiling smugly. The trolls looked confused. "You see, there is one of you who is not what they seem." The trolls were wide-eyed, looking around at each other. "Iris. Would you like to say something?" All the trolls turned their heads to face Iris, who was looking uncomfortable and guilty.

"Iris, what is he talking about?" Branch asked his sister.

"Oh, you haven't told them yet," Creek smirked. Iris lowered her head, not saying a word. "She made a deal with me, if she could bring this lykar to me then I would set her free from her scouting." 

"What?" Branch was in disbelief.

"No," Iris finally spoke, "Creek, I want to call off the deal." Creek shrugged.

"Okay then, you know what I said would happen," Creek snapped his fingers and the snatchers pushed Branch to the ground, Creek took out a large stick and rose it in the air above Branch, ready to beat him.

"No! Don't hurt him!" Iris cried angrily, she jumped in and landed on top of Branch, covering him with her body. The stick made a loud snap noise as it hit Iris' back, she winced through gritted teeth, balling up her fists. 

"That's what I thought," Creek said, "well Iris, since you did bring the lykar to me, I give you your freedom, you're free from the scouting academy." Iris looked up at Creek, anger and pain filling her eyes. "Take them to the boat." 

***

The inside of the boat was dark and cold. It had cages that was now full of several captured lykars from Spirit's pod, including Corkscrew, Ali and other old friends of Spirit's. The trolls were shoved into a cage with Spirit and the crossed bars of the cage were so tight and narrow that even Smidge couldn't squeeze through them. But they tried everything to escape.

"Guys! For the last time, using Guy to ram into the cage is not going to work!" Tekai snapped as Guy Diamond was crashed into the cage door again.

"I wouldn't do that," a tri-colored forest lykar advised sadly, "believe me, you don't want the snatchers to come down here." 

"Why don't you just help us escape?" Correy asked the lykar.

"I'm born to do what these snatchers say, if I disobey them I'll be killed. I'm sorry." The lykar sighed, he was mainly brown in color but had some dark gray patches on his face and body, and tan on his legs and back of his neck, his job was to keep watch on the sea lykars. Branch turned to Iris.

"I can't believe it, you were going to give Spirit to Creek and the snatchers?" Branch asked angrily. "What were you thinking?"

"This wasn't part of the plan," Iris tried to explain.

"Why would you trust him?" Branch barked.

"Would you use those big ears of yours and just listen to me?!" Iris snapped, Branch crossed his arms and let her talk, trying not to feel hurt by Iris' comment. "He somehow became one of the leaders at the scouting academy, he told me you were killed by bergens and he got inside my head." Branch just scowled at her. "I was stupid to believe him, but he was the only family I had left. What was I supposed to do? My plan was to get Spirit as far away from the lagoon as possible so they could never find her, but I guess the scouts followed us." Iris lowered her head, ashamed in herself.

"Okay," Branch sighed, "but why didn't you just tell us, we could have helped." 

"I didn't want to drag you guys into this, it wasn't safe," Iris sighed, Branch still looked disappointed.

"Well now all of these innocent lykars are in here because of you!" Branch snapped, Iris stared back at him, feeling hurt.

"Branch, easy," Poppy put her hand on his shoulder. Iris didn't respond, she just scowled back at her brother then turned around and walked to the corner of the cage, sitting down with her knees folded into her chest.

"Come on guys, this is the last thing we need right now," Spirit said. Branch placed his hand on Spirit's face then walked away from everyone. Some of the lykars that had watched them lowered their heads, starting to lose hope.

The next few hours or so on the boat were in almost complete silence. The trolls were huddled up to Spirit who was curled up with her tail covering her face apart from Branch and Iris, they were sitting either end of the cage, facing the wall. Iris had been thinking, she did feel bad and felt like all this was her own fault but at the moment the only thing that matters is trying to escape and there was no point in being upset with Branch. She needed to tell Branch the truth. The real truth that Creek didn't mention. Iris got up on feet and walked over to Branch who was in the corner looking out of the cage bars.

"Creek didn't tell you the whole deal," Iris said. Branch turned his head to her but said nothing. "He said that if I failed I would have to stay at the academy for another two years." The angry expression on Branch's face relaxed as he looked up at Iris with slight confusion. 

"What if you refused to do it?" Branch asked, this time a little more relaxed. 

"He would have killed you," Iris confessed, Branch's eyes went wide with shock. "So I went with the only option I had, Spirit would have been reunited with her pod and Creek would never be able to find her but I would have had to..."

"Go back to the academy," Branch finished sadly.

"I had no idea that he following us, I really didn't," Iris sighed. Branch stopped her.

"I don't want to hear anymore," Branch interrupted, a tear starting to form in his eye, "I just want you back." Iris smiled and wrapped her arms around Branch, hugging him close.

"See what you two can do when you listen to each other?" Poppy chimed in happily.

"Well now you two aren't fighting anymore what are we going to do?" Ali said from the cage she was in with Corkscrew. Everyone turned to Spirit but she wasn't hopeful, her ears were drooped and her head was low.

"I don't know guys," Spirit admitted, "I was the one who got us into this. Now what do I do? My mom is dead and I just find out that my dad and brother are gone. What's the point?" The tri-colored forest lykar rose his head.

"Wait, you're Spirit aren't you?" He asked, Spirit nodded. "And your mom is Kayla, right?" Spirit looked at him strangely.

"What about it? She was taken away a few months ago," Spirit sighed, the lykar shook his head.

"No," he corrected, "Spirit, your mom is alive." The trolls all looked at each other with surprised expressions. Spirit perked her head up.

"How do you know that?" Spirit asked confused. 

"I've been working with these snatchers for a long time. The place this boat is going to is where your mom was taken, I've seen her at this place, she's told me a lot about you." He explained. Spirit's face started to fill with hope and determination.

"We're going to find her and get her out of there," Spirit said firmly. She turned to the other sea lykars. "You guys need to distract the snatchers, bark at them, snarl at them, play dead if you have to and as soon as they open your cages run and find a way out of here." The lykars nodded back at her. Spirit then turned to the forest lykar. "Thank you..." Spirit hesitated, not knowing his name.

"I'm Basil," he smiled. Spirit smiled back.

"Thank you, Basil."

After another few hours the boat came to a complete stop. They had arrived. The snatchers came down the steps to the lower level of the boat, where the cages were. They were coming straight to the cage that Spirit and the trolls were in, one snatcher took out a key from his pocket and unlocked the it.

"Trolls now!" Spirit commanded. The trolls threw their hair at the snatcher's face, knocking him over. Spirit ran out of the cage door with Branch on her back, trampling on the fallen snatcher. The lykars started barking and growling at the snatchers, the noise of it made it hard for them to realize that Spirit had escaped. 

"Go after the blue one! And get the rest of them in the pools!" One snatcher commanded. Some lykars tried to run out of the cages and escape but the snatchers pinned them to the ground and fitted them with muzzles and leashes. 

"Uh the plan isn't going too well," Branch stated, Spirit was concerned and stopped to look what was happening, but the snatchers were chasing after her. 

"We have to lose them!" Spirit said. She ran into the building, taking a sharp turn, hiding behind a wall, once she knew the snatchers were gone she looked around in shock. "This is where all the old lykars from the marine institute were taken, no lykar has lived to tell the tale of this place." Branch patted the side of Spirit's head.

"Let's find your mom," Branch said, Spirit nodded back. Outside the building there was a huge show pool, like the stadium in Spirit's marine institute but much bigger. There was a huge room filled with small pools each with one or two lykars in them. 

"She's got to be here," Spirit stated. She started quietly calling out for her mom, trying not to let the snatchers find her. Branch caught sight of a large lykar in a pool, it had blue flippers like Spirit's, it had light gray fur and dark markings on her back with a blue stripe running down either side of her body. It was Kayla. Branch pointed her out. Spirit slowly approached her, Branch dismounted her and let her go to Kayla. "Mom," Spirit whispered. "Mom!" The lykar turned towards Spirit, confused.

"Who are you?" Kayla asked.

"Mom, it's me," Spirit explained, Kayla's eyes went wide.

"Spirit?" Kayla asked, Spirit nodded as tears filled her eyes. Kayla put her paws on the side of her pool and lifted her body slightly to rub her head against Spirit's. "My baby girl. What are you doing here?" 

"It's a long story, but I'm getting you out of here," Spirit explained, trying to help her mom out of the pool.

"Spirit no, you have to go!" Kayla said seriously. They could hear the snatchers getting closer and closer. "I'll be fine, you need to go, they'll capture you!"

"No, I'm not leaving without you, I came all this way," Spirit cried, Branch started to tug on Spirit's flukes.

"Spirit, it's not safe," Branch tried to convince her but Spirit didn't listen.

"I can't leave you, I just can't," Spirit whimpered. The snatchers came and threw a rope around Spirit's neck.

"No!" Branch cried. The snatcher pulled Spirit away from Kayla, causing her to bark and snarl. The snatcher picked Spirit up by the underside and fitted her with a muzzle. "Get off of her!" Branch tried to stop them but it wasn't working. Another snatcher spotted Branch and grabbed him by the hair. Branch struggled, he saw in the snatcher's other hand was the rest of the trolls.

"Time to get you guys out of here!" The snatcher said to them, he stomped back the way they came. Branch tried to turn himself around to see Spirit, she was being held by two snatchers trying to restrain her, that was the last thing he could see of her. The snatcher stormed out of the door and threw the trolls outside, slamming the door behind. The trolls landed on the ground with a thud.

"You know, they could have just asked us to leave," Biggie suggested. 

"We have to get back in there! We have to save Spirit!" Branch panicked. 

"What are they going to do to her?" Poppy asked.

"Nothing good. I don't think they'll kill her," Branch responded. "Creek must have made a deal with the snatchers involving Spirit. We have to get her back."

"Branch, I'm pretty sure the security in there is going to be high. How will we even get in there?" Tekai asked. Branch sighed and lowered his head, she was right. They felt the ground around them shake as someone came towards them.

"Are you little guys okay?" It was a snatcher talking to them, standing over them, "I saw them throw you out like that." She had tan-colored skin and long light brown hair that flowed down her shoulders, she was wearing a hunter-green shirt with blue jeans that were rolled up to her knees. She reached out her hand to the trolls to see if they were alright. The trolls backed away, not trusting her.

"Don't hurt us!" Poppy blurted, the snatcher looked confused at the trolls.

"Hurt you? Why would I hurt you?" The snatcher asked.

"You're a snatcher. You may harm lykars but I'm not going to let you harm us!" Tekai was ready to defend the trolls. The snatcher smiled down at them.

"If I hurt lykars, would I be part of the LPA?" She asked, showing them a badge on her shirt.

"The LP what now?" Guy Diamond asked.

"The Lykar Protection Agency. We help lykars, we're not like other snatchers," She reassured, the trolls let out a little sigh of relief. "My name's Kyra." The trolls felt a less afraid of her now. "Come on, let's get you guys under a roof." She lead them to a small gray building that had a sign reading 'LPA Research Center'. When she opened to door there were two other snatchers in the hut, one was at a computer, the other at a desk. All over the walls were photos of lykars, both forest and sea. 

"Mark, Luke I found some trolls who just got thrown out of the lykar institute. Literally," Kyra explained to the two other snatchers. Luke turned from his computer.

"Trolls? At this part of the island?" Luke asked. "You guys must be pretty far from home." 

"Wait, what part of the island is this?" Iris asked. Kyra pointed to a map on the wall.

"Here. The third cliff is just down the coast," she pointed out. One side of the island they lived on had three cliffs, each one a long distance from each other. The trolls lived just by the first cliff, they were really far away from home. "What are you guys doing all the way over here?" 

"Our sea lykar got captured by that lykar institute outside," Branch started.

"Your  lykar? Lykars don't belong to anyone," Mark corrected.

"No, you don't understand. She's our friend, we just want to get her back to the wild." Branch explained, a little distressed.

"Hey, calm down little guy," Kyra said gently. "What does she look like?" 

"She's gray with blue fins, she's a double blue-eyed sea lykar," Branch described. Kyra looked at him questionably, recognizing that description.

"A double blue-eyed lykar? Gosh those are rare," Luke commented. Kyra walked to one of the photo-covered walls, she searched it for a moment then took off a photo off. Then she came back to where trolls were and showed Branch a picture of her as a teenager and a sea lykar that looked exactly like Spirit. In fact, it was Spirit. 

"That's her!" Branch exclaimed. 

"You know Blue?" Kyra asked, gazing at the photo.

"Blue?" Poppy asked. 

"That's her name, well at least that was her name in the marine institute she was at," Kyra said.

"I can't believe it, you know Spirit," Branch was in awe.

"Spirit? Is that her real name?" Kyra asked. Branch looked over to Iris and they smiled at each other.

"She lived in the lagoon outside our village. We helped name her the day she was born." Branch remembered the very day as if it was yesterday.

"Well, my uncle used to run the marine institute so I was constantly there with him. I remember the day she arrived there, she was just a little ball of fluff." Kyra laughed, still gazing down at the photo. "The two of us grew up together until the day I left." 

"Why did you leave?" Poppy asked.

"I realized how wrong it was to keep lykars in captivity, I joined the LPA and made a promise to get Blue out of there one day," Kyra explained, "but now she's here?" 

"It's a long story," Iris stated. 

There was a sudden movement in the corner of the room, just the shape of a creature was visible.

"What is that?" Smidge asked. The creature came out and it was something that the trolls knew well. 

"Askar?" Branch questioned thinking it was a dream.

"Trolls? What are you guys doing here?" Askar asked.

"Oh, you know who he is?" Mark asked. "And you somehow got him to talk, he hasn't said a word since he got here!" Kyra went over and knelt down to pet Askar. 

"My gosh, it is Askar! From when I was a kid, he was Spirit's best friend!" Kyra exclaimed, she didn't recognize him until now. "When we found him the other day he was headed for the lykar institute but he managed to escape and he found his way here, injured. We took care of him and healed him up, we were going to release him early tomorrow morning so they don't notice him and try to catch him." Kyra explained.

"Where's Spirit?" Askar asked Branch.

"She's in the lykar institute, we did find her pod but the snatchers found us and caught us." Branch said sadly, he then turned to Kyra.

"Kyra, do you know how to get her out of there?" Branch asked.

"It's not going to be easy, no one gets out of that place," Kyra was doubtful. "No one apart from the workers has even seen inside of it." 

"So that's it, we're never going to get her back," Branch sighed.

"I've got an idea!" Tekai stated, "we need to get in there and collect information, show times, worker duties, all that stuff. But we're too big of a group, if we are going to break Spirit out of there, you guys need to get back to the village and prepare yourselves, this isn't going to be easy."

"Kai, what about you?" Correy asked.

"I'll stay here and sneak into that lykar institute each day to work out their routine, once I figure it out we can find a time to get Spirit out of there." Tekai explained. "Kyra, is there a way the trolls can get back to the first cliff?"

"The lykar institute is always sending trucks over to the marine place at the first cliff, one's leaving tomorrow morning, get on that truck and you'll get there," Mark suggested.

"When will it come back?" Correy asked.

"They tend to come back after a week," Mark replied. 

"That's perfect!" Tekai exclaimed, "you guys get on that truck and return when it comes back here."

"Are you sure you can do this?" Branch asked Tekai.

"Not sure, but I spent nine years of my life with only Manta," Tekai laughed, "I'll be fine.

"Well everyone, I guess we've got a truck to catch!"