The next morning Branch was down by the lagoon, he hadn't been there for years, he never really had time and because...it brought back a lot of memories. He would stay here for hours and hours playing with Spirit, she made him feel...happy but it was never enough to bring his colors back. As happy memories skipped through his mind he sighed as when he remembered the bad things that has happened at this lagoon. When Spirit was captured, when the entire pod of lykars disappeared but what hit him the hardest was just after he lost Iris.

***
10 years earlier.
Branch slowly opened his eyes and looked around. It was quiet. Too quiet. The back of his head stung, he gently lifted it up and rubbed it, trying to sooth the pain. He sat up still dazed, he tried to remember what happened...
It was just him and Iris strolling along the outskirts of the village until two large figures approached them. Branch couldn't remember what they were talking about but the last thing he remembered was one of the figures grabbing his tail and trying to pull him away from Iris then it picked him up by the tail and threw him against a tree, knocking him unconscious.
When the pain in his head started to fade he realised something. Iris was gone. Branch looked around and called out to her.

"Iris!" He called then he pricked up his ear to try and hear a reply. Nothing. "IRIS!" He shouted even louder. Nothing. Branch began to panic, he got up and searched the entire village calling for his sister. He stopped to ask some of the other trolls but they hadn't seen her, some of the trolls he asked wouldn't respond because they couldn't understand Branch from all his panting and sobbing, one troll tried to calm him down but he just ran away.

It was late at night and Branch was sitting by the edge of the lagoon he stared at the water with the moon's reflection rippling in the water. Branch had been searching for hours but there was no sign of her, he began to think that Iris was gone. He started to cry, tears began to stream down his cheeks. He lifted his knees and folded them into his chest and wrapped his tail in front of his feet. He sunk his head between his knees and sobbed.
After a while he lifted his head up, his eyes were stained red from the crying, he used his vest to dry away the tears. He felt something pin into his side, it wasn't sharp it just felt pointed. He reached into his pocket and took out his pendant, he watched the blue crystals in it shine with the moonlight. Iris had one exactly like it but with purple gems matching her skin, now that he was grey the gems didn't match his skin anymore. Tears started to flow from his eyes again and he was breathing hard through gritted teeth. He clenched the pendant in his fist and threw it far into the lagoon just like when he threw his hug time bracelet away all those years ago.

***

The lagoon had changed a lot since that day, when the sea lykar pod left the rivered trolls used the it to train their lykars in order to ride and race them and since then it looked less like a lagoon and more like and arena. The waterfalls never ran, the rocks on the edges were starting to crack and fall apart and the entrance to the open ocean at the far end was blocked off. It was hard to imagine that this was a beautiful haven for lykars all around.

Branch heard a voice say his name, he turned around and saw Poppy, he smiled at her as she sat down next to him.

"What are you doing here Branch?" Poppy asked. "I never see you at the lagoon anymore."

"I haven't been down here in years," Branch sighed, "not since Iris..." his words trailed off, he didn't want to finish the sentence but Poppy knew exactly what Branch was talking about, he was still sensitive about the loss of his sister. Poppy wrapped her arms around him and brought him in for a hug.

"It's okay Branch," Poppy reassured her friend as she stroked his head.

"I wasn't going to cry," he grunted, Poppy just smiled at him causing him to smile back but the moment was broken when Poppy noticed Branch's ear twitch.

"Aww," she cooed, "you're so cute when you do that." Branch didn't say a word, he could hear something. He perked up both his ears and listened. "Is something wrong?" Poppy asked but Branch shushed her. Branch's ears started to move in all sorts of different directions trying to hear where the noise was coming from. His eyes widened and without saying anything he ran off towards the noise, Poppy ran after him. "Branch, wait up!" She called out to him but he didn't respond, she caught up with him and tried to reach out and grab hold of his tail to slow him down but Branch was just too fast. He was running towards the beach, it was close to the lagoon but they had to keep the two areas separate because when the lykars were still there they would swim into the water and chase all the trolls out. Poppy wasn't looking where she was going and didn't notice that Branch had stopped dead in his tracks causing her to run straight into him and knocking him over. Branch glared at her. "Sorry Branch," she said as she helped him up.

There was a huge crowd of trolls, Branch and Poppy passed through the crowd to see what was going on. They gasped. On the side of the shore was a beached sea lykar tangled in ropes and covered with cuts and bruises, it's eyes were closed. Branch slowly walked towards it.

"Hey! Be careful," one troll called out.

"It's okay," Poppy called back, "he knows what he's doing." Poppy knew that Branch knew a lot about lykars so she let him continue.

"Is it dead?" Another troll asked, no one responded. The lykar wasn't moving. Everyone went silent. The lykar lifted its tail and slammed it on the floor then it let out a grunt. Branch made his way towards the lykar's head, its eyes were struggling to stay open then it looked up at Branch. He reached out his hand trying to stroke it but the lykar growled at him.

"You poor thing," Branch whispered, looking down the lykars body. Poppy stepped forward.

"Is he going to be okay?" She asked Branch.

"It's not a he, it's a she and I really don't know if she'll be alright." Branch answered. The lykar had ropes that had tangled tightly into her skin, one was wrapped around her tail and dorsal fin and another was around her neck and inside her mouth and because it was so tight she couldn't get it out herself, she was covered in bruises and had a huge cut down her shoulder. "Okay, first we need to get these ropes off of her." Branch said firmly, he made his way towards the back of the lykar's neck and tried to untangle the ropes. The lykar didn't understand what was going on, she let out a low growl and whipped her head round attempting to snap at Branch's tail, it startled him but his tail was still intact.

"Yeah I don't really want to lose a limb today," Branch said to the lykar then he turned to Poppy, "I don't know how we're going to get these ropes off her, she won't let us remotely near her." Poppy had an idea, she called out to Biggie who was amongst the trolls in the crowd.

"Biggie, do you have any cupcakes on you?" She asked.

"As a matter of fact I do." The big blue troll replied as he grabbed a cupcake from out of his hair and tossed it to Poppy. She then approached the lykar offering her the cupcake. Branch face palmed himself, he knew this was going to go wrong. Poppy placed it near the lykar's mouth but the lykar just snarled and hit it away with her snout. The crowd of trolls gasped. They couldn't understand how anyone could not like cupcakes.

"Well that worked." Branch said sarcastically while rolling his eyes then something caught the corner of his eye. A lykar running on the outskirts of the forest with a little brown speck on its back. That wasn't any brown speck, it was Tekai riding on Manta. Branch knew that she could help. "Hey Ketai!" Branch called out. Poppy glared at him.

"It's Tekai." Poppy corrected him, "Tekai!!! Come over here!" She called, their callings got Tekai's attention and when she saw the sea lykar she ran as fast as her legs...well leg could take her but when she got to the crowd she received a lot of stares and whispers from the other trolls, she ignored it and focused on the lykar.

"Whoa, where did it come from?" Tekai asked.

"She was here when we found her." Branch replied, "the only problem is that we can't get these ropes off of her without her trying to kill us." Tekai approached the lykar with her hand out, the lykar started to growl again but Tekai didn't back away.

"Easy, easy," Tekai repeated "we're just trying to help you." She gently placed her hand on the lykar's snout and took a pocket knife out of her belt then she started to cut free the ropes in her mouth, when the ropes were removed from her mouth they left small scars down the corners of her mouth. Tekai moved down her body to deal with the rest of the ropes. The lykar rested her head on the sand and looked at Branch, he knelt down by the lykar's head and placed his hand on the bridge of her nose. Branch looked into the lykar's eyes. She looked...familiar.

"We have to get her out of here as soon as possible." Tekai stated, "if we hurry then hopefully the rivered trolls won't notice her." Branch looked confused.

"What'll happen if they find her?" He asked.

"They'll take her in to be trained."

"They can't just steal a sea lykar from the wild." Branch couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Try telling that to Clay." Tekai finished cutting off the last of the ropes and looked at the scar on the lykar's shoulder.

"Does it look bad?" Poppy asked, concerned.

"Not too bad, it is starting to heal up." Tekai stated, "now we just need to get her to stand." Poppy, Branch and Tekai started pushing the lykar trying to get her to stand up. "Don't just stand there staring at the sun," Tekai snapped at the crowd of trolls, "help us!" They all came to help the lykar to her feet and soon she was standing up and walking on her own, she wasn't limping which was a good sign. She was free to go. The lykar turned to the trolls.

"It's okay, go." Branch said to her. The lykar ran into the water and swam off, leaping into the air to say goodbye. Everyone cheered.

"If she follows the right current, she should be able to find her way back." Tekai announced.

"I just hope she'll be able to find her pod," Branch said, concerned.

"Well they couldn't have gone that far." Tekai reassured him.

***

"At last, I'm free," Spirit said to herself as she swam, "no more cages, no more slavery, just swimming off into the sunset." In the back of her mind she thought about the trolls that helped her, she never thought she would ever see those colorful, fuzzy-headed creatures again then she thought about that blue troll that knelt down beside her, why did he look so familiar? "Oh well," Spirit thought, "probably never see them again."
She noticed that there was a blockage of rocks ahead of her which meant that she couldn't swim for much longer so she made her way towards the land and started to run across the shore, she came across the other side of the blockage and saw something that she hadn't seen in years. The lagoon, her birthplace. It looked different. Like one of those concrete tanks that she had to grow up in. She slowed down and took some time to gaze at her old home, it still looked the same but it seemed that all the life and been drained out of it. She walked up to the glass panes, she remembered that little, grey troll that would come to visit her everyday, she would have so much fun with him, she would copy everything he did behind the glass panels, she let him ride on her back and that trick they did when she would jump and spin in a corkscrew over his head.
Spirit realised that she was wasting time and had to get moving, she ran off as quickly as she could remembering the brown troll's words, that she couldn't be seen by the rivered trolls.

***

"Are you ready for the race today?" One rivered troll asked the other.

"Surely you mean am I ready to win? Then yes." The other said modestly.

"Oh yeah? Well if you think that you could..." The troll was interrupted when the other was staring at something behind him. A sea lykar running down on the shore.

"Look at that sea lykar." The troll said in awe, "it's incredible." Then a smirk spread across his face, "what we could do with a sea lykar," he laughed.

"Face it Clay you won't have the best lykar in the village now will you?" The two trolls mounted their lykars and made their way down to the shore.

***

Spirit could see the way out, she was almost free. She knew that she had to get out of here as fast as she could.

"Almost there," she panted, "almost there." But before she could make it a lykar rammed into her side knocking her off track. There was a rider on the lykar, she knew this was bad and that she needed to escape. She sprinted faster than she had ever done before but another lykar with a rider stood in the way of the way out, the lykar was bigger and stronger than her and she couldn't get past it so she turned and started to run into the forest with the lykars hot on her tail. She had to outrun them, but how?

Tekai was with Branch and Poppy, since their villages were close to each other they walked back together.

"So I'm guessing Fluffy wasn't pleased to see you Branch was she?" Tekai laughed, Branch just rolled his eyes.

"You see? That's the reason I don't have a pet, they would find a way to hate me no matter what." Branch grunted, Tekai and Poppy started to laugh but were soon interrupted when Manta started growling.

"What is it buddy?" Tekai asked Manta, his ears perked up, he heard shouting and soon enough the trolls heard in too. Tekai squinted to try and see what was happening. She saw the sea lykar they rescued being chased by two riders.

"HEY!!" Tekai shouted at them and without hesitation she mounted Manta then she looked at Poppy and Branch, "You guys coming or what?" She helped them get onto Manta's back and told them to hold on, they didn't really know what to hold on to so they just held on to each other and hoped that they wouldn't fall off. Manta was off like a bullet, trying to stop the riders and getting the sea lykar to safety.

Spirit noticed that they were headed towards the rivered trolls' village but there was nowhere else to go so she had to go straight through it. The other rivered trolls got out ropes and attempted to catch Spirit and some even attempted to fire arrows at her.

"DON'T SHOOT, LEAVE HER ALONE!!!" Tekai shouted at them.

Buildings were getting damaged as all the lykars ran through the village, many other rivered trolls started to mount their lykars and chase after Spirit too. Spirit started to weave through the huts and buildings trying to lose the riders, the huts were much smaller than her so she had to try not to crush them or any of the trolls. She finally made her way out of the village and back down to the shore, she looked back and saw that the riders were far behind her so she made a break for the way out. She was almost there, only a few meters away but before she knew it a rope was thrown around her neck and pulled her to the ground, the rope belonged to a mounted rider, how did they catch up to her? She tried to escape but more and more ropes were wrapped round her neck, legs and tail until she was completely tangled up again.
Manta caught up to the other lykars and Tekai dismounted him with Branch and Poppy following behind.

"Let go of her, leave her alone!!!" Tekai called to them. She tried punching some of the riders in the back and pulling the ropes off of her.

"ENOUGH!!!" A loud, deep voice blurted from behind them. It was a tall, blue troll with dark green hair, he had a short beard that was the same color as his hair and he carried a staff and he too was riding a sea lykar, it was muzzled up and covered in scars. "What's going on?" He firmly asked.

"That's Clay," Tekai whispered to Poppy and Branch, "the biggest jerk on this side of the cliff."

"We caught a sea lykar down by the shore." One of the riders responded, "she tried to escape sir." Clay dismounted his lykar,approached Spirit and looked at her in the eyes.

"Still a youngster but she'll be good help." He stated, Spirit lashed her head and tried to snap at Clay, he smacked her on the side of the head with his staff causing her to yelp.

"Hey!!! Leave her alone!!" Branch yelled. Clay perked up one of his ears and turned to Branch.

"Excuse me, what did you say?" Clay asked angrily.

"Oh sorry if you couldn't hear me but I said 'leave her alone!'" Branch replied sarcastically. Clay came face to face with him. Branch was a lot shorter than Clay so he had to turn his head upwards to face him.

"You better watch it big ears." Clay stated to him, Branch glared back, hurt.

"Back off Clay!" Tekai snapped.

"Don't you start Tekai!" Clay snapped back at her, threatening to hit Tekai with his staff.

"Chief Clay, I'm queen of the trolls and I say let the poor thing go." Poppy blurted out. Clay was amazed by the young queen's bravery.

"Queen Poppy, you rule your music trolls your way and let me rule my people in mine." Clay turned to Spirit again and pressed the end of his staff on her snout, "let's get you to the training arena."