Spirit looked up into the night sky, the stars shining into her blue eyes. She was thinking. Her mother dreamed of one day returning to the lagoon, she promised Spirit that they would go out into the endless ocean and find her father Kotar and her brother Storm. Spirit looked around. Is this the lagoon that Kayla would want to return to? What was once a safe haven for lykars was now plagued with fear and misery. But she's gone now. 10 years in captivity and never got to feel the ocean's tide on her skin again. Memories danced though Spirit's head as she looked around the lagoon, she remembered the races her and Storm would have, she may not have beaten him at racing but she was the highest jumper by far, then she remembered sliding out on the edge of the pool side with Askar and the crowds cheering at the stadium, she remembered the fun that she and Askar had. They were inseparable but he's still in the stadium swimming in endless circles around the pool. There was no way Spirit could leave him behind but what could she do? If she returned to the stadium she would be put on the grey van and sent to be killed.
Spirit lay down on the edge of the lagoon and tried to shut her eyes, she felt tears run down her cheeks.

***

Spirit was up early in the morning, she was floating in the water with her head on the surface. Branch came by and crouched down on the edge of the lagoon beside Spirit.

"Hey there." Branch said calmly reaching his hand out to touch the lykar, "I'm sorry you're stuck in here but I'm going to help get you out." The lykar turned around to face Branch and started to growl softly. "I know, I don't want you to be here as much as you do but if you trust me we can get you back into the wild as soon as the next fortnight. What do you say?" Spirit spat water into the blue troll's face and dived underwater. "This may take a while." Branch sighed.

Branch jumped onto one of the rocks further in the lagoon but not so far that he couldn't get back to the edge. He held up a fish with his hair trying to get the lykar to eat it.

"Come on girl, I've got a fish for you." Branch called, he held his nose because the fish smelt horrible, how do lykars eat eat these? But she was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly she jumped up, grabbed the fish in her mouth and splashed back into the water pulling Branch in with her. Branch coughed as he climbed back onto the rock.

Branch wasn't giving up. He held out a stick for the lykar hoping it would distract her.

"You honestly think that I'm a puppy don't you?" Spirit thought. She dove down into the water just under where Branch was holding the stick. She quickly lifted her head out of the water, grabbed the stick out of Branch's hands and went straight back down, Branch knelt down to try and see where she went but she sneaked up behind him and pushed him into the water with her snout. He climbed onto the rock again and glared at Spirit who was smiling at him smugly.
Branch sat on the edge of the rock with his feet and his tail in the water, he sighed. He felt something tug on his tail but he immediately saw that it was the lykar. She had his tail in her jaws.

"Ow! No stop that!" Branch yelped but the lykar didn't let go, she pulled him off of the rock and swam towards the glass panels, Branch screamed as Spirit dragged him along, then she leaped up in the air, letting go of Branch and smacking him with her flukes onto the shore. He landed on his back with a thud.

"Well it's not going as well as you thought is it?" Poppy joked, Branch sat up and rubbed the back of his head.

"Poppy you need to help me, this lykar is going to be the death of me!" Branch yelled. Poppy stroked his tail which was slightly bruised from when Spirit grabbed it in her mouth.

"You did say that you didn't need any help." Poppy giggled, Branch groaned. "But if you do want help then you know what you need to do."

"I'm not asking that kid for help." Branch grunted. Poppy raised an eyebrow. "Ugh fine!"

***

Tekai was in the stables with Manta, she was feeding him some fruit and scratching him behind the ears which made him make a low groaning sound as if he was purring, Tekai heard a voice.

"I can't believe I'm about to say this but I need your help," Branch said from behind her.

"Well look who came crawling back," Tekai teased, "I'm surprised you haven't lost a limb yet." Branch rolled his eyes.

"Very funny but seriously this lykar is going to kill me!" Branch yelled.

"Well I'd love to help but unfortunately I can't because I'm 'just a kid' and I can't do much." Tekai said sarcastically and she gave him a smug look, Branch groaned when he heard Tekai using his own words against him.

"Look just forget I said that, please help me."

"No, you're not going respect me so I'm not going to help you." Tekai went back to playing with Manta. Branch saw that there was a lykar lying in the straw with a scratch mark down its eye.

"What happened to this one's eye?" Branch asked as he approached it. Tekai made her way towards him.

"She was in one of the lykar races and she got in a fight with another lykar." Tekai sighed. "These races are horrible." She sat beside the lykar and stroked its head.

"Does she belong to you?" He asked.

"No," Tekai replied, "but it seems like I'm the only one in this village that actually cares for lykars, the other riders just use them for races and hunting."

"Look kid, if this sea lykar doesn't let us tame her in two weeks then she is going to end up like these lykars." Branch said, Tekai didn't say anything, "which is why I need your help." Tekai turned to face him.

"Okay, I'll help you."

Branch and Tekai walked through the forest to the lagoon.

"If I'm going to help you then we need to change a few things," Tekai stated, "don't call me kid, short or anything downgrading, got it?" Branch couldn't help but laugh.

"I'm sorry but there's no way I can take that seriously," Branch laughed, "you're short, fuzzy and your ears are bigger than your head."

"Hey! I'm a warrior! You don't want to mess with me!"

"If you were a warrior then why didn't you use your hair to rescue Clay?" Tekai went silent, "when he was in the lagoon Poppy and the others did their best to help and you did nothing, you're just a coward."

"Say that again I DARE YOU!" Tekai said through gritted teeth.

"Coward." Branch teased as he flicked Tekai's nose.

"Okay then," Tekai cracked her knuckles, Branch scoffed. Tekai kicked him in the stomach then in his knees, she stamped on his tail with her prosthetic leg and grabbed him by his vest and pulled him so his face was just centimetres away from her face. "Now listen here big ears! I am NOT a coward, I am one of the toughest trolls there are and if you even try to insult me again I will punch you in that big, purple nose of yours!"

"Okay okay!" Branch eyes were wide with fear, "you win, please get your foot off me, I think I'm losing blood circulation in my tail." Tekai let go of Branch and pushed him over so he fell on his butt, he gently lifted his tail. "Ugh I've already had the sea lykar bite my tail and now I just had a metal leg stamp on it."

"Well you've got a tough tail haven't you," Tekai smiled then she pointed to a deep notch near her tail tuft. "A critter bit me and took a chunk out of my tail, you get used to it."

"Well I think that this sea lykar is a little bigger than a critter," Branch laughed.

When they got to the lagoon, Spirit was floating near the surface of the water, her eyes were open but she wasn't moving.

"She doesn't look that happy," Tekai said as she watched her through the glass panels but Branch just stared at the lykar. "Are you okay tough-tail?"

"I don't know why but she just looks so familiar," said Branch, "also why did you call me tough-tail?"

"The nickname is growing on me, I think it's cute." Branch just rolled his eyes at Tekai's comment.

They started to try and tame Spirit, they tried feeding her fish, reaching out to pet her, giving her back rubs but nothing worked, Spirit just pulled them into the water, threw them into the air and attempted to bite them. Branch and Tekai crawled onto the lagoon edge for what seemed like the hundredth time, they lay down on the rocks and panted.

"Okay so trying to lure her with the entire bucket of fish didn't work," Branch panted. "How many fish have we got left anyway?"

"Dude, she's now eating the bucket! She ate all the fish!" Tekai said.

"Maybe if we..." Branch was interrupted by Tekai.

"Maybe if we what? She's only tried to kill us 6 times!" Spirit then came up and bit Tekai on the leg. Branch gasped.

"Oh don't worry, wrong leg!" Tekai laughed Spirit let go of Tekai's prosthetic and swam away from them. The two trolls watched as Spirit swam around the lagoon. "Is it just me or does she seem really agitated?"

"Yeah she does also I think she's gradually getting slower."

"Do you think she's tired?" Tekai asked.

"I don't know."
Spirit slid out onto the edge of the lagoon, not far away from where Branch and Tekai were, she was scratching her face, trying to pull her rein off. Tekai started walking towards her.

"Tekai what are you doing?" Branch asked but Tekai didn't answer. Spirit growled when she saw Tekai walking towards her. "Tekai stop she's going to kill you!" Tekai reached her hand out and placed it on the lykar's snout, Spirit stopped growling.

"Easy," Tekai whispered to her, then she attempted to take off the rein but Spirit started to snarl again. "Heh you don't scare me." She undid the buckle of the rein and slipped it off of Spirit's head. Spirit looked into her eyes as if she was thanking her and then ran off and dived back into the water. Branch stood next to Tekai.

"How did you do that?" He asked her.

"She needs to know that we're not a threat," Tekai whispered into Branch, "And that stupid muzzle wasn't helping at all." Spirit seemed a lot calmer with the muzzle off but Branch could see the marks that it left on her face.

"We'll try again in the morning," Branch stated.