Spirit Animals: Life Of Tarik - Book 1

Anger And Frustration

LaReimaja looked out of her window watching the other kids outside play. It had been around 3 days since Tarik left to join the Greencloaks, she had wondered if he had made it in safely. She heard someone open the door behind her. Quickly, she turned around and saw that it was Marlo.
"Hi LaReimaja," Marlo said while smiling, "do you want to play outside with me? Chan's being mean".
LaReimaja sighed, "Fine".
Together, they both went outside and picked up a small fluffy ball. Marlo threw it at LaReimaja first, hitting her in the arm on accident. Marlo apologised. Now it was LaReimaja's turn to throw. She gently raised the ball in front of her chest and threw it forward. Marlo caught it easily. Both the children played for a few minutes, laughing and joking around. But that's when LaReimaja saw him. He was watching her and her brother play together.
"How creepy..." she thought.
Marlo's eyes looked to where LaReimaja's were. The boy looked a bit older than her. He wore a dark robe with gold rings on his fingers. He had tan skin and dark hair with piercing eyes.
"Hello?" said LaReimaja.
Marlo didn't say a word, he dropped the ball and hid behind his older sister for protection. The boy walked towards them calmly.
"Hello," the boy said softly.
"Who are you?" LaReimaja began, her eyes turning into black slits as the boy walked closer and closer.
The boy stopped, noticing her worried look.
"That's not important right now, but I would like to know your name. You are beautiful," the boy kneeled down and kissed LaReimaja on the top of her hand.
LaReimaja's eyes widened, her face began to redden, she felt very nervous around this boy. He was quite good looking too.
"Umm... I'm LaReimaja," she smiled softly.
"I am Faisel," the boy stood up straight and looked at Marlo, "and you are?"
Marlo didn't move or make a sound, he gripped LaReimaja's shirt tightly as if wanting to go home.
"Oh, that's my little brother, his name is Marlo", LaReimaja felt the tight grip and looked at him as if saying "Let go! That hurts!"
"Ah, I see," Faisel said, he opened his mouth as if to say something else but was interrupted.
"What on Erdas is going on here? Who are you? What are you doing so close to my sister?" it was Chan, he marched forward to Faisel angrily and grabbed the boy by his collar. Chan was much taller compared to Faisel.
"I'm sorry I-"
"Get going!" demanded Chan as he loosened his grip on the boy.
Faisel ran away as fast as he could back to his hut. LaReimaja stepped forward.
"What was that for?" she glared.
"You don't know him! I saw what he did!" Chan snapped. LaReimaja and Chan broke into a big argument. Marlo stepped back and looked down sadly, he wished Tarik was still here.
"I know what I should do" Marlo thought. He made his way to Ahmar's hut to get help.

~~~

Tarik woke up to Lishay's voice telling him and Dorian to get up.
"Hurry! We're going to be late!" she commanded.
Tarik sat up sleepily and looked at Dorian. His hair looked like a mop. Tarik managed to break a small smile at the sight. Dorian just rolled his eyes and got up to follow Lishay to breakfast. Tarik did the same, still smiling cheekily.

The three of them sat down at a long wooden table. Tarik sat across from Dorian and Lishay, he rested his arms on the table until breakfast was ready.
"I heard that we're going to be training with our spirit animals today," said Lishay while pulling out a piece of paper. Dorian peeked over to see what it said.
"Do you know who our mentor is?" Tarik asked politely.
"I'm not sure, but we'll find out after breakfast, I hope he or she is nice".
Tarik and Dorian nodded. A Greencloak chef approached the children, serving their meals.
"Enjoy!" he said as he went to serve other hungry Greencloaks. Tarik got delicious looking fish with salad, Dorian was curiously looking at his meal which looked like mushroom soup, Lishay gladly took a bite out of her sushi roll.
"Yummy!" she said.

With full bellies, the children finished their meals and left no scraps. They waited for the training bell to ring, but while they did, they decided to have a conversation.
"Where are you guys from?" said Lishay while putting her plate to the side.
"Eura," replied Dorian.
"I'm from Nilo, and you?" said Tarik.
"I'm from Zhong," smiled Lishay. Tarik smiled back at her. The sound of a bell rang out into the dining area, Tarik and Dorian paused.
"That's the bell! Let's go! We don't want to make our mentor angry on the first day," Lishay rushed out of her seat and waited for the others to follow. They all made their way to the training room.
"How do you know where all this is?" questioned Dorian, panting.
"I read over a map of Greenhaven before you guys showed up," Lishay stopped at a door and opened it. In the centre of the room, stood Olvan and a very tall man. He looked like he was from Eura, he had black hair, broad shoulders and black eyes.
"Black eyes?" Tarik tried not to stare.
Olvan watched the new recruits approach.
"Lishay, Tarik and Dorian," Olvan took a pause, "This man here will be your new mentor, respect him, and he will respect you. His name is Ricko," Olvan stepped aside to let the children get a better view of Ricko.
"Hello sir!" Lishay cheerfully said as she shook the man's hand wildly.
"Hello," said Ricko with a small smile as he let go of Lishay's hand. Dorian waved shyly at him.
"Good morning," Tarik greeted.
Olvan looked at Dorian with an eyebrow raised, "Are you going to greet your mentor with words?"
Dorian panicked, "H-H-Hello... Sorry". Tarik wondered if he was okay.
"That's alright," Ricko said as he nodded to Olvan as if signalling for him to leave. Olvan nodded to Ricko, then turned and exited the room.
"Today, you're going to be learning how to use your spirit animals correctly in and out of combat," Ricko took a step back as a flash of light appeared. Standing just in front of Ricko was a lynx, "This is my spirit animal, his name is Killer".
"You're serious?" Tarik asked, surprised.
"No, I'm joking, his name is Azrael", the man laughed. Azrael purred at his partner's comment.
"Spirit animals are not pets and they shall not be treated like pets, they are your partners and your allies, treat them well", Ricko's words sank deep into Tarik's head, Ricko continued, "Your first job to complete will be knowing how to put your spirit animal into dormant state and taking it back out again, I need you to summon all of your spirit animals, if you don't have one then you should not be here".
The children summoned their spirit animals one by one.
"Now, i want you all to look at your spirit animal, hold out your arm and wait until your animal is ready to go dormant," Ricko announced.
Tarik looked down at Lumeo and smiled. He held out an arm and pulled up his sleeve, patiently waiting for Lumeo to go dormant. In a flash of light, Lumeo disappeared.
"Well done Tarik," Ricko clapped. Tarik smiled and felt proud of himself for impressing his mentor first. Meanwhile, beside Tarik, Dorian seemed to be having trouble. His horned owl was paying no attention to him, it just puffed out its feathers and sat on the floor. Lishay was struggling too, Zhosur wasn't moving either.
"Maybe my bond is stronger?" thought Tarik.
Dorian's owl took flight into the air and landed on his shoulder.
"Ahh!" Dorian flinched and looked at his spirit animal with wide eyes until it flew off of him.
Zhosur was scratching the floor with his long claws.
"Zhosur! Cut it out!" Lishay snapped. Zhosur's eyes narrowed as he looked up at her.
Ricko face palmed and sighed miserably.