Spirit Animals: Life Of Tarik - Book 1

Attack

The sun was beginning to set and the wind started getting colder. The sound of horse hooves on hard ground rang in Tarik's ears. When was this journey going to end?

"I'm hungry," complained Dorian.
"You will have to wait until we set up our camp," Ricko shot him a look of sympathy, as if he was hungry too. Lishay grunted, not looking up at anybody, but instead traced the markings on the horse's fur. "So Tarik, are you feeling better today?" Ricko said.
Tarik snapped to attention when he heard his name. "What do you mean?"
"Well earlier yesterday you fainted".
"Oh, yes! Umm... I was never feeling sick though", Tarik admitted. Ricko stared at him with his dark eyes. Tarik felt uneasy.
It's almost as if he's staring right through my soul, he gulped.
Tarik made his horse go a little bit faster so that he was riding beside his mentor. "I have a question".
"Yes?" Ricko said.
"What... What happened to your eyes?"
Ricko was silent for a moment. Tarik tried not to be rude but the silence had given it away. After a few heartbeats, Ricko spoke, "Poison".
"Oh? But wouldn't that have made you blind?" Tarik watched him closely.
"Maybe I'll tell you the full story later because right now I think I heard something over there", Ricko pointed to a bush ahead of them. The young Greencloaks stopped and looked around. "Make sure none of your horses make a sound, I think it's a wolf or something", Ricko whispered to the group. Suddenly, a flash of silver jumped out of the bush and knocked Lishay clean off her horse. With a scream and a bang, Lishay pulled out her dagger and turned to face her opponent. Tarik, Dorian and Ricko had dismounted and drew their weapons too. When Tarik had turned around, he saw a man wearing iron studded armour, and a bear stood behind him, baring its teeth at the Greencloaks. Tarik had guessed it was the man's spirit animal.
"Are they Conquerors?" whispered Dorian to Ricko.
"No, they're bandits. Fancy running into them at this time of day", replied Ricko. More bandits jumped out of the bushes and had circled the group of Greencloaks. They were outnumbered.
"Greetings", a tall, scarred man stepped forward with a deer following behind him. "What brings you to this lovely evening?"
"We're just passing through, we mean no harm", Ricko's voice stammered. The bandit raised an eyebrow and sneered.
"Why are you on our land?" he snapped.
"We didn't know this was your land!" spat Ricko. "The last thing we want to do is run into crazy people like you!"
"Are you Greencloaks?" the man asked, surprised.
"Yes, and we're not afraid of you", growled Lishay. She looked like she was ready to kill somebody, but she stood her ground.
Another bandit stepped forward, he was shorter but more muscular than the leader. "Feisty girl", he teased.
Lishay shot him an angry glare.
The bandit leader laughed. "You children are so pathetic! Why would the Greencloaks even accept you when your so small and weak?" The bandits yelled out their agreement as their leader challenged the Greencloak children.
"You would of wished you have never said a thing to us by the time we're done with you!" spat Tarik. "We may be children, but we're stronger than you think! We don't care what you say about us, we're only doing our duties as Greencloaks by trying to help a village or two!"
"Yeah! You people stink!" Dorian spat on a bandit's shoe. But Tarik knew he had gone too far.
"Attack!" The bandit leader hissed. Tarik's heart sank as the bandits charged toward them. He dropped into a fighting crouch and watched as a bandit approached him with his weapon drawn. The bandit slashed fiercely at Tarik but missed. In a flash of light, Lumeo appeared and lunged at the bandit, scratching and biting his face. Tarik sliced the bandit's leg, making him fall over. Meanwhile, Lishay was fighting the bandit with the bear spirit animal. Zhosur and the bear were wrestling on the ground, both yowling and roaring at the same time. The bandit had knocked Lishay off her feet, making her run into Tarik and knocking him over.
"Sorry!" Lishay apologised.
"Look out!" cried Tarik. As confusion and fear ran across the girl's face, she ducked just in time of the bandit's mace. Lumeo came racing forward and stood infront of Tarik and Lishay protectively, baring his teeth. The bandit laughed and turned away to where Dorian and Ricko were. They were surrounded by a crowd of bandits, unable to fight back, Ricko had pulled Dorian close to him so that the young Greencloak was unharmed. The bandits slashed at Ricko. Suddenly, unfamiliar Greencloaks had emerged from the bushes, charging into the bandits and chasing most of them away. Ricko had let go of Dorian and looked around, relieved. One of the Greencloaks had knocked a bandit over and kicked him in the face multiple times until he fled, screaming for his life. Once they had all gone, the Greencloaks turned to the group.
"Lynk! Thank Tellun you're here! We almost died", said Ricko, slowly getting up and walking over to an Amayan Greencloak with tan skin and green eyes.
"It's fine, we only heard the amount of racket that was going on to attract us. You could do with some treatment from Lenori", Lynk looked at Ricko's wounds with worry. The mentor was bleeding from the side of his head and some parts of his back were soaked with blood.
"What about the recruits?" Ricko asked. "I need to take them to Trunswick".
"I can take them, my followers can take you back to Greenhaven", the older Greencloak glanced at the others that followed him into the battle. Ricko paused for a moment, then spoke.
"All right, I will let you take them to Trunswick". With a nod of farewell, Ricko had faded into the distance. Lynk introduced himself to the younger Greencloaks, then led them to Trunswick.