Born To Be Free | a trolls story

5. Taming the beast

Funny to think that the lagoon that Spirit lived at for the first few years of her life was turned into this. When rivered trolls found new lykars around the island they would immediately take them to the lagoon to be trained but no one could call it a lagoon anymore. Not only was it falling apart but it was as if the fear of the many lykars who had their freedom stolen from them had stained the area. Would it ever be the same haven that Spirit used to know?

The rivered trolls led Spirit into a small pen and attached a rein onto her followed by a muzzle.

"Not the muzzle," Clay said from behind them, "I want to see what this sea lykar is capable of." Spirit glared at him and snarled but Clay just smirked at her. A gate was opened in front of her, she was pulled by a rope around her neck held by two rivered trolls, forcing her to swim through it. She found herself in the lagoon. Memories took over her mind as she remembered swimming with her family when she was still a calf, not a care in the world and now she comes back to see that it was just like the concrete tanks. Many rivered trolls gathered around the glass panels to watch Spirit. Tekai, Branch and Poppy tried to see what was happening and Branch gasped when he saw the rein around the lykar's head.
The two rivered trolls holding the rope pulled her towards the side of the lagoon, the rocky edges scratching her side. One of the lykar riders mounted Spirit, she jolted trying to get him off but he knelt down on the back of her neck and grabbed one of the straps on Spirit's rein.

"Ready?" The rivered troll holding the rope asked. The one on Spirit's back nodded, the rope was untied from her rein but Spirit didn't move.

"Oh you want to play do you?" She thought to herself, "fine let's play." And with one beat of her powerful tail Spirit was off like a shot with the rider holding on for dear life, Spirit started getting faster and faster until the rider lost grip of the rein and was hanging on by her dorsal fin which gave Spirit an idea, she swam towards the glass and smacked her back against it which made the rider leg go. Tekai started laughing.

"What? Are you not going to try train her?" Branch asked Tekai.

"Nah, it's way more fun watching them try and fail, now I wish I brought some popcorn." Tekai laughed. A couple of music trolls came to see what was going on, they didn't really understand what was happening but they just watched. The rivered trolls helped the rider out of the water and threw the rope around Spirit's neck and took her back to the same position she started at but this time with a new rider.
He mounted Spirit while another troll tried to untie the rope again but before she could Spirit suddenly swam off dragging both the trolls along with her. She jumped into the air and thrashed her body throwing the two trolls off her back and out of the lagoon. They tried it over and over again but Spirit just kept on throwing the off hitting them against the glass and even smacking them away with her tail flukes. Guy diamond started cheering in his auto-tuned voice followed by Biggie and Smidge. Branch and Tekai walked up to the glass.

"Wow, she's a trickster, isn't she." Branch laughed.

"That's what happens when you try to train a sea lykar." Tekai said. Clay started to get mad.

"Right," he grunted, "when you want something done, you've got to do it yourself." Again, they brought Spirit to the edge and Clay mounted her, one hand on the rein and held his staff in the other. The ropes were dropped and Spirit swam off like a bullet from a gun, jolting her body side to side trying to knock the blue troll off but he didn't loosen his grip. She smacked against the edge of the lagoon but he still held on, she dove down deep, she felt Clay poke her in the side with his staff until she launched herself out of the water and landing belly first into the water. Nothing worked.

"Thought you were tough didn't you?" Clay grinned, he poked Spirit in the side with his staff again. But Spirit wasn't giving up yet. She thrashed her head surprising Clay and started swimming as fast as she could with Clay holding onto Spirit's ears, she quickly dived again, she felt Clay's grip loosen, she spun her head around and grabbed his long, dark green hair in her mouth and started swimming to the surface. She leaped out of the water and threw Clay far into the lagoon.
Something snapped inside of Spirit, she felt that she couldn't control herself, it was more than anger. She swam towards him, circling him.