Born To Be Free | a trolls story

21. Finally free

"Almost..." Tekai had been working all day on a new brace for Spirit. In order for Spirit's tail flukes to get better, they had to be supported whether she was in the wild or not. "Done!" Tekai wiped her brow as she held up the brace for Correy to see.

"Looks great!" Correy commented, giving a thumbs up.

"Come on! Let's go try it on Spirit!" Tekai said. Manta followed along with Tekai and Correy to the lagoon. Even though the forest lykars were free and the races have been stopped, some decided to stay with their riders because of the bond they built with them, including Manta and Tekai who are inseparable no matter what.

It had been three days since Spirit woke up and was reunited with her pod, and those three days have been the best ever seen at the lagoon. Lykars all around, both sea and forest were free like they should be. The lagoon itself looked better than ever, once again the waterfalls were flowing, the back of the lagoon led to the open sea, it was a safe paradise for lykars again, just like it was all those years ago.

"Hey Branch!" Tekai called out to the blue troll who was sitting on the lagoon edge interacting with Spirit in the water. She held up the brace to show him. "I've just finished it!" Branch climbed down the rocks and ran to greet her, Spirit followed behind to see what was going on. "It's just like her old brace, but it's more lighter and stronger, it will also disconnect once her flukes are healed at the right angle just like the old one."

"Wow Tekai," Branch was impressed. "You really worked hard on this one!" The brace was a light grey color, a little lighter than Spirit's fur, and instead of having supports running up the length of each tail fluke, it had tough but flexible supports on the joints at the base of the flukes. Branch turned to Spirit who was sitting behind them. "Alright girl, let's get this on you." Spirit jumped back into the lagoon and waited for the two trolls at the lagoon edge. Unlike last time, Spirit seemed to be more excited to try out the new brace. Branch sat down at the edge of the rocks and stroked Spirit's head as she lined herself up against the lagoon edge. Spirit kept calm and let Tekai pull her tail onto the lagoon edge to put on the brace and waited patiently until Branch could tell her to go. Tekai twisted Spirit's flukes around to clip the brace into place and with one more twist, the brace was on.

"Alright Spirit, give it a try," Tekai stated. Spirit started to swim slowly away from the edge and tried diving down underwater. She poked her head above the water again to face Branch and Tekai.

"It feels great!" Spirit informed, "it actually feels a lot better than the last one!" Both the trolls smiled down at her.

"Why don't you try it out by giving those trolls a surprise?" Branch whispered in Spirit's ear as he pointed to a large group of trolls standing by the glass panels, looking at the lykars. Spirit nodded back and dove under the surface. She swam deep underwater before leaping high up into the air near the glass panels. She landed flat on her back, splashing water everywhere and drenching the trolls completely. Spirit let out a squeal of excitement as if she was laughing, then she dove again and jumped again, this time higher than she had ever done before, she did a back dive and landed back in the water nose-first. The trolls were in awe at Spirit's trick even if it got them a little wet. "Hey Spirit!" Branch called as he leaped onto one of the rocks that were further out in the water. Spirit knew exactly what he wanted her to do, she dove under the surface again and jumped high above Branch's head, spinning in a corkscrew and landing of the other side. "That one never gets old!" Branch exclaimed. Kotar noticed the jump from one of the rocks he was lying on.

"Some things never change," Kotar said. "You're still as energetic and athletic as your mother." Spirit giggled at her dad's comment.

"And I don't think that will ever change!" Storm added on, stretching out his body. "Do you think you can still lose to me in a race?" He teased.