Spirit Animals: The Stolen Crown

Prologue

Nazeer remembered how perfect his life was before the disasters happened. Not only to him but his parents and his brother also. He remembered running through the tall grass with Nazfir, his older brother, chasing each other and playing hide and seek and racing. He remembered the tree climbing challenges he had with him. He remembered curling into his dads lap while he told him stories about their ancestors. He could never keep them in his head because his dad had a habit of tickling him in the stomach every single time he could.

"Dad can you please stop tickling me. I want to hear the story!" Nazeer said in between giggles.

"Ah I don't think I can. Look my fingers have a mind of their own and they are coming." his father said wiggling his fingers closer to him.

"What animal do you think I will summon Dad?" Nazeer had always wanted a spirit animal as soon as his dad explained what it was. A animal that you summoned on your own randomly once you turned eleven. Having a partner, a friend for life and sticking through everything no matter what until death separates them. He wanted one desperately, the one he was holding out for the most was a cheetah.

"I honestly don't know. It could be anything and I have no way of guaranteeing you will summon one. Unless you drank the Bile but that doesn't exist anymore."

"Can you tell me stories about you and your spirit animal. You said that you could run faster than the wind? How did you do that?" His eyes immediately dropped and turned sad. "I'm afraid I'm not ready to talk about that." Nazeer knew that his spirit animal died during the second Conqueror War, but he never talked about it. He really wanted to know what his spirit animal was. He didn't even know his name.

"Dinner is ready come on." Nazeer's thoughts came to a halt and when the voice came.

"Looks like we have to go. We don't want to make Mom mad do we" he said winking.

"Ugh. Yours always like this. Whenever I ask you to tell me a story you keep on tickling me and I can't remember anything. But whenever I ask you tell me about your spirit animal you just clam up and don't say anything." Nazeer pouted. "Can you pleaaaseeee tell me about it next time," he whined. His dad laughed and bent down to kiss him on the forehead.

He opened the door and went to the living room. Their house wasn't exactly big but it wasn't small either. Their house was located a few miles away from the village. Nazeer's dad used to live in the village but ever since he married a woman from Amaya, the village kicked him out. It was also frowned upon by many people including Nazeer's grandparents. So he built his own house a few minutes away from the village so they could get whatever they needed. That didn't mean that the village liked them though.

His mom was setting the table and Nazeer went to help her. His mom was a tall woman with blonde hair and brown eyes. Nazeer was taking his seat when his brother came in. Nazfir was his older brother by 4 years and had black hair with blue eyes just like Nazeer, but the similarities ended there. Nazeer inherited most of his traits from his dad, so he looked more Niloan. Nazfir on the other hand was more on the Amayan side since he had inherited most of his traits from their mom. However they both had Niloan accents.

"Hey Nazfir where were you?"

"I was in the village getting some equipment."

"What? Why did you need equipment?"

"Because Dad said he would give me combat training now that I'm 12. Did you forget? You were always pestering Dad to teach you but he said when you're 12. Now that I'm 12 Dad is going to teach me." He smirked, "you better be careful now cause I'll be able to throw a knife and impale your head." 

"I'd love to see you try with that horrible eyesight of yours. I don''t need to remind you what happened with that wild ostrich right." Nazfir was about to retort when a messenger bird came in through the window with a letter tied to its leg. 

"Great it's probably from grandmother. It's probably going to be another letter of trying to get Mom and Dad to leave." Nazfir said while reaching for the letter tied on the bird. "You need to get away from him. One day he's going to do something and you'll regret marrying him" Nazfir said mimicking grandmothers voice. That got everyone at the table to laugh. Nazeer knew about how his relatives were against each other and constantly fighting because they were against his parents marriage. He didn't know why but everything they did sounded really stupid. Nazfir read the letter and tossed it aside.

"It said exactly what I said. Honestly this dumb feud is just getting annoying." Nazfir threw the letter behind his back and started reaching for the food that was being set.

"Go wash your hands" Nazeer's mother said slapping Nazfir's hands away from the food.

"Okay. Jeez you didn't need to slap it that hard. Try being more gentler." Nazfir left to do as he was ordered. Nazeer started setting the table and as soon as he started putting food on his plate, a scream sounded. At first he didn't understand it. Who was screaming and why? His dad immediately stood up from his chair and ran, but Nazfir was crawling back like the crab walk with his hands looking at the door in fear. That's when Nazeer realized it was Nazfir that screamed. Nazeer didn't understand why until the cheetah came out. It had a glossy yellow hide with dark black spots that were as dark as the night sky he watched. Nazeer couldn't do anything but admire it.

"Nazfir, where did this come from?" Dad asked while slowly inching towards the table. "Do you know how it got inside?"

"I don't know. When I was going to wash my hands, I started feeling dizzy for some reason. Then there was a flash of light and when it disappeared the cheetah was there" he whimpered. That was when Nazeer realized what had actually happened.

"Nazfir you summoned a spirit animal!" Nazeer said wondrously. At that moment all Nazeer could do was just stare at the cheetah. It wasn't making any noise or any threating move. It just stood there and intently watched his brother.

"You have to touch your spirit animal in order for the bond to be complete right?" Even though his dad didn't tell him a lot about his spirt animal, he still talked about the aspects of it and how it worked. So Nazeer knew know how the bond worked and what could happen overtime. He watched as his brother held his hand and the cheetah walked towards him and nuzzled his head on his hand. Nazeer just stood in place and watched with wonder and jealously as his brother, got the spirit animal that he always wanted.