The Heart Of A Warrior: Battle of the Orhas

Prologue

"KARLY! STOP! IT'S NO USE!" He yelled pulling her back.

"Oh My God. What are we going to do?" Mom asked worriedly after the guards footsteps faded.

"I don't know Karly. We'll just have to figure it out soon though." Dad answered looking around the room. I noticed that they had the collars on. Mom was messing with hers. Dad looked at her. "Don't mess with it. Gods only know what it does."

"It itches." She complained. I stood up to walk across the large dark room. Mom saw me and screamed.

"What?" Dad asked turning around.

"What is that?"

"What do you think Karly? It's a tiger." Dad answered walking towards me. He ran his hand down my back and hit my still bleeding wound. I jolted away. The sudden movement scared mom, but dad just looked a little worried. He looked at his hand, now covered in red. "She's hurt."

"Isn't that the same tiger from our camp? The one with the note?"

"Yeah. She is." Dad answered looking into my eyes. He walked over to me. I slowly backed away afraid that he'd touch it again. "It's ok Hun. Let me see it."

"Matt, what if it's infected?"

"Does it look infected to you, Karly?" Dad asked annoyed.

"I meant the wound idiot." She corrected with her hands on her hips. "Think about it. Would you like someone touching a bad wound if it was infected?"

"Karly seriously. Maybe you can help." He replied. I meowed, and he turned back to me. I lowered my head because I didn't know what to do. I noticed his collar and pawed at mine to show him that I was wearing one too, and I hoped that he'd get it. He took it as an invitation to get closer to me. When he was back in front of me, he leaned down and looked at the collar. "She's got one too."

"A collar?" Mom asked as dad looked closely at it.

"It's on her tight too." He looked at me. "You must've really done something to piss Nolan off."

"Yeah, how do we get this fucking thing off?"

"I don't know, but she's an Orha."

"What?" Mom was now next to him. I guessed the fact that I was an Orha really helped her feel safer. Orha's don't normally hurt their own. Dad kept looking at me.

"Why won't you change back?" He asked, and I pawed at the collar again. "The Collar?"

"The collar must be stopping her from changing. Which means-."

"It'll stop us from changing as well. Maybe there's some way we can get this off her." Dad kept looking at the collar when the door swung open. My heart jumped when I saw him there. His gray eyes glowing through his silhouette.

"Oh, thank goodness I finally found you. Are you ok?" He said and ran over to me. The light glistened off the blood running down my back. He rubbed my head. "Maybe not. We'll figure something out. We need to get the hell out of here before Nolan finds out, baby."

"Who are you?" Dad asked, and I turned and walked behind mom and dad and nudged them forward.

"I know you guys are very confused, and I'll tell you anything you need to know when we're somewhere safe. We need to hurry." Andy said urgently.

"What's going on?" Mom asked scared.

"I'm here for you two and her. 'What's going on' is, I'm here to save you. On a special request just made by the tiger." Andy answered as we ran down the hallway. Andy, being a good tracker, always knew where to go. We all have a special trait. We're good at pretty much everything, but our special trait is what we're best at. Andy's a tracker and very smart. He learns quickly, Mom's a healer, and Dad and I do our best on the battle field. We are Warrior's best with magic.

"Who seems to trust you?" Dad asked.

"Yeah. You could say that." Andy smiled and looked down at me next to him. "Don't worry. I'll get the collars off when we're safe."

"You know how?" Dad asked.

"Yeah. It's pretty easy when you know the code."

"You know the code?" Mom asked. I could hear her getting out of breath.

"Yeah I'm not dumb. It's the same code Nolan used to lock it." Andy answered.

"Why are you helping us?" Mom asked.

"You weren't lying when you said they asked a lot of questions." He looked down at me and chuckled. Then we turned down another hallway to the right, and I could see the light shining through the exit doors. Which then was blocked by guards. "Shit. Didn't expect it to be that quick."

"What now?" Mom asked scared when guards blocked the other end of the hallway. I wasn't giving up this easily. I snarled.

"Wait for it." Andy held his hand in front of me to stop. He waited. "If you wait, all you'll have to do is run through them, and we have a clearing."

"What?" Dad asked.

"I was talking to her." Andy answered. Then He moved his hand to let me go. "GO!"

I bolted for the door. I could hear them right behind me, and when I got closer to the guards I jumped in the air and knocked them over like bowling pins. The rest moved. Andy caught up and opened the door for us so we could get out. We ran out the door and there was a long clearing then the woods.

"Alright Andy, what now?" Mom asked.

"Wait." He said as he pressed the buttons of my collar, but I wasn't even thinking when it fell off. Then an eagle flew down and landed in front of us. "Get on."

"What?" Mom looked frightened as Andy, dad, and I hopped on the back of the eagle.

"Karly. We seriously don't have time for this." Dad argued, and mom huffed and got on. She held on to dad. The eagle took off into the air, and she buried his face in dads back. "Relax Karly."

"Wolves don't fly." She cried.

"Neither do tigers." Andy said as I struggled to stay on. "She wasted no time."

"But she's having a hard time." Mom said, and I lost my grip and fell.

"NO!" Andy yelled as he grabbed my paw. I managed to change back, and now he had a hold of my wrist. My feet dangled, and my hair blew in the wind. I looked back up at him. "I'M NOT LETTING GO!"

"JUST HURRY DAMMIT!" I yelled with a smile as he pulled me back onto the eagle. I was able to help with my other arm, and with his help, I was able to pull myself back up. When mom saw me she gasped, but dad didn't say anything. I knew that he knew, but I thought he'd told her already. When we got settled, Andy wrapped his arm around my waist to hold me close to him, and I laid my head on his shoulder. I started to feel the pain from my wound. I hadn't looked at it yet, but if feels pretty bad. The eagle's head dropped, but he didn't lose his place in the air. With his other hand, Andy patted the eagle's back.

"Don't worry dad, I caught her."

"Just in the nick of time... as always." I smiled looking at him. He kissed me on the forehead. Mom and dad were quiet, so I figured she was still trying to let the information sink in, and he was helping her. I turned and looked at them. "I'll answer what I can when we get where we're going."

"Speaking of... Where are we going?" Dad asked.

"It's a surprise." I answered. "Well... somewhat."

"How?" Dad asked.

"How do you know?" Mom asked. "What's there?"

"You'll see." I answeredlaying my head back on Andy's shoulder...