Spirit Animals: Life Of Tarik - Book 1

Battle On The River

Tarik struggled to stand up, using the tree to help him. The guards' horses were lost in the forest and Tarik had no energy to find them. When Fang and Lumeo had retreated back to Tarik, more of Lynk's men showed up on horseback, keeping their distance and calling orders to each other. There was more than ten men.

His heart almost stopping in fright, Tarik ran for the first time since he had escaped Lynk's base. Fang and Lumeo, also alarmed, followed Tarik down to the river as the men chased them. Tarik's legs felt like jelly as he ran, and his stamina was draining quickly due to the lack of energy and food.

Behind him, Fang was growling and Lumeo used his power to boost Tarik's movements, making him faster than the men's horses. The rocky land caused the horses to be slowed down as they were not use to running on rocks.

"Don't let him get away!" Called one of the men from afar. The horses sounded like a stampede, and Tarik kept running out of fear until he reached the river. Fang and Lumeo jumped into the river and aided Tarik as they began to swim across together. He leant on Fang to stop himself from sinking to the bottom and Lumeo's power was increasing.

"I don't know if I can do this," Tarik said to his friends out of tiredness and fright. Lumeo squeaked as he was trying his best, and Fang kept swimming with Tarik on him.

By now, the horses had reached the river, some jumped in and others had been dismounted as the archers got their bows ready.

"Ready!" Called the leading archer as they pulled an arrow.

"Aim!" The archers aimed at Tarik.

"Get down!" Tarik let go of Fang and dragged him underwater, Lumeo swam underwater too. The surface was still close, and they kept swimming forward.

"Fire!" Ordered the archer, and his men fired their arrows passed the men on horses who were swimming after Tarik.

Arrows landed into the water around Tarik, they kept pushing forward until he noticed a trail of blood in the water. Lumeo and Fang were still swimming with him, he tried to figure out who got hit as fear and worry struck him. He struggled because he was running out of air and couldn't push himself to the surface. Holding onto Fang, the cat slowly started getting closer to the surface, also running out of air.

More arrows pierced the river's surface, one striking into Tarik's leg. He had screamed underwater, which made him lose all of his air and he had no choice but to force Fang to swim upwards, Lumeo followed behind. Taking a deep breath, one of the men on horseback grabbed Tarik off of Fang and dragged him out of the river on the other side of the archers on his horse. The men had caught up and had the trio surrounded, Tarik was too weak to fight back.

He looked at Lumeo who was biting the man who had him, but Fang was on the ground with an arrow sticking out of his shoulder. He had been hit in the water, Tarik realised. Fang watched Lumeo and Tarik as he had swords pointed at him.

"We've got you now, boy!" The man threw Tarik onto the sand causing him to be winded. Lumeo jumped to him straight away squeaking in panic.

"Tie him up," the man ordered the other guards. As they approached Tarik with ropes, Lumeo jumped on a guard's face. Fang finally stood and started growling savagely at his guards.

"Hurry up! Stop wasting time!" The leading man was getting impatient, and Tarik couldn't feel his leg. He peeked down to see lots of blood on the sand in the area of his leg.

The guard threw Lumeo off of him, and his face had been scratched and bitten. Lumeo ran back to Tarik as Fang watched in anger. This time they will have to be captured once again.

Someone please save us.