🐻The Tribe🐻

Book I: The First Battle

“Now that you have weapons, you need armor, for yourselfs, and your animal companions.”, Leo said. We went to the Armor section, and we were blinded by brilliant, shiny armor. There were golden armor, silver armor, armors-as-dark-as-shadows, and other varieties of armor.

“These are Enchanted Honey, Gold, Silver, Bone steel, Stygian Iron, fire Rubies and Celestial Bronze.”, Leo explained.

“So do we need to have a… feeling for these armor?”, Sam asked. Leo laughed.

“No, no. I’ll fit your armor myself. But you do need to choose the armor ores. Usually, Celestial Bronze is lighter, but Bone Steel is stronger but heavier. My armor is made of Enchanted Silver. It’s basically Celestial Bronze, but it can break in a sudden attack. The Fire Ruby armor is fireproof. Enchanted Honey is very strong, but weak on the arrow-attack-stuff. It’s like Roy’s magical armor. Enchanted Gold is like Enchanted Silver, but made of gold.”, Leo said.

“I guess I’ll take the Fire Ruby armor.”, Jack said.

“Then I'll take the Celestial Bronze armor.”, Sam said.

“K”, Leo said. He disappeared into a room, and came out a few minutes later, with some suits of armor. Two bright red suis, fit for a human boy, and a huge bird. Another suit of armor was the color of chocolate. Obviously, this one was fit for a human girl, and a dolphin-with-wings-and-a-unicorn-horn. Finally, Leo brought out a huge piece of bronze, fit for a bear. My friends tried it on, and amazingly, it fit all of them.

“Cool. This is really comfortable.” Sam said. Leo smiled.

“That’s a good sign,” he said. But just then, a bell sounded. Leo’s smile vanished, and a serious expression took over.

“It’s time for Charlie’s funeral. You, know, the… guard who died today.”. Leo’s voice cracked in the middle. Fern went over, and did what it seemed like, a hug. Leo straightened up once more.

“Come on”, he said. “To Charlie’s funeral”.

Chapter 12

The walk to Main Street, where Charlie’s funeral was held, was tough. To begin with, we were a groupie that contained 2 bears, an eagle, a Uniphin, and 4 kids. People whispered and nudged one another, and kept shooting glances at us, when they thought we weren’t looking. Of course, we were looking. My friends were still wearing armor. But I could see that the huge number of people were just wearing normal cloth, and weren’t even carrying weapons. As I watched, Balder went up on a stage, with a bonfire in the middle. Over it, hang a coffin-like thing, with a purple blanket(?) sort of thing draped over it. Balder raised his hands for silence. The crowd went silent at once. Balder started speaking

“Today…”, he started. “Today, we lost a fine warrior. Charlie, son of the great general, William S. Johnson, made some marks. He led an army to defeat a Pack raid, and defended the Tribe’s borders fiercely. He risked his life, today, to save one of our guests. He deserves to be sent with honor.”, Balder finished. He looked at Leo, and nodded to him. Leo slowly went up the stairs to the stage.

“Charlie… was my best friend. We trained together as apprentices, and fought many battles together. We…”, Leo trailed off. Balder put his hand on Leo’s shoulder.

“Are you ready”, Balder asked softly. Leo nodded glumly. He and Balder each took a rope, and pulled. The coffin lowered into the leaping flames, and disappeared in a golden shower of light. A moment of silence gripped the clearing. Suddenly, a groan sounded. I turned around in astonishment, as a Tribe warrior limped into the clearing, blood pouring from many wounds. He looked around wildly, and said,

“The Pack has sent a legion to attack the Tribe!”, he said in a terrified voice. Then, the warrior fell to the ground, unconscious. Everyone was stunned. Then Balder yelled,

“Warriors, grab your weapons and armor. Get the little ones to safety, right away. Bears, be on the alert.”. With that, Balder jumped from the stadium, and rode Muck Nuck, followed by other young men, to the Big house, where it seemed that their armor and weapons were stored. My friends already had their armor and weapons, and I summoned the power(lol) of the ring, to cover myself in armor, and a golden lance. Jack got on Jackson with his fiery armor, bow at the ready. Sam pulled out her twin blades, and got on Bellatrix. Leo pulled out a sword, and a shield, and got on Fern. The others were coming back with shimmering armor, and clashing weapons, when the first wave of Pack warriors burst through the thorn walls.

Chapter 13

As a wave of Pack warriors, and panthers raced through the meadow, me, and my friends charged at the enemy. Roughly 50 against 4. Yup. We had all the cards(insert gagging noises here). I took on the lead Pack warrior. He sliced at me with his sword, but I dodged, and Moon did what is called in Korean, a Ssa-da-gui to the panther. As expected, the panther lurched left, and I hit the Pack warrior in the face with the butt of my lance. He fell, unconscious. I was feeling pretty good, until 4 enemies surrounded me. I was like, “Well this sucks”, when Sam, or should I say Belletrix, drove her into one of the enemy’s back. The enemy toppled, and Sam faced the other Pack warrior, blades slashing. The Pack warrior fled. I faced the other side, to see the other two Pack warriors were being pummeled by volley after volley of arrows. My friends, or me, didn’t even practice fighting, but we seemed to have violence, I mean good fighting spirit. I was fighting for so long, I didn’t even notice how much time had passed. One time, I was fighting a panther, when another Pack warrior charged behind my back, and tried to impale me in the back with his spear. If Leo hadn’t charged at that sneaky(cough) Pack warrior, I would have been Roy-Ka-Bab. I flashed a grateful glance at Leo

“Thanks”, I said. Leo gave me a grin.

“I’ve always got your back, brother.”. With that, we charged back into battle. I fought and fought and fought. At some point, a Pack warrior with some extra skulls on his helmet shouted,

“Fall back! Remember the orders!”. The other invaders immediately stopped fighting. They turned back, and fled. I stood there, panting, as I watched the enemy go. I was stunned that I hadn’t died. I was so stunned that I didn’t register the hand on my shoulder. I spun around, holding my lance, and almost impaled Balder, if he didn’t have amazing reflexes.

“Whoa there. The battle’s over. We won.”, he said. But he sounded worried, and defeated. I was about to breath out a sigh of relief, when I noticed that.

“What’s wrong?”, I asked, feeling uneasy. Balder looked into my eyes. They were filled with sadness.

“Roy… someone was taken. Vandalizm wasn’t the Pack’s only reason for attack. I believe that they came here to take Leo hostage.”.

Chapter 14

“We NEED to take action! We need a rescue mission to save Leo! We need a-”. I was cut off by Balder.

“Roy. You know we can’t do that.”.

“NO I DON’T. I don’t know WHY we can’t just.”. I stopped abruptly. Even I knew the answer to my own question.

“We can’t just go in recklessly. We don’t even know the full force of the Pack. They might even be preparing for a second wave.”, Balder said. I took a deep breath.

“Then I’ll go myself. Leo is my brother.”, I said. Then, I turned around and stormed towards the entrance. Balder raised hands in a gesture. Then as I tried to open the doors, two guards jumped out of nowhere, and blocked my way with their spears. I turned around furious. Balder raised both of his hands.

“You are our best chance for survival. If you go, then we shall all perish”. I sneered(Or I tried too. I don’t know how people in books sneer).

“So I’m your slave. And I have to do everything you order me to do. Why?”, I growled. Balder sighed.

“When you say that we sound like the villains. But think about it. If we gather our thoughts, and plan our rescue mission, we can get Leo back, and defeat the Pack. I sighed.

“I guess you're right. I’ll wait.”. Balder finally managed a weak smile.

“I’m glad you agree. We have prepared a room for you, and your friends.”. I nodded. I thanked Balder, and me, Jack, and Sam followed a guard called Don to a house. We went straight to bed after cleaning our teeth with things similar to ‘Gargle’. The beds were surprisingly comfortable. Sam went into a different room, and Jack and I slept on the couch. Don left after saying good night. I waited a few hours, until the noises outside lessened. Then, I quietly slipped out of the couch, and put my cloth on. I noticed that Jack was out of his bed. I spun around, and saw him looking at me, arms crossed.

“What are you doing?”, I asked. Jack shrugged.

“What are YOU doing?”, he asked. I swallowed.

“Well, um, I was thinking about going for a night walk around the city.”. Jack snorted.

“Yeah right.”. He tossed me a pack. I caught it, and looked inside. There was food, flashlights, and canteens full of water. When I looked at Jack, he was also wearing the same pack.

“I borrowed it,'' Jack said simply.

“Wha? How, why?”, I stammered. Jack sighed.

“I know you. I’m your best buddy. I knew that you were acting in front of Balder. You were going to rescue Leo, right? Well, Sam and I discussed it, and we’re going with you.”. At which point, Sam burst through her room, wearing the same pack as me and Jack did.

“I gave the call to Jackson, Moon, Fern, and Bellatrix.”, she said. She frowned at me.

“So you’re finally awake.”.

“What, no, I was never even slee-”. Sam kindly said to shut up. I shut up.

“Anyway, let’s get out of here. I heard from gossipers here, and they say that the Pack will know if intruders were in there, by the intruder’s scent. So I brought these.”. Sam tossed me, and Jack some spray cans.

“Pepper spray?”, Jack asked. Sam rolled her eyes.

“Pepper spray has a strong scent.”, she said, like it was obvious.