Page 21 of Spirit Trials (The Spirit Kingdoms #1)

I ignore my aching body and my thirst as we walk. I was thirsty when I woke up, and it seems magnified after that meat. “We need to find water,” I say more to myself than to them. I see Kinsley glancing around. “What’s wrong?” I quickly ask, looking around for a threat.

"Nothing. I'm just finding things to be thankful for.” She must see my blank look. “Even when things aren’t good, there are always things to be thankful for. And when you find them and name them, it helps your spirit. The sun—it will warm us after a cold, wet night. The duskwisp meat we ate for breakfast. Safety during the night. We’re still alive.

” She falls silent after that, and I’m sure she’s thinking about Sariah.

Wanting to draw her thoughts away from her needless death, I join in.

“We still have our weapons.” When she turns to me in confusion, I point to my knives and my bow. “They didn’t take our weapons from us last night; that’s something to be thankful for.” The sad look leaves her eyes, and her eyes brighten.

“Yes. That’s definitely something to be thankful for.” She turns to Harper, who hasn’t said a word since we started walking. “What about you, Harper? Anything to be thankful for?” I feel her dark look before she even opens her mouth and know it’s not going to be what Kinsely’s looking for.

“It’s okay,” I say quickly. “If Harper wants to join in, she will.” I breathe a sigh of relief when both of them stay quiet.

We haven't gone very far when I get that feeling again. I put my hand up, and Harper and Kinsley both stop without a sound. I nock an arrow and plant my feet wide. But it’s not a competitor nor a wild animal that greets us; it’s a gryphon.

I lower my bow as I take in the majestic spirit animal.

It’s just as Rysden said—he has the body and tail of a powerful lion, but his head and huge wings are an eagle.

It’s the most amazing sight I’ve ever seen; I can’t seem to tear my gaze away.

It watches us with eyes that are almost orange, and I fight the urge to take a step backward.

It won’t hurt us, I don’t think; but that doesn’t mean it isn’t any less terrifying.

After a minute or two of watching us, the gryphon begins to walk away.

We watch it without moving. But after a few steps, it turns back and looks at us.

“Does it want us to follow it?” Kinsley whispers as she squeezes my hand. I’m not sure when exactly it was she grabbed it.

“I don’t know, but maybe we should,” I say.

“Really?” Harper whispers harshly. “Do you have a death wish?”

I keep an eye on the gryphon. “I don’t think it will hurt us.”

I can feel Harper’s eye roll from here, but she doesn’t say anything more.

We follow the gryphon for quite a while.

I’m not sure how long exactly but long enough that it seems to be close to midday.

The sun feels like it might be at its peak now.

It’s interesting how the weather works in here.

During the day, it takes a little while to get warm.

But then the sun heats everything up, and the forest seems to hold the heat long after it turns dark.

I'm thankful that it’s not as cold in here as it is outside the forest. The gryphon slows and turns its head back to us as it’s been doing all morning.

I hear a sound, and hope begins to build in my chest. I glance at the other girls and can tell they hear it too.

We follow the gryphon as it leads us to a riverbed of fast-moving water.

The gryphon dips its large head down and drinks from the water.

Then it lifts its head and stares at us for a moment, before flying away.

We stare at it in silence. Only when the gryphon is out of sight do we talk.

“Oh my word. Did you see that?” Kinsley asks excitedly.

“Of course, we saw it,” Harper snaps. “We followed it for hours.”

I edge closer to the water. “Do you think it’s safe to drink?” Kinsley asks, stepping up next to me.

I stare down at it. “I think it is. I don’t think the gryphon would have taken a drink if it was unsafe.”

“Yeah. That was weird; it led us here,” she says.

“Yeah.” I wonder if it heard us talking, or if it just knew we needed water.

I don’t know how, but somehow that gryphon knew we needed water, and he led us here.

He even let us know it was safe by drinking it first. “Well, we can add that to your thankful list,” I say to Kinsley, earning a huge smile from her.

“Definitely!”

Now that I’m not thinking about how thirsty I am, I study the water. “We need to figure out a way to take some with us.”

“Or we could just camp near here,” Kinsley says hopefully.

“Everybody else will be coming here to find water, wild animals included,” Harper says, stealing the words right out of my mouth.

Kinsley looks at me hopefully, but I have to agree with Harper. “She’s right. It wouldn’t be safe. We need to find a way to take some with us.”

“What if we made our base area a little distance away. We wouldn’t be close enough to have to fight all the time, but we could make the hike here each morning and each night.”

I consider Kinsley’s suggestion; it’s actually a pretty good idea. “What if everybody else does that?” Harper points out.

Not to be deterred, Kinsley says, “Then we’ll move.

If it gets to be unsafe or too crowded; we’ll go somewhere else.

But think about how long it took us to find this water.

I don’t think we should leave it. Also, if it took us this long, it will take others that long too, or even longer if they’re further away. ”

I glance at Harper as I consider Kinsley’s words. “It’s a good idea,” I say out loud and wait. I don’t want to talk Harper into it because if something happens, then she’ll just blame me. I want her to come to the same conclusion all on her own.

She drops her arms. “Fine. Let’s find a spot that’s not too far away but not too close.”

I inwardly cheer but keep all expression off my face.

I shift from foot to foot, anxious to keep moving.

“Let’s keep moving,” I suggest. They readily agree; we’re all still on edge from everything that went down yesterday.

We’re lighter today, missing our bags from yesterday; but at least we’re alive.

Grief at Sariah’s needless death clings to me, but I use it as fuel to keep going.

We walk parallel to the water for a while.

By unspoken agreement, I think we’re all leery of leaving it.

Kinsley stops suddenly in front of me, and by instinct, I grab my bow and nock an arrow.

Harper steps up next to me and pushes my bow down, even as I lift my gaze and get my first glimpse of a spirit jaguar.

Its body is mostly translucent, almost glowing.

It’s both majestic and beautiful. Its eyes are trained on us, and they seem to glow. “It’s beautiful,” I whisper in awe.

“It is,” Kinsley whispers back, her eyes wide.

“And deadly,” Harper reminds me. “But you can’t kill it. You can only kill it by killing its bonded.”

The spirit jaguar continues to watch us, almost unnatural in its stillness.

Finally, it turns and bounds away without making a sound.

Only when it’s out of sight do I take a deep breath.

I realize the potential danger it represents.

Because of their silence, they are even more deadly than I realized. “Do they ever kill?” I ask.

Harper shoots me a look. “All the time. If they think somebody or something is a threat to their bonded, they will take care of the threat.”

“I can’t believe we saw a spirit animal,” Kinsley breathes.

I turn to her in confusion. “You’ve never seen one?”

She shakes her head. “You can only see spirit animals if you bond to one.”

“Why?” I ask.

She shrugs. “I guess it’s a way of keeping them protected; outsiders can’t see them.”

I think of how I saw Lox’s spirit animal, but I don’t say anything. I’ll have to ask Lox about it if I make it out of here alive. “What do you think that means about us then if it left us alone? I guess we’re not considered a threat. That’s not good.”

“Well, or it’s really good,” Harper disagrees.

“How do you figure?”

It’s Kinsley that answers. “Then nobody will see us coming.”

I take the two of them in as a slow smile fills my face.

“All right. I can get behind that.” Anxious to keep moving, I start forward once again.

“Keep on the lookout for gold coins since we lost ours last night.” I’m still mad about that but can’t do anything about it except find more.

A high-pitched whistle pierces the forest around us, and I automatically drop and grab my bow.

“What is that?” I call out. There’s another ear-piercing whistle.

“Where is it?” I yell above the noise. Something large and dark swoops down over us, and I nearly drop my bow at the sight of the massive bird with huge talons.

“Drop!” I yell. Kinsley screams and rolls away as it comes right over her.

It makes another ear-piercing sound, and I nearly drop my bow.

My ears keep ringing from the sound. I push my nerves aside and sight it with my arrow.

I let it fly, and the massive bird makes another terrible sound but flies off as if the arrow did nothing.

I watch it fly away and quickly glance at Harper and Kinsley. “Everybody okay?”

“Yes, for now,” Harper says, sounding just as shook as I am. “How do we kill it?”

I shake my head, tracking its ascent. I take a deep breath and start to relax.

And then the bird turns and then dives towards us.

“Run!” I shout. “Behind that tree.” We race for the tree, but I know we’re not going to make it.

I push myself to run faster. “Go!” It lets out that piercing whistle again, and I focus on keeping my footing.

Harper screams, and I turn in horror to see the bird shove its talons in her shoulders.

I turn around and raise my bow as the bird beats his terrible wings.

I let the arrow fly, and it hits the bird right in the eye.

The bird lets loose a terrible shriek. My second arrow hits the second eye.

I pull my knife from my leg as I race toward the bird.

It's faltering, hovering right over the ground. Harper has gone quiet, and that terrifies me, but I can’t look away from my prey for a second.

I slash at its exposed belly, making it screech again.

It spins around, and I’m knocked to the ground as Harper’s dangling legs hit me.

I’m on my feet a moment later and pull another knife from my leg to replace the one I dropped.

The bird starts flapping its wings, and I've got seconds to bring this thing down before it takes off with Harper. I run at it and jump and use all my strength to shove my knife into its underbelly. Blood sprays me as I fall to the ground and roll. With an unearthly shriek, it drops Harper. “I’ve got her,” Kinsley shouts.

I glance over for just a second and see Kinsley standing over Harper’s body protectively with her knife raised.

The bird shrieks again and then lifts off.

I watch it until it’s out of sight, never dropping my guard.

I’m expecting it to turn at any moment and dive bomb us again, and only after a few minutes do I realize it’s truly gone.

I spin around and run to where Harper’s collapsed on the ground.