The winner of the Leader and Mentor naming is a Guest! The names sound so much like they belong to some bad person are great! Thanks for the PM! Please review if you want to see more of this!

Tagu dropped Gunderson on the ground. Ethel dusted herself off. She had long brown hair that was tied in a loose ponytail. Her green eyes were impressed but she kept that under control. Gunderson had a beard with sky blue eyes.

The tiger shook his head and Ethel patted its head sympathetically. Gunderson cradled his ocelot in his arms. 'There, there Kun,' Ethel said soothingly. 'You hit Meno very hard on the head,' grumbled Gunderson. Nego followed them at a respectful distance.

'We're the Tailtan's and we're the survivors of the most recent attack. In remote places like these, attacks happen a lot.' Kun, the tiger padded ahead. 'We take in the marked and we train in order to stop bandits from raiding our village. If not, we fend off enemy soldiers.'

Tagu huffed and swished his tail. 'We've never had kids like you scaling the wall with knives before,' Ethel said. 'And meat cleavers,' Nego added. 'And meat cleavers,' Ethel agreed.

'We defeated twenty-two armies of Conquerors when the bile was around. We are only one of the many small societies around Erdas who prepare for these things. We have a little over one-hundred soldiers in the building.'

Nego gulped a little. Hazel took a pinch of blast powder and pinecone fragments from her many pockets on her trouser legs before clenching it together. Sparks flew in her fist. When she opened it, a wisp of smoke came out of her palm.

The girl was proving to have a wide knowledge of bombing with certain party tricks. Jun walked on carefully, like the spot he would set his foot down would crumble underneath him. They walked down the steps carved in the wall.

The building was huge. The middle was a straight corridor with other corridors attached to it leading to different rooms. Tagu sniffed the air and suddenly Nego could hear what was happening in each individual room.

The sound of wood clashing with people panting. The growl of a dog and the cry of a bird. Gunderson lumbered ahead. There was a steel door which Nego found suspicious. Ethel knocked. 'Come on in,' replied a gruff voice.

The room was almost too big. A vaulted ceiling above them was probably meant for flying spirit animals. There was a bat hanging in the corner of the room with a steely gaze.

The Leader was a tall, skinny man. His eyes narrowed at them. 'Gunderson, explain,' he said. 'We found them after they scaled the wall. They hardly look twelve if you ask me. They hit Kun and poor Meno on the head.'

'Well, you,' he pointed at Nego. 'What's are your names, and which one is your spirit animal?' Nego gulped. 'I'm Nego, and the white buffalo is Tagu. She's Hazel and the egret is Jun,' he squeaked out. The bat fluttered down.

The boss wrinkled his forehead. 'How do I know you're not from the neighboring parts of Tailtan?' he asked 'If we were enemies, we would not have scaled the wall and we would have killed your two soldiers and I would've bombed this place with blast powder and pinecones. We have no reason to lie,' Hazel answered.

The boss had a bewildered look on his face. 'Kay!' he yelled. Another person came out from the back. A thin, wiry man with black hair standing up on his head looked at them. 'I heard everything from the back while I was arranging the scrolls, Muane. Their being honest, and I would be glad to be their mentor,' he said thinly.

Jun raised one foot defensively, Hazel scowled and Tagu looked at Kay disdainfully. Nego felt the shaft of Yarrow. Muane however seemed to be considering the thought. 'We've never had such young people manage to get across the wall, certainly not children like you two even with spirit animals. Private lessons might be the best option.'

'Ethel, Gunderson. You two are dismissed,' he waved his hand. 'Well, do you two want to join us? We could use extra hands. We have extra rooms.' Jun still had his foot raised. Tagu tapped his hoof on the ground. Jun slowly looked around, as if considering the thought.

Tagu huffed in a don't-care way. Nego realized that it was up to them to make the decision. He leaned in towards Hazel. 'You think this is good?' he asked. Hazel had her hand on the handle of her swords. 'I'm done with being the leader. I'm exhausted of the responsibility.'

Nego took a deep breath. 'We will join,' he said. Kay seemed satisfied. 'But,' Hazel warned. 'If I find something out,' she leaned in closer towards the boss. 'My egret will kick.'


'Come on, harder!' A sword and arrow didn't seem fair. Yarrow twirled in the air. The only reason why he wasn't freaking out was because the moonstone buffalo was around his neck. The sword clashed against Yarrow.

Tagu quietly watched, but he was heightening his reflexes. Dodging and turning, Nego stayed calm. Kay was a good swordsman, no doubt about that. Finally, exhaustion took over. His knees buckled and he had a sword point at his throat.

'Your endurance level is disappointing,' Kay said coldly. 'When you mean that, I suppose half-hour of fighting is not enough?' he shot back. Tagu nosed his shoulder and rumbled. Nego pulled himself up.

'And you think your endurance level is good enough?' Kay said menacingly. A rhinoceros lumbered out of a dark corner. Tagu bristled. In the wild, buffalos and rhinoceros's had skirmishes. 'Maybe, maybe I do,' Nego admitted.

With that, he stormed out of the room. Hazel was sitting on the benches. Bandages were wrapped around her hands. 'Hey, what happened?' Jun was standing on one foot. 'Muane made me go on the rope jungle. It's a structure with ropes all over the place and I ended up getting friction burns because he wanted me to go faster,' she said it in a dangerously low voice.

'Hey, Nego! You're punished to fight Rex!' Hazel raised a questioning eye brown. 'Rex is his rhinoceros,' Nego sighed. 'Well, friction burns don't matter. I'm fighting with you,' she said. 'I hate this. Have you ever fought a rhinoceros?' he asked. 'No, but we can do this,' Hazel answered. 'Let's go defeat a rhino!'

Hey guys! I'm afraid I won't be updating as frequently because I have my UPSR this year and our school is going to get busy real soon. I hope we can do this soon. Also, I'm shouting out to fight4whales because she has a really cool story called 'Spirit Animals, Nyal's tale'. She inspired me to write and really, I like those sort of stories with actual spirit animals and Erdas. Of course, no offence to the other great authors on fanfiction.

Fingers crossed that she updates really soon.

Peace!