It was three years ago when it all happened courage was still barely twelve at the time and back then he was sitting in a class room surrounded by other kids his age and in front of them was a teacher about to start giving the lesson of the day

" Ok class today lesson is a very important one , today were going to learn about how our world came to be and how it's structured , now I am sure you all heard this story before so who wants to narrate it to the rest of the class so we can get started " said the teacher and not long after that many hands were raised until the teacher picked one saying " claire why don't you go " and after that a blonde young girl got up from her seat went and stood near the board and began narrating " long ago humanity lived in ancient times very different than our own , not much is known about the old world how it was like and what sort of things that were in it like culture , belief or even structure but one thing we do know for certain that one day it all changed . for reasons that we are yet to uncover the old world was struck with a supernatural event of unknown nature and origin that caused rapid and drastic changes to it . flora and fonna begin to mutat to what we now know as spirit beasts leading nature to rise up and take over the world all over again and combined with the fact that the rapid changes to the world has rendered all previous technology useless , humanity was pushed back into the corners of the world kicking them from the apex of the world back into a primitive state where they had to constantly fight for survival until the first awakening where the ancestors of the current world discovered and learned to harness spiritual energy unlocking new found powers and ability which allowed them to turn the tide and give humanity a second chance . through the power of spiritual energy we managed to fight back against the beasts and later on we learned how to make them submit to us and use their power for our own and from that act alone sprung the profession that spear headed humanity new rise beast taming "

Clap clap " Well done Claire go back to your seat I wiIl take it from here , now as you all know in our continent there are four regions the northern Alps a region mostly dominated by mountains ranges ,the western dunes a region consisting of a sea of sands , the southern plains a region of vast plains and forests and the eastren shores a place mostly comprised of a series of Islands in the vastness of oceans and seas and when humanity pushed back against the beasts this the four regions that their efforts concentrated on and after humanity got back on it's feat and begin to rebuild Thier civilization the human population of that time split amongst those four regions populating them into what we are today and the human population that live today is spilt between core city's and garrisons . A core city is a city established by a previously Powerful beast tamer mainly to function as a core connecting between it and all garrison around it a core city is protected by a powerful method left behind by it's founder to ensure it thrives and because of that the people that live in core citys are usually either descendants of the founder , high born people or powerful tamers which leaves the rest of the population spread amongst the garrisons , garrisons are fortified settlements that other than just housing the commen folks functions as stations for the military and other organisations to be able to move around the wild areas outside the citys and garrisons walls and also to function as front line bases spread out across the region thus allowing to confront any incoming threat much easier . Each core city in it's respective region function as the local government governing all the garrison under Thier jurisdiction and other than that core citys don't cooperate much with each other instead they'd often compete with some even having hostile relationships with one another but there is one organisation that linked all of them together , the imperial court , which is an organisation founded by the legendary tamers that rose up with humanity and it's goal is to safe keep and insure humanity survival they're rule extendense to all four regions , they usually don't involve themselves with the affairs of the four regions only acting and giving orders when it's something that involves humanity as whole and since the imperial court is founded and is run by the best tamers there is their word is absolute with none daring to go against them for centuries they worked to maintain peace and stability for humanity making them respected and revered by all "

The lesson went on for a couple of hours until the school bell rang signaling the end of school for today courage gathered his stuff and went marching back home he had no interest to hangout after school as he didn't have many friends in school and he preferred to just go bug catching in the woods but on his way to drop his stuff home and head out his step father dorsen intercepted him his step father was a tall handsome man with shiny blonde hair and golden eyes a strong physique as you'd expect from a beast tamer all of this explaining where his siblings got Thier looks from , usually his step father always had a stoic and confident air around him so he never expected to ever see him with distrote look on his face but before he could ask anything " courage listen to me carefully and try to stay calm something has befallen your father and the doctors say that his condition is dire so we need to hurry into the hospital to go see him he said he wants to meet you before he could possibly ...." he couldn't bring himself to say that last word but what he said already was enough for courage to know what he was hinting at just as the thought passed courage's mind his heart went into a wild state beating with a savage rhythm and without a another second wasted they both made a dash to the hospital when they got there courage was already panting and drenched in sweat all from running to the hospital as well as the fear and the worry burning his heart . Making Thier way through the hospital's corridors the two finally meet with courage's mother amber she was standing Infront of a patient room door talking with some doctors her expression full of worry and anxiety, and when she turned her head to the side and saw her husband her expression lifted a bit but when her gaze laid on courage she couldn't help but make a pained expression and again before courage could ask anything his mother went for him and held him between her arms and then said with a choked voice " oh honey I am so SO sorry"

" What do you mean , can someone please just explain what's going on " asked courage with a horrid voice while he was saying that a doctor has finished talking with dorsen leaving him with a solemn look on his face but then he turned and faced courage he gave one glance to his wife who was already in tears because of what her child was gonna have to face , he put his hand on her shoulder and said " amber let me " and then as she give a nod and let go of courage, dorsen pulled him closer and grabbed his shoulders and then said " courage son your father has sustained a very bad injury the doctors couldn't pinpoint the cause of which but they think it's the result of a failed breakthrough attempt, the doctors tried Thier best without saving any effort or cost but they couldn't prevent his inevitable demise the best they could do is buy him some time to say his last goodbyes to his family so courage were going need you to stand to your name and ..." his voice choking " and say goodbye to your father " and when he finished talking courage was already drowning in tears hicking and sobbing loudly the state he was on was heartbreaking to see , dorsen give him a tight hug while he was crying his heart out but he had to make him hold his tears for now and step into the room as his father didn't have much time left . When all three of courage amber and dorsen walked into the room Thier were met with a grousome site , courage's father was laying down on the hospital bed with all sorts of tubes and wires of the various life supports and medical machines hooked to his body and a layer of bloody bandages was covering his torso one could only imagine the horrible injury that was hiden under them the sound of his heavy breathing was felling the roam each breath weighting down on courage's heart but before he could burst back into tears his father's turned his head slowly towards him and said with a heavy saffucating voice " hey kid" his father struggled to straighten his posture with amber saying " Dan don't move if you push yourself now you could..."

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But before she could finish he replied " amber.... It's ok now that courage is here everything is going be ok cough cough now if you two would please leave the room I wish to speak to my son alone"

amber hastated to complie as she didn't want to leave her son now that he was in such a state but dorsen grabbed her and pulled her out the room wishing to respect a dying man last wishs . Now Leaving courage and his father in the room alone a heavy atmosphere sat in . Courage struggled to say something but he found no words to describe what he was feeling and leaving courage unable to speak first again his father took a deep breath and then sighed a long sigh and then started speaking " well courage guess this the end of line for me but before I leave I figure that there are a couple things i should give to you first so firstly some truth , courage you and I are cursed , our whole family is for that matter "

cursed ? Courage wonderd in his head , he came in expecting a goodbye so what with this news about his family being cursed all of the sudden and continuing with his father speech

" I know what I am saying might seem random especially at the moment but trust what I am saying is something very important to you for you see this curse is something that been plaguing our family for generations and it's that curse what got me in this state I am in and that curse is the curse of ambition and inaptitude "

Ambition ? Inaptitude ? The more courage listened the more confused he got

" Well courage do you what aptitude is ? , well for tamers it represents Thier potential and the heights they could most likely reach in Thier lifetime and although that the aptitude one could awaken with is mostly determined by thier bloodline it is not a guaranteed thing as you could have a good heratige but still awaken with a low aptitude and vice Versa but there are groups of people who's bloodline is so potent that they can consistently awaken high aptitude individuals and even in some rare cases awaken special powers and characteristics those groups of people are called the blessed but now tell me what would you call a group of people of whom no matter the circumstances , no matter how high the bloodline that they're own is mixed with would always produce people with low aptitude or have unique disadvantages, well those can only be called the cursed and if you haven't figured it already you and I are of those cursed but our blight doesn't end there for in our family case the unique disadvantage we have is ambition for you see in every individual in our family that became a beast tamer there has always been a sense of emptyness and unsatisfaction in Thier hearts we didn't understand why but we always felt a hunger for more and constant desire to soar higher and not to be below any one it's start's of mild at the beginning but as you keep going it grows bigger and bigger and the more you try to forget it the more it hounds you and it pushes you to put all your effort into satisfying it but because of our low aptitude we could never satisfy it and eventually it consumes you driving you mad trying to push you to keep going higher and higher to the point you become willing to do anything to climb higher either turning you into a monster that's only a Husk of his former self or leading you end your life in the pursuit of felling that emptyness so in summary we were cursed with one of the most cruel things you could do to a man and that is to make him always want to soar to the skies but to always make him born with broken wings "

Courage was in a daze listening to all this , this was all to much for him at once so he didn't know what to make of it but before he could finish processing what he heard his father continued " but there might still be hope for you to survive this fate and also save the future generations of our family form it

for you see the early generations of our family knew a secret about beast taming, a secret that they passed on through out the generations to give hope and a goal to all who came after. And that secret was about a fact about the highest ranks in the beast tamer world the master rank , for it is said that once a person ascend to the master rank They undergo a rebirth like transformation and it's said that's that rebirth has many effects such as granting great power and wisdom but it is also said that it can cleanse , purify and strength bloodline meaning if someone in our family could reach the master rank then they could break the curse and end it for good but you must understand that reaching the master rank is no ordinary feat for a master rank tamer to appear is something that rarely happens every couple of hundreds of years and rightfully so for being a master rank would mean that you are able to establish your own dynasty and core cities and through out the human history and the four regions there were only ever a couple of hundreds of master rank tamers and even less existing today but even those were regarded as mythical figures with no one from our status being able to confirm Thier existence and so even after countless generations of our family trying none could even come close to reaching such height with the best being me but even I is still only at the first thirth of the expert rank only reaching the second thirth at the cost of my life but don't let that discourage you because with every generation each member of our family would collect Thier experience and wisdom and pass it on to the next generation giving them a better chance than before and after so many years we collected enough to create an inheritance that could help you reach to my current level but that not all . for my death isn't just the result of a desperate struggle but also the result of me trying to create an opportunity for you , an opportunity that could help you surpass me and maybe ----just maybe even succeeded where we all failed but I am not going to force it on you . it's yours if you choose to walk that path because I am not going to lie to you the path that our family walked on for decades is one of endless struggles and trails and if you choose not to follow it no one would blame you for many had tried to just give up and not become beast tamers with even some trying to let the curse die with them but they couldn't , for that curse is malevolent and mysterious and it would affect your mind so even if you could resist it by not becoming a beast master it would affect you subconsciously to make sure that you'd always continue the bloodline and thus continue the curse and finally for your rightful inheritance I am afraid I can't give it to you yet as you are not yet ready for it but in three years from now you would be at the right age to have your own awakening and by then you should be ready as well as you should have made your decision about following my path or not"

And after he said that he began coughing roughly spewing blood form his mouth and nose after grasping for air for a moment he turned to his son again and said " courage I know you and I didn't have the best relationship with me being absent most of your life and although I don't want to simply just blame the curse it's still plays a major factor in all of this because I wanted to be the one to break the curse and I wanted to spare you it's cruel fate but ultimately I let drive me away for what really important , my duty as a husband and a father and maybe if I just focused on you and your mother then things could have turned out better maybe at least for you " courage was standing frozen he didn't know what to say after all this he could barely string two thoughts together let alone say anything but once again before he could say anything the monitor's that were attached to His father suddenly went hei wire beeping and sounding alarms loudly that's when a team of doctors burst into the room

" Breathing unstable, heart rate steadily falling"

" He is losing vital signs ! we're losing him"

" Prepare for an emergency surgery "

" there's no time for surgery he won't even last to the time we get him on the table"

and just as everyone were yelling and dashing back and forth around the room courage who was still frozen in place suddenly felt a strange felling and looking through the crowd to his father eyes that were staring at him caringly he suddenly heard his father voice in his head saying " courage just know one a thing that despite my actions I did love you and your mother so much and I only wish I spent more time expressing than just fighting this curse by alas it's to late and finally all a I want to say to you is ___

always aim for the moon cause even if you miss you'll land amongst the stars"

courage struggled to reply and to tell his father goodbye and that he loved him too but his heart was being crushed by the site of light leaving his father's eyes and before he could witness the final ambers die out he was pulled out of the room by dorsen who didn't want him to see the life go out in his own father for that is something no child should ever have to see and that was the end for Dan petacos