Chapter 1
“Mom, the walkers here. I’m going to go, love you. “I shout.
“I love you to Kayne, just remember, try your best and it’ll be fine.” My mom shouts back in a tender voice.
Now you’re probably wondering who I am. I’m Kayne, a blond haired, blue eyed boy of eleven years. I’m smarter than most, my mom says it’s something called a constitution, everything comes to me easier, I remember everything I see or hear, 100%, its cool because I not only remember, but understand it easier as well.
Anyway, I’m about to go do the beast tamers test, a test where they check if you have aptitude for taming beasts. Beast tamers are mysterious, because we’re literally finding something new about them every day. There are some well-known facts about beast tamers though; first, is that you have a higher chance to be a tamer if one of your parents are one, even bigger if both are, another is that only humans can be tamers, no one knows why yet a popular theory is its to make up for the fact that humans are inferior to all other races in everything, combat, crafting, we can’t even do magic.
Also, the bonds change you, sometimes just eye and hair colour, other times, you grow wings, horns, tails and even claws. And that’s just your appearance, you also become stronger, faster and just, better, if one of your bonds can do magic than you have a chance of getting that skill, but it’s just that, chance, sometimes you get something good other times not so much.
Put it this way, let’s say you’re lucky enough to tame an iron gullet boar, you, may get their iron gullet, which lets you eat literally anything organic, or you get a pig nose, or pig tail, see.
Anyway, I walk up to the walker and a guy from up on the head shouts down,” Are you doing the test!”
I reply with a respectful yes sir – he is a beast tamer after all -, and he throws a rope ladder down for me to climb up.
When I reach the top, he tells me to sit down with the other 20 or so kids.
“Hi, I’m Callum, what’s your name.”
“I’m Kayne,” I reply,” do you think you’re going to be a beast tamer.”
“Yeah, my mom and dad are both tamers, my dad focuses on water element beasts and my mom on fire, when they fight it’s so cool.”
“Really, my dad was one, he focused on wood type beasts, he died in the last war.”
“Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t … “
“It’s chilled, not many do, “I cut him off, “so, what element are you going to focus on, I’m going to be multi-elementalist, not focusing on any but doing all kind of thing.”
Forgetting his previous blunder Callum says,” wow, aren’t those really hard to be because beasts of opposing elements fight a lot.”
“yeah, but it’s also rewarding because you don’t have a weaker element.”
“pfft, idiot, don’t you know that most of those tamers die, if you have a dark element and bond with a light element the composing energies can completely rip you apart, same with all the elements.” A tall youth says with a sneer.
All the other kids gasp as they here this and you can hear some of them whisper “”” That’s Duke Halgons son, Aron.”””
“yes, I know, and don’t call me an idiot, since if you’re so knowledgeable you’d know that that only ever happens when the new bond is at the same strength as the other, if you assimilate a tier 2 light and you have a tier 3 dark, then you’ll only experience mild discomfort, and that’s also only if the beast or monster struggle. “I reply with an equally snide remark.
Again, the crowd gasps because not only did I just talk back to a dukes son, but I talked back to the most influential duke in the northern side of the continent.
“…”
Suddenly someone in the crowd snickers, as the duke’s son, Aron’s supposed to be knowelegeable, yet a commoner just beat him.
“You just made a dangerous mistake.” Aron says. Little does Kayne know how much pain this will cause him later.
“Kayne, that guy was Aron, Duke Halgons second son, who you just made an enemy of. Do you know how much trouble this can cause you?” Callum asks, worried for his friend.
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“Guess I’ll just have to become stronger and more important than him. You said both your parents were beast tamers, right? Can you tell me some of the less common things about beast tamers, elements and other stuffs?” Kayne asks, obviously trying to have a higher chance of being a tamer.
Slipping into a teacher like mode Callum answers, “sure, but first you have to know that there’s nothing that can really increase your chance of being a tamer. Okay, I think that the first thing I want to talk about is the elements, because not many know that there are actually only eight elements, all others are either subclasses or duel elements.
These eight elements are known as true elements,” he takes a breath as Callum thinks how much this knowledge will help him, remember, he remembers everything he sees and hears,” the true elements are; Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Light, Dark, Life and Death.
After these true elements, you get the sub-elements, sub-elements are elements that are neither true elements nor can be made from true elements, but have characteristics of true elements. The sub-elements are; Lightning, Ice, Metal, Sound, vitality, Decay. Now you’re probably wandering why there are eight True Elements but only six Sub-elements, well, you see, Light and Dark don’t have sub-elements.
So, Fire’s sub-element is lightning because they’re both a form of energy, some even theorise that lightning is just a very hot fire, since lightning is technically Plasma. Ice is Water’s sub-element, obviously, but you’re probably thinking,’ water and air make ice’ no. remember that there is hot air and cold air. Metal is Earth’s sub-class. Sound, Air’s because Sound is just vibrations in the Air. Life’s is vitality and decay, Death’s.” at this point everyone on the walker is paying rapt attention to Callum, even the instructor’s listening in.
“Now, duel elements are just that, elements made from multiple True elements or sub-elements. Some of them are, magma, crystal, hell-fire, and even holy-fire.
A thing that humans, well all races that can use magic through different means really, have found that you must know the fundamentals of the element you are trying to use, sometimes you can gain insights into an element if you use it, most can’t be researched, and you must find its secrets by yourself. The better you know an element the easier it is to use and the better use it.
Now onto mana, mana is the energy of the universe. It is found in everything, and mages use it to break the laws of physics, the reasons humans can’t use it is because we do not have mana veins or a mana pool.
There are 3 types of spells, the first, and most common are external spells, manipulating the elements and so on, it heavily taxes your mana pool, requires inhuman levels of control and, the most important thing to most people, no studying besides the, well, the elements. Such a crude and disappointing method.
The second type is internal spells, or body strengthening, where you circulate mana through your mana veins to strengthen that part of your body. The issue with this is that the more you circulate the mana, the more you damage your mana veins. While you can fix them, it’s expensive and rare to find someone who can do it. Also, if you damage them too much, they can stop working permanently, or even explode, paralyzing you.
The third and final type is to use the runic language. The runic language is the language of the universe, and, when used it can re-write the universe. The most advanced type in my opinion. It can create shields strengthen bodies and manipulate the elements, the issue, though, is that for every word, there is a rune, and when you write them with your mana, even the smallest mistake can cause it all to go…. Poof.”
“”” wow. ”is what everyone is saying or thinking.
“Another issue...”As Callum starts to explain again someone groans and another guy shouts ‘BOOOOOOO’.
“while that’s all interesting kid, we’re here so shut up, ok?” the tamer says.
The city lord’s mansion…
All the commoners stood in awe, staring up at the mansion, no, castle in front of them. The nobles on the other hand just snort, the one even comments on how small it is.
The city lord’s adviser comes out, and -in a grand voice – shouts out, “Welcome to the annual beast tamer test. you all are about to go through your life’s most important moment,” He takes a dramatic pause and then continues,” finding out if you can be a beast tamer. To your left you will see 3 tables, please make an orderly line and do what the kind gentlemen and gentlewomen say.” And with those words he went back inside.
We turned to the left, and true to his words, there were 3 tables sitting in a row. Behind the first 2 were men and the last was a woman, one man looked like a professional merchant in his fancy cloths and with the big belly, he has beady little eyes and dirty ginger hair. I have to stifle a giggle at that last part, my dad always called them carrot tops.
The second man looked like a bodybuilder, imagine a bear, then imagine it with a scar over its left eye, now imagine its chewing on your dog, you now have an accurate image of him, I mean seriously, he looks like he’s allergic to smiles, likes the smell of brimstone and long walks in the dark.
The woman looks like a friendly mother, yet with the seemingly permanent grimace seems to contradict that.
The grizzled looking man takes charge after we took a bit more time getting in line, (hint: we’re trying to run away from him. “ALRIGHT MAGOTS, GET IN LINE!!!!”
So, like any good-natured person with an ounce of will to live, we get in line, I’m at the back, in front of Mr. Death (unfortunately??).
It seems the test is just to touch a monster orb, if it glows, you’re a beast tamer, if not, sorry. Eventually I see Callum walk up and touch the orb in front of the lady, it glows. You see him wipe of imaginary sweat, he then walks to where all the other tamers are.
5 minutes later
I’m now in front of the of the orb. I see Callum show me his hand, it has 2 crossed fingers on it. I’m sweating, what happens now will change my life. If it doesn’t glow, then I can’t become powerful. The duke’s son will probably whipe me out, I realise. I look up and see his smug little grin, gosh, I really wanna hit him in his fat face.
In,
Out,
In,
Out,
I breath
“You okay dude.” The grizzled instructor asks me.
I nod. I take a deep breath and reach out.
My hand touches the orb…