A beautiful ivory beast soared rapidly through the skies with its bloodied wings. Each flap brought it farther than most creatures travel in their entire lives.

A gold lion with sharp talons and the wings of a bird followed closely behind. A tall, handsome, blonde man stood on its back with a serious look on his face.

The white beast gazed behind itself frequently and attempted to fly faster but couldn't seem to.

As the chase continued, the lion caught up several times and brought the fight to the ground. As the gigantic beast crashed to the ground, chaos ensued. Hundreds of trees were demolished, hills were destroyed, and rivers and lakes were reshaped.

The lion couldn't seem to finish the job, though.

The beast's scales were tough, its claws sharp, its fangs fierce, and its will unbreakable.

As the chase continued, the beast tired. It's humongous wings not taking it nearly as far as they did before.

While the lions did just fine.

As the lion went on, it got just close enough to grab the animal's long tail with its teeth and yank it backwards forcefully while stopping its momentum as best it could.

The white beast cried out and began falling uncontrollably towards the mountain tops they were flying over.

It crashed harshly on the side of a gargantuan mountain. 

The lion was, unsurprisingly, not far behind at all, salivating and licking its lips.

The man atop the creature was seemingly unperturbed. He hadn't ducked, dodged, or dove out of the way at all this entire time. Only calmly hopping off whenever the fight was taken to the ground, receiving no damage at all.

The beast dragged itself forward, trying to flap its wings but failing to go airborne with the lion pouncing on it just before it got the chance too.

It cried out loudly as long, sharp claws went past its damaged scales.

Half of its bloodstained body was leaning off the edge of the mountain.

The massive lion took the chance to rip one of the creature's wings off at the base. It seemed to enjoy the cries of the maimed animal.

The man stood at the side, watching calmly as the animal was slowly tortured.

The lion ripped the animal to shreds in a methodical manner, leaving it alive as long as it could.

The creature's cries sounded like music to its animalistic ears.

The beast, feeling the life leave its body, realized it had no choice.

With the last of its energy, it opened its mouth to reveal a small white egg with jagged grey lines.

With eyes full of despair, it dropped the egg and watched it careen down the mountain face, knowing that its baby had as good of a chance at surviving as it did.

The lion opened its jaw and brought its long fangs down on the beast's neck, tearing it from its body in one swift motion.

The man continued watching as the lion devoured the corpse and looked at the man curiously.

"No, don't go after the egg. It's as good as dead, and we have things to do. Let's go."

The man hopped on its great back and flew away from the mountaintop.

~~~

Meanwhile, a young boy with short white hair named Sebastian sat in his tiny village listening to a man go on and on about choosing the right companion and how important it all was.

"When you form your connection with your beast, a change will occur in your body; this is called the refinement."

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He was bored.

The elder continued, "These beasts carry extraordinary abilities that they transfer to us through this bond."

He had heard this a million times before.

Sebastian and the other boys and girls of his village sat in the village square, most with eyes of excitement.

'What are you idiots getting excited over anyway? We'll end up boring and old just like them.' He thought.

Sebastian wasn't going to sit around and wait to live the same old life everyone else did.

He stood up and snuck away.

Sebastian didn't really care about the ceremony; he knew that all those eggs he could choose from were subpar anyway.

He wanted something cool, something that could fly, maybe spew fire, or something that would grow to the size of a mountain. 

He wanted one of the creatures that they wrote tales about.

Huge, venom-spitting snakes, turtles so large a city existed on their back, and birds who could melt villages with their breath.

None of those creatures would do that.

They were all random eggs that the elders just stole off random creatures in the forest.

All of those eggs would grow to become regular, dull animals just like the rest of the adults in his small village had.

He wandered off in a random direction into the dense forest. There was virtually no danger in this part of the forest.

'All the animals around us are peaceful, grass-eating wusses.' He told himself.

He strolled around climbing a few trees and messing with the wildlife.

That was the most fun he could have around here.

Eventually that too became monotonous, and he decided he would find a nice place to take a nap. He walked far away from the village to his usual spot, a tree adjacent to a small creek that produced noises that sounded very pleasant.

Just as his eyes shut, he heard a loud roar.

"AHHHHH!"

Sebastian screamed like a little girl.

He jumped up and scampered up the nearest tree he could find and stayed there for a long time.

He had never heard a noise like that before. 

The animal that produced it sounded... large.

Once he realized this, a large smile showed up.

He built the courage to climb down even though the roaring had only recently stopped. He ventured to where he thought it came from.

Sebastian got closer and closer to a familiar vast mountainside and stood at the side wondering if he felt like climbing it.

As he was looking up, he heard something coming down.

'What is that?' he thought.

The object sounded like it was coming down fast.

'I should probably move.'

Just as that thought occurred to him, an egg half as large as his small body hit the ground a few feet from him.

"AHHHH!"

Sebastian once again screamed like a little girl and climbed a tree quickly.

He looked around for any more danger and any more large falling eggs, and only once he saw none for several more minutes did he climb down.

Sebastian grabbed the biggest stick he could find and approached slowly.

The white and grey egg was only half as big as his pubescent body, but it seemed to somehow survive a pretty long fall.

As he slowly came near it, he jabbed at it swiftly and ran away.

He hid behind a tree and waited for something to happen.

...

Nothing did.

He came back out with a little more confidence and started examining it carefully.

'Looks like a normal beast egg, maybe a little large, but it looks good.'

He realized this was a golden opportunity.

All of the eggs in his village were destined to be extremely mundane.

Maybe this one wouldn't be.

Sebastian tossed caution as far as to the wind as he could and picked the heavy egg up using all of the strength his 13-year-old body could muster.

He started carrying the egg back to the village and imagining himself riding a huge wolf or a big gorilla.

Sebastian stopped in his tracks as a stray thought caught his attention.

'This could be seriously dangerous.'

There were three categories of beast.

Mindless, sane, and thoughtful.

A mindless beast was prone to rampages and focused purely on survival. They were instinctual creatures who were impossible to form bonds with and were very dangerous. Certain species were known to be almost exclusively mindless.

Sane beast made up most of the forest. They were creatures that at a young age could be bonded with.

Sebastian personally believed they weren't necessarily smarter than mindless creatures, just with different priorities.

Having been around sane creatures all of his life, Sebastian realized that sane creatures just seemed to have more of a proclivity to being around humans.

The last was thoughtful. That is what a beast becomes when it bonds with a human.

When a creature bonded with a human, they seemed to become more intelligent, though it depended on the species.

If Sebastian brought a mindless creature to the village that was big enough right out of the egg, it could cause trouble.

Not that it would damage something or hurt someone; as far as he knew, no baby could match the full-grown animals the elder had in a fight.

Sebastian just didn't want to get into trouble.

Not that he wasn't used to it.

CRACK CRACK CRACK

Sebastian's eyes opened wide.

"UH OH."

He had messed up.

In all of his excitement he had forgotten something very important.

Any time a human without a bond made contact with an egg, it hatched.

He placed the egg down gently and backed away a few steps.

Sebastian sat down next to it and waited for his prize to come.

People had to be extremely careful with the eggs they touched when they were young.

Whatever the creature was, he was stuck with it for life.

Even if it was a mindless beast that ran away right out of the egg, he wouldn't be able to form another bond with any other creature ever again.

"Why am I so stupid?"

As he sat and thought about how much he regretted his decision, the egg fell apart more and more.