Chapter 1: Unwanted Awakening
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In the kingdom of Dracoria, there were only two kinds of people, those who stood above others with power in their hands and beasts at their side, and those who served them in silence.
Every citizen, noble or commoner, waited for the day they would touch the Awakening Stone and discover their own path. From the elite Dragonbound Knights who rode fire breathing leviathans, to humble hawk tamers who guarded the skies, this was a land ruled by beast tamers. Those with high ranking skills became legends. You may ask... what about those with low ones?
The answer is simple... they are forgotten by others or bullied to death.
Zephyr Valorian, a slim, dark haired fifteen year old boy with storm gray eyes and calloused palms from laboring in his family's dry crop fields, stood at the end of the line outside the Awakening Hall in Brightmoor town. He was the last of his age group to awaken, a coincidence or curse he hadn't decided yet. All he knew was that today, everything would change. One way or another.
Brightmoor was a minor town in the far east territories. It had no noble families, no elite training academies. Just weather worn houses, dusty roads, and farmers who grew herbs for the beast feed. Zephyr's own family barely made enough beast coins to survive, scraping by from harvest to harvest. But he had always dreamed of more.
He dreamed of leaving the Brightmoor town. Dreamed of touching the skies on the back of a beast, or taming a beast strong enough to shake the land. He didn't want to be a nobody.
"Zephyr! Zephyr!"
He blinked, turning toward the voice. It was Fenna, his childhood female friend. She pushed through the crowd of villagers, her ponytail bouncing. There was worry in her hazel eyes.
"You're up next. Don't keep the council waiting."
Zephyr swallowed his spit, nodding. "Yeah. Just... catching my breath."