Way of the Beast Master

1. Discovering the Gift

I wasn't always the Beast Master I am today. This is how I became the legend you all have come to know.

I've always loved animals, they have always loved me. I just never knew how much we needed each other.

"Today is the day, I'm finally going to see them!" I declared.

"Yeah right, like you'll ever find them. They don't even exist." Athar scoffed, unaware that today would indeed be the day that statement came true.

"I know I'm right, you'll see" I said. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I just knew it. I've always been waved off, everyone telling me 'dragons aren't real'. But they are, there's this little whisper in the back of my head urging me to seek them out and learn the secret.

And so in spite of the disbelieving look Athar was giving me I dragged him through the woods to the mountain's base. I knew it would take a while to get there as the woods were home to some rather nasty creatures that don't take kindly to people running through their home. Even though I've been here so many times I had never come through with Athar, so we had to weave around the worst parts of the forest.

I could normally dash through in 10 minutes as it's only a small forest, but in spite of his tall build, Athar isn't the most nimble of people. You'd think with his spiky brown hair and his long, lean body that he'd have the grace and stealth of a jaguar. But no, combine that with his cocky personality and 'charm' you get Athar, the guy that thinks the world revolves around him. So instead of a 10 minute dash we had been moving for 30 minutes and we're barely halfway through. This was going to be a very long day.

After about half an hour we broke through the treeline and the mountains seemed to just appear out of thin air.

"I'm telling you Draco, they don't exist, there's nothing up there." Athar stated.

"If you think they don't exist then why have you come with me all this way? If you truly believed what you're saying then you would have let me come alone." I knew I had him when he wouldn't meet my eye, instead turning to look at the goliath of a mountain that stood before us. "Let's just climb up and see who's right?" I suggested, sure in my words and believing the whisper in my mind, hoping I wasn't crazy for listening in the first place.

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We'd gotten a third of the way up the mountain before Athar made us stop.

"Dude slow down. This mountain is gigantic, I need a break." Athar groaned, out of breath. He looked over and when he saw that I was fine he groaned again. "What the hell? How are you not out of breath?" He panted.

"It's called exercise man, you should try it sometime." I retorted. Admittedly my 6'2", athletic build helps, but I do exercise and hike through the woods every day to keep fit. Not that I need to look good for anyone, everyone avoids me, well aside from Athar. "Come on, we've got a ways to go yet. When we get to the top we can take a long rest." That seemed to work as he shot off up the mountain, braving the steep incline once again.

"Finally, just around this mound and we've made it" I say, out of breath and panting a bit. Looking over at Athar I see that he's even more out of shape than I am. His panting could be heard even over the howl of the wind.

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"Well it took long enough" he said bent double to catch his breath. "If I'm right, I'm never doing this again!"

Once we recovered from our hike we walked the last stretch around the mound. What we saw made Athar growl in annoyance.

"A cave. A bloody cave! Of course there's a cave!" Athar raged.

"Let's just check it out and see what's inside" I calmly suggested. We cautiously made our way into the cave, Athar slowly starting to freak out.

"Chill out man, everyone in town can feel how hard you're shaking." I said, trying to soothe him.

"What? I'm not shaking, it's just cold in here. Brrrr." He said, trying to be smooth.

"It's not cold in here," I start, becoming more confused by the second. "It's warm. Why is it warm in here? We're in a cave on the top of the mountain it should be freezing." That's when I notice there's a glow further in. As I begin to approach it Athar looks at me, incredulous.

"Draco what are you doing? We should be leaving not going deeper." He implored, baffled.

"Can't you see the glow? There must be a fire, which means someone or something is in here." I said, using logic to get through to him.

Not that it mattered as instead of hearing his reply, I heard a deep, gravely voice beckoning me toward the glow. "Come forth little one." As I got closer I noticed that the glow wasn't a fire as I first thought, but rather it looked like a glowing golden eye. "Yes little one, you are correct." It said, the closeness causing it's voice to rumble right through me. "You finally found me."

"Found you. What do you mean I found you?" I question, all of a sudden confused. As I waited for an answer I took a look around, I couldn't see anything other than the dragon's eye.

"You came in search of dragons, did you not?" It replied.

"Yeah... Wait, how did you know that?" I ask.

"I know because I am what you seek, the dragon of these lands. You were guided to me by the gift within your soul. Now it is time for you to discover that gift and use its power to unite and defend these lands against all that wish it harm."

"Gift? What gift?" Surely this dragon has the wrong guy, I'm not gifted. Or so I thought.

"A gift only you possess. The gift of the Beast Master. Your gift grants you the power to befriend beasts of any and all shapes and forms. It also allows you to bind them to your soul which will grant you a portion of their power and abilities for your own." Slowly the dragon started to shift. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, right before my eyes the dragon shrank and changed into a human form. A very handsome, muscular, male human form. Naked.

"Woah! Put some clothes on man!" I said covering my eyes, peeking through 2 of my fingers.

"You sure? Because I get the feeling you quite like this form." He said, winking with a smirk on his face.