Azaire followed his mother down to eat a quick meal and grabbed his magicell before leaving the house and heading down the street towards the days' first destination. Azaire sent a text to his elder brother Roran and his father to let them know he was going to his trial in case they had been too caught up in the smithy to realize what was going on.
Taking a look around this was a relatively nice village even for a small border village in the Kingdom of Hearts. It was already the 22nd century but the world at large changed fast or slow at its own pace. Over the centuries the convenient magitech inventions of the gnomes and dwarven races have become common place ushering in an era of much better convenience and innovation.
You could see it in every day life from last centuries newest magicells that let you communicate with anyone and everyone whose number you had and comes with so much loaded into for entertainment. To mass produced artificial mage lights for houses. There was magivision boxes, theatres, showers, toilets, etc. With magic and a brilliant mind what couldn't be made?
However there was still plenty of the old fashioned, tried and true traditions and practices for example martial weapons were still mainly used and practiced. Weapons such as Swords, shields, bows and arrows, maces, etc. Although all the GOOD martial weapons were enchanted! Another valued tradition practiced in different ways around the world was the apprenticeship program.
The human country had four main kingdoms and the imperial capital making up the Gaman Elloris Empire. Azaire lived in the Heart Kingdom and the way they handled the apprenticeship program was by letting kids be free and go to school to learn what they can of the world and it's history. They'd learn a variety of different life skills, and lessons from all different walks of life and finally on a child's 16th birthday they were given three choices.
They could go for their apprenticeship and dropout focusing on their future career and masters training. They could refuse apprenticeship and finish school, this was usually only done by scholar aspirants and minor noble/official wannabes , and focus on their studies, allowing them to get a job later either through merits or very unlikely through a late apprenticeship. Finally there was the choice to pursue apprenticeship and continued education simultaneously. The final choice was usually from kids who wanted great positions in the government similar to a major official or noble or best yet a direct position in the palace as one of the official managers of certain jobs.
Azaire's current desired master was actually pretty rare as beast masters were very difficult to cultivate with any efficiency. At least in the human kingdom. Their number can be counted on one hand in fact, and his would be master was the best in the empire. She was quite eccentric actually despite being the best in the empire she stayed in the Hearts Kingdom and constantly refused the emperors every advance in recruiting her and there weren't many people that refused the Joker Family.
Not only that but she didn't stay in the SweetHeart Palace but rather in a shack like house in their very own outskirts village. Most believe she was the first citizen but no one knows for sure. All anyone knew for sure was that Beastmaster Talya Wildheart served the Kingdom of Hearts and the Gaman Elloris Empire for millenniums.
Just as the last thought slipped through his mind Azaire found himself standing before the gates of the bestiary a huge special building made of special glass that showed a miniature forest inside as well as multiple other environments as one traveled around the huge building. Honestly he probably could have arrived much quicker on his bike but the walk was calming and allowed him to steady his restless nerves.
Seeing the bright and cheerful busygoings of his bright albeit small village gave him a small peace and he felt he was more than ready to now exceed Master Talya's expectations of him and secure his position as Beastmaster apprentice.
Just as he made to knock on the door it opened to the grinning face of Master Talya. There was an overwhelming excitement in her eyes that matched her current grin and as usual her flowing red hair that went down to her back was even messier then his normal hair and there were twigs and feathers as well as some different clumps of fur cluttering it.
"Well took ya long enough didn't it? Come on then don't jus' stand there come in already!" Master Talya's antics brought a smile to Azaire's face as he looked up at the towering woman, his abnormal 6 feet dwarfed by her equally abnormal 6 feet 5 inches of height. This woman was like a second mother to him and despite him now being able to make it official and focus solely on her teachings, he had long since tagged along with her and learned many things from her.
Most people attributed his rare gift for animals even to be the result of her favoring attention but those people were usually jealous or ignorant. "Auntie Talya it's good to see you again," Azaire smiled as he walked in waiting for Master Talya to reveal what had gotten her so excited. Despite it being a relatively big day for them this was still not enough to explain her level of enthusiasm she was showing now.
"Come on Azzy dear follow me. I have an amazing surprise for you! I had intended to save lessons like this to later down the line after I had you cultivate some martial arts and read some flora and fauna cultivating tomes. But this opportunity was too good to pass up!"
Azaire struggled to keep up with master Talya's long and swift strides as she weaved through different environments supported and separated by different magic's before arriving at the sky domain. Here the floor was made of fluffy clouds and all around was space imitating the clear blue sky outside but interspersed with many "solid" clouds and other random weather and sky occurrences here and there. Like the rain or snowstorm area.
On these clouds and in these different areas where all manner of beasts that thrived in the sky. Some with wings, some without, some who flew, other's tread the sky with their innate magic and still others who relaxed on long stretches of clouds and moved around as if they were creatures of land. That being said this was all normal fare Azaire was used to seeing.
What was not normal was the huge 7 foot man with midnight blue hair cut into a fade with cropped waves on top and near skin on the sides with stylized lighting bolts styled in on both sides. He had naturally rough tanned skin and electric blue eyes that seemed to twinkle with mystery, and a scary smile on his face. He wore Azure Sky colored monk robes and sensible black sandals. Altogether the man gave off a seemingly frightening aura but Azaire had worked with enough ferocious beasts, ten times more frightening, to tell right away the man was a big softy.
A gentle giant if you will. But this strange man alone didn't attract most of his attention rather it was the beast in his arms. A white furred wolf about as big as a full grown lion with azure blue lightning bolt marks in his fur across each eye and down its back and tail as well as an occasional static spark that surfaced on different areas of it's body from time to time.
"T-t-that's a....a..." Azaire stuttered in awe at the majestic animal. "Right, Right!?!?" Master Talya looked as if she were ready to jump out of her skin in excitement and Azaire wasn't far from following. "But that's....and so rare....never before...." "I know, I know! In storms....when I was younger.....love my job...."
The two tamers started a nearly incomprehensible gushing conversation with that as they gave their attention to the rare wolf alone, admiring it's uniqueness and wonder until a slightly reproachful and neglected throat clearing came from the poor forgotten man who'd had to suffer through their obvious ignoring his existence in favor of his own beast!
He gave them an accusatory look and pouted with a look that while most might find terrifying the two sheepish things before him could only find cute and well deserved. "Right my apologies where're ma manners! Azzy I'd like ya to meet Prince Jared Stormhall of the Storm Giant's Drifting Cloud Palace, and his newly bound beast this puppy Sky Hound....."