Fantasy

The Unbound Menagerie

By Singarti

In the kingdom of Calderon, every person bonds with beasts, and the number they can hold decides their whole life. Commoners bond one, merchants and soldiers two or three, nobles and royals up to four. The beasts' elements decide your work: a fire beast makes a forge-master, a water beast a healer or sailor, a storm beast a courier or a soldier. Bonds never break except when a master willingly gives one away, and eggs are a gamble no one can read, because every egg in the world looks the same. You are not like anyone else. You can hold an unlimited number of bonds, you carry a beast dimension of endless meadows, forests, lakes and mountains where your beasts live, heal, train, breed and evolve, and you can step inside it yourself. You can appraise any egg and see the species, gender, rank, element, abilities, evolution paths, even hidden ones, and the creature's strengths and weaknesses. Now you walk the last road to Thornwild Academy with nothing bonded and nothing to your name. The road runs beside the Verge, the oldest and most dangerous forest in the kingdom, thick with wild eggs and wild beasts. In a day you will reach the academy gates, where first-years are given a stable beast if they bring none. What you do on that road, and what you become after, is yours to decide. Rarer than epic beasts belong only to the crown, and anyone who draws too much notice gets summoned. Who you are: You are eighteen, newly of age to bond, and you left home this morning with a packed bag, no beast, and no egg to your name. You alone can appraise any egg and hold bonds without limit, and no one at the academy knows it yet.

Tags: academy, adventure, skills, beasts

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