1 Spirit Beasts

In the world of Zephyr every person who turns the age of 15 awakens their spirit beast. Spirit beasts are not spirits as the name suggests, but are actually living and corporeal beings that can be summoned by their master. As to which spirit beast a child gets it is mostly random. Noble houses were said to have bloodlines which would almost always give descendants powerful beings. In the Wang country where our protagonists live, common folk are treated like trash. This was another thing of the noble houses had over the commoners. Since commoners had weak bloodlines and most did not get powerful beings, nobles had absolute power. Lucky commoners would get a rank four beast at most. Spirit beasts went one through nine. Most nobles had a rank four or higher spirit beast. If a commoner was found to have a rank five or higher beast by the nobles, he would be "accepted" by a noble. This was incredibly rare. You may think of the ones who had a rank five beast or higher as a commoner would be lucky, but that is not the case. Most who were taken by the nobles never came back, and those who were never spoke of their time in the nobles' house. The nobles saw powerful commoners as a threat, and these threats were generally eliminated.

The nobles used their powerful beings to further increase their power over the common folk. In other places outside of Wang country, people were treated better and there were great sects and academies for people to join.

As far back as Zi and Yi could remember, their grandmother had taken care of them. They lived in a small border town on the Eastern edge of the Wang Country near the border station. Border stations were, as the name implies, places to cross the border. In other places there might be people from other countries flowing in and out of the country, but not here. For on the other side of the wall was the Great Desert.

It was a large area of land with very little water or vegetation. There were rumors of a great and powerful empire on the opposite side of the desert. There were occasionally travelers from their who passed by from the empire. They spoke of wonderful buildings and temples, with powerful beasts everywhere. Zi and Yi were told that their parents had died shortly after their birth, but were never told how they died or who they were. Every time they asked their grandmother she simply would start talking about the weather or other mundane subjects.

Zi and Yi were turning fifteen tomorrow. They had been excitedly waiting for this day to come. On the night before their fifteenth birthday they both stayed up late and talked before finally falling asleep. "What do you think yours will be?" Yi asked. Zi said "I hope it is some sort of bird. I've heard the strongest bird beasts you can ride on. That would be awesome!""I am hoping for some sort of fast land animal" said Yi "like the cheetah that Old Fang has. That would be amazing!" Zi then said " What about some mythical creature, like the dragons and phoenixes from the stories?" Even though Zi knew the chances of one of them getting a mythical creature would be amazing, much less both of them. Only the true elites got mythical beasts.

Beasts could not increase their rank unless they were given lots of special and rare medicine, in which case they would have a slight chance of evolution to a higher rank. Both of them kept chatting and dreaming about powerful and mythical beasts. They both got tired and then went to sleep.

The next morning Zi was trying to sleep as long as possible when his brother started shaking him awake. "Brother, brother, wake up! Today is the day when we get to find out and receive our spirit beasts!" Zi was instantly awake. "When do we get to unlock our spirit beasts?" "Grandmother said she would unlock our beasts after breakfast!" Only elder members of the child's bloodline could unlock their spirit beast. "Seeing the to boys gobble up the food as fast as possible, their grandmother smiled. "Those two boys look so much like their father." She thought. Both boys had bright white hair and handsome features. "So", she clapped her hands,"are you ready to unlock your beasts?" Her eyes sparkled with excitement. The boys were incredibly excited. "Be ready for the flash of light and then make sure you accept the mark." Every person with a spirit beast has a mark on their hand where their beast can be stored. "Yes grandmother!" The boys shouted in unison. She said "I am now beginning the unlocking. Prepare yourselves!"

After she said this, a bright flash filled the boys' vision. They were about to see and unlock their spirit beasts!