Beast Taming

John’s eyes widened in surprise as he found himself not in another classroom but in what seemed to be a tower that spiraled upwards indefinitely. He stood by the entrance where a staircase began to wind up to his left, interrupted every few feet by a closed door. The center of the floor was an incredibly intricate rune circle, the lines spiderwebbing so thinly they looked like artistic cracks in a pane of glass. It was easily fifty feet in diameter. It glowed a vibrant green that illuminated the tower but didn’t reach the ceiling, leaving to the imagination just how high it was.

He stepped to the edge of the circle, wary of its effect should he step into it. Looking around, he didn’t see anyone else entering the classroom. There was no professor to be seen either. He walked the perimeter of the circle, uncertain how class was supposed to start.

A door slammed somewhere high above the floor, followed by a string of curses interrupted by laughter. John looked up quizzically and saw nothing but darkness beyond the light of the circle. He stepped away and back towards the entrance, having absolutely no idea what was going on.

There was a rumbling purr that shook the room soon after the laughter subsided, and John’s panicked scrutiny of the darkness above increased tenfold. He cast a fireball in each hand, his eyes scanning back and forth for any sign of the creature responsible for the rumble.

The laughter started again, this time much closer than before. John launched a fireball straight up, illuminating farther than the rune circle and revealing the source of the sound. An immense jaguar with white fur and red spots was running down the spiral staircase, a humanoid figure on its back. The rider’s face was hidden behind a red mask, with two circular holes for the eyes and one circular hole for the mouth. Black lines around the eyes made the mask look angry. A white fur cape seemed to grow out of the top of the mask and flow over the rider’s back, two black lupine ears protruding from the top of the rider’s head. The rider’s torso was covered by a white, sleeveless shirt over a blue, sleeveless dress that reached just below their ass, revealing tanned legs and bare feet.

John lowered his hands and awaited what may very well be his professor, though he kept his guard up. The jaguar ran into the illuminated section of the tower and immediately pounced to the floor, landing perfectly at the center of the rune circle. John expected some sort of thundering thud on impact but was instead greeted by a soft woosh as the cat’s paws met the ground. The rider dismounted with the fluid grace of someone who had years of experience riding exotic animals.

Closer inspection revealed that the rider had a definite feminine figure, with a thin waist and a generous bust. There was red body paint on her upper thighs, as well as from her wrists to her shoulders. She reached up to her mask and lifted it to reveal a wide grin and a mischievous glint in her brown eyes. She had a tiny nose and shoulder length, light brown hair.

“I am Professor Salvaje, and I will introduce you to the lifestyle that is Beast Taming.”

Calista strolled leisurely along the dark path, her short curls waving to and fro in the water. Here at the bottom of the ocean that was the home to any water spirits John might recruit, she was alone. Knowing the great potential her summoner possessed, she savored the quiet that now resided over the calm seas. Very soon this calm would brew a storm of legendary proportions.

She held the Ocean Temple Stone in her hands as she continued her unhurried pace. The ocean floor was barren, not a strand of kelp or a singular fish in sight. The aquatic life would spring forth in due time. The stone glowed faintly in her hand, illuminating the faint path she was following. The grand avenue would come with time as well. Once more, the ancestral lands would shine with the glorious splendor of prosperity.

She didn’t question how such a novice had taken hold of the ancestral lands, she knew that some humans were born with inexplicable powers and abilities. The Water Mother had gifted blessings to all species, and unlimited potential was the blessing of the human race. The fact that the humans hadn’t lost the favor of the Water Mother was what surprised her. Plenty of species had had their blessings stripped or even been given curses instead. Alas, it wasn’t her place to ponder upon such occurrences.

The Stone glowed brilliantly for a second, then dimmed completely. Calista smiled as a palace materialized around her. She stood in a rectangular courtyard surrounded by pristine white marble columns. One of the shorter edges of the rectangle lead to the open ocean beyond its columns, though the other three all lead to spacious halls and lofty chambers. She continued forward, her pace quickened ever so slightly in her excitement.

She descended a grand staircase, wide enough for a pair of whales to swim side by side with ease. She passed hall after hall on both sides as she continued towards the resplandescent end of her journey. She knelt before the throne of the Lord of the Tides, where she was certain her summoner would sit one day.

“Until then, Master Newman, and forevermore, I shall serve you to the best of my ability.”

John pushed through more thick foliage as he traversed the humid hellhole his professor decided to initiate him with. His task was to find a giant lion turtle. He had no idea just how giant these turtles were or how difficult they would be to find. All Professor Salvaje had told him was that he’d know when he found one and not to hurt any of the other creatures even if they were hostile. Which was ridiculously ominous.

He was grumbling about how Firesmith couldn’t possibly be an accredited institution with methods like these as he splashed through another puddle when the ridiculousness of his situation hit him with a wave of amusement. He laughed heartily as he struggled through some more branches and into a clearing made by a stream. He looked side to side and decided to just walk along the banks of the stream until it joined with a river and hope that lion turtles needed to drink water regularly enough for him to run into one.

After what felt like hours of trudging through river mud, he felt a rumble in the ground, followed by several more rumbles and a roar. He followed the sound away from the river and into a newly created clearing. Two mythical beasts were brawling it out, knocking over trees and leaving craters in the ground. Flocks of snakes with wings could be seen flying away amid a ruckus of hissing and squawking. The two beasts looked to be a mixture of sloth and gorilla: with long arms ending in sharp sloth claws, gorilla feet, broad muscular torsos, and sloth heads. They stood at ten feet tall and were swinging their arms around with dangerous speed, cutting down trees but apparently only shallowly scratching each other. John cast observe.

Level 12 Gore Sloth

A massive cross between gorilla and sloth. It possesses the size, strength, and speed of a gorilla as well as the sharp claws, long reach, and ridiculous need to rest eighteen hours a day of a sloth.

The taller of the pair wound both of its arms up for a brutal overhead smash, roaring triumphantly as the shorter one struggled with pushing a particularly wide tree off its chest. It was about to lower its arms when it sniffed the air and turned its head towards John.

Oh shit.

John activated parkour and made his way into the upper reaches of the trees, setting a path for the river through the trees. The gore sloth didn’t agree with John’s decision to run away. The trees behind John started to shake and fall as he was pursued by the hulking predator. The thundering footsteps behind him doubled as the second gore sloth apparently decided to follow its opponent. John swung from branch to branch, over and under, often performing tactical flips and handsprings to fit through tight spaces.

A gore sloth caught up to him and slapped him with the back of its clawed paw, sending him flying through several feet of foliage.

-20 hp

-1 hp

-1 hp

-1 hp

-1 hp

Crit! -5 hp

-1 hp

-1 hp

He caught himself on a branch and used his falling momentum to swoop even farther away from the gore sloths rampaging behind him, the wood cutting into his hands.

-3 hp

-7 hp

The commotion caused by the gore sloths died down behind him as he continued to weave his way through the branches of the trees lining the bank of the river. He followed the river downstream for a while, keeping his guard up should any other creatures attack him. There was no sign of a giant lion turtle, and John was beginning to think he hadn’t taken the best route to find it.

That was, until he reached where the river he was following met an even larger river. A few feet away from where the rivers converged was a deep indent the size of a small house, with even deeper protrusions. There were similar indents along the bank of the larger river, heading upstream. Not wanting to follow the tracks of an incredibly dangerous creature, John cast observe.

Giant Lion Turtle Print

A turtle print of immense proportions, made by a giant lion turtle.

“Sweet,” John said as he started to follow the tracks upstream.

The trees around him started to stand farther and farther apart, branches growing longer to cover the space. The river more than doubled in width, now several city blocks across. More and more giant lion turtle tracks made the ground extremely uneven, tree roots reaching out of the sides of the craters. Every now and then John would pass an island in the middle of the river with a giant pile of tiny eggs sitting in the center.

More and more signs of turtles in the area but not a single turtle in sight. Class is going to end before I find one.

Not long after that thought, he heard a commotion above him. Hissing and squawking and the enthusiastic flapping of feathers reached his ears as he stopped by the trunk of a particularly thick tree.

Those weird snake birds from earlier probably. I should stay away; they could definitely chase me farther than the gore sloths if they decided to. I still can’t find a fucking tur-

His thought process was interrupted by a deafening roar, also above him. His ears rang as he started to climb up to see what the hell was going on up there. He broke above the canopy to see a huge flock of snake birds, what must have been nearly a hundred of the things, pestering an unbelievably giant… giant lion turtle. The creature was absolutely massive, its foot the size of a city block, its body sizable enough to host a large city on its back.

It was floating in the air, the tips of its claws brushing the tops of the trees as it levitated. It had a lion’s head with a mane made of leaves and branches on a turtle’s body, its shell growing a forest of its own that teemed with life. John was parkouring his way through the highest branches that could support his weight, catching glimpses of the raid taking place above him. He cast observe on one of the puny creatures as it swooped close to him after being somehow fended off by the indifferent turtle.

Level 4 Feathered Fanghur

Weaker cousin to the Scaled Fanghur, attacks in swarms of at least fifty. Unlike its cousin, it cannot incapacitate its prey with a psychic wave of energy. Extremely territorial.

As John drew nearer to the fight, he noticed that the wriggling mass on top of the turtle’s shell was a combination of trees swaying frantically as they launched projectiles at their host’s attackers and tiny lion turtles mewling and roaring to their best ability. It was cute until John realized more than a few were being **** by the fanghur. It took the combined effort of four fanghur to carry one of the turtles away, all five screeching loudly.

Playful laughter cut through the noise as John watched the abductions in horror. He recognized the laughter and looked around for his professor, realizing in the process that there were two more giant lion turtles floating far off in the direction he’d come from. Some trees just below the turtle under attack erupted with leaves and the professor's jaguar. She held out her palm towards the swarm of fanghur, and a blast of green energy shot out towards them.

The green light traveled through the swarm harmlessly before exploding in the center, sending all of the fanghur screeching away in panic. The jaguar landed nimbly on a branch that John’s parkour would not have trusted to bear his weight. Professor Salvaje was still laughing as she conjured some sort of green ball of light and shot it at the floating turtle. The light touched one of the turtle’s feet and seeped under the skin. Seconds later its entire body glowed bright green, with spots of gold. The concentration of golden spots increased closer to where the swarm aimed its attack, leading John to believe that those were wounds.

The golden spots started to disappear one by one as the professor rode her jaguar towards John.

“Well done, little one. You showed a great deal of determination. Many of your classmates gave up in the first ten minutes. Very few were the ones who held out as long as you, but then again, few were the ones who took so long to find a giant lion turtle.”

She laughed again. The pleasant sound was unnerving behind the mask that didn’t match the emotion.

“How long was I looking, professor?”

“Three and a half hours.”

John’s eyes widened in shock, earning even more laughter from his professor.

“Classes are only two hours long!”

“We’re in a time dilated protected space; it slows down up to a hundred space minutes per reality minute if needed, then speeds up to a hundred reality minutes per space minute if necessary. For hunts like these I slow it down to ten per one until either the one hour mark or the student finds the creature. In the former case, I increase to fifty per one; in the latter case, I increase to one per fifty until the allotted class time ends.”

Her voice had taken on a bored and monotone aspect as she explained, a stark contrast to the enthusiasm she showed earlier.

“I really don’t like talking about things that have nothing to do with the creatures in my care,” she admitted, her voice regaining its usual tone.

She lifted her mask to reveal a wide grin and eyes that shone with excitement.

“So let me tell you about giant lion turtles.”