“You ask for that every time you see me,” Blas sighed, “Fine. It was my best achievement, as far as beast handling goes. Gods, it was fifteen years ago, that I found him.”

A much younger Blas Severin stood at the edge of a precipice. The cliff looked out over a deep forest, thicker and denser than civilization would allow. Behind him were a series of steep cliffs leading to mountaintops and three close guards.

“Roland,” Blas said. At this point, he was only twenty instead of thirty-five, but he still kept his hair long and drawn back into a straight ponytail. “Tell the troops to circle around to the Northeast. Two kilometers. There are signs of a cave.”

“A mine, my Lord?”

“Doubtful. More likely a monster lair. Hopefully it’s what we’ve been searching for. See those trees, down there to the left? There’s a patch that’s been singed with acid.”

“I see, Duke. I’ll alert the soldiers and inform them of your orders.”

It had been three weeks so far that Blas and his soldiers had been out in the wilderness, searching for signs of a powerful and dangerous creature reported to be nearby. Given the state of the family, and with Blas's older brother ever irritated at his situation, it was not surprising that the knights were reticent to follow him wholeheartedly.

After nearly a month, they were getting quite tired of having to camp without a comfortable bed to lay in and away from their families. Of course, Blas understood their predicament, and he understood why they wouldn’t be so keen to trust him on this, but he knew there was something here. The reports of a giant winged creature, some even dared to call it a phoenix, told him it could be something magnificent. That chance alone to him was worth the trip. It wasn’t as though he came from a family of Beast Tamers that would understand his drive and why he desired so fervently to find a creature of such power. Others would want to see it dead, they would want to kill it for the experience that it would give them. Blas was not interested in that however. He wanted to see such a creature flourish. Perhaps it was in part that frustration that made the morale among the knights poor. It’d been years already, but he still felt like he had little grasp over how to truly be a Lord, how to truly be a Duke. This could be felt through his whole duchy.

Recent reports described the beast as massive and winged, but it had feathers that at least in some areas resembled a setting sun. The various witnesses at least knew that it was not some form of dragon because they did not see forelimbs on the beast, although it was from a great distance. Although not something that he was willing to say aloud, Blas hoped that it would be a wyvern. A challenge and a partner that he had always dreamed of being able to one day have. To have one at his relatively young age would help to cement his place in his family as the head. He was the Duke, he needed to show everyone why.

Blas moved away from the edge and followed the same path that the knight he had ordered had followed to return to his company. It was a short hike of about 10 minutes that he had gone through to get a better grasp on the terrain from such a vantage point. If it was a wyvern he wasn’t sure why they would’ve chosen such a strange location for a den. Wyverns and dragons, and many various rock birds, were most often seen high in the cliffs, not among the trees below. This fact gave him a hint of doubt in his heart. Perhaps after all this time they would just find a particularly prolific dire bear or an unruly ogre, and he would be an embarrassment to his family name. He couldn’t afford to think like that however.

Returning to his knights, who were packing up and getting ready to move once again, he called out to them.

"My knights’ order, thank you for sticking with me through gloomy weather and through blazing sun. Neither rain nor heat can stop you and for that I am ever grateful. I think our search is coming to an end for this beast. We shall find out today what the civilians of the area have been reporting and have been ever so scared of. Now! Break camp! We're moving out!"

His knights gave a soft call out in return and finished packing up to move off. His three guards, Roland, Jasper, and Xune, were by his side, watching the movement with him. They were older, but very capable, having once served his father and mother. All three of them were brunettes with brown eyes, but they couldn’t look more different from one another.

Roland was a deep-skinned man, always the professional, reticent to show emotion, who kept his hair sheared short and out of the way. Jasper was pale as moonlight, his brown hair starting to salt and pepper, but was energetic and not afraid to tell Blas when he thought he was in the wrong. And Xune, by all accounts an average man, a man from the far west, who moved to the kingdom after his family perished in monster attacks. He was quiet and loyal, but a strong voice of compassion when it came to it.

It made Blas feel secure that he had three people who were more than twice his age at his side. People of experience. Wisdom to temper his ambition.

The trek down the cliff side and around to the site of the cave would have normally taken an hour, maybe two given the rough terrain, but with a whole group of knights in tow it took closer to six.

By the time they had made it, the sun was starting to set, and given the lack of intelligence on the creature, it was decided to keep some distance from the cave. About a kilometer and a half or so should be enough to calm the protective instincts of most creatures, so that was where they settled their nightly camp. Still far off, but in the protection of the trees and without as many cliffsides or boulders to get in the way. In the process of doing so, however, they discovered clues concerning the nature of what may lay within.

They found many scorch marks on the ground, but it was unclear what from. There were no bones, and many guesses abounded concerning fire-breathing creatures that had no qualms eating whole corpses. Blas couldn’t deny that it was certainly possible, and that it opened up the possibility of many fearsome creatures that would honor his position, but it only fanned the flames of that little hope: a wyvern.

While it was unlikely he’d ever actually need such a beast to help defend from a dragon, as diplomacy was a better option nine times out of ten, but it was a powerful symbol. A leader astride a wild-born wyvern was an image from tales, few and far between. In no small part because it was easier to breed them and raise those young, but domestic born wyverns lacked that… spark, the sharp wit and willpower needed to stand beside great warriors. To be their partners.

In no small part because a wild wyvern couldn’t be “broken” in the same sense as a horse. They had to choose to obey you, lest they’d fight to the death or flee to lands unknown long before one could bend their spirit. They had to respect and honor you. Though they were no dragons and lacked true sentience, they were fully sapient, and were considered to be great judges of character, as animals tended to be.

So while the others hypothesized, he prayed to a little known god he’d heard of in his travels, Vera, that they were wrong. That the scorching came not from flame, but acid.

The next day came after a relatively tense night, his team of knights wary of whatever may be inside. He could see why; they had come along mostly as an emergency management team. The main group, and the ones upon which Blas would mostly rely on for help, were a team of five rangers - along with his three personal guards, of course.

They were dressed little different than the other knights, their platemail covered by an enchanted cloth covering, preventing glare. At the same time, their joints had small cloth paddings to prevent the clanking of metal. Nothing that stood out, but they were all very capable.