What would a beast rider be without a beast?

3 month later.

Adam noticed relatively quickly, that the training from the first day was just a little familiarization. At first, he was surprised, when the others said something about the elite, but the training was hard really hard. The recruits had gathered in the classroom on General Aslan's orders and were waiting patiently.

"Today is the day you've been waiting for! Today, we will leave Tarria, and each of you will get your beast. This will be a march of about 4 hours, so a leisurely walk. We then ride back and gather east of the city walls for a little practice battle. The other classes will also take part in this battle; we will pretend it's real, so give it your all. You have 2 hours to prepare, we might encounter monsters. So in 2 hours in front of the gate, be on time." Aslan didn't even bother, to go to the blackboard and left the room again after his announcement.

Adam, John, Aldo, and Jean quickly got ready and then met on the training grounds. In addition to their official weapons, John and Adam also wore a bow and a quiver on their backs. The group of four went together across the market square.

"Aldo, a map might be helpful, you two get arrows and food for everyone. I will organize drinks." Said Jean, who was now officially the group leader.

And the group split up. Adam and John went together to an armory shop on a side street and quickly bought a bunch of arrows for each. Then, they went to the merchant, who sold these hot stuffed buns, that Adam ate when he first came to this town. Mostly only once every two weeks, did the beast riders find time to roam freely in the city, so they mostly went to the market and knew where they would find what they needed. Of course, Adam found time to visit the temple as well. They didn't heard any news from the borders, so the training would go on as planned. By the time the two got back to the point where they had parted, Jean was already waiting impatiently.

"You would have been much quicker if you had split up! Anyway, come on, Aldo is already at the meeting point!" Said Jean impatiently with her arms crossed.

When the group left the city, they saw that besides Aldo and several others had already gathered. The group sat down with Aldo on the meadow and watched as more and more recruits gathered.

"Hey, Aldo! Let's fight!" John pointed his sword at Aldo, after drawing it from his magic pouch.

It was a bastard sword, with a Wolfhead at the Pommel, that Adam believed John had brought from home, as it looked older than the weapons they have.

"Ask someone else. Maybe Adam wants to play with you." Aldo replied, slightly annoyed.

"Why no..." Before Adam could agree, Jean stood up and turned her weapon into a war scythe.

"You want to fight me like that? Haha. Well, show what you can do with that weapon, against my trusty sword!" John teased her and pointed at the War Scythe.

"You seem to be quite self-confident. Let's go!" Jean said in a mocking tone.

The fight didn't last long and ended with John sitting on his butt, with Jean's blade on his chin.

"Hey Jean, are you dancing with me too?" asked Adam with a grin.

"But don't be sad if I wipe the floor with you, because I've just warmed up!" Jean scoffed.

"What do I get if I win?" Adam smirked confidently.

Adam was so self-confident because, besides the normal training, he was also training in what Master Sofiel called the technique. It was a fairly simple, but a permanent body strengthening technique, where you collect magic energy in your body and thus strengthen it. The potential of this technique is very high, but it takes a lot of time and only strengthens it in tiny little steps. But since Adam's body was strengthened by the presence of the goddess and her milk, he had the opportunity to ascend as a god, so it was more effective for Adam than for others. As a result, his cells took in magic energy much better, and time didn't matter to him anyway. The goddess had also told him, that his body would not continue to age after a certain age and level anyway.

"Hmm...I'll spend one in the *barrel*!"

„The Barrel?"

„Yes, Ye olde Barrel is a pub!" Jean answered.

"Then you'll be broke, I drink like a dwarf! HAHA!" Laughed Adam.

"You're not going to win anyway! Let's begin!" Jean moved into a fighting stance.

Without a word, Adam pulled the sword he got from Master Sofiel out of his bracelet and pointed the tip at Jean.

Adam lunged forward and dodged the blade of Jean's scythe and executed a heavy blow from above which Jean effortlessly dodged. In one fluid motion, she twisted and turned the knob of her weapon and struck horizontally. The young man half-turned to block the curved blade with his sword, Adam's entire body tensed as the lioness's physical strength was no joke. With a kick to the inside of his knee, Adam collapsed.

"That's not very honorable!" scoffed Adam.

Jean drew back her blade and thrust. Adam rolled to escape the blow and parried a slash from above. Then, they exchanged a few quick blows and moved away from each other. Jean took a deep breath and then lunged back at her opponent with a slash from above, which Adam parried and elbowed her in the face. She stumbled for a short moment, and just as she was about to attack again, she saw Adam's blade on her chin. Adam knew, how strong the lioness was and that something like this normally didn't cause her to stumble, but his body was a little stronger than it had been from training alone.

"That's not very honorable!" She repeated Adam's words with a grin.

"I just really wanted to have a drink with you. Haha!" Adam said and ran into a wall of muscles when he turned to sit down with the others.

"Looks like you guys can't wait to get into battle. Get ready to march!" Aslan's loud voice sounded.

In two rows the soon-to-be beast riders marched into the forest. About halfway through, Adam got bored and started fantasizing about what kind of beast he would get. In his mind, he was already riding on the back of a dragon or a giant wolf.

"Are you daydreaming? We're here!" Aldo nudged him.

"Let him dream, then he'll be surprised by the beast I've chosen!" John laughed while patting Adam on the back.

They stood on a wide meadow, that was surrounded by the forest as if it were just a very large clearing. Three huge stables stood in the middle, and in a wide fenced area stood all kinds of strange mounts. Besides horses of various sizes, there were also huge lizards, a huge chicken, and even land dragons.

'So by gigantic chicken, they literally meant gigantic chicken!' Adam actually thought that was just a name.

The young recruits were gathering in front of the stables when a tall brown-haired elf came out. He wore the beast rider's weapon on his back, and in his hand, he held a clipboard.

"Varan! I hope you got my recruit's list of wishes in time!" Aslan greeted the man he seemed to know, with a smile.

"Last time, there only were half as many recruits, it was easy then, but now I had to hire some adventurers to get all the beasts in time. Then let's start right away!" Varun waved his clipboard.

The Elven man called out the recruits one after the other. The list appeared to be sorted by rooms because Adam's group was the last one left. Aldo and John were the first to disappear into the gigantic stables.

"Jean Aslan!" The man called.

Adam's mouth fell open.

'She has a family name? And then the same as the General, who has been training them like crazy for weeks, but she looks completely different! So that's, what General Aslan must have meant by *certain circumstances*!'

"General Aslan is your father???" Adam asked, puzzled.

"Keep it to yourself!" said Jean, as she followed the elf into the stable.

"Hey, are you Adam Young? You're the one who didn't choose anything right?" a female voice asked.

When Adam turned around, the first thing he saw was bright green eyes. A woman in what appeared to be a maid's uniform, with long black hair tied in a high ponytail.

"Yes, I'm Adam!" he replied.

"Fine, come with me, we'll find something you like."

"I think, I've already found something I like!" Adam said, putting his hand on her arm.

"Normally, I would have ripped your head off your shoulders for that! But, you smell..." Just for a moment her eyes lit up menacingly, and Adam knew, she wasn't kidding.

"I smell?"

"You smell like her!" she said simply.

"You've got to be more specific. Otherwise, I don't know what you mean."

"How can a human being, so far from a temple or shrine smell of the goddess?"

"That remains my little secret, maybe I'll tell you sometime! But, keep the part about the smell to yourself for now." Adam made this gesture in front of his mouth as if he were closing a zipper.

"Anyway, follow me!" With a casual wave of her hand, she stepped forward and led Adam to one of the stables.

It was one of the other two stables, they must have kept the recruits' mounts together. The smell of fresh hay filled Adam's nostrils as he entered the huge barn-like building.

"Wow, that's amazing!" Adam was amazed when he stepped into the stables.

This had to be an enchantment, the building was much larger on the inside than you would expect from the outside. Two men wheelbarrowed fresh hay to vacant cages and another carried two buckets of feed to a giant bear, that was chained at the far end of the hall. In addition to the bear, there were only two horses, one of which had wings.

"Here, sign!" While Adam was still looking around in astonishment, like a kid in a candy store, the black-haired beauty had already put a contract on the table.

"But the field with the name is empty and I haven't chosen anything yet!" Adam said after reading everything.

"This is my contract! Give me a name and it will appear there, then sign and put some blood on the contract." She rolled her eyes.

Then it dawned on Adam, as he thought back to his cheap pick-up line. Since Adam was now aware that she wasn't human, he thought of a name.

"Hmm... What kind of name should I give you? Maybe Mila? Or maybe..." When Adam said the name, it already appeared on the contract.

"Looks like that's my name!" She said with a smile.

"Huh? But I was still thinking!"

"I liked it, so I accepted it." She shrugged.

"Well, if you like it. Do you have a pen?"

Adam signed the contract and poked his finger with his sword to get some blood on it. The contract began to glow when Adam's blood touched it and vanished into thin air.

But now Adam had one more question.

"Are you turning into a wolf now or something? I hadn't even asked yet!"

"I'm a holy Beast in the form of a huge panther!" She answered shortly.

"But, how come you can turn into a human?" Adam knew, that some beasts were able to do that, but he didn't understand why.

"I don't quite understand that myself. One day I woke up in this stable and I was human. From that day on, I was allowed to choose a rider myself!"

"How long have you been here?"

"Let's talk about it later, I'll brief Varan, pack some things, and then we'll meet outside." She replied as she put some slips of paper in a box.

"Hey Liri, we should get you a corgi, then you'd have a mount too!" Adam said to the little fairy, who appeared on the table and curiously examined the papers on it.

In some stories, it is said, that corgis are the mounts of the fairies.

*Author note: I stumbled upon this folklore while looking for a mount for Liri.*

[According to Welsh folklore, warrior fairies' favorite mounts are the majestic and impressive... corgis. That's right, you read that correctly. The name Corgi stands for "Fairy Heeler" or "Fairy Herding Dog."

The fairies treasure these dwarvish canines for their golden fur, short legs, and fox-like heads (though they lost their tails after displeasing the Fairy Queen when they went on a strike--the Fey folk don't like to have their wishes ignored!). And, if anyone doubts the dogs' fairy provenance, they have but to look at the saddle markings left on their backs from giving rides to the fairies.]

"I already have a mount, HAHAHA!" The fairy pointed at Adam.

Once again, the fairy laughed longer and louder, than it would have been necessary to tease Adam.

Adam wanted to kill time talking to the others, so he left the Barn. When he got outside, he saw James first, sitting, head held high on a land dragon. This animal really lived up to its name; it looked like a wingless dragon with thick brown scales. But it wasn't as big as you would imagine when you think about a dragon, it was a little bigger than a Pickup truck.

Adam ignored the young nobleman and went straight to his roommates.

Jean sat on a big winged lion, while John stood next to an unusually large wolf. The Wolf and the Lion's shoulder height was comparable to that of a horse, more or less. Aldo stole the show sitting on a chicken that was at least double the height of the Wolf and the Lion. The beast was so huge, that Adam was puzzled about how Aldo got up there. Slowly, but surely Jean rode up to Adam, circled him, and rode comfortably beside him.

"Couldn't make up your mind?" She asked, while gently stroking her lion's fur.

"I just found something suitable, but it will take a moment!" He replied as he took a closer look at the two next to him.

"Look, this is Shredder!" John yelled, patting his wolf's side.

"This is Hector!" Aldo pointed to his chicken, which could hardly be overlooked.

"So I decided on the name Nala." Said Jean.

The name of Jean's mount brought back memories from a movie Adam had loved, and he unconsciously smiled

Adam thought it was interesting, that she decided on a lion.

"Why a lion? I'm just saying, I wouldn't ride a human into battle either!" Adam couldn't help it, and had to ask.

"Hey, Adam! I'm ready, we can go!" Adam regretted what he said when he saw Mila walking towards him dragging a suitcase behind her.

"I wouldn't ride a human into battle either...!" Jean teased him.

[DING!]