Beast Taming? Nah, Dragon Herding is Way Better!

Inside a forest somewhere, a relatively loud rustling as foliage of leaves move around causes the entirety of the wildlife here to flee in surprise and terror, thinking that the creature hiding behind those thick gathering of grass and leaves is a predator about to pounce on them.

As the rustling and moving of the greeneries all around becomes more apparent to everyone's senses, the animals and other little critters running around goes even farther away from the source of the sound, proving reality couldn't be even more disappointing as the origin of the sounds appears out of the bushes.

"Haaah!!! Finally!! Looks like I'm out of here!!!" using his forearms to wipe the beads of sweat forming on his forehead, a young man shouts, his appearance being obscured by the thick adventure gear he's wearing, a cloak covering the entirety of his figure, partnered with a hood that hides even his facial features, the only thing that can identify him is the particularly manly, upbeat and youthful voice.

After celebrating a bit too early to his comfort, the young man starts scanning the surroundings, making him feel extremely dumb as he saw wads of trees surrounding the place he's standing on, the little creatures failing to run away from the supposed predator looking curiously at the seemingly brainless biped standing in front of them.

Feeling the gaze of the critters around him, the young man couldn't help but feel a bit frustrated and annoyed, cursing at himself for being weak with directions, but refusing to let his frustration take over and harm said critters as he knows that any creature in the forest, no matter how big or small they are can be a terrifying predator especially in these times.

Opting to avoid the creatures and walking around away from them, the upbeat young man starts climbing the trees, leaping from branch to branch swiftly and effortlessly, as if this is something he's already so used to doing.

"Man really feels nice with the wind caressing your face huh?" moving swiftly from tree to tree, the upbeat young man mutters to himself as he starts enjoying the experience he's currently having, the refreshing scent of the woods along with the relaxing green surrounding making him nod in satisfaction, the only regret he has being the fact that he's currently lost in this place.

"This forest seems to be enchanted with space type magic…" what annoys him the most is the fact that he's already traversing all across this forest for almost a week now, the supply on his spatial pouch already running out, forcing him to hunt the creatures in the forest without care for to which is the dangerous ones and which her can really kill due to the shortage of his food supply.

"Damn!! Here again!!!" landing on a familiar place again, the upbeat young man's voice starts getting tinged by a bit of annoyance, seeing a mark that he placed on a tree ever since he found himself seemingly just circling around this place, a mark that he saw for the hundredth times already ever since he starts going on a straight line.

"This place shouldn't be messing with my sense of direction, after all, if that's the case, I won't see these marks in the same order as I place them" analyzing the mark on the tree, the young man said to himself while looking at the singular slash left on said tree, marking the first one of the 'pathfinders' he leaves along the way, something that clearly fails to serve its purpose as he comes back to it time and time again.

After mulling at his situation for a while, the upbeat young man got disturbed as loud screeching sound erupted from the air, followed by the sound of metal hitting metal, the force clearly strong enough to destroy the surroundings given how loud it is despite being in the air.

Wondering what causes such sounds, the upbeat young man directs his gaze towards the skies, seeing two giant birds both bearing the same metallic wings, claws and beaks, one of them clearly an eagle given the size of its wingspan and its hook shaped beak, and the other one a hawk, apparent from the hoarse screeching sound coming out of it.

As the two terrifying predators with bodies spanning meters soar unhindered through the skies, the upbeat young man just stares at them with desire in his eyes while clenching his fist, something weighing his mind making him unable to focus at the majestic match between the two predators.

'Must be nice having one of those flying monsters as a contracted beast' watching the two creatures battling it out in the skies, the upbeat young man thinks to himself before shaking his head and wryly smiling, knowing that such hopeful circumstances is merely a pipe dream for an orphan like him.

"Kiiiieeekk!!!!"

Hearing the loud scream from the birds fighting in the air, the upbeat young man snaps out of his lamenting thoughts, looking up once again only to see both the birds plummeting towards the grounds, the two of them clearly hurt from fighting each other, their severe wounds visible despite the two of them being dozens of meters up in the air.

As the two barely living creatures falls into the ground, they produced a loud thud resounding all across their surroundings, said thud can also be clearly heard by the upbeat young man, making him sure that those two birds fall somewhere near him.

'This is a chance' with one thing running though his mind, the upbeat young man starts rushing towards the direction of the sound, immediately climbing through the trees and leaping from branch to branch, his legs still shaking from the mixture of excitement and terror coursing through his entire body, excitement at the fact that this might be his chance to leap towards the dragons gate in one step, and terror at the fact that one wrong move in front of these two large predators will irrefutably spell his certain death.

'No tigers outside the tiger's den' braving his terror though, the upbeat young man thinks to himself that there's no safe opportunity, as they always coexist with the danger in the surroundings and given how life threatening the thing he is about to attempt, it only means that succeeding on this means that the opportunity he will acquire is something really great.

Finally arriving at the place where the two massive creatures fell, the upbeat young man first investigates the area for other dangers, his eyes widening in surprise as he saw the trees felled and scattered away from the impact of the fall, a small, desolate crater holding the two giant metallic birds in the middle, the two of them still struggling despite the clear loss of the blood in their body.

Watching the two birds now weakly struggling to get away from death's door, the upbeat young man decides to gather his courage and close in on the two, readying something that he takes out from his bag, a sort of parchment paper rolled into a small scroll and tied by a translucent thread, a candle wax seal preventing the thread from loosening.

'I heard that flying monsters are great contracted beasts, it might even land me in a good job in the military…' looking up at the massive figures overshadowing his own, the upbeat young man thought to himself as he walks even closer with shaking knees, extremely careful as he doesn't want to make the two birds aware of his feeble existence.

'…I should get that eagle, that must be the Soaring Steel Eagle from the compendium' looking at the metallic eagle clearly a bit more vigorous than the hawk after their fight, the upbeat young man thought to himself as he remembers the description of the Soaring Steel Eagle in a must have book for all aspiring beast tamers of the kingdom, the Myriad Beast Compendium.

Standing at a height nearing dozen meters, the Soaring Steel Eagle is something with a potential high enough for a beast tamer be a partner with, a beast that is well sought after by noble clans of the kingdom, and now, a beast that is most possible going to be the upbeat young man's companion for a long period in his life.

'Calm down, calm down…' opening the parchment paper, the upbeat young man saw a circular seal drawn in the middle of it, something that not only him, but nearly all, if not every person in this world knows, a binding seal, this one intended to establish a contract between a person and a beast.

One of the prerequisites of said process are the blood of both the person and the target beast, something that the young man has in abundance given the serious injuries the Soaring Steel Eagle sustains, having one of the keys to the contract secured prompting him to take out a knife from his spatial pouch then proceeding to cut his hands, a fatal mistake about to drive him into a grave danger.