Galaxy's Dark Star

This was it.
In five minutes, when the clock strikes midnight, the trial would begin. The Trial that all eleven year olds will take, the Trial that may change their lives forever.
But most lives, it will not change. Most kids, after they take the Trial, will not pass. Most will go back to their normal lives, never to pass through the Chandaria’s gates, never to utter a word about the Trial again. They resume their schoolwork, and go on to live an ordinary life.
But those that passed…well, those that passed would not be going back to their day-to-day lives. Their lives would become nothing short of extraordinary.
And to achieve that, all Daniel had to do was pass the Trial.

Five minutes later…
Daniel watched on as a girl reached up to touch the staff of Chandaria. Slowly, she closed her long fingers around the staff's worn, wooden handle and closed her eyes, concentrating hard. After a moment, nothing happened. The Torpedo Guards waited patiently for her to finally let go of the staff with a crestfallen expression. So far, only three out of the hundreds of kids that had been tested had passed. The first two had turned out to be Water Controllers, their bonded crocodiles appearing in front of them in a sudden flash of blinding light. The other had called a wolf, meaning he was an Earth Controller. The rest that had been tested and failed were escorted back home by some members of the Torpedo Guard. Most kids had been tested, but around fifty still remained, wandering around the pavilion they had been gathered on, filling the nighttime silence with their voices.
“Daniel Carson!” A Torpedo Guard called out, raising his voice over the chatter. Torpedo guards were the protectors of Chandaria, guarding the entrance of the kingdom so that no Commoners, the people who do not pass the Trial, never set foot inside the Kingdom. On hearing his name, Daniel stood up and walked toward the Staff of Chandaria.
“Whenever you're ready”, the Torpedo Guard said. The signature mask that the Torpedo Guards wore seemed to be too big for his face. A blood red pin was clipped to his blue and white Torpedo uniform, twinkling proudly in the moonlight. The dark red colour on his pin meant that this guard must be a Fire Controller, indicating that he had bonded to a grizzly bear. But his bear was nowhere to be seen, which was strange. Most Controllers preferred to keep their bonded animals close to them.
“Ahem.” the guard said, indicating to the staff that hovered in midair in front of Daniel’s face. Taking a deep breath, he reached up and grasped the staff between both of his hands. Almost immediately, the orb sitting on top of the staff started pulsing with energy, just like how it had done with the others that had passed. Daniel beamed; an immense feeling of triumph and exhilaration pumped through his body.  
That's when it all went wrong.
The orb glowed brighter still, causing the people standing next to it to shield their eyes. Daniel was thrown back by an invisible blow, sliding across the floor as people cleared out of his way. He sat up, and then locked eyes with the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his short life.

Chapter two.
The panther stared back at Daniel with eyes the colour of the sun. His gleaming black coat was sleek and shiny with the moonlight reflecting off it. His big paws looked big enough to knock out a horse, and his hooked claws looked sharp and deadly. His long tail was tucked neatly under his huge paws. But the thing that Daniel noticed the most about the animal was that he seemed to have a deep look of understanding and intelligence in his golden eyes. A sort of understanding that looked almost human. At the moment Daniel saw the panther, a name came to his mind: Galaxy’s Dark Star. Galaxy for short. The name suited the panther, with his black pelt so glossy it almost looked like it was glowing with hidden energy. Daniel couldn’t stop gazing into it’s calm, collected eyes. Looking into those brilliant irises, Daniel felt connected somehow, like their souls were linked together; two halves of a whole.
Daniel shook himself out of the trance, and was finally able to think straight. People who passed the trial were gifted with one of the four elements: Fire, Earth, Water and Air. Fire Controllers were always bonded to brown bears. Earth Controllers were bonded to wolves. Water Controllers were bonded to crocodiles. Air Controllers were bonded to bald eagles. None of them ever bonded to black panthers. But the panther had to be his bonded animal, didn’t it? That look of empathy they had shared a moment ago confirmed it. All around him kids stared wide-eyed at him and his panther, whispering.
“No one…panther…”
“...Galaxy Controller…”
“Not safe…alert the lord…”
“Galaxy controllers are…and…”
“Galaxy Controller…”
“...Doesn’t belong here…danger…Galaxy Controller…”
“Come on, young man,” A Torpedo Guard told Daniel. “Come with me and we'll get you some answers.”
With no particular gentleness, the guard hauled Daniel to his feet and pulled him away from the group of gawking children and towards the Chandarian gates. Galaxy immediately got to his feet and followed Daniel and the guard as they walked through the gates. They stepped out of one world… and into another. The sky was a beautiful pale blue with puffy white clouds drifting happily in the vast expanse of sky. They were walking on a mossy cobblestone path that wound through a lush valley of thriving green trees and tall grass. Patches of vibrant wildflowers were scattered around the flourishing canyon, waving happily at the passerby. A deep river snaked through the green, small fish floating downstream, pulled along by the strong current. The extreme beauty of it all was slightly overwhelming for Daniel, who had grown up in a city where it was rare to see a small garden box sitting on someone's apartment deck.  
They tramped along the twisting path until, in the distance Daniel could just make out the shapes of multiple buildings sitting together in a cluster.
“What’s that?” Daniel asked.
The guard grunted in amusement. “That's Chandaria, kid.”
“No-I mean is that like, the main city, or one of the villages?” When Daniel thought of Chandaria, he imagined towering glass skyscrapers raised off the ground by large grey pillars, with a blanket of thick fog around ground level.
“Nah, there are three different cities in Chandaria. You’ll probably end up going to school in that city actually.” the guard raised his hand to shield his eyes from the sun.
Sun? Thought Daniel. Wasn’t it the middle of the night a few minutes ago?
That was weird that Daniel hadn’t noticed before.
They trekked closer to the city, Galaxy’s Dark Star walking protectively beside Daniel. He hated to imagine how hot the poor panther must be feeling in the burning sun. He had his mouth open, revealing his pearly white set of fangs. His big paws were slowly plodding along, in unison with his human’s. Daniel reached out to gently stroke the big cat's head. Galaxy looked up at Daniel with his bright eyes. Was Daniel imagining a small sparkle of happiness in his keen, yellow gaze? 
“Here we are,” The Torpedo Guard muttered as Daniel realised that they were a few paces away from a small shelter with three walls and a thatched roof.
“Where?” Daniel enquired as Galaxy slid up to his side protectively, flicking his long tail to ward off the group of blue butterflies that were fluttering listlessly in the air.
“The bus stop. It'll be here in five minutes.” the Torpedo guard answered, glancing at the black watch that was strapped to his wrist. He walked inside the hut and plonked himself down on the bench that sat in the middle of the hut, facing the river. Daniel joined him on the bench and Galaxy sat himself down on the floor beside Daniel’s feet.
“Has ‘e told you his name yet?” the Guard enquired, guestring to Galaxy. Seeing the look of confusion on Daniel's face, he added, “When a person's bonded animal appears for the first time, usually the creature telepathically tells the person its name.”
Daniel remembered when the panther's name first crossed his mind. “ Yes, he has. His name is Galaxy’s Dark Star.”
The Torpedo Guard nodded. “Mine, his name is Storm’s Edge.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out an unbelievably small wolf.
“Woah! Why is he so small?” Daniel asked, staring at the miniature wolf with disbelieving eyes as it stretched its mouth open in a yawn.
“Got into the medicine cabinet and decided to sample the shrinking potion,” the Guard rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. “It’ll wear off in a few hours and he’ll go back to his normal size.”  
Potions? Potions didn’t exist. In fairytales maybe, but not in reality.
A sharp, long whistle sounded from outside. Daniel turned his head to where the noise was coming from. As he looked outside, it took Daniels' brain a few seconds to process what he was seeing. A…Dragon? He rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating. He wasn’t.  Daniel had to clamp his hand over his mouth to stop himself from screaming or barfing or doing both at once. Daniel tore his frightened gaze away from the dragon to glance at the Torpedo Guard. He seemed mystifyingly calm, as if it was completely normal for a huge dragon to suddenly appear right in front of him. He slowly looked back at the dragon again. It was an enormous beast, nearly three times as big as a bus. It had blood-red scales and two sharp, curving horns growing out of its skull. Its eyes were an opaque blue, the colour of the sky on a stormy day. it turned its hooked snout towards the hut, its eyes staring straight at Galaxy’s Dark Star. Then, it launched itself into the sky, beating its almighty wings and roaring a guttural bellow.
“Woah!” a human voice could just be made out over the echoing of the dragon's roar. “Woah there Red!”
Daniel shielded his eyes from the sun and was able to see a person gripping onto a saddle that was strapped securely around the dragon’s underbelly. The rider grasped the reins firmly and steered the great beast back towards the ground. They landed gracefully, the dragon’s back talons touching down on the ground just after the front ones. The dragon’s curved black claws made a sharp tapping sound as the rider manoeuvred the beast so that it was facing them again. The person stood out of the saddle and onto the dragon’s shoulder. The person let out a short, sharp whistle and amazingly, the dragon lowered its wing to the ground. Daniel watched in surprise as the rider slid down the dragon's wing and landed neatly on the cobblestone path in front of them. Another smaller shape came soaring down off the dragon’s saddle and perched itself on the person’s shoulder. 
“Sorry about that,” The rider puffed, clearly exhausted by the immense effort it took to stop the dragon from flying away. She had a cloud of short, curly hair that bounced off her shoulders as she glanced up at the sky again. Her brown eyes were warm and friendly as she took a proper look at them.
“Don't know what got into him just then. Never seen him scared before!” she grinned, and stuck out her hand for the Torpedo Guard to shake. She then turned to Daniel and shook his hand enthusiastically.
“My names’ Eowyn, and this is Iron Hurricane, my bonded animal,” she gestured at the large eagle sitting on her shoulder. “And that's Red Moon, the Wyvern. What's your names?” She looked at them expectantly.
“Im Cullen,” the Torpedo Guard answered. “This is Storm's Edge and that’s…”
“Daniel.” finished Daniel, stroking his panther softly. “This is Galaxy’s Dark Star.”
The big cat bared his teeth appreciatively at the sound of his name. Eowyn gaped at him in surprise. Then, she looked back up at Daniel.
“Now I haven't seen a Galaxy Controller in a long time.” She grinned.