Books, videogames, fiction, these were the things that a young, 14 year-old boy named Jaimie and a few of his only friends found interest in. For his friends, classmates, and others, it was a hobby or a story they'd think about until they found another story and moved on. But to Jaimie, it was so much more to him, he saw fiction as a way to escape his relatively undesirable and uneventful reality. Sure, a lot of things happen in his life, but that doesn't mean it made enough of an impact on him to make a memory, especially not good ones. So, he would remain like this for years, occasionally finding genuine friends along the way that were similar to him.
But today, he would change as the stars chose him on this fateful afternoon.
Jaimie was daydreaming in his class next to his friend Jacob, as per usual. This day was like any other day until Jacob whispered to Jaimie "Have you done the worksheet Mr. Evans gave out last week? I heard that we're submitting it today.". The default resting face of Jaimie suddenly turned into a face of regret and emptiness, remembering that he not only didn't do the paper but also completely left it at home. Jaimie sat in a cold, unnerving sweat, foolishly hoping that Mr. Evans would forget about the paper completely. Unluckily for him, Nathan, who was one of the best students and the one who hated the bookworm boy the most, had been listening to this conversation with malice. At exactly 3:39, just a minute before class ended, he uttered "Mr. Evans, did you forget that we had homework due today?". Jaimie was shocked, he knew that Nathan had an undying hate that he didn't understand, and now, this was his downfall.
"Oh, I actually did remember, Nathan, it's actually due on Friday of this week. But, thank you for reminding me.", the teacher answered, "and it seems we have run out of time for today, so, you all may be dismissed". A wave of relief flowed over Jaimie and Jacob as they walked out of the classroom and into the library to return a few books and borrow new ones, maybe even spend some time playing games on the computers. The library was usually empty, usually only young children and a few students come here for a quick read. Jaimie quickly returned his books to the quiet librarian and proceeded to look for any new books or classics he could be invested in. Jacob was mostly there to go on the computers and play pinball.
"It's a real bore that Hailey never wants to come here now", Jacob groans. "Well, you know how focused she is on her job and such, I don't think we should disturb her, at least for now", Jaimie says as he skims through the contents of all the new books that have been donated recently. "Yeah, but like, it's been SO long, y'know? She could at least give herself a break once in a while, besides, she's been really hotheaded recently.", he whines again as he plays pinball. "Well, yea, I guess you have a point there, and she keeps allowing her family to just push her around. It's sad that we can't do anything about it", Jaimie pondered while a dark blue book catches his eye.
He quickly pulled out the book and plopped it into his hands, there's no title, author name, or publisher listed at all. It's simply a blue book with mysterious gold patterns, resembling stars, planets, comets.. Is that a pattern of a universe on the back of the book? Jaimie was immediately curious, "Uh, Jacob have you seen something like this before?", Jacob slowly moved his eyes from the computer screen and glanced at the book, shifting his focus back to his old computer game and shrugging. Jaimie slowly opened the starry, sparkling book, there's nothing but dark pages and pictures of universes. But this wasn't just a strange, unlabeled astrology textbook, the universes were moving and seemed like they were real. Just as Jaimie was turning the page, his hand reached into a page, as if it were a portal to space itself. Seeing as no one was really focused on what he was doing, he slowly reached into the book's pages, he didn't know why, but he felt like he had to do it.
The young, entranced boy closed his eyes as he entered the portal and into the pages.
Gentle, soft fields of grass, the wind slowly sifting through his face. It was so cold, yet so peaceful, Jaimie almost thought he was dreaming until he felt a comet passing by from afar. He opened his eyes and found himself in a beautiful, pink field with a universe and a few galaxies can be seen in the sky. A bunch of lovely flowers surround him, the flowers were colorful and resembled stars, they glowed and sparkled as a few of them floated into the sky, never to be seen again. Jaimie got up and picks up the book that took him to this place, he turns around and sees a fairly large temple. Mildly confused but with nowhere to go, he follows the sandstone road to the temple as he ponders to himself.
"Am I in space? How can I breathe if I am in space? It's a miracle that I'm actually alive right now.", a rush of thoughts and questions flowed through his head, yet he just kept walking towards the temple in search of answers and explanations. And just as he faced the entrance of the temple, Jacob suddenly plopped out the page and onto the road, Jaimie jumped as Jacob faceplanted onto the sandstone. Jacob got up and looked around, "Jay! Oh my gosh are you okay?! Wh-where the hell are we?!","Look, I dunno, I just stumbled into here and I'm just looking for anyone here who isn't just us", Jaimie says as he cautiously enters the temple. Unknowing to what this strange place is, Jacob follows him into the empty temple.
Inside the temple, a hooded figure in white robes stands menacingly in front of them. "Welcome, humans, it seems that today, the stars have chosen you to fulfill the legend", the mysterious hooded figure spoke. "What legend?", Jaimie asks the mysterious entity, the hooded figure then spoke once more, "Long time ago, when the universe and galaxies were born, there were two forces that fought for decades. These forces were the Guardians, the creators and protectors of space, and the Destruction, a dark entity that wanted nothing more than to corrupt, take and destroy what we had created. As the war between the Guardians and the Destruction came to a close, the Guardians made sure to seal away the Destruction so it would never show itself ever again. But recently, the seal had torn apart and this evil entity has shown itself, but this time weaker. With it's ability to destroy reality, it feeds off of the destruction of fictional stories and characters, and soon it shall reach you and your world. Ending it all together."
"Well, if this is so important, why can't you and your other "Guardian" friends just seal it again yourselves? Why are WE here?!", Jacob angrily roared, "Well, chosen one, the other Guardians have either faded away or have grown to be less powerful as time went on. I'm one of the only ones left and I've seen my friends slowly grow weaker or fade away entirely. However, I sense a strong amount of galactic power inside of you two, and I can say for sure that you two are worthy of fighting and sealing away the darkness.", the hooded figure answered. "Uh, thank you for explaining, but I don't really think we're qualified for something like this", Jaimie shakily muttered, "That's why I'll be helping you two along your journey, I believe I haven't introduced myself yet", the hooded figure takes off her hood and reveals her face, "My name is Theadon and I shall be guiding you both through your journey, and your names are?". "Jacob and.. Jaimie..", both boys answer as Theadon informs them, "Well, Jaimie and Jacob, I believe that your journey shall start tomorrow, please do keep the book with you, as it will give you the weapons and abilities you need to track down and seal away the Destruction".
Before the two confused boys could even respond, they were suddenly sent back to the library they were in once before. It was already getting late, so Jacob and Jamie walked out of the school and to their homes. As they were walking on the sidewalk, Jacob spoke, "Jay, are we gonna have to actually do all that stuff? Is this.. really real?", Jaimie inspected the magical book once more, "I'm not sure, but this is something that was assigned to us, we don't really have a choice or else everything's gonna get destroyed.". As Jaimie approached his house and said goodbye to Jacob, he entered his home and went up to his room, still thinking about his new, unexpected role in the universe. He dreaded having to do something so important tomorrow, a pit formed in his stomach as he slowly drifted off to sleep.