The sun shines its noon rays as two teens play basketball in their apartment complex's court. David, the younger of the two at age 13, takes a swipe at the ball, and narrowly misses. The sun shines into Kristopher's eyes. Kristopher, being 15, is taller than David by 6 inches, so he has quite the advantage. Kristopher is skinny, but physically fit more or less (more towards less). David weighs more than Kristopher, so is slightly chubby. But he can still kick it on the court. Kristopher goes for a half-court shot. He dribbles to the line, and prepares for David to block.
Kristopher leaps and shoots. The ball flies out of his hands, as his dirty blond hair falls into his face. It only goes to his nose, but is still just enough to impair his vision. He sees David's short brown hair darting to catch the rebound that usually comes with the attempted half-court shot. Kristopher isn't that great at this game. At all. The ball soars through the air and lodges itself between the rim and the backboard with a loud KER-CHUNG.
"I'll get it!" Kristopher says as he starts to climb the goal.
"Good 'Cuz I ain't", David replies.
Kristopher reaches towards the ball. Suddenly, the ball moves. It shifts over to the top of the rim, all the while staying lodged between the backboard and rim. Kristopher proceeds to climb to follow the ball. He looks awestruck at the ball, which is moving up the back board, just floating. Yet it looks attached to the backboard.
David stands there, dazed and confused. Kristopher reaches at the ball, which moves out of his reach. He isn't going to give up that easily. He slaps at it. It moves. He slaps toward the center, then the lower right (the opposite side of him), the very middle top and the middle bottom. The ball moves to the center again.
Kristopher grabs onto the ball, and holds onto it and falls; with the ball still attached to the same spot of the goal. As it is about to hit the asphalt, David steps backwards to dodge the goal falling. At the same time, the backboard starts glowing blue. When the goal hits the ground, Kristopher is pushed in.
David lifts the goal up a little, and sees that Kristopher is gone. He looks at his apartment, and decides to follow Kristopher through the backboard. He winds up in a cave with glowing blue crystals on the ceiling. The crystals put off a fairly bright blue glow that sheds light to see the way around. David sees that he and Kristopher are standing up. With no way home. They were trapped.
* * *
Kristopher walks to a crystal and pulls at it. The crystal doesn't come off. He wiggles on it, applies pressure, and it still doesn't budge. He says, "Dave. Try to get this crystal. I can't." David walks over to it. As he puts his hand to the crystal, his hand spouts a green colored flame.
"OH MY GOSH! MY HAND! IT... IT... IT'S OF FIRE!" David shouts, pulling his hand away. His hand quits flaming.
"Dude! What happened?" Kristopher cries.
"I'm not sure."
"This is so weird."
"I know. A magic basketball goal. Now a green flaming hand? What else is going to happen," As if on cue, a man comes from a farther part of the cave. "Watch out! There's a guy over there."
"Trasr granvelt? Evcer?" the man says in a foreign language.
"Huh?" say the duo simultaneously. The man reaches into his pocket and pulls out a ring and puts it on.
"Ok. I see that you aren't from here. Take these rings, and you will understand this world." He hands both boys a ring. Kristopher put one on and David notices the ring is made of a smoothed rock with a yellowish stone on it. His looks small. He puts it on his finger regardless. It fits perfectly.
"Test. Test. 3412." says Kristopher.
"Is that your number system?" asks the man.
"No. I was making sure you could understand me."
"It works. Good. My name is Jeba. I brought you here. I am a sage of this place. You two are going to be trained."
"Why?" , questioned David.
"You two are going to save us."
"From what?" asked Kristopher. Jeba motions for the two to follow and stops at the mouth of the cave.
"That," Jeba says, pointing to a dragon flying around a seashore. "Let's leave. The day has just begun." The boys have a new friend. The man seems trustworthy, but the two make a silent vow to stay on guard.
