Superbook: A New Traveler (Under Editing)

Chapter One: Disaster Relief

There's town within a green valley surrounded by equally as green mountains. There's a wide, stony road that ran the length of the valley. There's some buildings lining both sides of the road. The architecture was a hodgepodge of design, from Spanish stucco to Western facades to traditional brick. There's also a trio of schools, from children to young adults. There's a pair of churches, the elegant coppery-colored one for the gatherings of the community and the yellow-white one being used as a religious school. But many of the houses have been roughly destroyed by the flash flood during the thunderstorm.
The town has started to come to life by the rising dawn in the mountains. The birds started singing their morning songs as the sun had started to come to view. As the sun had started to rise from the sky, the people of the small town had started to awakening and getting ready to start their day. The adults had started heading towards nearby stores or started heading towards their work or repairing their homes. The teenagers had started working their morning jobs or meeting up with each other in their favorite hangout spots and enjoy each other's company while some helped their parents repair their homes. While the kids had started helping their parents, playing with their older siblings, or watching their older siblings excitedly.
Though, today was a unique day for all of them, they were going to receive disaster relief from the Christian kids, signed up helpers, and scientific support from Professor Quantum from Valley View City. They had all suffered a flash flood from the thunderstorm a few weeks ago. Many of them have been injured and/or sick from the flash flood. Rest of the town folks have rescued their neighbors.
But at the outskirts of the town, there's a large meadow near a house and sits at the forest's edge while standing at the top of a hill. In the library, it was dark and quiet of the wooden cottage, just the way the blonde-haired girl liked it as she browsed the shelves looking for the latest books on myths and history. It was a subject she found endlessly fascinating. She was going down the aisle browsing the titles for one that might be useful for her next assignment when a title stopped her dead in her tracks.
Not a mythical book nor a history book, but a book of adventure, romance, and the always epic battle between good and evil. She pulled the tome from the shelf and rifled through the first few pages. Oh yes, she would be borrowing this one too. She added the book to the pile she had growing at the small desk on the end of the aisle when she heard it. A scuffle. Pausing, she listened for a moment, but the silence of the library enveloped her.
But the blonde-haired girl remembers those years of her life with much more clarity than most other children. She remembered that she and her family used to live in the city. She remembered the lullaby that her mother had used to sing to her in the cottage and the books that her mother had used to read to Shira about Christian legends and history, though her favorite story was "Joseph: Kings of Dreams" and all sorts of myths, especially ones that involved God's messengers and servants.
She remembered all of those trips in the National Park on the weekends. She had seen the national parks, the mountains, the forests, and the lakes. In a way, those trips has been helpful for her sharpening her survival skills her father had taught her — how to navigate, how to camp, how to make a fire. She enjoyed stargazing with him and learning the hidden meanings behind those stars.
She remembered the games she used to play with her dad when he was done with school. He used to take her to the countryside to visit a few friends of his and let her pet the horses, who were curious about her and seemed to be eager whenever she petted one of them for some reason. She sometimes hitched piggyback rides on him and pretended that he was a pony. But all of that changed a few years ago as she grew up.
The blonde-haired girl sighed as she gotten off the memory lane and continued going down the aisle browsing the titles for one that might be useful for her next assignment. The girl's blue eyes lit up when she found a book that her grandparents had put together. A thick, navy blue book with silver trims. On the cover were two rings, the outer one has intricate designs while the center ring depicted a lavish landscape of vibrant green mountains, colorful trees with purple and blue hues, and on the side of the image was a butterfly, it's wings adorned with luminescent patterns that made it pop. Around the circles were eight gemstones; a ruby, gold, silver, pearl, morganite, amethyst, emerald, and jade.
When the girl opened the book, she landed on the first page. The illustrations were unlike the ones Jenna had seen on the tapestry. They weren't stylized or exaggerated in any way. These images looked as real and accurate, only with color that seemed to pop right out of the page like iridescent butterflies.
She fixed her eyes on the book she started reading and sat down on the window seat. She soon started reading her chapter, hardcover book titled "Legend of the Guardians: The Dragon Prince."
"Long ago, when Xadia was one land, rich in magic and wonder. In the old days, there was only the Deep Magic, which came from the six primal sources:
The Sun.
The Moon.
The Stars.
The Sky.
The Ocean.
And the Earth.
Every living creature in Xadia was born with the gift of magic, a spark inside connected to one of the six primal sources. From the greatest dragon to the smallest insect, magic flowed in their veins.
But humans were different. Humans were flawed. They were born without this gift. Back in ancient times, the humans struggled to survive in the world, while the Xadian creatures thrived. Many humans perished from starvation; others died fighting one another over the scarce resources.
Unicorns were always the most selfless of the Xadian beings. There came a time when, filled with pity, they desperately wanted to help the struggling humans. After all, it was not the humans' choice to be born without magic.
But the First Elves were wary. They warned the unicorns that kindness was not always returned with kindness; it would be a mistake to trust the species. After all, if humans were supposed to use magic, they would have been born with it.
However, the unicorns' compassion ran deep, and they could not be convinced. Despite the elves' warning, the unicorns bestowed the ways of magic onto the humans. They gifted a few wise humans with powerful orbs called primal stones, which contained vast magical energy. Then, they taught them to draw runes to attract and focus the stones' power, and to speak the ancient words used by dragons to release that energy as magical spells.
Finally, humans had the ability to take care of themselves and end their suffering. They fed their hungry, cared for their poor, and healed their seek. As they thrived, they elevated humankind in other ways, learning about the world, the stars, and the arts. They created songs, poetry, and other beautiful things.
But a thousand years ago, a human mage had discovered new magic. Dark Magic. This type of magic took away the sources of creatures, for it uses the essence within magical creatures themselves to unleash dark power. The humans were banished to the west as punishment for the development of Dark Magic and thus the continent is divided into two. In the east, the magical lands of Xadia, and in the west, the Human Kingdoms. Now, both Xadia and the Human Kingdoms are both locked in a constant battle. Humans continue to practice dark magic, while the elves continued to defend their home by any means.
But one day, a Startouched elf had recite an ancient prophecy to the Dragon King and the Dragon Queen. Fate be changed, look inside, mend the bond torn by pride. For many eons, everyone believed that the egg of the Dragon King and the Dragon Queen shall bring Xadia together again.
For centuries, the King of the Dragons and current Leader of the Guardians himself, Avizandum, defended the Border. The humans called him "Thunder" for when he spoke, his voice shook the Earth and the Sky."
Not long after the blonde-haired girl has finished reading, she glanced at her phone, waiting for either of her parents to contact with her. She wanted to help her neighbors repair their homely town. But she wasn't able to due to her bandaged left shoulder. It's almost completely healed, but it's going to leave behind some scars and a fracture from the accident. Her parents decided to rest up and let her wait for their call.
But what happened next was completely surprising and unexpected when she suddenly heard a bird tapping its beak against the window.