Welcome to Gaia! ::

“Come on this is so boring!” My little brother dragged himself behind me as we walked through the local library. “I would rather be at home.” He said crossing his arms in an upset objective manner.

I turned around and glared at my little brother. “Joseph, if you don’t want to be here the go across the street to the video game store.” I hated how my brother always tagged along and then obsessively complained.

“I don’t even see why you like this place. Reading is so boring.” He said lowering his arms to his sides.

“Would you please just go!” I yelled aggravated. “I will come over in thirty minutes to pick you up.” I said and then once my brother left my side I went to the fiction section.

I love to read, it gave me a place to run off to and be someone I wasn’t. I loved the adventure, endless possibilities, and magic that captivates me in the pages of the books. It took me away from the harsh and straight forward reality and from the whispers of other students who never even notice that I am there. When I was lost in a book nothing else mattered I wouldn’t be alone, I could be sailing to a distant and unknown land where dragons were slain and schools taught magic.

I slid my delicate fingers across the rows of books in alphabetical order. Every book was covered in new plastic that protected the glued pages of the numerous stories. On the spine of each book were dark bold letters beckoning me to pick them and read through their stories of magic and fantasy.

Even though I was so in depth with reading every title and observing the conditions of the books, a glint of gold caught my eye. I turned to look at the very top shelf were I spotted the small glimmer. There, printed in golden elegant script, was written the name ‘Reinoa’ along the spine of a book. The golden title seemed brand new, but the white cover looked old and worn from many hands sliding across the leather cover…no, not leather. I could make out the faint design of scales, though the scales were too large to belong to a snake.

As I admired the well-worn book I realized that I had never heard of it or read it before. Out of curiosity I reached up to the top shelf only to find that I was a few inches too short. I craned my arm as high as I could and stood on my tip toes. After a few moments of stretching I finally was in reach of the book and I grasped it with my small fingers. As I touched the smooth surface I felt a slight burn in the palm of my hand. As I drew my arm back to retrieve the book I felt a sudden tremble emerge from the ground and I staggered back gripping the warm book in my hand.

My first instinct was to step away from the bookshelf, knowing that in an earthquake it was dangerous to be in-between two shelves of books that could fall on top of me. As quickly as I thought that, the trembling had faded away, every single book remained intact tightly together in the shelves.

I looked around wondering why there was an earthquake and then I saw that no one else in the library seemed to notice the sudden shake. I quickly forgot about it as I let out a sigh of relief getting ready to return the book into its spot, until I saw a small crack between the wall and the bookshelf.

This of course sparked my uncontrollable curiosity, and I glanced around myself making sure no one was around to watch me. Once I was satisfied that no one was looking I slid my fingers into the crack and quietly pulled the bookshelf back as if it were a door. I opened it wide enough so that I could walk through. At first I expected to see a secret reading room or employee’s office, but instead I was surprised to see that I was in a long tunnel.

It seemed to be about a half mile down and at the end of the tunnel was the slightest speck of light. I thought that this must be a short cut through the library, but why would it need to extend for so long? The library wasn’t that big; in fact it was very small compared to other libraries and book stores in town.

As usually my curiosity got the better of me and I slowly walked down the tunnel with the book still gripped tightly in my hand. Every step I took made a small click against, what seemed to be, marble floor. As I walked down the tunnel I realized that my hand that was holding the book still felt warm and my skin began to tingle. I switched the book into my other hand to see what was going on and as I lifted my hand to look I found an eight pointed star glowing gold tattooed to the palm of my hand with elegant swirls and designs wrapping around my wrist resembling a shooting star.

“What is this?” I wondered out loud as I observed the glowing tattoo on my hand. I had to admit it was pretty, but much unexpected and I definitely didn’t remember a time when I got a tattoo.

Despite the strange occurrence I continued to venture down the tunnel. As I got closer to the exit, light became visible on the walls of the rounded tunnel showing glints of silver, gold, ruby, and many other colors from strange minerals growing on the walls.

As soon as I came to the exit of the tunnel I was stunned to see a well-developed city in the distance surrounded by a wall and thick forest. The wall appeared to be a mile away and I felt compelled to explore this strange city even if I needed to navigate my way through the thickset forest.