Runebook: The Advent of Thebis the Wise

 Another bit of prose that I'm surprised I never posted on here before. I can't remember where I came up with the name "Thebis the Wise," but it always had a nice ring to it. I came up with some basic ideas for a storyline that involved a fictional version of myself getting sucked into a fantasy world and transforming into Thebis the Wise, a prophesied savior of a realm called Brugixia who looked like me except older and with white or gray hair. I remember making a few comics about my Thebis persona and even some Warcraft 3 maps, but I never got too far with it. 

Prologue

JUNIOR High wasn’t all that fun for me in more reasons than one.

For one thing, I was no good at sports, which is the only reason any of the kids think you popular. I could never win or even score at Lightning, and I was the laughingstock of the school in dodge ball. The only sport I was could ever score at was Flag tag, and I wasn’t even that good at it.

For another thing, I was a geek. I had glasses and was shorter than most kids in my grade.

It was in that year of ninth grade when I found myself wishing for a way to fit in. I wished to become a hero in the eyes of everyone. I wanted to have...an adventure. If it was by pure luck that I found that Runebook, or by destiny, I’ll never know. But it was that book that changed most of my life, and gave me the adventure I had always wanted. 

Chapter 1 

As for the last few weeks in P.E., we had been doing basketball. The P.E. teacher, Mr. Simeoll, gave us a choice between Lightning, Poison, or normal basketball. I hated Poison, because though I could run fast, Mr. Simeoll allowed overhand passes, so that I would get hit hard with a basketball and sit massaging my thigh for the rest of the day. I didn’t want everyone to hate me on their team for basketball, either. I decided to do Lightning, even though I had never scored a basket in my life.

I snuck to the end of the line, so I could watch the other boys and learn from them. The first boy followed through with a high basket that went through in nothing but net. The second did a granny shot that hit the backboard and went in. The third shot and missed, but managed to recover it before the fourth boy’s ball rolled in.

It was my turn next. I dribbled twice; the second time the ball bouncing off my shoe. The other boys laughed as I chased the ball and readied my shot. I silently willed the ball to go in. Please. Please, just this once. I have to get the ball in just this once. Please, please, please. I opened my eyes and shot. It bounced off the side and flew to the right. I fumbled it after I got it again but I ran back to the basket. Luckily, the boy behind me had missed, too, but he was a tall, broad player who could easily jump to recover the ball. I shot again and again as he ran to get the bouncing ball. I kept missing. I managed to get it to the side of the basket, only to have it roll off the opposite side again. The boys behind me were laughing...I had to get the ball in...the hard player would be back any second...Please, please...sweat glared on my forehead as I struggled to keep it going in...Pleeease. Pleeease. ...The other boy was coming...PLEASE! PLEASE LET THE BALL GO IN....

Too late.

The other boy had made a three-point shot from a long ways away and I was out for the eighteen millionth time. 

I shook my head in dismay as I left the locker room to lunch. “Why me? Why couldn’t I have made a shot? Why can’t I even make one shot?!” I grumbled. I was absolutely no good at sports. And that was what really mattered in Junior High. Good English or math grades didn’t get you any popularity. Or Art. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for Art to get you popularity. I was the best in the grade at Art. I could draw a detailed dragon in a few minutes, filling up a normal-sized piece of paper.

But none of that mattered.

It was either you were good at athletics, or you were a nerd.

The next day I was in Art class. It was Thursday, which meant it was a Free Day. I drew the long neck of a Blue Dragon coiled and twisted, with eyes of glowing icy embers. The wings of the dragon were tall, thin, and serpentine – like bats’ wings without hair. A wall of ice spewed from the dragon’s mouth, freezing anything in its path. I smiled for once in the day. Drawing helped me feel more secure. But then I frowned when I remembered the day before, when all the boys had laughed. Their guffaws rang in my ears over and over, echoing their mockery through my brain. I started to draw the boys in the Blue Dragon’s path.

Chapter 2

I was on my way to the library to study for a History test on Monday when I found a stout, round old man with an almost spherical nose begging on the curb. I searched my pockets, found only a quarter, and tossed it into his hat.

“God bless you, son!” He looked perfectly delighted to have someone give him money.

“You’re welcome. I wish I had more.”

“Oh, heavens, no! This is plenty! Thank you again!”

I waved him goodbye and continued on my way to the library. A block away, I realized that I had a pair of dimes in my back pocket, and hurried back the curb where the man was. To my surprise, there was a construction crew replacing the sidewalk right where the old man had been! There was a bulldozer and a dump truck and five men who looked like they had been working for hours! Where was the old man? I decided that I must have made a wrong turn or something, so I went back to the corner where I found the dimes, looked at the signs, and went back to the curb.

The men were still there.

I walked up to one who was writing on a clipboard and asked politely, “How long have you been working here, sir?”

“Couple o’ days. Skipped Tuesday, so that adds it up to...” the man counted on his fingers, “five days.”

“But that’s impossible! I saw an old man over here just five minutes ago. He was begging and I gave him...”

“Sorry kid, my break time’s up. I gotta get back to work.” He put on his hard hat and climbed into the bulldozer.

I left shaking my head. How on earth did that happen? I thought. It had to be real. I had forgotten to buy an extra milk at lunch today and had saved the quarter, a nice new Virginia state one, and given it to the man, and – I checked my pockets, just to make sure – nope, I had definitely given that old man my coin. 

I entered the library and went straight to the nonfiction study section. Searching for something on the Revolutionary War, I found an extremely old leather brown book with the title, The Runebook of Brugixia. It had neat-looking runes on the sides and cover. I had loved making up my own runes and alphabets, so I grabbed the book and took a look inside it.

Blank.

The pages had nothing on them. They were old and somewhat wrinkled and yellow, but not a single rune or symbol lined the parchment. I felt disappointed. I had trouble finding books that I liked, and my mother had always said “you don’t have to like a book. Just read it to get good grades.” I didn’t really agree with that. I couldn’t concentrate if I wasn’t interested.

I flipped through the book again and even checked the inside of the covers. I sighed. “Oh well, I might as well get on with my homework.”

I had finished studying for the Revolutionary War, and was very confident that I would ace the test. I started to put my books away and leave the library when I noticed that the Runebook thingy in my backpack. Huh, I thought. I thought I put that in the fiction section. I thought about the Runebook and decided I might as well check it out. I could study the runes on the cover and stuff and learn the alphabet of...what was it again? Oh yeah, Brugixia.

I walked up to the counter and handed the book to the librarian.

Without even looking at the book she inquired, “Do you have a library card?”

I checked my backpack but I had forgotten my library card at home. “Er, no, ma’am. Can I give you my name and barcode number?”

Her strict eyes narrowed into slits. “You memorized the barcode number?”

“Yes ma’am.”

Her eyes never left mine as she booted up her computer. Then the screen went on and her eyes broke off.

“Name, please.”

“Dale Hemenster.”

She seemed a bit humored at the thought of me memorizing a fifteen-digit barcode, but she asked anyway. I carefully recited my number. She eyed me again and doubtfully typed it in. The screen beeped and she looked slightly impressed. For the first time she looked at my book, gathered it in her wrinkled hands, and looked at both sides.

“This book does not belong to our library,” she said after close examination.

“It was over in the study stuff. Are you sure it’s not yours?”

“I’m sure, Mr. Hemenster,” she said, turning over the book again. “It doesn’t have the library’s sticker on it. It definitely does not belong to this library.”

“So...can I have it, then?” I asked, a slight smile forming.

“I’ll put it in the Lost and Found, Mr. Hemenster, and if no one reclaims it after a week, you can keep it. For now, it’s getting late. You’d better get home. Do you have a bike?”

“No,”

“Walk home fast, then. It’s the time of year when it gets cold and dark early.”

“Yes ma’am,”

Still quite disappointed at the loss of the Runebook, I walked out of the library and started to walk home.

Chapter 3 

“It’s big, about this big,” I said, indicating with my hands, “and it’s got cool runes on it.”

“Very nice. What’s it called again?” my mom asked.

“The Runebook of Brugixia.”

“Is Brugixia a real place?”

“I checked the Internet all last night but I never got a single search result.”

“That’s weird,”

“Yeah. It didn’t even have an author written on it.”

It was Saturday morning the next day. I had gotten home late the previous night and went straight to the computer, but I didn’t find anything about Brugixia.

“Do you think maybe someone homemade it, and didn’t have time to write in it before they lost it at the library?” I asked thoughtfully.

“That’s probably what happened. Unless a faraway kingdom needed a hero to save them and the book is the connection between the worlds.”

“What I wouldn’t give to be a hero in someone’s eyes.”

My mom looked at me sneakily. “What someone would that be?”

I jerked my eyes in her direction. “What are you talking about?”

She went back to doing the breakfast dishes, grinning. “Jeremy told me about that girl you like at school.”

I rolled my eyes. Jeremy was my little brother. He was two years younger than me, and was a good kid...most of the time. I trusted him somewhat with my secrets, but they always seemed to slip out of him no matter what mood he was in. “Oh really?” I grimaced.

“Yes. What’s her name?”

“Potliver,” I said, keeping a straight face. “Well, gotta go, mom. Jordan invited me over to play on his Playstation. I’ve already packed lunch.”

I quickly grabbed the ready-made sack lunch on the counter and grabbed my coat on my way out, leaving mom rolling her eyes.

I grabbed the handle of my scooter and wheeled off the sidewalk and on the asphalt on the road. Suddenly I saw something that made me stumble and fall on my back in the grass.

It was the Runebook.

I reached for it, my mind racing. How on earth...?  I fingered it and ran my thumb over the embossed runes on the cover. I read the title over and over again. The Runebook of Brugixia. I couldn’t believe it. Running over in my mind some solution to this weird happening. I thought over the night before, how I gave the librarian the book...and she placed it in a drawer under her desk...

There was absolutely no way this book could’ve got here! Unless someone stole it from the library and brought it... here...

But why to me? I held the book some more. Then I opened the cover.

It wasn’t blank anymore.        

I read the text inscripted on the parchment.

 

And it shall pass forth that the Savior,

Even Thebis the Wise,

Will aid Brugixia in its time of need,

And pass forth with the Book of Prophesy,

And unite the nine keys of the World.

And lo! thus forth will pass in the space of four Suns.

            How weird is this? I thought. Someone must be playing a trick on me.

            I finally gave up with reason and put the book in my room to study later.

Chapter 4

After I went over to my friend Jordan’s house I forgot about the Runebook and just ... forgot to continue this story. Oh well. Got you interested, didn’t it?