Chapter Text
Closing the book, a sigh escaped his lips. Jasper slowly got up from his seat and placed the book, or what could be called a fairytale, back into its rightful shelf. He couldn’t make any sense of what had happened, nor could he piece any information together, leaving an awful amount of confusion in his head.
For someone of Jasper’s age, he had seen a lot more stories than the normal 12 year old. From the average romance tale to action-packed sequences, he read all of them, and he could pretty much make out what was going on. That ability, however, did not extend to this one story. No matter how he looked at it, the story would always leave him stumped.
Why was some of the text written in different colours? What happened in the battle for the planet? Why did people randomly gain unique abilities? While these were miniscule to others, it always bugged him at the back of his head.
Whenever he asked the librarian about this, she would simply pat his head, consoling: “What a curious mind, darling. But some things aren’t best known for reasons…”. Jasper sighed in exasperation. As much as he loved the Librarian who took care of the area, he would tend to get a little frustrated getting nowhere near the answers he wanted.
“Well, I suppose that’s enough for today…” Jasper got up from his usual corner of the library, silently bidding it one last farewell before he turned to leave. At the exit of the library, he warmly greeted the Librarian once last time before opening the main doors.
The moment he stepped outside, the heat hit him harder than a speeding vehicle. Of course, Jasper was used to all this, having been a regular patron of the library for a long time. However, it still never failed to give him a little jumpscare, from the cool atmosphere of the library to the scorching weather outside and vice-versa.
Silently cursing the desert weather, Jasper slowly made the walk back to his house. Taking a look around him, it was always the same. Same faces, same buildings, same incidents. Turns out, living in a somewhat small town can really make someone bored out of their mind. While he did exchange a few greetings amongst various people, there usually wasn’t any more attempts for conversation after that. Most of the time, Jasper usually entertained himself with thoughts in his head, particularly theories related to the tale.
Engrossed in his thoughts, he did not discover that he had already arrived. “Well, that was fast” Jasper muttered as he took off his shoes on the porch. Reaching into his pocket, he attempted to fish out a key. After almost dropping it out of his hands, he slowly insert it into the keyhole.
Click, went the sound of the door. Jasper poked his head through and scanned the area for any signs of his parents. Thought so, Jasper almost snorted when no footsteps were heard within the house. He quickly flipped the light switch and took out the usual letter that was shoved there, along with some coins. He quickly read the letter addressed to him before tossing it to a corner.
“3 gold coins huh” Jasper groaned. He would have to go to the converter at the other end of the town, which meant interaction with others. Jasper had never been good at talking with others, and was resigned with that fact even now.
Still grumbling internally, he once again stepped outside to accomplish his task. Setting off, he prepared a train of thoughts on the journey there. “Alright, let’s go”, Jasper uttered to no one in particular and slowly headed on his way.