And so it was that the Sky Father was named Zios. He created many stars and planets, and set them in motion. But after eons of creation, he became lonely. So he created the Sky Mother, a grey heron, and named her Mira.

Mira was beautiful and kind and they were very happy together. She loved Zios deeply and often told him how talented he was, encouraging him to create. Together, Zios and Mira created their masterpiece: a lush land filled with oceans, mountains, meadows, and all kinds of plants and animals. They named this special world Jamaa, and for hundreds of years, the world and its animals were at peace.
But today, all is not well in Jamaa. The phantoms have crept into the land, stealing away animals and ruining the beauty of Jamaa. Only you can help save the animals and restore the world to its glory. Please help, for you are Jamaa's only hope.

~The Ancient History of Jamaa as Told by the Alphas

​

~***~
 

It all began on nice spring day in May. I was walking around trading, doing the usual Animal Jam activities. I got kinda bored, so I went to the Sol Arcade to play some games or something. (falling phantoms maybe?) So I entered the game and  started playing like usual. I played for a while and finally won 1st place. On the fourth game, it took a while for the game to load. So I waited. When the game started, I could tell something was wrong. The phantoms were falling REALLY fast. Too fast for anyone to run. I had to admit, that game was pretty frightening. Somehow, I managed to be the last one playing. I looked at the top left corner of the screen, and I saw that the timer WASN'T TIMING. It was at that time when I noticed something. The phantoms were... Crying? I couldn't figure out why they would be doing that, then I noticed something else unusual. One of the phantoms that were falling had blue fire. BLUE. I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to happen. After the phantom was done falling, it just floated there. Then it turned and looked at me. It was, I had to admit, kinda beautiful. I thought that I might have stumbled upon something important... Something I wasn't supposed to see. Then my computer screen went black. That was weird, I thought. Suddenly, I heard a buzzing noise coming from my computer. I turned around and saw that falling phantoms was back on. Must have just been a glitch, I thought. But then that same blue fire phantom came into the game. And then (here is where I was most surprised) it spoke to me. "Loopy44, we need your help," it said in sort of a scraggly electrical voice.

"Y-you talk?" I stuttered.
"Yes. And you must come quickly, the phantoms are in grave danger,"  it said.
"Wait, why would I help you?! Phantoms are evil, everyone knows that," I replied.
"No, we are not. The animals of Jamaa have misunderstood us for centuries. Ever since the Alphas have declared war on us, we had to defend ourselves any way we could." said the phantom. After he (or she?) said that, I couldn't help but feel a little bad for it.
"Come, I will take you to my village." the phantom said. Suddenly, I felt as if the whole world was stretching and pulling beneath me.
I knew then that I was in the game. I was inside Animal Jam. Inside Jamaa Township. I saw the phantom beckoning me to follow it. I followed, going against everything I knew about AJ. ((RULE #1: DON'T ASSOCIATE WITH PHANTOMS.)) So I followed. We went up to the Mira statue and I saw the phantom knock on her right foot twice. To my surprise, I saw her statue float up into the air and a hole open up in the circular base of it. I changed into my koala avatar and followed the blue fire phantom inside. We walked for a while and eventually came to small opening in the end of the tunnel. We crawled through and I WAS AMAZED.
"Welcome to the underbelly of Jamaa Township," the phantom said.
~***~
Before me lay  the city that the phantom called 'Vesria'. We walked (or floated) through the main gates of the underground city. For a place of supposed evil, the place was actually pretty warm and comfortable. It was well lit and had many inviting little houses with round doors.  Everywhere I looked, I saw phantoms. There were little ones, big ones, chubby ones, and ones with very bright electricity around them. The place was positively bustling with activity. The phantom accompanying me greeted a few other phantoms guarding some palace gates. They gave me a strange look and let us pass without any trouble. We soon arrived at the castle doors. They were at least twenty feet tall and encrusted with emeralds and sapphires. They were jet black (like much of everything else here) and probably cast iron or something. We were to meet the  Alpha Phantom, I would later learn.
"We're here," said the phantom. We walked through the doors of the great room and saw the largest phantom I had ever seen. We walked forward tentatively, out of respect of course. (not like we were scared or anything...)
Greetings, Phantostar and... Jammer. What are you here for?  Said a deep voice in my head. I assumed that it was the Alpha Phantom, and after everything I had been through today, I wouldn't be surprised if it was.
"I have come with news, your majesty. I... I found her. The chosen one."

Good.  It said. We now have a chance.

​"A chance for what?" I asked.

A chance to survive, and to live in peace finally with the animals of Jamaa.  The voice said. 

"Why would you want to live in peace with us? You... You're evil!" I said uncertainly. 

'Evil' my dear, is just another way for people to get away with fearing something they don't fully understand. Evil is a foul word, which nothing in this beautiful land is. We are all children of Zios, and his children we shall stay. The huge phantom said softly.

I heard him say this, but I didn't fully believe him. The Alphas taught us that the phantoms were evil, and destroying Jamaa. They deserved no mercy, as they had shown us none. They were... Evil. No doubt. Or... Was there a little doubt? This was making my head get all messed up and stupid. 

I can see you have some trouble understanding this. Let me tell you our side of the story. The side that was never told beyond this city. 

Once, long ago, animals and phantoms lived in harmony. The animals kept Jamaa in order and peace, and the phantoms took care of everything mechanical and medical. We were the finest craftsmen in our day, and only the alpha Peck rivaled our skills.

One day, a wolf named Greely was made fun of for his attachment to the phantoms and our glorious skill. He used to study us and our craftsmanship, to learn and to thrive on knowledge.  The animal who made fun of him broke something inside him that day, something that could never be repaired. He went on a rampage, convincing everyone that the phantoms had attacked him and gone savage. The alphas foolishly believed him, and everything, even our homes, were destroyed. They renounced my name as an alpha, and banished us to the outlands. As if that wasn't enough, Greely convinced the alphas and animals alike to declare war on us. A law was passed that day: 

Every phantom seen would be killed immediately on sight.

The law was enforced for centuries, and the past few years, we have done everything we could to fight back. Our name was soiled by the alphas and their campaigns to destroy us. We were forced to attack, or risk them finding our hidden city. We won the battle that day, but at great cost. The alphas found our history and legends, along with a few of our greatest works of art. They took them to Mira's great cloud castle, and burned them. They burned every single scrap of evidence that we were innocent. To this day, we fight back, but not out of anger. Out of fear. We need to protect ourselves, and if we don't, the balance between good and bad will be disrupted, and Jamaa will fall.  

​I listened as he finished his story, all the pieces finally falling together. His story just made plain... Sense. But I still had some questions. "But... Why do you need me? And why would our alphas do that?" 

"We need you to help us. Mira once told us a legend, long ago. She told us that there would be a girl, years from now, that would help us reunite with Jamaa. She would have the power of reason to help us in our quest. That girl is you. I knew that as soon as I saw you." said Phantostar. All of this was making me a little light headed. I needed to rest or something. Believing this was like trying to forget to walk, then learning how to fly. It just... Wasn't possible. Our alphas had lied  to us... After all this time. It was time to take action. No more lies... No more secrets. It's time the truth came out. 



~***~



Phantostar and I walked out of the Zios statue tunnel and came to Jamaa Township. We stopped for a while to look around at the activity in main street. I saw Liza and Sir Gilbert walking around mingling with the jammers, having fun and wasting precious time. 

"What do we do now?" I asked. 

"Well, I assume... Now we go to battle. It's the only way." He said grimly. I knew this was true, but I hated the fact that I had to fight against my own kind. We were all Jammers, right? Well, I've gone too far to go back now. I signaled for the phantom soldiers to stand by until further instruction. We were all dressed in black enchanted armor, which protects against serious injury and doesn't badly hurt the animals we fight. I changed to fox form (best for close combat) and drew my sword. With a mighty cry, we leaped into battle. 

Somehow, the alphas had anticipated our attack. They sent all the unable jammers offline, and had the ones who would fight don their spirit armor and counterattack.  

We fought pretty well as a team, the phantoms and I. We dodged, parried, and landed blows with our swords. I swung left, right, all around until I felt I could fight no more. But I still fought. I fought as hard as I could. I soon came back to back with Phantostar.

"How's it going?" he asked breathlessly.

"Ok, you?" I replied. 

"Could be better," he said, and we lunged back into battle with a new burst of energy. I looked around and saw that the alphas were doing better than I thought. They fought us with equal strength, cunning, and grace. One of the alphas, Sir Gilbert, caught my eye.

"What are you doing?!" he asked me with disbelief.

"Fighting," I said. Though I think he meant, Why are you fighting against your own kind?  but no. I slashed his paw with my sword and he growled with pain. He recovered in an instant, and lunged at me with his sword drawn. This guy was pretty good at swordplay. 

I dodged and parried and flew gracefully around the alpha, until at last a voice cried out,

"STOP!" We all turned to look at who has spoken, and to my surprise, it was Mira. 

"STOP!" she cried out again. She flew down into the township. She looked around with a mournful eye, as everyone stood at a respectful distance. We were all beaten and battered and bruised in our armor. 

"You are all children of Zios, and yet you fight like this? What is the point of this terrible battle?" she asked us. 

"Your majesty, this battle is all their fau-" 

"EXCUSE ME! This battle will be nobody's fault but yours, Greely! Look what you have cased with your petty jealousy. Look at how tired and hurt these animals are!" she said, looking positively outraged. "You, Greely, will be responsible for the care and treatment of all these wounded animals. In the meantime, all of you, go to your dens while I speak with the phantoms about this... Mess. Go!" she shooed the animals away with a flap of her wings. 

"Mira, wha... How do you know that Greely started this?" I asked. 

"Well, my dear, and old alpha came to my palace and explained everything. I don't know how I didn't know about this, but I will fix everything," Mira said with a kind smile. 

"What old alpha?" someone in the crowd asked. 

"Why the phantom alpha, of course!" She said happily. "Come now, all of you to your dens!" 

"But, Mira, we don't have dens," Phantostar said. 

"Oh, yes you do. Go there and see, why don't you?" With that, we were sent to our dens.



~***~



I woke up the next morning on the couch in my living room. My real living room. I had one thing on my mind: Animal Jam. I had to know what went on when I was asleep. I opened my laptop and the computer hummed to life. When the internet opened up I clicked the AJ shortcut repeatedly until it opened. I quickly logged in and chose the server Rocky. I looked at the screen and I suddenly felt that same pulling sensation that I felt earlier. 

"Loopy! We are glad you could join us," Mira said kindly. She and Phantostar were seated around a picnic table in the middle of Jamaa township. 

"Where is everybody?" I asked. 

"We took Jamaa offline for a few hours to make... "updates,"' Mira said with a wink. 

"Yeah, you won't believe it!" Phantostar exclaimed, crackling with electricity. "Mira put the Alpha Phantom back in his alpha position and Greely was sentenced to do repairs on the moderator and guess what else?!" 

"What?" I said with a smile.

"In celebration of our newfound peace, we will be throwing a party all summer long!" Mira finished.

"Wow! When will it start?" I said excitedly. 

"Today if you like. We can schedule it anytime really," Mira said. 

"TODAY!" Phantostar and I said in unison. 

"Well alright then," Mira said. "You two may sign out now please." We turned and right as we were about to sign out, Mira called, "Oh, and Phantostar?" 

"Yes?" he replied. 

"Happy Summer." With that, Mira flapped her wings. In a great swoosh of blue light, he was transformed into a black fox with the most radiant jagged blue pattern I had ever seen. He's a fox,  I thought. Just like me.

​Just like me.



~***~



And from that day on, phantoms were just a story. Just a fun thing to play games and base our stories off of. All former phantoms, with the grace and majesty of Mira, had been once more transformed into loving, caring, beautiful Jammers. The alpha Phantom had also been transformed,  into a grey heron; Just like Mira. But what happened to Phantostar and I? Well, we're still buddies.  Though I won't say his real name, I can tell you that he has striking blue eyes, black hair, and the kindest personality that I know. Every so often we meet in real life, to make small talk, have fun, and play games. Once Mira even let us back inside the game. We walked all around, and let me tell you, it's way better inside than out. My favorite spot: Sarepia Forest. We climbed to the top of the tree and watched as the sun slowly sank over Crystal Sands. I sighed and he leaned over and gave me a small kiss on the cheek. I tell you, I could NOT stop blushing.