Jimmy Stickman

Chapter 19: The Library

"That must be it." Squirps claimed.

Jimmy opened it up to the index, "This is the best way to find what we are looking for; this database has every relevant term in the entire book."

"Even things like 'a' or 'the'?"

"No, only keywords and terms that are related to the book's main topic are found here. For example, one will probably find the words 'controversy' or 'supernatural' back here. What word do you think we should look-up first?"

"Hmm, try 'Illuminati'. Perhaps I can confirm that the book's information is legitimate so that we don't waste our time looking for stuff that won't help us." Squirps suggested, which prompted Jimmy to turn the page to where the "i" terms were found.

"Let's see here: 'illness', 'illuminate', 'illuminati. It says here that it can be found on page 116." So he turned to page 116 and read aloud what it said. "Here we go; the title of the page is even titled 'The Illuminati'.

You say that we are looking this up just for confirmation purposes?"

"Yea; if what it says about the Illuminati is accurate, which I would know, then it wouldn't be wasting our time to look for stuff about the Stickman family, because I would have confirmed the book's facts as correct."

"Anyway, this is what the very first paragraph says from beginning to end: 'The Illuminati has, over hundreds of years since the 1700s, often been associated by non-members as being mysterious and controversial by nature. Its history lies in the development of an organization founded to protect the world from economic and governmental chaos.'"

Squirps sat down in one of the big, cushioned chairs near the bookshelf, "Keep reading."

"'Its existence has been highlighted in the dollar bill through symbols and roman numerals, and since this inclusion, it has been accepted as lying above more unknown aspects such as who is a member of the organization and where they do work. The Illuminati was once very well-known around the world, and its existence was prominent. However, in more recent centuries, its existence has become more abstract, and slowly it appeared to vanish into the depths of history, never to be seen again. Many believe that it still exists and makes its presence known in various forms of media such as movies, television shows, and books."

Squirps responded to the text, "Well, it definitely wasn't wrong."

"So you think we should look up more important stuff now?"

"Yea, yea, go ahead."

Jimmy flipped back to the index and found the "S" column. There were a lot of terms, but he eventually spotted the word "Stickman" right near the bottom of the list. "Squirps! Look here! It says that the term is found on page 150!"

"Holy shit..."

Jimmy then flipped to that page and pointed to the word, which was bolded for convenience, and began reading from the beginning of that paragraph, "'Even though the world has experienced disaster and sadness for a long time, legends tell of a 'savior'. In these legends, a family with the last name of 'Stickman' has been a bloodline of great benevolent power that, according to the same legends, has for millennia, saved the world completely from malevolent forces. The weapon that they used to combat these forces was a legendary sword that could only exercise its true power if a Stickman held it. By the time they grew old and unable to rule, their servants hid the sword away until it was needed again in the future and kept working closely with the Stickman family until such a moment in time will come about again where the sword was necessary yet again. The legend states that this sword is sealed away in an isolated cave beneath a big statue of John Stickman, the first Stickman written-about in historical records, that is in-turn supposedly located in a mountain forest known as 'Legendary National Forest'. This forest is located in the Western Mountains.'"

"Jimmy, do you know where this 'Legendary National Forest' place is, or to the very least these 'Western Mountains'?"

"We are currently standing at the foot of the Western Mountains, so the forest should be in there somewhere. I strongly suggest that we look at a map or ask someone to be sure of the forest's location."

There was a large atlas that sat on a pedestal in the middle of the geography section of the same floor; Jimmy opened it to the United States geography page and turned his eyes toward his area of the country. Deep in the large, green region of the map which was labelled as the "Western Mountains", there lay a much darker green area that was labeled "Legendary National Forest". "Squirps, it looks like this is the forest." He said as he pointed to it after the alien climbed up to see it.

"And didn't the book also say that the cave was right beneath a statue of your ancestor, John? Well either way, now we know where to go. Let me first draw a duplicate map before we leave." Squirps insisted to Jimmy.

"Right." Jimmy said as Squirps went to get a piece of paper and a pencil from the supply table and traced what he saw in the atlas.

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After a couple minutes, he was finally done with a hard-copy of the map in-hand, which actually looked quite accurate given what the official atlas showed.

They started trotting down the stairs, soon finally arriving back at the entrance of the library and exiting out the double doors. The mountains could be seen in good view when they got out of the library.

"Well, I guess we are to just make our way over that way," he said as he pointed towards the mountains, "but first, why don't we get some lunch?"

"Sure. I'm getting pretty hungry."