This chapter is much shorter than the last one.


Chapter 5

Ray, Kenny, and I kicked the cafeteria door open, and I saw what I expected. There were various students writing sentences on pieces of paper on the lunch tables. When the students heard and saw us, they immediately hopped off the tables and cheered, Craig and my brother Isaac included. "Yay!" Most of them walked away, except for Craig and Isaac, who stopped by us.

"Damn you!" Mr. Mackey then walked by us then walked out of the school. Well that was that.

"Thanks for busting me out," Craig said. He then turned to me. "Cole, you did this?"

"Well to be honest, I was coming to get Isaac," I replied.

"Oh. Well..." Craig couldn't find his words.

"Cole's a great healer," Kenny said, "probably even better than Butters. If he were to join up with Cartman I'd vouch for him." But I don't want to join up with Cartman though, he's the one who rejected me.

"Thanks," I said, "but there's something Isaac and I gotta do in the Library."

"We do?" Isaac asked.

"Well count me out, I'm gonna go home and get my stuff." Craig began to walk off, but before he walked out of sight, he turned around and faced us. "Cole, thanks for breaking me out, and I'm sorry what happened earlier today."

"It's alright," Isaac reassured. My brother is fairly forgiving.

"Hey, Kenny, why don't we go with Cole?" Ray asked. "I mean Cole, you have something important you want to share, right?"

"Well..." I couldn't do it. I could share the Stick of Truth with Isaac, but not the other two. Frankly, I don't trust Ray enough.

"Yeah," Kenny added.

I closed my eyes, reluctant to respond, "Sure." So it was Isaac, Kenny, Ray, and me who would go over to the Library.

Luckily, the Library remained unlocked, but no one was monitoring it at the time, which meant that I had time for research all to myself. I had to tell them. I sat down onto a computer to search the library catalog on it. I typed in "Stick of Truth" and already, it gave me only one book. Then Kenny's voice made me jump. "Why are you searching up the Stick of Truth?"

"I - uh - no reason!" I stammered, and Kenny's eyes narrowed at me.

"I know you're lying."

I sighed. It was no used, there was no way around it. "Alright, fine." I reached into my trenchcoat and pulled out the Stick of Truth. "I took the Stick of Truth, not Kyle. While you were training Ray to fight, and then the elves attacked, it was me who snuck into the tent and took the stick."

"So you took the stick for yourself and ruined our game!" Kenny crossed his arms. "I thought you were better than this!"

"Wait what's going on?" Isaac asked.

I stood up. "Ray! Kenny! Don't you see why we have magical powers in the first place? There's something wrong with this stick! Something evil, and I have to get to the bottom of this!"

"You're just jealous of us that we never invited you in the first place!" Kenny retorted.

"Because no kid should have the kind of power we have currently! It's not right! It's irresponsible, and it's ignorant, and you know why?"

"Why?" Ray asked.

"Because kids like you and me can't control themselves! We don't have the morals like normal adults do! See what the ginger kids did to that poor little boy, how they imposed their power? That's more-or-less a testament of what little kids can do! Because they don't know right or wrong! And a normal kid shouldn't be able to shapeshift into animals, or shoot fire and ice from their fingertips!"

"So if you don't train their kid to use their powers normally, then when will they learn?" Kenny retorted.

"Have any of you actually told your parents about your powers?" The other three stood silent. "Kenny? Ray?"

When no one said anything, I took it as a fact that they don't know what else to say. So I went over to the computer to check out the book I was searching for. It was in the very back, so that's where I went. "I'm going to find answers, and nothing will stop me." I found the book in the non-fiction section in the very back left corner. When I took the book down from the shelf, I wiped away all the dust. It was an old book, with a wooden protective cover and old pages. It was as big as a regular fantasy novel. The Truth of the Stick of Truth was the title, but it had no author. This has to be the book. So I went back to the front of the library and sat down at a table.

Kenny and Isaac sat down with me, but Ray was gone. "Ray?" I looked around. Ray was nowhere in sight, and I went to the hallway door to peer out into the hallways. Shit. Why did Ray leave? And why didn't he say anything? I went back to the table and flipped open the book to start reading. It wasn't a very long book.

So the basic summary is that the Stick of Truth is acutally an cosmic iconoclast that belongs in Sovngarde, like in Skyrim. It was forged in the Hall of Valor and was to be given to the humans on Earth in a time of great crisis to fight off whatever evil that exists. To get to Sovngarde one has to go to the Aerie of the Sol Lighthouse located north of North Park. However, there was a great argument on who should have the Stick of Truth. Then one day, Satan invaded Sovngarde and took the Stick of Truth for himself.

But we read on. There was a prophecy that one day, the world will face terrors from outer space and a Dovahkiin, or Dragonborn in the English language, will find four friends, and the five together will rise up and wield the power of the Dragonshouts to stop the Demon Marauder because the Demon Marauder stole the Stick from Satan himself, and went to Earth's surface to spread terror. However, the Demon Marauder lost the Stick. And so, we must have gotten our hands on it.

But Dragonborn? The kids often referred to Ray as "Dragonborn" and he can certainly do silly things with his farts. Is he fated to be the chosen one? And who will be Ray's four friends?

"Well, we're nearing the end," Kenny said, "come on, let's get this over with."

I turned to the very last page, and it was actually a profile of the stick thief. His name was Terrorblade, like the hero from Dota. And so I read out loud.

"Terrorblade is the Soul Keeper - the Demon Marauder - an outlaw hellion whom even other demons fear. A cosmic iconoclast, he stole from the Demon Lords, ignored the codified rites that should have bound his behavior, and broke every law of the seven Infernal Regions. For his crimes, he was taught a lesson: even Hell has a hell. A short, brutal trial ensued, with many dead on all sides, and he was finally incarcerated in Foulfell, a hidden dimension where demonkind imprison their own.

"But Foulfell is no normal prison. In this dark mirror of reality, demons are sentenced to gaze eternally into the twisted reflection of their own souls. But instead of suffering, Terrorblade made himself master of his own reflected worst self - a raging, thieving demon of unimaginable power. With his inner beast under sway, he destroyed the fractal prison walls, took the iconoclast for his own, and burst free to turn his terror loose upon all creation."

We were silent for a few moments. The gravity of this situation was pretty serious. Some connections could be made: first, the "cosmic iconoclast" could be referring to the Stick of Truth. Second, it remarked Terrorblade as "The Demon Marauder," and the previous pages also mentioned "a demon marauder that stole the stick from Satan". As the elves had said in Eric Cartman's back yard "whoever controls the Stick controls the universe." That means if Terrorblade gets the Stick, he gets all the power he wants...My heart felt like someone was constantly pressing on it. "So if I have the Stick," I said, "that means that Terrorblade is coming for me."

"Which means that we have to get ready for him, right?" Isaac said.

I turned to Isaac. "Yeah." I took out the Stick of Truth from my own trenchcoat. "Isaac, we have to go home and get our stuff. We have to leave here by tonight."

A voice came from the Library entrance. The voice of a certain fatass. "I'm afraid you're not going anywhere."

I turned towards the entrance to see Eric Cartman, Butters Stotch, Tweek Tweak, Token Black, Craig Tucker, and Ray all pile to the front of the Library, all dressed in their fighting outfits. Ray? Wow, that douchebag, he must have ratted me out. I'm going to get it now...


That's it for this chapter. What happens next? Will Eric Cartman get the Stick of Truth, or will Cole keep it for himself? Find out what happens next chapter.