Jack thought of his situation and how much worse it was than he previously thought "What am I going to do?" His mind trying to rationalize himself, it was clear he had no idea how things worked so he exits the library trying to find the wall he broke, he searches and searches until he finds it! But it was covered up by wooden boards clumsily nailed together. He easily picks them off one by one but when he looks inside it was the same as he saw before, just a small house with furniture for dolls, out of nowhere he hears a small squeaky voice! "Hey you! Get out of our house!" Jack looks around but he can't see who he's talking to until the voice says "Down here you ginormous bum!" to Jack's surprise it was a talking mouse with little mouse children "Finally you see us! NOW GET OUTTA HERE BEFORE I BITE YOUR HEAD OFF" "AAAAAHHHHHH!!"
Jack terrified runs off, his head spinning like crazy as he tries to look around. He looks for anything and starts screaming "Can anyone help me!? Hello!?" the boy was in shock, he was lost. In the middle of town screaming made him look insane as the people who passed him by gave a weary gaze quickly shuffling away from Jack.
Defeated, Jack walks back to the library, his body tired and his eyes sunken as his feet drag across the floor and back up the stairs to a long bench where he lay his head and all he thinks about "If this is a dream, please anybody wake me up" as he closes his eyes he hears the distorted voice of a woman "Hey, Hey! It's time to get up" "Mom?" "Mom? No it's me, Niora? The assistant" "Oh sorry. Uh how long was I-" "Asleep? A good few hours, you know you can't stay here right?"
Jack closed his eyes for a moment and it seems he had been asleep for hours "Sorry, I just- who are these kids?" "Well let's see you feel asleep in the kids section and when they saw you they called me here. They were afraid you were some hobo but I told them your harmless" "Dont count the homeless part out..."
"Oh my! Did you get kicked out?" "No, I just can't seem to find my way home"
"Mister? Where did you used to live?" the child asked. "Sorry kid, I don't know if I can answer that" Niora sensing something was off shoos the kids away "Ok that's enough questioning, off you get" as the children scurry away Niora sits down beside Jack "So... What happened?" "I have no idea myself, one moment I'm buying food and the next I'm here in a town with talking rats and insanely huge libraries- I just, I don't know what to do" Niora listens to Jack attentively trying to see if she can help "Well what do you want?" "I want to go home" Jack answered without any hesitation, it was clear he was homesick so Niora decides to tell him a story
"You know, once upon a time there was a family. It was a happy family that lived in a small village, they didn't have much but they had each other. One day an unfortunate accident came and destroyed the whole village. The only one left was a little girl, she now had no one. Not mommy or daddy, she was left all alone until an old lady picked her up and brought her home with her. She was raised by this old lady until she was 14 but soon the old lady would pass on. However, she imparted one last piece of advice to the girl. She said "You will be fine as long as your head is on straight and your heart in the right place""
After Jack had listened to Niora's story he looked up and asked "That little girl? It was you, right?" "Maybe, but the point is. I know that right now it's tough, but as long as you have a good heart things won't end up so bad. I mean look at me!" Jack chuckled light as Niora gestured herself "Thank you again Niora, that was a great story" "If you ever need anything, just tell me and I'll try my best to help out" Jack had arranged his thoughts once more
He rubs his eyes and the dry drool off his mouth, he knows now that moping about won't get him anywhere
"OK! Niora let's get one thing out of the way" "A bit too close bud" "Right sorry, I'm stupid" "I wouldn't say that-" "No literally, I know nothing about anything. I have no knowledge of magic, how to do it and what the world is like" Niora is dumbfounded as she has never met someone so clueless about everything, all she could think to say was "Wha- ok. What do you want to do?"
"I. Want. To. Learn. Take me around the library and give me everything I might need to know" Jack readies himself as to what may lie ahead of him. His enthusiasm so clear that you could see his eyes sparkle a little
"Well, you're standing on top of the kids table. So good place to start learning" Jack laughed for a bit until he saw Niora's stern expression, she wasn't joking, she wasn't even grinning "You're serious?" Jack asks
"OH very much so, if what you say is true and you are literally as you say " stupid " then this is where you start" Jack's enthusiasm suddenly dropped and his sarcastic side starts to come out as he questioned Niora's choices "Really? What does a kid have that I don't?" Jack's question that was well thought was met by "Well for starters, they have full self awareness of magic and can manipulate even small amounts of it. Can you?" Jack met his match, he did say he was stupid but to be more clueless than a 10 year old was demeaning but he had no choice but to start from scratch "Ok fine, where do I start?" "Why don't we try, this" Niora reaches out and grabs a children's book named "The Alan Riggins Novel, The Bat and the Cave"
To Jack this was a tedious first task and it would soon Kickstart the long demanding and arduous process of learning simple magic "This is gonna be a doozy..."