Chapter 2

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     Some time after Jean-Luc's disappointing day, he ended up going home.
"Home at last..." he said to himself, sadly.
"Est-ce que les choses peuvent aller plus mal...?"
But then, when he went to turn on the lights, they didn't turn on, confusing him.  Suddenly, he saw a fancy chow chow around his age, maybe slightly older, in the living room.  She turned around and asked him,
"You're Jean-Luc?"
"Um...who are you...how did you get in here?!" he replied.
"Oh, your place is easy to get in.  My name is Judo, I work for someone important, who has quite the offer for you.  Are you in?"
Jean-Luc was already confused with Judo being in his house, but he had more important things to ask.
"Wait, who do you work for?"

     Later in the evening, Judo drove Jean-Luc to a large mansion.  It happened to belong to a labrador, but Jean-Luc didn't know who that labrador was. They both stepped inside and Jean-Luc took in this new environment. It felt strange for someone like him to be stepping into such a large and expensive mansion.
"Follow me. Wipe your feet on that mat over there. Come quickly, this Labrador doesn't like to be kept waiting" said Judo, prompting Jean-Luc to catch up to her.
The two dogs stepped into an elevator and began making their way down. Judo began straightening up Jean-Luc as she said,
"Ok, Jean-Luc. You will refer to this Labrador by his name or sir. Stand up unless asked to be seated. Keep your sentences short, sweet, and to the point. Got it?"
Jean-Luc nodded nervously and before he knew it, the elevator reached the bottom. He stepped out and before the elevator doors closed, Judo had one more thing to say to him.
"And don't worry. He's quite chill...for the most part..." she said as the doors closed on her.

After hearing that, Jean-Luc walked around the large room he was in. He was nervous, but he was impressed with some artifacts he saw. But what caught his attention was a large painting that was resting above a fireplace. It was of two labradors; one yellow and one black. The black Labrador looked exactly like Jean-Luc's grandfather, so he asked,
"Grandpa...?"
"Heh, he was one of our greatest explorers of all time!" said a nearby voice.
Jean-Luc turned around to see that the voice came from a yellow Labrador practicing yoga. Sure enough, he was the same yellow Labrador from the painting. The yellow Labrador extended his hand to Jean-Luc and said,
"Hi! I'm Pat! Want to do some yoga with me?"
"Um, no thanks...hey, did you actually know my grandpa?" replied Jean-Luc, who was shocked his grandfather knew someone like Pat.
"Yup! Us labradors stick together! He was a great one until his end! He did drag me along on his adventures, and they were quite insane. He DID always talk about you, though"
"Well...he never mentioned you..."
"At least your grandpa knew I liked my privacy! I'm a low profile kind of dog!"
"Hey Pat, should I be wondering why I'm here?"
"Look at that table!"
Pat pointed to a little table that had a package sitting on it. Jean-Luc noticed this and he walked over to the table to pick it up. He noticed the writing and then he said,
"It's...from my grandpa..."
"He brought that package to me years ago. He told me that if anything happened to him, I should give it to you when you were old enough. Whatever that means" replied Pat.
Jean-Luc opened up the package and to his shock, it contained the one thing he was looking for: the Sheepdog's Journal.

He carefully felt the leather cover and he couldn't believe he was actually holding it.
"I...I can't believe it...the Sheepdog's Journal...Pat, this book is the key to finding the lost civilization of Atlantis!" he said.
Pat, who got up to take a look at the journal, scoffed at the idea and said,
"Atlantis? That's just a myth"
"No no, look! It's got everything! Paths, images, it's here!"
Jean-Luc showed some pages to Pat, who kept on doubting him.
"It looks like gibberish" he said.
"It's because it's been written in a forgotten dialect-"
"So it's useless?"
"No, just tricky. I'm bilingual myself, so I know a thing or two about overcoming language barriers"
"It's probably a fake"
Now getting frustrated with Pat's doubt, Jean-Luc said with perseverance,
"...Pat, my grandpa would know if this were a fake. I would know...I'll bet EVERYTHING to prove that this is in fact, the genuine Sheepdog's Journal"
Pat nodded and replied with,
"Alright, then! What would you like to do with it?"
"I'll get funding! From the museum!"
"They won't believe you!"
"I'll show them this journal! I'll MAKE them believe!"
Pat then crossed his arms and sarcastically said,
"Oh sure, like you did earlier today"
"Yes...no! How did you...oh never mind!"
And then, with absolute determination, Jean-Luc said,
"I will find Atlantis myself, even if I have to rent a rowboat!!"

Suddenly, with his arms still crossed, Pat smiled and said,
"Congratulations, mate. That was exactly what I wanted to hear. But forget the rowboat!"
Pat pulled out a model of an impressive looking submarine and said,
"We'll travel in style!"
Jean-Luc was impressed by not only the submarine, but somehow Pat had everything prepared.
"Everything's been arranged! It's all included!" Pat proudly declared.
"But why...?" asked Jean-Luc
"For years, that lab kept bugging me with stories about that book, and I didn't believe him at all. One day, I got fed up and made a bet with him. I told him, 'If you actually find that journal, not only will I fund the expedition, but I'll do the tango with you!' Sure enough, I was able to prove my dance skills with him-"
Pat showed Jean-Luc a photo of him and Jean-Luc's grandfather doing the tango embarrassingly, causing him to snicker. But then, Pat walked up to the large painting.
"Look, now I know he's gone, rest in peace, but I'm a dog of my words. You hear that?! I'm going with a clean conscious! Heh..." said Pat.
After hearing that, Jean-Luc began to feel down and so did Pat. He sighed and said,
"Your grandpa was a good dog...I don't think you realize how great...those idiots at the museum...they put him down and made him such a laughing stock...he died of a broken heart...if I could bring back just one piece of evidence, I would be happy. Yeah..."

After another sigh, Pat perked up.
"What are we standing around for? We've got work to do!"
As he and Jean-Luc walked back to the table, Jean-Luc said,
"But Pat, in order to do what you want to do, you're gonna need an entire crew!"
"Already done!" replied Pat.
"You'll need engineers, geologists-"
"Got them all!"
Pat showed a bunch of pictures of the crew members of all sorts of dog breeds and Jean-Luc was quite impressed with how most of them were teenagers, just like him. Pat named out a few of these crew members by saying,
"Winton! Our geologist and knows quite a lot about dirt and soil! Mackenzie! Our demolitions expert! Can make a bomb from almost anything! Pom-Pom! Don't let her size fool you! She knows more about engineering than the two of us combined! These are the same dogs that brought the journal back!"
"Where was it?" asked Jean-Luc.
Pat showed one more photograph of the crew with the newly discovered journal and said,
"Iceland!"
"I knew it!!" shouted Jean-Luc, now excited.
Pat then said,
"Now all we need is a good linguist. The choice is yours, you can either continue what your grandpa started, or you can go back to the boiler room"
Jean-Luc was quite shocked that it was finally happening and so soon as well. He said,
"This is all happening..."
"It sure is, mate!" replied Pat.

Jean-Luc realized that he had lots of work to do himself, so he said,
"I-I'll have to quit my job"
"It's done! You did so this afternoon!" happily replied Pat.
"I did?"
"Yeah! Don't like loose ends!"
My home? I need to give notice"
"Taken care of!"
"My clothes?"
"All packed up!"
"My books?"
"All stored!"
"Anything else?"
"Nope!"
Jean-Luc was impressed with how quickly everything was done, so he uttered,
"Sacré bleu..."
Pat smiled warmly and said,
"Your grandpa had a saying...'Our lives are remembered by the gifts we give to our children'. This journal is his gift to you, Jean-Luc"
Pat handed the journal to Jean-Luc.
"Atlantis is waiting. What do you say?" he asked the young lab.
Jean-Luc quickly shook Pat's hand and said,
"I'm your dog!"
He quickly put his coat on, but due to how excited he was, he put it on backwards by accident all while saying,
"You won't regret this! I'm super excited!! I can feel myself bursting!!"
Jean-Luc's journey was about to begin very soon.

This special episode of Bluey is called, "Atlantis"!Where stories live. Discover now