"Right! I think that will just about do it!" Gweniver exclaimed, stepping back from the hole she had dug in the side of the volcano.
"Zach!" She called up to where the red head had given up on watching for monsters and was flicking bits of wood and grass into the lava "It's time to head home!"
He sprung to his feet, said a quick goodbye to the lava, and bounded down to her.
"Did you really mine all the basalt we will need that fast?" he asked, sounding amazed
"That is the wonderful thing about a condenser; you only need a few pieces of something and you can basically have an unlimited supply of it."
"Wow, that's awesome! Hey Gwen, can you teach me to do magic like you?"
"My name is Gweniver! And why do you need to learn magic anyway?"
Zach shrugged, reaching back over his shoulder to help the smaller girl over a large fallen tree. "I just think it would be cool to learn and you seem to know everything about it."
Gweniver puffed out her chest a little, "Well, I wouldn't say I know everything, but I know a fair bit. What would you like to do? Like do you want to start working with dark matter or do you want to focus on transformation stuff like with a philosopher's stone or… Zach? What are you doing?"
The mage came to a halt as she looked back and saw Zach rubbing his ear in apparent irritation.
"Do you hear something?" He asked, still rubbing his ear.
Gweinver focused on her hearing, but she couldn't detect anything out of ordinary in the natural sounds of the forest.
"No, not really. What are you hearing?"
Zach shrugged "Dunno, it's kind of like a faint buzzing. Oh well, let's get home!"
Gweniver sighed and followed after Zach, who was walking ahead of her.
"So, anyway, as I was saying you could focus on transformation if you wanted. It's pretty easy to make a philosopher's stone and then you could have an easy way of getting anim-" she stopped short as Zach filched and clapped a hand over his ear in surprise.
"ARE YOU SURE YOU DON'T HEAR ANYTHING!?" Zach yelled, still cupping his ears.
"Only your yelling! Take your hands off of your ears!" Gweniver called back, taking a step away from the yelling boy.
"WHAT?!" He asked, unable to hear through his own hands.
"TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF OF YOUR EARS!" She screamed in Zack's face, causing him to stumble back a few feet.
"BUT IT'S SO LOUD!"
"YOU'RE THE ONLY LOUD ONE HERE!"
He gingerly took one hand off of his ear and then the other, looking around nervously all the while.
"Well, it is a lot quieter."
"Good, now what were you even hearing?"
He shrugged, blue eyes dark with confusion. "Just like a whole lot of people all talking at the same time. It was weird because isn't it only us around here?"
"Yes, I don't think anyone knows we are here yet. Also, I haven't heard a word out of anyone but you. Are you sure it was voices?"
He nodded and then gasped. He crouched down and grabbed Gweniver by the shoulders, pulling her face close to his.
"What if I've gone crazy, Gwen?! What if the voices are all in my head?!"
Gweniver started at his wide blue eyes, feeling only utter shock. Suddenly, she was no longer able to contain it, and burst out laughing.
"Yo- you thi- hahaha-you just realized you were crazy? I-bhahaha- I could have told you that a long time ago." She gasped between laughing, wiping her hand across her face to catch the tears that were falling from her extreme laughter.
Zach huffed and crossed his arms in anger.
"I don't really think this is something to be laughing about, Gwen."
His anger only made her laugh harder, however.
"Oh, but it is! That is what makes it funny!"
Zach walked away in a huff, leaving the mage to calm herself down. Once she could stand up straight again, she walked over to where Zach was pouting.
"Sorry Zach, I shouldn't have laughed that hard. But, to be fair, that was so-"
"Shh!" Zach held his hand up in front of her face, causing her to stumble backwards.
"Wh-"
"I said SHHH!" Zach said, pressing a finger to his lips.
Gweniver watched as he got down on his hands and knees and pressed his ear to a mushroom that was growing under one of the trees.
He remained that way for a moment, his brow furrowed in concentration and tongue sticking out slightly, before leaping to his feet.
"Gwen! I figured it out!"
"Figured what out?"
"The voices I've been hearing aren't from inside my head! They are from these little guys!" he said, and gestured proudly at the mushrooms.
Gweniver looked slowly from his smiling proud face to the ordinary brown mushrooms on the ground.
"So, you can hear the mushrooms- um- talking?"
"Yes! Isn't it great! It means I'm not crazy!" he beamed.
Gweniver ran her hand through her hair once again "Yup, totally not crazy at all."

Author's Notes!

Hey guys! Luka here dropping a new fic!"The Darkhold Chronicles" is a collab fanfic series between myself and ShadowDragonia ( ) over on DeviantART

The Darkhold Chronicles is a genderswap fanfic based around The Blackrock Chronicles

Basically, Shadow will write one chapter and then I will write the other! I will be posting both sides on here since she doesn't have a FF. So, so follow her on DA if you have one! She also made the cover art so you guys should really show her some love :3