The Darkhold Chronicles: Chapter 7

Gweniver turned over in her sleep, her face pressing into the soft pillow below as a sweet aroma rushed into her nose. Sighing softly to herself, she nuzzled into the pillow a bit more before reality finally struck, causing the mage to whip around and prop herself upright on the bed. Gweniver quickly scanned the surrounding area in a panic, becoming increasingly confused as she realized she was alone. She took another moment, trying to sort her memories in her head.

Eventually, Gweniver concluded that she clearly remembered falling asleep on the ground last night after she and Zach had finished the floor, which made her current situation very confusing.

Throwing her legs off the edge of the bed, Gweniver stood and gathered her sword and magical bag, strapping both around her waist with her belt before heading towards the door.

As she stepped through the front door, Gweniver instantly noticed a path of sand starting at the entrance way and leading around the edge of their Basalt walls. Easily guessing where the path had come from, she followed the sand to the corner of their home. As she turned the corner she spotting a new structure on the hill along with a familiar figure next to the anomaly.

"Zach!" Gweniver called, while rushing up the hill towards the red head.

"Mornin, Gwen!"

"Gweniver!" She corrected before looking over the strange structure, "What is this?"

"It's a pen, or it's supposed to be." Zach admitted, scratching the back of his head a bit before spinning around to face the pen, his wide smile plastered on his face, "It's for Duke and Sally! Gotta keep them safe from those nasty spiders and slimy slimes and creepy creepers and-"

"I get it." Gweniver cut him off. She inspected the pen for a second longer before finally catching what he had said and asked, "Who's Duke and Sally?"

Zach opened his mouth as if to answer her but just as quickly closed it before looking around the area. Finally spotting what he was searching for, Zach quickly grabbed Gweniver by the wrist and dragged her behind the pen.

"That's Duke and that's Sally." Zach explained happily while pointing down towards two Mooshrooms that were currently munching on some grass.

"There's two now?"

"Yup!" Zach pulled out his Philosopher's stone, smiling proudly at Gweniver, "I think I finally figured this thing out. Took a lot of tries, but I finally got a friend for Duke. I didn't want him to be too lonely."

"Oh...good job, Zach." Gweniver admitted, smiling a bit under her mask as his eyes lit up from the slight praise. Though the sudden remembrance of her situation this morning forced her to ask a question she was admittedly a bit nervous to hear an answer to.

"Um, Zach? I...when..." She paused for a moment, unsure of the right words, finally just forcing out the question. "Zach, we didn't sleep together did we?"

"W-what?!"

"I didn't...That didn't come out right!" Gweniver shook her head, a bit flustered by her poor choice of words, thankful now more than ever for her face mask as she felt her cheeks growing warmer.

"What I meant was, I woke up in the bed this morning, but I clearly remember falling asleep on the floor. So as the only other person here, I assume you know why I was in the bed?" She asked, relieved to see Zach's awkwardness slip away as he began to laugh.

"Why didn't you just say that?" Zach asked, still laughing a bit before smiling at her, "I woke up really early this morning. So, since I wasn't using the bed anymore, I picked you up and put you on it. I figured it would be better than the floor."

"Oh, fair enough. That makes sense. Um, you just...keep having fun with this. I'm going to head back inside." Gweniver slid away from Zach, almost tripping over her own feet as she went.

"Are you okay, Gwen?" Zach called after her.

"Yes!" She yelled back, "I'm fine. I just remembered... I'm just going to go do...some magic stuff! Nothing big, you wouldn't be interested!" She raced down the sand path and out of sight before he could question further.



Slamming the front door behind her, Gweniver leaned against the inner wall of their home, staring up at the sky before releasing a low groan and shaking her head.

"That was so stupid!" She snapped at herself while throwing her hands to her sides and stomping over towards their lay out of supplies.

Gweniver sat next to her prized Condenser while rummaging through her bag once more, mumbling to herself, "So stupid, why did I even say that? More to the point, why did I react like that?!"

She shook her head once more in a desperate attempt to clear her thoughts before finally finding the object she was searching for in her bag and pulling out a large flat tablet.

"Oh, I missed you, Transmutation Tablet. Hopefully Zach doesn't break you." She gently laid the tablet on the ground next to the Condenser as well as a few iron bars from her bag and a handful of feathers.

"Right, time to get to work on this."



"Duke? Where'd you go?" Zach called for his missing Mooshroom as he walked along the small valley behind the animal pen.

Pouting a bit, Zach turned to the second Mooshroom and asked, "Sally, did you see which way he went? ...why am I asking you? You're a Mooshroom. Mooshrooms don't talk... I wonder if there are any Mushrooms around that saw where he went..."

Zach continued along the valley, stopping only to wipe what felt like a branch out of his hair. Though as quickly as he reached up to remove the twig, he realized there was nothing there, he also realized he was no where near a tree.

More curious than annoyed now, Zach turned to see if there was anything above that could have disturbed his hair and instantly stumbled backwards, falling onto the ground, his eyes locked onto Gweniver's laughing form hovering in the sky above him.

"Hi, Zach." Gweniver greeted him as she continued to giggle at his confused reactions.

"You...sky....hair...huh?"

"Magic ring." Gweniver answered, holding up her hand with the glowing ring for him to see.

"I...you...that...." Zach suddenly jumped up and raced forward to stand under her, still staring up at the ring. "You said you were doing boring magic stuff! That's not boring! I want a magic flying ring thing too!"

Gweniver smirked under her mask before crossing her arms, "Well I would have taught you how to make your own, but you barely paid any attention when I made the philosopher's stone for you. You can't have cool magical things if you're not going to pay attention to how they're made and how to properly use them."

"But, Gwen!" Zach whined, while pouting up at her.

"Gweniver!"

"Please, Gwen!" He begged, staring up at her with pleading eyes.

Gweniver rolled her eyes before pulling a second ring out of the bag around her waist, holding it high above Zach's head as he tried to reach for it.

"Not yet!" She snapped at him and pulled out a second item from her bag, a yellow sphere with white spikes. "This is a Klein Star, Zach. It's a portable energy source. This Klein Star will supply you with the energy you'll need to power this ring as well as any other magical objects I may eventually make for you. You need to make sure you always have your Klein Star and that it is always charged with energy. I'll show you how to charge it later, it requires my Transmutation Tablet back inside, but for now I have already charged the Klein Star so you should be fine for awhile....How much of that did you understand?"

"That was a lot of words, Gwen." Zach admitted, grinning a bit as Gweniver groaned. "Klein Star good, portable battery, charges cool stuff, needs recharging, you'll show later. That it?"

"Close enough..." Gweniver sighed as she landed next to Zach, handing him the Klein Star and the ring which he quickly slid onto one of his fingers. "Now to use the ring, you have to focus the energy from the Klein Star into the ring and..."

Gweniver jumped back as Zach leaped up into the air, hovering a bit chaotically at first but quickly finding his balance in the air, eventually flying circles around the shocked mage.

"This is amazing, Gwen!" Zach cheered excitedly before reaching down and grabbing Gweniver by the wrist, lifting her up into the air with him. "We can fly! How cool is this?"

"Yes, I know." Gweniver responded, a bit annoyed by the constant circles he was forcing her to fly in, though admittedly a bit happy to see him having as much fun as she had had when she made her first flying ring.

"How high can we go?" Zach suddenly asked, stopping mid-air and causing Gweniver to bump into him.

Gweniver pushed herself away before answering, "Fairly high, as high as you want to go I guess. Just make sure your Klein Star is always charged before going too high. As long as the ring is powered, you shouldn't be harmed if you fall from a high distance, but if the ring is not powered..."

"Ring is powered, lets go!" Zach grabbed Gweniver's wrist once more as he dragged her high into the sky.

The two flew up quite a ways before Zach eventually stopped. His eyes wide as he looked out onto the surrounding scenery before looking up at the bright stars above them. He turned to Gweniver, his smile wider than ever before, if that was even possible.

"This is amazing, Gwen! It's like we're in Space! It's so cool!" Zach quickly flew over to Gweniver, wrapping his arms around her and hugging tightly, "Thank you so much, Gwen!"

Gweniver squirmed in his grip for only a second before sighing in defeat and gently hugging him back, "You're welcome, Zach."