A Zombie named Lily and Growing Things

He was in a field this time. Patches of dry grass and plains stretched all around as far as he could see. Once again, it was night. Moonlight shone in a faint halo around the small object in the sky, otherwise cloudless and void.

And he was not alone. Small footsteps followed his own big steps, coming slightly to his left.

"... Hero, let's help him. Please." A small voice sounded.

Looking down, Hero saw a child, a little girl who on first glance seemed Human, if it was not for the patches of deeply green discolorations that showed everywhere on her skin, on her arms, her legs, her head under her scraggly dank hair gathered in messy braids, and through several rends of her tattered, dark dress.

Hero would have thought her one of the monsters the books described as "zombies" if it was not for her eyes, bright and quick with the same white light that Hero's own eyes held. Zombies were supposed to have black or red eyes, right? Unless they were controlled by someone's magic? Was his double controlling her? He could do that if he wanted to, Hero already knew that from what he had seen before.

"... He's just an old villager. AND he is blind. He won't even know who we are. We cannot just LEAVE him there like that. He'll die!" The little zombie insisted, sounding earnest, very much like a little villager child begging his caretaker for a cookie or maybe a much wanted toy.

Hero couldn't help smirking at the comparison.

Next, his vision blurred and he found himself standing several blocks away, where he could see his double and his tag-along clearly from the side.

His double did not look much better than the zombie girl, his clothing torn and bearing dark stains, as if stained by dried blood. All along his arms and beneath the rends showed poorly healed marks that reminded Hero of scars. His double's face also seemed much thinner and bore traces of exhaustion.

His eyes on the zombie girl though seemed somehow gentle. Quiet, as if he had come to terms with something and accepted it. Or, maybe it was simply because he was no longer alone. He seemed different than Hero remembered him, in a way that he couldn't name, yet.

"What happened to you? Did you get in a fight again?" Hero gave his double a misgiving, suspicious look.

"Hero, pleeease." The little girl made big eyes. Hero smirked again, then narrowed his eyes at glimpsing a faint smile appear on his double's usually emotionless, blank face.

"... Wait... Your name is Hero, too?" Hero blinked, suddenly realizing what the little zombie just called his older reflection.

The world around him blurred.

Now he and the little girl stood on a hill in what looked to be a place filled with nothing but sand. It piled up in quiet, moonlit heaps around them. Rose in giant, frozen waves. Tiny grains of it slipped and sparkled beneath their feet, slowly sinking into the substance.

Becoming aware of voices coming from the distance, Hero looked up in that direction. Music. Singing and dancing and festive, colorful lights. Far beyond the gently sloping down hill of sand lay a gathering of structures, which Hero recognized as a village, but it was unlike any village he had ever seen before.

Curious, he made a few steps toward it and again the air turned thick, barring his path. Wait... Hero squinted.

There were other figures there in the village, slightly bigger and dressed differently. Some feasting at the long tables and others dancing, their movements somehow awkward and silly compared to that of the villagers.

Humans?

"Your village is just a little ahead. If you walk straight, you won't miss it." The little zombie girl's voice cheerfully instructed behind Hero.

"Yes, I can hear them. Thank you." An elderly, slightly shaky voice came, so familiar that it immediately sent a pang through Hero's heart.

He snapped his head back and stared at the figure that stood next to his double and the little zombie girl. Disappointment cut across his heart. It wasn't him. It wasn't Grandpa Grake. It was just a very old villager who looked a little bit like him.

His clothes were different. Colorfully patterned, his outfit matched the garments of those other villagers that Hero could glimpse in the distant village. Rainbow-colored trim decorated his long-sleeved tan shirt and trousers, as well as the cap he wore on his head. His most striking feature was his eyes. They were not green, as Hero was used to seeing, but pale white and murky. Strange little scars pock-marked the upper portion of the old villager's face, blending in with the wrinkles.

He was blind, Hero understood.

The villager slightly bent his head to the side.

"Are you sure you don't want to come with me? You would be most welcome. Without your help, I would still be stuck in that trap until morning or who knows when? May those Humans step into their own traps for setting them so close to the village. I'll have to tell the elders about that. Only what can we do?..." An annoyed tone entered the old villager's voice before he paused, remembering his companions.

"It's the Moon Harvest celebration. There are plenty of good things to eat." He smiled kindly in direction of his rescuers, his eyes emptily staring into space between them.

"Please come! Get some rest. It's really unsafe to travel here at night. There are monsters and zombies. And someone even said that they saw a ghost with glowing eyes. Who knows, it could be the great White Eyes, himself. If that's him, you are in danger! People say that if you see and look him in his eyes, he might pick you as his next victim. Then, he will come for you in your dreams and turn them to nightmares, hunting you. If he kills you in your sleep, you might never wake up! Some say that he can even claim your soul, so if you die you won't be reborn but become bound to serve him as an undead thing until the end of time when all things become remade new... Of course I do not have to worry about that, heheheh." The villager chuckled faintly, gesturing to his blind eyes.

"Its only rumors and silly tall tales, but really, you would be much safer if you came and stayed the night in our village." The villager tried to appeal to their better sense.

An amused smirk appeared on his double's face, but vanished immediately when the little zombie girl cast him a disapproving look. She then stepped close to the old villager and gave him a friendly pat on his arm, smiling up at him.

"It will be fine. We haven't seen any ghosts or monsters. And we've been travelling all night. Besides, my friend here is a Mage. He has strong magic. He will protect us. So do not worry about us. Just go on home."

"Magic, huh? Then yes. You will probably be safe..." The old villager relaxed a little.

"But maybe you need some supplies?" He perked up. "I lost everything I carried, but I have more stored away at home... I can also make really nice dolls! Would you like one?" A sly, yet very kind, hopeful look showed on his face. He just really wanted to thank them somehow, Hero thought and couldn't help smiling.

He liked this old villager.

His double shifted, throwing an impatient look at the sky, which was noticeably starting to light up in the far corner. Touching the girl on her arm, he drew her attention. Their gazes met and connected, with something passing between them without words.

Could his double talk? Or, did he only send emotions and images, like the mobs?

Curiously, Hero wondered, looking between his double and the little zombie.

After a moment of unspoken conversation, his double slightly shook his head and frowned. The little girl's hopeful face fell and she sighed a little bit sadly, turning back to the villager, who waited for them, leaning forward intently as he tried to listen to what they were doing.

"Um... Maybe another time. We really must go. But if you make more dolls, maybe you can make one for me? And just keep it? Maybe one day we might come by and get it. Please?"

The little girl looked again at Hero's double, whose expression changed to thoughtful and uncertain. The old villager chuckled, pleased.

"Of course, of course! I'll make you the best doll that I can, Little One. And I'll keep it until you come and collect it. Come at any time! And just ask for old Elart."

"Thanks! We better go now. Are you sure you will be alright?"

"Yes, yes. I'll be fine. But no more far away trips for me. At least not until these Humans leave from here." The villager grumbled.

"All right, then. Goodbye, Elart!... Oh... But when you make my doll, can you give it brown braids and brown eyes? Please? I want it to look like me!" The little zombie girl's face lit with a smile.

Looking at her white eyes and tangled, torn hair, Hero suddenly felt a little sad for some reason. He noticed the same look appear on his double's face as his blank gaze rested on her. The little girl didn't seem to notice, carried by pleasant dreams.

"I'm going to call her Emily and she'll always be with me. And it will be her, me, and you, and we're going to all live in your castle together. Right, Hero? We'll be so happy!"

"Emily? That's a nice name. And your quiet friend's name is Hero. And what is yours, Little One?" The old villager asked, his unseeing eyes squinting with curiosity.

Hero's double reached out and touched the little girl's arm again and she startled awake from her imagined world, blinking at him confusion.

"Oh!... Um... Right! I'm ah... I'm Lily. And my friend's name... Its not Hero. That's just something that I call him, because he saved me. From some really mean people. I don't know what his real name is because he cannot talk. So, um... We should go. Goodbye, Elart!"

Turning away, the little girl began to walk in a direction opposite the village. Hero's older double silently followed her.

"Goodbye, Lily and Hero! Safe travel! Thank you for saving me! Goodbye!"

The villager called out to them and chuckled, before unhurriedly setting on his way toward his village.

"... Sorry. I didn't mean to give that away." The little zombie girl told Hero's double worriedly. Frowning, she sought to look at his face, walking next to him.

"It will be alright, though. Right? They won't find us?... Even if he tells about us, he can only say that someone named Hero and Lily helped him. That's not much. They won't know that it was us. He couldn't see you. And no one even knows my name."

His double's hand came to rest on the child's head and patted her gently, as if telling her not to worry. The little girl seemed to stay worried anyway, even biting her lip a little like Hero did sometimes when he couldn't stop thinking about something.

Still, noticing her caretaker's calm look to the far edge of the sky, which lightened even more, the little girl's face filled with concern.

"The sun is coming up... Are we almost there? Or are we making a hole in the ground and hiding again?"

At her question, Hero's double visibly sighed, his expression reflecting faint guilt. Hero studied him.

"You ARE different now." He noted.

"... It's all right, Hero. I don't mind." The little zombie girl gently patted her caretaker's arm. A sweet little smile appeared on her discolored face when Hero's double met her eyes with his eerie gaze.

"Soon, we will find a new place and you can make us another castle. Even better than before! And I am going to have a garden. I will plant flowers and trees. It will be so pretty! You will see. And you are going to help me, right?"

His double's wordless answer must have been "yes", judging by how the girl's smile brightened.

Hero looked from one of them to the other and couldn't help smiling a bit, too. He really liked this little child, whoever she was. She seemed funny and kind. His double probably would not have helped that old villager if she had not asked him so stubbornly. And his double seemed so different with her around, more like he was a real person than that faceless ghost that Hero saw before. He liked these changes.

But, where were they now and what was going on?

Hero wished that his dreams about his strange double came less scattered. Was this before or after that time when he stood and watched that other person in the dark forest? That human that looked so much like him except that he did not have the glowing eyes? What happened to him? And who was this girl? When did they meet?

... And did she say something about a castle?

"You have a castle? Had one, I mean? But you built it yourself? How did you?... Was it by magic?" Hero wondered.

The world blurred.

Hero blinked at the new surroundings that came into focus around him.

They stood in a long hall, surrounded by smooth, polished walls rising high to the vaulted ceiling patterned with... tree branches and flowers?

A crooked smile grew on Hero's face. He looked around himself with amazement.

"Wait... Did you build all this? Really?"

Hero asked with hint of jealousy. His own home was just a cave full of spiderwebs.

"... Maybe I should try making something like that." Hero said thoughtfully, looking at the patterns around him and trying to remember them.

Not paying attention to him, his double confidently stepped off the small square pedestal and strode forward to the massive, wide-stepped stairs rising up, made of smooth, translucent stone. Behind him, a blue-tinged portal winked out, leaving a square shaped tall monument, the likes of which Hero had seen once before in his exploration.

"... Wait. So its a Portal?" Hero startled, excitement flaring within him and made a step toward the familiar structure, only to have his world blur as his double reached the top of the stairs and drew him along.

"Waaaait. Ugh..." Hero gave up trying to peer back at the mysterious structure. He could no longer see it behind the massive balustrade obscuring his view.

Stopping in the opened doors of the enormous, wrought gateway, the double peered into a huge room beyond, lined with red and black stone, and empty, except for a raised platform at the far end with an uncomfortable looking stone niche that might have been a chair.

Tilting his head, his double listened to something, his gaze distant. And Hero's world vanished and came into focus once again.

"Hero!"

A familiar voice exclaimed while Hero still blinked the dizziness from his eyes. He saw the little zombie girl, Lily, run out and greet his double with a big hug. She looked up with so much trust and gladness that Hero was not surprised at all to see a small smile respond on his double's face.

"Look what I found!" The girl eagerly brought up her hand and unfolded gnarled, damaged fingers with peeling flakes of green and black skin. Peering closer, Hero saw a handful of dark acorns resting in her small palm, similar to the ones he often found scattered around his Tree at home.

"Your tree grew them. Lets plant more!" She declared happily. For some reason, Hero's double seemed slightly taken aback.

"... That's all right. I love that tree! So what if it grew a little too big? Just use a little bit less magic this time, that's all..."

Hero's double quirked up an eyebrow and turned his head to his left, where he traced something up with his glowing gaze. The little girl looked there also. Both of them seemed amused. Curious about what they were both looking at, Hero turned and gaped.

To their left stood a massive trunk of a tree, growing right through the stone walls and disappearing up into the ceiling, which formed skylights around its twisting branches. A curved staircase surrounded it and connected it with several floors, where Hero could see doorways leading into rooms, which had bars on their open iron doors. A few Endermen stood staring from above and vanished, even as Hero watched.

The sound of scuttling feet drew his attention to several large spiders making their way up the ceiling, where spider webs hung like white tapestries.

"It's fine, Hero. Let's just try again. This time you will get it right. I know it!"

The doubtful expression didn't leave his double's face. The little zombie girl pouted.

"And anyway, you promised!" She insisted, making the winning argument, since his double turned and held his quiet gaze on the little girl's face a moment longer before making a resigned nod.

"Yey!" Another bright smile bloomed. Hero couldn't help grinning at the little girl bouncing and clapping.

"So, you are planting trees now? That's funny." He told his double, feeling more friendly toward him. "But how do you-"

Hero's world winked out and reappeared. How many times did it happen in this dream? Hero shook his head, growing dizzy at the changing scenery.

"This is where I want it this time!" Lily declared, already dragging her caretaker along by his large hand, while he followed her lead with visible reluctance. Purple particles slowly faded away around them both.

So it was the same dream still. They just moved elsewhere by magic, Hero decided and followed them, curiously looking around.

They were still in the castle, but in another part of it. Here the hallway seemed smaller and more numerous rooms lay next to each other, with doors that had iron bars on them. Their doors hung open and several grown-up zombies with their skin entirely green stumbled out of them and stopped, making grunting noises that somehow seemed pleased.

Hero's double ignored them, but the little zombie girl looked at them and smiled.

"Hi, Aunty Meg. Hey, Uncle Bruce... "

"I don't think they can understand you." Hero shook his head a little bit sadly, looking at the black and hollow eyes. He could right away tell that these zombies were more like the dumb mobs he knew at home and nothing like little Lily.

A stubborn frown appeared on Lily's face.

"... Yes, I KNOW that that's not their names. But they NEED to be called something! Until you heal them? THEN, we'll know for sure what their real names are.... "

Hero's double frowned, uncertain. And there was that guilt again in his expression.

"Of course you'll figure it out! You are smart! You'll make them all better. I believe that you will. You made me better, didn't you?" So much confidence rang in her voice.

"They'll return to being normal and then they can all go home. Or... If they have no home anymore, then they can stay with us! We'll be their family. It will be so nice!"

Hero's double stifled a barely visible sigh, which the little girl didn't notice, but Hero did and frowned.

"... Make them better?" Hero wondered and then his eyes widened.

A pang of... something went through his heart. Hope and recognition and distant heartache, which immediately receded, leaving behind KNOWING. He suddenly KNEW what was going on, even though it was vague and slipping away again. He knew what his double was trying to do.

He was not controlling this little zombie at all. He was keeping her from becoming a zombie like the rest of these creatures, who had already gone beyond his reach. Their minds were gone, suppressed by the Power that inexorably changed them from Human into... this. And it was trying to do the same to Lily, except he was keeping it back by force of his will alone. And failing??...

No, he still hoped to help her. There was still something that he could do and it had something to do with magic, which Hero could not yet understand. His double was still getting ready for it.

Hero breathed out with relief.

Hero's double lowered his head a little and an Enderman appeared nearby, only to disappear again. And reappeared with a cube of earth in its hands.

"Wow. They really listen to you." Little Hero said quietly. "Why do they not listen to me like that?"

Hero fell silent at his double giving the child a questioning glance.

"Yes! Right here!" She nodded, once again bouncing. And pointed to the corner of the corridor next to one of the rooms. His double blinked. The little girl shook her head.

"No! I don't like your throne room. It's too big and I don't like all those red stones you told them to put in there... I don't care about how good they are for magic! I like it here better. And Aunties Greta and Freida live here, too." The said zombies ambled toward them awkwardly, the emotions Hero sensed coming from them almost shy. They feared his double. Admired and feared him, as much as their dim hearts allowed.

Hero's double ignored them. He did not really care about them, Hero perceived. Not like he seemed to care for this little zombie named Lily, anyway.

Hero watched his double shift his intent gaze to the corner of the corridor where the girl pointed. A moment later, the stone there began to tremble and flowed, becoming a small niche the size of a large cauldron, which Hero thought was meant to be a sort of ... pot? The mob holding the compacted block of dirt deposited it into the container, where it changed to a pile of real soil, and with its task completed vanished again.

The little girl waited, expectantly watching. With another look at her, Hero's double stepped toward the container of earth and carefully pushed in one of the dark acorns he pulled from his pocket. Then, cautious, he stepped back, drawing the little zombie girl with him.

Another brief moment of hesitation and a wave of very familiar to Hero magic poured from his double toward the hidden seed. At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then, a tiny living shoot peeked out of the soil and began to unfold its leaves, slowly stretching up.

"Yeee!" The little girl jumped, clapping her green-tinged hands.

"See? You did it! I knew you could do it! Your magic is not evil at all! It makes things grow, so that's GOOD. That means that you can be good! And you shouldn't believe them that you aren't. They're all just a bunch of mean meanies and-"

Hero's double grasped the little girl's hand, drawing her back, while his eyes widened with alarm, lifting higher and higher up.

A flash of movement and he stood above the little zombie girl, covering her with one hand, while he held the other in the air aflame, a strange white pattern swirling together just in time to protect them both from the numerous rocks crumbling and falling around them. The entire floor began to shake under their feet, then stopped.

Zombies slowly began to rise from the ground where they had fallen. The Endermen began to appear, grasp the fallen chunks and vanished, clearing the area of debris.

Hero's double let go and the little zombie coughed, waving her hand in the air to chase away drifting clouds of dust. She glanced up. Following her gaze, Hero blinked at yet another enormous Tree that now stood embedded straight within the rocky wall as it reached to the surface. It's roots crawled over the cracked shells of the cistern that Hero's double made for it. Small shafts of sunlight fell through the cracks in the ceiling, where massive branches now broke free to the much needed sunlight.

Immediately, at the double's irritated gesture, those cracks sealed.

Appearing displeased and a little bit discouraged, Hero's double critically regarded his overgrown creation. The younger Hero, though, couldn't keep back an amused laugh.

"So, THAT's what she meant about a little bit too much magic!" Hero sputtered, feeling a little bit better about his own frequent failures to repeat what until now he had seen his dream double do so easily.

"Well, maybe it was still a bit too much magic. But we'll get it right next time, all right?" The little zombie girl declared cheerfully. Hero laughed again at the chagrined expression on his double's face.

"... Don't destroy it! I really like it." Zombie girl insisted and encouragingly patted his double's scarred arm while he scowled at the tree. Glancing down and noticing a patient and slightly teasing smile greet him, his harshly glaring eyes softened.

Yet another overgrown tree was going to stay as part of the castle, Hero figured.

"Thank you, Hero." The little girl told him and trustingly leaned her head against his arm. Gently, his double patted it, not minding the raw patches where the girl's skin appeared to have broken off beneath the listless, matted hair.

The memory began to waiver, fading from view as before.

"Wait! I want to see more of your castle!-" Hero protested, but the images dissolved away.

Hero woke up in his cozy cave corner full of spider webs and blinked. Then a crooked grin appeared and grew on his face.

"That was fun. I am going to try it!" He sat up, his eyes gleaming with rising excitement. "... Only instead of a tree, how about something else?..."

He tapped his finger against his chin. "Maybe wheat seeds? Hmmm..."

"Oh! I know... Albert? Aaaalbert!"

The mob's arrival followed by a questioning sound as the mob looked at Hero with his luminous eyes.

"I am going to need your help. I want to build something... A house! Just like He did it. Only smaller. But, it's going to be a house! And it's going to be MY house. I think our exploring will have to wait a bit. This is going to be fun!"

Hero shot up to his feet and started to pace. "I'm going to make a garden and I'm going to grow some wheat and apple trees and... Ooooh! I can make my own bread!" Hero exclaimed dreamily and swallowed, instantly aware of the pulling ache in his stomach.

The mob's confused rurp didn't phase Hero's enthusiasm.

"I just know that I can do it! I know how He did it! It's not something so difficult like disappearing and reappearing... Or flying."

Hero enviously recalled his double's form soaring into the night sky toward the stars, where it appeared to float, suspended in the air as he surveyed the World from above. His own effort to repeat his double's feat had a far more modest success. Once he got the gist of it, however, it did help him easily cross all those cliffs and crags without the former fear of falling, so he felt grateful for this knowledge. Even if he didn't understand where it was all coming from.

At the moment, he didn't care.

"This is going to be easy! Like the pickax! I learned how to do that quick, didn't I?" Hero lifted his hand and a gleaming large pickax briefly appeared in it, looking strangely unreal to be held so easily by his small, scuffed hand. Just as quickly, the tool flashed and vanished.

"It's the same feeling... Mmmhm. I'll make all kinds of things grow. Mushrooms and grapes and other things... And I'll do that even better than Him! Because see? He has too much power to do it right. But I have just enough!"

Confidently, Hero nodded to himself. "First, I'll need seeds, though... And that means more trading." He winced.

"What can I trade?... Mushrooms! I just saw a patch! Let's go, Albert."

Inspired, Hero hurried away from his corner, leaving behind the crumpled up bed made of leaves, branches, and blankets. In his excitement, he ignored the sleepily stirring forms of the cave spiders, who blinked their many red eyes at him in confusion as he passed. He even ignored the little spider, which tried to run after him and then stopped at the edge of the tunnel, clicking its jaws with disappointment as it watched its favorite creature's back retreating into another tunnel. Forlorn, the little spider sagged and settled on its legs to wait, while the others began to return to sleep, their numerous red eyes closing.

Hero grinned, taking a different turn through the tunnels than before, which quickly led him out to another exit, directly into the early morning forest still covered by trailing patches of fog. Damp, cool air met him, permeated with the fresh scent of the rain that came last night. And wet soil squished beneath his bare feet, instantly getting covered with mud.

Looking at the puddles gathered in places beneath his long feet, Albert made an uncertain sound, but followed him. Falling into his usual pattern of appearing and disappearing a short distance away, the tall mob began to scout the area around them...

...

"Hmmm. So maybe I am not so good at it... Or maybe I didn't do it right?...It FELT as if I was doing it right... I don't know..." Hero muttered, frowning at the brown-topped mushroom.

It sat beneath the shade of the spotted and striped birch tree next to its numerous siblings, sleek and fat, but looked no different than before Hero attempted to boost it with his newly obtained skill.

Hero waited another few moments and huffed with disappointment.

Silently, he turned away and began gathering the other mushrooms and carefully filling his basket. He avoided looking at the object of failed attempt, leaving that mushroom alone. He could feel the magic still filling it to the brim with power and did not want to risk the farmer noticing it.

His basket filled up, he waited a moment until its contents vanished and then began to fill it up again. He repeated the process several times. At least it was faster than picking sweet berries. Mushrooms were bigger and filled up the basket faster. They were less valuable, though, so he had collect more of them, making sure not to harvest the patch bare so more would appear here later. This mushroom patch was convenient, because it grew right next to the cave he chose as his shelter while staying in this area close to uncle Rangil's new home village.

"... That's eight." Hero said with satisfaction. "That should be enough. Right?"

Turning toward the tall mob, Hero saw him staring intently at one of the trees, both its hands stretched toward the middle section of its trunk. Hero paused and waited, slightly tilting his head. He could dimly feel how the flows of magic around him shifted, languidly pulling toward the mob, and then snapped, releasing a small wave of magic that expanded like a ripple in a pond and quickly faded away.

The tree trunk was gone. Hero closed his eyes as a shower of green leaves fell from above, rushing down in a great flurry. He smirked, feeling the leaves whoosh past, lightly sliding off his arms, heaping on his head and shoulders. He let them finish falling, then roughly shook his head.

A few leaves still remained stuck in his hair and clung to his clothes, when he curiously considered the mob. As he expected, an even, birch colored cube now floated between the mob's hands. A pleased, purring feeling poured from him.

"How do you do that?"

A satisfied gurgle came in response and Hero only shook his head, amused. The strange cube in mob's hands vanished.

"... Ready to go, Albert? I'm going to try trading again. My growing magic didn't work with the mushrooms, but maybe it will work better with the wheat seeds? I really want to try..." Hero said hopefully.

This time the mob paid attention and turned to look at him.

"...Rurrrp."

Albert vanished and reappeared a slight distance ahead between the sparsely growing trees. Hero followed him, carefully carrying the basket filled with the last count of mushrooms at his side. He didn't look back. Soon, his small form became lost to view.

The mushroom that Hero looked at earlier remained behind, still appearing the same as before.

The brown on its smooth top began to slowly shift, the color turning brighter and brighter, until the tint permeated with deep, rich maroon.

Nothing seemed to happen for a moment.

Then, very slowly, the mushroom began to swell.