Bonus Chapter [Vol.1] – In which Button bonds with Glace right off the bat, and embraces the Dao of the Mushroom.(Part 2)

Since we were done going pee and the shit-pit doesn't smell good, I held her hand again and led her back out, where Ivory was waiting for us.

"What cave-hole do you live in?"

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Hmm. The only goblin that lives in a big cave-hole with tricky Husband Ark is… Vera? And the only reason it's allowed is because only Husband understands Vera, and she can also use stone magic like Husband.

"Is Vera the goblin that made you?"

She nodded.

"So that's why you can do that!"

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"Talk without making any sound. You can use human stone magic to talk!"

My little sister stopped moving when I said that.

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"Uh-huh."

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"The day after I woke up for the first time. Ivory and Truffle said lots of things to me and I learned to speak gob."

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"Is that a bad thing?"

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"Button can do that!"

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"Okay. Leave it to me!"

I tugged on her hand so we could go back to my cave-hole but she wasn't moving.

"What's wrong?"

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"Want me to carry you?"

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"Uh-huh. Button is strong."

I squatted down and told her to put her arms around me. When I stood up with her safe on my back, I really thought that some of the mushrooms Truffle grows felt heavier than my little sister. This is bad. She's really going to need someone to look after her. Diana, Orchid, and Lilac are busy hunting lately, so that means the only goblin she can count on is me.

When we got back into my cave-hole, I went straight to see tricky Husband Ark, and to tell him that I wanted Glace to stay with me in my cave-hole for a long time. Husband Ark said that since we became friends she could, but only if we didn't leave my cave-hole or make Ivory angry.

Glace made one of those swirly-whirly lights from her hands and sent it flying over to circle around Husband Ark's head.

"Oh, thing light way back? Big thank!"

He knelt down and gave the both of us a big hug. He might be tricky, but his hugs aren't bad.

"Glace, Button good girl, not be mean sister, okay?"

I watched as she stuck out her tongue at him, and it made me want to do the same. Husband talked with Ivory and left her cave-hole with a few bones in his arms. With just us two, I pulled her over into my cave-hole, to get away from Ivory.

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"Button wants to learn about human stone magic."

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"Button letting Glace know that so far nothing is more boring than watching mushrooms grow."

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And so, I told my little sister all about how I was strong. And how I also wanted to be more than a mushroom-goblin. She spent a long time sitting in my lap and I became familiar with the feeling she called mana.

While she sat in my lap as we sat on the floor near the mushrooms, Truffle had woken up and came out of her cave hole and noticed Glace.

"New strong one?"

"Vera made. Her name is Glace. She's my little sister and new friend."

I saw Truffle grin at me.

"Found your tree already?"

"Tree?"

"It's the Way of the Mushroom-goblin, Button. Find a good tree and stick to them. Grow up strong and tasty. It's what I did with Ivory."

"Button is not a mushroom-goblin!"

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"Look at her. She's lazy." I replied to Glace about Truffle.

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And so, made less angry by what Glace said, I began to listen and know more about what both Truffle and Glace already knew about mushrooms. How a mushroom chooses a tree, how it makes trades with the tree to make both of them stronger and lets them both be lazy together. And how a mushroom attached to a good tree is pretty much impossible to be separated from it once it lays roots.

Like Truffle, who made me into a mushroom-goblin just like her.

And like Glace, who after meeting for the first time, made me understand that she is my tree.

Someone I know I will be as inseparable from, as Truffle is from Ivory.

And why I knew what that strange square that appeared in front of me meant, without Glace needing to say, even though I couldn't read it.

GLACE would like to initiate a Spirit-bonding Ceremony with Button. 

A Bloodmaw Spirit-bonding ceremony is being offered to you by the Star Shaman GLACE. Choosing to engage in a lifelong Spirit-bond with Glace will assign to you the class of Mushroom Monk. In exchange for nurturing and protecting GLACE, your own abilities will be amplified as you both grow stronger together. There is no upper limit to your growth potential as a Mushroom Monk.

Will you accept? (Warning! Once made, this decision cannot be undone.)

Accept

Decline

It had the same feeling Glace had been making me try and feel throughout my body. It was the magic that would connect us from now on.

I accepted it into me, and I became More.