Chapter Text
Laurance leaned against the doorframe crossing his arms, “What are you doing? It's been 2 days straight of this I swear.”
Garroth would sigh in response, “Zane said pirates buried treasure here. I’m gonna find it!”
“Garroth, Zane was lying, why would pirates bury treasure in our backyard? I doubt you’re going to find anything.”
“No, I trust my baby brother. He would never lie to me. . .” Except for all the times he lied to Garroth. Garroth would re-pick up his rusty shovel and begin digging again, wiping a bit of sweat off his forehead. Almost the entire backyard was either filled with loose dirt or a deep pit. There was also one of those fancy metal detectors somewhere, probably buried in dirt.
“Don’t blame me when you don't find anyth-”
“LAURANCE! LOOK, I WAS RIGHT!” Garroth shouted as he held up an old dusty book that had been stained by what might have been hundreds of years in dirt. The cover was hard leather with an indented design that was filled in with dirt. Laurance looked over astonished, he had actually found something? Soon his surprise faded into disappointment as he took in the sight of the heavy-duty book. Far from treasure, it looked more like some old person’s diary.
“That still isn’t treasure Garroth, it’s just an old book.” he’d wave his hand in front of his face as he would yawn.
“Well, it still was buried in our backyard,” He would lower it from Laurance’s sight and would stare at the design, “So, Zane wasn’t lying after all,” he smiled to himself over that idea, “Plus, it may have some worth. Just look at this fancy leatherwork!” Garroth would reraise the book pointing to the design for his defense. Garroth brushed off some of the dirt from the cover, picking at some of the parts where the dirt was stuck in the deep carvings. Slowly the design was more visible. There were swirls and star shapes decorating the entirety of it. Garroth would check both sides, but no title, so he would open it to the first page and begin to read.
“Garroth, it looks like a journal of somebody who up and died a bajillion years ago” Laurance would begin walking down from the back porch into the disheveled backyard.
“Dude, no way it's a magic book! Like the kind Lucinda has,” Garroth would excitedly shout scampering excitedly out of the hole and up to Laurance. He would quickly flip through page after page, they had various spells and potions. There had to have been hundreds of various spells in there, it was quite a thick book.
“Oh my Irene! maybe it is actually something, should we take it to Lucinda?”
They would stare at each other for a few moments.
“After we try some things out,” They said in unison.
They began racing to see who could get to the front room first. Laurance won but Garroth had the book so he slid on the carpet laying down the book. Quickly opening to one of the pages. Both of the boys eagerly leaned in to try and read the pages. Though their faces quickly turned into worry as they flipped page after page, reading out the title of the spells.
“The Memory torture curse. . .” Garroth started.
“Potion of pure insanity,” Laurance continued.
“De-humanizing spell”
“Permanent depression in a bottle”
“I'm not the only one feeling vaguely depressed by these, right?” Garroth would speak up looking over to Laurance.
“Nah bro, definitely depressing.”He nodded, “So, to Lucinda.”
“I have a feeling she's gonna be all angry we have this,” He’d shut the book and roll onto his back. He would tap his chin as he would think. With a sigh, Garroth stood up.
“Better than how angry she’ll be if she finds out we hid a spell book from her” Laurance would shrug looking up to Garroth who would begin pacing for a short amount of time.
“Fine, we can go tell her about it, but I want to keep the book,”
“Fine by me” Laurance would stand and the two would quickly exit the house, walking down the street slowly to Lucindas. Trying to drag out the short walk as long as possible.
When arriving at Lucinda’s house Laurance gestures for Garroth to knock. Garroth responds with a glare, before knocking, instead of kicking the door down like previous times. They wait for a moment before Lucinda comes and opens the door. She had her hair wrapped up in a towel and starry pajamas along with a surprised look on her face, as she wasn’t expecting any visitors, especially not at that moment.
‘Hey Lucinda, I uh, found this book in the ground of my backyard. We looked at it, and it was definitely magic, so we came to you.” Garroth holds out the book in front of him toward Lucinda.
“Hm, doesn’t seem like any spell-book I've ever seen. Here, come inside, I can take a look at it,” She would wave them in and the two would eagerly follow, they would all sit around a coffee table as she would open the book, slowly flipping through the pages. Each page her eyes would seem to widen more and more, “Where did you find this again?”
“Backyard, he dug the entire backyard up,” Laurence would interject
“Hey! I was looking for pirate treasure,” Garroth would defend himself.
“Well, this certainly didn’t come from pirates” She would flip another page, and Garroth would frown, “However it could be just as valuable.” Her brows would crinkle for a second, “But I wouldn’t sell it if I were you. This thing could be incredibly dangerous.”
“Dangerous?” Garroth asked, sounding super surprised, forgetting all about the spells they read. Laurence would slap him on the arm, “Ow, what was that for-”
“Every last spell in here is incredibly illegal. Often considered dark magic. Some of these could really mess somebody up,”
“Well aren’t all spells a little dangerous? There have been some crazy things that have happened because of some of the whole magic stuff,” Laurence would ask, slightly tilting his head, like a confused puppy.
“Well, yes. However, these are on a whole other level. Most of these spells are incredibly complex, only the best of the best witches and wizards could hope to accomplish one. However you never know, if this ends up in the wrong hands, the outcome could be terrible.”
“Oh, we could just keep holding onto it! Neither me nor Laurance are magical so it would be all fine,”
“I'm not sure its the best idea to leave it with you Garroth-”
“No, I'm completely trustworthy! See, look at my smile,” He would shine a large cheesy smile, then would snatch the book from the table, “See you, Lucinda!” He would hum as he would walk away.
“Alright, yeah bye Lucinda.” Laurance would wave, following Garroth. However, once he reached outside Garroth was much further up the street, bolting back to their house. Laurance would just shrug and walk a normal pace back.