Doc stared at the empty crate dubiously. The sound had stopped once he opened the crate, but there wasn’t a single creature to be seen. In fact, he was struggling to understand how exactly it made the noise in the first place.

"Have I finally gone senile?"

Suddenly, another crate started making the same noise behind him. Doc studied it carefully before walking towards it. He tried putting his ear up against it in hopes he could hear the noise better, but all that he heard was muffled sound.

Instead of breaking this crate, Doc ran through his mind trying to come up with a better solution.

"Maybe I can visit the same place where Slimo got those glasses..."

After a short while, Doc had made it to the half-broken store with dim lighting. Once he entered, he could see that there was a small figure in hooded robes behind the counter with glowing yellow eyes. The figure jumped seeing the new customer and ran over to Doc.

"A customer! Welcome to Suber Charms! We have the best deals on anything you could possibly..."

Doc looked at the figure curiously.

"Do I know you?"

"I don’t believe so. You may have met my companions before. Their names are Slimo and Lidia."

"Oh, you mean that criminal that lured that bug in here and destroyed my shop?! Pft! Yah, I’ve met them before!"

"I noticed the glasses that you gave him. They are quite an impressive charm, I must say."

Enki slouched over and let out a large sigh.

"They weren’t made for him. Two young blonde ladies asked me to make it for them so they could figure out their Zalo. They paid handsomely as well! That white-haired criminal probably manipulated them into taking it off their hands!"

"So, you did make the glasses?"

"Of course I did! You won’t find better quality anywhere else!"

"Can you make something else for me?"

Enki stared at him dubiously.

"Are you asking me, the Great Enki of Suber Charms, if I can make anything you want? Is the sky blue, buddy?"

"... so, is that a yes?"

Enki threw up his hands in excitement.

"Of course I can make something for you! Anything that your heart desires, I’ll make it yours! So, what’ll it be? Destructive magic charm? A massive strength upgrade? Maybe some shiny new skin?"

"... a hearing aid."

Enki dropped his excitement and looked at Doc with disappointment.

"... you came all this way to ask the greatest enchanter in all the lands to make you a simple hearing aid?"

"Is that too hard for you?"

Enki grabbed a small, silver ring from the counter and turned around. His hands moved furiously as they flew around the ring. Small strips of glowing strings fell from his fingers. They shimmered a dark purple hue as they fed themselves into the ring. Doc was watching the process with amazement. It was as if the strings new exactly where they were supposed to fall into. It looked more like Enki was setting the string down in place rather than fastening it to the ring.

Almost as quickly as he turned around, Enki protruded the same silver ring.

"Take it."

Doc stared at it cautiously.

"What does it do?"

"It’s a hearing aid! Now take it and leave my shop!"

"What’s the drawback?" 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"You can’t move when you activate it, but I’m not expecting you to ever find the need to run away from something while trying to listen carefully."

Doc grabbed the ring and slid it on his finger. Immediately, he couldn’t move a muscle. However, he could hear infinitely better... in fact, he could hear everything around him with stunning clarity. Even the small creaks of the floor supporting his weight were as loud as someone speaking to him, but not so loud that they would damage his ears.

Enki slid the ring off his finger.

"I forgot to tell you how to deactivate it. Sorry about that. I know I said you couldn’t move, but that’s not entirely true. Your finger with the ring can still move. To activate or deactivate the charm, you simply need to tap the finger against your palm twice."

Doc put the ring back on and attempted the instructions that were given to him. Immediately, he fell out of his frozen state.

"This is perfect. How much do I owe you."

"Eh, just take it. That’s one of the weakest charms I’ve ever made by far. Pft... hearing aid..."

Doc ignored his small remarks about the simple request and started walking out.

"Thank you very much. I will bring more customers back here one day and they will request much more complicated things, I’m sure."

After another long walk back to the house, Doc had finally reached the attic once more. The broken crate was still where it was left. The same crate that he had tried to listen to before sat in silence, as if expecting his sudden presence.

"Oh, so now you all want to be quiet when I can actually hear you?"

Over an hour had passed waiting in patient silence for the rats to reveal themselves. However, nothing happened. There wasn’t a single sound coming from any of the crates anymore. As time went on, Doc started to doubt himself, and his sanity.

"Was I really hearing things this whole time? I could have sworn Slimo told me-"

Suddenly, a small sound finally made itself known from the same crate he had listened to before. It was another muffled sound, just hardly audible from where he was sitting. Doc rushed over to the crate and prepared his ring. The sound continued to reverberate from the crate.

Using his finger, he tapped his palm twice, activating the enchantment, listening carefully. However, what he heard was not the sound of a rat at all.

"OUT! YOU HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!"

Doc deactivated the charm and jumped away from the crate. His heart started beating wildly out of his chest.

"What the hell was that? Was that a person speaking?!"

Doc calmed himself and activated the enchantment from much further away.

"You have to leave this place! This isn’t a kingdom! Hurry, before it’s too late!"