Warning: Mentions of blood, injuries and pain in a slighlty explicit way , nothing outside of the fantasy-violence label
Mortigus’ green eye flickered from left to right, almost darting out of his skull, as he couldn’t properly look towards Arbero. His legs were close to giving out with each erratic step backwards, leading him outside the toadstool ring. Mortigus let out a confused scream, which managed to exert some of his panic. Arbero leaned backwards for a second, before raising two of their tentacles and speaking in a loud tone:
" Mortigus! Calm down! Why are you panicking?"
Mortigus slowed his breathing, his torso making more regular, long inhales. He looked again at his cut hand and the blood was dripping weakly. Arbero’s eyes narrowed and then explosively expanded, as they stepped towards Mortigus:
"Oh, I can't believe I overlooked this, but try to remain calm, please!"
"Don't move an inch..." exclaimed Mortigus while gasping for air. "You just cut my fingers off, why? Why would you even do that?"
Mortigus managed to take a more proper stance, but despite his emerald glare, Arbero did not back down. The grass around them was trembling with magic budding aggressively, Mortigus taking the more aggressive pose as spores spawned at his right-hand’s fingertips.
" I thought you were used to small injuries already. You were even ready to sacrifice your own leg back then! I don't get why you're panicking.”
" Small injury? A third of my hand is cut off, I can’t even get the wound to close with Essence!” responded Mortigus in a distressed tone, while Arbero continued to look flustered.
“ It won’t heal if you don’t calm yourself! Did you not practise regeneration training?”
“ You mean something like producing cuts and then repeatedly healing them? I did something like that on my own, but you just don’t slice someone’s hand off with no warning?!”
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed you were used to it. I forgot humans don’t have such practices, let alone regeneration like a mycolian.” insisted Arbero while their body language was clearly trying to get Mortigus to loosen up. In response, Mortigus wound began closing, as he took on a more composed, but resentful tone:
“Never make a move like this again! And couldn’t you even ask first, you know how clueless I am about mycolian stuff?!”
"I swear it was an honest mistake; most mycolians are subjected to regeneration training at a young age, mushroom rings were always a place for meditation and self-regeneration. It was all just common knowledge for use, I forgot it just isn’t the same for humans.“
Despite the strident tone, Arbero’s eyes were pulsing with a doleful look, their body retreating inwards and away from Mortigus, slowly and minutely. From a racing heart to an alert, apprehensive mind ready to give its all to survive, Mortigus was torn apart. The little trust built last night was about to be cut like a pair of fingers, the only strand maintaining it was remorse. Trying to leave right now could be impossible, dangerous but also the only way to survive and to get out of that forest. It had been so long since he was able to talk to someone, and yet again loneliness lured him towards safety. Though, he still had things to say.
“Besides your act and your reasoning, I’m still confused. How did you cut me? There were no blades in your hut.” asked Mortigus, rather apathetically.
“You observed correctly, I don’t really use blades as tools.” admitted Arbero, their voice clearly picking up on the justified stand-offish remark. “As I said before, Essence can be used to alter your own body, such as for healing, but it can also harden it, briefly turning it into a blade, like this:” Arbero raised a leg, pointing it in parallel to their body, as brief shimmers of tangerine light appearing at the tip, before the leg suddenly turning into a spearhead. Arbero rotated it twice before turning it back into the mushy leg it was before. Mortigus was certainly weirded out by the transformation, but his nerves calmed down. With a better control of himself, he focused some of his Essence to his hand, the wound fully closing as rough textures started to sprout in the place of his fingers.
“I’ve practised my regeneration on my own, and even though I know I can heal from even losing a leg, you cannot just harm me out of nowhere, Arbero. You either understand it now or never.”
“I said it already and I’ll say it again, I won’t repeat my mistake. Let’s try to just sit down and meditate a bit. Or I can leave you to do it alone.” responded Arbero, rather hesitant with his words.
“It’s enough if we keep a few metres of distance between us.” retorted Mortigus, now approaching the mushroom ring. With small reservations, he sat down onto the frenzy of grass, still active from the surge of Essence from earlier. Arbero awkwardly stared at Mortigus, trying to wrap their head around how to simply surpass the tense atmosphere.They sat down as well, keeping some distance, while Mortigus’ watchful eye kept track of even the tiniest muscle spasm or movement. The two did not talk for a few minutes, until Mortigus finally cut the tension:
“I’d like to ask you something about yourself. I can’t trust you if I don’t understand you and this world better. ”
“ I understand where you’re coming from, and I’m more than willing to answer what I can.” said Arbero in a collected tone.
“You’ve been in this forest for a long time,haven’t you? You said you <<a thousand years-old>>, and though I can’t truly appreciate the scale of that, I wanna know how you ended up living here. What happened all this time?”
Arbero sighed promptly and blinked a couple times, pushing away their hesitations before answering, with a rather forced jovial tone, Mortigus’ request:
“ After so long, I should make for a good history book at least. Yes, you remembered well, I am around a thousand years-old, I am only a few decades older than the Wonder Wall itself. The first time I ever entered a predominantly human country was a millenia ago.Guess I never managed to leave it since then. I was accompanying my, could be called the equivalent of a <<parent>>, so my parent, who was on a diplomatic convoy, meant to discuss some details between the human kingdoms and the mycolian kingdom. I can’t remember the original subject of that trip. We were making our way on the stone trails when suddenly we felt a great magic surge through the ground and the air itself, as if every cell vibrated with rigour and intent. With our eyes peeled, we looked out to the horizon for the source of the phenomena, and stopped in silence as we fought our instincts to simply flee. For a radius enough to cover all the major human countries, a ring of shaking air rose from the ground up and flashed into the sky. We all felt a sensation of suddenly being picked up together with the entire ground below us, only to be dropped clumsily back into place. And then, utter silence and stillness, no sound or gesture could be made to express that moment. The Essence in our own bodies fluctuated like a glass spilling over, and we could tell, our connection to the Mushroom Forest was cut off, or better said, obstructed, only a phantom feeling remaining. Once the panic settled, we sought out the nearest settlement and found out others witnessed the event too, the rise of the inexplicable and intangible Wonder Wall. Later, we realised the few non-human sentient creatures living in the human realms, including my diplomatic group, had been left behind on the human-side of the Wonder Wall.”
“You were alive when the Wonder Wall appeared? I did not even think there was an era where the Wall didn’t exist.” interrupted Mortigus. “And other non-human creatures?”
“Yes, and I do feel like an old man when you say it like that. My kind, mushroom-folk, are but one group of the many intelligent creatures on this planet, and that used to live in a fragile harmony with humans. Going back to my retelling of history, we were indeed trapped in the human realm. No communication was possible between the sides, as if they were no longer part of the same planet, or reality. Many theories on the human-side arose, but lacking any evidence, people started cherry-picking the theories that fit their narrative best. Most human countries were looking for a culprit, a force or person to blame for the Wonder Wall. While sentient beings of different species weren’t on the best terms, they still engaged in trading, research sharing and migration management, which left the human-side lacking some important resources that were left on the other-side of the Wonder Wall. This led to an economic crisis that only fed the fire of chaos, human countries growing divided in how to tackle the new rising problems. Unfortunately, people began to be overworked, desperate, and guideless. Some lost family members over the wall, others their trading. Non-humans were suffering the most, of course, being absolutely detached from the world they once knew, but humans struggled as well. With the false promise to regain the stability of the old world, a few groups began blaming the remaining non-human creatures for erecting the Wonder Wall, pretending that killing these non-humans would undo it. "
" So humans jumped to assumptions. What was the cause of the Wall then? " asked Mortigus.
" No one knew and no one knows yet to this day." remarked Arbero. "Despite the mass population disagreeing to or being sceptical of these groups’ claims at the time, they were far too focused on surviving and reconstructing after the chaotic revolutions that took place. When all eyes were looking away, the radical groups started hunting us and other non-humans, driving us away from the major human settlements. A century passed, human cities and villages were slowly gaining stability, only to lose it again due to social unrest. The radical groups who were ignored for a while had gained more power and influenced the social perception of the non-humans, while also infiltrating nobility and calling themselves hunters. Reduced to hunting trophies, we knew we couldn’t survive near humans anymore.
The non-humans had gathered in woodlands and mountains, trying to protect each other from the new kingdom that formed, the Hunters Kingdom. Issues arose, as the tragedies of the huntings left deep scars into these communicates, many non-humans growing to resent humans. New initiatives to fight the human countries were dismissed by many as a suicide mission, others felt it was the only way to assert a way of living. In-fighting became a major issue: cyclops, who looked the most similar to humans out of all other species, were targeted for this reason and called potential traitors, <<the most likely to side with humans and betray the others to protect themselves>>. Cyclops were pushed away by the non-humans and now had to attempt to hide in human society. By covering most of their prominent features, especially faces, they still had a hard time assimilating, especially as many would be killed if they were found out. Thankfully, a few cities and villages became their safe-havens, as the human population there accepted them as fellow citizens despite their secret identity.
Mushroom-folk like me and tree nomads had the advantage of blending so well with the woodlands. And yet, our numbers dwindled, as the hunters ruthlessly continued to pursue us and burn the woods we sheltered in.
The rest of the non-humans would have a difficult time hiding, and any attempt to fight for their rights ended up thwarted. Humans neglected us, killed us, and slowly forgot us, while the rural areas started treating us as simply fables. Cyclops would retain their safe-havens, only by ensuring not to gain the attention of nobility but the rest of non-humans would ultimately isolate themselves. Years passed, leaving me alone, moving between forests when I felt unsafe, with only the human world around me creeping in.”
“ And so you currently live here.” deduced Mortigus.”I’m sorry you had to live such a life. I didn’t know humans ever did that.”
“ Don’t worry, Mortigus, you have no fault in this. Humans acted in panic and fear and chose to stop trusting us, to ignore us. And look, after all the torches and swords that made us bleed, the Wonder Wall is still there, the cage that pushed us into the mouth of humanity’s worst monsters…Now you know, the moment we first met, if I strongly believed you were a hunter, I would have killed.” Arbero said morbidly, a quiet fury escaping their tone. Mortigus flinched at the remark, but he found Arbero’s feelings justifiable. The bloodshed that a thousand years can hide could only leave a deep well of regrets and distaste for the humans that now didn’t even know mushroom folk still existed. They both took a pause in silence, before Arbero had a thought cross their mind:
“ Nothing major happened to me in the last century, though I do remember hearing about the incident of a doctors’ cabin burning up like …”, Arbero fractured their thought. “I thought it happened 70 years ago, that's what I heard a last group of travellers say.”
"Wait, what the hell are you implying, Arbero?"
" I think it has been 60 or 70 years since your escape, Mortigus."
“ But, it can’t be. I know I didn’t count my years precisely but the leap from 30 to 70 years is ridiculous! Are you sure you’re remembering things right? ”, said Mortigus as he stood up from his stump-chair and took a more aggressive pose.
“ I am sorry but I’m almost sure your incident is the one I’m talking about. I think this might be due to your hibernation cycles.” Arbero said hesitantly.
“ I counted those too! As best as I could…, it was just a few winters when I was still getting used to this body.” said Mortigus, his tone rising again.
“ Mushroom folk do hibernate, but only once or twice in their life. A combination of hibernation and metamorphosis that-”
" <<Meta-what?>> said Mortigus in a confused voice. "You're making less and less sense."
“ Metamorphosis, basically a process through which your body endures radical changes in a short time. But in the case of mushroom folk, it’s a way of transitioning into adulthood. By taking a whole year of hibernation, the body changes, mostly internally, allowing for Essence to form better structures and… I’m getting lost in details. Essentially, a hibernation may mean a bit over a year, Mortigus.”
“But you said you-,we are supposed to hibernate once or twice, I know I did it at least five times! And yet that doesn’t even make up for all the years you mentioned.”
“You are an anomaly after all. Of course your body would have a harder time adapting. Your Essence had to work with the combination of human flesh and mushroom, one hibernation was both too little and too short for a proper form. You… had to sacrifice perhaps more than 1 year for each hibernation. Not only that, any perception of time would get screwed after living in a forest so long-”
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