After Tanner recovered enough to stand on his own, one of the two foxes walked up to him and pressed its nose into his hip with a soft whine. It sniffed Tanner’s hand and headbutted it several times before lifting a paw and scratching at the boy’s leg.
“She wants you to pet her,” Mina said, hiding a smile. The fox was worried about the boy, and wanted some cuddles for reassurance that Tanner was all right.
The boy hesitated a moment before sinking his fingers into the soft warm fur of the fox’s head. The fox made a drawn out, whining sound that somehow conveyed pleasure, and proceeded to twine its body around Tanner’s legs, weaving in and out between his knees as he struggled to maintain his balance and keep scratching her ears.
Mina glanced at the other fox, but the other fox ignored her, one ear pinned back in an expression of disdain, as if to say, “Don’t lump me in with the likes of that one.” Grandma chuckled in Mina’s mind at the sight of the other fox sitting stiffly alone.
[What’s so funny, Grandma?]
[I think the other fox probably wants cuddles too but is too proud to ask. Let’s let him preserve his dignity for now.]
[Grandma,] Mina fidgeted. [Can you take over? I’m scared.]
[Sure, dear. I’ll call you if something fun happens, or if I need your help handling the magic.]
With that, the girl switched with Grandma. Grandma stretched leisurely, settling into the body once again, before turning her attention to the space inside the giant tree. “Those weird mushrooms,” she said, looking at the foxes. “Are they edible?”
The foxes stared back at her. They shrugged nonchalantly, then very deliberately turned their attention away from her. Grandma was torn between amusement and irritation at their antics. She shook her head and sighed, then decided that discretion being the better part of valor, it would probably be safer to leave those mushrooms alone.
“Let’s wear masks over our nose and mouth to help with the spores, just in case,” Grandma suggested. She sliced off two wide bands from the bottom of her dress and handed one to Tanner. They tied the cloths around their faces. It was smelly and uncomfortable, but better that than dying.
The four of them tried to walk around the brightly colored fungi, giving them a wide berth to prevent another assault. Unfortunately, the mushrooms had other ideas. As they passed by, the fungi gave a creaking shudder, and launched balls of concentrated spores at them.
“Run!” Grandma yelled, shoving Tanner ahead of her. She tapped into the flow of mana within her, visualizing a thin protective bubble around the four of them, that filtered out the spores and cleansed the air. It shimmered into place, a delicate film that wobbled and shook as they scurried along one looming mossy root.
Once they were a safe distance away, and the mushrooms were no longer bombarding them with spore balls, Tanner and Grandma toppled over onto the soft ground to catch their breath. Even the foxes panted, though probably for different reasons. The shimmering bubble made everything smell just a tiny bit nicer, a clean fresh scent that helped
“I don’t think I like it here,” Tanner wheezed. “I prefer my mushrooms grilled, not trying to kill me!”
“I agree,” Grandma sighed. “It would be nice if there were edible mushrooms in here, instead of these murder mushrooms.”
A rustling in the enormous tree roots made the foxes prick their ears and swivel their heads to look. Under a large root, something was wiggling, hidden among the moss and lichen. Grandma drew her knife and crouched, slinking quietly closer. As the strange creature came into view, Grandma couldn’t help gaping at it in astonishment.
“What is it?” Tanner whispered, creeping up beside Grandma, his knife also drawn.
“I think it’s,” Grandma stared, flabbergasted, “a chicken of the woods?”
Scratching at the ground amidst the moss and lichen was a flamboyantly colored creature, with ruffles of bright yellow and orange mushrooms growing from its rear like a tail. The body was a knobby lump of darker orange, perched on two twig like legs that ended in several sharp toes. Its head looked just like a chicken, except that it was made of smooth mushroom flesh, crowned with a bright yellow ruffle.
Before they could decide what to do, the two foxes darted past them and dove on the mushroom creature. It had time for one panicked squawk – even that sounded like a chicken – before it was torn in two. Inside the body, it looked exactly like a mushroom.
“Huh.” Grandma could only watch in bemusement. “Well, I guess this one is edible.”
The female fox brought half the mushroom back to the kids, then returned to her partner. The foxes split their portion of the strange creature, tearing into it with little yips of pleasure. They made short work of it, then curled up in the small hollow beneath the tree root and seemed to go to sleep.
“I guess we can rest here for a bit and make lunch?” Tanner stared at the half a mushroom at his feet.
“I guess so.”
The two of them gathered materials for a fire. Grandma felt guilty about scraping lichen off the roots to use as tinder. It takes so long for them to grow to that size, but everything else here was too moist. She scraped a depression in the ground clear of moss until there was only exposed dirt in a wide circle, then built a fire. Tanner brought two long sticks to use as skewers, and between them they divided up the mushroom creature.
“Now this is the kind of mushroom I like,” Tanner grinned as he bit into the juicy grilled mushroom.
Grandma hummed in agreement as she too ate her fill. “If it weren’t for those spore mushrooms, it wouldn’t be bad to live here.”
“No way,” Tanner replied without hesitation. “You can’t bring Chestnut in here, and there’s no water either.”
“Well, I can make water, so that’s not a problem, but I guess Chestnut would have a hard time here.” Grandma suited her words to action and materialized a blob of water in her hand, offering it to Tanner to drink.
The boy sighed in aggravation and cupped his hands to receive the water, then gulped it down greedily. “At least you make yummy water.”
“Can you do magic too?” Grandma asked.
“Huh?” Tanner looked at her as if she had lost her mind. “Why would I be able to do magic?”
“Well, every living thing has a little magic in them. I thought, maybe, you’d be able to feel it and use it too.” Grandma tilted her head. “You can’t?”
“I’ve never tried.” Tanner stared at her, trying to figure out if she was making fun of him. “That’s mostly rich people stuff, you know?”
Grandma shook her head. “I don’t know. No one taught me magic.”
“So you just learned how to do this on your own?” Tanner waved vaguely in Grandma’s general direction.
“Um, yes?” Grandma held out a hand to Tanner. “I could try and teach you too, if you like?”
Tanner looked at Grandma’s hand with deep suspicion, but eventually relented with a sigh. “I guess it couldn’t hurt.”
“Close your eyes and try to feel the current of mana flowing through your body.”
“The what?” Tanner’s eyes closed, then popped open again.
“Hush, just focus on your hands.” Grandma took both of Tanner’s hands in hers.
[Are you sure about this?] Mina asked nervously.
[If Tanner can protect himself from the spores, that makes our life easier too. If not, well, we haven’t lost anything but a little time and effort.]
Grandma felt the mana circulating in Mina’s body, and envisioned a slim tendril flowing from her right hand to Tanner’s left, through his torso, then making its way back to her along his right arm back into her left hand. She imagined it as a cool, soothing stream, like a tiny creek filled with life.
“Oh!” Tanner gasped and jerked in surprise, nearly breaking their connection. “I feel weird!”
“Weird how?” Grandma asked.
“Like a cold stream is trickling through my body.” Tanner murmured.
“Try imagining it warming up.”
A few moments passed in silence, then, “Oh!” Tanner exclaimed again. “It’s still cool in my left hand, but it’s warm in my right now!”
“Great! Keep hold of that feeling.” Grandma slowly brought their clasped hands together, pressing Tanner’s palms together and releasing the boy’s hands. “Now keep warming it up.”
Tanner started to sweat. “All right, it’s nice and toasty now.”
“Er, you can stop any time. That’s all magic is.” Grandma gave the boy a slight shake on the shoulder, jostling him until he opened his eyes and dropped his hands. “You imagine what you want to happen, and then pour your internal energy into it. Or you can pull energy from the world around you, then use that to create whatever you’re imagining.”
“I thought it was fancy chants and spell books,” Tanner grumbled. “It was this easy all along?”
“Well, the fancy chants and spell books might help with imagining an outcome very precisely.” Grandma hedged. Her granddaughter had probably told her about these things, but she hadn’t exactly been listening to the words very closely.
[Grandma! Your Mina would be so sad to hear that!] the villainess scolded Grandma.
[Shh, I was too busy enjoying the sound of her voice to listen to the words, all right?] Grandma grumbled.
“Anyway, now you know how it feels to do a little magic. At least this way you won’t freeze to death in the winter.” Grandma climbed to her feet and kicked dirt onto the fire, stomping on the cinders to make sure it was fully extinguished. “Let’s keep going.”
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