We all quickly began finishing our food as the bells rang in our heads notified us that our next lesson is approaching. "I'm pretty excited for this lesson!" I said to the group.
"How comes?..." Daisy asked.
"I would love to see the world and explore and things." I said with a giant smile.
"Come to think about it….. you're right Emilia, there's so much to explore and learn!" Grace replied with a smile.
"So where do we need to go?.." I asked
"The meeting point should be at the world tree." Jay replied leading the way.
Arriving at the world tree it looked as if we were the ones to arrive first. "Hmmmm are we early?.. " I asked.
"Yeah I think so the bell rings a little earlier to allow students to finish what they are doing and begin making their way." Jay replied.
"Hmm odd..... I haven't see Calista recently after the incident... I wonder what happened to her..." Daisy asked.
"Thank God..." I replied feeling extremely relieved.
Slowly more and more students arrived waiting for class to start.
"Hello Children!" The Deputy Head arrived with a few other students behind her wearing a school uniform, sounding very excited to meet the class.
"How comes those students have uniforms and we don't" I whispered to everyone.
"No idea....." Grace replied.
"So children today we will be visiting the Glowing Caverns. We will be paying the Sporean they are a small peaceful race of fungal beings, what help the school stay stocked in medicinal reagents. The recent increase Goblin activity has got us worried for their well begin so we are going to lend assistance as well as help them set up some defences." The Deputy Head informed the class.
"Shall we get our first trip started?.." She said with a big smile, and pressed on her communicator in her ear, "We are ready to depart." she said to the person on the other side. Causing a blue portal to open up next to her. "Follow me!" she said walking through and one by one the whole class made their way through the portal.
We arrived inside a vast cavern on top of a small stone pedestal, the cavern slightly lit with hundreds of illuminating fungi in all different shapes and sizes and bold colours revealing hundreds of small primitive huts made from sticks and straw with tiny openings. We were met with cute little creatures walking on two legs no bigger than a garden gnome, with large glowing eyes and small illuminating pores on their arms, back and legs. One with a small wooden staff came to greet us talking to the Deputy Head in another language, and what sounded like her speaking back to it in the same language.
The little creature with the staff nodded, turning to its people giving them a small nod, causing a few to emerge with a tray of glowing light green mushrooms. "Okay children please accept their gift, the mushroom will help us communicate with them better." The Deputy Head said to the class.
Slowly the cute little creatures worked their way around the class holding their tray above their heads distributing the mushroom to each student.
"Thank you." I said to the one that reached me, kneeling down to save it from having to lift the tray above its head. Its eyes squinted smiling before moving along to the next student.
"Well bottoms up." Jay said eating mushroom.
I touched it with my fingers, feeling a slight bit more hesitant then everyone else. It felt very firm but brittle, the slightest touch on the cap left small luminescent green residue on my fingertips like glitter. "
"Okay children let's get to work!" The Deputy Head said walking with the one with the staff.
Quickly eating the mushroom and everyone following The Deputy Head. It tasted surprisingly sweet with a soft centre but the cup left a very powdery texture in my mouth. Suddenly a voice in my head started to speak in English.
"So the entrance is a small walk this way." A voice spoke out to me, with mutterings of faint smaller sounds in the distance.
"What's going on??..." I asked jay.
"It looks like he's the leader and he's taking us to the entrance." Jay replied.
"Yeah I get that but what is the voices???..." I asked feeling extremely concerned.
"The voices in your head are Sporeans it seems as if we have link to them mentally after consuming the mushrooms...." Jay guessed.
"Yup he's right.... Sporeans communicate to each other telepathically.... so the mushroom somehow linked our minds together." Helen explained
"Ohhh I see!" looking at a Sporean walking beside me.
"Hi!" a female voice appeared in my head, startling me causing me to bump into Daisy. "Ohhhh… i'm so sorry for startling you!" it apologized me.
"No no.... it's not your fault it's just abit new to me..." I replied to it.
"Ohhhh.... okay well I'm still sorry." It said smiling to me and went back facing forward.
We walked for a few minutes finally arriving at what seemed to be the opening of the large cavern and the Sporean with the staff turned to our teacher.
"I'm sure we are pretty safe down here, there is no reason for goblin to come this far into the caverns." it explained to the Deputy Head.
"I'm sure you are right old friend but lets just take some precautionary measures." She replied to it.
"As you wish old friends." it replied with a smile.
"Okay children please help out any Sporean if they are in need of any assistance, while we finish applying some spells to the cavern entrance." The Deputy Head said.
Soon enough everyone began dispersing making their way to nearby Huts and Sporeans. Looking to my left it seemed to be the same Sporean I spoke to earlier. It looked up at me with a smile.
"HI, I'm Emilia." I said to it with a smile kneeling down.
"Hello, my name is S'ffa." It replied to me.
"Nice to meet you S'ffa, if there anything you need help with?." I said with a smile.
"Do you want to come and gather food with me?.." It asked.
"Sure!" I replied to it.
"Guy sim gonna go help S'ffa here." I said to the group as I began following S'ffa down a different tunnel.
"Sure no problems see you later." They all replied also heading off to finding their own companion.
"So.... are there boys and girls here?.." I asked S'ffa.
"Yes I am a girl... There are also other males here as well" She replied to me leading the way into a small tunnel.
"Ohhh how do you tell the difference? You all look almost the same" I asked curiously.
"Us girls during mating season will glow pink... but normally all of us just glow green and blue." She answered.
"Ohhh that's really cool!" I replied, "So where we headed now?.." I asked.
"We are going to the Algae farm.... there is a delicacy there... but they only grow in deep water so it is sometime shard for us to harvest them." She replied.
"Ohhh that's cool! I defiantly can help you in that." I replied.
"That's great!" she replied as we approached the end of the tunnel.
Pushing aside the long damp moss covering the tunnel exit we stepped into an extremely beautiful cavern with an underground waterfall and pool. "Is this some sort of underground farm?" I asked looking at a vast cavern used for growing vegetation with a large pool of water at the far back.
"Yes this is our main source of fresh water which we use to help grow food." She replied walking to a green glowing moss pulling it out a little strand and eating it. "Would you like some?.." She asked.
"Sure I'll try a bit does it do anything special?" I replied with a smile.
"Nope sorry, not like the mushrooms you had earlier, this one is just very nutritious." She answered pulling out another small piece to pass to me.
Surprisingly it tasted how I expected, very raw leafy and chewy and wet, "Not bad" I replied trying to acquire the taste.
She smiled at me and began walking towards the large pool, "follow me." She said leading the way, her tiny feet making cute splatter sounds as she walked over small puddles of water.
The large pool was surprisingly A LOT deeper than I expected, the shallow parts looking a beautiful dark blue but the center just pitch blackness.... "How deep is this pool?.." I asked.
"I don't really know.. no one have ever reached the bottom...." she replied to me.
"Ummm... are there any monsters or creatures that swim in it?.. " I asked feeling slightly nervous noticing some bubbles rising to the surface.
"Yes there is one...." She replied to me.
"Wait what?..!" I said in shock looking at her.
"Yes.... we call it Ancient one." She replied.
"Does it eat Humans?..." I asked.
"I don't think so..... The only food here is Algae so we think it's vegetarian." She replied.
"Has it ever attacked anyone?" I asked feeling extremely scared.
"None that I know of." She replied with a smile.
"So where is the Algae you want to collect?..." I asked unable to see anything glowing in the pool.
"Look…." She said pointing into the pool.
Focusing hard I could only barely see a silhouette of something that resembled seaweed, swaying side to side. "Why couldn't these glow?...." I said.
"They just don't I guess….." She replied.
"I can barely see it..." I said looking harder into the darkness.
"That's no problem I'll hop on your back and guide you." She replied smiling.
"Sure sounds great!" I replied with a smile.