Strangers were moving through her home. She had noticed them a couple weeks ago, but didn't think they had noticed her. The weren't like anything she'd ever seen before. Not only did they have no caps on top of their heads, but they had strands of something coming from where their caps should have been. Then there was how they were almost twice as tall as she was. She followed them mostly because she felt compelled to learn what she could about them.
She came across some other of her kind who were as curious about the strangers as she was, but they were busy with other things and couldn't spare the time that she could. Then there was how these strangers seemed to absorb water through their heads as well as the nutrients they needed, or at least that's what she assumed they were doing. It was hard to tell when she didn't know much about them.
One of the biggest questions she had about the strangers was: Were there more of these strangers somewhere else?
The next biggest one was about where these strangers came from. Then as she thought about that, another occurred to her. What was the reason they came here in the first place.
Aside from all of the other questions that she had considered was the last one that scared her the most and made her keep her distance from them: What kind of threat did these strangers pose to them?
They didn't seem like they were a danger, but she knew that not appearing to be dangerous didn't make them safe. Too many animals had preyed on several of her friends. Sometimes she shivered in fright that she would be taken by an animal who ate all her friends, leaving her completely alone until she found another fairy's ring to be a part of.
However, they didn't seem hostile, and they didn't do anything to the plants the way that the animals that had eaten her friends had. She took that as a positive sign, even though she still had her doubts. One of the hopes she had about these strangers was that if their spores would combine with hers, then maybe her children could be taller and that would help them stay safer from any threats.
One last thing that she found strange about them was that after she had decided to show herself to them, got ahead of them, and stood still, their gazes passed over her, as if they couldn't see her.
She didn't accept that they were unable to see her, and so she tried again. Though, each time, they passed by as if they couldn't see her. Annoyed, she saw them setting up their structures that they spent time in every night, though she had no idea what they did inside those structures.
When they went in their structures, she came out and sat down to wait. She felt safe enough there and settled in until they came out of their structures. She would wait as long as it took as she wanted to be sure whether they were a threat or not. If they were and she died, then so be it. She would accept that as what was meant to be for her, but she was confident that they weren't and she wouldn't die.
_
Charlie was still trying to figure out how she could wear horn pendant, this time considering tying on more leather on the ends of the leather strip, since while it could reach around her neck, she couldn't get it to tie securely. There just wasn't enough overlap for her to do that. Yet, she wasn't convinced that adding more leather was the best option.
Sighing, she put the horns back in her pack and got dressed. Beth had already left the tent they shared and so she knew she'd have all the privacy she wanted, not that she really needed all that much when it came to just changing.
As she came out of the tent, she noticed the abnormally large mushroom in front of their tents. Her friends seemed to have ignored it and gone about getting their breakfast ready, but there was something about the mushroom that caught Charlie's interest. She couldn't quite say what it was, but it kept her from joining her friends.
As she looked at it, she couldn't help but feel like she was looking at a face. The mushroom came up to her waist and was a reddish brown cap, while its stem looked almost a tannish peach color. Glancing at her friends to see them relaxing while still waiting for their breakfast to finish cooking, she then decided she had time.
She reached out her hand to take hold of the mushroom, but careful not to dislodge it from where it was growing. Just in case it didn't have any value to her or Amelia. Besides, she'd noticed several of these since they'd started travelling in this world and with only a day to go before they should be near the next gate, she couldn't say if she'd get another chance to use her magic on one of these mushrooms.
However, what came into her mind when she used her magic startled her. To the point where she pretty much jumped away from the mushroom, unsure of if what she'd just learned was real or not. Her full attention was on the mushroom and she watched it like a hawk, unsure if it might move or do something unexpected.
"Charlie, you coming?" Beth called out to her.
Charlie didn't answer, but she did wave at her friend to show she heard her. Then she put her full attention on the mushroom again.
What she'd felt come into her mind had been vital statistics, as if it was a living creature, the same as Charlie and her friends, or even a wild animal. She shook her head to clear it, not sure if she imagined it or if it was…
Slowly what looked like eyes on the mushroom opened. Little black beady eyes. Charlie moved her hand away from the mushroom and it continued to move, as if it was stretching and loosening joins that had tightened while it slept. It also grew a little taller, as if it had been sitting or kneeling down before, revealing what looked like two legs with two bare feet.
At that point, Charlie noticed that it didn't have the same shape as other mushrooms she'd was used to. This one looked like it was almost humanoid in appearance, that it's cap was like a kind of hat while part of its stem looked like clothing. In this case it looked like a dress that ended just above where its legs came out of, while at the same time like it's clothing was a part of it.
"I must have fallen asleep," the mushroom said in a soft, feminine voice.
"What are you?" Charlie breathed, drawing the mushroom's attention.
"Oh!" the mushroom cried at it looked at Charlie, clearly startled. "What are you?"
Charlie smirked at the mushroom. "I'm a human," she answered, confident that the mushroom wouldn't likely answer her question until she answered the mushroom's. "What are you?"
"I'm a fungaloid," the mushroom said, stepping closer to Charlie, as if she was examining a curiosity.
"Why are you here?" Charlie asked, not sure what she should expect the mushroom to say.
"I've been following you for a couple weeks now. The others didn't have the time to look into what you are, where you're from, and if there're others like you," the funaloid said calmly.
"Why did you wait so long before making yourself known to us?" Charlie wanted to take the mushroom for its word, but there were a few things that didn't add up for her. Then there was the part that she couldn't say that she felt she could trust this creature implicitly.
"I tried," the mushroom huffed, clearly annoyed by Charlie's question. "It's your fault for just walking by me for the past few days when I waited in your way. You just walked past me as if I wasn't anything more than scenery."
Charlie couldn't help but feel that the mushroom looked just adorable with how it was acting indignant that Charlie and her friends hadn't noticed it when it tried making itself known to them. While she'd love to take the mushroom at its word, there was something about the creature that she just didn't quite trust. Like there was a threat that was just out of sight, even though she couldn't say how or why she felt that way. She tired reaching out with her magic to make sure that the fungaloid was telling them the truth, but it wasn't like she reached anything.
It felt like she was reaching into a void with her magic. She could feel herself reaching out with her magic, but at the same time, it felt like she was merely engaged in an exercise in futility. Not like the mushroom was shielded or anything, but more like the mushroom wasn't there in the first place.
"You're so adorable," Charlie cooed, trying to keep her annoyance at the results of her attempted mind reading failed. "What else would you like to know?"
"What are you here for?" the mushroom asked, in an almost accusatory tone.
Charlie blinked, surprised at the sudden change in temperament from the mushroom. "We're actually travelling to another gate so we can find a world that we're looking for," she said, not seeing any reason to try to hide that fact.
The mushroom regarded her, as if it was trying to detect any deception. "What do you mean by 'gate' and 'world?'" the mushroom asked after a minute.
"Charlie, breakfast is ready!" Amelia called out. "Hurry up, if we start early, maybe we can read more than two turns for each of us today."
"I'll be over there in a minute," Charlie called back. "I'm talking with a fungaloid here."
Apparently the mushroom wasn't ready to deal with all of Charlie's friends at once, who were all interested in what she had said. Though, given how tall the mushroom was, she couldn't say she was surprised. She could only imagine if seven creatures twice as tall as she was suddenly surrounded her when she had thought she was only going to have to deal with one.
Charlie reached out for the fungaloid, who looked like she might be close to wetting itself, although, she suddenly wondered if the fungaloid went to the bathroom in the same way they did. Not that she felt like it would be appropriate to ask. She quickly picked up the creature, and held it protectively, though as she did so, it looked like there was a brownish cloud where its cap had been a moment before.
"B-back aw-way!" the fungaloid stammered, clearly trying to sound intimidating and failing abysmally, its attention on Charlie's friends.
"Give it a little space," Charlie suggested. "I think it's just nervous."
"I-I'm n-not nervous," the mushroom protested, earning a smile from Charlie.
While she couldn't say what it was about the mushroom that made her feel like it was a threat or that she couldn't trust it or whatever, she couldn't help but feel like the mushroom was more like a scared child than anything else. A brave scared child, but in essence, a child nonetheless.
"Where'd you find it?" Wes asked.
"It was actually on the ground in front of our tents when we I woke up," Charlie said, setting the mushroom down on the ground again, as her friends moved to one side.
"Huh, I didn't notice anything," Ralph remarked.
"Please," Hannah teased. "Like you'd notice if we put rocks in your shoes while you slept."
"Try it," Ralph challenged. "Anytime. See what happens."
"Bring it on," Hannah replied casually.
"Enough you two," Tim said. "Let's focus on the fungaloid and see what she has to say."
"How do you know its a 'she?'" Beth asked.
"Well, she has a skirt, doesn't she?" Tim asked, sounding rather defensive to Charlie.
"So, you're saying, if someone wears a skirt, they're automatically a girl?" Beth asked dryly.
"Uh, that is…" Tim hesitated and Charlie sensed there was a good story behind this.
"What happened?" Charlie asked, interested in what was behind Tim's hesitation despite herself.
"There was that time that-" Beth started, a mischievous smirk on her face as she looked at Tim through the corner of her eyes.
"Alright fine!" Tim interrupted, all her other friends bursting out in laughter, though Charlie had no idea what was funny and couldn't find it in herself to join in the laughter. "Let's ask the fungaloid, okay?"
"What are they arguing about?" the fungaloid asked as Charlie turned her attention back to the creature.
"Nothing really important," Charlie replied. At least she hoped it wasn't important. "Anyway, we were wondering if you were a girl or a boy?"
The creature looked confused. "What's a girl and what's a boy?" it asked.
"Well, I'm a girl, so are my friends Beth, Amelia and Hannah. Then my friends Tim, Ralph, and Wes are boys, Charlie explained, while introducing the fungaloid to her friends, by pointing to each one as she named them.
"What's the difference between boys and girls?" the fungaloid asked.
Charlie was at a loss for words for a moment as she felt her face heat up at trying to think of how to answer that question.
"It's okay, Charlie," Ralph said, much to Charlie's relief. "I'll take this.
Charlie nodded, happy to not have to try and explain. Although, she went over to where they'd cooked breakfast so she wouldn't have to listen to the explanation. She wasn't sure how she'd be able to handle it when she was already getting worked up just thinking about it.
However, as she looked at what there was to eat, she was still able to hear Ralph's explanation about the physical differences of boys and girls including about reproduction. When Ralph finished talking about that, Charlie decided to return, not as interested in eating anything as she was a moment ago.
"We don't have anything like that," the fungaloid said. "How we grow new fungaloids, is that we share spores."
"What do you mean, you share spores?" Charlie asked after the fungaloid showed no signs of elaborating after that, although she suspected she was going to regret asking.
"I don't know about others, but I've only shared it when the entire fairy ring gets together and we dance. As we dance, our spores come out of our cap and we get them mixed with the spores of others," the creature said. "Though, I've heard about some who share their spores with another fungaloid in particular, but I don't know how that's done. I've only heard about it."
"I know you said you're not either a girl or boy fungaloid, would you prefer we think of you as one or the other?" Ralph interjected. Though, Charlie felt a little annoyed at his question. She couldn't think of what purpose this would serve.
"What difference does it make?" the creature asked.
"Well, we refer to girls and boys differently. It's more a matter of how we look at things," Ralph explained, though Charlie suspected he probably looked it in a way that would have made a better explanation except that he wasn't really willing to share that with them. Especially with how simplistic he made it sound. The kind of explanation you'd give to little kids because they wouldn't really understand the complexities of the subject in the first place and trying would only get them confused.
Which made Charlie wonder if Ralph considered the fungaloid a child. Although, if that was the case, she wondered if he thought a child should know as much about reproduction as he'd explained to the fungaloid.
"If you want, you can think of me as a girl if it makes it easier for you," the creature said after being quiet for a minute. "With what you said earlier, about how the girls are the ones who care for their young, well, I'm one of the fungaloids who does that. I've even cared for some of my friends maturing spores before."
Charlie wasn't sure what to make of that explanation, but wasn't going to argue. She'd been leaning towards thinking of the fungaloid as a girl anyway, but didn't want to be rude or anything.
"So, what's your name?" Ralph asked, startling Charlie.
She could kick herself hard with how she hadn't thought to ask that, even when she had introduced her friends. Briefly she wondered if that made her a horrible person or maybe just a sign of her being a horrile person.
"I'm Velithy," the fungaloid girl replied.
"Nice to meet you," Ralph said.
"Uh, shouldn't we get back to breakfast?" Amelia asked suddenly. "I mean, it's cool to meet this fungaloid and all, but the food's getting cold."
"Besides, it's not like we can understand what it's saying when you guys don't translate for us," Hannah remarked.
Charlie flushed in embarrassment. She'd completely forgotten to do that. The only translations she could think of that she'd made had been more incidental than anything else, such as mentioning that Velithy was a fungaloid.
So, she quickly filled them in on what her responses had been as well as her name while they all went over to focus on getting some breakfast, though, she was at least happy that there hadn't been so much that had needed to be translated. It certainly made it easier to fill them in and then quickly start eating.
Velithy followed and watched them as they ate their food. She looked like she was bursting with questions, but remained silent. Charlie had to at least consider how patient Velithy was. She wasn't sure that she'd be as patient as the fungaloid girl.
When they were done, they all started to get packed up to head out. Charlie offered to let Velithy ride on her shoulders. Velithy agreed, but looked unsure how she'd do that, until Charlie picked her up and put her on her shoulders, one of her legs on either side of her neck. Even though she'd picked up the mushroom girl before, she was still surprised at how light she felt. Almost like she was picking up a small child that weighed about half as much as they should.
Velithy laughed at the experience, seeming to thoroughly enjoying being so much taller. As they walked, Velithy asked her questions and Charlie tried to give as good on an answer as she could, though she made sure to translate for her friends, even though she could tell that Amelia wanted them to do more reading. Charlie felt herself get more energy the more they walked. She couldn't say why, but she just felt like the energy was flowing into her as if she was a plant absorbing sunlight.
Though, as they reached the point where they stopped for lunch, Charlie felt like she was in a sauna for some reason. The forest they'd been travelling through hadn't felt nearly this ot up to this point, but as she set Velithy down from off of her shoulders, she suddenly looking up into the faces of her friends.
It felt weird. Like even while she was suddenly laying on the ground, her pack suddenly gone from being on her back, the world above her was spinning. Not only that, but she was surprised at how she had never noticed how bright Beth's blond hair and hazel eyes were or how piercing Amelia's blue-grey eyes were.
In fact, she felt a very strong urge to kiss her friends. She couldn't say why, but she felt like she needed to do that for some reason she couldn't describe.