Chương 36: Into the Fire

"Look at that!" Vaelith said, excited, still standing in the middle of the river.

"A walking mushroom. Well… I thought I'd seen everything."

"Oy!" something yelled from the trees.

"Who are ya' callin' a mushroom, eh?" Both of us stood dumbfounded.

"You!" Darwin replied.

"Scary demon lady called you mushroom." Suddenly, the water in the river began to churn. It bubbled and popped at the surface, and then a small whirlpool swirled around Vaelith. She tried to escape, but it spun faster and faster, tugging at her legs and dragging foam around her waist.

"A little help?" she asked, reaching out. I held out my rod, and she grabbed hold.

"Pull me in!" she complained.

"I'm trying."

"Put some muscle into it."

"You're the one who got stuck—" The water pulled harder, and my foot went into the river. Something wrapped around my ankle, and suddenly I was underwater, being dragged. I accidentally inhaled a gulp of water, and I saw my life flash before my eyes as I ran out of oxygen. It was… quite boring. Well, right up until two years ago, when Madam Moolisa woke me up with a slap of her tongue and started this whole mess of a life.

I heaved and breathed in deeply. Well, as deep as my burning lungs would allow me. I ached from head to toe. My ankle as well. I didn't expect it to be broken, but it would have a rather nasty bruise. I felt a slight… sway— Back and forth. Back and forth. I blinked away stars and found myself in a rather precarious state. I was hanging upside down, bound by a rope. Worse still, Vaelith was just to my right, upside down and bound as well. She hadn't woken up just yet.

I tried to focus and found that I was in a village of sorts. Tiny houses made of wood with mud roofs sat beneath the trees, tucked between roots and mossy stones. There was a fire roaring in a clearing, and slowly, three… things turned to face me. They had pristine white bodies and limbs, which were attached to a bright red mushroom at the top of their heads. One such creature bounded toward me awkwardly. It had two slits for a nose, and yellow eyes shrouded in black.

It smiled, showing a row of sharp teeth that looked like tree bark.

"Ye who enters here has forfeit their lives," it said.

"Their ashes shall fertilize the youngin's and bring upon bounty untold." The other creatures snickered nearby.

"Now, wait a minute," I said.

"We didn't mean to trespass. You, uh… don't need to kill us."

"Kill?" the creature said.

"No kill… reborn!"

"I like how born I am now. And… Darwin! Where are you, Darwin?" The creature stared at me blankly.

"Darwin? We do not know of such a thing. We are rootlings—or some call us redcaps." It reached up and touched its mushroom head. A bit of spores fell to the ground, and where they landed, tiny flakes of grass grew. I struggled against the bindings.

"Now, now," the rootling said.

"All will be well. Let us begin." There was a cheer as more and more rootlings made themselves known. Not all looked exactly the same, but they all shared the red-spotted mushroom on their heads. Some had caps wider than their shoulders. Others had little crooked stems, long fingers, or bark-like patches along their arms. They cheered as one particularly eager-looking rootling stepped forward.

"Reborn, reborn, reborn," they all chanted, over and over. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. The eager rootling flung itself into the fire. They cheered again as a roasting mushroom scent filled the area." Hmm, dinner," Vaelith said briefly, still snoring as she did. You've got to be fucking kidding me. I was going to die, and she didn't even have the decency to wake up first.

Soon, the eager rootling crumbled to nothing more than ash at the bottom of the fire. They used some sort of branch with a glowing globule of water at the end. They touched the ash, and the water drew it in. The clear blue turned gray. Slowly, amid cheers, the rootling who had spoken to me lowered the water globule into a pre-dug hole. They kneeled, said a prayer of some sort, and then brushed dirt over the top.

The cheering had died down, but something else was beginning to rise from the creatures' collective tenor. Something I couldn't understand. Something in their own unique language. A few moments went by and, suddenly, a small sprout crept out of the dirt. It grew and grew and grew, and then, pop—a rootling jumped out from under the ground. It looked similar to the eager one from before, but slightly different. Different spots on the mushroom. Slightly taller and thinner. Again, there was a collective cheer.

"What's all that noise?" Vaelith asked, finally waking.

"Thank fucking god," I said.

"Listen, you've got to break free—they are going to burn us alive."

"Say what now?" Vaelith replied. I could see that she began to struggle. When she failed, she hung loose, her head lolling.

"We're fucked," she said simply.

"Now you," the rootling said, staring at me with glowing eyes.

"Reborn!"

"No reborn!" I struggled harder… and nothing.

"Shit… not like this." The rope was lowered, and hands grabbed me. They were soft… but what else could I expect from a bunch of mushroom people?

"Hold on a sec, can we talk—""Talk after fire. Talk after reborn."

"Vaelith… help!" She struggled some more… and failed.

"It's, uh… been a pleasure knowin' ya." The heat licked at my flesh. Lapped at me with an unending hunger. I tried to pull myself as far as I could away from it. Tried desperately to wiggle away… but they were slowly pushing me forward. And then, with one final push, they threw me forward—into the flames! I hit the ground and jumped up as soon as I could. I screamed a silent scream as I felt… nothing. Huh? The rootlings collectively burst out laughing.

Some laughed so hard they held their sides and rolled on the ground. I looked up at Vaelith, and she appeared just as confused as I was. As for the fire… it burned around me, but when I reached out with my fingers, my hands still bound, they didn't hurt at all.

"Fake," I said.

"It's fake." Suddenly, a bit of heat scorched me for just a second.

"Not fake," the talking rootling said.

"But, uh… what's the human word? Prank." The rootlings collectively laughed again.

"Oh, by the gods," Sable said, appearing to my right. Darwin was on her shoulder, and he looked prepared to go to war.

"How many times have I told you lot not to play pranks on total strangers? Honestly, one day you'll all be hunted down." Sable strummed once on her lyre, and the fire beneath my feet dissipated. I felt rather awkward standing, hands and feet bound, but not in any sort of danger.

"Can someone cut me free?" I asked.

"And after… Can someone tell me what the fuck is going on?"

Hands and feet unbound, I did my best to stay away from the rootlings, who had grown in number to about twenty strong. Sable had helped Vaelith down, and Darwin sat on my shoulder, peering about as if waiting for an attack. The rootlings stared at Darwin as if he were some sort of oddity… well; I guess he was.

"So let me get this straight," I said.

"These are rootlings, otherwise known as redcaps, and they can control fire?" Sable nodded.

"Illusion magic, too. Hallucinogens and the like." The rootlings were of all sorts. Some short, around three feet tall. Some big, over six feet, and everything in between. Some had feminine-like features and some manly ones. Others were ambiguous. They wore no clothes and seemed not to have any sort of sex organs at all.

"So the rootling who burned to death?"" Ah," Sable replied.

"They went all out, it seems. Rebirth… it's something they do. They reduce themselves to ashes, get planted, and then emerge as something similar but new. Consider yourself lucky—they don't normally go through all this trouble just for a prank."

"What do they usually do?" Sable held a hand to her chin.

"Cut your hair while you sleep. Make your food extra spicy. Drugs in your drink." I nodded in agreement as one of the rootlings handed me a cup with what looked like tea. It smelled good, like honey and cinnamon. I drank… it tasted better than it smelled. Sable and Vaelith drank as well.

"And these pranks… why do they do it?" Sable shrugged.

"May as well ask why the birds fly or the fish swim—it's just in their nature." The talking rootling from before bowed his head.

"So sorry, stranger—we can sometimes lose our way in the fun of it. My name is Elder Mossbelly, and we are pleased to make your acquaintance." I nodded. The tea was really good and warmed my entire body.

"That's okay," I said.

"As long as it doesn't happen again." Some nearby rootlings snickered. Elder Mossbelly turned his glowing eyes away, unable to meet my gaze. I dropped the cup.

"This isn't tea… is it?" Elder Mossbelly chuckled, "Not exactly."