The Fungal Forest

"Mckenzie wait up!" Maddy call out to her sister as she ran to her. even for her small size she seem to know how to move fast and keep her bigger sister moving too. "If you get to far i can lose you in this forest silly sister." she laugh as she shake her head.

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Mckenzie giggles. "Sorry sis i ma just overly happy for doing this. I want to check out this forest and no batter way then doing it for are rite." bantam jump around as she slow down. "So many fungi here and did you hear about the nightmares that live here? We have to be careful if we cross path with some or one as that may not like us being here." the bantam primal stop as she thinks. "you think we will see them?"

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Maddy stop and looked at her. "I did and who knows." She look around as she flick her tail. "But let wait and see if someone coming here too." she walk up to fungi tree looking up at it and it odd colours as she get a pic in her head of it. She notice a green glow and blinked as she smiled seeing as she just disturbed lifeform she had no idea of as she walk she saw she was leaving a glowing trail and laughs.

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Her sister blinked. "Did you eat one?"

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"No a very small life-form i most of disturbed and now it glowing is on me."

It had taken him too long to travel all this way. There were obstacles and distractions, taking his attention away from what he was meant to be doing. He hadn't left his secluded home to interact with the rest of the world, he had a task that needed completing and he intended to do it as efficiently as possible.

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Solpor was large even for his breed, each step leaving heavy imprints of his massive paws, claws scoring the ground as he took steps. He took backroads to avoid other travelers as much as possible, alas it seemed many other travelers had the same thought. He'd spent his time listening to the woes of the simple folk, everyone under the sun and some beyond its reach seemed to have an issue they needed help with. He had excused himself as quickly as possible, often times with the reasoning of being in a hurry. Realistically he did want to get to his destination in the shortest time allowable, but there was no one waiting for him at home. He lived alone, and that was how he preferred it.

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As he walked, he noted the change in the flora around him--the trees grew taller and spread further apart, the ground beneath his feet grew dense with vegetation and rot, wafting a peaty, earthy scent into his nostrils with each step. He'd reached the fungal forest, not far now.

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His ears twitched forward when he heard voices up ahead and he drew a breath in through wide nostrils, eyes narrowing. Was he cursed to have company here as well?

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Solpor sighed, and his irritable breath disturbed the grass underfoot, sending up nearly imperceptible-sprites into the air that glowed different vivid hues of blue and green. He was not too proud to admit that they were beautiful, and the Q'lin took a moment to admire them.

Maddy was talking to her sister but stop when she saw more of the glow and look up to see a Q'lin but look back to her sister who was not beside her. "Sis?" she call out and look to see if she left a glowing trail or not.

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Bantam primal walk right up to the Q'lin. "You here to travel to the springs too?" her voice full of life but yet hopping he was. "If you are you can join me and my sister to the spring."

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Maddy sighed hearing her sister. "Mckenzie he may not want to join us if he does not want too."

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"But but it so much batter with others." the bantam pouted.

A primal and her sister it would seem, one of them smaller--a bantam? Or simply young? Solpor had not spent much time around others over the last couple of decades, a conscious decision, not one of happenstance. He had left his parents at a young age to strike out on his own and found a comfortable place to build his home in the forested hills, tucked away with a small lake not too far away with plenty of room for him to bathe and relax, listening to the birds in their springtime nests and the wind through the leaves overhead. He missed his home already and was excited to return to it.

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Solpor was brought back to the present by the voice of the young bantam primal, Mckenzie, it seemed. He had not yet caught the other one's name, but he was certain that if he spent much time in this forest he would wind up hearing it eventually, either spoken or screamed.

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"Can you fight?" he asked, his deep bass voice rumbling from his throat. "It is not safe here, as I'm sure you're aware."

It was Mckenzie who spoke up as she look at him. "Will yes we can fight just because i am small does not mean i ma scared to fight." she rumbles on. "I know of the nightmares of this forest i read about and study about this forest and each spring me and my sister can travel to and i pick this one so yes i can fight and yes i know of it not being safe." she true and walk back over to Maddy.

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Maddy look at her sister but then at Solpor. "I am so sorry if she make any trouble for you." She gave him a smile. "I take it your heading to the spring? If so we can go as a group." She hope he would say yea. "Ohh and i am Madison or you can call me Maddy and that is Mckenzie my sister who get her self into trouble."

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"No i don't." Mckenzie yell back to her sister.

They seemed polite enough, and Solpor had nothing to base their fighting abilities on. He looked around the dank forest, hooded icey eyes searching for anything that could be considered a threat. He would not be caught flat-footed and have his mission interrupted by an injury. Perhaps this once it would be better to travel with someone, as abhorrent as that thought was. More eyes meant fewer opportunities for anyone to sneak up on him.

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He looked to them both and then nodded once. "Very well, we will travel together," he said, hoping that he would not come to regret his decision. He looked to Mckenzie and continued, "There is more to be wary of in this forest than the nightmares. Stay close and remain alert."

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He walked forward and could practically feel the spores being released with each step he took, leaving deep footprints in the peat moss and rot. It was an unpleasant feeling, but he kept his head high and his tail relaxed, there was no need to worry--not yet.

Maddy look at him as she listen to what he said but follow him as did Maddy sister. "We know. It why we both study the forest. " She watch the spore as the glowing help to with having a bit of light. "Hmm this forest i have to say is lovely but deadly too." She look at her sister.

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Mckenzie was looking at each plant and looking back up. "There so many to think a forest like this is here and many many kinds of fungi too. Make me wonder if you can make potions out of some." she said out loud.

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Maddy shake her head. "My sister is into magic but we are studying for the exam and knowing of the primal Aspects." Maddy told Solpor.

Conversation...something Solpor had never been good at to begin with, and now he had two drakiri with him who seemed determined to get him to participate. It put him in a sour mood, but he knew that it wasn't their fault. This was what drakiri did, interact with one another--exist together. Most thrived among their own kind, Solpor liked to think he was the exception to that rule. But he could not punish someone for his own preferences.

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Resigning himself to playing along, Solpor grunted, "You should not take what is not yours, especially fungus. The forest has a language, a many minds of its own. Harming one could invite many. Best not to chance it."

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He looked around at the dark tree trunks and the mushrooms around them, some as large as trees, some even larger. He could see marks on some of the woody stems, and he wondered of they were made by previous travelers or the denizens of this forest. Regardless, Solpor would not be taking anything from this forest, and he would disturb as few items as possible.

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"You have studied the forest, you ought to know how mushrooms grow," he continued. "A network of mycelium growing just under the soil, spreading out probably as far as the forest reaches. A vast wealth of knowledge...and secrets."

Mckenzie walk right up to him as she walk she look up at him. 'I do i do but you never know if one has some kind of healing to it. so many unknowns." she grinned but look at her sister but back to him. "Oh and you know the way to the spring?" Mckenzie asked.

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"Sis he likely does know and so don't worry if we end up on the wrong path we know the way so we can point out the right path for him." Maddy shake her head as she walk silently.

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Mckenzie nodded and fall silent as she look around at the large mushrooms and the size. Just seeing how big that where put her in awe.

He didn't know exactly how to get there, but he did know that following the path was likely the best option. Solpor was content to walk until he found where he was supposed to be, it was his preferred method of travel--without rush or pomp and praise.

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He walked quietly, the only sound coming from his footsteps. His ears twitched as he listened to the sounds of the forest, frogs croaking farther in, crickets calling to one another in the twilight cast by the canopy overhead. The various sources of light from the wisps that floated around them and the glowing mushrooms in their cracks and crevices confused him, but he had only to look behind him and see their footsteps to know they were going in the right direction.

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"You two walk ahead of me," he said, eyes narrowing as his left ear flicked back slightly. Was that the breaking of a twig? The rustle of leaves underfoot? He was unsure, but it was better to be safe than sorry. If he could keep an eye on the two primal sisters, he could focus his other senses on the forest.

Mckenzie ans Maddy had both kept quiet to enjoy the sounds of the forest but both heard him as that look over and gave a nod as that walk pass him and talk a bit as that did before falling silent.

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It was Maddy who look back at him. "Have you gotten the feeling we are being hunted?" she asked. "I know there are things here who would dare hunt us down but i want to make sure i and my sister where not going crazy."

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Mckenzie kept looking around as she was not liking the feeling that something was out there. She let out a snorted and pin her ears back.

He didn't know about them being hunted, but they were certainly being watched. He felt it like an electric charge on the back of his neck, making the smaller hairs there stand on end. Solpor didn't respond to the Maddy, focusing on listening.

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There was almost no warning before the creature burst out of the shadows. In the ethereal lighting from the motes and the mushrooms, it was almost impossible to pinpoint where exactly it had come from, but Solpor saw it running straight for Maddy, angled to strike her left flank.

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He lunged forward, striking the creature with a heavy forepaw before it could so much as touch Maddy. The blow sent it tumbling end over end backwards until it landed in the leaf litter, stunned. Solpor took this moment to rush it, putting a massive paw on the thing's chest to keep it from getting up and trying again.

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"What...is it?" he asked, frowning as he studied the creature. It looked almost like a nightmare, but it was somehow wrong. Its limbs were in the right place, but it had been running on two legs. There was a jagged line down the middle of its chest stretching all the way down between its legs to its groin, and the skin along that line was rotten and black. It stared up at him through unsettling eyes, eyes that did not belong in the skull of any drakiri breed. They glowed sickly green and the pupils were misshapen, one significantly larger than the other. Solpor decided quickly he would rather not have his paw on it if it could be avoided, but he wasn't given the chance.

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Appendages shot out from the middle of the creature's chest, impossibly long fingers wrapping around his wrist like vines. When he tried to pull back they clamped down hard enough to hurt and Solpor bared his teeth in a ferocious snarl, trying to shake it off.

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When he lifted the creature he saw roots attaching it to the ground, growing out from the thing's back and digging rapidly into the ground. If one snapped, more replaced them, and as he pulled his arm away the hands extended further, stretching impossibly far and dragging him closer with surprising strength every time he stood still.

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Maddy snap around and saw what happen but did not leave time as she change head first into the creature and then bite down on the arm that held Solpor as she growls and snrals as she try her best snapping it off and true her back hooves to the creature face and kicking over and over.

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Mckenzie came in charging with full speed at the creature side and ram into it as her sister kick the creature. She remember reading about there things. "Careful it a Rifter and this one had to been a nightmare." She growls grabbing it tail in her mouth.

The creature's mouth stretched impossibly wide as the sisters came to Solpor's aid, a hissing clicking sound rattling deep in its throat. The kicks drew forth greenish-blackish liquid that seeped from the gashes Maddy's hooves opened and it clung to her hooves, creeping farther up into the fur around them.

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The tail that Mckenzie grabbed pulled away from the body with a wet squelching sound, the same greenish-blackish liquid exploded from where the primal's teeth sank into the flesh. Far more than seemed logical gushed into her mouth, flowing between her teeth and down her throat, soaking into the fur on her chest and dripping down her forelegs.

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Solpor was also not spared, for as the hands were ripped from the body, the fluid flowed up the remainder of the fingers and along his forearm, soaking through his short, dense fur and onto his skin. His skin tingled where it touched and then went numb, that feeling spreading deeper into the tissues beneath his skin. His right leg was entirely numb by the time he stumbled away, teeth gritted and growling low in his throat.

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"Get away from it!" he snapped. "It is paralyzing us." He eyed the rifter as he felt muscles in his chest beginning to spasm before they too fell prey to the effect. But he managed to see the skin of the nightmare writhing on the body, beginning to separate from the creature beneath.

Maddy back away feeling numb in her back legs as she move away as quickly as she could but the numbing feel crawl up her legs as she fall from her back end and drag herself away as much as she could but stop to look over at her sister. "Sis get away fast."

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Mckenzie raer up and spin and bolt as fast as she could away from it but she too fall to the ground feeling the numbness of it. She growls stubbornly as she could not feel her front legs but she try to fight herself to get up but it was not working. She let out a growl before she could not feel her mouth and throat. With mighty snorted she glare at the creature with anger in her eyes.

He saw the effect it was having on the sisters and knew he had to try to fix this quickly. If any of it had gotten down Mckenzie's throat it could begin to paralyze her from the inside.

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The creature that emerged from the skin of the nightmare was almost painful to look at. Its skin was pink and furless, black and green veins throbbing under the pink and giving the creature a sickly palor. Strings of bloody mucous attached it to the skin as it pulled itself free, black-stained mouth open wide to reveal a toothless hole that seemed to expand as its maw opened wider. It had eyes, but they were too big for its skul, bulbous and green, the pupils swirling independently of one another as it looked at its soon-to-be victims.

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It crawled forward on spindly legs, its too-large hands and too-long fingers sinking into the ground. Any fresh leaves that had fallen from the trees above curled and blackened, turning to liquid rot under the rifter's touch. The area around it turned black with death as it stood on four legs of mismatched length and sizes, letting out low clicks from that hole in its face.

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Solpor swung at the rifter and caught it on the side of the head. His claws tore through its skin like it was made of sodden paper and he hissed as he felt the skin around his claws burning. He looked to see the black liquid bubbling as it burned away the fur on his toes and filled the air with the stench of burning hair.

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He limped quickly back, grabbing a slender tree between his teeth and ripping it from the ground in one swift motion. He looked back to see the rifter moving slowly toward Maddy, its mouth opening wider and wider as if it was trying to gauge how big it needed to be before it could swallow her whole.

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Solpor took the tree in his hand, fumbling with it slightly as he planted his back feet. One arm hung uselessly at his side, but that didn't stop him from lifting the tree and driving the thicker end of the trunk at the root bundle through the rifter's head. It collapsed to the ground, black icor flowing freely between fragments of skull and rotting flesh, burning the roots of the tree like bubbling acid. The rest of the rifter melted into more of the black goo and Solpor limped over to Maddy, taking her by the ruff of her neck in his mouth and dragging her carefully away from the spreading puddle.

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He released her a safe distance away and sat down heavily, breathing heavily and wincing in pain. As the puddle began to soak into the ground, the numbness in his arm started to let up. At least it didn't seem to last long once the rifter was dead.

Maddy look and watch him fight it of as she then was pull away by her ruff. "That was close." she breath as she look to see her sister glaring angry at the dead rifter. "Thank you." she said to him. "Start to get feeling back now but we should wait until we can feel fully in are legs before going."

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Mckenzie was getting her voice back. "Wwwh" She cough a bit and had annoyed look on her face as she lay on the ground and look to her sister seeing she was fine and the creature dead. Maybe she will study how to stop rifter from attacking others.

Solpor looked between the two sisters, seeing very different reactions from both. One seemed grateful it was over, the other seemed angry that it had happened. Both understandable reactions, but one was more indicative of future action. Whatever the case they would be more prepared to defend themselves in the future.

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"We will go as soon as you two are able," he said, shaking his leg derisively to try to dislodge some of the goo that clung to his fur. "Where there is one there could be more. Try to find a long stick or a tree you are comfortable carrying so we can use it to ward them off."

As silly as it sounded to Mckenzie he was right. She look around for a tree she could grab hold of and it did not take her long to find one as she grab hold of a tree and pull it out and look at Solpor but then look over at her sister.

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Maddy had found a tree and she had made one end pointy so if more of them came she can stab it in the head with the pointy end. Maddy watch her sister copy what she did and smiled as she now had point end and was ready. Maddy hope that they would not be out number by there things along the way to the spring.