Page 23 of Mushy Stuff
I gasp. “Really?! Why do you not have any?”
He shrugs. “I used to get them, but after a while it didn’t seem to matter. I can see in the dark, and I like my mushrooms better.”
I smile and slip my hand into his. “I like your mushrooms too. They are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
We walk toward the market, hand in hand.
I can see more details as we get closer. It looks like an old-fashioned carnival! There are floating lights everywhere. They look like little orbs that just hang in the middle of the air. Some of them are bright, some of them are soft, and they are in every color I can imagine. There are also soft glowing lanterns that look like paper lanterns. Instead of being hung on strings, they just float up and down without being tethered to anything. They look like the lanterns from those festivals where everyone lights a small candle and their lantern floats away. The whole carnival just seems to glow. There are tents of all sizes that look almost exactly like the striped tents from human carnivals. It doesn’t have rides like the human carnivals usually have, though. There is no Ferris wheel lighting up the center of the carnival, but it doesn’t need one. You can just feel the magic coming from this place. And oh my gods, the smells! I can already smell delicious food.
We pause outside the entrance, still holding hands, and Wold watches me as I stare in awe. Finally I say, “Wold, it’s so beautiful.”
He smiles at me. Then he checks my antlers and ears to make sure they are in place. To help throw others off the fact that I am human, he asked me to wear my antler headband and my elf ear cuffs. He explained that it won’t do anything for my scent, but my scent is so mixed with his, that he hopes it will help me to go unnoticed.
“While we are here, do not leave my side. Do not leave me for anything, Lydia. I am serious about this. You must stay with me at all times.”
I nod as I look around in wonder. When he is satisfied that my being human is hidden well enough, he takes my hand again, and we walk through the gate.
Chapter 15
Assoonasweare inside the market, I get nervous. I wrap my tail around Lydia’s waist. I’m so afraid of something happening to her, and I worry that she does not understand how serious this is. She is so in awe of everything. She has no idea how much danger she could be in.
She gasps and points at all the sights, and it makes me glad to see her smile again. I know we are both sad for her to leave, but I would rather see her happy about this than sad about leaving.
There are so many tents at the market. I haven’t been in years, and the market has clearly thrived and grown to almost twice the size it used to be. They have a place where you can buy any kind of spell that you could possibly need, and any kind of ingredient that you couldwant.
I follow my nose to the tent for mushrooms. As we are walking, Lydia slows down to peek inside any open flap that she sees. There are tents with spices and tents with exotic pets. There are tents for light spells—you can tell which ones those are by the way the tents glow. There are tents for enchanted musical instruments. And tents for plants. You can buy anything your heart desires here. Off to the side, there is a large sinister-looking tent. I don’t point it out to Lydia, but it is a tent for pleasure. Anyone can buy pleasure from one of the slaves there. As we head deeper into the market, there are food tents. All of them smell amazing. I should stop and get something with Lydia once we sell some mushrooms and have some coin. I also see clothing tents like what Lydia asked me about. I glance over at her, and I know that she has seen them too. Her smile falters a little at the subtle reminder of what we are going to lose. I pull her to me as we near the mushroom tent. I lean down and ask if she would like some food after we sell the mushrooms.
Her face brightens and she says, “Oh yes! I would love that!” Then she leans into me and whispers, “All the people…they all look so different. Are they all Guardians?”
Just then I look up as a male Guardian walks by. He is a forest Guardian like I am, and he has similar features to me. Except where I am half-Elven, he is not. He is biggerand thicker. His skin resembles dark tree bark, and would feel like tree bark if you touched it. His ears are slightly pointed. Guardians can have a variety of ear types. They range from animalistic ears to ears that are more pointed than a human’s, but far less pointed than Elven ears like mine. Only those with Elven blood have long, pointed ears like I do. Instead of having hair like mine, his “hair” is all vines like the ones that are mixed in with my hair. He has huge antlers, much larger than mine. At about his waist, his skin changes from the bark of a tree to the fur of a deer. His feet are cloven hooves, and his legs resemble the hindquarters of a deer. He also has a short deer tail. He has thick muscular arms, and as we watch, he takes a big bite out of a leg of some kind of meat. Goat, maybe?
Lydia’s eyes are huge as she watches him walk by. She whispers, “Was that a Guardian?”
“Yes.” I feel guilty that I didn’t prepare Lydia for this part. I look around at all of the people. They are all Guardians, or half-Guardians like I am. I did not even think about how they would look to Lydia. I watch her as she looks around with wide eyes, then I ask, “Are you okay? Are you afraid?” I’m having trouble catching her exact scent because of all the intermixed scents of the market.
She looks at me startled. “Yes, I’m okay. It’s just so much to take in. I’m not afraid. It’s just…I don’t even know how todescribe it. It’s amazing.” She pauses before continuing, “Do all of these tents sell spells? Can you get any spell you want here?”
I smile at how inquisitive she is. “Probably. A lot of them also sell goods like food or clothing, but even those tents probably also have at least a few spells that they can sell.”
We continue walking toward the tent where I can sell the mushrooms. When we get there, I pause outside the tent and say, “When we go in here, just try to be as quiet as possible so that you do not draw attention to yourself. These merchants are not bad, but I do not trust anyone when it comes to you.”
She nods in understanding, and we walk into the tent.
I greet the merchant at the back of the tent. This merchant is an older female. She is half-Elven like I am, although her Guardian heritage must have been much different than mine. Where mine pulls traits from the forest, hers seems to be a rockier, mountainous area. Her skin is a stone-gray color and shows the slight texture and pattern of slate. Her hair is a light stone color that is struck through with a lot of silver, but she lacks the vines that grow in my own hair. Her eyes glow a creme color. She has small plants with tiny flowers growing on various spots of her body, like her shoulders and around the base of her neck. They also encircle the two horns on her head. Where myhorns resemble the antlers of a deer, hers are the large, thick, coiled horns of a goat. Her feet are the cloven hooves of a mountain goat, and her legs are lightly furred and the same stone color as her skin. She wears a fabric loincloth and has a band of matching fabric tied around her chest to cover her breasts. She also has a long fluffy tail that appears to be rather catlike.
I greet the female and show her the mushrooms that I have to offer. Lydia stands quietly beside me, watching with a look of awe on her face. The merchant buys a large assortment of mushrooms for spells and pays us well with coin.
I thank her and we begin to leave the tent, when Lydia turns back and says, “I love the flowers around your horns. They are beautiful.” The merchant gives her a sweet smile and thanks her.
There are a few other types of vendors that I need to seek out, but before that, we need food. I ask Lydia if she is ready to have something to eat. Her face lights up and she says, “Yes! That would be wonderful! Everything smells so good; I’m dying to try something.”
We head toward the food tents and find one that has something we both want. I get a leg of roasted deer meat. I haven’t hunted deer in a long time, but it is one of my favorite foods. Deer isn’t like rabbit, you have to be mindfulabout how many deer you kill because they do not reproduce quickly.
Lydia gets some type of pastry filled with meat and another one filled with sweet jelly. There are no official dining areas like Lydia is used to, so we look for a large patch of grass at the edge of the market for us to relax and enjoy our food.
We talk and eat every bite of the food we purchased. Lydia even convinces me to try her sweet pastry, which I did not care for. Sweet food just feels wrong to me. It makes me think of meat that has gone bad. Lydia laughs hysterically at the faces of disgust I make while I try to choke down the sweet one.
Once we are done with our food, we relax against a tree. She leans against my chest, and we just watch the magic lights. Everything feels so peaceful at that moment. I’m almost able to forget that I’m about to lose her. Then I remember, and it sucks all the joy out of me. I don’t want to let her go. I can’t imagine my life without her in it now.
