Mushroom Circles
Chapter one
Ao3
—
When an accidental blood sacrifice leaves him in a strange new world, Roman has to hide
Logan would like to know what has been eating all the fruit
—
Maybe it would have been better had he not gone on a midnight walk through the woods, or had at least not gone alone.
Despite the dangers that seemed obvious at the time, he was entirely surprised by what had actually happened. He had a pocket knife in case he needed to defend himself, obviously, but it turned out that he didn’t need it.
In fact, more than not needing it, he probably would’ve been better without it.
He had been walking, fidgeting with it in his hand, when it had suddenly opened and sliced a large cut into his palm, and he had to watch the blood start dripping. He hissed in pain and clutched his hand close to himself
Great, just great. He started walking back to his house, intent on finding his spare first aid supplies to bandage up his hand, and then probably go to sleep. Roman didn’t really know why he had come outside, he often had little impulses like that, but even he could admit this one was stupid
He grumbled to himself as he walked back, cursing as his foot caught on a rock and he tripped over, instinctively putting his hands in front of him to try catch himself.
He winced as his still-open cut slammed into a mushroom. He looked at where he had fallen and his breath caught in his throat. A faerie circle.
Roman was not particularly superstitious. In fact, he couldn't care less about most superstitions. But faerie circles were just something he couldn’t help but feel cautious around.
Sure, he knew it was probably just made up that a faerie would show up and steal you away if you stepped in one (his brother had made a point to step in every faerie circle he saw when they were walking together, just to annoy him) but he just couldn’t bring himself to enter one himself
He lifted his hand, finding that his blood had stained the top of the mushrooms. He manoeuvred himself into a sitting position, and twisted around to look around him.
He pushed himself standing, and looked down. He was still in the faerie circle, and in his movements to get up, he had gotten his blood on almost every single mushroom. As if on cue, a single drop of blood fell on the one undirtied toadstool.
At first, he was unsure if it was his mind that was making up the strange, almost-weightless feeling he had suddenly gained, but then the circle started to softly glow
He tried to take a step back, out of the circle, but found that he was blocked by some kind of invisible force
He could feel his breath speeding up and he could feel something happening.
He blacked out.
When he came to, he was staring at the sky. Had… had there always been that many stars? He sat up, wincing as his hand reminded him of his injury. He froze in place
The trees that surrounded him were decidedly not the same as the ones that were there when he passed out. Firstly, if his vision in the night served him correctly, the leaves were blue. Secondly, they were about fifteen times the height they usually were. Thirdly, near the tops of them were a lot of treehouses.
They were to scale with the trees.
He looked down at himself- he looked the same, even if he was quite dirty from falling down, and from passing out. There were no faeries nearby, as far as he could see, and so he resolved to hide until he could figure out a way home
He didn’t know if this was the realm of the faeries, though he suspected it probably was, and he didn’t know if the people or faeries that lived here would be kind to find him in such a vulnerable state.
He looked around for anywhere to hide, and found somewhere, though, admittedly, it was not the most glamorous.
There was a small tunnel under a tree root, which opened up slightly, under the tree. For someone who was not as tiny as he was, it wouldn’t be very noticeable, and it seemed that there were no other animals living in there, luckily for him.
It was dark, but it was hidden and that’s all that mattered. He didn’t like it, but the idea of a giant faerie finding him was worse. He moved things around to try to make it a little more comfortable, but there wasn’t a lot to move. Some splinters of wood, and some dirt
He didn’t even have his phone, because when he got sudden midnight impulses, he didn’t tend to think ahead very much. He watched the opening for the next few hours, suddenly feeling very paranoid about what could be out there.
His hideout became somewhat more illuminated as the hours ticked by, and when he chanced a look out of the opening, he confirmed that this definitely was not earth. Unless earth had suddenly developed a purple sky, or if people were suddenly brightly coloured and had wings, of course.
As much as he loved the idea of faeries and magic, this was not what he wanted. The idea of being in a fantasy world was intriguing, when it was just an idea and not a magical transportation to a giant world where he was at every disadvantage.
He looked out at the giant faeries and held his breath. He hoped to whatever-he-could that they wouldn’t notice his little home under the tree roots. He knew they probably wouldn’t, considering that it was majorly concealed by such roots, and could only really be seen by being at such a small size, or if one was looking for it.
Each faerie had some kind of bright colouration. Skins in purples, blues, reds, pinks, greens, any colour he could think of, hair being much the same. The wings seemed different on different faeries, some being almost crystalline, some being the stereotypical butterfly wings, some looking like dragon wings.
The strangest faerie he had seen seemed to have no wings, but had yellow scales scattered across dark grey skin. He didn’t see it for more than a few seconds, though he was not disappointed by that. It was far too snake-like for him to feel at all at ease near it
One faerie that he saw more than others over the next few days was one with the crystalline type wings, that almost looked like a blue and black stained glass window. It had dark blue, almost black hair and blue skin as well. It had glasses, and it often sat at the bottom of a nearby tree and read.
Roman often overheard conversation between faeries, though it was of as much use to him as if he had never heard anything. They spoke a language he had never heard, and seemed to only speak that.
The language on paper seemed just as incomprehensible to him from the few glances he’d gotten from the blue faerie’s books. He had been a little more adventurous with watching over the few days.
He knew that he was still very concealed from view, even when he could see in front of him.
There was another faerie that he saw quite often. It lived in the treehouse in the tree he was living under. It didn’t always come down to the base of the tree, but it liked to talk to the bookish one. It was a lighter blue, almost cyan, with turquoise hair and butterfly wings. It also had glasses.
He watched them often, just to make sure he knew when it would be a good time to find food. He had been having a hard time finding food over the past few days, and whatever he could find was often too big to drag into his hole in the ground.
Usually he had to go out at night and rip off whatever he could from fruit that had fallen from trees. The fruit wasn’t always left on the ground, however, and was often picked up by different faeries, thus limiting his ability to eat. He couldn’t find the energy to resent them for this, but he did wish they’d leave some for him at some point.
He felt his stomach rumble as he watched the nerd faerie pack up its things to leave. There was a fallen piece of fruit on the ground next to it, taunting Roman relentlessly. The nerd was meticulous about leaving things clean, and so Roman would likely never get to eat that specific piece.
He’d have to get lucky and wait for another piece to fall. He sighed and watched the nerd leave.
Wait…
The fruit was still there? Had it forgotten? Night was falling, there would be very few faeries around soon, and he’d be free to eat. He smiled, thanking the small mercies of the world.
He waited until darkness had fallen and he could hear no one or nothing moving, and he climbed out of the tunnel and towards the piece of fruit. He wasn’t too sure what fruit it was, it tasted strange and looked like nothing he had eaten before he had been forced into this realm
He ripped off a piece from the fruit and began eating. There was barely a dent in the fruit, with it being about the same size as him, perhaps even slightly larger, but he ate for a while. He supposed it would be noticeable by the time he finished, but he didn’t think that was as big an issue as starving to death.
Once he figured that he had eaten enough, he ran back to his little tunnel.
He’d managed to make it a little more comfortable over the few days, and he had some soft leaves (he was correct on first assumption- they were blue) on which he slept.
It wasn’t the most comfortable but it was the most luxurious option he had at his disposal. He often thought about his bed at home- and that led him to think of home in general.
Was his brother looking for him at all? Was anyone else? What would they say when they found his dried blood on a mushroom ring? He couldn’t imagine
——
Logan didn’t often stray from routine. Most days, he’d wake up, prepare himself some breakfast, go out for a fly, and then sit under a nearby tree and read. The tree was near his friend Patton’s house, so they often talked to each other
The past few days, Logan had noticed some strange happenings. The feeling of being watched, primarily, but also that any time a piece of fruit would drop to the ground from a tree in the area near Patton’s house, and it stayed there overnight, it would have strange bite marks.
It could fall in the morning and stay there all day, but nothing would start eating it. Only at night. Obviously, this pointed to the idea of a nocturnal creature, but Logan knew nothing that made bite marks or anything the way that were left in these fruits. Nor did he know anything that stayed so close to one specific area.
He believed to have found its habitat, however, when he vaguely noticed movement under a tree root. He couldn’t make out anything in particular in regards to the animal, other than it must’ve been small, given the size of the hole it was in. From the angle he was at, he could only see a small fraction of the hole it had burrowed into, but he had noticed movement more than a few times
He sat, reading for a few hours, stopping only to talk with Patton
“Hey, Lo!” Patton greeted him, ever the happy man he was
Logan smiled, dragging his attention away from the book he was reading
“Patton,” he greeted shortly, “how have you been?”
Conversation continued naturally between them, until Logan caught movement from the habitat of the unknown creature
“That animal I’ve been trying to find for the past few days,” he started, before gesturing towards the tree “I believe it has burrowed into a hole below your tree,”
Patton’s head whipped around to look at the tree with metaphorical stars in his eyes, immediately making a move to get up and presumably run towards the tree, before Logan grabbed his hand
“Remember, this is an unknown, small animal. It has shown to be skittish, and small creatures are much more likely to die of shock, or attack when they feel threatened, so we should probably leave it alone for now,” he cautioned
Upon Patton’s answering pout, he continued
“But, I suppose we could attempt to earn its trust enough that it would come out of hiding on its own,”
Patton’s wings fluttered a few times in what Logan assumed was probably excitement. Logan couldn’t deny that he was also quite excited, though not for the same reasons
Logan was rather intrigued by the strange nature of the unknown creature, and he couldn’t help his curiosity from growing stronger. He’d love to find out what it was, perhaps even discover something new
He, a few hours later, after Patton had left, began packing up his things. He noticed a singular piece of fruit on the ground next to him. He was about to pick it up, but then thought about the mystery creature
It seemed to only be eating food that had dropped on the ground. If he picked it up, what were the chances it would find something else? He let out a small sigh and left it on the ground, putting his books in his bag.
He flew away from the tree and towards his home.
Once he was sitting safely in his bed, he sighed.
Of course, whatever the unknown creature was may be dangerous, so he’d have to approach the situation with caution and be careful not to startle it. Maybe he could leave some food out for it so it wouldn’t have to survive on the off chance some fruit might fall from a tree
He thought about all of his observations of it. At first, he’d hypothesised that it was nocturnal, as that would explain why it only came out of its burrow at night. But, he had seen movement several times during the day- so perhaps it was just hiding from what it perceived to be a threat
He couldn’t think of a single thing that acted exactly the same as this mystery animal
—
@a-chilly-pepper @da3dm
