A Place To Bloom

Stupid Bird

Renou's squad perched in the branches above us with bows out and chalk-tipped practice arrows nocked, scanning the trees. Josha had climbed... he was way up there.

The rest of us took our boots off beneath a tree like a thousand trunks in a maze of wood with nooks and passageways. Overhead, a web of massive trunks crisscrossed high into the upper canopy where a handful of bright green leaves permitted spears of sunlight through. Beside me, thin columns of wood fused together erupted from a tangled cluster of roots with only small patches of black dirt yielding tiny tufts of grass. All throughout, plants with dark-green, rubbery leaves burrowed sprawling roots into cracks and sent out long stalks with pink-and-white flowers that filled the air with a delicate perfume.

To one side, a small creature squawked, waited a few seconds, squawked, waited, then squawked again. Aside from that the forest was quiet but for the wind in the trees and the chorus of insects that filled the world.

Squawk

Rolon sat on a massive shelf of a root. Dark, wavy hair fell loose behind his back as he held his boot up to look inside. "So my stepdad knows all kinds of mushrooms and stuff. Like he knew the mushrooms back home, and when he came to Heralia that was one of the first things he did was learn about the mushrooms."

Squawk

"He even said that to me that when I go somewhere else make sure to learn all about the local mushrooms. That was how he and my mum started talking, you know, 'cause he made a cheese with some local mushroom and it turned out so good he gave everyone a piece and they started talkin' and he was surprised that she'd lived on the nut farm her whole life and didn't know nothin' about the mushrooms we got in central valley."

Squawk

"But yeah he knew all about 'em and he knew which ones gave you energy and which ones heal a rash and which ones made you sick and everything. That one right there..."

A few feet above our heads, a cluster of large, red, semi-circles with bright-blue rings grew out from the side of the tree.

Squawk.

"Shanani told me that one'll put you to sleep. She said that if you extract it and refine it you'll make a poison that'll kill someone but just eatin' it raw like that you'll pass out before you can eat too much."

Squawk

"She was a cutie, man." Daemon raised his face to him.

"pʊ fɪða 'uxuwida!" Tenae snapped his fingers. He sat cross-legged over a relatively flat tangle of roots, arching his back, stretching his arms out all the way, and twisting his torso back and forth. Vayance and Ajak, the other two on his squad, grinned.

"Sorry," Daemon nodded. "Uh... neh-thoo-shee-yeh. za-neh noo-veh?"

Rolon turned to Kaye, who explained. "zaŋe ŋuve is mean eh... what happin."

Squawk

"Crazy needy, man. How do you say that?"

"Needee!" Kaye grinned. "I know this: ki'i mofo!"

"mofo?" I asked. "Which one is more a lot? toto or mofo?"

The bird or lizard or whatever it was that had been squawking stopped, and tiny scratches skittered over the bark.

"Shh!" I raised my hand to silence them and picked up my bow.

Tenae snatched his bow and, in one motion, nocked a practice arrow and stood. Haron had squeezed his muscular body into a narrow tunnel in the wood; he pried free and did the same. Rolon, Turic, Kaye, Daemon, Ajak, and Vayance joined us to scan the surrounding jungle while above, none of Renou's squad seemed to notice.