Errant
You pick up some mushrooms with purple caps. They’re an odd variety, with little blue stripes pointed at the center. A friend of your once said they had interesting properties if you ever ate them. No better time than the present right? You pop a bite sized shroom into your mouth and chew. It has an earthy taste along with something you can’t quite place. But it tastes, good. Really good. Like, you’ve never had food that tasted so good. It even made the air around you taste good. And the sunlight. Could you always taste sunlight?
The forest changes after you eat. The colors are brighter, the trees start to grow much faster than normal. They might tangle you up in them if you get too close. Hoping to dodge the trees you take a step back and loose your balance. You fall on your ass and just keep falling, falling, rolling. Suddenly the earth stops spinning and the trees stop growing. You see a ring in the forest floor, purple and blue all swirled and mixed together. You crawl towards it, hoping to stay out of sight of the trees.
When you reach the center of the circle the ground beneath your feet breaks and gives way sending you tumbling down once again. This time the colors don’t follow you. Neither does the tasty sunlight. It get dark and all you can hear or feel is the rush of wind. But it’s not rushing by you, it’s blowing you down. Down, down. And then you see something. Off in the distance. A light of some sort. Not as tasty, but fast approaching like the growing trees.
Suddenly you’re flat on your back staring straight up at a gem encrusted ceiling. The world spins back into place as your mind clears and the foggy high brought on by the mushroom begins to fade. You look to the side and see beetles the size of horse. You look away, they’ll shrink down once your brain catches up.
Only they don’t. The funk washes out of you completely as you’re left to assess your new surroundings. No longer are you in the dense forest, but now a cavern of crystals and gemstones. You see houses both carved from stone and built in the cavern and you begin to notice the people. The winged people. The people riding those horse-sized bugs.
And the. It dawns on you: you’ve stumbled in the realm of the fairies.
The forest changes after you eat. The colors are brighter, the trees start to grow much faster than normal. They might tangle you up in them if you get too close. Hoping to dodge the trees you take a step back and loose your balance. You fall on your ass and just keep falling, falling, rolling. Suddenly the earth stops spinning and the trees stop growing. You see a ring in the forest floor, purple and blue all swirled and mixed together. You crawl towards it, hoping to stay out of sight of the trees.
When you reach the center of the circle the ground beneath your feet breaks and gives way sending you tumbling down once again. This time the colors don’t follow you. Neither does the tasty sunlight. It get dark and all you can hear or feel is the rush of wind. But it’s not rushing by you, it’s blowing you down. Down, down. And then you see something. Off in the distance. A light of some sort. Not as tasty, but fast approaching like the growing trees.
Suddenly you’re flat on your back staring straight up at a gem encrusted ceiling. The world spins back into place as your mind clears and the foggy high brought on by the mushroom begins to fade. You look to the side and see beetles the size of horse. You look away, they’ll shrink down once your brain catches up.
Only they don’t. The funk washes out of you completely as you’re left to assess your new surroundings. No longer are you in the dense forest, but now a cavern of crystals and gemstones. You see houses both carved from stone and built in the cavern and you begin to notice the people. The winged people. The people riding those horse-sized bugs.
And the. It dawns on you: you’ve stumbled in the realm of the fairies.