Mielikki had been hard at work building and setting up her new home in the bog outskirts. She had surveyed along the boarder between Homewood and Blackbriar Bog for a home site that wouldn’t be at risk too much from the bog itself. She found an area that was slightly higher than the bog waters that had a mix of dead and living trees. Using sticks she found, she set up an idea for where to build her new home. She had a woven tarp to string up between trees for a makeshift shelter for the time being.
Seeing as she had some shelter, she decided to set up a perimeter to give her a bit of security. But first, planning, it was better to have an idea of where the “fence line” would be before just diving in. She knew where she wanted it to be, next option was what it would be made of. Plenty of dead wood was around. The lichen on her chin seemed to chime in then, it was like a tickle in the back of her mind and images. Ah hah! She can encourage the lichen to grow along the trees, anything that passes through them and they would let her know. It wasn’t a totally secure plan. She would eventually have to use Bud on a variety of mushrooms and have them grow on the tree trunks and around the base.
This would require a combination of Spore and Enrich. Any mushrooms that grow there she can use Bud on later. Mielikki trotted over to the first group of trees along her perimeter line. She stood among them and closed her eyes, focusing on the tendril of magic within her. It had gotten larger and stronger since her more recent trip to the grandfather tree. She focused the magic out through her hooves and into the soil around her, she pictured it spreading it out around her. She felt a sweat break out, but continued to push farther, trying to enrich as much soil as possible. Mielikki called it good and pulled back from her magic, she did what she could but it was much larger of a space than before. It would have to work.
Mielikki still needed to use Spore on this spot but using Enrich had worn her out. So she headed back to camp to have a snack and rest. As she ambled back home, something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. There was a group of blue mushrooms she hadn’t noticed before. The color was absolutely beautiful. There was also mushrooms that spiraled with pastel colors. She noted the spot in her mental map then lowered her nose to sniff. Nothing unusual as mushrooms go. As she nosed around, one felt oddly warm and so she licked it. Well that was a rather rough and weird tasting shroom.
“EXCUSE ME!? WHO SAID YOU CAN JUST GO AROUND LICKING OTHERS?”
A very loud voice shouted up at her. Mielikki pulled her head back and looked down. Two blue eyes started right at her from among the mushrooms. A tongue shot out and licked one of the eyes. Mielikki could only blink back at the creature who then skittered out from among the mushrooms. It was a very blue scuttle scale.
“DIRE RAT GOT YOUR TONGUE MISSY?!”
Wow, this scuttle scale had a very loud voice and rather rude too.
“Oh, I’m-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to lick you. I was inspecting the mushrooms.”
“DO YOU JUST GO AROUND LICKING MUSHROOMS TOO? DON’T YOU KNOW THAT IS DANGEROUS?”
Mielikki merely blinked, “Uh, well I guess. I don’t know how else to find out if they’re dangerous or not….”
“JUST ASK.” The scuttle scale eyed her right back. “NAME’S LAPIS LAZULI. YOU CAN CALL ME LAPIS.”
“Hi Lapis, I’m Mielikki...do you...do you always yell?”
“YELL? THIS IS MY NORMAL SPEAKING VOICE.”
“Oh, well it’s a lovely voice, Lapis. Are you familiar with the mushrooms in this area?”
“OH YEAH SURE. I HAVE MY FAVORITES BUT I DO KNOW ABOUT THEM. I’M MORE THAN HAPPY TO HELP.”
“That would be wonderful. I’m a fungal noul but I’m still learning about the different varieties of fungi and molds.”
Lapis suddenly ran up Mielikki’s leg and neck to sit on her head. “WELL YOU’VE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE. I SHALL JOIN YOU IN YOUR ADVENTURES OF THE MUSHROOM WORLD.”
Mielikki flinched, Lapis’ feet felt weird and her voice was even louder with her on her head.
“I’m going to have to ask you to lower your normal voice a bit, especially if you’re going to be on my head.”
“OH!! How’s this then?”
“Much better.” With that Mielikki started to walk back to her home but realized that she had bounced back enough to give a simple Spore a try. So she turned around and headed back to where she enriched the soil. She built up a bit of her magic, thinking about how spores are like pollen, that the mushrooms release them to float in the air and find a place to land. And with that she sent her magic up into a poof of spores into the air. It was definitely a bit different compared to pollinate, but worked about the same.
“I think I’ll call it a day now. Shall I show you my home?”
“Let’s go!” Lapis quietly yelled this time. “Can it be our home now?”
“Sure, of course. I’ve been alone too long as is. I could use someone new to talk to.”
Mielikki ambled back through the trees towards the camp site. She managed to remember the patch of pretty mushrooms, passing by them once more. Then continued on by as she traveled the rest of the way to the campsite. It was still so basic, but it was a new homesite after all.
“Well here it is. It’s not much but it’s home.”
“Looks like a good start to me!” Lapis replied.
WC: 1,003
Abilities Used: Enrich, Spore
