Amara knew every kind of mushroom in the woods. She didn't need a book, a teacher, a taste-test; her glowing green friends that grew on her mask whispered all the fungi secrets Amara could want. On one fine evening, with a sweet, warm breeze blowing through a glade in the woods, Amara dug through the undergrowth, looking for one of a few particular mushrooms. The fungi might tell her all the secrets of mushrooms, but she was still the one who had to find them.
Finally, under all the rotting leaves, she found a round mushroom with no stem. It had a soft, dry skin and a spongy inside. When she squeezed it, a little blue tendril of smoke puffed out. She smiled to herself and put it in her basket, which was woven out of twigs. In the basket she had a bed of leaves, keeping her finds safe. The mushroom she had just found was one of her favourites; whoever ate it would turn blue all over, blueberry blue. Kind of purple. Only temporarily, but it amused Amara to feed it to unsuspecting Twilifs, and it was one of her favourite colours.
Next to the blue-faced mushroom in her basket, there was one with a twisted stem which made whoever ate it a little dizzy. She also had a large capped red mushroom that made the consumer hallucinate Will 'o Wisps leading the way through the forest, but she rarely used that one. It was a little too cruel and too much work. She had tired of that one quickly when she realized travelers would become terribly lost and out of guilt she had to lead them home. Still useful to have, though; that one could be dried, cut into strips, and kept on her in case of emergencies.
That evening, she took her basket out onto the road, and headed towards the village. Rarely would she leave the forest, but lately she had been feeling particularly nasty towards Twilifs. It would be hard to say why, exactly, but there she was, looking for a Twilif to feed one of the mushrooms to. Hopefully, she would come across someone soon, so she could retreat back to her home and enjoy a nice nap.
