“What do you mean?” Anna asked.

“Are these what I think they are?” Barika asked.

“If you’re thinking they’re ironwood mushrooms, you’d be right,” Thokri replied.

“And you just took two of the things?!” Barika asked.

“Aye lass, but don’t worry, it’s not my first time,” Thokri replied.

“What do they do?!” Anna asked.

“They cause hallucinations, child. Strong ones, and the more you eat, the worse it is,” Barika replied.

“So why did you eat them?” Anna asked.

“’Cause it’s fun, lass,” Thokri replied. Barika ate one suddenly, and then the others reached for them.

“Break them in half if you’ve never had one before,” Barika said. Elaine and Rose split one, and so did Lyreen and Voekeer.

“You try too,” the bugbear said.

“It won’t do anything,” Anna replied.

“No, they good. You try. You see,” the bugbear replied.

Shit! I have to, don’t I?! Fuck it! I’ll show them!

Anna took a handful of the mushrooms and stuffed them in her mouth. She chewed once, then swallowed. They tasted nasty, and she wanted to get it over with. The bugbears looked at her with wide eyes.

“That too much!” the bugbear said.

“I could eat them all, and it wouldn’t do anything. Just wait, you’ll see,” Anna replied.

The bugbear looked like he didn’t believe her but didn’t say anything. The basket was passed to the next bugbear, and it went around the room as well.

Lyreen started to stare off into space. Her pupils got big, and she blinked a few times. She started to look around the room.

“Look at your hand, lass,” Thokri said.

Lyreen held up her hand and looked surprised as if she’d never seen it before.

“So many colors!” she said.

“Aye,” Thokri replied.

Elaine was the next to have an effect. She looked up at the ceiling and gasped.

“It’s not real, child,” Barika said, patting her on the arm. Elaine looked at Barika terrified.

“It’s not?” Elaine asked.

“No, child. It’s not,” Barika replied.

“Okay,” Elaine said sounding unsure. Barika smiled at her and kept patting her arm until the necromancer calmed down.

The bugbears were doing the same with their friends or family, talking to them or calming down the ones that seemed upset. One by one, each of her friends started to feel the effects of the ironwood mushrooms, finishing off with Thokri. He didn’t do much other than grin and look around the room.

The bugbears kept looking at her. She smiled at them but didn’t say anything.

I bet they’re all wondering what the fuck is this woman right now.

None of them asked her any questions though. After a few more hours, everyone fell asleep, other than a few bugbears that were guarding the village. They would look in every once and a while throughout the night.

She laid on Thokri who had fallen asleep. She wasn’t willing to go to sleep herself, unsure if it was safe for all of them to sleep, but she also didn’t want to talk to anyone that might wake up, so she closed her eyes and waited for dawn.

She sat up when the bugbears started to stir and shook Thokri awake. He looked around with bleary eyes for a moment.

“What is it, lass?” he asked.

“It’s morning,” Anna replied.

He groaned, rubbed his head, and then stood up. He kicked Voekeer who opened his eyes and then shut them quickly.

“Get up, lad,” Thokri said.

“Fuck,” Voekeer said.

He tried to roll over, but Lyreen was lying on top of him. He gently shook her, and she muttered something in elven. Thokri didn’t waste anymore time. He went and kicked the rest of the party to wake them. Only Barika seemed to be fine. The others looked sick, like they drank too much.

Oh, I know. I’ll give them all some hangover cure. That will make them feel better!

She took out one of the vials from her back pouch.

“Won’t work, lass,” Thokri said.

“Oh,” Anna replied and stuffed it back in her pouch.

They stumbled out of the building, and Lyreen threw up as soon as she stepped outside. This caused Elaine to throw up, and then Rose did. Voekeer managed to keep it down, and Barika and Thokri just chuckled at them.

“You could have warned us,” Elaine said.

“Where would be the fun in that, child?” Barika asked.

“I hate you both so much right now,” Lyreen said.

“I don’t know what you all are complaining about. I don’t feel a thing,” Anna said.

“Oh, fuck off,” Elaine replied.

Anna laughed but decided not to tease them anymore. She got the horses ready. A few of the bugbears came over to watch. The one that had done most of the talking walked over after a while.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“You leave?” he asked.

“We have to,” Anna replied.

“You come back when you need more ground grease,” he said.

“If we pass this way again, we will,” Anna replied.

“Good,” he said.

They were brought a few skins of water to drink before they left, which her friends downed greedily. Once they finished, they said goodbye to the bugbears and headed back to the main road. She managed to get the wagon down the path without getting stuck.

I don’t think they’d be any help today.

Her friends were all sleeping it off in the back. Even Thokri and Barika were out. She could smell the strange ground grease.

That stuff had better be worth it! I liked those teeth!

She wasn’t in the best of moods over it. She could have said no, but Thokri had already agreed, and he was always right, so she didn’t want to argue, but she was upset he’d traded her things away.

I wonder why that lazy rabbit’s not up here with me?

She summoned an eye and looked in the back of the wagon to find Lord Emerald curled up with Rose.

So that’s how it is.

She frowned and sent the eye away.

Guess I don’t get company today.

She kept her normal eye out to watch for trouble, but after all these weeks in the forest, nothing more than some big predators had ever bothered them. She didn’t count the weird stuff she’d run into looking for that flower. None of those things were anywhere near the road.

The predators ended up in her fur collection for the most part except the giant bird that couldn’t fly. She didn’t know what to do with it, so they had just cooked it like a huge chicken.

Everyone liked the pillows we stuffed with the feathers.

Later that day, her eye tugged at her. It had spotted something strange.

OH FUCK!

She pulled the wagon to a stopped quickly and surrounded it with tentacles. The ground started to shake, and moments later, huge cow-like things burst out of the forests. Luckily the tentacles were able to divert them around the wagon. Her friends popped their heads out and looked at the huge herd as it thundered by with huge eyes.

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE THOSE?!” Elaine shouted, trying to be heard over the sound of hooves beating the ground.

“I DON’T KNOW, LASS!” Thokri shouted back.

A roar shook the forest, and the huge cow things bellowed in fear. Some ran headfirst into her tentacles. Whatever chased them drove them to such a blind terror that they were willing to ram horrors from beyond all reason than face it.

The few beasts that had rammed her tentacles were stunned and flopped around on the ground trying to get back up. The ground shook more and more when whatever had been chasing the huge cows burst from the forest. It tore the trees apart, sending them flying. Anna’s tentacles swatted any chunks that came close to the wagon away.

The thing that stepped out made a troll look tiny. It looked, well, it didn’t look like anything she’d seen before. It had short hind legs with long forearms. It had hands, though the fingers were longer than any persons, and they ended in long black claws. It was covered in a thick looking mottled green hide. It roared again, drool spraying from its tooth filled maw, the moment it saw her tentacles.

It rushed towards the wagon, glaring with six rage filled eyes, at what it must have thought were rivals in the hunt. It swiped at the tentacles. They reached out and wrapped around its wrist and squeezed. The monster pulled its arm back. She had pushed power into the tentacle so its grip didn’t break.

She formed one into a long blade and slammed it into the beast’s chest. It only went in a few inches, nowhere near enough to stop such a monster. The beast grabbed the bladed tentacle and pulled it out of its chest, shoving it away.

More power surged through her as she tried to push the tentacle back in. Her dress started to smoke from the effort.

“GIVE ME MY SWORD!” she shouted.

She heard panicked rummaging before Voekeer slapped the general’s black blade in her open palm. She jumped off the wagon with such force it rocked hard. She ran at startling speed towards the monster. When she neared, the tentacle let go. The beast did exactly what she expected and took a swipe at her with its clawed hand.

She stepped out of the way and brought the sword down on its wrist.

You’d better not break, you piece of shit!

She wasn’t fond of swords. The only reason she kept this one was because it was made from adamantine. The sword didn’t break from the impact. Instead, it glided through the beast’s hide, flesh, and bone with ease. The huge hand flew off, and blood gushed out everywhere. The monster howled. It sounded more like rage than pain. She doubted many things even in the wildlands could hurt such a creature, so any injury it received was shocking.

She used its shock to dart in and bury her sword to the hilt in its guts. At least, she thought she did. When she yanked the blade to the side to lay it open, she realized that she had only cut through its skin fat and some muscle. She jumped to the side before it could slap her away or stomp on her.

She looked it over, trying to figure out if she could stab it to death or just keep cutting parts off ‘till it bled out.

Fuck it! It’s worth a try.

She jumped on the monster’s back and ran up its spine. She slammed the sword into the back of its head. She buried the sword past the hilt, only stopping when it reached her fists that were clamped around the grip. She could feel the back of its skull shatter. The monster started to convulse as it fell over dead.

The tentacles pushed it away from the wagon, and it fell on its side. She let go of the sword and landed on the ground hard. She just laid there looking up at the sky.

Fucking, fuckty, fuck! I can’t believe that worked!

She heard her friends rush over.

“Are you alright, child?” Barika asked, sounding genuinely worried. She gave a thumbs up.

“Yep, nothing hurts me,” Anna replied.

“Why are you laying there then?” Lyreen asked.

“Because I want to,” Anna replied.

“I don’t blame her. Look at the size of this thing!” Voekeer said.

He walked over to it and put his hand on the back of its deformed skull. He reached up, grabbed the hilt of the sword, and gave it a yank.

“It’s stuck,” he said.

“I’ll get it,” she said sitting up.

She looked over at the sword. It was out of her reach, so she summoned a tentacle that wrapped around the hilt and yanked it free. The monster’s head rocked some from the force, and Voekeer jumped back. The tentacle handed her the sword, and she inspected it.

“Well, it’s not any worse than before,” she said.

She stood up and looked around. The forest was destroyed all around them, and blood covered the road as well as the wagon.

“What a mess,” she said. The others looked around as well.

“What are we going to do with that?” Lyreen asked.

“Can we eat it?” Anna asked.

“What? No!” Lyreen replied.

“Why not?” Anna asked.

“It’s a magical beast and a predator. It would taste terrible and poison us like the last one did,” Voekeer replied.

“The dried meat didn’t,” Anna said.

“True, but it would still taste like shit,” Voekeer replied.

“We can’t just leave it out here,” Lyreen said.

“Can you animate it, child?” Barika asked.

“It’s too big. I couldn’t take it,” Elaine replied.

“Never thought I’d hear you say that,” Lyreen said.

“Shut it, elf!” Elaine replied.

“I’ll get rid of it. Just let me get its teeth and claws first,” Anna said.

“How are you planning on doing that? This thing is huge, even for you?!” Lyreen asked.

“You’ll see,” Anna replied. She walked around to the front of its head, reached in the huge mouth, and started to yank the foot long teeth out.

“I’ll get a sack,” Elaine said.

She filled the sack and then moved on to the monster’s claws. She looked at its hand for a moment before hacking off its fingers at the first knuckle, figuring she could clean the flesh off later. After that, she picked up the severed hand and held it up.

“We should keep it!” Anna said.

“Why do you want that, child?” Barika asked.

“No reason,” Anna replied.

Lyreen lifted her hand and sparks gathered around for a moment before shooting out and hitting the hand. It sparkled for a moment and then went dim.

“It should keep for a few weeks,” Lyreen said.

“Thanks,” Anna replied. She set it aside and then looked at the monster again.

“So, how are you going to do it?” Lyreen asked.

All the tentacles disappeared. The others looked around in confusion. Suddenly a single towering tentacle appeared. It was taller than the trees and bigger around than most of them as well. It reached down and picked up the dead monster by the neck before flinging it off into the sky. Her friends gawked at the monstrous appendage, and she looked at them smugly.

“It’s so huge!” Lyreen said.

Anna giggled, and Lyreen pushed her after she realized why Anna was giggling. The tentacle disappeared, and she headed for the driver’s bench.

“Get in the back, lass,” Thokri said.

“Why?” Anna asked.

“You’re covered in blood again. Don’t want it to soak into the seat,” Thokri replied. She looked down at herself.

“Oh, wow,” she said, looking at her gore covered dress.

“I’ll get a tarp,” Voekeer said.