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Elise McGill and The Thief of The Sea
Chapter 13: Beware the Island Mushrooms

Chapter 13: Beware the Island Mushrooms

"Dont they look scrum-diddly-umptious?" Archibell grinned like a maniac as he picked one up. "Good enough for mush-soup!"

Elise watched the cap as it glowed ominously in the early morning sun. Observing the oddly raised white bumps on the glowy surface, she shook her head, "Don't you know the saying: Beware the island mushrooms?"

Archibell gave a hearty squawk of a laugh. "That's something they tell kiddies like you so you don't stick random objects in your mouth. As someone who knows a lot about island cuisine, certain mushrooms are indeed edible!"

"Oh yeah, Mr. Smartypants," Tony said gruffly, "What do you call this shrooms?"

Archibell closed one of his eyes and observed the fungi in his good hand. "This, Mr. Wise fish, is a glowshroom. Totally harmless as long as you don't mind a glow in your belly…"

Elise breathed out a sigh in relief, but Archibell continued to eye the shrooms. "But just to be safe, we should let troutboy taste test it."

"What?!" Tony protested. "Do I look like your minipig or something, you palooka? Imma fish!"

Tony looked at both of his compatriots. "Here's how I say we do it. We all bite the shrooms at once. Derefore, we all take one for the team. One for for all and all for weird mushrooms!"

Elise looked at Archibell and Tony and nodded. "I like the idea of sharsies."

She picked up a mushroom and split it in two so Tony could have a bite.

"One for the gold," Archibell remarked as Tony and Elise all looked nervous.

"Two for da show," Tony said.

"Three to get ready," Elise said, her eyes staring transfixed on the shroom.

"Now let's all bite the glow!" they all said and nibbled the suspicious shrooms.

Elise had to admit, the shroom was nice and chewy--the perfect topping for a pizza Molly could serve her family.

After spending some time savoring the shroom, she swallowed. "OK…" she said to herself. "Please don't be poison."

Elise closed her eyes, waiting for an adverse effect.

She opened her eyes. "Hey guys," she smiled. "I think the mushrooms are safe "

"My sentiments exactly!" Archibell chuckled, causing Elise to scream.

The captain's face was upside down. His eyes and eyebrows were where his mouth should have been. His mouth talked out of the top of his forehead Elise grasped her hair, shaking her head frantically. The sky, once bright orange and blue was now a hazy green and purple.

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"Hey Elise," Tony asked casually. "Did ya always have three eyes?"

Elise turned her head to Tony. He now had a tiny pompadoured human head on his fish body.

Elise dropped him and ran off screaming into the woods, the tree of which were now bright pink with yellow stripes.

The deeper she got into the woods, the stranger things became. The rose brambles had thorny arms instead of branches and legs instead of roots and they danced around her while chanting, "Ring around the child."

She ran past them in absolute confusion, trying to get the strange scenes out of her head. She didn't look where she was going and slammed into a large stone figure. Once she managed to shake tiny twittering birds away from her head, she nearly hyper ventilated seeing what was before her.

The rock was muscular with a long flowing mullet of moss and a stone shaped guitar in his hand. The figure loudly strummed as his eye pebbles bulged. "GET READY TO ROCK!!" he screamed in a scratchy voice.

Elise leaped up off her rear and ran as far as she could from the scary rock man. "Why doesn't anything make sense here?!

"Ho ho ho," a voice laughed from the hinterlands. "Sometimes things make the most sense when they make no sense at all!"

Elise turned her around and screamed as a floating head accosted her. She shielded her eyes, but the voice called her name again. This time in a friendly tone. "Open your eyes, Elise!"

Elise opened her eyes and saw that it was old man Sei's head, smiling at her. "Looks like I'm making some headway here!" He chortled.

"What happened to your body?" Elise asked, still covering her eyes partially.

"I'm having an 'out of body's experience," Sei's head grinned. "And so are you, Elise. You ate the sacred vegetable of the Helloha people."

Elise shook her head. "I knew that was a bad idea."

Sei's head bobbled up and down. "Your captain friend has a whole host of them! Bad ideas that is! But fortunately, this is a learning experience and one that is not fatal."

"How do you know?" Elise begged.

Sei laughed. "I used to dig these mushrooms back when I was a lad! I was a bit of a hippie. Anyway, I want you to follow me...I have something to show you, even in your questionable state "

Elise followed the floating head past the purple brush, past trees made of string cheese into a clearing outside the woods. "See what's down below?" the head said.

Elise saw a bunch of upturned coconuts the size of houses. "Now I'm truly going coco-nuts!" she shouted

The head shook his head. "It's not about the giant coconuts, but what's inside them. Somewhere inside this village of Helloha people, is a young man who would make an excellent navigator on your journey to find the pieces of the trident. He may be young, but he already knows the ocean like the back of his… well..." Sei turned around, revealing the back of his head.

Confused, Elise looked up at the floating head who chortled.

"Sorry," he said. "A bit of heady humor there. But anyway, you can see why it is important you came to this island. And even your captain's foolhardy folly had a silver lining."

"Yep…" Elise said smiling before frowning again. "Now how do I get things back to normal?"

There was rustling from the indigo bush beside her. Elise gasped as a small bamboo-like reed protruded out of the bush.

It was hollow in the center. Without warning, there was an exhale and a tiny dart shot out of the bush, right into the side of her arm. Elise felt herself getting drowsy immediately. "Night night," she said, closing her eyes before collapsing.

Elise was awoken by the itching sensation of a rope bounding her arms. The first thing she noticed was that she was inside a giant coconut. The milky white ceilings smelled delicious and their aroma almost distracted her from her plight. Reality hit her when sbe realized who she was tied up next to.

Archibell, minus his clothes, gabbed loudly. "Why are we tied up?" he squawked. "And why am I naked?!"

A tan-skinned man dressed armor and a grass skirt pointed a spear in Archibell's face. "Silence, pirate," he commanded. "You will meet a dire fate for attempting to invade our fair village. Why I think you might be scouts for the nefarious Rotten Rogers himself!"