After sleeping in the warehouse, morning came, and our protagonists marched onward to Tor's Forest. even in the edge of the forest, the giant tree was at least a mile high, or at least Jarvis guessed. If you were to get a h8

to get a satellite's view, all the way up in the stratosphere, you'll see that the tree covers 50 percent of the entire forest, and 37 percent on the winter when its leaves wither.

Jarvis thought of waiting till winter when the leaves fall by themselves, but he found himself to be impatient. Also, to mention what if the leaf decays from the cold winter? He doesn't want to even think about how to get the leaf in the first place, much less if it dries up and becomes fragile. "Well, we will see when we get there first."

Jarvis and Tybalt entered the forest and was immediately introduced to the beautiful scenario. The semi-transparent leaves colored the atmosphere with jade and bright emerald green contrasting with colors of indigos, dark greens and Tyrian purples. Many eyes stared at the 2 travelers but neither Jarvis nor Tybalt could see them back. The wind flowed across the branches, making music for the Recorder birds. Many bushes shimmied with the movement of animals like fanged rabbits, racoonbears, Green-tailed Squirrels, compound eyed salamanders and other small critters and games.

Jarvis was suddenly hit by a wave of fatigue as the realization of having walked all the way from the warehouse to the forest without breakfast. So, Jarvis lazily swept the ground and sat on the grassy floor. Tybalt sat on a rock, watching the ten-antennas ants marching in two-by-two close to the rock, as hunger grew in Tybalt's belly. So, Tybalt lowered his head to eat the ants like how an aardvark eats ants. This surprised Jarvis as he realized, Tybalt has a tongue! And yet Jarvis thought of course he has a tongue. What animal doesn't have a tongue? Jarvis then began to think of animals without tongues until he gained hunger too.

Jarvis laughed a bit as he unpacked his lunch. Jarvis began to eat whilst listening to the surrounding noises. He listens to the wind, to the critters running around, and the sounds of ambient silence between the noises as well as the sounds of himself chewing his food. Suddenly, a song played. Sounds like a lady singing mellow song. When Jarvis inspected his surroundings, he found that the source of the voice came from the Recorder birds. Jarvis tried whistling along but soon found out that he doesn't know how to whistle. Then, Jarvis hummed along to the songs of the birds.

At one point, Jarvis hummed a little tune he made up on the spot. Jarvis isn't exactly gifted in musical knowledge but at least he's not tone deaf. Jarvis sung pretty average as average goes. Yet, it seems it was good enough for the birds to learn his little tune to sing. the sound of a lady coming from a Recorder bird sung the exact tune as Jarvis sung. Other recorder birds, a red one that sounds like a band of percussion and bright green one that sounds like a flute sang along, adding their own tunes to accompany the tune Jarvis made up.

It was a good time all around but, trouble arises deeper in the forest. The sound of a siren coming from a cousin species of the Recorder birds, the dark watcher birds, which were basically recorder birds that darkened its feathers and makes noises of warning to all animals of danger. Tybalt felt a jolt of fear as even the ants scattered away from the source of the sound. All the animals even the Recorder birds and the dark watcher bird that made the call ran away from the impending danger. Suddenly, the sky darkened as if it was engulfed in a dark aura. Purple fog crept from the source of danger. Jarvis hid behind a tree, not breathing the clearly visible fog out of instinct and looked cautiously at what is coming. Tybalt, with his very squishy body, hid under the rock he sat on and stood still as to not even breathe.

The sound of hooves walking increased louder and louder. A dark silhouette appears in the thick of the purple fog of what looks like a man riding a horse. Jarvis wanted a closer look but a feeling that he should not approach this being overcame him. So, Jarvis watched from his distance. His feeling was correct. The horse shouldn't be called a horse because it had no skin on its face and its skull was replaced by a boar skull. The monster's legs were colored with dark stripes and resembled more like a tiger's legs and feet with custom metal shoes that made that clop-clop-clopping sound.

The rider had no legs and looked to be forcibly fused to the living corpse of the horse monster. The sternum and the ribs pierced outward from its skinny skin like an exoskeleton. Its arms stretched abnormally long. nearly touching the feet of its "horse" with long nails scraping the floor at times. Its hunched body doesnt show its face and its messy long hair covers the rest of its face... And this being comes closer and closer to where Jarvis sat. Jarvis thought of slowly walking away and run but once he took a step, the crack of an unlucky and misplaced old branch broke from the weight of Jarvis' foot.

The monster stopped moving and the boar headed horse monster sniffed the air. Then, the rider's head slowly raised up to reveal a broken mask hiding a hideously disfigured face. The mask bore a sinister toothy smile with 4 eyes, 2 symmetrically placed on both side of the face... But that wasn't a mask, the teeth opened up and the eyes moved to meet Jarvis'.

Jarvis couldn't run. The monster galloped as fast as he could and struck the branch with its sharp nails like a saw striking a twig. Jarvis was shocked still from the speed and did his best to not breathe. But the monster found the scent of Jarvis and slowly started sniffing at him. The neck of the rider stretched with mouth open, showing 3 rows of sharp canine like teeth in every row. Every hair in Jarvis' body, every feeling in his gut, every cell in his body was screaming, yelling, pleading to Jarvis to scream, fight, run away as fast as he could... and Jarvis was about to do that. Just as Jarvis could feel the breath of the rider, a poor fanged rabbit fell from a branch and panicked, breathing the purple fog.

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As the creature ran to escape its fate, it immediately caught the attention of the monster, who chased after it in full gallop. Jarvis saw the rabbit slowly stop running and fall in a seizure, Jarvis guessed it was the effects of the fog. The monster scooped up the rabbit slowly and began by eating its head. The rest of the rabbit's body stopped seizing a few seconds after. The monster messily ate the rest of the rabbit, spilling the victim's blood everywhere before looking back at the broken branch, where Jarvis is, before continuing its way.

The fog slowly faded along with the monster and the dark aura left, revealing the sky that pierced through the leaves again. Jarvis took a deep needed breath before running towards where Tybalt hid. Luckily for him, Tybalt was ok, just a bit dizzy from breathing that fog just a little. Though after breathing the fresh forest air again, Tybalt felt fine again. Just to make sure, Jarvis carried Tybalt on his shoulder for some time.

No noise came until a couple minutes later, when the sounds of the wind flooded the silent area. Jarvis continued his trip toward the giant tree, thinking about what just happened, what occurred that moment ago. The monster may have 4 eyes plus the 2 from its 'horse' but it didn't see Jarvis. It relied on its smell and its sense of sound. One thing is for sure, he doesn't want to meet that fiend ever again.

Jarvis grew tired and sat on the floor, not paying attention to the unswept floor where branches were poking his legs. Though something poked his shoe unlike the branches. When Jarvis checked what was under his shoe, he saw a mushroom. 'Strange,' Jarvis thought before putting his foot back on the mushroom. That's when the mushroom attacked with a stick!

"Didn't you hear me?! Don't step on me!" A little voice came from the mushroom. It was a living creature! This one carried a giant (giant for its size is around 4 inches big) hollowed out acorn with rotting chunks of meat as a backpack, shoved onto the gills was a glass that looks like it came from a soda bottle that it uses as a mask and glasses. Its cap was an edible orange, and its annulus was worn like a sash. The little mushroom had a human like face with a circular nose, a button-down shirt, 2 arms but no legs. This guy adorably hops around on its one foot. 2 other mushroom men who were hiding in plain sight, made their appearances known to Jarvis and Tybalt.

"Did you not hear me the first time?!" The mushroom person with the glasses spoke like a very small man as he waved a twig at Jarvis. Jarvis admits he has not heard him. The situation went into an awkward silence. "W-well what are you even doing so deep in the forest?!" The orange capped mushroom man continues his questioning. "It's dangerous here! Don't you know that this is the territory of the Pelanibus?!"

'Pelanibus. Was that the name of the monster I just saw?' Jarvis thought to himself. "I'm sorry but I didn't know what a Pelanibus is. Why are you here too then if it's so dangerous?" Jarvis whispered to the mushroom men who he worried if he spoke, it might be too loud for them. "Stop whispering! I can't hear you clearly!" The orange capped mushroom man yelled at Jarvis.

Another mushroom person, one bearing the resemblance of a fat porcini mushroom with fat arms wearing clothes that look too small for him and a dark brown cap color, answered Jarvis: "Well, we are here to gather food. Usually, the Pelanibus leaves a corpse in its wake, and we gather it up to bring to our homes to eat." The porcini mushroom got slapped by another mushroom, a skinny mushroom lady with a white cap with black ooze curling its edges and dripping off the cap, wearing a black cloth and using its annulus like a skirt, scolded the big mushroom man: "You idiot! We don't know this guy and already you're telling him everything! What if he wants to eat us?!"

The lady mushroom made sense in the mind of Jarvis. Besides her, the other 2 mushroom men look edible. You could gather up a couple of them, remove the rotten flesh, light up a fire and use a rock or even an iron skillet to sauté them a bit. There's obviously herbs and other spices in the forest to cook these mushrooms in many different ways. Jarvis' stomach growled, which made all the mushroom people wary. "You see?! He's already thinking of how to cook us!" the lady mushroom continued to scold the chunky mushroom man. She wasn't wrong, but to calm them down, Jarvis had an idea.

"You guys eat corpses and decay because you're mushrooms?" Jarvis wondered. The orange capped mushroom man looked at Jarvis in a look that says what he said was obvious. "Well, I got some leftovers from my lunch if you want them." All of the mushroom men put their attention to the word 'Leftovers.' The mushroom lady suddenly changed from an angry and cautious character to a grateful but cautious person. The Porcini man took the bait, hook, line, sinker, and even the rod at the sound of food. The orange capped mushroom man questioned to see if he does have these supposed leftovers. Jarvis pulled out his lunchbox and showed a steak eaten 3/4th of the way. The last piece he can part.

"Ahem, well then. If you don't mind, we can't exactly take the whole thing without assistance. Can you accompany us back to our home so we can share it with our village?" Jarvis looked around for a tiny village but couldn't find any. "Sure, but where is your home?" Just as the orange cap man was about to tell Jarvis, the mushroom lady pulled him away and huddled with the big mushroom for a discussion. Their voices were so low, Jarvis couldn't hear them.

"Alright maybe not straight to our homes because we still don't know you... but we can take you somewhere close to not reveal everything." The mushroom with the glasses stated. Jarvis remembered to give his name just then.

"Oh, my name is Jarvis. It's nice to meet you!" Jarvis told the mushroom men. The orange capped mushroom man with glasses was named Captn Stool. He specified that he was called Captn and not Captain. The fat Porcini bodied mushroom man was named Alussur and the inky capped mushroom lady was named Laydi Amanita. Jarvis picked up the 3 mushroom people and placed them on the top of Tybalt to ride on as they head towards the destination where the mushroom people are.