Mushrooms were never meant to move, outside of the migration of their spores, they were stationary things. And so the duo was quite comfortable in their current situation, it might have also helped the fact that they were asleep.

Their dreams were eventful, and thankfully not as exciting as their last experience in the waking world.

The bunny gazed upon white, beautifully paved roads and alleys. Happy, unintelligible words leaking from every which way. It was a place of peace, and brightness. While the pavement was orderly and pristine, up above the roofs shone in a myriad of colors, each with hidden meanings to them. How she knew that, she was not quite sure. She was not quite sure about any of this, to be frank. Even the sounds, pleasant as they may be, only came from the indistinct blurs that went through their day.

And every moving shape was a blur, every shape but one.

She focused on them. They were a brown bunny with ears much like her own. But they were strapped inside a weird… thing. It reminded her of the monkeys.

Sleek and gray with blue undertones. The contraption moved their legs when the bunny moved her hind legs, and their arms when the bunny moved their forelegs and ears. The watcher could only begrudgingly admit that despite the bad taste in the shape- it would certainly make it easier to reach high places and to protect oneself better.

But that was not at all what happened, the brown bunny just interacted with other blurry shapes, exchanging glittering things for fruit, and even meat. So odd was their behavior, specially when they entered a stall like many of the others and just sat behind it. In front of them laid a line of small sculptures, a tree with a single fruit, an eyeball with an X in place of its retina, and many different animals with interesting headpieces.

The only excitement that followed was the occasional cooking on the back of the stall, and the exchange of glittering things for wooden sculptures, new and old. Night came. She watched the brown bunny go home, jump off their suit and lay down in a cozy burrow. The vision faded, and left behind just one more thing, again that same name, Emberglow.

The Foldicap was assailed by much different visions, strong emotions in flashes and bursts, loss, loneliness, the collective right there, in front of their eyes, in the reach of their nubby fingertips, only for the ground to fall from under them.

But what caught them was not the hard and unforgiving forest floor, but the reliable forehead of their new friend. A rabbit, they said they were. Warmth and appreciation laid there, and even thought it was not the collective, even though they were separate, the Foldicap had to admit, it was nice. The coziest forehead.

They both woke at roughly the same time, surrounded by the lifeless, dry remains of the great foe they defeated.

“Mushi?”

“Who is mushi? What is mushi?”

“MUSHI!” The bunny got up with a jolt, so excited by hearing the voice of her friend that she jumped straight through the dead, dried, body they slept within.

“Careful there… Rabbi?” The mushroom spoke while they both soared, Deploying a green parachute to slow their fall. Up above so high, they watched the sunrise slowly bathe the jungle in gold, and the wastes.

“Rabbi?! Wait! You are alive! I’m so glad.” Exhaled the bunny.

“Why would I not be alive? I too am glad you are well.”

As the wind gently lowered them towards the ground, they both laid eyes upon the destroyed clearing, much like the place where they first woke up on if you ignored the bodies.

“…We did that.” Said the bunny.

“It would seem so. It was not your fault, you were merely protecting yourself from those not-mushrooms not-trees.”

“But we destroyed their banana tree.”

“We did?”

“Yes. I didn’t realize until it was too late. If I wasn’t so afraid… I…”

“It’s ok, I too was afraid. I didn’t know not-mushrooms could be so scary.”

“But, I am a not mushroom too.”

“You… are? You are a rabbit mushroom, you told me yourself.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“No, Mushi, I am a Rabbit, an animal, just like the monkeys were. I am not a mushroom, mushrooms are small and taste weird.”

“But your insides are just like mine, and nothing like theirs. And I don’t taste weird… I think.”

With that, they floated down in silence. Landing in the soft ash-like dust of their own making.

The bunny sat, surrounded by the dessicated remains of the carnage they wrought, looking up towards the sky.

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[This story is only available at RoyalRoad by DrySolace]

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“What do you mean my insides are like yours?”

“Well, your everything is like me. You are a mushroom, how do you not know? You are just different from any mushroom I have ever seen, your mycelium hangs in the air, untethered. Your root system converges within yourself instead of the earth and you move…a lot, and are very loud.”

“I am… a mushroom?” She then looked at her front legs, really looked at them. The fur… was weird, and moved even without wind. She tried looking harder, and her fur parted. Her skin was the same black of her fur, and it too, parted. Now horrified, she just sat transfixed as her small front legs split open for her to look inside. What she thought was her flesh was the same as her skin, and there was no blood, only roots. When she saw her bones, and they too were black, she finally snapped out of her trance. Her flesh re-knitting itself together.

“I am a mushroom.”

“What else would you be?”

“I… I wasn’t a mushroom yesterday! You did something to me! You- You! You weird mushroom in my head!” She immediately regretted her words, but it was too late.

“I… I didn’t ask to be here! Stuck in your forehead, I can’t even go back to my collective, did you think I choose to be alone?!”

Emotions coiled and twisted inside both of them. Betrayal, hurt, confusion. A severing of the bond they had formed.

The bunny stormed out.

“Where are you going?!”

“Away from here! You can’t stop me! You said so yourself, you are just a mushroom stuck in my forehead!”

She barely walked a few paces until her feet were stuck in place by a bright green unfolded piece of mushroom.

“You!” She instinctively reached for it with her buck teeth and tore a piece of it off.

“You are hurting me! You Are an animal, you are just like the monkeys!”

The bunny physically recoiled from what she had done, she didn’t mean to-

The earth quaked. Once, twice, trice. And every quake was closer. Both bunny and Foldicap froze before disentangling from each other.

“What do we do?” Said the Foldicap, with a quiver in their voice.

“Burrow burrow, we can’t be late, we can’t.”

Despite besting a foe much bigger and stronger than them, the bunny couldn’t help but notice that even with the help of her new limbs digging was slightly harder than it used to be.

Step by step the earthquakes intensified.

“What is that?” Asked the Foldicap

“It’s an elder beast, they are big big.” She spoke hurriedly as she dug.

They managed to dig a burrow just before the creature reached them. And hid within, in silence.

They could feel the elder beast reaching the clearing, and bellowing in frustration. The stomps that followed were so strong that they made them both dizzy.

It took 30 minutes until the beast finally decided to leave the area. The two sat in the still silence of darkness for a few minutes more.

“I am sorry.” Said the Foldicap.

“No, It’s my fault, I am not used to talking with anyone that’s not… me. And being a rabbit was the last thing I had from my family. I shouldn’t have lashed out on you.”

“From your… collective?” Emotions welled up inside the little mushroom.

“I… yes, I guess you could say that.” The bunny shrunk as she spoke.

“I am sorry I… I didn’t know. Maybe we could find them?”

“It’s alright. They are gone.”

“Gone? Gone where?”

“They are dead.”

The green Foldicap shook in mourning, and the bunny followed soon after. Sobs filled the little burrow.

“I- I don’t want to be alone again! I am sorry! You are not just a mushroom stuck in my forehead!”

“I don’t want to be alone either, you… are a rabbit that looks like a mushroom. And you are not mean like the monkeys. You are friend. I am sorry too. Also, I still am a mushroom stuck in your forehead, so it’s not like you need to apologize for that.”

“Not JUST a mushroom stuck in my forehead!”

“Because we basically share the same body?”

“What! Why do I not know anything happening to me!” The bunny then dug out of their burrow in indignation, tears forgotten, and laid against the floor.

“Well, I haven’t tried to control your body. It’s so complicated. But we are basically part of the same collective, just not… a collective.”

“So, we are family then?”

“I guess so. Family.” The green Foldicap was conflicted, they still wanted to go back to the collective. Never had they experienced so many emotions in such a short span of time, in fact, never had they experienced so many emotions… at all.

As if sensing the internal conflict of her friend, the bunny spoke in a soft tone, “It’s alright, we will find your collective. Maybe they would also like to be friends?”

The green foldicap would have agreed instantly when they first met, but now… they weren’t so sure. Still, they would keep it to themselves, until they understood things better.

“Yeah, maybe the would.”

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[Embwerglow's lost heir/mushi x bunny adventures unchained is only available at RoyalRoad by DrySolace]