Caruso waited for Kumiko in the shroom gardens, it was their day to gather truth buttons and drink tea by the river. They had made their first gathering trip just two days before but Niko always demanded having truth buttons on hand; they had to be fresh and had to be potent. And they only grew in the rocky caves up the river.

It was Kumiko’s job, but Caruso was more than happy to accompany her. She claimed to need help carrying her tea pot, despite being both bigger and stronger than him. Caruso didn’t need convincing anyway, he loved walking around the forest, being with all the mushrooms and trees and birds. And around Kumiko, he didn’t have to be afraid. If any Urchins attacked them he knew she could take care of them—while I hide in my walls.

She was also easy to be around because she loved to talk, not in an annoying mindless way, but in a way that is enthusiastic and intelligent. On their first outing two days ago, Kumiko had discussed all the different species of birds they came across—this seemed to be a particular passion of hers.

What Caruso liked most of all about these gathering trips was that there was no sexual tension. If she were closer to his age, with a body more like Miranda’s, and wasn't missing an ear, then he had no doubt that their walks would be completely ruined.

Kumiko finally appeared with her shroom basket and pot, she handed Caruso the latter and they set off. They no longer relied on Miles to lower the wall for them. Instead Caruso raised them up and over and back down the other side—this time without any jerking or stuttering. He asked why she didn’t just blink through the wall, and received a long verbal essay about safe blinking practices.

They followed a worn trail north through the Zone 3 ground shrooms, passing beneath old willows whose branches where studded with bakkostems.

'Why is there such a clear trail this way?' Caruso asked.

'This leads straight to the civilian camps, you've never been, have you?'

'No, but I’ve heard them mentioned, what are they exactly?'

Kumiko idly plucked a bakkostem and began chewing, 'It's where all the civilians who enter Zone 3 stay.'

'Civilians in Zone 3? I thought they didn't come here, or were kept out by Foresters?'

'Usually that's the case, but some always slip through. I've met a few whose dogs chased a shroomstoat over the line—they decided to stay with their dogs; others whose horses must've spooked and bolted over; some who were just sick of their life and made the crossing; even met a bunch who were thrown over by disgruntled family members. They end up getting found by Foresters—usually Niko will try and question them first—and then sent to the civ camps where they are given food, housing, and safety in return for gathering drugshrooms.'

'So the civilians there are happy with this arrangement?'

'Seem to be. They don't have much choice though. Better than getting picked off by an Urchin or shroombeast. But the majority end up turning into poppy addicts and just live their lives in a contented haze. They don't seem interested in much else. You ever try it?'

'Poppyshrooms?'

'Yeah.'

'A little, sometimes, back in Jamala whenever I felt stressed or whatever.'

'You like it?' Kumiko asked.

Caruso nodded. ‘I can see why it's so addictive. It's like for an entire night I can be free of myself and my thoughts, if that makes any sense.'

'I get it. Just don't let Ferris catch you.'

'Oh, I haven't done it since I've been here. Haven't even thought about it.'

'That's good.'

Caruso picked a bakkostem off a low hanging willow branch and sniffed it. He put one end in his mouth, mimicking Kumiko, but immediately spat it out. 'Ugh!'

Kumiko laughed, 'First time?'

'And last. Why would people pay five gil for one of those?'

'If you keep at it, it gives you a little lift. But I suppose it's an acquired taste.'

'It tastes like a bitter shoe.' Caruso said. Kumiko laughed. 'Hey, there was another thing Ferris mentioned, I wanted to ask about.'

'Shoot,' Kumiko said.

'The anima research stations... I understand if you're not allowed to talk about it. I was just curious.'

'I think it's safe territory,' Kumiko tossed away her bakkostem. 'I'm sure you know about the animashroom, right?'

'Only that it sort of turns people into animals?'

'It merges two together. Usually a human and an animal. But it's a new shroom, we don't know much about it. So the anima stations are basically where we conduct research. Ferris is determined to figure it out before the Urchins do.'

'I saw two animas that day I was brought here,' Caruso said. 'One was a Forester who looked like he had merged with a frog.'

'Daniel. You would've liked him, he was in charge of cultivating the edible shrooms before he died. Smart guy, sweet too. Had a thing for breeding frogs in the compound's creek and then naming them all after us.' Kumiko went silent for a moment before continuing. 'The Urchin anima was probably Pango. He’s been going around trying to destroy our anima stations. It’s driving Ferris crazy.’

‘What happens at these anima stations?’

‘It’s just where we research the animashroom, conduct mergings and try and control the mutations. Mang has been dedicated to the animashroom for quite some time now. I’m sure we’ll figure it out soon. The trouble is, most of the times when the animashroom is used, all we get is a grotesque puddle of meat and bones with no humanity. Quite disgusting actually.'

They turned off the trail and headed west towards the caves; it was a long walk but a pleasant one. As they followed the river upstream, Kumiko explained why rivers that pass through the Zones can’t support fish. And when they came to the strange orange fungal growth that grew up the cliff face, Kumiko of course knew all about it and explained all its uses and why it wasn’t sold in Jamala. Caruso wished he brought paper to take notes.

It was twilight when they arrived at the cave, several truthbuttons poked through the pebbles by the river, but it was easier to pick them inside the cave. It wasn’t an especially deep or dark cave, but it had just the right light so the buttons that glowed stood out easily, and more importantly, those that didn’t glow could still be seen. The best buttons were almost completely translucent and dim; a rare find, but Caruso didn’t need many. He quickly found four perfect shrooms and stashed them in the pot.

‘I got four,’ he said. ‘I’ll get some firewood before it gets too dark.’

‘Good idea,’ she said.

Caruso followed the river upstream, collecting the odd dead branch as he went. Upon return he built a small fire while Kumiko prepared their traditional parasol tea. They sat on small boulders, watching the fire grow, and the tea brew, and listened to the river rush by. A sweet floral scent soon filled the air and they sipped their tea while speaking of small things.

Caruso liked this. Back at the compound it was rare to spend much time alone with other people. Small groups often grew into big groups and that quickly became exhausting.

A cool evening breeze swept down the river and teased the fire. The warmth and the chill together tingled Caruso’s arms and left them covered in gooseflesh.

‘This is one of our best teas yet,’ Kumiko said. ‘Must’ve been a good batch of redparasols. Blue said dry mushrooms make the best tea, but I don’t believe her. You know, I’ve never liked Blue all that much.’

The confession startled Caruso. It was delivered so matter-of-factly, yet it wasn’t like Kumiko to gossip about others. ‘I don’t really know her,’ Caruso said. ‘But I prefer your company to hers.’ The last bit just slipped out, and Caruso laughed. It was weird. He didn’t feel awkward at all saying it. There was no romantic undertone, just honesty.

Owls and nightjars hooted and called. Caruso leaned back and listened to their sweet music… a thought made him sit upright. He looked at Kumiko’s eyes, she smiled and stared back.

‘Your pupils are massive,’ Caruso said.

Kumiko leaned forward to look into Caruso’s eyes, ‘Yours too. Wow.’

‘Kumiko, did you take my truthbuttons out of the pot before you made the tea?’

‘There were buttons in there? Ohhhhh that’s why I feel so…’ Kumiko held her hand in front of her face and slowly turned it. She smiled, and that turned into a giggle, then a hearty laugh, and Caruso thought nothing could be funnier.

They were both doubled over, Kumiko tried to speak, but barely managed more than a single word before succumbing to the laughter. ‘I…I…’ She held up a finger, trying to compose herself, and took several deep breaths. ‘I thought it was weird that you didn’t pick any truthbuttons.’ For some reason, that set them both off again.

‘This feels great,’ Caruso said after recovering. ‘It feels so clean compared to poppy or metamine.’

‘They must’ve been strong. Shit. I better not spill all of the Forester secrets.’ Kumiko covered her mouth as if to keep her secrets inside.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

‘What secrets? Like how to zonewalk?’ Caruso leaned forward and Kumiko began giggling. ‘I’ve always wanted to know,’ Caruso said. ‘My theory is it’s a shroom in one of the deeper zones that lets you walk down the zones without sporesickness.’

Kumiko had that look about her, like someone dying to share the latest news. ‘Okay, if I tell you, you gotta promise me you won’t tell anyone.’

‘I promise.’

‘You can already zonewalk,’ Kumiko said.

‘…What do you mean?’

‘You absorbed a slimekey! You can no longer get sporesick.’

‘But Ferris told me the slimekey was just for unlocking the Zone 4 shrooms.’

‘You don't need a slimekey for that. I think Ferris misled you.’

‘So all this time, I could’ve just gone back to Jamala?’

Kumiko nodded. ‘Would you have?’

‘No.’ Caruso surprised himself with that answer. He had expected to feel angry or even betrayed at being misled. But he didn’t. In his current state, it didn’t feel possible to take things personally. ‘Why did he lie?’ Caruso asked.

‘He had to. He didn't want you to leave, and he couldn't tell you our secrets. There’s a sacred pact not to divulge the secrets of the shroom circles to civilians. Even the Urchins abide by this.’

‘Well I’m a Forester now. I want to know. Will you tell me the secrets?’

Kumiko grinned and bit her lip, ‘I really shouldn’t be telling you this. But I can’t help myself. You won’t tell anyone, right?’

‘I won’t. I probably shouldn’t let you tell me. I shouldn’t have asked. But I can’t help myself either.’ Caruso grinned back, it was hard not to grin.

‘We’re in this together then,’ Kumiko said.

Another wave of goosebumps prickled Caruso’s skin. He was about to learn the hidden knowledge that Foresters and Urchins kept from the rest of the world. He felt the same excited wonder he used to feel as a kid. He leaned forward on his boulder, so as not to miss a word.

‘Okay,’ Kumiko began. ‘There are two secrets about the shroom circles that people in Jamala don’t know. The first one is that in Zone 3 and beyond, the spores stop the aging process. Well, not all aging, just the negative effects. For instance a child in Zone 3 will still grow into a fully mature man, but unless he leaves, he won't ever age beyond that, and therefore will never die of old age.’

‘Huh.’ Caruso was stunned how easily he accepted the information. To hear something so shocking yet having it bypass all the stages of doubt or disbelief… ‘I wondered why everyone was the same age. So you’re all…how old are you then?’

‘Not sure, I’m quite young, probably around two thousand. Of the Foresters, Ferris and Niko are the oldest, or maybe Orange, no one knows for sure.’

Caruso felt an unsettling churn in his gut, like when you stand on the edge of a cliff and look down. The information was dizzying. He took a moment to sit with it.

‘Wait, thousands of years? But all the books I read about the Zones confirmed they’ve been here for only four hundred years.’

‘That sounds about right. Which leads us onto the second secret.’

‘There must be other shroom circles, right?’ Caruso said. ‘And you travelled here from them?’

‘In a way. But as far as we know, there’s only one Godshroom. And you can’t have any Zones without a Godshroom in their centre. You’re right though, we did travel here...but from another planet.’

‘Another planet? But that’s…’ He was about to say impossible, but immediately knew that for a lie. For Caruso, it used to be impossible to summon walls of mycelium from the ground, or see a man who is half frog leap twenty paces in the air.

‘How?' Caruso asked. 'You mean you’re all…none of you are from…’

Kumiko seemed to enjoy watching Caruso digest this. She let him struggle with it for a while before coming to his rescue.

‘Let me try to explain, there are different theories, but I’ll give you the one I find most logical. All mushrooms make spores to reproduce, right? Well the Godshroom does too. Except it only ever makes one, and it takes four hundred years to do so. It then shoots it into space towards the next habitable planet.’

‘But normally spores just float around randomly, how can it shoot one to a new planet?’ It was not the thing that most puzzled Caruso, but he asked it anyway.

‘Think of the Godshroom like a crossbow,’ Kumiko said. ‘For hundreds of years it creates all the Zones, reaching out wide with its circles, and building a deep network of mycelium. This is like pulling back the string, the energy gets stored up in the network over hundreds of years. When it has the right amount, it fires.’

‘How does it aim?’

‘That’s hard to answer. How does a tree know where to place its branches? Or how does a bear know when to hibernate? Call it a natural intelligence borne from the need to survive and reproduce.’

Caruso just sat there as the information surged through him. The unsettling feeling in his gut churned again. Normally he would dismiss this as being insane, but now it was being stored straight into his mind as cold fact. The Foresters were all thousands of years old and from another planet.

‘Okay…but how did you travel on a spore, through space?’

‘It’s only our minds that travel.’

‘What does that mean exactly? What about your body?’

‘At the end of each cycle, those with slimekeys can enter the Godshroom. You absorb into it, just like a slimekey absorbs into you. Once inside, our minds are separated from our bodies and preserved and stored in the spore. When we reach a new planet, this Godspore makes a new Godshroom and begins producing the mushroom circles. And all the minds that travelled get infused into their own mushrooms. When someone eats that shroom, our minds replace theirs. And we wake up, in their body, on a new planet.’

‘What the fuck?’

Kumiko started laughing again. Caruso took a moment to process this. He looked up at the trees that lined the gorge, and the birds that flitted between them, chasing insects. It was hard to imagine such simple movements of life could take place while he was having his world view upheaved.

‘So,’ Caruso said. ‘Your mind travels on the spore, and gets infused into a mushroom on the new planet.’

‘That’s right.’

‘What if nobody eats that mushroom?’

‘The Godshroom will make another, and simply move the embedded mind to that. This is why the Zones start with edibles—it will be eaten eventually.’

‘And what if, say, Ferris wakes up first on this new planet and eats your mind mushroom?’

‘Nothing will happen, the godshroom will make a new one, until someone without a slimekey eats it.’

‘And when someone eats it, this mind mushroom, they just die?’

‘Basically. But they don’t feel anything, usually they are still standing when I take over.’

‘You don’t feel bad for them?’ Caruso asked.

‘Not really. I mean maybe a little, but what am I going to do? Kill myself so a complete stranger can continue their life?’

‘But what about Ferris? You said he was a lot older than you. How many people have died to keep him alive?’

‘A lot. Maybe a hundred. I’m not sure. But his life is worth far more than a civilians. All of ours our. A civilian’s life can be measured in a small handful of years. But as long as you’re a Forester, your life knows no bounds. Not only are we unlimited in our lifespan, but we are no longer limited by a single world.’

Caruso leaned back and stared up at the early stars. He tried to imagine what it would be like. It was dizzying to consider.

'It's quite terrifying,' he said.

'Terrifying?'

'Well yeah, having to leave behind your planet and your body...i'm not sure I could do that.'

'You would rather stay here and die?'

'I'm not sure.'

'I think it's exciting,’ Kumiko said. ‘Each world is a new opportunity. A chance to grow and learn and become someone new. I'll always remember the world where I woke up as an elderly man, that really forced me into a new perspective.'

The thought of Kumiko as an old man made him giggle. Kumiko caught on, and it became hard to stop.

'I couldn't imagine waking up as a girl,' Caruso managed to say. 'How strange would that be?'

'You'll be surprised how easily you can adapt.'

'But what about girls? I mean, would I still like girls? Or would I...be attracted to boys?' Caruso felt himself blush, he couldn't believe he had just asked that.

Kumiko grinned, 'Like I said, you'll be surprised how easily you adapt to a new body, and to all of the...appetites attached to that body.'

The idea was both fascinating and utterly uncomfortable to consider. For a time he just sat back, listening to the river’s current chuckling past and shuffling the stones on the banks.

'I was wondering,’ Caruso said. ‘Do the Foresters and Urchins fight on every world?'

'As long as I've been around they have.'

'Why?'

'I can give you an overview, but for a more thorough answer you would do better to ask the Maji.'

'I've heard of him. Who is he exactly?'

'He is the oldest person in the shroom circles.'

'A Forester? Why have I never seen him?'

'He is neither Urchin nor Forester, he prefers to keep himself separate from all our affairs. They say he's been to a thousand worlds and comes from a time before the fracture that split us into Foresters and Urchins.’

'A thousand worlds? Really?'

'Apparently.'

'Where does he live?'

'He wanders around the Zones, but mainly stays in Zone 4. You'll meet him eventually, he insists on meeting everyone who takes a slimekey...But wait, what did you ask me before?'

'Umm,' Caruso scanned his memory. 'Oh, I asked why Foresters and Urchins fight.'

‘OK let me gather my thoughts. ’

While Caruso waited, he warmed his hands in front of the flames. A chorus of croaking frogs sounded from somewhere upriver.

‘OK,’ Kumiko said. ‘It’s quite nuanced but I’ll do my best to simplify it. To start with, both sides agree that the Godshroom needs to be protected. All it would take is some disgruntled group of citizens to destroy the Godshroom and then we would all die of old age. This is why we never tell outsiders about its secrets. But Foresters are a lot more focused on its protection than Urchins. We are damn good at it. We build cities, like Jamala, at the start of every world to help control the citizens. We train so that we can handle any attack. We constantly patrol the forest. We research any new shroom that shows up. When it comes to protecting the Godshroom, nothing matters more, it is our life source, so no cost is too high.’

‘Makes sense. But the Urchins disagree?’

‘Basically. You know how it is with religious fanatics. They always find something to be offended about. They think we take it too far. They see us as parasites that no longer live in harmony with the Godshroom.’

‘If Foresters focus on protecting the Godshroom, how is that not living in harmony with it?’

‘Exactly. There’s no logic to them. The Urchins obviously benefit from the protection we offer, but they disagree with our methods. If anything they’re the parasites. But luckily we haven’t quite devolved into all out war just yet. Other than recent animashroom research disagrements, we usually just fight over slimekeys.’

‘Because they’re rare?’

‘Extremely. You don’t have to worry though. Once you have one, it’s yours for life. It carries over onto all the future worlds. But we need new ones to replenish our numbers. We don't age as long as we live inside the zones, but we can still be killed. If our numbers dropped too low, that could lead to a powerflip in the next world. And without Foresters running things, the Godshroom would be vulnerable. So we contest them for each one.’

Kumiko went on in more enthusiastic detail. Although it was before her time, she talked about the worlds before the fracture that split the two sides. She then spoke of the origins of the Foresters. It was clear she held great respect for Ferris and Niko and all they had built. She spoke well and intelligently, and never once did Caruso tire of listening to her. He soaked up all the knowledge she had to offer.

The last light left the sky and Kumiko put another log on the fire. He figured they should head back soon but Caruso didn't want to leave. He wanted nothing more than to sit by the flames and listen to Kumiko.

'What was your last world like? Was it the same as this one?'

'Ahh, Pazat was the planet's name. Every world has it's similarities and differences, but Pazat was more different than most. I'm sure you're well familiar with the tides from living in Bob?'

'Yeah.'

'Well on Pazat the tides didn't just crawl several paces up the beach. They arrived in giant waves that swallowed the lands, then were sucked back out farther than the eye could see.'

'How did everyone survive?'

'Well, no one lived by the coast. Most settlements retreated up into the highlands. But our Godshroom landed deep in the forested flood plains. We were forced to build our entire compound up in the trees, same for the city we created.'

'You built an entire city in little tree huts?'

Kumiko laughed, 'There was nothing little about them. They had this native tree—minaret trees—taller than any tree I've ever seen, just to walk around the trunk took a hundred paces. You would've loved to see them. We hung homes from the branches and built out from the trunks. A single minaret tree could house a thousand people and we linked them all together with a network of hanging bridges. It was a wondrous site.'

Caruso knew the forest would never feel the same again. Where once he’d hoped to discover all the wonders of the shroom circles, he now knew a thousand lifetimes could never be enough. But rather than make him feel small, it filled him with a hunger larger than the world. He listened to Kumiko talk until the fire burned down to glowing coals. And when there was nothing left to discuss they sat in silence, enjoying the sounds of the rushing river and the croaking of frogs, while stars shone in the night sky like an endless shroomlit forest.