Ch 5 - Gnome is where the heart is...

Skylark48 quickly progressed through her worm horror rampage but was starting to lose speed. The caverns were getting more expansive and spread out. Flying was almost out of the question still though. Stalactites hid in the pitch-black, and hidden behind those were more worm horrors and potentially even worse creatures. Flying seemed like the easiest way to get ambushed. At least Skylark48 could levitate off the ground. It made her nearly invisible to many of the monsters in this messed up, subterranean world. Most seemed to use vibration to hunt and sense prey or predators. Infrared was the next favored sense of the underground. Skylark48 bypassed that by controlling the temperature of her body and gear using her Tech Origin. The creatures getting blasted by Skylark48 had never seen it coming.

She kept trying to go “up” and had some idea of which direction to move, even though she couldn’t detect any atmosphere or sky near her. She assumed the deeper she went, the crazier things would get and just wanted to scout the higher levels first. Maybe she was hoping she might detect a way out.

The power leveling continued until she met her first real challenge. Eventually, she turned a corner and entered the beginning of some type of mushroom rainforest. Large, morel-looking mushrooms extended to the height of trees, and instead of a thich green undergrowth, there were coils upon coils of roots. The path through the forest of fungi was tight and the only trail through had a layer of moss on the ground that was, constantly moving, undulating with life. Skylark48 stopped levitating, touching down on the emerald carpet. She could feel how it shifted under her feet, compressing the other parts of the moss around Skylark48. So it was like a river of quicksand, with some sapience, Skylark48 pondered. She lifted off just as the moss had started gripping her boots' edge. As she hovered further down the path she came across large gray bones partially enveloped by the green creep.

“Well, if I ever need to get rid of a body I know where to go,” Skylark whispered to herself. She slowly crept along, levitating above the green brick road, possibly on her way to Oz or who knows what, when she saw a small figure toiling in the moss. As she got closer she had to stop herself from laughing at the ugly, little cretin. It was roughly the height and build of a toddler but with a pointed, conical-shaped head that was bright red and resembled the skin on a baboon's bottom. It had a bulbous red nose, with two small pinpoint eyes sunk deep in its eye sockets.

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Nope, Skylark48 couldn’t help herself. She finally let out a peal of laughter and the small thing stopped its battle to take some breaths and stare at this odd visitor. Skylark48 pointed a finger at the green moss a few meters away from the Gnome. Electricity generated by her Air and Tech Origins shot forth, blackening the moss where it struck. The smoldering cinders smelled like burning hair and the acrid smoke quickly filled the area. It was effective though, the small creature broke loose of the weakening bryophyta. It took its opportunity and grabbed what looked like snowshoes made of roots from the moss, slipped them on, and ran. Skylark48 followed along, ducking down each turn, watching the moss going into full panic mode as it tried to put itself out. The Gnome was forgotten and was out of the mushroom jungle in minutes. It at sat down and heaved great wheezing breaths. Skylark48 let her Neuroception concentrate on her new colleague. Eventually, she got a readout in HUD that gave her basic info about the creature.

Heldre Level - 3: The Heldre are a mid-sapience race with a tribal structuring. Although they are not particularly intelligent they are known for their craftiness and ability to copycat and mimic other races.

Interesting, Skylark thought to herself, she could hear the “Heldre” mumbling now in a strange language that sounded like mud squelching onto rocks. She concentrated further and used her Neuroception to pick up on patterns in the guttural grunts and rocky tone.

“That…ggrrrr…rrrummm…you…,” were the words that started coming through. Then the translation finally synced and Skylark48 made a new friend. “Fuck you! You never get Muggy stupid moss. Muggy burn you, you die now mushroom fuckers!” the deranged subterranean toddler stomped on the edge of the moss they had just run from.

This little guy is my spirit animal, thought Skylark48. She watched admiringly as the little tike continued to swear and dance at the edge of the mossway.