Trek For Survival

Gia took a step back, her face flushed in anger and shame. Her mother hadn"t yelled at her like that in years, but the same urge to run and hide washed over her. She glanced at her father, and saw his normal look of amus.e.m.e.nt gone. He looked just as upset as her mom.

"Gia, please, just calm down," implored Mikey, tugging on her shirt.

"I"ll be fine, Gia. Let"s get going. Truffle said there was a village up ahead. Maybe we can rest there a bit?" suggested Vonn, moving towards her and wrapping his arms around her waist.

She buried her face in his chest, fighting the sudden sobs that threatened to overcome her. The beat of his heart calmed her anger, as she remembered he rolled away from that girl the moment he was able, even though it probably hurt his shoulders horribly to do so.

"I"m sorry, Vonn. I guess, it"s just been hard traveling so much. I miss the sky," she whispered.

"There might be healers who can help with your injuries," said the mushroom girl, Fungee. "I"ll pay for the medicine, if there is. I don"t know what we"ll do about your cart. I can have someone bring it to the village, to get fixed, but it"ll be a bit as my helpers are all out doing other stuff at the moment."

"That would be best," said Truffle, nodding his head seriously. "Don"t let it take too long. We need to get past the blue mushrooms before they spore. The king doesn"t want any more people living down here. You"re already more than he can handle."

She blew a kiss at Truffle who squirmed in disgust. Fungee laughed at his reaction and turned to finish chopping the tree up into smaller pieces.

The moment her parents were past the tree, Gia inspected the cart. They may not be able to take the cart pieces themselves, but she was not about to leave their belongings. As far as she was concerned, this floozy was going to steal it all.

"Gia, what is it?" asked Carla, turning to look at what she was doing.

Gia was shoving things into her already overstuffed backpack.

"Mikey, come here," she said, holding up his backpack.

He sighed, but came and got it, slipping the straps over his shoulders.

Grabbing the almost empty chest, and the extra blankets, Gia turned to start following Truffle again.

"Do you need me to carry some of that?" asked Vonn, worry evident on his face.

"Actually," said Gia, stopping to glance down at the things she was trying to carry.
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A few minutes later, everyone was sporting a blanket around their shoulders, and she was only having to carry the chest with her backpack. It was still heavy, but easier than it had been.

"How much longer before we get to the village?" asked Tom, several hours later.

"Quite a way. Do we need to stop and let you rest?" asked Truffle, noting that the two older people were starting to lag further and further behind.

Gia was worried about her mother"s legs. It was probably time for her to drink her next batch of tea. Setting the chest down, for her mother to sit on, she pulled the water bag of tea out of her backpack. With a frown, she jiggled it a little. There didn"t seem to be as much as there should have been.

Dripping liquid drew her eyes to a small hole on the side of the bag. When the cart was destroyed, it must have punctured the bag!

"It"s been steeping a long time," said Vonn, noting her distress. "I"m sure it will still be alright."

Carla took the bag, and took a drink carefully, to keep from losing more. Wincing, she nodded. "It"s plenty strong! I could probably get away with drinking only half of this."

"Oh, no you don"t!" chided Gia, putting her hands on her hips. "You drink every drop. You"ve been doing a lot of walking when you probably shouldn"t be. I don"t want you to miss out on one drop of that magical elixir!"

Tom laid a hand on her head, then moved it to her shoulder with a chuckle. "You"re shorter already! Drink it up!"

They all laughed at that, and Truffle looked back and forth at them in confusion. He didn"t understand the joke, and that made them all laugh even more.

"I"m hungry," whined Mikey. "And I haven"t seen any rats to kill in this whole underground place!"

"Oh, well, rats don"t live very long down here, with all the toads," said Truffle.

"Toads?" asked Mikey, perking up. "Can you eat those?"

"Normally, yes. But I"m not thinking you can eat the ones Truffle is talking about," said Vonn, glancing over at the little mushroom guy.

"Oh, I suppose you could eat them, but they"re much more likely to try and eat you first. The mushroom guards tend to keep them along the edges where the rats and other creatures that come into the mushroom lands frequent."

"How big do these toads get?" asked Tom.

"Um, bigger than me?" said Truffle, thinking about it for a moment, and then shrugging.

"I have some mushroom you can eat," said Gia, pulling out some more of the mushroom from earlier. Mikey immediately took his and started tearing into it. She made sure everyone got a piece, pausing when she got to Truffle. He grinned at her and held up a hand.

"I already ate. I can eat while I walk," he said, holding up his foot, where the underside of his little boots were covered in a thick mat of what looked like roots.

"Oh, okay," said Gia, keeping the last pieces of mushroom for herself.

They sat there, eating their mushrooms, while Carla sipped on her tea. Watching her grimace at each mouthful, Gia started to wonder if maybe she shouldn"t have insisted on her drinking it all, but glancing at how well her mother"s legs were doing, she didn"t say anything. Carla"s legs looked wonderful. That stretch marks from the swelling were completely gone, and she didn"t seem to be limping at all.

"The silence is what gets me," said Vonn suddenly, after they had been sitting in the quite for a while. "A forest always has the noises of birds or little things scampering about. There isn"t any of that here."

"No, with the paralyzing spines of these mushrooms, not much lives here," said Truffle.

"Let"s get going," said Carla, holding her hand out to Gia, to help her out. "Now that you"ve said that, it"s going to bother me until we get into this town that"s been mentioned."

They walked and walked until Gia was sure her arms were going to fall off. Mikey finally spotted the roof of one of the buildings in the mushroom town. It didn"t surprise anyone when they saw that the buildings were all shaped into the form of giant mushrooms. Gia didn"t care what they looked like. She wanted a place to rest and to set the chest down somewhere. Vonn needed a healer and they all desperately needed something to eat that wasn"t a mushroom, though the chances of that happening were probably very slim.

The excitement of finally reaching the town made the last leg of their journey through the tall mushrooms very short. As they walked through the gate, her hope dwindled. All of the mushroom people were short, just like Truffle. None of the buildings were tall enough to let them get inside. If they were going to rest, it was going to have to be in the middle of the street, out in the open, for everyone to see.

In fact, crowds of mushroom people were swarming towards them, with their different colored caps, and clothing that blended in with the mushroom-like qualities of their bodies. Gia wasn"t sure if some of them were wearing pants, or just had dark brown legs. After a few moments of trying to puzzle that out, she finally gave up and decided it didn"t matter. They hopefully wouldn"t be there long enough for it to matter.

Truffle moved off to talk to a taller mushroom man, who appeared older than Truffle, and was smoking a little pipe. Was his smoking tobacco, mushroom, too?

"Mayor Funguy, says that you can stay in the storage shed. It"s the only building in the whole town that has a tall enough door for you, except for the guard barracks, and we didn"t think you would want to stay there. He also said he would send Mr. Morel to see to Vonn"s injuries," explained Truffle.

"Thank you, Truffle," said Tom. "We appreciate all the help you are giving us."

Truffle smiled and motioned for them to follow him as the townspeople moved out of the way. The storage shed was on the other side of the town, and Gia thought she was going to collapse half way there. Setting the chest down, extra careful, she finally flopped down onto the floor. The others joined her, being sure to stay clear of the bags in the back of the room.

Mikey, on the other hand, was eyeing the bags curiously.