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The Magic Mushroom

Deep in the heart of the woods stood a very strange shroom. No one knew where it had come from or why it turned out as it did. There was some speculation about evil enchantments being enacted near the original shrooms or that somehow poisons had seeped into the soil; although how this had not effected the other shrooms was a mystery. Many thought that it may have something to do with the residents of the Alms House, after all take a look at the awful mutation which had been nicknamed the Watch Tower by the villagers.

Initially two lilac stemmed shrooms with beautiful green spotted red caps pushed their way through the soil, but within days an ugly hump was put forth, pushing aside the two shrooms which leaned away from the monstrosity that emerged. In days the parasitic shroom had grown beyond the height of the others and looked as if two shrooms had merged into one. At first it looked quite normal; a shape showed on the stem which may well have grown to be the door and two more shapes further up could be windows. This was not the case - the skin covering the doorway peeled away from the stem leaving a woody scar then with a tearing sound two other shapes opened revealing cavernous mouths ringed with tombstone like teeth. Slowly two tongues rolled from within weaving back and forth, tasting the air. The following day the skin peeled from two further sections leaving more scar tissue. With sticky pops two eyes opened and close under the cap what appeared to be nostrils started sniffing the air with a sucking, mucus filled sound which echoed around the small clearing where the mushroom stood. When seen from a distance the shroom appeared to look like a normal shroom which had merely grown old and woody but as you drew closer it was obvious something was not quite right.

The first people to discover this horrendous sight were a young courting couple. Wanting to spend time alone, Yanna and Zachar had gone walking in the woods, strolling hand in hand stopping occasionally for sweet kisses they wandered farther than they planned. As they strolled through the woods, the sun slanting down through the trees ahead of them illuminated a bright shroom cap. Not knowing that there were shrooms in this part of the wood they went to investigate. When they reached the small clearing where the shrooms stood they stopped to admire the sunlight dappling the whole clearing, but as Zachar moved forward the shroom seemed to twitch and there was a loud sniffing sound. Then as the shroom caught the scent of the two its eyes opened as did its mouths and the tongues came sneaking out waving around looking for the source of the scent. Yanna screamed and both she and Zachar turned and fled the clearing, running back to the village as fast as they could. They stumbled into the inn breathless and shaking. Once the villagers heard their story some of the men set out to see this sight for themselves. As before all looked peaceful until they passed the edge of the clearing and the same thing happened as before. One or two of the men moved closer and the ever reaching tongues weaved around straining to get to them. Ardan, either a little braver or a little more stupid moved close enough that one of the reaching tongues caught his arm. Wrapping itself tightly around his arm it began to draw the man to its gaping maw. The others tugged and pulled first at Ardan to try and free him and then at the sticky tongue. When they realised that he was stuck fast and slowly being pulled closer and closer to the horror they rushed to the edge of the clearing and apologising they pulled stout branches from the nearby trees, ran back and started to beat at the tongue which held Ardan fast. When this had little effect one brave soul rushed at the shroom and landed a blow right between its eyes. The shroom shrank back in pain, its tongues whipping back and releasing Ardan. The men moved back from the shroom carefully and then, dropping their branches returned to the village.

They described their ordeal and Ardan showed them the acid like burn on his arm and it was decided that the shroom must be destroyed before someone fell victim to its hunger. The only way to destroy the shroom would be dragon fire. A call was put out to the local dragon community and whilst the village waited for an answer they returned to the clearing and built a fence around the shroom with warning signs telling travellers to keep away. Occasionally a sheep or dog would go missing from the local area and no one found a trace of them. But when finally a dragon came to deal with the mutated shroom and burnt it to a stump many bones were found within.

For many months the villagers thought that the shroom had been completely destroyed but lately unseen by anything except the odd squirrel or bird, a strange greenish bulge had been showing through the ground just a short distance from where the other nightmare shroom had stood.

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