I saw the tokens pour over my awareness in steady flow during the day. A certain thing that I associate with the Gardenmaster was appearing far too many times for it to be mere coincidence and happenstance. With each one of the tokens came the scent of water, vegetation, and rich black mud. Not overwhelming, just enough to evoke nostalgia. Okay. I’m being called. Here I come.
Instead of jumping directly to the Gardenmaster’s realm, I went to the lair. Snake watched me as I packed my satchel for weal and woe. He waited until I had changed clothes for the occasion to speak.
“No outward flame?”
“A water realm. I can’t depend on any foes to be dry enough to burn.”
“Generate enough heat, and you won’t have to worry about surface dryness.”
“Generate that much heat, and those I defend will suffer more than those I aim to harm. I have other ways to defend myself.”
“Flowing through the river, then?”
“No. I’ll need a controllable doorway back, just in case. Mind watching it?”
“Sure.”
We went outside to the dry sandy soil by the fire. With the rake, I cleared an area and drew a certain set of symbols. “If you must, destroy the [symbols] to shut the door. I’ll just have to take the long way home.” He nodded and took the rake. I stepped into the set of symbols and opened the doorway.
I dropped into an ocean. Turning myself downward, I dived deeper and deeper until the depths removed gravity from me. Without knowingly changing direction, I found myself quickly ascending to the light of a different world. But before breaking the surface, an unexpected color caught my attention. I remained a few feet under the surface and watched.
The Gardenmaster that I call ‘friend’, is predominately green. Ke gives off waves of color when viewed in other sight, and kir iris changes hue to match kir emotion, but to plain sight the outer leaves are green along with the ambulatory vines. Kir roots are green-tinted cream at kir base, and fade to a semi-opaque milky color at the tips.
There is something large like the Gardenmaster, globular like the Gardenmaster, and orange floating over the surface. Kir attention is focused on something large, green, and collapsed on nearby ruins. Ke turns towards me. In instinct, I settle deeper into the water, feeling the muddy bottom with my feet. The orange blob moved slowly away, the heat of kir attention faded, and the blob left.
I waited until I could not sense the other Gardenmaster before breaking the surface carefully. As soon as my eyes were clear, something small, green, and clingy pounced on my head and wrapped cold clingy tendrils around my face and ears. It felt like my friend, but wasn’t my friend. It shifted so it’s body could be seen.
My friend’s offspring.
“Junior. Where’s your Pa?” ‘Junior’ looked off to the side and back to me. I followed kir glance and saw the green lump with clarity. My friend was collapsed over some ruins. The iris was pale, and the globe of the body was dented, sunken, and partially deflated. A large wound arced up 120 degrees from the base and was still oozing vicious liquid.
“Shit!” I looked around for any other entities, but only had Junior for company. I swam to the ruins and climbed up so the unfocused pupil could see me. “My friend!” I have no other name to verbally call kir but ‘Gardenmaster’. I emanated my concern and my call as clear as I could. The iris shifted, the hue deepening a shadow’s worth more.
I came around the fallen form to the gash. A hideous rip through the sides of the body, the layers of the flesh were visible. Even to my untrained eyes, I could see the Gardenmaster was a plant-based form. I did not want to confirm this knowledge in this fashion.
“I’ll… be… okay… Just…”
“Just what? And I’ll have you know, I can tell when you’re bullshitting me. So don’t. What can I do to help, and whose ass do I kick for this?”
A root roughly curled over my foot. “My… pod…”
“Junior is with me. Ke’s clamped onto my head at the moment, and I think it will take a natural disaster to get kir to shift position.”
The root relaxed. “I’ll… be…”
I interrupted kir. “What do you want me to do?”
I felt my friend attempt to give an exasperated sigh at my stubbornness. Which I interpreted as a good sign. Because if ke had enough energy to get annoyed by me, then ke’s not in as bad a condition as I had feared. The root moved towards the gash, which I saw extended into the base. A third of kir roots had been torn away. “Cover…”
I never took any botany or gardening classes. The only plants I’ve really nurtured from shoot to maturity were roses and rosemary, both of which, are very hard to kill. In addition, despite being a plant, ke had the structure of an animal’s eye. One just doesn’t throw dirt onto a ruptured eyeball, right?
“Junior, go hold on to your parent’s vines. Stay out of the water. I have to make a mess.” Junior reluctantly released the velcro grip on my head. Ke grabbed as many of kir parent’s vines and roots as ke could and held tightly. I slid into the water and swam to the bottom, shifting form to a Shambling as I did so. It seems counter intuitive, yes? Becoming a force of decay that breaks down tissue both living and dead. How could I help my friend like this?
By being a catalyst. As a fungal body, I will have the power to break down complex tissues into basic components like all forces of decay does. But as a Shambling, I can do this almost instantly and with direction. And better yet, I can infuse the mud I was absorbing from the river’s bottom with that ability as well, restricting it to only shed matter. Matter like the ripped away portions of the Gardenmaster’s roots, and the leaking effluence drying in the open air.
I rose to the surface, bringing my enlarged form as a bridal train. Flowing over lilies, stone, and debris, I gathered up all loose organic matter as I ascended to and over my friend’s body. I pulled the gash together and sealed it with a black mud crust. Junior watched and held kir parent, sometimes leaning forward to get a better glimpse of what I was doing before rubbing the side of kir parent’s globe in mutual consolation. I released my hold over the flesh and the mud, returning to my human form. The excess mud flowed back into the water.
The wound now ‘sutured’, I worried about rain washing the mud away. I went from one end of kir territory to another, asking each and every plant growing there for one leaf to use to care for the Gardenmaster. Without hesitation, each plant shed their largest leaves for me. If the largest leaf was too bug-eaten to be useful, the next largest leaf was shed. They knew who the leaves were for, and each gave their very best one for the cause. I brought the leaves to the Garden master, and carefully tiled them over the mud bandage starting from the bottom. The sap of the leaves glued them to each other and to the Gardenmaster, but I knew as ke recovered, the leaves, mud, and dried sap would be shed.
Ke sighed with a little more comfort than before. The wound closed, kir body had already begun plumping back into shape. I was leaning against kir, checking to see if I had closed the wound too tight when Junior suddenly scrambled over to me and grasped me about the head. My friend gestured with a vine. “Water… get in…” As I obeyed, I felt a large presence coming up behind me.
I almost submerged myself, but remembered Junior. I didn’t know if ke would be okay with a full submersion like that, so I swam away from my friend before turning around. Another Gardenmaster, slightly larger than my friend, but soda-pop orange in color, was floating just above the surface. Ke came to my friend and touched the verdant bandage with an orange vine.
“Leave that there!” Junior tightened around my head to silence me or in fear, I wasn’t sure which. The orange eye turned and focused on me.
“An… animal. A pest. No wonder [ke] was struck down so easily.”
“A beneficial pest, thank you very fucking much. And hello to you, too.”
“It talks? And clearly? What manner of be-ne-fi-cial pest are you, to justify the harm that pests like you do?”
“The Gardenmaster there plants me here at times. What I shed into the water feeds the plants around us. Kir pod uses me to learn how to grasp moving things. You see the bandage, I did that. Nothing was ripped from the pond or the mud. Ke taught me how to talk to the plants, and I asked them for help, and they have helped.”
“A pet, then.” The water’s chill helped keep me from bristling in offence. “A well trained pet. We shall see how long you remain a pet. Your kind is a blight, as are you. You just haven’t reached maturity yet. But all fruits show their nature in time. Even you.”
Ke turned away, lingering beside my friend for a moment. I wanted to scream that I was almost mature as it was. I wanted to become a Shambling, and smother the arrogant bastard with so much decay, kir parent will be retroactively sterilized. Blight is always easy to call for me. But not always easy to control. And the safety of my friend, kir offspring, and the pond, was more important than my stung pride.
I remained in the water until Junior urged me to return to kir parent. New roots were peeking through the blanket of nutrient enriched mud. The depression was visibly filling. My friend was starting to push kirself upright. “You should have fled.” A pause to gather strength. “I would not have been able to defend you if [ke] struck again.”
“Again?” I looked in the direction the orange Gardenmaster had retreated to. “That’s the bastard that ripped you open like this?”
“My friend…”
“Why didn’t you tell me? Just a twitch of a root, and I will have…”
“NO.” The force of kir word silenced me. “No… revenge. No striking back.” A more agile root curled around my waist under the water. “You do not understand. You must not take any offensive action here. If you must choose between striking or leaving, leave.”
I wrapped my arms around the root, allowing kir to keep my head (and Junior) above water. I bit my lip. “You ask a hard thing of me, but I will bear it. Only because Junior is watching, and I don’t want to traumatize the tyke this early in kir development.”
My friend’s enormous iris focused on Junior. Junior waved. The iris descended and focused on me. I gave my largest nefarious grin. My friend sighed, a little stronger this time.
“I want to try a thing, but only with your permission. I noticed a lot of plant debris on the river bottom. Debris that is going to be washed away by the annual floods before it breaks down into anything useful. Compared with the rest of the debris from other gardens up and down stream, it is a bucket’s worth drawn from an Olympic pool. But you are seriously injured, and while my bandage is helping, I fear it’s not helping fast enough. With your permission, I’d like to change into a Shambling again, but with your roots entwined in my … body. I’ll convert the debris into something you can take up. With your permission. I don’t trust that Koolaid Sunshine for one shitty minute. The sooner you’re back in shape, literally, the easier it will be to abide by your request.”
Another underwater root embraced me. Ke pulled me closer to kir, such that my body was leaning against the submerged ruins. “But then how will we talk?”
“You talk to a pet. You talk with a friend. And such talking needs no words. Sometimes, all there needs to be, is each other’s presence. I gave Spray Tan Onion a song and dance about being a beneficial pest and bit my tongue when the bastard called me a pet for it. You said I wasn’t. I’d like to demonstrate that, please.”
Ke released me and held a vine out to Junior. Junior reluctantly left kir perch on my head and settled next to my friend. “You have my permission. This… Shambling… will it be toxic to you?”
“No. You’ll feel very thick mud clinging to your roots, but you won’t accidentally slurp me up. What you miss, will flow down river and be diluted before it leaves your territory.” I slid fully into the water, allowing the murky fluid to fill my lungs. I kicked once in reflex, before surrendering to the sensation of drowning. Once my cooling body touched the muddy bottom, I dissolved myself back into a Shambling form and ‘infected’ the mud with my mycelium. Pulling the mud and debris into a lump, I extended the lump upwards and into my friend’s dangling roots. Kir roots jerked away at first, after all, mud is not supposed to be willfully mobile, but as I did what Shamblings do best, kir roots extended into the mass.
I don’t know how long I remained there. I settled into the my new role with patience. I would remain until there was no more debris to convert, or when my friend called me back into sentience. I felt the pond, the lilies floating on the surface, the algae clinging to underwater surfaces, and the flow of the river.
My awareness slumbered.
Kir roots twitched, pulling me back. I started to reform my human body, but an unspoken missive from my friend kept me in the watersoaked Shambling form. I felt voices above me. The orange Gardenmaster was back. I could not understand the conversation, but it was clear the interloper was not pleased by the restoration of my friend. But my friend now had bravado in kir voice. If conflict was to break out again, ke would not be so easy to harm this time. I hoped. The verbal confrontation was over. My friend dropped the mask. I could feel the ache and tiredness through kir roots. There was still much debris to convert. I settled once more into the role and fed my friend from the river bottom.
My awareness slumbered.
The bottom of the riverbed fell away.
What could be called my body remained caught in my friend’s roots. My awareness descended into an impenetrable darkness, smothered by the depths of the ocean suddenly pulling me.
Understanding seeped into my subconsciousness, leeching words from my memory and using the meanings to form sentences that were never spoken, only remembered.
You were calling me. Or was I calling you? The tide seeks land but always returns to the depths, to me. The tide clings to the shore and pulls away in protest, but when the current turns its face to me, it returns to me. The tide always returns to me.
You are like a selkie’s child. You feel the pull of the current but you don’t know how to swim. Don’t swim. Drown. In me. To me.
What is it you need to be right now? You take the form of what you know but in the limits of your understanding. You fear being devoured, being dissolved in my embrace. I will show you, then, show you what you are. And the one you risk dissolution for will be rewarded for your undoing.
Drown.
Drown in me.
Drown to me.
I yielded to the cold tight grip of the unfathomable ocean depths, and died to it. Far away, far above, the muddy form in the Gardenmaster’s roots lost its strange rigidity. There was the Gardenmaster, kir roots in mud so rich, the lilies in the garden around kir exploded with undirected growth. There was the riverbed, the unseen crack in the supporting bedrock, and the upflow of that rich mud from a far distant ocean. Far away, far above, there was nothing that was Weaver.
My awareness dissolved.
Roots coiled around my human form, pulling me up to the surface. I don’t remember becoming human again. My head felt air. I coughed out fluid and breathed in reflex. In doing so, I almost breathed in Junior, who was at a mad scramble to resume kir perch on my head. My friend was nearly fully recovered. There were other things that I was monitoring about kir, that were restored to my satisfaction.
“You have restored me.”
“That was my intent. Without me controlling the mycelium, what tendrils remain will die off and decay as normal. You look a helluva lot better.” I felt so strange, this human form. It felt like a new body, even though every scar and imperfection was accounted for.
“You look, and taste, very exhausted. I fear I am unable to return the gesture. I do not have what you require to recover yourself.”
I was exhausted. I felt like I had struggled with… something… for ages. I barely remember the ocean. I smiled my best cheesy grin in spite of it. “Yes, you do.”
A bright iris focused on me in askance. “What do I have that I can give you?”
“A hug from a friend.”
Ke embraced me with roots and vines. “Such a thing, I will gladly administer.” Junior scrambled over my head to hug me from every possible direction. Ke ran back and forth between me and kir parent, alternating hugs to us both.
“Now that I know you’ll be okay, I can return home in peace. Maybe one day, you’ll tell me what happened, and what’s up with Orange Number One.” I waved farewell to both friend and podling. I had meant to return the way I came, under the water, but I had stirred up the river bottom too much. I could not create a link.
So I climbed onto one of the outcrops of rock, stumbled from the grasp of gravity on flesh, and called my wings. After waiting for my friend to express disapproval (ke never did), I took to flight. Junior waved kir vines excitedly and made stabbing motions into the air. I circled tight around the two as a final farewell before flying up into the gentle sky.
I emerged with a jump at the [symbols] I had traveled through earlier without the lair. Snake was still standing there. I landed clear of the doorway and motioned for him to destroy the markings.
“You look completely spent.” He watched as I sunk to one knee.
“I am completely spent.” There was no way I could hide it, certainly not from him.
“Did all go well?”
“Yes.”
Snake sniffed me with obvious motion. “You smell of mud.”
“Is this bad?”
“No. You smell of dark, earthy, rich mud. It’s a… comforting scent.”
“I’ll remember that. How about some tea?”
“Yes, that would be good for you.”
And tea was had.