So yesterday:
Anonymous asked: Have you dropped by the shamblings recently?
No. I’ve been trying to lock my ass down at the lair or chill the fuck out in the Nagalands. I think I’ll go pay them a visit. It has been a while. And I have new stories to tell them.
I followed through…
I entered the Forest of Shadows (the devouring forest) and found my favorite hive of carnivorous fungi easily. Or rather, they found me. Quickly growing tendrils wrapped around my feet and legs, pulling me forward so I fell onto the undulating forest floor. (It reminded me of a tongue. A dirty, eager, agile tongue.)
“Oh, help. I’m trapped. What ever shall I do?” My laughter was quickly muffled as the Shamblings recognized me and pulled me under the leafy debris.
Tip: If you have anxiety about being dirty, don’t hang with Shamblings.
“You’ve grown. I can’t tell where the dirt ends and you begin.” It was cool on the surface. Decomposition and digestion made them warm underground. “I have stories for you.”
<You will tell us those stories later, when you remember yourself apart from us.> Their mycelium invaded my skin where exposed and quickly entangled itself with my veins. Hyphae climbed over nerves. The Shamblings were devouring me. Absorbing me. It tickled.
As my flesh yielded, my mind was also overwhelmed by the sentient fungi. I wasn’t afraid. I have done this before with them. I kept my sense of self long enough to understand their motive. <Hold Weaver still.> My paranoia wanted to surface and start shit about who told them to hold me still, who left the message in my inbox, and what underhanded motive was behind the directive.
I shoved paranoia in a teeny little box and dropped it in the deepest crevasse in my mind. There is no place for paranoia among the Shamblings. There is only movement when movement is needed, and the quiet of rest.
I looked forward to the rest.
Flesh rotted into dirt while bones crumbled into grit.
The Shamblings ceased their movement. The forest floor was still and quiet. Cold breezes teased the trees while only a fading warmth betrayed there was ever anyone here.