Twilight Fungi Pt. 01

After an almost 12 day journey through the sun-soaked desert, our expedition had reached its terminus. This desert did not feature any windswept dunes, but we did arrive at an oasis.

We traveled through an area known as the Inskagi Badlands, a great plain of barren, jutting rocks and dour looking foliage. The uncommon life that existed here included unique insect species and the occasional rodent, all highly specialized for the arid climate. The rare predator that lurked in this wasteland was far too timid to approach a caravan and posed no real threat to man or elf.

I leapt off the covered wagon and felt the crunch of the dry earth beneath my feet. The caravan porters began to hastily unpack. I had gotten to know some of the new guild members on the way here. They were a hard-working group of people and I was confident they would have our encampment set up by dusk.

From this vantage point I could see for the first time what we came to survey and plunder. A massive fissure in the earth cut through the landscape like a knife scar. It was more than three wagon lengths at its widest point and spanned a good half day hike in either direction.

I approached it from a cautionary distance to better survey the find. This natural fissure in the desert rock contained a highly-valued prize and it bared its secret to anyone who was willing to look down into the depths.

It took a few moments to crawl slowly up to the lip of the chasm and peer over the edge. The subterranean landscape was impressive. After a cursory glance I had seen enough to know we had struck it rich. A deep orange glow emanated from beneath the surface. I could see the twilight fungi thriving on rocky outcroppings at a depth of 30 meters, well protected from any tendrils of sunlight that tried to invade the darkened habitat.

The stubborn mycelium defied cultivation, which is the first major reason it was so valued. The light, moisture, acidity — everything had to be perfect for the spores to take.This underground nursery was fed constantly by a subterranean spring that rolled through the bottom of the crevasse and disappeared back into the deep earth as quickly as it came. The violent water kept the area lightly misted and very humid, a stark contrast to the world above.

The second reason it was so valuable was that harvesting the fungi had been made difficult due to laws put in place to protect the mycelium wherever it is found occurring naturally.

There was a lot of bureaucracy required to ensure a legal harvest and a sustainable product.

The third and most important reason it was so valuable was because it was a potent elven aphrodisiac. And when I say potent, I want you to understand the full extent of what I mean. You could fill a library with all the songs and legends that have been written about its use throughout history.

It became even more valuable when the elven population began to dwindle. Procreation among their kind began to fall and no one could account for it. Some elves blamed the rising human population and some humans dismissed the elves as prudish and haughty.

The clever solution put forth by the aristocracy came in two parts. First, they mandated support for interspecies marriage. Marriage between man and elf was relatively uncommon before this policy was enacted decades ago. But now it was commonplace.

The second mandate was for state-sponsored subsidies of twilight fungi. The elves were able to sustain their birth rate by distributing twilight fungi at cost to the masses. They would be able to brew the dried fungal spores into their tea in the comfort of their own home. And then ostensibly, get down to making some baby elves.

--

"Let's hope it's an easy climb down, Henrik!" came a voice from behind.

My mentor Ulvarion clapped me hard on the shoulder and I took a defensive step back from the precipice. "Henrik, my boy, tell me I wasn't lying. Will you look at this absolute bounty?"

And it was a bounty. To my knowledge, I couldn't recall a larger crop ever being found. There was enough mycelium here to send us both off on a lengthy and posh sabbatical after the sale was complete and we received our commission from the guild.

I turned to look at the aging elf. He still had a certain zeal to him after all these years of mycological research and hunting down rare fungi. Claiming a new find had definitely put some wind back in his sails. As long as the guild stayed out of his way everything would go swimmingly.

"While the porters unpack our things I would like to take advantage of what daylight is left. Would you mind surveying the water flow inside the fissure? We'll need to begin drawing from it to replenish our reserves. And do mind your step."

I did as he asked, getting an accurate sketch of the fissure to scale and burning up the last light of day in the process. I found a reasonable spot to set up the scaffolding for the makeshift well that would dip over the edge to capture the flowing water.

As I returned to the encampment, the porters were still burying poles in the sand on which to hang lanterns. There was still some unpacking taking place in the dusk after the long journey.

Tomorrow we would form a plan to get down into the chasm. I managed to find my tent, wiped the dust from my face and promptly passed out.

--

The next morning I felt sore from the journey, but rested.

I broke my fast with Sylvia, the camp cook. She was a stout and voluptuous human woman with bright red hair, a few years older than my twenty. There was something about her that I liked and I think she knew it. She also flirted with me quite a bit and I understood it as a cornerstone of her personality. She had an attractive confidence that was hard to ignore.

We mostly gossiped about other members of the guild that she didn't care for. She was a complainer, but she was funny and worked her ass off to bring us all lovely meals from the limited provisions available. So she got a pass from almost everyone. We would not be restocked on supplies for another ten days and our sanity depended on her ability to throw the right things in a pot for the right amount of time.

I thanked Sylvia for the meal and took a small bag of ripe water fruit from the pantry tent while she wasn't looking. I ate some of the fruit as I walked around camp to wake myself up.

I was headed back to my tent when I heard a low horn echo over the dunes. In a few moments I could see the red and white colors of House Marvane as they began to crest the horizon.

There were six families and nine independent contractors that called themselves members of our guild. House Marvane was one of those families and also one of the most wealthy. Their presence meant that they would be the auditors of our expedition.

There was always some tension when a contractor like Ulvarion made a claim to a find. Contractors had less ownership in the guild compared to the families and were generally expected to serve as the auditors.

The families that were the most established in the guild didn't take it well when a contractor upstaged them, even one as talented as Ulvarion.

Silgis Marvane would not be pleased that he would have to take a back seat and play proxy to the work being led by Ulvarion.

Silgis was a dour elf, not quite as old as Ulvarion, but an experienced mycologist all the same. He was well known for his brooding disposition. I had never liked the man, but his wife, Aladria, and daughter, Phila, were rather pleasant people.

I waited several minutes for them to arrive proper and made my way over to their slowly forming camp to greet them.

Aladria was ordering porters around as I approached. She was a beautiful human woman and she carried herself like a high born elf. Aladria had long black hair almost to her waist, but it was regretfully covered up by a scarf at this moment.

I greeted her cheerfully.

"Good morning, my lady, how was your journey across the desert?"

"Henrik! How long has it been since you arrived?"

"Just yesterday," I said. "Only enough time for an initial survey."

"I hear it is quite a find. I'll need to congratulate Ulvarion properly. His commission will be quite substantial," she said a smirk creeping across her face. "Then I shall reprimand him for dragging us out to such a remote location."

I was prepared to respond to her feigned complaint and produced the bag of water fruit from behind my back.

"Maybe this will help," I offered, taking one of the waterfruits out of the linen bag.

"You didn't!" came a different, surprised voice.

Phila was already walking over, eyes fixed on my water fruit. It was in her hand before I had a chance to object.

The quickly cooling desert breeze blew through her exposed black hair making it dance wildly. It was shorter than her mothers, but framed her pretty face nicely. I watched the juice from the ripe waterfruit run down the corners of her hungry mouth and down her neck. She didn't seem to mind, but I began to grow rather distracted.

She was a beautiful half-elf girl, about 19 years old. We were the same age, but she tried to act like she was older, an echo of her mother's presence. This time, however, the water fruit had defeated her entirely.

As I watched her eat I began to notice her travel cloak clinging to her body. It flapped in the breeze and occasionally stuck to her womanly form. She was thin, like her mother, but she had really developed over the last few years. I would have been interested in her, except for her father. I did not need that man in my life.

I bade them farewell and left before I would have been obligated to greet Silgis.

Back at our camp, Ulvarion seemed to be having trouble untangling some climbing equipment.

"Are you planning on doing everything yourself?," I mocked him. "You know we have people to do that for us right?"

He looked up from the tangled mess.

"The porters and staff had themselves quite a blowout last night. They earned it, but I want to get down there."

He threw the equipment to the ground in frustration and several pitons spilled out of a bag and onto the ground.

--

"Why don't we just go take a look for the best way down?", I distracted him. "Give everyone a chance to wake up. It was a long trip through the desert."

His look became more stern. "It's not just excitement that drives me. It's anxiety. You saw who came here to audit my work. He's not impartial, Henrik. He's going to sabotage me somehow. I can feel it."

I don't know that I had ever seen him this worried or paranoid over an auditor. Silgis was opportunistic to be sure, but he stood to benefit a great deal from a smooth expedition. Everyone in the guild did. I decided not to press the matter further with Ulvarion.

We moved closer to the precipice which had now been marked for safety and crawled right up the lip of the deep gash in the earth. The fungi greeted us with it's warm sunset-like glow.

"All right, Henrik. Let's review. Tell me about alluric mycelium."

Ever the teacher he was. The new focus on our prize started to relax him.

"Alluric mycelium," I began. "Four known distinct species. White, an uncommon culinary ingredient, which adds a pleasant nutty flavor to any dish. Blue, toxic and deadly if ingested, but makes an excellent dye pigment when dried. Yellow, very mild elven aphrodisiac, best suited for making incense. Orange, the twilight variety, named after the setting sun, and a more potent elven aphrodisiac."

I continued spouting the knowledge I had gained over the last several years when Ulvarion interrupted me.

"—There! Look down there just north of the flow of water. Do you see it?!"

I saw the underground river rushing past, exposing itself only for a brief moment to the outside world, and then continuing on its journey down into the earth. Water vapor rose several meters up into the chasm. It was the only source of moisture within miles and the only explanation for the existence of this hidden biome.

I looked at the spot my mentor had pointed out, but I wasn't sure exactly what he was trying to call my attention to.

"I see a dark patch, just beyond the river," I observed.

"No, not dark. Black. Black as a void at night," he corrected.

I saw it now. What I thought was just a patch of wet lichen or rock was in fact, a small patch of jet black mushrooms, barely visible, but also glowing. Glowing? They were glowing black. I had never seen anything like it and to this day I find it difficult to describe. There was no emanation of light, but rather the strange mushrooms seemed to absorb it.

"Black," I managed. "There's no black alluric mycelium, right?"

"Are you sure?" Ulvarion teased me, one eyebrow raising higher. "I've been hunting this varietal for the last three decades. I've only encountered it once before. But I've never had a proper opportunity to study it."

"They don't know, do they?" I asked. "They think we're here only to harvest the crop of twilight fungi?"

He nodded slowly and kept his eyes focused on mine to emphasize the point he was making.

"I didn't tell them. I've written about it, surely, but I've kept those notes private. My work on black twilight fungi has never seen the light of day, Henrik. But that is all going to change soon," he smiled.

"You said that you had encountered it once before. What happened?"

He sighed with his whole body and then grew quiet,

"This was almost thirty years ago now." He pulled a nearby camping stool over and sat down.

"I was still a journeyman with House Silas, only a year into my sponsorship. We found a patch of twilight inside a cave with some sort of geothermal activity deep within. The heat reacted with the water in the cave and produced a crop of orange mycelium half this size. I first encountered the black variety in an alcove in that cave."

"How did you even... see it?" I wondered sincerely.

"Hah! I didn't. Walked right into it. I only noticed because of the crunch it made under my feet. The crop must have been mature because the second I made contact with it, poof! Covered in a cloud of spores."

"You could have been killed," I added dumbly. He just smiled.

"Possibly, but on the full scale of dangerous things I've accidentally exposed myself to over the years, this was by far the most interesting."

He was being a tease. I was incredulous over this being the first time I had heard the story.

"What happened?"

He hesitated and then stopped short of his story.

"Hmm. Let's just say the effects are similar to its orange-colored brethren, but grander in scope." he dodged. "We'll talk more later. It's time to rouse the porters. I want to get down there. And Henrik, please, keep this to yourself for now."

It took most of the daylight for the climbers we had hired to secure a route down. They moved slowly and deliberately, placing pitons and guide rope along the crevasse wall. This specific route was chosen because it was furthest away from the subterranean river and the moisture that built up on the sheer rock wall. Rock climbing and moisture were rather incompatible.

I had received some basic training from the climbers, Comansuri and Gellane. They were new to the guild, having been hired specifically for this expedition. They were patient teachers and since their lessons were rooted in safety protocol and procedure, I took to it rather quickly. Even after several lessons, my legs and arms still shook and burned after completing a climb. I couldn't tell if it was from an instinctual fear of heights or from using unfamiliar muscles. Probably both. I rapidly developed an appreciation for their craft.

Even though the route down to the bottom was now secure, there was no rush to follow. The others tasked with carefully harvesting the fungi had no climbing proficiency. They would have to wait close to a week for the climbers and porters to finish scaffolding a basic wooden stairway to the rocky outcropping containing the mushrooms. We needed more foot traffic down there before we could make a dent in the very large crop of mushrooms.

Although I tried to distract him, Ulvarion simply sat in the shade near the edge and watched the climbers' progress. His note-taking and sketches became more frantic the further down into the void they went.

I was getting anxious just watching him and decided to call it a day shortly before sundown. I also had not bathed since I arrived and decided to head to one of the temporary bath houses.

Calling it a bath house was a very grandiose term for a set of wooden booths with privacy dividers. Cold water had been brought up by bucket from the underground river and placed into a makeshift reservoir above the bathing facility which was gently heated by the sun throughout the day. If you caught it at the right time you could enjoy a warm shower juxtaposed with the waning heat of the badlands as the sun descended. It was a much needed luxury in such a bleak place.

As I claimed a booth and began to strip down I heard someone approaching, probably looking for the same respite I was. I was surprised though when they joined me in the same booth and covered my eyes with their hands before I could turn around.

"Guess who?" came a playful voice.

"Silgis?" I toyed.

"Gross! Ugh!" I felt a rather hard slap on my bare ass.

I turned around in time to see Sylvia quickly removing her clothes and throwing them over the neighboring shower divider.

"No peeking!" she scolded when I turned around. I comically covered my eyes again, which was ridiculous considering the few lanterns that were placed around the bath house really did nothing to curb the darkness in the booths.

"You know there's about a dozen or so other empty booths?" I asked playfully.

"Yeah but where's the fun in that?" she quipped.

Sylvia took my hands away from my eyes and lowered them to her shoulders. My fingers on her bare skin heightened my growing arousal.

We were both fully nude inside the shower. My eyes fed hungrily on what little I could see in the twilight. I caught glimpses of her red locks when they reflected some of the lantern light. As my gaze descended, all I could see was miles of cleavage and the faint silhouette of her nipples poking out proudly from her breasts.

She raised herself up onto the balls of her feet to gain some height and our lips met for the first time. Her glorious chest pressed into mine and the soft skin and feel of her hardening nipples made my member twitch and grow. She smelled mildly of sweat but tasted like honey wine. I was lost.

I was shocked out of my reverie momentarily when I felt the rush of water from above. She had pulled the release valve behind my back while we kissed.

"You're going to pay for that," I teased.

"Mmm, I hope so. I'd like you to wash me first though."

I grabbed a clean rag and some soap I had placed nearby for my own use and worked it into a lather for her. She gladly turned her back toward me and held her tangled red hair out of the way.

I washed her back in circular motions, moving up to her shoulders and down her arms. She moaned with comfort more than pleasure, but half the fun was in the build up.

I took one step closer to her, pressing my body against hers. My shaft, now fully erect, naturally propped itself up against her lower back. She cooed as we made contact and I continued to wash her body.

The rag and my hands made their way up and down her sides as I moved closer to her breasts. Gaining confidence, I took a full breast in one hand and gently washed it with the rag in the other. I lingered only for a moment to explore her nipple with my gentle fingers. That elicited another coo.

I gave some attention to her other breast and started planting kisses on the nape of her neck. That granted me a new moan of pleasure and I could tell it was a turn-on for her.