The four wanderers spent the next several hours carefully tiptoeing through the mushrooms that grew around the mysterious glowing pool. Tir looked at dozens of samples, sometimes knowing for sure they were edible.
But at other times, she looked at them askance and carried the mushroom cap into the surrounding cave formations.
Dem and Tik seemed puzzled, but Jin understood.
Tir found a rock that was dark, if she was looking for light-colored spores in the mushroom, or a light rock if she wanted dark spores. She placed the mushroom cap with gills down, warned the boys not to touch, and returned to her task of looking over the fungus that might be their next nourishing meal if she did her job well, or their last meal if she didn’t.
By the time they had a respectable pile of edible mushrooms, and were thinking of sitting down to eat, Tir became aware that Jin, who was collecting fungus from the far side of the pool, was only bringing over good mushrooms.
“You learn fast, Jin,” Tir declared. “You’re now my assistant mushroom sorter!”
Jin laughed. “I can’t take the credit. I’m just picking the kinds that our little friends with hooves eat.” She brought over one with a bite out of it for the others to see.
After examining the new evidence, they all gathered around the pile of edible mushrooms.
NEBADOR Book Ten:Stories from Sonmatia 63
Dem chewed with a thoughtful expression for several minutes, then spoke.
“I wish we knew what has hooves and eats mushrooms. Maybe they could teach us a thing or two about this cavern.”
“Probably hiding, until we’re gone,” Jin speculated.
With bellies again full, bodies strengthening, and minds clearing, lighter topics of conversation arose.
“So the birds go out through the pool,” Tir began, “eat whatever’s outside, then come back and do their droppings in here, which feeds the mushrooms, and then there’s something with hooves that eats the mushrooms, and adds more droppings.”
“And now we’re part of that eco-system, too!” Jin added.
Tik laughed, then wandered away into the stalagmites.
Dem swallowed a mouthful. “Now that we can think again, and have given up looking for Fen and Bel . . .”
A moment of sadness came over the group.
“. . . I guess I should get out the Map and figure out where we’re going,”
Dem finished.
“This cavern’s so big,” Tir began, “and now that we know it has food and water, it’s easy to forget we were trying to do something.”
Dem nodded as he pulled the Map from his bag. “I’m glad it’s not paper, or it would be molding now, too.”
Tik returned and sat down.
“We went the long way around,” Dem observed, “because of looking for another river beach. The crawl-hole out of here should be most of the way back to our beach, if we keep going along the wall the way we were.”
Tir took on a stern expression. “I think we should go all the way around, like Jin said, back to our beach. If we don’t find the Angels, this cavern could be very important, since it has food.”
Soon they were all yawning, so without a word, they got comfortable in a sandy area not far from the glowing pool. Tir’s last statement echoed in their minds, and as they drifted into sleep, they all pondered the possibility of spending the rest of their lives in this and other caverns they might find, eating mushrooms, occasionally birds, and maybe even something with
NEBADOR Book Ten:Stories from Sonmatia 64
hooves . . .
After everyone was awake, they set to work filling their bags with as many edible mushrooms as would fit, and keeping an extra to munch on while they walked. Dem led the way back toward the wall of the huge cavern. Luckily, their passage the first time, to explore the middle of the cavern, had left enough traces that the way was easy to find.
“Okay, we’re looking for crawl-holes, or anything else important . . .” their leader began.
“Even if it’s not the right crawl-hole,” his sister pointed out, “we need to know about it.”
“River beaches . . .” Jin muttered.
“Angels . . .” Tik whispered.
Dem nodded and pointed his feet along the cavern wall, in the direction they had originally been going.
Again, the going was slow as the cave formations tended to cluster near the cavern walls. At first, nothing of interest revealed itself.
Most of an hour into their journey, Dem started frowning, and motioned for everyone to stop and be still. He listened intently, but finally shook his head in defeat.
They continued their journey.
Soon Dem stopped them again, and this time the sound lingered just a little too long to be one of them, or an echo.
“Hooves again?” Jin wondered aloud.
“But . . .” Tir began thoughtfully, “but not getting anywhere. More like . . .
struggling.”
Tik nodded agreement.
They walked on.
They might have walked right by the scene of the tragedy if a group of stalagmites hadn’t force them away from the wall and right into a small, hidden hollow.
The guardian of the hollow, in his fear, might have done them great harm
NEBADOR Book Ten:Stories from Sonmatia 65
if he was larger.
As it was, he was only about a foot tall, and only with his head held high.
Even so, the determination in his eyes made the four travelers stop and consider running for their lives.
They quickly got over their initial fright and looked over the situation.
Two small deer-like creatures faced them. One, in the bottom of the hollow, stood on three legs, her fourth leg dangling uselessly at an odd angle. The other, on the far rim of the hollow, had his tiny legs planted firmly apart, and the look in his eyes told the travelers he would protect his mate with every fiber of his being, or die trying.
Tik smiled and strode forward, even though the male creature started stomping one tiny hoof in warning.
Tir and Jin both held their breath, thinking Tik was about to wring the little deer’s neck and begin eating it, raw.
Tik was ready for the wounded female to fight him, but quickly discovered, as he took her in his arms, that no fight was left in her. Near exhaustion, she submitted to his hold as he carefully straightened the broken, twisted leg. She gave little painful cries while he worked, but then fell silent when her leg bones were all properly aligned.
The girls relaxed and breathed again.
The little male deer didn’t relax, but ceased stomping the ground.
“I need . . . something stiff to wrap around it,” Tik declared.
They quickly determined that Jin’s mushroom bag was stiff, old canvas.
Tik used it, and part of its shoulder strap, to make a splint for the little animal.
The male guardian went back and forth from standing his ground on the edge of the hollow, to hiding behind the nearest stalagmite.
Jin, now possessing a pile of mushrooms but no bag, smiled to herself, placed a mushroom where she knew the male would soon return, and offered another to the female, still in Tik’s arms.
Both little animals were soon eating, revealing that they had been dealing with their tragedy for many hours, if not days, and had had no time for anything else.