Page 3 of Mushy Stuff (Guardian Mates #1)

It’s like everything is happening all at once, but I’m seeing all of it in slow motion.

The moment I start screaming, I also turn to run across the clearing. As I’m turning, I see the monster pause as if startled by me. Then I see it reach for me with those long claws, and I take off.

I run as hard and as fast as I can across the glade. I make it across, and then I’m in the woods again. I make a straight line to the creek.

Maybe this is what the people in town were warning me about.

If I make it across the creek, will it be able to follow me? Considering its size, I don’t know how the monster hasn’t caught me yet, but I refuse to look behind me and risk tripping. The creek is mercifully just ahead, and I push as hard as I can towards it.

I’m a mere two steps away from splashing into the water when I slam into something that feels like a wall. It knocks all the air out of me, and I fall to the ground. I see a glimpse of the sky through the trees and then everything goes dark.

***

Wold

She ran from me.

Of course she did. I expected her to be terrified of me.

I follow her at a slow pace. I could easily catch her and overpower her, but I don’t want to scare her more than I already have. And I don’t want to hurt her. I just want to see what she does.

Then I realize that she is running for the creek.

The creek is a border between our realms, and sometimes there are thin spots in the magic there. She must have come through a thin spot at the creek, but now it has closed up. She is going to run into a magical wall.

I open my mouth to yell for her to stop, but it has been ages since I last spoke to someone. My voice comes out in a raspy growl. I doubt she heard me, and even if she did, it would have only made her more afraid .

I’m too far away to possibly stop her, all I can do is helplessly watch as she hits the wall and collapses.

I run to her side. She is still breathing, but unconscious. I pick her up and carry her to my cave of mushrooms.

While I carry her, I can practically feel her scent sinking into me. It’s like it’s becoming a part of me, like she is becoming part of me. I don’t understand it.

Once we get to the cave, I lay her on a flat, moss-covered boulder in a darkened chamber of the cave.

I keep myself busy, tending to the varieties of mushrooms that I have so carefully cultivated here while I wait for her to wake.

I have some mushroom clusters that have grown too large and are ready for division, so I spend my time very carefully dividing them.

This type of mushroom is fragile and can fall apart if I am not careful.

But I am distracted by this human. I destroy more than one cluster when I stop to check on her due to the little noises she makes in her sleep.