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sixteen

Morai

M orai stared at Luka who was sitting against a tree, playing with Noa on his lap. The night before, he had seemed dejected, and for some reason, she felt compelled to apologize. But she still wasn't ready to explain why she planned to leave. She hadn’t lied, though. It was for a better future—a future with him in it. She just had to get everything ready, and when all was done, then she’d let him know. But the look he’d given her was breaking her resolve.

“So you’re saying the yellow mushrooms basically run this whole place?” Fida asked, poking at a blue mushroom with a stick. Morai frowned at the action.

“Yes, we think so.”

“Hmmm, and what else did you discover during your midnight walk?” Neoni asked, looking at Luka then back at her with a frown on her face. Luka had been keeping his distance from her, and that actually hurt even worse.

“Nothing. We’re still trying to figure out how to tell the Chepi.”

“But it doesn’t make any sense.” Tanen, who seemed oblivious to his brother’s distress, walked to the creek.

“If the other mushrooms don’t have magic, then why did the queen lock herself away?”

“Maybe something else was stolen? Some treasure maybe?” Morai shook her head at Fida’s question.

“No, I don’t think so,” she said.

“Oh!” Neoni’s face lit up, and her excited voice caught Luka’s attention. He glanced up from Noa and saw her watching him. Quickly, he averted his eyes back to Noa. Morai gritted her teeth, there was something she also wanted to ask him. When they returned to camp, Morai noticed her shoulder had stopped hurting. She only realized the pain was gone just before she fell asleep. “What if the queen tried to protect whatever mushroom was stolen and ended up in the state she’s in?” Neoni continued.

“What brought you to that conclusion?” Tanen asked.

“Morai, are you listening?”

“Yes, I am,” she said, whipping her head around to face Neoni.

“I was saying that since the Chepi couldn’t tell which mushroom was stolen, what if it never was? But the queen protected it, which left her in that state!” Neoni’s excitement was mounting as she spoke. And Morai couldn’t help the smile that came to her face.

“Okay, let’s try that theory out with Chenip. They’ve been waiting for us for a while now.” Morai turned around to find that Luka had already gotten up and was waiting on them.

“You’ve been awfully quiet today.” She heard Tanen say as Morai walked past Luka and towards the human moss. It looked like the entire Chepi village had heard what was going on because they all stood surrounding the human moss. The crowd quieted and parted as Morai and her friends walked through, meeting Chenip standing in the center.

“Did you find anything?” Chenip asked.

“We think the humans didn’t steal the mushroom, but your queen was protecting it, and that’s why she’s in this state.” Excited chatter filled the air, until Chenip held up a hand to stop it.

“But how do we wake her?” Morai cleared her throat hoping that her plan would work.

“If I may,” she said, taking a step forward. Chenip gave a nod and cleared the way for her. Morai stood next to the human moss, and gently tapped on it.

“Huh, Queen…”

“Cherup.” Chenip provided.

“Queen Cherup. My name is Morai, your people asked me to tell you that the threat has been resolved.” Morai and everyone else held their breath. It took a moment. Morai stepped back as she felt the moss shudder, which exploded into a swarm of tiny moss creatures that flew away. In the center of the moss-covered floor was the queen curled up in a tight ball. With the size of the moss, Morai had been expecting a human sized Chepi, but what she saw was something even smaller than a Chepi if that was even possible. The queen was a yellow mushroom, but unlike the other mushrooms, she looked like a tiny human mushroom. The queen opened her eyes and gave an unqueenlike yawn.

“Queen Cherup!!” the Chepi chanted excitedly, as the queen uncurled herself and stood.

“Has the threat been resolved?” she asked, her voice shrill and exceedingly fast. She accepted the hand Chenip gave her and stood, reaching Chenip’s knee.

“Yes, my Queen, it has,” Chenip said.

“Oh,” Cherup said when she saw Morai and her friends and gave a curtsy.

“Apologies for my uncouth behavior.”

“Not at all, Your Majesty, it is our pleasure to help,” Morai said.

“If I may, my Queen, why didn’t you come out when we called you?” Chenip asked. The queen’s cheeks grew red.“Oh, the protection spell I wove was too deep so I couldn’t hear anything,” the queen said, looking sheepish. Chenip, who seemed like she was used to such things, only sighed. Morai raised a brow but was relieved the queen was okay. At last, they could continue their journey. Chenip turned to Morai.

“Thank you for your help, we appreciate it.”

“Don’t mention it. You should thank Neoni. She’s the one who gave us the idea.” Neoni stepped forward, beaming. Chenip rustled her blades of hair, the other Chepi doing the same, it created a buzzing sound.

“Thank you,” Chenip said. “Now, would you like us to show you the way to the Dark flower forest?”

“Thank you, we just need to get our things,” Morai said. Fida bumped into Morai’s shoulder.

“Hey, is everything okay with you and Luka?” she asked as they headed back to their camp. Tanen and Luka were ahead of them.

“Yes, I noticed that as well,” Neoni said on her other side.

“What are you talking about?” Morai asked.

“You’re not bickering. You or he always have something to say, but he’s been unusually quiet, and you aren’t trying to pick a fight,” Neoni said. Fida nodded in agreement.

“Did you tell him why you are leaving?” Fida asked. Morai shook her head.

“I think you should,” she said. Morai frowned, staring at Luka’s back.

“No, not yet. I just want everything to go alright with my parents first. What if I told him, then my parents say I can’t leave. It would be embarrassing.”

“So, you’re afraid of being embarrassed?” Neoni asked.

“No, I just don’t want to live with that failure,” she said, while Neoni sighed, and Fida patted encouragingly on Morai's shoulder, the shoulder she was yet to ask about.