Mushroom Folk + Story (Patreon)

First story I've written in a pretty long time so hope it reads well!

The Mushroom Folk were never an acclaimed bunch, most people saw them around the same level as bugs or other smaller vermin. Fit to be ignored just as much to be stepped on if they ever had the gall to bother someone higher in the food chain.

Yivern was more educated than others in this sense however. He studied them, stayed with them and learned their little mushroom ways. They were a developed culture! One that was rough around the edges, simple, and thrived off scavenging but still they were a people that didn’t deserve what Yivern knew they had coming to them.

Shrinking himself down Yivern took to the hidden Mushroom Folk town and pleaded for the tiny people to hear his words of distress as he talked of doom by his larger comrades. How they were hired on to handle the large colony due to their recent active nature in the nearby town.

But the simple Mushroom people did little to heed Yivern’s warnings. Though they looked at him in interest he saw that in their shimmering innocent eyes they didn’t take in what he was saying.

“Please my friends! My compatriots will be here soon and demolish this whole area! You’ll all be flattened if you don’t pick up what you can and leave as soon as possible-”

Yivern’s tirade was stopped short as he heard the entrance of the cave that the Mushroom Folk called home was disturbed by pounding footsteps and rolling thunders of voices. It was too late.

The gigantic forms of Yivern’s friends appeared looming over the mushroom buildings and twig towers, it was Mildread and Askotier, and they were ready to get to business. With even their casual gestures causing untold damage to the fungus structures and little constructs, Yivern could only imagine the carnage that would come once the titans got serious.

The Mushroom Folk instantly panicked, running to and fro for escape. Running into debris or each other in a pathetic display. They had no hope without Yivern’s intervention though he doubted he could do much to dissuade his comrades as he had already attempted before, they just didn’t see the Mushroom Folk like he did, they were with the more ignorant by seeing them as vermin's to be disposed of. But it was do or die time and Yivern had to take a stand.

Taking his sorcerer scepter of the ages, he began to cast his enlarging spell in the unheard breathless tongue of Kilgrat- or so he would of had a stampede of Mushroom Folk not ran over him and knocking him to the ground, trampling over his body. Thankfully with how little they weighed Yivern took no serious injury, but looking to his scepter was when the true panic set in.

The ancient scepter was mere splinters and kindling wood now, useless to him and any creature unless they saw fit to use it to clog a hole in a nest. As Yivern looked at the shreds of his magic stick the rumbling of his friends grabbed his attention, and now their vast height really hit Yivern. They were absolutely ginormous, but what grabbed Yivern the most was their expressions. The look of indifference on the usually kind and caring Askotier, or the more chilling Mildread’s look of utter disgust at the small beings fleeing at her feet.

A cold snap of panic hit Yivern as he jumped to his feet and began frantically yelling and jumping to grab his now monstrous friends' attention, hoping they would pick out his individual form among the shifting masses and mobs running frantically around him.

But as his throat scraped and dried from his endless screaming and his legs worn out from their activity did he see how useless of an endeavor it was. They were closing in, miles of society and living spaces reduced to rubble as the giants made their way over to the collapsed and tired form of Yivern.

Looking up at the destructive forces now before him Yivern could hardly recognize them as his friend, but as Mildread’s eyes locked onto him a glimmer of hope was rekindled in the wizard, had she recognized him? Was he saved from this nightmare!?

“Ugh, all these little bug things look the same.”