Chapter 1: Finding Fungus

It was a cloudy late-summer's day and surprisingly cold despite the high humidity in the air bringing low rolling clouds over the mountains. The cool temperatures were the only reason Adrian had decided to hike the Appalachian trail this particular afternoon, other than the promise of maybe getting some breathtaking footage from the small drone strapped to his backpack.

Gravel crunching underfoot and the chirping of finches were all he could hear over the sound of his labored panting on one of the steeper expanses of the path. His puffy brunette mohawk was hanging damp in his face; his glasses smearing with grease each time his hair happened to brush over them. His chest compressor and short sleeved plain button-down were uncomfortably moist from sweat and would chill from the breeze in the least refreshing sort of way. Even his comfy tan cargo shorts felt like needles grazing his overworked thighs with each step pulsing him forward.

"Aahhh-" Adrian groaned up at the white sky, stopping to catch a breath and slouching pathetically under the weight of his heavy pack. "Why the hell am I doing this? Hahh… I can't do physical activities with my lungs."

He would have normally followed up that statement with something along the lines of using somebody else's lungs instead, as he is prone to making such (corny) jokes, but the exhaustion was getting to be too much. Scanning the area through his rectangle lenses, he spotted a flat-topped rock cluster a few meters further up the path nestled between twin birch trees; an ideal spot to sit for a moment and replenish his water and nutrient starved muscles. Trudging those last agonizing steps, he gratefully plopped down on the relatively clean surface of the medium sized boulder, slowly managing to snake his arms out from his backpack straps and carefully setting the mass pouch-side up on the taller rock so the drone lay safely on top.

Kicking his low-cut brown boots up on the shortest of the stones, he fished through his bag for a large water bottle and a near to bursting quart-size storage bag full of trail mix, taking the next few minutes noshing and admiring the varied shades of green in the deciduous canopy above him. Even after resealing his still plentiful dried snacks and packing up, he stayed for a while, his back against the silvery white trunk of one tree and facing the other. It was reminiscent of a hammock, and the rustling of wind in the leaves was a mind-numbing sort of white noise that had him dozing before he even knew what hit him.

About a half hour later, the sound of a rapid tapping noise in the distance roused Adrian from his rest with a start. He sat up straight, nearly knocking his precious backpack tumbling down the sheer hillside. He was quick to discover that the tapping was merely a woodpecker in another tree nearby looking for its own snack. He sighed in relief, checking the time and seeing that he hadn't been out long enough to worry about it getting dark before he could get his footage and get back down the mountain.

Suited up and well enough refreshed, Adrian finally forced his way to the top of the incline he'd been struggling with most since the beginning of his hike and reached level ground where the trees on the slope had all but fell in some old mudslide and left the area with a gorgeous overlook on the rest of the purple mountain-scape and forest. If not for the clouds, one might even have gotten to see distant settlements at the base of the beautiful granite cliffs.

All but awed to tears, he set down his travel bag again and had a long session of recording with his drone, capturing the scenery to look back on the next time he wanted an escape from city life (without all the sweating and bug bites). Eventually, the drone was approaching low battery life and he retrieved it, heading back down from the rock face. Descending the harshly inclining trail was a breeze and he had to resist the urge to run with his arms out like wings, lest he succumb to fatigue again or crash face first into a tree.

Passing by the spot where he'd come to rest at the rocks and birches, his eye caught something unusual that hadn't been there before; on the boulder he'd used as a table sat a mushroom, looking as if it had been growing there for weeks. It was a few inches tall, had a domed red cap with splotches of white spores, and the stalk was a pale flesh tone rather than off-white or brown.

Adrian halted completely in his tracks, observed the fungus for a moment, then approached. He had seen this type of mushroom before, but never in person, and he was sure they were not native to the area. Having a sibling who actually both grew mushrooms as a hobby and was a general nerd in the realms of games and the internet, the name of this one was easily rolling off the tip of his tongue.

"Amanita muscaria…" He reached out, gently rubbing a finger over the cap, avoiding most of the white powder, and he smiled. "These are like the mushrooms from Mario. They don't usually grow here or on rocks, though. How weird..."

He continued to pet the shroom and muse to himself for a bit before decidedly plucking the growth to take as a souvenir. He wouldn't eat it, knowing the psychoactive compounds it contained, but it would be cool to preserve and show off to his fungus-freak of a sister.

Turning to get back on the trail, eyes still on his new mushy travel companion, he didn't see the newest instance of the mysterious red-capped fungus that sprouted a foot tall directly behind him and tripped, shouting as he fell, rolled, and tumbled painfully between trees, over rocks, and through abrasively scratchy underbrush down the scarp off the wrong side of his path. After a long ten to fifteen seconds of playing pine tree plinko where he was the disk, he came to rest on his side in a dip on the cliff face.

Having laid still, hissing in pain for a good five minutes, Adrian started trying to give himself an evaluation on his well-being. First he made sure his hands were fully responsive; check. Next, wiggling toes; good. No broken bones, he still knew his own name and where he was (generally speaking), and the worst of his injuries he presumed were going to be just scrapes and ugly bruises. Alright, so no permanent damage seemed to be done.

He sat up and started inspecting his gear; unfortunately for him, his drone was missing two of the four propellers and had a multitude of scratches and chips. He doubted the camera would ever work again.

"Damn, it's ruined! I mean, I could probably still get my footage off of it... Better than leaving it here. Can't dwell too long on this right now though." He wanted to take the time to be sad about breaking the one really awesome gift his mom had given him on his 21st birthday, but in this situation, he couldn't spare the sentiment. He settled for keeping the machine strapped as it was.

He checked his other possessions; glasses were intact, phone still worked (but had no reception, of course), keys were still on the chain, flashlight was in one piece, switchblade worked. He still had the damn mushroom that got him into this mess. His trail mix was a little more crushed up but both that and his water were consumable at the very least. His first aid kit and spare emergency clothes were disorganized but nothing was missing. With that in mind, he decided to patch himself up and change out of his sweaty clothes while he could. If it got dark before he found his way back to a camp or trail, those wet and bloody clothes could mean trouble for plenty of reasons he didn't want to think about.

Now dressed in a bright orange, long sleeve shirt that would make him easily visible if other hikers happened by, and in durable blue jeans that would protect his already scuffed up legs from the unrestricted flora and fauna of the off-path wilderness, Adrian felt less exposed but no less endangered by his surroundings, headed in the direction that (he hoped) would lead him back to the trail.

After no less than thirty seconds into his venture, Adrian walked straight into a strange looking clearing in the trees. There was an oblong patch of ground that was just devoid of any plants or shrubbery taller than a dandelion, completely walled in by a mish mash of different tree species, all with inter-tangled roots and what's branches left the center of this space open to the sky above just enough to illuminate what was truly to be beheld in the middle of the field.

"You've got to be kidding me." Adrian walked straight up to the edge of it, partly fuming, but undeniably amazed. "These freaking mushrooms? More of them?"

At his feet was one side of a large rim of Amanita muscaria caps, at least a dozen laid out in a perfect circle directly underneath the gap in the forest canopy, all different shapes and girths but none shorter than ankle height.

"This is unbelievable. I've never seen a fairy circle like this. Never…" He tightly gripped his backpack straps as he whispered, losing himself in the reverie of such a mystifying sight. So entranced by the strange over-sized shrooms was he, he didn't even realize that he was stepping over them into the middle of the ring. The next thing he knew…

It was pure darkness, and he was falling.