Najas has a minion!

Bryophyta the Fluffalo

Snort. Snort. SNORT!
Oh dear, it would seem a little fluffalo has appeared at your feet and is trying to get your attention. You aren’t going to keep ignoring it, are you?

SNORT!!!

It doesn’t look like you can. Welp, might as well try petting the little guy...eww, wait. He’s covered in moss and...are those mushrooms growing in his fur? Hmm...I’m not sure it is a good idea to---

Oh wait, wait little guy! Don’t scamper away! It was all snorty for attention, but then it just scooted away? Don’t you wonder where it is going? Can’t hurt to follow it right?

Oh my, for such a short little thing, he sure can run fast...and look at him hop over those big tree roots. Wait, tree roots? Goodness, the forest sure is thick here. Where is he leading you? Huh, looks like it might be that cave there.

Yep, he’s going into that dark and rather spooky cave. Dare you follow in his little hooveprints?

Afterall, just how scary can it be if that little cutie is going in there...right?

“Bryophyta, where have you been, silly? It’s harvest time and you were nowhere to be found!”
You’ve been walking for quite some time now, following the little snorts of the fluffalo. For how long? You have no idea. It’s pitch black in this place, and you can’t see the hands on your watch to know for sure. Assuming you still HAVE your watch...those vines at the first mile mark sure tangled you up good! You may have lost a few things in trying to get out of them.

But they didn’t tangle up that little mossy minion. He’d kept pushing forward. Snorting in a rhythm to guide you along. Even when you tripped a few times in puddles of water, or screeched that one time when you were tangled in spider webs (don’t worry, the fluffalo won’t tell a soul about that high-pitched display of fear).

You’re not sure how far you’d gone before you started to see any light at all. And it definitely wasn’t sunlight...unless the sun started to glow blue today. It started dim, and then grew quite bright. Then you saw the source: all these little mushrooms growing on the walls of the cave!

Then there were more and more glowing colors: oranges, reds, and greens. And the cave became less narrow, and the ceilings less likely to grab at your hair. Now it has opened up into a circular expanse with the floor and walls covered in mushrooms. The little buds are growing pretty tightly together, but it looks like these mushrooms (for the most part) are the same bland kind: shroompkins. There isn’t really a path, so you aren’t sure where the fluffalo disappeared to...but you can hear his happy snorts and the voice of a young woman talking to him.

You can’t see them though...hmm, maybe they are around the corner? On the other side of the expanse, there is a narrowing in the cave, and it looks like it must continue on back that way. There is a glow from in there, but you can’t see that well in that direction. Shroompkins don’t glow, so this expanse is pretty dark again.

Dare you grab a few glowing mushrooms from behind you to help you get across the shroom garden?

Of course you dare do so. What else are you going to do? You spent all this time walking and you’ve sacrificed so much! You aren’t just going to turn back around now!

With a handful of glowing oh-I-hope-these-won’t-cause-a-rash mushrooms, you scan the expanse. Okay, there are a few sparse spots... with a little skill, you can jump from one to the other, right?

You’re no graceful fluffalo, my friend. That first jump? No, we won’t talk about how bad that was. Or how you almost fell that second time. And we won’t mention how you somehow got a shroompkin stuck to your ankle. Nope, not a word. If anyone asks, you were a graceful ballerina and danced across the room. That’s exactly how it happened, okay?

Right.

Well, you got across, and the snorts are louder again. And you can hear the voice clearer. Better start walking the narrow path again.


“Why are you so excited, Bryophyta? You never wiggle this much during harvest!”
This time, you only had to push through about 30 yards of glowing cave and only your ripped pants on that one stray root. Not too bad. Here you can see the cave opened up again, but the light here isn’t just from glowing fungi. About 50 yards away, on the other side of this swampy cave glade, you see holes in the cave wall, and that is definitely sunlight pouring in. Hmm, can you smell that? Smells like salt. And you’re pretty sure you can hear waves hitting rocks. Could you really be near the ocean?

SNORT, SNORT, SNORT!!!

Uh-oh, your little buddy blew your super-secret stealth mode powers and now the young woman is looking at you. She is quite lovely: dark skin, fuchsia hair...wait, are her legs glowing? Oh, she seems to be covered in the same moss as the little fluffalo. She appears to be quite confused by your presence. Maybe you should say something?

You give your salutation and take a step forward to offer a hand-shake...and step right into a deep puddle, resulting in your falling face first into the bog.

Snort, snort.

And now there is a fluffalo sniffing your hair. You are the very essence of elegance.

“Oh my! Are you alright?” the young woman asks, rushing to your side and helping you up. “My goodness...you seem to have had a hard time on your journey to my home. Please, sit a while to rest!” She helps you to a nearby plant to use as a chair. The plant is some sort of giant flower (there are quite a few in this area), but this one has yet to bloom. The bud is perfect size for a chair, and comfortable for sitting on.

“You must be the reason Bryophyta is so excited,” the young woman says, the fluffalo in question poking roots at her feet. “I take it that he led you here?” You nod, and she smiles. “He must really like you then. It is rare for him to bring people here. The only person who he’s brought here before you, was me!”

You ask the woman kindly to explain.

“Certainly, my new friend. I will tell you all about this place, and how I came to tend to it!”

“I didn’t always look as I do now.”
“I was once a young seedling: green and covered in the morning dew. I am a child of Mother Earth, and my full name is Plantae Tracheobionta Spermatophyta Magnoliophyta Liliopsida Alismatidae Najadales Najadaceae Najas L. Najas Minor. Oh, but you can just call me Najas! I was created from a sprig of Brittle Waternymph!

Anyway, that isn’t what’s important. I was a fresh young girl, who cherished flowers and treasured greenery. Mother always made her children promise to live in the light. That which the light touches was my playground. When I was young, that was enough for me. I played with my siblings in the light of the day, and curled up in mother’s garden when the night rose.

But one day, I found that I was...well, bored! I don’t know why, but I just didn’t like seeing the same things anymore! It had been years and years of the same old thing...and I wanted something new. So I started to be daring. I would stay out later and later...I would risk Mother’s wrath. But I didn’t care. The dusk was lovely...and the new creatures I saw!

After weeks of playing in the dusk hours, I caught sight of this little fluffalo.”

Najas pauses in her story to pet Bryophyta. She picks him up and takes a seat on the bud next to you.

“Bryophyta was so cute! And his mossy hair, I’d never seen anything like it before! So rather than head back home...well, I followed him just like you did! I followed him right into this cave. It was pretty tricky though. I got tangled up in vines and tripped on roots. By the time I reached this clearing, I’d lost all my green leaves and bright flowers! And it was so awfully dark...I wasn’t used to it. I couldn’t see a thing without the glowing moss, so I just...

Rolled around in it!

And I drank the water here. I soaked it up and put the different plants all over my body. Now I have become one with cave creatures!

This place...it is so beautiful! I just love everything about it! I’d never seen the sea before, and now I live right by it! I’d never learned about fungus or mushrooms, and now I am covered with them! I’ve even been breeding new types of mushrooms, learning about new types of insects...this life is so perfect!

I admit, it can get a little lonely at times though. I guess Bryophyta noticed and brought you over to cheer me up.”

You’ve been a good guest, and listened to her tale. You even decide to spend a few hours with Najas so she shows you around. She points out all the shroompkins that she’s grown to eat. She lets you read some of her books about cave gardening. She even gives you one of the ‘reject’ specimens to take home with you (and you certainly hope it isn’t poisonous!).

But time has flown by, and you still need to head home! Are you ready to leave?

Bryophyta gives a few sad snorts up to you from your feet.

It is sad, but you can’t stay.

Najas looks a little disappointed that you are turning towards the cave entrance.

But if you stayed, you would become like her. Glowing and a part of the cave...

Are you sure this is really what you want?

What will you do?


“Eheheehee. I love new friends!”


Profile Credits:
Overlay: lines by Keshi, colored by me, Lexx.
Profile art by Cadaver.
Najas Pixels by Kali.
Najas Blinking Pixel by ren.
Fireflies and Butterflies from Subeta.
Vine Brushes effects acquired from here and here.
Cave image is a screenshot from my Myst III: Exile game
Song Lyrics from, Owl City - Fireflies.
Profile coding, image collaboration, and story by me, Lexx.