Lost between the leaves [Cordycep & Honey]

A felled tree, long dead, lay like a gash on the forest floor. Around it, ferns exploded, splashes of green against the sun-bleached brown. Two, human-shaped splashes of green were sprawled across the old, felled tree, basking in the light. Duplicate beings, with halos of viney, green hair blooming from around their restful faces. Birdsong on the wind, the rippling of a nearby creek. Footsteps in the detritus.

A sound.

Always a sound.

Neither creature stirred. With bellies filled from eating a deer just a day prior, both were sluggish. Neither excited by the prospect of a visitor. Sleepy. Warm. Let the deer walk past. They were napping.

Whatever was walking by sniffled woefully. That was an unusual sound. One of the creatures opened their eyes, orange like amber, and rolled to a sitting position.

What is it? What is it? What is it? What-?

The thought reverberated between the two, and the second creature rose. Then the two descended from the log, and moved one behind the other towards the source of the sound. They moved slowly, bare feet silent upon the pillowy forest floor. It wasn't long until they came upon their visitor, an apparent fluffy orb. The twin with the rounder face crept closer, ignoring the grab at her elbow that the sharp-eyed twin made. Squirrels had tails like that, but squirrels were not that big.

Be careful, be careful.

Is it food?

Big squirrel?

Big squirrel!

The observation was thought with a note of disdain. Squirrels were small and fast, and therefore generally not worth hunting. The round-faced twin sank to all fours as she drew nearer, sniffing at the ball of fluff. It smelled… sweet. Like fruit, but somehow unreal. The round-faced twin extended one hand, and, ever so slowly, took an open-palmed swing at the ball of fluff.

Her open palm connected with something, but she didn't stay too see what. Instead, she scurried back to the safety of her sister's company, and the two of them watched owlishly.

They must have made quite the sight, in their tattered sundresses over cargo pants, rolled at the knees, with their flannel shirts tied around their waists. No shoes, crouched on all fours, watching their visitor with curiosity. Not a word was spoken, from either of them, and neither seemed aware of how peculiar they must look.

ooc: this takes place before the girls leave the woods!

Suzume rose slowly, until both she and Ayame were standing together, watching the small squirrel-creature before them. The squirrel-creature righted themselves too, and the twins stared at her, there eyes round and unreadable. After what seemed like a long moment, the twins glanced at one another, volleying their thoughts on the newcomer back and forth.

Clothes squirrel.

People squirrel.

Weird.

Don't like it.

Not like squirrel squirrel.

And then the squirrel spoke. The sisters snapped to attention once again.

She spoke in slow, deliberate sentences-- first, offering a greeting and a raised hand. Then, she offered her name, her reason for behing there, and a question. The sisters understood most of what was said... though they had no frame of reference for the word "parking lot". The sisters glanced back at one another again.

"Hhhh-" Suzume began. Her voice was like the wind in the trees, a great and raspy explosion of noise, "Hhhhiiii."

Despite all the effort she put into greeting the other girl, that was the best, loudest greeting she could muster. Suzume placed a hand to her throat. Ayame shook her head. The two moved inquiringly closer, bent at the waist to get a closer look at the other girl. When they were within a meter of her, they sank fluidly to the ground, crossing their legs. She wasn't a threat, they'd decided.

Ayame was the first to act, beginning an elaborate pantomime. She gestured to Suzume, then to herself, and brought her hands to her throat, sticking her black tongue out. Neither of them could really speak. She pulled a mushroom from the crown of her head, small and white, and held it with the stem towards her ear. With her free hand, she extended an index finger skyward, and waggled it from her mouth towards the squirrel. With this, they could talk.

Then, Ayame held the mushroom out towards the weird squirrel, an offering of good faith.

Is... a good idea? Suzume pressed, looking towards her sister.

Only until she is found, Ayame assured her sister. Whether she would accept it or decline it was something else entirely.

❁

The twins nodded as the girl guessed their intent. Yes! That was exactly what she needed to do! She took the mushroom from Suzume, and began to slide the mushroom stalk-first into her ear canal. Filaments at the base of the mushroom would begin to sway, sensing a new place to take root. Honey's ear might itch as the root took hold, a soft rustling accompanying it, but once the connection was made, the sound and the sensation would subside.

'Did it work?' Ayame asked, rising from her crouched position? Her voice, however psychic, was murmurous, and would sound to be just over Honey's shoulder. Ayame "spoke" somewhat coolly, as if the success of the connection didn't affect her one way or the other. Her body language conveyed the same disinterest, only a passing glance being given to the squirrel-girl before she gazed off into the trees.

'Let's ask her,' Suzume insisted, bright orange eyes turning from her sister to the new girl. Her voice was decidedly more lively, and a toothy smile broke across her features, 'Ho-ney. Did it work?'

Suzume lingered too close to the new girl, pivoting in her crouched position to get a closer look at the mushroom. It certainly looked as though the mushroom had taken root.

❁

When the squirrel person answered the twins aloud, they jostled each other excitedly, Suzume repeatedly patting her sister's shoulder, Ayame grinning. The two seemed entirely unaware of the stranger's discomfort over having a fungus take root in their ear canal/brain, too lost in the excitement of inviting someone new into the hivemind.

'It worked!' Suzume psychically proclaimed.

'I noticed,' her sister thought smugly. They turned their gazes back to Honey.

'This is something we do,' Ayame advised the girl, linking her arm around her sister's waist. She allowed her smile to become more subdued, 'We talk like this. Not with our mouths.'

They didn't know what "quirks" meant, but they assumed she was asking about why they were speaking now, but couldn't before.

'We want to help,' Suzume supplied, 'But it is hard to help with no talk. Yes?'

Suzume offered a grubby hand to the girl, as a gesture of goodwill, blissfully unaware of the fact that her hand was, in fact, grubby.

'You are lost,' Ayame reiterated plainly, 'Where are you trying to find? We live in the trees, so we know them very well.'

She meant in the woods, but didn't know that there was anything other than the trees.

'A different tree?' Suzume guessed. The girl had a squirrel tail, after all.

'Or a burrow?' Ayame agreed.

There was no inkling of meanness in their tones. They genuinely didn't understand where the girl wanted to go.

❁

Two slitted smiles reflected on the twins' faces. Their voices could be heard by squirrel girls. She accepted the proffered hand before explaining that she was looking for a place "where the trees stopped and the ground became hard and black". Suzume's face broke into a dagger-like smile, Ayame huffed in amusement.

'The road?' Ayame supplied. Leave it to a squirrel, to not know what a road was. Perhaps that was why so many squirrels died in the road, because they didn't know what it was. The twins knew what it was from women who yelled for their children to, "Stay close to camp! Don't play in the road."

'Not safe for squirrels,' Suzume murmured gravely.

Ayame swatted at her sister. That was besides the point, 'There are many roads in the trees. Which road do you want? A road with camp?'

'A road where cars sleep?'

'A road where cars fly?'

Though their vocabulary was limited, it was clear that their knowledge of the woods was rather extensive. They were like urban foxes, living alongside humanity but interacting with it as sparingly as possible.

Whatever directive Honey might provide, the response would be the same.

'We know the place,' Ayame would declare, 'Come. Follow us.'

Suzume would offer another disgusting hand and, should their petite companion accept it, Suzume would clasp Honey's hand and start leading her along the narrow trail.

❁