Author's Note

Accidentally released it too early, but now I have fixed it up.

ENJOY

Omake: The Bloom

I am Scarab and I am not feeling too good right this moment. My left hindleg has been feeling a little itchy ever since I left that tunnel with that scratch to my hide.

I was just mappin out the caves around the northern bit of the Bleak Hollow, nasty place to explore what with all the tunnelers roaming it and they are real nasty pieces o work. That place feels... wrong, like there is this weird fog that makes me feel hopeless. Noling has ever fully mapped this place cause they are scared of what lurks here but not I!

I will succeed where otherlings have failed!

And so I looked and searched every single nook and cranny that I came across and mapped it to the best of my ability. I looked high and low for days, and when my rations were starting to run low I came upon it, a strange mushroom forest that seemingly made the gloom here easier to deal with.

I trotted around the mycelium roots and took note of its odd greyish coloration and texture, it was almost akin to touching supple hide. Poking and prodding the various textured stalks, I even plucked one of the smaller mushrooms and placed it inside one of my empty ration satchels before closing it up tightly to try and preserve it.

With my prize tucked away for safekeeping and my gateway to extra love secure I resumed my hunt for all that is new within this cave.

To say that this place was massive would be an understatement, it is almost as big if not just as big as the capital! There was mushrooms as fat ad the eye can see and I can see pretty far, but this is an amazing find! Maybe they will name it after me, Scarab! Scarab Mushroom Forest, has a nice ring to it and it will mean that I have made my momma proud!

‘Oh Scarab! My favorite son! You make me so proud!’

‘Take that Stinger! I was moms favorite all along!’

‘What a day that’ll be… me getting my medal for the discovery and quite possibly a token of favor from queen herself no less!’

But while I was off in with my head in the fog, my hooves bump and stumble into something that wasn’t a mushroom or a rock and I nearly fall over from the misstep. Catching myself by a burst of flight I correct my course and turned around to see what exactly I have stumbled on.

Looking down at the fungal floor and resting in between a cluster of wide brimmed mushrooms was a single brownish red lump of something that I couldn’t quite identify. Buzzing closer to it I brought a hoof to it and gave it a firm poke and as it moved with my hoof I felt that it was hard yet soft at the same time, hard from a portion of it but the rest of it was soft and squishy to the touch that I couldn’t help myself and poked it again.

As I kept on poking the strange object I heard something moving in the fungal growth I was hovering above and as I backed away from it I heard the low hollow groan of threads and vines being moved and snapping before a low gust of fetid wind exited the strange growth.

Rising from the mushrooms was a monster that I could not identify even if my life were to depend on it, and for this occasion I think it did as I watched in abject horror as I saw chunks of flesh missing from its body, its jaw was hanging loosely from its skull as it was only hanging on my a few strands of rotten flesh and muscle as it stood up to its full height and gazed at me with a single milky dull eye as it let out a low, rumbling moan that grew in sound and pitch.

As it let out this moan I heard several more began to rise up from around me as I saw even more of these shambling corpses pull themselves out from underneath the mushrooms and joined in the decayed chorus of the first corpses moan as spores of some claims start seeping out of their open mouths and exposed insides.

Sensing that this is something that I shouldn’t be here for to witness or even stay for, I turned around and quickly buzzed it to the exit.

When I saw the gaping hole that was the entrance that I came from I felt something land on my back, and I felt the scrapping of what must have been teeth trying to dig into my carapace. I panicked and immediately flew upwards into the ceiling and slammed it into whatever jagged rock was up there and hoped it would stop trying to eat me.

The moment I collided with the ceiling I winced as I felt something nick my left rear leg and I was hoping it was a cave rock.

I think it worked cause when I stopped buzzing my wings, I felt something heavy slide off my back and fell into the mushrooms below me in a splattered heap.

When I looked back down, I saw a veritable mass of those... things looking up at me, and the mere sight of them made my stomach curdle and the feeling of intense nausea washed over me.

I saw diamond dogs and griffons with ponies and minotaurs standing beneath me, all of them just looking at me with blank, dead eyes... some of them didn't even have eyes! Their bodies were in various states of decomposition with a few of them being nothing, but bones held together by vines and threads! So many of them were just staring at me with open mouths and they were expelling some sort of lime green fog.

But dead things can't move, right? I was hallucinating those things, right?

Right when I saw a chance to escape without those...things...chasing me I took it. I bolted for the gaping hole that I came in from and flew right for it, keeping my legs held tightly to my body to avoid any of those monsters from grabbing me so easily and pull me down. With a bit of luck and a prayer to the Weave I bobbed and weaved through the rocks and mushroom canopies, avoiding the worst of the mob of creatures and their rotting grippers before finally zooming through the opening and not once looking back at it.

I didn't stop flying until I felt my lungs burning and my wings aching, and only then did I slow down and stop at a junction of tunnels to let myself collapse into a heap on the floor and laugh at my success of both getting out of that situation alive and finding something valuable in the Hollow.

Only when I have spent enough time recuperating from exhaustion did I take out my journal and write down in it all of my experiences in that cave did I notice the scratch on my rear left leg and thought it was from a stalagmite that I crashed into when one of those things was on my back.

And now I can add sharp rocks to it along with bad mushroom creatures to the area info for Bleak Hollow.

'Note to self, avoid the ground while in Bleak Hollow, nasty mushroom creatures in there. Maybe bring fire to burn them out.'

With that written down I began the long trek home, I have a discovery to share with my friends and my boss, and maybe, just maybe, my boss will give me that commendation I have been trying to get for so long.

Here is hoping that it happens, I really want that commendation. It would look great on my resume and it would make my momma proud.

...

Its been about a week since I got home and I think that scratch got infected with some nasty bacteria from that mushroom cave.

'unno why but my leg is burning and I ain't feeling too good and my head is spinnin' like somethin fierce.

I know that infected wounds can cause dizziness and make the wounded area hurt a lot because of it being swollen and sensitive to the touch, but why is it making my head hurt so much?

Ugh why is my room spinning and why do I hear humming? Why is my head buzzing with so much sound when there is noling around to make it?

Make the humming stop!

...
...

A month has passed since I explored Bleak Hollow, I now know why it was called that.

The infection in my leg has gotten worse, the local doctor said that the infection in my leg would heal in time and that I need to take the medication that they prescribed to me until it heals.

But the herbal medicine did nothing.

The pain is still there.

The fungus growing on it has spread so much that it has completely overtaken my leg.

To make matters worse I can't breath right anymore.

It feels like something is inside me and scratching at my throat that it hurts so much whenever I cough and that breathing is harder.

Sometimes when I cough I think I am seeing strange lumps of fuzzy green mass, but its not the resin we spit up.

And my mood... when did I get so angry at everyling? And why did I punch Stinger in the muzzle for no reason? Usually, he would have to say that I am worthless or a waste of love to get me to hit him, but today I just hit him out of nowhere.

I don't think this infection is gonna be cured with this herbal medicine...

And I am so hungry right now and I don't know why.

...
...
...

Hunger.

I am so hungry.

I don't know how long since I last ate.

All I know of that love alone is not enough.

I tried to suppress this gnawing pit in my gut but it's not enough.

My old chitin shedding and oatmeal powder was the first to be shoveled into my gullet, then the gravel and glowshroom in the jar in the kitchen.

But I am still hungry...

Hmm...?

That changeling standing in the doorway... they look... familiar...

Like...family...

But they also look so... delicious.

Just one bite won't hurt... right?

Just...

...one...

...bite...

JUST ONE BITE!

DON'T RUN FROM ME!

COME HERE!

STAY STILL!

FOOD!

FEED!

YES!

SO FRESH!

MEAT!

THE HUNGER WILL BE FED!

...
...
...
...

I need to spread this gift to my friends.

They will understand this feeling of oneness if they just let me bite them.

We can all be friends again.

No need to run...

NO RUNNING!

TAKE THE BITE!

SPREAD THE BLOOM!

FEED THE HUNGER!

...
...
...
...
...

I don't know how long it has been since I last ate something...

I am so hungry...

At least I have my family with me...

My brother and mother...or what's left of her...

Oh... look... one of my sisters fell over... fresh food...

And there is nothing left... not even a nibble for me...

If I don't feed soon... I think I will be next to be eaten...

Oh...? What is this? A crack in a wall?

I hear sounds behind it...

Maybe I can push on it... there may be food behind it...

Come on now... just a little more...

I can hear the stone cracking... or is that me finally coming apart...

Maybe... but then I can eat what doesn't work anymore...

The wall is giving way...

I hear more sounds... voices... food...

I HUNGER

The wall has given way.

I can see food.

The food is fleeing from me.

FOOD! FEED! SATE THE HUNGER!

I don't even remember letting out a screech that echoed through the tunnels, all I know is that I have found food and that I must tell the others that it is here for us to feed on.

There are so much food bags fleeing from us. Running and flying deeper into this new cave.

We must spread out. Find the food. Take the food. Eat the food.

FEED THE HUNGER!

SPREAD OUR GIFT!

Running into the cave ahead of my brothers and sisters I chased down our prey, running them down and tackling one into a strange reflective surface that broke apart into numerous smaller pieces but it wasn't enough to stop me from clamping down my jaws onto the food sack's meaty neck piece and tore it apart.

I heard it scream for a moment, but that isn't right.

Food doesn't scream, my mind must be playing tricks on me again...

Oh look... another food bag, it thinks it can hide.

I chased after it along with my brothers and sisters, turning and weaving through this strange cave system of tall oddly flat and shaped rocks before entering a smaller cave that went upwards and into even smaller chamber before ending in me slamming into the food bag into a wall before we all started to tear it apart.

Biting, ripping, tearing, shearing and chomping onto this screaming food, I was sprayed in the face with green ichor as I heard the sounds of my prey screaming out, maybe for help to bring us more food.

Looking down at the faltering food sack for a moment I saw a sliver of something in its reflective pool on its head, it was looking back at me.

I don't like that.

Snarling I bit down on the area by the reflection and started to shake and tear at my food before feeling something give on its end as I come back up with a sizeable piece before gulping it down, nothing even bothering to chew as there was still more for me to consume.

It wasn't before long that the sounds it was making stopped and we can now eat in peace.

I am still hungry, but this meat will sustain me...for now...

A noise brought our attention away from our meal for a moment before we all then quickly scrambled and left the soggy food sack on the floor to investigate what it was, well except for me, I was still hungry, and the other siblings can enjoy that other meal outside.

But this one.

This one is mine.