Withering World [MCSM Fanfiction]

HABITATION: Chapter 32

Lukas

Rested up and ready to go, I head out toward the bridge, making my way to the mycelium.

The broken bridge is easier to jump across, now that I've done it before though I wobble on the landing. I can tell the bridge used to look more grand in the past, considering this place belonged to an admin, and now it's all in ruins.

Dwelling on the past aside, this experience is definitely worth writing about. Personally, I don't believe in spirits, but Fred's keep... this feels like the pinnacle place of peaceful, invisible souls ghosting around. It's an ethereal wonderland, or maybe my lenient expectations for biomes are too low. There's a splash of the blue mushroom glow everywhere in my sight, swathed in the wisps of the hovering mist.

When I get to the end of the bridge, in line with the outermost mycelium island, I leap. The zooming descent definitely feels more intense than it looked. My legs mess me up, a burn of fall damage booming from the soles of my feet to the centers of my thighs.

Yes, Jesse taught me how to roll when I land from a high fall to lessen the impact, but I still forget time and time again. I don't show it though. I don't show the hurt in my calf even if it feels like a sickly knife scraping against my bones.

Before I resume my walk across the mystically, illuminated lands, I fill my lungs with a breath of fresh, cool air. My exhale is just as dramatic as my inhale.

The murmurs of the light wind are carried rightward. They point me to lines and lines of lapis and diamond mushrooms scattered across the barren mycelium plains. I amble down the island as if I were touring a riverbank. In awe, I shelter myself under the gills of an enormous, healing fungus, reminded of the last time I made my getaway from Beacontown (because of the light pollution) to gaze at the stars. Now that I think about it, it's been ages since I've last seen a real star, though I've already accepted the fact that I may never see one again (if this cure ever were to fail and we'd end up in QZ for the rest of our lives). But I don't mind it because my previous time with the stars included Jesse in it. If there is any hope left for her and my survival and for the defeat of Wither altogether, perhaps we could ponder on constellations once more. We could take Petra along if she's ever up for it.

Once my head is in the clear, I prepare ten vials, ready to shove two of each different samples in: a turquoise mushroom, a royal blue mushroom, a portion of a glowing mushroom cap, a portion of a glowing mushroom stem, and a mycelium block for cultivation in the lab. With each sample, I pull out the pieces of fungi and constantly make sure my hands are securely gloved.

Alright, fine. Despite having told Petra and Jack about the difficulty of extracting the ingredient, the process was fairly simple. I'd be an idiot to tell that to the rest, however. The truth is, my arduous lifestyle in QZ is slowly shredding my spirit into tatters.

I can't take it anymore.

Seeing the sky back in Beacontown, though dark and sinister as it was, ignited a spark of passion in me, a flame of appreciation for the world we once lived in. The term 'research lab' is skimming dangerously close to being synonymous with 'mental asylum' - that's the most accurate way to put my unbearable suffering there.

I order the ten tubes carefully so that not too much mycelium juice would be secreted if ever we have to sprint. Then, I pack the case up and head back to the bridge, happier knowing I am free from QZ's shackles.

------

Binta edges away from the cartography table, producing two identical maps in her hands.

"Sad to know you're leaving so soon," she says, handing Petra the copied version of the Underneath map. "Give my regards to Jesse. Oh and I'm... really sorry about Radar."

"It's alright. We're all letting go - well, trying to anyway. And we'll make sure to let Jesse know you're still hanging on," Petra replies with a sigh, "if she's still alive by the time we come back."

There are a few changes I'm noticing in Petra, the first being that there are now visible circles around her eyes which are beseeching for rest. She's gotten noticeably skinnier, which has its own pros and cons for her tall figure. For the most part, I haven't seen her sort out her hair or bandana - which is what she usually does - in ages, her focus instead moving on to the endless twiddling of the necklace we gave her a long while back. It's as if stress was a sickness of its own, and it's found its way into poor Petra.

I cut her some slack, boasting the once empty briefcase that's now filled with mycelium, and then turn to the raven-haired woman when she smiles at the sight of it. "Nice to meet you, Binta. Take care."

"You too, Lukas. I hope you cure Jesse."

"Thanks. I hope to see you soon up there."

The warrior's caring eyes gaze straight at Binta's with nothing ruining its line of sight. "If anything is wrong with the portal, look for Xara and she will fix it. Train well. Please stay safe."

"We will, Petra. I'm grateful for your help."

"And we're grateful for your generosity. This mycelium might have just saved the world."

That's the last of our farewells before Petra affirms me for obtaining the healing ingredient. Side by side, we parade into the darkness, reading the trail of the map. As the dirt smears into red sand and clay, we begin to watch each other's backs in this heck of a place.

****