Era1 Universe: The Global Appetizer Course

Your character discovers a drug that can alter reality. What happens?

Ky sat under the shady trees and looked around the forest. She'd heard so much about the Grove that she had been counting the very days until she got to visit. She was torn between what to be more excited for: studying new botanicals and seeing what properties they possessed or seeing Amari, Kahvae, and Fang again.

At present, Amari was off tending to a patient a ways off the coast while Kahvae and Fang were out on patrol. This gave her the chance to begin the research she'd been so eager to begin.

She sat down and began to look at the various plants. She found a guide in her pack that Amari had given her before she'd left this morning. According to the guide she found a cluster of mushrooms that said they tasted good raw and cooked down in a soup. Wanting to try the new variety of mushroom she plucked a small one and popped it in her mouth.

The flavor was savory and almost nutty. It was definitely unlike any other mushroom she'd ever tried before. She smiled and that's where her memory ended.

~*~

Ky sat up with a start. She looked around the room and found she was back in Amari's hut. She remembered everything and nothing. Her sense of reality was warped to the end of existence and back.

"Oh good, you're awake," Amari noted, almost coldly.

The blue gem rubbed her head. "Ouughhh... what happened?"

"Not sure. Kahvae found you under a tree... singing and saying you could 'feel the colorful breezes coming, Ichora'."

Ky blinked. Somehow she remembered that and somehow she remembered none of it. "Delirium?"

Amari shrugged and went back to sitting by the fire, preparing dinner. "Most likely. Do you remember any of what happened?"

"There were a LOT of colors... I think. And reality wasn't real." The more Ky explained what she felt the more she wondered if this was what Kunzite was on about. Possibly. VERY. POSSIBLY. She stopped when she saw the elder of the two foxes slicing mushrooms. "Wait don't-" She stopped as Amari popped the piece of mushroom in her mouth.

"Mmm?"

"That's what I ate! I tried one of those mushrooms and it made me feel all loopy!"

Amari looked down at the mushrooms then up to the blue gem on her bed. "This mushroom?"

"Yes!"

The fox blinked. Her ears twitched and she shook her head. "Impossible. I cook with these almost daily. I think I'd know if I was losing my mind. Or Kahvae for that matter."

Ky slid off the bed and came over. She knelt across the cutting board from the fox hybrid and picked up one of the mushrooms. "Incredible."

"What?"

"There must be something about your fox blood that allows you to tolerate the properties of this variety of mushroom. While my body sees it as a neurotoxin."

"A benefit for the foxes?"

Ky laughed. "Yeah. I think your fox blood wins this one." She laughed a little more then realized that she couldn't eat the soup without absolutely tripping out again. "Uh, if you don't mind, I'll just have some granola for dinner."

Amari's gaze shifted from the healer down to the soup and she let out a laugh. "Don't worry. I'll make you up a little fish head stew so you won't go hungry. It's hard to research on an empty stomach, you know?"