Ashar, the village herbalist, wandered through the
darkened forest. She stepped carefully so as to leave no
trail behind her, because if someone else knew where the thing she was hunting was, she could lose her
position of power in the
village.
Ashar had lived a
long and meaningful life at the age of 23. Her people did not live much longer than the
animals they
survived off of, and as far as they were
concerned, she was an
old woman, and no man would have her
as a wife now. This was of no matter to her, as they would all
fear her power over human life.
It was a
full moon, tonight, the only one in
April. Her
bare feet felt the slippery leaves and needles underfoot, and she did not bother to
shield herself from the
gentle rain. Instead, she welcomed the
rhythmic thrumming of the droplets on her head and back.
Stopping short, she cursed to herself under her breath. Ashar had almost flattened a
tiny field of mushrooms with her feet, so
heavy with weariness was she. Yes, she thought, these were the ones she sought, the mushrooms that had the power to
return life, or
take it away from another human. The
ancient healer ways her mother had handed down to her spoke at length about these mushrooms, but nobody had been lucky enough to find them. Ashar quickly filled her basket with dozens of the almost
microscopic fungi, before mentally marking the spot and swiftly walking back towards the village.
Ashar didn't notice that she had not found mushrooms, but instead some other plant, one her people had found
deadly to the touch. Ashar forgot that sometimes this plant looked like mushrooms after a warm April rain.
The villagers found her the next morn, with a basketful of poisonous plant shoots still clutched in her hands. They nodded their heads knowingly, she had not wanted to live beyond her years, when she could not care for herself. Ashar was always wise, they said. The villagers brought the basket to the village, along with a new tradition, for those as wise as Ashar, the elders would gain their final respect through the plant that looked like mushrooms after a warm April rain.
This was a nodeshell. Now it isn't.