"What would you even do with them?" I asked. "Like could you use them in spells or something? Or potions I guess?"
Melanie frowned, "Please tell me you're not going to try eating them!"
"I'm not stupid," Marissa stated, although there was definitely a little cringe and a little blush going on with her. "But if they're edible then yeah I'd absolutely try eating one."
The wolfgirl facepalmed, "Marissa how are you going to know what's dangerous and what's safe? Eating wild mushrooms is like, the riskiest thing you can do!"
"Only if you don't know what you're doing," the young blonde stated. And in her typical bold brash style she announced, "And I'm going to educate myself. See?"
She pulled a small thick paperback book out of her bag, then placed it on the little cafe table in front of me and Melanie.
We were in the coffee place across the parking lot from the grocery store where Melanie worked, and it was a bit of a coincidence that I ran into the two of them. I'd been helping mom with her shopping, then while we were loading stuff into mum's car I spotted my friends walking across the lot to the cafe. So I went to say hi, then let mom know I was going to hang out with Melanie and Marissa for a bit. She took the groceries home, and I got to spend some time with a couple of my friends.
In a way I was trying to make up for the six months Melanie didn't like me, though I wouldn't actually say that unless she asked. Mostly I was just happy we'd patched things up. Plus I thought her and Marissa were both kind of cool, and they seemed like they'd be fun to hang out with.
"You got a field guide to wild mushrooms and fungus?" the werewolf asked in a very skeptical tone. "And you think this is going to teach you the difference between safe and poisonous mushrooms?"
"That's the whole point of the book," Marissa replied with a grin. She turned it over and pointed to the blurb on the back cover, "It's got comprehensive identification information for all the safe edible mushrooms you can find wild in North America. There's a checklist and everything."
Melanie frowned and picked up the book to have a closer look at it, while I had a gulp of my hot chocolate.
Then I looked to Marissa and asked, "So this ritual you found for closing the portal, step one is getting rid of the ring of toadstools?"
"Nah," she shook her head. "But if we're closing the portal I may as well collect all the mushrooms first. I figure real magic mushrooms are pretty rare, right? When am I going to get another chance to get my hands on some."
Melanie had the book open and was reading the foreword, but she commented "Y'all might want to keep your voices down? Or change the subject slightly? This isn't exactly the place to talk about those sorts of things."
She had a point. It was around noon on Sunday and the cafe was packed, there were people all around us. Though I was positive if anyone overheard our conversation about magic mushrooms they'd assume we meant the drug kind and not actual literal magic. Although talk of rituals and portals might clue them in on that.
Marissa rolled her eyes and had a gulp of her flat white. Then instead of the mushrooms she decided to discuss the ritual instead.
"I texted Paige this morning," she told me, "Explained what I found. The best part is we don't have to wait till the next full moon, or an equinox or solstice. The down-side is we need to do it at midnight."
That made me grimace, "Those trails were confusing enough in the daytime, how are we supposed to find our way there at night? And won't it be dangerous being there after dark?"
"I'm pretty sure I can find the way back there again," Melanie commented, though she was still mostly focused on the book. In fact she pointed at something she was reading and asked her girlfriend, "Marissa have you read this? It says right up front that eating the wrong mushroom can kill you! And there's disclaimers in here. The authors aren't liable, blah blah blah, use this information at your own risk and all that stuff."
Marissa rolled her eyes, "Yeah I read all that. I still want to collect the mushrooms, but I promise not to eat any unless I'm a hundred percent sure they're safe."
A moment later she added with a smirk, "Anyways if something did go wrong, we've got Kaylee with her healing magic to save me. Or worst-case scenario, I bet Cass's parents would help out too. Nothing like a couple powerful angels bringing the holy magic to save the day."
The wolfgirl gave her girlfriend an exasperated look, while I just grinned.
"She's got a point there Melanie," I teased. "As long as we don't start making a habit out of it, I'm pretty sure my mum would be happy to help any of my friends if they needed healing."
She rolled her eyes, but before she could come up with a snarky come-back I asked "What about you? Do you get any special healing stuff from being part wolf?"
Melanie gave me a hard look and stated quietly, "Still in a public place here, remember? We haven't left the cafe yet Cass."
"She totally does," Marissa answered instead. The blonde was grinning, but also looked kind of proud or pleased as she elaborated. "She heals quicker than normal folks. And if she really wants to speed it up, shifting back and forth seems to do the trick? My guess is the transformation reforms her body into a healthy state. Or at least it tries to? So minor stuff is practically erased when she shifts."
"That's really cool," I smiled.
The wolfgirl just rolled her eyes, then drained the last her her latte. She finally gave the mushroom book back to her girlfriend and stated, "I have to get to work now. Can I trust you two not to go sampling the local wild mushrooms together? Or should I call for some adult supervision to keep an eye on you?"
"We'll be good," Marissa said, in a tone that made me think she was totally lying. "We'll walk you over to the store though."
I gulped down the last of my hot chocolate and Marissa quickly finished her flat white, then the three of us got up and headed out together. As we cut across the parking lot towards the grocery store Melanie glanced at me and Marissa like she suddenly had something she wanted to say, but she was hesitant for some reason.
Then as we reached the doors she finally came out with it, "Hey Cass? Are you busy on Thursday? I'm thinking of throwing a little get-together, and figured I should start asking if folks are available or not."
As soon as she said it Marissa's cheeks went red. She shook her head and told her girlfriend, "No. We're not doing that Melanie!"
"I'm available," I replied with a grin. "What's the occasion?"
The wolfgirl smirked at the blonde witch as she stated, "It's Marissa's seventeenth birthday and I figured I'd throw her a party. Nothing too fancy, just BBQ and stuff. But it'd be nice to have a few more people there."
That put a wider smile on my face, "Absolutely! Want me to tell Kaylee? Or do you want to text everyone?"
"No, please don't tell anyone!" Marissa pleaded. "I don't want to make a big deal about it, I don't need a party."
Melanie sighed, "Fine. It's not Marissa's birthday party. But I'm having a BBQ for completely unrelated reasons on Thursday and I'd love it if our friends were all there. Or as many as can make it on short notice."
"I'm in for sure," I agreed. "And I'll let Kaylee know. And Paige and Brooke too if I see them."
Marissa's shoulders slumped and she pouted, but she looked like she was trying to hide a smile. Like on the one hand she didn't want anyone to make a big deal about her birthday, but she was also happy her girlfriend was trying to make it a thing.
"Anyways I gotta run," the wolfgirl announced. She gave her girlfriend a hug then let go and said, "Later Marissa, Cass."
We both watched Melanie head into the store, then I turned to Marissa and asked "So what are you up to this afternoon?"
The young blonde shrugged, "I can walk you home if you like? It's a bit of a hike from here right?"
"It's only a bit further than the school," I replied. "So like, thirty-five minutes. You live around here though don't you? Why'd you want to walk all the way up to my part of town if you're going to have to turn around and come all the way back?"
Marissa hesitated just a moment, and I was positive there was something going on. Like a moment of uncertainty, a bit of a dark look in her eyes. Then she grinned, "I'm going to go mushroom hunting. I figured the ravine behind the school is a good place to start."
"Don't worry I'm not gonna eat any!" she added before I could say it. "But I need to get some practice identifying these things right? I figure it's safer to start learning on mushrooms that aren't potentially cursed or blessed by fae."
I wasn't entirely sure I believed her, but there was obviously something she didn't want to talk about so I decided to let it go. Instead I asked, "Can I come too? I don't know anything about mushrooms and it sounds kind of neat."
I knew if Kaylee was with us she'd make a fuss and probably try and talk me out of it. She'd probably also point out that neither me or Marissa were dressed for walking around in the woods. As usual the blonde witch was in her whole cosplay outfit, with the long skirt and the big witch hat. And I was wearing a cute forest green skirt and a tight pink top. At least Marissa had better footwear than my sandals. Still, I was curious about the mushroom picking and identification, and didn't have anything else going on.
Marissa gave me a look, "I promise I'm not going to start eating them Cass. You don't have to watch over me like that."
"That's not why I want to come," I protested with a laugh. "I'm serious Marissa, it sounds cool."
Her suspicious look broke into a grin, "Cool! Then let's go!"
There was a park with some trees next to the parking lot and we cut through that as we headed north towards my side of town. In fact we managed to turn a thirty or forty minute walk into an hour and a half just by detouring through every park and green space we spotted along the way. All in a fruitless search for mushrooms.
We talked more along the way, Marissa told me what she'd already learned from her field guide. Not so much stuff about specific mushrooms, but more general knowledge about how to identify them safely.
"You can't just go by the caps," she explained as we wandered through another little park. "There's lots of variety there, but you'll find two mushrooms that have identical-looking caps and one's safe, the other's not. So there's shape size colour and texture, of both the cap and the stem. Then there's also the gills, those are the flappy things under the cap? And there's the roots, except they're not really roots but they look like roots, coming out the bottom of the stem."
I nodded as I listened, "Ok, that's a lot of things to check. But I guess if it's the difference between food and poison it's important."
"Yep," she agreed. "That's not all, either. There's also the spore test. You put a cap on a piece of plain white paper and leave it for a day. Or maybe it was overnight? Anyways you leave it a while, then take the cap off and check the spore pattern. That can differentiate some mushrooms that are otherwise hard to tell apart."
"And you're going to do all this?" I asked, with a little disbelief in my voice.
The blonde witch shrugged, "If that's what it takes? I really don't want to get sick, so I'll be careful. But I'm not going to pass up the chance of trying actually-magic shrooms."
That left me thinking for a few moments, then I asked "That's the mundane side of things though, what about the magic? If these mushrooms have some kind of fae magic in them, how do you know that's safe?"
"So far everything I've heard about fae makes me think anything they've touched will be the opposite of safe," I added.
Marissa almost stopped in her tracks as she thought about that, and I almost wanted to facepalm because it looked like she hadn't even considered that yet.
"Ok," she finally responded. "You make a good point, and I'll have to think about it. That's just another test though. First I make sure the mushrooms themselves are edible, then I figure out what sort of magic or enchantment is on them."
As we started walking again she commented, "What I really need is some sort of Identify spell? Like in some games?"
I frowned, "Is there such a thing? Actually I think May Hawthorne might have used something like that when Kaylee gave her those plushies."
Marissa nodded, "Yeah I remember that. That was how she knew the plushies were Socha's work. Or a knock-off of Socha's work anyways. So there must be a spell out there, the question is how to cast it."
That remained on her mind as we left the latest park and continued on our way. Eventually we arrived at the ravine behind the school, then instead of just cutting through it like me and Kaylee normally did, me and Marissa started wandering around the trees and bushes as we hunted for mushrooms.
We were still at it about fifteen minutes later when both our phones buzzed with incoming texts.
The bold witch groaned, "I sure hope Melanie didn't post about her party idea on the club group chat."
I pulled out my phone to check, then shook my head "Nope. It's from Paige."
"She wants us to meet up Wednesday night," I added. "We're going back to the fae meadow at midnight, to try the ritual you found."
Marissa's eyes lit up, "Oh cool!"
"Yeah," I nodded. Though I worried how Kaylee was going to react, like if she'd be upset that the young blonde beat her to the solution or something.
Our phones both buzzed a moment later, so I checked again then smirked. "Another message from Paige. She's passing on Melanie's BBQ announcement. Thursday at her place, four PM till midnight."
Marissa groaned again, "She didn't mention my birthday did she?"
"Nah," I shook my head. "Just that it's a BBQ. She didn't even say it was a party."
She seemed relieved, but I was curious and confused so I asked. "Why don't you want to celebrate your birthday? Or is it that you want to keep your birthday a secret?"
"It's just not that big a deal," she shrugged. "It's just another day."
I frowned at her but she wouldn't elaborate any more than that. It left me feeling like there was more going on, but I didn't want to upset her so I left it at that.
And our mushroom hunt was just as unsuccessful. Either it wasn't the right season, or there weren't any in the parks and ravines around town. I invited her over to my place since we were just around the corner, and we ended up spending the rest of the afternoon streaming some stuff on TV with Nina.
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"What would you even do with them?" I asked. "Like could you use them in spells or something? Or potions I guess?"
Melanie frowned, "Please tell me you're not going to try eating them!"
"I'm not stupid," Marissa stated, although there was definitely a little cringe and a little blush going on with her. "But if they're edible then yeah I'd absolutely try eating one."
The wolfgirl facepalmed, "Marissa how are you going to know what's dangerous and what's safe? Eating wild mushrooms is like, the riskiest thing you can do!"
"Only if you don't know what you're doing," the young blonde stated. And in her typical bold brash style she announced, "And I'm going to educate myself. See?"
She pulled a small thick paperback book out of her bag, then placed it on the little cafe table in front of me and Melanie.
We were in the coffee place across the parking lot from the grocery store where Melanie worked, and it was a bit of a coincidence that I ran into the two of them. I'd been helping mom with her shopping, then while we were loading stuff into mum's car I spotted my friends walking across the lot to the cafe. So I went to say hi, then let mom know I was going to hang out with Melanie and Marissa for a bit. She took the groceries home, and I got to spend some time with a couple of my friends.
In a way I was trying to make up for the six months Melanie didn't like me, though I wouldn't actually say that unless she asked. Mostly I was just happy we'd patched things up. Plus I thought her and Marissa were both kind of cool, and they seemed like they'd be fun to hang out with.
"You got a field guide to wild mushrooms and fungus?" the werewolf asked in a very skeptical tone. "And you think this is going to teach you the difference between safe and poisonous mushrooms?"
"That's the whole point of the book," Marissa replied with a grin. She turned it over and pointed to the blurb on the back cover, "It's got comprehensive identification information for all the safe edible mushrooms you can find wild in North America. There's a checklist and everything."
Melanie frowned and picked up the book to have a closer look at it, while I had a gulp of my hot chocolate.
Then I looked to Marissa and asked, "So this ritual you found for closing the portal, step one is getting rid of the ring of toadstools?"
"Nah," she shook her head. "But if we're closing the portal I may as well collect all the mushrooms first. I figure real magic mushrooms are pretty rare, right? When am I going to get another chance to get my hands on some."
Melanie had the book open and was reading the foreword, but she commented "Y'all might want to keep your voices down? Or change the subject slightly? This isn't exactly the place to talk about those sorts of things."
She had a point. It was around noon on Sunday and the cafe was packed, there were people all around us. Though I was positive if anyone overheard our conversation about magic mushrooms they'd assume we meant the drug kind and not actual literal magic. Although talk of rituals and portals might clue them in on that.
Marissa rolled her eyes and had a gulp of her flat white. Then instead of the mushrooms she decided to discuss the ritual instead.
"I texted Paige this morning," she told me, "Explained what I found. The best part is we don't have to wait till the next full moon, or an equinox or solstice. The down-side is we need to do it at midnight."
That made me grimace, "Those trails were confusing enough in the daytime, how are we supposed to find our way there at night? And won't it be dangerous being there after dark?"
"I'm pretty sure I can find the way back there again," Melanie commented, though she was still mostly focused on the book. In fact she pointed at something she was reading and asked her girlfriend, "Marissa have you read this? It says right up front that eating the wrong mushroom can kill you! And there's disclaimers in here. The authors aren't liable, blah blah blah, use this information at your own risk and all that stuff."
Marissa rolled her eyes, "Yeah I read all that. I still want to collect the mushrooms, but I promise not to eat any unless I'm a hundred percent sure they're safe."
A moment later she added with a smirk, "Anyways if something did go wrong, we've got Kaylee with her healing magic to save me. Or worst-case scenario, I bet Cass's parents would help out too. Nothing like a couple powerful angels bringing the holy magic to save the day."
The wolfgirl gave her girlfriend an exasperated look, while I just grinned.
"She's got a point there Melanie," I teased. "As long as we don't start making a habit out of it, I'm pretty sure my mum would be happy to help any of my friends if they needed healing."
She rolled her eyes, but before she could come up with a snarky come-back I asked "What about you? Do you get any special healing stuff from being part wolf?"
Melanie gave me a hard look and stated quietly, "Still in a public place here, remember? We haven't left the cafe yet Cass."
"She totally does," Marissa answered instead. The blonde was grinning, but also looked kind of proud or pleased as she elaborated. "She heals quicker than normal folks. And if she really wants to speed it up, shifting back and forth seems to do the trick? My guess is the transformation reforms her body into a healthy state. Or at least it tries to? So minor stuff is practically erased when she shifts."
"That's really cool," I smiled.
The wolfgirl just rolled her eyes, then drained the last her her latte. She finally gave the mushroom book back to her girlfriend and stated, "I have to get to work now. Can I trust you two not to go sampling the local wild mushrooms together? Or should I call for some adult supervision to keep an eye on you?"
"We'll be good," Marissa said, in a tone that made me think she was totally lying. "We'll walk you over to the store though."
I gulped down the last of my hot chocolate and Marissa quickly finished her flat white, then the three of us got up and headed out together. As we cut across the parking lot towards the grocery store Melanie glanced at me and Marissa like she suddenly had something she wanted to say, but she was hesitant for some reason.
Then as we reached the doors she finally came out with it, "Hey Cass? Are you busy on Thursday? I'm thinking of throwing a little get-together, and figured I should start asking if folks are available or not."
As soon as she said it Marissa's cheeks went red. She shook her head and told her girlfriend, "No. We're not doing that Melanie!"
"I'm available," I replied with a grin. "What's the occasion?"
The wolfgirl smirked at the blonde witch as she stated, "It's Marissa's seventeenth birthday and I figured I'd throw her a party. Nothing too fancy, just BBQ and stuff. But it'd be nice to have a few more people there."
That put a wider smile on my face, "Absolutely! Want me to tell Kaylee? Or do you want to text everyone?"
"No, please don't tell anyone!" Marissa pleaded. "I don't want to make a big deal about it, I don't need a party."
Melanie sighed, "Fine. It's not Marissa's birthday party. But I'm having a BBQ for completely unrelated reasons on Thursday and I'd love it if our friends were all there. Or as many as can make it on short notice."
"I'm in for sure," I agreed. "And I'll let Kaylee know. And Paige and Brooke too if I see them."
Marissa's shoulders slumped and she pouted, but she looked like she was trying to hide a smile. Like on the one hand she didn't want anyone to make a big deal about her birthday, but she was also happy her girlfriend was trying to make it a thing.
"Anyways I gotta run," the wolfgirl announced. She gave her girlfriend a hug then let go and said, "Later Marissa, Cass."
We both watched Melanie head into the store, then I turned to Marissa and asked "So what are you up to this afternoon?"
The young blonde shrugged, "I can walk you home if you like? It's a bit of a hike from here right?"
"It's only a bit further than the school," I replied. "So like, thirty-five minutes. You live around here though don't you? Why'd you want to walk all the way up to my part of town if you're going to have to turn around and come all the way back?"
Marissa hesitated just a moment, and I was positive there was something going on. Like a moment of uncertainty, a bit of a dark look in her eyes. Then she grinned, "I'm going to go mushroom hunting. I figured the ravine behind the school is a good place to start."
"Don't worry I'm not gonna eat any!" she added before I could say it. "But I need to get some practice identifying these things right? I figure it's safer to start learning on mushrooms that aren't potentially cursed or blessed by fae."
I wasn't entirely sure I believed her, but there was obviously something she didn't want to talk about so I decided to let it go. Instead I asked, "Can I come too? I don't know anything about mushrooms and it sounds kind of neat."
I knew if Kaylee was with us she'd make a fuss and probably try and talk me out of it. She'd probably also point out that neither me or Marissa were dressed for walking around in the woods. As usual the blonde witch was in her whole cosplay outfit, with the long skirt and the big witch hat. And I was wearing a cute forest green skirt and a tight pink top. At least Marissa had better footwear than my sandals. Still, I was curious about the mushroom picking and identification, and didn't have anything else going on.
Marissa gave me a look, "I promise I'm not going to start eating them Cass. You don't have to watch over me like that."
"That's not why I want to come," I protested with a laugh. "I'm serious Marissa, it sounds cool."
Her suspicious look broke into a grin, "Cool! Then let's go!"
There was a park with some trees next to the parking lot and we cut through that as we headed north towards my side of town. In fact we managed to turn a thirty or forty minute walk into an hour and a half just by detouring through every park and green space we spotted along the way. All in a fruitless search for mushrooms.
We talked more along the way, Marissa told me what she'd already learned from her field guide. Not so much stuff about specific mushrooms, but more general knowledge about how to identify them safely.
"You can't just go by the caps," she explained as we wandered through another little park. "There's lots of variety there, but you'll find two mushrooms that have identical-looking caps and one's safe, the other's not. So there's shape size colour and texture, of both the cap and the stem. Then there's also the gills, those are the flappy things under the cap? And there's the roots, except they're not really roots but they look like roots, coming out the bottom of the stem."
I nodded as I listened, "Ok, that's a lot of things to check. But I guess if it's the difference between food and poison it's important."
"Yep," she agreed. "That's not all, either. There's also the spore test. You put a cap on a piece of plain white paper and leave it for a day. Or maybe it was overnight? Anyways you leave it a while, then take the cap off and check the spore pattern. That can differentiate some mushrooms that are otherwise hard to tell apart."
"And you're going to do all this?" I asked, with a little disbelief in my voice.
The blonde witch shrugged, "If that's what it takes? I really don't want to get sick, so I'll be careful. But I'm not going to pass up the chance of trying actually-magic shrooms."
That left me thinking for a few moments, then I asked "That's the mundane side of things though, what about the magic? If these mushrooms have some kind of fae magic in them, how do you know that's safe?"
"So far everything I've heard about fae makes me think anything they've touched will be the opposite of safe," I added.
Marissa almost stopped in her tracks as she thought about that, and I almost wanted to facepalm because it looked like she hadn't even considered that yet.
"Ok," she finally responded. "You make a good point, and I'll have to think about it. That's just another test though. First I make sure the mushrooms themselves are edible, then I figure out what sort of magic or enchantment is on them."
As we started walking again she commented, "What I really need is some sort of Identify spell? Like in some games?"
I frowned, "Is there such a thing? Actually I think May Hawthorne might have used something like that when Kaylee gave her those plushies."
Marissa nodded, "Yeah I remember that. That was how she knew the plushies were Socha's work. Or a knock-off of Socha's work anyways. So there must be a spell out there, the question is how to cast it."
That remained on her mind as we left the latest park and continued on our way. Eventually we arrived at the ravine behind the school, then instead of just cutting through it like me and Kaylee normally did, me and Marissa started wandering around the trees and bushes as we hunted for mushrooms.
We were still at it about fifteen minutes later when both our phones buzzed with incoming texts.
The bold witch groaned, "I sure hope Melanie didn't post about her party idea on the club group chat."
I pulled out my phone to check, then shook my head "Nope. It's from Paige."
"She wants us to meet up Wednesday night," I added. "We're going back to the fae meadow at midnight, to try the ritual you found."
Marissa's eyes lit up, "Oh cool!"
"Yeah," I nodded. Though I worried how Kaylee was going to react, like if she'd be upset that the young blonde beat her to the solution or something.
Our phones both buzzed a moment later, so I checked again then smirked. "Another message from Paige. She's passing on Melanie's BBQ announcement. Thursday at her place, four PM till midnight."
Marissa groaned again, "She didn't mention my birthday did she?"
"Nah," I shook my head. "Just that it's a BBQ. She didn't even say it was a party."
She seemed relieved, but I was curious and confused so I asked. "Why don't you want to celebrate your birthday? Or is it that you want to keep your birthday a secret?"
"It's just not that big a deal," she shrugged. "It's just another day."
I frowned at her but she wouldn't elaborate any more than that. It left me feeling like there was more going on, but I didn't want to upset her so I left it at that.
And our mushroom hunt was just as unsuccessful. Either it wasn't the right season, or there weren't any in the parks and ravines around town. I invited her over to my place since we were just around the corner, and we ended up spending the rest of the afternoon streaming some stuff on TV with Nina.
PurpleCatGirl If you're enjoying our work and you'd like to support us, please consider joining our patreon & get early access to new chapters, bonus chapters, and more! Patrons have already read chapter 55 and you could too!
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