Shadow parasite

Mara’s fear of heights subsided by quite a lot. Gorn’s presence was very reassuring, furthermore, her attention was momentarily on other things. From one side to another, her eyes kept moving around, absorbing the landscape and its features. From time to time, she nodded to herself happily.

“I would like to go a little closer to the ground. Starting from this lake, we can slowly go east until we reach the edge. Can we do that…?” asked Mara after finishing memorizing everything she deemed as important from their current position. Her cheeks were slightly red, and her face full of anticipation.

“Of course we can,” said Gorn with a small smile. After all, this trip was mainly for her sake.

Nora wanted to put her hands on some of those plants as fast as possible, and inspect them. Quite different from what her sister wanted. Despite that, she remained quiet. Taking a mental note of the multitude of specimens present on the island was also something she looked forward to.

Blinking a few times, Gorn reduced the distance towards the ground by almost half. From there, things could be seen a lot clearer, and in more detail than before. Facing east, he teleported by a few kilometers every ten minutes or so. His rhythm was perfect, so Mara didn’t add any additional instructions.

The twins were at this moment submerged in their own worlds, and Gorn made sure not to distract them. After a few dozen minutes, they came across the mushroom forest he saw from afar.

“Incredible!” both the girls exclaimed at the same time, breaking the silence.

The weird mushrooms looked colorful even from afar. Now, being right above them, brought forth quite a dazzling spectacle.

“Just what are these?” Mara wasn’t that interested in scientific terms, and explanations, however, this time, even her was quite curious to know exactly what was she looking at.

Gorn was quite impressed himself: “Unfortunately, I have no clue, nor did I see such mushrooms before. I bet this area would be even more beautiful at night…” everything seemed to glow to a certain degree, a fact that greatly accentuated the already lively plethora of colors.

“Can we please go and touch them?” Nora looked at Gorn with pleading eyes. At this point, she could no longer endure just watching.

Gorn thought about the matter for a few seconds before answering: “I don’t think that’s a very good idea.”

His response was like a bucket of cold water for Nora’s growing enthusiasm. “Why not…?!” she protested, her little face contorting into a dissatisfied expression.

Thinking of something, Gorn wanted to leave immediately. Unfortunately, his head started to hurt, and his sense of balance to waver.

“Are you…” Nora wanted to ask him if everything was fine, however, she started to experience the same symptoms as him. Mara was also no exception.

“What…is…going on?”

Gorn felt the urge to teleport as far away as possible. Alas, his energy was very chaotic, making it basically impossible to use any of his skills, no matter how little energy they required.

‘This is bad…’

The three of them started to fall from the skies at an increasing speed. Unlike the other free-falling sessions, this time, his ability to teleport, or walk on air was useless.

For Mara, and Nora, who didn’t yet manage to fully get over their fear of heights, this was similar to a nightmare come true. A few muffled screams could be heard, alas, there was no one there to notice.

Dread and despair…