Mushrooms

© Antidarius 2021

*This is an idea I've been thinking about for a while. Here is the first draft of the first part of Brian's story. I hope you enjoy. Drop a comment if you have any feedback. Anti.*

***

MUSHROOMS

First Draft. Chapter One.

***

Day Zero. Saturday.

Summer. Location unspecified.

"Hurry up, Brian!" Maisy called from further up the trail, her short, slim form vanishing around the next bend. Red-faced and panting, I forced my legs to move faster, though they burned in protest. Whose idea was hiking in the mountains in the middle of summer, anyway?

"Coming!" I shouted up to her as I shambled forward, taking care not to trip over the rocks and roots that menaced the skinny track winding up the mountain. "I'm not built for this kind of activity!" I grumbled to myself. Five foot ten and pudgy, I was not really built for any kind of physical undertaking, unless it was sitting or lying down. Nor was I interested in doing much else, but somehow Maisy had convinced me that a day's hiking would not only be good for me, but would be fun, too. Now, after nearly an hour of tortuous uphill labour, I was calling himself nine kinds of stupid.

"Just because she's got a pretty face and a nice arse," I muttered under my breath. "Not that she'd ever let you near her in that way. Should've just stayed home."

I rounded the corner, where the dense forest on both sides of the track gave way to wide open sky. Maisy was standing there at the edge of the rough path, staring at something off in the distance. When I got closer, I saw what had captivated her so. From here, you could see for miles out to the neighbouring mountains and down into a lush valley a hundred metres below. A waterfall gushed at one end of the valley, tumbling down slick rock into a pool as big as a football field.

Maisy turned to me as I came up beside her, her big brown eyes looking even rounder than usual. They sparkled with excitement. "Isn't it amazing?" She said, taking a deep breath. "Fresh mountain air, beautiful views?" I didn't really care much for it -- not that it wasn't nice to look at -- but I nodded, not wanting to detract from her special moment.

Petite, fair and with long chocolate hair pulled back in a ponytail, Maisy Duncan had been my roommate for almost a year now, in a share house we occupied with two other girls. How I'd come to live with three girls, I wasn't quite sure, but one day, I'd found an ad on a room sharing site and applied. Soon after, I moved in with Maisy, Becca and April. I'd liked Maisy right away, but she'd never appeared to want anything more than friendship. Once, I had too many scotches and tried to kiss her, but she politely turned me down and we'd never spoken of it again. Probably a good thing, too; starting a thing with your housemate could get messy. Still, no small part of me wished she'd kissed me back, that night.

"Sure is," I said, trying to sound sincere as I studied the vista. As usual, Maisy was looking pretty in tight black fitness pants, white sneakers a little scuffed and dirty from the hike, and a halter top that left her flat tummy bare. In her presence, I felt pudgy and ungainly. Maisy was always complaining about her body to the other girls -- I often overheard their chats -- saying she wanted bigger boobs or a bigger butt, but I had never found her lacking. Sure, she had a small bum and small chest, but who was I to judge people on their looks? Pale, short and twenty kilos overweight, I knew exactly where I stood on the attractiveness scale, and it was well below little Maisy Duncan. I also was not gifted in the penis department, not by a long shot.

"Reckon we could get down there?" She pointed at the pool in the ravine. "Might be nice to take a swim!" Cool water sounded grand, but I didn't think Maisy was thinking things through too clearly.

"I think this mountain air might be a bit thin for your brain," I said with a chuckle. "That's like a hundred metres straight down! And besides, we didn't bring swimmers."

Maisy clucked her tongue and shook her head in mock disappointment. "Where is your sense of adventure?" she chided. "I'll bet this track keeps going and leads right to that waterfall. Aren't you hot from all the walking?" She had a point; my shirt and shorts were sticking to me wetly, drenched with sweat. My untidy mop of brown hair was no better, slicked to my scalp. "And who said anything about swimmers?" she finished with a sly wink before turning and hurrying off down the track.

I stood for a moment, staring after her. Did she mean

skinny dipping

? Suddenly nervous about taking my clothes off in front of her, I followed. "Thanks for coming with me today," she said when I caught up, throwing a quick smile over a shoulder. I hurriedly pulled my eyes up from where they'd been studying her tight butt.

"No problem. I was surprised you asked me. Normally you don't for things like this." It was true; Maisy was always off on some hike or run or ride or one of the many things fit people do to get their kicks. I, however, was always happier at home on my computer, or reading, or watching TV. Maisy knew this, so invitations were few and far between.

"I just thought it might be nice for you to get out," she replied after a moment. I got the sense she'd been about to say something else but changed it at the last second. My heart skipped a beat. Had she changed her mind about me? Is that why she wanted me to go swimming with her?

Don't read too much into it,

I warned myself internally.

You'll get yourself hurt.

"You're always hiding out in your room playing games and whatever. You need some time outdoors occasionally."

"Yes, mum," I said in a bored, flat voice. Maisy laughed and slapped my arm.

"You know what?" I began more seriously. "I really am having fun. This hiking business is not as bad as I thought. Maybe I should come out again soon."

"Uh, yeah," she replied with a smile after only the briefest of hesitations. "Why not?" Why did she hesitate? Talk about mixed signals. We walked on for a time in silence. Half an hour later -- most of it downhill, thank the Lord -- we found a small, barely-worn track through the dense rainforest foliage that led to the edge of the valley we'd seen from above. At the track's end, a thin, rocky ledge jutted out over the pool below. The ledge skirted a cliff face around toward the waterfall and sloped down behind it. I swallowed nervously, already knowing what Maisy was going to suggest.

"See!" she exclaimed, gesturing to the ledge. "We'll follow this down to the water! Easy!" Not waiting for me to reply, she stepped daintily out onto the ledge and began walking along it as if it were flat ground, and there was not a sheer drop of fifty metres on her right. "Come on, Brian!" She called. "I want a swim!"

"Crazy bitch," I murmured as I edged myself out onto the ledge, my heart hammering in my chest. I told myself several times not to look down, but that didn't work. Vertigo assaulted my senses as I glanced down the sharp face of the cliff into the mist churned into the air by the waterfall, the afternoon sun throwing rainbows of colour through it all. It made for quite a pretty sight, but at present I was more focused on how it felt like gravity was trying to pull me right off the edge. In reality, the ledge was more than a metre wide; plenty of room to walk comfortably, but I wasn't great around heights. Never had been. Step by careful step, I followed Maisy.

She was moving much faster than me, and she disappeared behind the waterfall long before I got there. The closer I got to the waterfall, the wetter the ledge became, so I took my time. The roar of water became deafening once I crossed beneath the surge. Maisy was there, laughing as she held out her hands to fill them before splashing her face. She was saying something, but it was lost in the noise. I don't think I'd ever seen her look more beautiful. When she stepped back from the waterfall, though, she slipped and fell backwards, disappearing as if vanishing into the very rock itself.

"Maisy!" I cried as I lurched toward the place where she'd vanished, a wide crack that had been hidden from my eyes until now. An empty void of darkness gazed back at me, with no sign of Maisy. "Maisy!" I called again. If she was responding, I couldn't hear her over the roaring water behind me. Cursing, I fumbled my phone out and switched on the flashlight. A rocky tunnel, sharply sloping downward came into view, its end out of sight. Part of my brain was telling me to run back for help. Another part was saying I should go after Maisy, make sure she was alright. But if she was hurt, and if I fell too, we'd both be stuck here injured, with no one to know where we were.

"Why didn't we tell someone where we were going?" I moaned as I slid into the tunnel. I had to go sideways; I was a little too big to fit in comfortably. That fact turned out to be a small bonus; I couldn't fall down the tunnel unless it suddenly got wider. My pulse quickened the further in I went; I was not much better with tight spaces than I was with heights. I kept calling for Maisy but heard no answer. After twenty or thirty metres, the tunnel opened into a vast cavern. The floor was damp and squishy beneath my shoes, and the sound of dripping water was coming from all around. It was also strangely warm, in here. The air was thick and humid, and there was a weird smell, pungent and sweet at the same time. The sound of the waterfall outside was dimmer in here, muffled by the intervening rock.

I waved my light around on the ground, looking for Maisy, half expecting to see her lying with a broken ankle or something. The rocks beneath my feet were covered in a thick carpet of soft green moss, and small clusters of fungi grew everywhere. "Maisy?" My voice echoed around the cavern, the boundaries of which I could not reach with my phone light. "Are you here?"

There was a soft moan from somewhere further ahead. "Maisy? Are you hurt?" I walked forward carefully, making sure my footing was good on each step; it would not do to slip and twist my ankle if I was going to have to carry Maisy out of here. That moan had sounded pained. It came again, louder this time, and more intense. I squelched toward the sound, and when Maisy finally appeared in the radius of the light, I stopped dead, dumbstruck.

She was lying on a wide, flat rock, completely naked, even down to her shoes. Her clothes were strewn around the rock as if she'd tossed them away in a hurry. Her toes wiggled as she writhed there, one hand between her spread thighs and the other palming a breast. Her eyes were closed, her mouth parted as she sighed.

What the actual fuck?

"M-Maisy?" I stammered.

She sat bolt upright and stared at me, her face flushed with arousal, her dark eyes heavily lidded. "Brian!" She exclaimed in a smoky voice I'd never heard her use before. "Please come here." Her lips were curved in a sexy smile and she reached out to me with both hands, the fingers of one glistening with her juices. I'd taken one step forward before I realised what I was doing. Maisy was obviously not in her right mind. Taking advantage of her would be wrong. It was difficult, but I stopped.

"Maisy, what's wrong with you? Are you feeling alright?" Her eyes looked glazed in the light, as if she'd smoked a heap of weed. The pungent smell was stronger here than it had been further back. Was there some kind of hallucinogenic growing in here? Some sort of powerful aphrodisiac? I glanced around, waving the light in different places. Strange, blue mushrooms I hadn't noticed before sprouted from cracks in the rocks on the walls and the ground. They seemed to glow slightly, with a soft light. In fact, when I took the light away from one bunch to look at another, the first bunch glowed brightly enough to emit its own light.

Maisy stretched languidly on the rock, arching her back and thrusting her chest out. Her nipples were stiff pink nubs atop her breasts. I could see why she complained about not being big enough in that regard; if you saw her from a distance, you might mistake her for a young boy, at least until you saw her pretty face. I didn't care about her shape, though. I still thought she was stunning, and no less so in her current state of nudity. The sight of her had me hard in my shorts, but I tried to ignore my baser instincts. "Mmm, I've never felt better!" She purred. When I brought the light back to her, I jumped a little. She was standing right in front of me! "Are you going to give me what I want, Brian? I'm sooo horny!"

I swallowed nervously. "Um, Maisy," I began as I stepped back a little bit. I wanted nothing more than to put my hands on her, to kiss her, to...

No!

I told myself.

If I touch her, I don't know that I'll be able to stop myself going further.

"I think we should leave this cave, yeah?" I blinked a few times, suddenly feeling a little lightheaded. "Something is wrong."

"No, Brian," she said in a breathy voice as she followed after me. "Something is very right! I've never felt this good, ever!" She brazenly squeezed her boobs again as she backed me up. My foot struck something hard and I lost my balance, falling down on my arse onto a soft cushion of damp moss. My phone went flying, clattering onto the rocks somewhere nearby. Strangely, I barely felt the impact. My head had gone from a little fuzzy to now feeling like it was stuffed with cotton wool, and that weird smell had just gotten a lot stronger. Suddenly, Maisy was on top of me, her lips finding mine in the darkness.

I tried to fend her off, but I was getting dizzier by the second, and she was like an animal, tearing at my clothes with surprising strength for such a small girl. I heard fabric ripping, but when I moved to stop her, I found my muscles had turned to water. I fell back heavily, the thick moss the only thing saving my head from being cracked open on the rock beneath. "Maisy," I mumbled thickly. "Stop." Dimly, I felt my shorts being tugged off, and then a warm weight resting on top of me. Something hot and wet pressed against my exposed cock. I knew this was not right, but my thoughts were slipping away from me like water from a cracked bucket. Why was my dick hard when the rest of me had gone limp?

The next thing I knew, I was buried inside Maisy. There wasn't much of me to bury, but even so, hot, silky warmth exploded all through me, radiating from my cock as if all the sensations of my body had been taken and concentrated there. I gasped as energy came roaring back into my limbs, my muscles, my mind. Of their own volition, my hands came up to grip Maisy's tight little butt as she began to ride me like I was a stolen horse. All former concerns evaporated as I lost myself in the moment. The dark cavern was filled with my grunts and her moans as we rutted like animals right there on the ground. I exploded inside her far too quickly, overwhelmed with sensation as I was, but she just kept on grinding, and I remained hard, with none of the sensitivity that usually plagued me just after orgasm.

We fucked in a haze of mindless lust, all else in the world fading to nothing...

*

I opened my eyes and felt a moment of panic when I could see nothing. After a moment, however, I noticed a soft, blue light emanating from several places around me. The light was coming from what looked like squat, fat mushrooms, vaguely bell-shaped. Memory came flooding back at the same time I registered the warm, petite body lying on top of me.

Oh, fuck! I fucked Maisy! I didn't wear a rubber! Oh, Christ! What have I done?

My thoughts continued in the same frantic tone for a time, until I brought myself under control.

Think, Brian! What do you remember?

Pictures -- hazy and dim as if I were remembering a dream -- appeared in my mind. Maisy, falling into this cave. Me finding her on the rock, naked and masturbating. The sweet, heady smell in the air, which I could still detect now, though not as strongly. Maisy tearing at my clothes. The feeling of sliding into her... With a shake of my head, I dispelled the memory before I started getting excited again. Gently, I shook her. "Maisy, wake up."

She made a sleepy noise of protest, then went silent again. I tried again, and this time she came around a little more.

"What-?" She gave a start and sat up, her palms on my chest. She was still straddling me, though I had slipped out of her at some point during our slumber. "What the

fuck

?! Brian?!" She got off me hurriedly and moved away a bit, half-crouched over and trying to cover her nudity with her hands. "How-? What-?" She started to ask several questions at once, her words tripping over one another. Sitting up, I held out my hands soothingly.

"I know, I know," I said quickly. "There's something going on down here. Something weird. I haven't worked it out, yet." I stayed sitting, but I did raise my knees to cover my privates. My shorts had been tossed away somewhere, and my shirt was little more than tattered rags hanging off me, thanks to Maisy's enthusiasm.

"You're damn right!" She snapped, then a look of fear crossed her face. "Brian, did you... Why are we naked?" The look on her face -- like a deer about to flee from a leopard -- cut me like a knife. Did she think I'd taken of her? Before I could respond, she frowned at me, her fine brow creasing in the dim blue light as something came to her. "I remember..." She trailed off for a moment, and then her eyes widened in shock. "We- I- Holy shit!" At least now she looked shocked and not scared of me.

I nodded. "Yep." Part of me wanted to smile. Maisy and I had had sex! But the circumstances of this were concerning to say the least. Another part of me felt guilty. Poor Maisy, waking up on top of me like the morning after a night of too much drinking. She must be hating herself right now. "Sorry." I smiled apologetically. "Your clothes should be still over by that flat rock." I pointed in that direction, but her eyes stayed on me, and she made no move to retrieve her clothes.

"Why are you sorry?" She queried. "I remember jumping on you, not the other way around. In fact, I remember you trying to stop me." Her face coloured, visible even in the limited light surrounding us.

"I, uh, didn't want to take advantage or anything," I told her honestly. "But I failed." Shame welled in me. I could've stopped her if I'd tried harder. I was sure of it. To my surprise, she shook her head as if reading my thoughts.

"Whatever was going on with me," she said absently as she stared around at the mushrooms. "You could not have pried me off you with a team of wild horses." I laughed despite myself, and she did too. "Are we still high?" She asked. "I feel... different. Not like before. Well, not as much, anyway."

I nodded. "Me too." It was true; I felt the guilt and shame melting away. And being naked in front of Maisy was becoming more natural by the second. I felt strangely energetic, too; very out of character for me. "I feel... good." My eyes met hers for a second, and it was like a spark flashed between us, deep and primal. It was gone as quickly as it had come, and we both dropped our eyes, embarrassed. "Maybe we should get out of here," I suggested reluctantly. "We don't know what this stuff is doing to our brains."

"I suppose you're right," she agreed, though she sounded regretful, too. That surprised me. I thought she would be happy to be out of here, away from the memory of sleeping with me. "What do you think they are? I know next to nothing about plants."

"Fungi," I corrected automatically, though I doubted I knew any more than her, really. "They can be hallucinogenic; I know that much. Psychedelic, even. We probably don't want to expose ourselves any more than we already have."