A Path of Twisted Trees
{A Pink Necromancer Story}
— {NaNoWriMo 2024: Day 04}

A Path of Twisted Trees

{A Pink Necromancer Story} — {NaNoWriMo 2024: Day 04} 🦄🌸

Quaraun leaned heavily on his cane as he scanned the tangled forest ahead. Shadows fell in waves over the twisting roots and shivering underbrush.

Beside him, BoomFuzzy cocked his head, listening intently, a bemused grin curling his lips.

“Odd place to hunt for mushrooms, don’t ye think, Love?” BoomFuzzy teased, his voice rich with his Scottish lilt.

Quaraun huffed, peering down the narrow trail weaving through the forest.

“The client was quite clear. Blue mushrooms. They grow only in shadowed forests — those thick with Faerie enchantments.”

GhoulSpawn scratched his horned head, squinting.

“This path looks… alive. The roots are… moving. Is that safe?”

BoomFuzzy laughed, slapping GhoulSpawn on the shoulder.

“Ah, Goat, afraid of a wee stroll? A tree or two might step aside if we ask nice.”

Quaraun clicked his tongue, motioning them forward.

“Let us proceed. And please, mind your clumsy hooves. These trees are older than any others in the Fae realm.”

They ventured in, the strange path winding around dark pools and spindly roots, casting them deeper into a shadowy maze of enchanted flora.

The path coiled into darkness, strangled by crooked branches clawing into the narrow stretch of open earth.

Roots jutted, twisted, and cracked through the ground, each curve a snare set to trip wandering feet. Shadowed boughs arched overhead, barely letting through a fractured light that hung between branches, dark as storm clouds.

Every step echoed, hollow, swallowed by the heavy silence. The air grew thick, laced with the faint rot of damp earth and moss.

Here, even the leaves lay still, grey and ghostly, as though shuddering to life only under some unseen, sinister breath.

A path of trapped souls.

As they walked, a golden glint caught Quaraun’s eye.

Massive leaves, metallic as beaten gold, drooped overhead, shimmering faintly under dappled moonlight.

Strange wrinkles lined the bark, twisting and folding with the texture of leathery skin. Each leaf had an eerie iridescence, flickering between gold and green.

“These leaves…” Quaraun murmured, reaching a hesitant hand toward one. “I have never seen such a species before.”

GhoulSpawn touched a nearby trunk, running his fingers over the bizarrely smooth, wrinkled bark.

“Feels… like skin. Odd, isn’t it?”

“Aye, they’re Faerie trees,” BoomFuzzy replied, his voice hushed. “They’ve their own way o’ livin’.”

Before he could say more, GhoulSpawn yelped and jerked his hand back as the tree shifted. It twisted around with creaking menace, its branches lashing like sinewy arms, brushing close to GhoulSpawn’s startled face, slapping his check.

“Oh blasted Jellyfish Demons!” he gasped, stumbling backward, his hooves scrabbling over tangled roots.

Quaraun raised an eyebrow, eyeing the angry tree with an icy calm.

“Glinta, do refrain from aggravating the flora. We are trespassers enough as it is.”

BoomFuzzy chuckled, though his tone turned grave.

“Did I no’ tell ye, Goat, not to trouble the locals?”

“I’m a Sheep.”

“Sheep or no. These woods aren’t fond o’ strangers. Mind yer hands an’ keep yer nose out o’ Faerie bark.”

GhoulSpawn’s face flushed red as he brushed stray leaves from his hair.

“I was just curious. Didn’t think they’d… you know… come to life.”

“Curiosity does not serve well here,” Quaraun muttered, giving BoomFuzzy a knowing look. “Tree guards do not like it. Killer tree these. We must be careful not to angry them. Touch nothing. Speak only when necessary. We are here for the mushroom, and that alone.”

BoomFuzzy nodded, keeping close to Quaraun as they picked their way around more trees whose leathery grey bark rippled and shifted with every step.

“The blue mushroom, ye said?”

“Yes,” Quaraun replied, his voice quiet but intense.

BoomFuzzy grinned.

“Worth riskin’ angry tree folk, are they?”

“Rare as Fae feathers, they grow where sunlight rarely reaches. But they’re worth a small fortune in the right potion.”

“I have feathers in my bird form.”

“You are also a Unicorn, which is also as rare as Fae feathers.”

“Aye. Good point.”

Quaraun smirked.

“They are for a client… and worth more than coin. We need souls. You know that. Now, silence, both of you. We tread upon old ground, and these trees do not forget a disturbance.”

The gloaming descended, a creeping fog that twisted through the branches and drifted low, brushing against the damp forest floor. The light dimmed, and shadows thickened, blurring trees into spectres, their limbs reaching forward with a life of their own.

Ghostly orbs — will-o-wisps — floated in the mist, trailing thin, serpentine trails of flickering blue light.

One hovered near Quaraun’s shoulder, its glow cold, hungry, pulsing with a hidden malevolence.

Another wisp drifted near GhoulSpawn’s feet, swirling over the ground, teasing his stumbling steps.

BoomFuzzy’s raspy chuckle broke the silence.

“Mind the ghost lights, Love. They’ll pull ye from the path.”

The fog wrapped around them, swallowing the path in shifting grey.

Blue lights blinked in and out of sight, pressing closer, swirling faster, twisting around the ancient, twisted trunks.

Each wisp darted, then vanished, leaving only a faint gleam in the mist — a trick, a trap to draw the living deeper.

GhoulSpawn yelped as a wisp flickered close, its glow hollow and sharp, illuminating a thorny branch curling toward him, shadows twisting in the fog.

The air grew cold and thick.

They could feel eyes in the shadows.

Watching.

Waiting.

Hungry.

And the lights lingered, urging them deeper.

The twisted trees loomed high above, their branches curling over the mist-shrouded path like skeletal fingers poised to snatch travelers from their way.

Strange shadows shifted through the dense canopy, where beams of faint light struggled to reach the ground. These were no ordinary trees; even Quaraun, who had encountered countless horrors, sensed the malevolent intelligence seething within their roots and branches.

They moved with a will of their own, shifting positions, blocking the path, twisting as if to confuse and entrap.

“Stay put, you misbegotten wood fiends!” Quaraun shouted, his blue eyes flashing as he thumped his cane against the base of a particularly thorny tree that inched closer whenever he wasn’t looking. “I will not be mocked by a forest!”

The tree gave an ominous creak, its gnarled roots stretching further across the muddy trail, and Quaraun staggered back, his lame leg nearly slipping on the knotted roots crowding the path.

Beside him a small pine tree pulled itself out of the ground and ran scampering off into the hedges. To his other side an elderberry bush, slunk back, hiding it’s berries behind itself.

Frustration burned in his gaze, his silver, jellyfish tentacled hair twitching as he steadied himself.

From behind, BoomFuzzy grinned at the spectacle.

“Ah, Love,” he chuckled, though his voice carried a deep warmth. “Why do ye worry? They’re naught but enchanted trees. No harm in a bit o’ walkin’ wood.”

The forest pressed close around them, a maze of gnarled trunks clawing at the misted sky. Shadows stretched across the forest floor, the bent forms of trees seeming to shift and twist each time Quaraun glanced back. His blue eyes scanned the looming canopy, suspicious, wary, and thoroughly disgruntled.

Ahead, BoomFuzzy strolled with leisurely steps, his cane prodding the uneven earth.

GhoulSpawn ambled close behind, wide-eyed, cloven hooves catching on the roots that jutted up in tangled masses.

“Stay still, will you?” Quaraun muttered, jabbing a finger at the closest tree, whose branches creaked and settled, though its roots twisted in a fresh, spiralling pattern underfoot. “Do not think I am unaware of your movements, vile sentinels.”

The trees, monstrous in form with twisted limbs and knotted bark, leaned over the path eavesdropping, their dark roots writhing like snakes through the soil, inching subtly forward as though reaching toward the Elf’s silken robe.

One clawed branch reached out and tugged his hair.

Quaraun flinched as a branch brushed against his prosthetic hands, glaring down with an expression of utmost indignation.

“Eh, Love, ye’re givin’ the trees a fright!” BoomFuzzy chuckled, his voice lilting with mischief. “Poor wee things be shufflin’ back for dear life.”

“Fright?” Quaraun snapped, levelling a furious glare at one particularly ominous trunk. “These foul-spirited trees are moving, Gwallmaiic! They displace themselves!”

“Eh, just walking wood. Nothing out of the ordinary for a Faerie Forest. Ya know that, Love.”

“Walking wood?!” Quaraun huffed, glaring up at the sinister branches. “They move with malicious purpose, Unicorn. They confound and baffle all sense! Do not laugh at me!”

BoomFuzzy’s amused expression softened, though he extended a reassuring hand to the Elf’s shoulder.

“Eh, JellyElf, ya fret so. They’re ancient trees; they’re wanderers too, ye know. Best we carry on. They willna hurt ye.”

But GhoulSpawn stumbled beside them, wide-eyed and trying his best to keep close to Quaraun, his own hoofed feet slipping and catching on the tree roots that sprawled treacherously beneath them.

“Y-yeah, let’s…get away from here, please?”

“Then keep up, Glinta!” Quaraun muttered, casting nervous glances at the surrounding wood. “These cursed trees will not be patient for us.”

GhoulSpawn nodded, his cloven hooves clomping awkwardly on the twisted roots, and as he did, a tree swayed ominously near them, roots unfurling and crawling closer like creeping spiders.

BoomFuzzy tilted his head, a grin breaking over his face.

“Aye, and they’re doin’ it for ye! See, they love ya, JellyElf.” He winked, only to burst into laughter as Quaraun scowled in reply. “Aye, gettin’ upset with a forest of trees! How’s that for superstition?”

“Superstition?” Quaraun growled, smacking his cane on a thick, mossy root that sprawled over the path. The tree trembled, stretching upward like a waking beast, before turning and running away. “Tell me that is superstition!”

At the sound, the nearest tree seemed to stretch higher, its bark crackling, limbs creaking as it straightened with slow, almost taunting menace. Quaraun took a hurried step back, his lip curling in disgust.

“Treacherous wretches. They have no respect for paths, nor for weary travellers. Fiendish…things.”

“Aw, Love, they’re just trees!” BoomFuzzy chuckled, hands on his hips, amused by the Elf’s frustration. “Ye’re mad at plants now?”

“GhoulSpawn! Come closer,” Quaraun hissed, catching sight of the fumbling Sheep Demon some distance behind, distracted by a strange blue mushroom sprouting on a nearby root.

“I saw a blue mushroom.”

“Are you sure?”

“I thought I did.”

“Where?”

“Uhm… I think it ran away.”

GhoulSpawn stumbled forward, his wide eyes on the gnarled branches as they swayed.

“Um…Q-Quaraun, the trees, they are definitely moving. They’re following us. That tree was on the other side of the path a minute ago. Th-that’s not supposed to happen, is it?”

“Nothing in this cursed land behaves as it should!” Quaraun waved his wand, shouting to the canopy, “You foul oaks! Step across my path again, and I shall turn you all into firewood!”

BoomFuzzy snickered.

“Aye, ye’d make for a fearsome lumberjack, I’m sure of it.”

Quaraun shot him a glare, but before he could respond, suddenly, GhoulSpawn tripped over a particularly gnarled root. He stumbled into Quaraun with a clumsy, bleating cry, sending them both tumbling down a steep, sandy slope.

He felt GhoulSpawn stumble into him with a startled cry, his cloven hooves slipping on the twisted roots. They tumbled forward, the world spinning as they rolled down a sandy slope,

Quaraun’s furious shriek echoed as they rolled, limbs flailing, down the embankment, colliding into the cold, river at the bottom.

The Elf landed in a splash of tannic filled, muddy water, GhoulSpawn tumbling into the shallow stream on top of him with a surprised bleat. The two flailed, drenched and disoriented, their robes darkened with river water and smeared with grit. Water splashed high, the muddy current soaking them both as they sank waist-deep into the gritty sand at the river’s edge.

From above, BoomFuzzy let out a loud, hearty laugh, clutching his stomach as he tried to keep his balance on the edge of the slope.

Quaraun’s furious shrieks echoing in the ravine below. He sat waist-deep in the muddy water, fists clenched, blue eyes blazing with rage as he glared up at the twisted trees towering above.

Mud clung to his once-splendid pink robes, his twelve foot long silver hair plastered to his face, caked with mud, stuck full of leaves. His cane had vanished somewhere downstream, and his wand was clenched tightly in his gold metal hand.

“You vile, treacherous trees!” he screamed, shaking his fist at them. “You think you can thwart me? I am Quaraun, The Pink Necromancer! I am a Wizard of the Di’Jinn Order! You can not defy me!”

BoomFuzzy laughed so hard his whole body shook, tears gathering in his sightless silvered eyes.

“Oh, Love, listen to yarself! Shakin’ yer wee wand at the trees like a madman!”

“I am surrounded by idiots!” Quaraun shrieked, his voice reverberating off the ravine walls. “First the trees…now you two bumbling oafs! Get up! Get off me! Up! Before these villainous branches decide to finish the job!”

The twisted trees shifted on the ridge, their roots curling and uncurling as they lurched, shadowed forms against the overcast sky. GhoulSpawn pulled himself up, dripping, his cheeks flushed as he struggled to help Quaraun stand.

“S-sorry, I didn’t mean — ”

“You — ” Quaraun muttered furiously, splashing out of the river and hauling himself up onto the mud-caked bank. “This blasted forest…these cursed trees. They think they can toy with me?”

He brandished his Rainbow Wand toward the ridge, pointing it accusingly at the tallest of the twisted giants. The trees uprooted themselves and curried away from the edge, out of the range of the wizard’s wand.

“Glinta!” Quaraun shouted, half-strangled with mud and water, struggling to right himself in the current. His elegant pink robes were soaked and covered in muck, his once-resplendent silk a sodden mess of fabric clinging to his limbs. “Do you realize what you’ve done?”

“I — I’m sorry!” GhoulSpawn stammered, scrambling to his knees, his damp hair plastered across his face. “It…It was an accident, I swear! It was the trees — I didn’t mean — oooh! Quaraun! You’re covered head to toe in river muck!”

“Those trees, those wretched trees!” Quaraun growled, sitting waist-deep in the frigid water, shaking a trembling gold-plated fist toward the ridge above. “You think you can cast me aside, do you? Laugh now, you wretched trees, for I shall not be bested by you!”

Above them, BoomFuzzy’s deep, rumbling laughter echoed down into the ravine. Though he could not see the fall, he could hear their splashing and the comical rage in Quaraun’s voice, and he shook with laughter at their plight.

“Och, me poor wee JellyElf and Goat — what a tumble ye two took!”

“Oh, me love,” he chortled, gingerly trying to make his way down the slope.

His chuckles broke into helpless laughter, so forceful that he staggered, his foot slipping on a patch of slick moss.

A moment later, he tumbled down, landing with a resounding thud beside them in the stream, splashing mud in all directions.

“You gnarled fiends!” Quaraun shouted, his voice shaking with outrage. “If you dare step across my path again, I shall rend your bark to splinters!”

BoomFuzzy, struggling to catch his breath from laughter, staggered out of the water. He slapped a wet hand on Quaraun’s shoulder, his voice full of mirth.

“Tis jolly fun, Love.”

“I am wet!”

“Aye!”

“It is not clean wet! It is mud wet!”

“Aye.”

“I am covered in mud.”

“It a good look on ya, Love.”

“Those tree are out to get me!”

“Och, ya mad Elf! They’re but trees, Love. They just having a wee bit o fun. Why not let them be?”

Quaraun whirled on him, indignant, his face flushed.

“You may laugh, Gwallmaiic, but I swear — if these trees make a fool of me again, I shall burn this whole cursed forest to ash!”

BoomFuzzy only laughed harder, shaking his head.

“Aye, JellyElf. Whatever ye say, Love.”

Quaraun whipped around, his eyes blazing with indignation.

“Do not mock me, Unicorn! These…these infernal trees conspire against me! They mocked me, mocked me! I am The Scared Pink JellyFish! Just wait until I set them aflame!”

BoomFuzzy grinned, his arms outstretched, feeling his way toward Quaraun in the muddy water.

“Settle yerself, JellyElf. If they wanted to do ye harm, ye’d be root soup by now. Monster tree guards eat people they actually want to hurt. They just testing us to see if we a threat. Now, come on out o’ there before ye sink!”

Quaraun splashed toward him, his pink robes tangled and weighed down with mud, his mechanical hands digging for grip in the slippery bank.

“Curse these vile woods,” he muttered. “I knew this path was a mistake.”

GhoulSpawn, struggling to untangle his long green velvet coat from a jagged root that had followed him into the water, looked up nervously.

“Do you think we could, maybe, um…take a different route?”

“Afraid of a few trees, Goat?” BoomFuzzy teased, a mischievous grin spreading over his face.

“I’m a Sheep.”

He hauled Quaraun upright, though the Elf continued muttering and swiping globs of mud from his robes.

Quaraun spat, his gaze was mostly fixed on the trees towering above the ridge, their twisted forms swaying as if watching their every move.

“Sorry, Love,” BoomFuzzy chuckled, wrapping an arm around Quaraun’s waist to steady him as they clambered out of the muck. “But see? No harm done. Trees are trees, aye? Ancient things, but just like us — wanderers. They like a good laugh now an’ then.”

Quaraun glanced back one last time, a defiant glare directed toward the swaying canopy.

“Laugh all you want,” he hissed through clenched teeth.

The trees creaked and shifted, their branches twisting in slow, unnatural movement above them, their dark shadows lengthening as the light faded.

BoomFuzzy shook his head, still chuckling softly as he nudged Quaraun forward, back toward the path.

“Aye, come along, Love. Let the trees be. We’ve a ways to go yet, an’ we’re not spendin’ the night in these woods.”

Still muttering, Quaraun allowed BoomFuzzy to lead him, but his gaze remained on the twisted trees, wary and suspicious.

As they resumed their path, the forest closed in around them, branches stretching, roots shifting, the whole ancient wood whispering with the laughter of twisted trees.

The three waded through the slick muck, tangled in wet leaves and murky reeds.

Quaraun grimaced, his cane half-submerged as he struggled to balance on the uneven river bottom.

BoomFuzzy reached out, his fingers firm on Quaraun’s arm, guiding him through the mire with a gentle, practiced touch.

GhoulSpawn plodded behind, slipping and cursing under his breath as his hooves clomped on unseen stones below. His clothes clung to him, dripping with mud, his face flushed as he hurried to keep up.

Quaraun groaned, glancing up at the towering cliff they’d tumbled down.

“Steep as the walls of a dungeon,” he muttered. “No way to climb back up here.”

BoomFuzzy laughed, as Quaraun stood angrily tapping his cane in the mud.

“Ach, Love, ye wanted an adventure. And here ye have it, muck and all.”

“Not this kind of adventure,” Quaraun retorted, shivering as cold water lapped around his knees. “Let us follow this river until we find a way up.”

They trudged on, the sandy riverbank opening before them like a narrow trail through the thickening gloom.

The dampness seemed to cling to them, each step a slow, squelching resistance, but they kept moving, bound to find a path back up.

As they reached a patch of soft, fine-grained sand, Quaraun paused, his blue eyes alight with curiosity. He slipped off his wet shoes and let his toes sink into the cool sand, feeling the tiny grains tickling his skin. A rare smile touched his lips, and he looked toward BoomFuzzy, glancing down at his feet.

“Unicorn,” Quaraun said, voice softened. “This sand is most delightful. Would you scrub my feet?”

BoomFuzzy chuckled, delighted by the unusual request.

“Ah, me JellyElf, ye find pleasure in the strangest o’ places.”

He knelt, taking Quaraun’s ankle into his hands, his touch reverent.

Slowly, he guided Quaraun’s foot down, pressing it firmly into the soft sand, swirling it in gentle circles.

Quaraun sighed, leaning into the sensation, his eyes drifting closed as BoomFuzzy’s hands moved over his foot, rubbing the rough sand against his skin in slow, tender strokes. Every touch was loving, unhurried, a subtle devotion in each caress.

“You spoil me,” Quaraun murmured, feeling a warmth spread through him as BoomFuzzy’s fingers traced small circles into his arch.

“Only as ye deserve, Love,” BoomFuzzy replied, his voice a low, affectionate murmur.

They lingered there, wrapped in a moment all their own, even as the wild forest loomed close.

The river stretched out, blanketed by the creeping fog, a ghostly veil gliding over dark water. The surface lay smooth, undisturbed but for faint ripples, like something shifting beneath.

Grey tendrils of fog slipped along the banks, licking at the sand, curling around twisted roots of dead trees. Each wisp floated, weaving close before vanishing in the murk, the silence deepening with each vanished glow.

Quaraun leaned heavily on his cane, his sharp blue gaze fixed on the dark stretch of water. The gloaming fog drifted around his legs, chilling the air, numbing his skin with icy touch.

“Careful on the banks, Love,” BoomFuzzy whispered, his words laced with caution. “The river’s hidin’ more than just water.”

GhoulSpawn shuffled, glancing warily at the fog-shrouded water.

Shadows slithered under the ripples, shapes that writhed and then stilled. The fog shifted again, revealing bare branches stretching over the water, each twisted limb a black skeletal claw in the gloom.

Will-o-wisps drifted over the surface, their cold light barely piercing the mist, guiding deeper into the hidden shadows.

Beneath the fog’s shroud, something silent and sinister lurked, its presence heavy, unsettling, sending faint ripples through the water, a dark pulse waiting to pull the unwary.

After a stretch along the winding riverbank, they found a low spot in the cliff, where the crumbling edges offered handholds up through tangled roots and loose earth.

GhoulSpawn squinted, inspecting the path.

“Not exactly safe, but it’s climbable.”

Quaraun gave him a sidelong glance.

“I am hardly in the mood for scaling cliffs, Glinta. But it is our best option.”

GhoulSpawn nodded, climbing ahead with surprising ease, his hooves anchoring him as he maneuvered up the cliff-side. He reached the top, turning back with outstretched arms.

“Come on, I’ll help you up.”

BoomFuzzy gripped GhoulSpawn’s hand first, laughing as he hauled himself up with surprising agility despite his awkward frame.

“Ah, Goat, ye’re stronger than ye look!”

“You’re blind! You don’t know what I look like.”

“He is not fully blind,” Quaraun pointed out. “He can see some. If you get close enough to him.”

“You two could stand on each other’s heads, and not even come up to my shoulders! He’s not even five feet tall!”

GhoulSpawn pointed an accusing finger at BoomFuzzy.

“Aye!” BoomFuzzy agreed. “All we Fae is small. But ya wrong. I be exactly five feet and one inch tall. And the Elf here. Him be five feet and six inches tall. Iffing we was to stand head to head, we’d be ten feet and seven inches. That much taller then yis be. Yes?”

“I’m six foot, two if you don’t count my horns.”

“Is that with or without ya slouch?”

“I — I can’t stand up straight! My legs don’t bend that way. I have digitigrade legs, ya know!”

“Because yis a Goat.”

“I’M A SHEEP!”

“Will you two stop bitching and help me!” Quaraun snarled. “In case you two forgot, I don’t have any hands! I can’t exactly climb up without someone to help me!”

“Ugh, uh, uh!” BoomFuzzy wagging a finger in Quaraun’s face. “Ya’r using contractions!”

Quaraun climbed carefully, feeling the roots shift under his cane as GhoulSpawn reached down, offering a steadying grip. With GhoulSpawn’s help, Quaraun managed the last stretch, collapsing onto the dirt above with a sigh of relief.

“That was dreadful,” Quaraun muttered, brushing off his robes as BoomFuzzy dusted sand from his feet.

“Adventure, ye say,” BoomFuzzy teased, laughing as Quaraun swatted his arm in protest. “Aye, naught like clambering over cliffs for a rare blue mushroom!”

They stepped onto the path once more, their movements careful and wary. The twisted trees loomed above them, branches curled into grotesque shapes, wrinkled bark looking more and more like faces in the dim light.

Quaraun clutched his cane, gaze darting to each branch as it creaked ominously.

“Unicorn,” he whispered, his voice taut with tension. “These trees… they are watching us. I swear it.”

BoomFuzzy chuckled, resting a gentle hand on Quaraun’s shoulder.

“Ah, ye’re imagin’ things, Love. Trees don’t care much for us.”

But GhoulSpawn’s eyes darted nervously.

“I don’t know… these trees are… alive.”

“Aye. They jut like walking about. We donna bother them, they will no bother us.”

A low groan echoed, and the tree nearest them shuddered, twisting as if to watch them pass.

BoomFuzzy squeezed Quaraun’s shoulder reassuringly, but even he grew silent, his grin fading into a thoughtful frown.

“Let us move quickly,” Quaraun muttered, raising his cane defensively to ward off the menacing forest. “These woods are more dangerous than I anticipated.”

The three pressed forward, cautious of every sound, each gnarled tree leaning close as if listening, waiting. The twisted path lay before them, dark and filled with unseen perils.

At last, they reached a clearing where a strange glow lit the ground.

GhoulSpawn gasped, pointing ahead.

There, growing in clusters beneath a cluster of gnarled roots, were the blue mushrooms — luminescent and alluring, their eerie glow casting shadows that twisted and shifted with the wind.

“That’s it!” Quaraun exclaimed, excitement sparking in his eyes. He dropped to his knees, inspecting the mushrooms carefully. “Blue mushrooms… exactly what we came for.”

GhoulSpawn grinned, kneeling beside him.

“Finally, something good in this cursed forest.”

BoomFuzzy knelt down, feeling along the ground near them, his fingers brushing the rough caps of the mushrooms.

“Aye, Love. Rare as they come. But mind ye don’t touch too many. Faerie mushrooms can be tricky things.”

Quaraun nodded, plucking a few of the precious fungi with utmost care, placing them into a pouch within his robe.

“Our client will pay handsomely for these. Now let us leave before those trees decide we’ve stayed too long.”

The air thickened as the gloaming fog settled, swirling in murky layers across the forest floor.

Luminous blue mushrooms sprouted in clusters, their caps glowing in eerie pulses, spreading a cold phosphorescent glow.

Tendrils of fog wrapped around them, casting ghostly shadows across the forest floor.

The mushrooms seemed to pulse, their light flickering in time with the drifting will-o-wisps that circled nearby, faint and restless.

Quaraun stepped forward, eyes fixed on the mushrooms, his golden hands brushing back the fog curling around his robes.

BoomFuzzy and GhoulSpawn followed, each step careful, hesitant.

“Careful,” BoomFuzzy muttered, his voice a low warning. “They watch, these little lights. They lead ye away. Tricksters.”

GhoulSpawn reached for a mushroom, but a flickering wisp darted toward his hand, its cold light sharp, stinging. He pulled back, startled.

The wisp hovered, its ghostly light dancing over the mushrooms, illuminating their translucent caps, each fungal bloom like a beacon calling to the night.

Blue and spectral, the mushrooms lit up as the will-o-wisps circled closer, casting shadows that writhed in the fog.

The forest closed in, silent, waiting.

The blue glow pulsed like a heartbeat, each flicker pulling them deeper into the labyrinth of shadows.

With their prize secured, they rose, casting wary glances back at the shadowed trees.

The forest closed in behind them, the glowing mushrooms marking their path back to safer ground as they left the twisted woods behind.

Quaraun and BoomFuzzy

The Pink Necromancer, Moon Elf silk weaver & merchant: Quaraun on Noodle Beach. His master chef Phooka turned Lich husband: BoomFuzzy with his 1968 VW Bus Beach Noodle Food Truck. And their on again/off again mad scientist Sheep Demon lover: GhoulSpawn with his 1974 AMC Gremlin time machine. Time Travel setting swings back and forth between 40th century Maine after a comet hit the moon decimating the planet, and the 1970s, Maine. Quaraun in the main character, he and BoomFuzzy are a married gay couple. GhoulSpawn is their shared live-in lover. Art by Wendy Christine Allen.

BoomFuzzy

Quaraun

GhoulSpawn and BoomFuzzy

GhoulSpawn

GhoulSpawn and Quaraun

Faeries vs Elves (In The Quaraun Series) A Pink Necromancer World Lore Post

The Pink Necromancer: The Adventures of Quaraun The Insane aka The Twighlight Manor Series

🌸🦄🌸 Furry Yaoi Fiction about Elves and Faeries and Satyrs and Demons and Unicorns and Technomancer Wizards and Liches living in a Lighthouse and surviving as Travelling Merchants and Food Truck Chefs in Cyberpunk Dystopian 40th Century Maine, and Zombie Apocalypse and Time Travel but it’s Slice of Life Vignettes of Mundane Daily Lives of The UnSeelie Court’s Royal Family trying to survive after a comet hit the moon and turned the Earth into a CyberPunk Ice-Age. 🌸🦄🌸

• eBook Editions from this series can be found on: GumRoad

• Kindle, eBook, Print Paperback, & full colour illustrated Hardcover Editions from this series can be found on: Amazon

Meet The Characters

This story is published in:

• Savage Wilderness

Includes the following stories: The Savage Wilderness of the Post-Comet Earth The Terror Bird Lost, But Never Wrong Acrophobia The Herd Approaches IkuTursu’s Cursed Depths of the Swamp Where Pine Boughs Whisper Wind and Hematite on the Cliff You trust that nonsense over a map? Not Little Red Riding Hood A Twisted Tree A Tumble In The River Turquoise The Book Burning Maggots, You Can't Spell Hatred Without Red Hats Drowned Dead Beneath The Ice Inner Fortitude Amidst the Dread and Drear and Death Midnight silk whispers In the Depth of Winter’s Grip Cane and Gold He Was Not Built To Be Small No Place for Birth

Books By Wendy Christine Allen
Currently Available on Amazon Kindle:

Index of the Quaraun novels, novellas, & short story collections on Amazon

And GumRoad:

Index of the Quaraun short stories on GumRoad

On Medium:

An Index of the more than TWO THOUSAND Quaraun Short Stories on Medium

(NOTE: a $5 or $15 per month paid subscription required to access stories on Medium)

On Vocal:

Index of the Quaraun short stories on Vocal

On Notd:

Index of the Quaraun Short Stories on Notd

On OnlyFans:

Index of the Quaraun Short Stories on OnlyFans

(NOTE: a $4.99 per month paid subscription required to access stories on OnlyFans)

Pink Necromancer Merch: On CafePress:

An Index of the Quaraun Merch on CafePress

Pink Necromancer Merch: On Zazzle:

Index of the Quaraun Merch on Zazzle

Not Quaraun:

This page was written by Wendy Christine Allen of 146 Portland Ave, Old Orchard Beach, Maine.

All Rights Reserved.