Page 7 of I Married A Syllen

No words could begin to describe how hard I fought not to roll my eyes at such absolute nonsense. Clearly, he had not properly studied what little documentation we recovered from the former pilgrims who tried to take over Mazeria before the locals drove them out. The Settlers regularly referred to them as chaotic due to the nearly nonexistent hierarchy amidst their people.

Those statues were not vanity projects. I believed they served as beacons. But those were among the burning questions I couldn’t wait to have answered now that the Syllens had awakened. Two days ago… It happened two days ago!

I’d been glued to my vidscreen almost around the clock in the hopes of some leaked footage. But no drones or cameras were allowed anywhere near their restricted lands.

“The wood fairies appear to be the exception to the rule,” the guide continued. “They are not Syllens, but small fairies carved with an insane level of detail directly in the bark of the giant Kandra trees. We also don’t know what purpose they served, and especially why they carved so many.”

“What do you mean by so many?” the pregnant woman asked.

“Past the walls that close off access to the restricted section of the Tekera Valley, there are hundreds upon hundreds of those sculpted trees. Each tree can easily have four or five of those creatures carved into them. We call it the Fairy Grove,” he explained.

Just as he was reaching the intersection to enter that path, my blood suddenly turned to ice.

“STOP!” I shouted, startling everyone. “Back away slowly.”

“What? Is something wrong?” the guide asked, his confusion reflected on every face.

“The plants,” I said, pointing at the bushes with colorful flowers lining each side of the path. “They have shifted.”

He gave me an unimpressed look to which he tried to give an indulgent edge.

“Well yes. This is Mazeria. Many of the plants here will move their limbs, change colors, and sometimes even temporarily bloom in a way that makes them look as if they have shifted into something completely different. It’s nothing to be concerned about,” he replied with a hint of condescension before turning back towards the path.

“No! These plants are going into attack mode!” I exclaimed. “Everyone needs to back away from them!”

“What are you blabbering about?!” Frat Boy asked.

Ignoring his rudeness, I pointed at the Egyptian Lotus looking flowers on the bushes.

“You see these? They are Laurellis flowers,” I explained. “This white foam in the center wasn’t there when we first arrived. This is a deadly fungus that started swelling the moment we approached. It means the plants currently perceive us as a threat to eliminate. I don’t know what lies down that path beyond what the guide said, but they will attack if we come closer. They’re protecting something in there.”

Out of our ten-people group, the guide, frat boy, and another man appeared to be the only ones to think I was being overly dramatic if not hysterical. The six other people just cast worried glances at the bushes.

“Madam, you’re sorely mistaken,” the guide said in a reasonable tone. “I’ve been a guide here for over a year, and nothing has ever—”

“And I’ve got a fucking PhD in Xenobotany!” I snapped, interrupting him. “I’m telling you that these are Laurellis flowers. They’re going into attack mode. The life of every person in this group is in your hands. We need to back away from here right the fuck now.”

The nervousness among the other guests cranked up another notch. Their gazes flicked between the guide and me, unsure who to side with.

“Look, little lady, I don’t know if it’s that time of the month for you, but you seriously need to relax,” Frat Boy said. “We paid for this tour and—”

Ignoring him, I gestured at everyone else to follow, especially the pregnant woman and her child.

“If anyone here wants to live, let’s get out of here. This fungus is unforgiving,” I said sternly before starting to march in the opposite direction.

To my relief, the pregnant woman decided to follow me, wisely choosing not to risk exposing her child, her unborn baby, and herself to potential harm. That seemed to prompt the other two women and one man to follow as well, while the others still hesitated.

“Fuck that noise,” Frat Boy said. “I paid to see the damn fairies!”

My stomach dropped when he stomped with determined steps towards the path. Seeing the fungus swell exponentially as he approached finally convinced the others that something wasn’t right. Even the guide looked troubled enough to stay put. The rest of the guests backed away as I tried one last time to stop the reckless man.

“Don’t go!” I shouted, panic audible in my voice.

Without even turning to look at me, he raised his left hand to flip me the bird as he continued to advance. He only got three more steps in before the fungus popped, spraying white powder towards him as if a dozen mini snowblowers were shooting at him. Under different circumstances, it might even have been deemed pretty as the pale dust settled over him. But his loud screech broke any illusion of this being one of the many wonders of Mazeria.

The skin of his arms left exposed by his short sleeves and his entire face immediately erupted in huge blisters. He stumbled back, shouting, only to lose his footing. He fell into a bed of pretty burgundy and gold flowers located in front of the bushes, on the other side of the path. A horrified scream escaped me, echoed by my companions’ when the thorns along the stems of the flowers shot out as tiny darts towards the man.

Blood and white foam bubbled around his mouth as his screams turned into gurgling sounds. I realized then that he had inhaled some of the spores. They were indubitably doing inside his lungs and airway the same type of devastating damage visible on his skin. He thrashed on the ground a few seconds before going still.