Mushrooms were nice, but Kestrel was slowly getting tired of eating them. She shook her head, her face warping into one of disgust as she thought about eating *another* meal comprised mostly of mushrooms. The other colonists seemed fine with it, somehow, but she and the other bunker Tark'ee were definitely not too pleased with the seemingly endless flow of mushrooms. Granted, other things were often served alongside them- but every meal had at least one kind of mushroom in it. Quartz, Citrine, and another Tark'ee from the bunker called Peridot had taken it upon themselves to find the colony another food source. Kestrel was sure that somewhere in the forest she could find something else, and the other three hadn't complained when she had suggested it. They had all headed off into the fungal forest, carefully treading around the mushrooms there, not wanting to somehow accidentally end up with mushrooms for lunch again. "I'm guessing that hunting Shriiv isn't an option?" Peridot said hesitantly upon seeing a small herd of Shriiv in the distance. Kestrel shook her head. "The herds are too big to take down, and not knowing their behaviour it would be hard to separate one from

the herd." Citrine squinted, looking at the herd. "There's not that many of them. We should be able to take them-" Kestrel snapped her head around, glaring at him, before he could even finished. "Do you want to get us killed?!" Citrine jumped back startled "Of course not! The herd just isn't that big, I'm sure we can take on two or three each and-" Even Quartz had her objections with this "Two or three each? That's a lot, Citrine." Citrine seemed flushed now "Ah well- just forget I said anything, please." The group continued on trough the fungal forest, occasionally pointing out berries and flowers that seemed edible putting them in their bags for Woodland to inspect later. Still, they couldn't find a lot- definitely not enough to offset the huge amount of mushrooms the colony harvested. Peridot stood at a river, peering down into the waters. A small group of turquoise fish swam lazily below. Peridot watched them for a while, they seemed slow like slow, large fish that preferred to swim in small groups. Probably large enough to grill and eat, too. He slowly stepped into the river, and watched as the fish got scared and swam

away. "What're you up to, Peridot?" Quartz questioned, watching him. Peridot shushed her, watching as the fish began to swim back where they had previously been, curiously swimming around his paws. He waited a moment longer and then, quick as lighting, grabbed one with his beak and carried it out of the water. The fish was struggling against him, but couldn't do much as he stepped out of the river, presenting it to the other three. "Not bad." Kestrel said. "Those don't look half bad, either. It's hard to say whether they taste good but-" She was cut off by Citrine "It has a fungus all over it! Gross! Toss it back!" Quartz seemed equally grossed out as soon as she realized. Peridot seemed surprise "Eh?! They all looked like that, I swear!" Kestrel frowned "Maybe that's just what they're like. We can bring it back and see what Woodland has to say about it, I suppose." She gazed into the sky- the suns had begun to set, casting the fungal forest in a strange glow as it did. "It's time to head back regardless. Does everyone have all of their stuff?" The others confirmed, and they set off back

to the colony. "Eh? You didn't want to eat mushrooms anymore?" Woodland said, a bit startled. "I mean, that makes sense I suppose- but you could have just asked." Kestrel shot her a strange look. "What do you mean asked? You guys only seem to have mushrooms, ever, so we figured we'd look around for some other options." Woodland frowned "I mean, we have plenty of other things- we just don't eat them as much to be honest. They're what's easiest to grow here, and nobody has complained Yet." Peridot snorted amusedly "Well, I suppose you can see this as a complaint." Quartz and Citrine nodded. "We've pretty much had mushrooms for every meal since we got here- it'd be nice to have some variety." Woodland nodded thoughtfully. "I'll let Koi know, she should be able to figure something out for the fruits and vegetables. I don't think we really have anyone in charge of hunting, but I can ask Seymore to prepare to purchase more meat and fish when he next talks to other settlements." Kestrel nodded gratefully. "It'd be appreciated. Thank you for the hard work." "Oh, it's no problem. It'll take a while before things are ready,

though, so for tonight you will have to put up with mushroom soup again."