Issun walked off the gangplank and onto a wooden dock. The colonists around him, mostly reef belemoids, worked hard to finish securing the boat. Behind him he could hear the shuffling of feet as someone else walked down the gangplank. Issun turned around to see what exactly was making his friend shuffle his feet like that. A tall black and grey Tsabhua with light blue markings on his head and neck that looked vagally like fire, was holding a pad in one hand and a brain teaser in his other hand.

"Alexander, haven't you figured that one out yet? Put it away before you hurt yourself or fall into the-" Issun started to admonish the young Tsabhua. But his warning came a bit late and Alexander's front foot caught on a slightly raised plank and before he knew what happened he landed in the shallow waters with a splash.

"Missed a step there, buddy. " A watching Tsabhua stated before walking toward them. "Names Lenethya" She said as she reached out to help him out of the water.

Alexander hesitated for a second. He glanced quickly at Issun and then reached up to take the offered hand. "Thank you. I guess I wasn't watching where I was going." He turned back to the water's edge and fished out the pad. And then began searching for his brain teaser toy.

He spotted it floating near him and reached out to take it. Only for it to disappear into a pale hand.

"What's this? Lenethya asked as she held the square teaser up to her eye.

"That's a brain teaser. This one you need to figure out how to take it apart." Alexander explained.

"And don't forget to put it back together. The last one was easy to take apart but you spent half of the voyage trying to put it back together." Issun said as he walked up to them both.

"Names Issun, this here is Alexander. Just wondering if you happen to know of someone who knows mushrooms around here?" Issun asked. As nice as it was to be on solid ground again, they did need to do what they came here for rather quickly so they could get back home before the harbor froze completely.

"Oh I know all about mushrooms. I could possibly help. Did you bring a sample?" Lenethya asked as she handed over the cube to Alexander.

"No, It was not safe to do so. We found that this mushroom had some unpleasant properties." Issun answered. He indicated to Alexander to show Lenethya. Alexander walked over to Lenethya and turned on the pad. After hitting a couple of buttons a picture of a dark almost pitch black mushroom appeared on the screen. It had the shape of a pinecone. More of the mushrooms could be seen in the background.

Lenethya seemed to be taken aback. "I have never seen such a mushroom before. It's so black, no color to it. Where did you find it?"

Two of our miners found it in a cave when they went deep into one of our mountains. They also discovered that they should not be disturbed. They almost didn't make it back to the village and took weeks to recover. We would like to know more about them and if there is a way to safely remove them."

"We decided to come here. We thought we could find someone here that might know what this is." Alexander piped up.

"Well I don't know what it is. But I do know someone who should."

"Who?" Alexander asked as he turned off the pad.

"Satyr. He is known to have vast knowledge of mushrooms. If there is anyone who knows what your mushroom is, it's him."

"Well let's go ask him then." Alexander said. Then he started to place the pad and his teaser toy in his wet satchel then thought it might be better to wait till it was dry first.

"Satyr's tribe is actually close by. We should be able to get there by nightfall. Say, would you mind if I have a go at your brain teaser toy?" Lenethya asked as she started down a path away from the ocean.

"Sure." Alexander handed over the cube and Lenethya started to examine it.

"Just be sure you watch where you're going." Issun said from behind them.

They walked on, passing scraggly brush and small mushrooms that were mostly red with the occasional blue sprinkled here and there. They crested a small hill and Issun and Alexander stopped. Before them was a forest of the tallest red capped mushrooms they had ever seen. And the trail led directly into them.

"Come on slow pokes." Lenethya yelled from farther down the trail.

Alexander and Issun ran to catch up and they all entered the forest together.

They walked for several hours. Lenethya in the lead, with Issun and Alexander walking behind her silently looking at all the different sizes and shapes of mushrooms.

They finally came to a village that was nestled in amongst the giant mushrooms.The place looked very old and very ancient. Several of the Tsabhua stopped whatever they were doing and stared at them. Except for one. A tan Tsabhua with white spots along his side came trotting over to them.

"Lenethya, what brings you here?" Satyr called out in greeting.

"I brought two friends who have a mushroom problem. I figured you might know how to help them." Lenethya said.

Alexander brought out the pad and proceeded to get it on and the picture up.

As soon as the picture was shown, Issun began telling Satyr where they had found it and what it was capable of.

"I have not seen one of those in a long time. They only grow in the darkest places. Usually underground. Your two friends were lucky. If they had tried to gather more than just the one they would have died in that cave. The only way to get rid of them is to expose them to sunlight. Once in the sun they shrivel up and die. I suggest that you block off that part of the cave until you can come up with a way to bring the sunlight to them."

"Thank you." Issun said.

"No problem. Happy to help." Satyr said. "It's getting dark, you should probably stay the night. A day or two won't matter. And I can tell you about some of the more interesting mushrooms."

As Issun and Alexander did not really want to walk back in the dark and they could see the wisdom of staying here and learn from one of the great elders they decided to stay. And said as much.

"Great! Great! Come, come. You too Lenethya. There are always new mushrooms to learn." Satyr said as he motioned them to follow him.