Sylan Myrkul Freewrite

Kyle is on patrol. He patrols the perimeter of the village. It’s night. But even so, the streets are not empty. Writhing on the gravel road are swarms of rats. During the daytime, they squirm at the sides of the road, keeping away from people. But at night, they crawl out from beneath the wooden cabins and search for anything left out. They steal food, trash, small objects, and even entire locked boxes when they can’t open the container. In the darkness, the ground seems to be liquid as the movements of rats ripples. By the light of his burning torch, Kyle creates a rat-free perimeter around himself. The rats don’t like his fire light. Villagers are prohibited from leaving their houses at night. And Kyle and a few other patrol members must keep the lanterns lit by every home. Around each cabin are multiple lanterns hanging on tall metal poles staked into the ground. If any lantern goes out during the night, he is to refill the lantern oil and relight it. It’s wasteful to burn so much oil for light while everyone is asleep, but the villagers fear that rats will sneak into their homes while they sleep, which they do. The lanterns do prevent most of the rats from getting inside. But some rats get inside anyway.

Kyle has no idea how long it has been this way. He can’t remember if there was ever a time when the village wasn’t infested with such an overwhelming population of rats. Growing food is incredibly difficult. Rats will consume all crops in a single night if they are sown at ground level. They have to place gardens on the roofs of buildings with ladders as the only entrance, since rats can jump up stairs. Hunting for food isn’t much better. It’s hard to bring the meat through the village even at daytime without the meat getting spoiled by the rats that will stream to it from all directions. Even harder to cook it while rats try to jump into it. Cooking any sort of food is difficult. The whole village suffers from hunger and disease. Even the mayor is sick. Kyle fears that the whole village will die if the rat problem isn’t dealt with.

Kyle barely notices the time pass as he mindlessly fulfills the routine of walking to each lantern and refilling and relighting it if it is out. He doesn’t notice that the sun has risen until his torch flickers out. He panics when his fire goes out, fearing that the rats will swarm for him. But the rats are retreating from the light of the day as people begin to leave their homes. Exhausted, Kyle realizes that his job is finished and he can go home to get some rest. He lives at the very edge of the village in a small shed that isn’t tightly built, thus rats get in easily. But he only sleeps during the day time, and the insides are well lit by the sun, so he doesn’t worry about being smothered by rats in his sleep.

Today as Kyle walks towards his shed-like home near the edge of the forest, he sees a white figure shambling towards him. He stops in place. It has short stumpy human legs and no arms. Everything above its leg is a smooth white stalk like a smooth tree trunk that lacks bark. At the top of this human-sized creature is the cap of a mushroom that spreads out to the breadth of a parasol. As the creature gets closer, Kyle notices that a pack of rats swarm around it. He almost doesn’t notice because rats are such a familiar sight. However, these 50 or so rats follow the white walking mushroom.

Kyle gets scared and shouts “Stay back!” The creature stops and the rats around it stop moving. They sit and stare at him. A squeaky voice comes from a few feet above the waist of the walking mushroom. Kyle imagines this voice is how rats would sound if rats could speak. The mushroom says, “Stay back? Why should I stay back? Are you not accepting visitors and guests?”

Kyle doesn’t know what to say to this. He didn’t expect the creature to understand him or for it to be able to speak. He doesn’t like how this creature has a pack of somewhere around 50 rats following it. The rats surrounding the walking mushroom look past Kyle at some of the village-rats plundering the scraps of someone’s breakfast. The mushroom speaks again. “You have quite a few rats in this village. I think I understand your concern. This village must be suffering from disease, that is why you wish for me to stay back. But you don’t have to worry. I won’t get sick.”

Kyle wonders what type of creature this is. He also wonders how it could possibly expect a normal civilized interaction with humans. He only stutters incoherent apologies as the last thing he wants is for this creature to be angry. The mushroom speaks again. “May I have an audience with your leader? Would it be a mayor? I would like to take all of your rats.” Kyle can’t even think through whether it would be a good idea for this creature to meet with the mayor. But luckily, he doesn’t have to make that decision. “I’m sorry, the Mayor isn’t receiving visitors right now.” Kyle says. He can tell that the mushroom is disappointed even though it has no face to make expressions and it doesn’t immediately say anything in response. After a while, the mushroom asks “Then could you relay my message to the mayor? I wish for him to let me take away the rats from this village.” After a while, Kyle asks, “Who should I say this message is from?” The mushroom seems flustered as it stammers, “I-I forgot to introduce myself! My apologies, I am the Lady of Life and Death.” Kyle is intimidated by the title the mushroom gives itself. But Kyle quickly promises to relay the petition to the mayor and the Lady of Life and Death decides to stay outside the village even though it says it can’t get sick.

Kyle ignores his fatigue and immediately makes his way to the mayor’s house. The mayor’s servant answers the door. This servant is sort of a butler, but not quite so trained and disciplined. Kyle tells the servant to relay to the mayor that the Lady of Life and Death wants to have permission to take the rats from the village. Kyle leaves to go back home after delivering the message to the servant. Kyle is only almost a hundred feet away from the mayor’s house before the servant returns and runs out to deliver a note to Kyle. It reprimands him for bothering the mayor with foolish ideas. The mayor thinks that he made up the Lady of life and Death and says “If someone could get rid of our rat problem, they would ask for some sort of payment. Those that don’t ask for payment for such a monumental service are merely frauds that have no talent.” Kyle is disappointed that the mayor thinks he is making up stories but admits that it seems pretty unbelievable. Kyle doubts that the walking mushroom could get rid of all of their rats. There is a big difference between having 50 rats follow you and leading away thousands if not millions of rats. Kyle doesn’t exactly want to tell the Lady of Life and Death that the mayor doesn’t believe it exists. He thinks maybe he should just tell the creature that the mayor declines its request. However, Kyle is tired since he has been up all night on patrol. So he decides to go to sleep before doing anything else.

Kyle wakes up in the evening and gets ready to start his patrol. As he gathers large containers of oil from the storage sheds, he considers just how dreadful it is going to be to patrol the night, lighting up lanterns while the Lady of Life and Death stands between the trees at the edge of the forest. Kyle lights his torch and starts his patrol. As the sun ducks below the horizon, the rats creep out of their hiding places. There are a lot of rats outside during the daytime, but no one can truly understand their rat problem unless they see the rats at night. They are tides and waves of furry masses. They consume everything left on the ground. Even small animals are taken down and killed by the onslaught of rats. Kyle fears that the rats could even take on humans if they weren’t so scared of light. This is why his job to relight and refill lanterns is so important. It is also why he isn't the only one on patrol. It’s too important of a job to leave to one man.

In the morning, as Kyle moves towards his home, he sees the Lady of Life and Death shuffling towards him again on those stumpy human legs that look so out of place on the walking mushroom. Kyle groans. He thinks through what he can tell the Lady of Life and Death without offending her and decides to just say that the mayor rejects the request. However, before he can say anything, the Lady of Life and Death speaks in its squeaky voice. “I’m so sorry about my previous request. I had meant to say that I won’t take the rats for free.”

Kyle says, “Ah, the mayor had thought it strange that someone would offer to take away the rats without payment.” Perhaps this would help the mayor to understand that the Lady of Life and Death is really serious about her offer to get rid of the rats.

The Lady of Life and Death says, “After seeing how many rats come out at night, I now know that this village, like me, sees the value in rats. I can’t just ask for your whole supply and I must offer something in return. I’d like to purchase at least 50 of the diseased rats here. I do not have any commodities to exchange, but I can offer my services in exchange for some rats.”

Kyle is momentarily flustered. He knows he needs to clear up the misunderstanding. No one in the village actually wants the rats to be there. And taking away all the rats would be the greatest service the creature could provide. No other service could compare if she took away only an insignificant amount of 50. He can’t think of anything, however, he is really tired and can’t think of how to explain the error in the Lady of Life and Death’s assumptions. So he just tells the Lady of Life and Death that he will deliver her message to the mayor.

He walks back towards the mayor’s house and this time asks the doctor to pass on his message that the Lady of Life and Death thinks that the village wants the rats to be there since there are so many and that she offers to provide her services in exchange for 50 rats. She wants to buy rats. Kyle urges the doctor to help the mayor take the matter seriously and to ask her to remove all of the rats. The doctor scoffs at the idea of there being such a creature as he describes that can take away all of the rats. Kyle is angry at the doctor’s disbelief. He tells the doctor that he can see the Lady of Life and Death for himself, that she stands at the edge of the forest all day. The doctor agrees to pass on the message to the mayor and to see for himself if the Lady of Life and Death is real after he is done with his work.

Kyle goes to sleep because it is morning and he has been up all night on patrol. When he wakes up near the evening, he immediately goes to ask the doctor if the mayor has a response to the Lady of Life and Death’s request and whether the doctor checked to see if Kyle was right about the Lady of Life and Death. The doctor tells Kyle that the mayor still doesn’t think the Lady of Life and Death is real and wishes that he would stop wasting his time with nonsense. The doctor also looked out to the edge of the forest and indeed saw a mushroom like Kyle had said was the Lady of Life and Death. But the doctor thinks that the mushroom is simply a normal fungus, not a sentient creature. He didn’t see it move or speak.

Kyle is pretty sure he isn’t going crazy. He can’t possibly be making this up, can he? It scares him that another person checked to see if the Lady of Life and Death is real but doesn’t think it is. Could he be hallucinating? That is something that can happen if you eat mushrooms, right? Maybe he got too close to a mushroom and has been hallucinating? Kyle refuses to believe that he’s just seeing things. Perhaps he should ask the Lady of Life and Death to enter the village? Perhaps he can get it a personal audience with the mayor like it originally asked for?

He doesn’t know what to do. As he goes on his patrol, he can’t stop thinking about it. He knows he isn’t crazy. Finally, the tension gets to him and he can’t take it anymore. He runs to the edge of the forest where the Lady of Life and Death is and asks her to come into the village to talk to the mayor in-person. Kyle isn’t thinking straight. He hasn’t slept very well and the night makes it hard for him to stay alert. He rushes to the center of the village, waving his torch in front of himself to clear a path through the rats for him to travel. He can barely hear the shuffling footsteps of the Lady of Life and Death’s human feet over the deafening sound of skittering rats.

The mayor’s house guards see him coming towards the manor. The house guards’s night job is mostly just to keep the manor’s lanterns lit both on the inside of the manor and outside around it. The Lady of Life and Death doesn’t carry a light, so the house guards don’t see her in the darkness and can only make out Kyle holding his torch. They immediately assume something must be wrong since Kyle has stepped away from his duty and come to the manor. As Kyle asks the house guards to wake the mayor so he can prove to him that the Lady of Life and Death is real, the house guards see the white form of the walking mushroom shuffling in the darkness.

The house guards call out in alarm and shout out to alert other guards and patrols. Kyle tries to calm the house guards and explain that the Lady of Life and Death just wants a meeting with the mayor to negotiate for her to get rid of the rats. The house guards ignore him and take out their swords as more men come to see what the commotion is about. More swords are drawn. There are screams of “What is that?” The Lady of Life and Death stops walking and turns its body as though to look at the gathering armed men. Kyle is beginning to think that his decision to bring the mushroom into the village is a bad idea. Bringing her into the village is already bad enough, but doing it at night? That’s even worse.

The mushroom announces that it is the Lady of Life and Death and has taken an interest in the village’s rats. The villagers misinterpret this to mean that she is the source of the overwhelming rat population. The armed guards surge forth and strike at the Lady of Life and Death. Their swords cut into the mushroom stalk and they chop away at it. The Lady of Life and Death screams, “You care far too much about a bunch of rodents! Are you really all so worried that I’ll take your rats that you’d kill me to prevent me from taking them? Well too bad. I normally don’t steal, but in this case I’ll make an exception. Say goodbye to your precious rats!” The swords cut all the way through the mushroom stalk, causing it to fall down, leaving only the stumpy human legs and… the lumpy head of a child. Not just a head, but the whole connected torso and arms stuck in a column of mycelium. The child stares up at the guards with hatred in its eyes. Gases rise from the broken stalk of the mushroom as the cap of the fallen mushroom explodes into a cloud of spores. The guards cough, barely able to breathe with all of the gas and spores in the air. They are reluctant to harm the child that is still stuck in fungus. But the child shouts at them, it's the voice of the Lady of Life and Death, “I’ll be reborn. Just you wait. A swarm of rats will trail to my new body.” She squeaks cackling laughter from the body of the little boy. One of the guards finally stabs the boy, causing the child to fall limp. As the guards come to question Kyle about what just happened, there is a thunderous roar of scratching rat claws as all of the rats run in the same direction out and away from the village. Soon, all goes quiet as there are no rats left in the village to be heard.

Somewhere in a distant village. A married couple are in a panic when their little daughter goes missing. The Lady of Life and Death in the body of a little girl walks into the forest, looking for a fungal structure specifically built to infect her with a fungal infection to connect her to the fungal network while allowing her to retain her mind. When she arrives, the rats are already there waiting for her.