ORIGIN

They had already been watching - since the rabbit had passed them by, they had focused their senses to follow its path - curiosity, mainly, for they were curious about everything. It stood away from its caps, but above where its mycelia reached beneath the ground.

And then...a hunter. This one brushed by, and they were quick to allow some of the spores to spring free from the gills, so they could continue to find them for a while. They "watched" the hunt, as one might watch television - unable to interfere, but curious for its resolution. And the hunter was successful - a song of victory rippled through the choir. Some mourned softly for the rabbit, other praised the hunter's skill, a few criticized the messy capture.

The caps nearby, though, listened and picked up the vibrating air, sending the information across the network in the milliseconds it took to decipher them into words. Not simply a hunter, but a thinking one. A speaking one. Like the first one that had buried them, a treat of conversation and intelligence too precious to ignore.

Their magic reached forward, towards where they felt it had been last - no more vibrations had indicated that it had moved - and spoke directly into its mind. "A good catch, hunter. But if you will indulge a word of observation, your pounce was late. You waited for the moment too long - we felt it tense long before you noticed. If you have the opening, do not allow it to slip away." The voice that the lynx was hearing was odd - it didn't sound like one voice, but many small ones, of so many different tenors and tones, but speaking at the same time, in the same inflection, so that it seemed like one. It was...odd.

Yes, yes, right, creatures grow anxious when they cannot See that there is a gigantic living being just beneath their feet. Perhaps they should take advantage of this a little bit....have a little fun. Already, they could tell this one was nervous. They could taste it in the chemicals of the air, in the wavering vibrations of the voice.

So, instead of speaking directly again, they instead compelled magic into the mushrooms immediately close to the creature and compelled them to move. The cluster of orange caps began to wiggle merrily under the magic's force. They made no sound besides barely audible little plaps as they smacked into each other occasionally, but they had picked a patch that was in the creature's line of sight. She would most definitely see them quite easily.

Amusement rippled through the mycelium but a relief and a relaxation that she accepted this pretty easily. It was more then a little disappointing and annoying for them when a gembound could not possibly understand that they, like others, were living and thinking.

"A name? What is a name?" They had not heard of a name before. Their walking-friend had not given them one or told them about any. It was something new. They paused, one of the voices pointing out something interesting she had said. "So...you have not met another like us? Hmmm..." They searched very much for creatures similar to them, to know that they were not alone. Alas, it seemed the more time went on, the more they were coming to realize that they might be totally unique.

Their conversation was brief - after all, there was very little the Chorus knew what to talk about. And they were still a little...ah, conservative, too protective of themselves to give much away. Eventually they were left alone to continue on, as they always would.