I've still felt the chill on my spine, as if someone spilled a whole bucket load of ice cold water on me .. My eyes were shifting around, trying to comprehend what happened, the reasons, but it all still came to the same conclusion. I've been responsible for this.

"The largest stem goes out from the ...body.. of the deceased toad.." - My thoughts were hesitant, this whole situation wasn't easy to swallow, and even harder to digest. Nevertheless - puzzles aren't that hard when you pay attention to details.

"Considering that the plant is paper-leaf, there's no doubts that it was because of me covering it's wounds with fresh leaves.." - I crouched on the ground, squatting as my fingers touched the area where the original bandages of the paper-leaf were put on, there was no spores, unlike the large plant.. or rather fungal growth protruding from the corpse.

"Normal paper-leaf never had any spores on it.." - to confirm my thought, I've studied one of the leaves of the plant growing from the darkened moss. - "And considering that I've been using green paper-leaf to tend to the wounds of little toads.."

I've paused, thinking about what has been going on back then. - "They didn't show any signs of being in pain... unlike this fellow.."

Yes, now the sudden screaming and agonizing pain made a whole lot more sense, even though I was excluding myself from the equation. Right now I was focused on the fungus before me, and what I knew of its behavior so far.

"I've wrapped the dead body of a little toad with paper-leaf.. the tribe took him back in without any hesitation... still - that's an unknown variable.."

I glanced up at the area where toads were coming from, but there was no-one there but the watch-toad. I still had time to think and calm myself down.

"One plant with spores, multiple growing in a limited area around it.." - I took a deep breath and studied the "field" where the paper-leaf bloomed, the only difference with the surrounding forest was my spike and head fence.

"Fuck.." - I brushed the back of my head.

"Paperleaf reacts to blood - that much is known for sure.. The patch doesn't go much further than the last impaled head.. so it must use it to grow. Considering the state of the corpse.. and the fact that the impaled heads didn't turn out the same.. the spore bearing stem must use a lot of nutrients - and uses the living creature to grow.. So the fungus stops any excessive bleeding - not to waste any food... then the whole screaming shenanigans go on.. feeling a fungus spreading and eating you must be painful.."

I've brushed my eyes, reorganizing the thoughts inside of my head.

"Then there's me... I've used paper-leaf a lot - and there doesn't seem to be much pain at all. Of course the fungus might grow only inside the toads or something. Like the zombie fungus that affects only a certain species of insect - one fungus for one species... But it wouldn't heal the wound if that was the case, would it?" - My fingers ran across the soft scar tissue on my left arm, the lack of fingers there was quite bizarre to the touch.

"So there must be something that makes me different from the toad.. no- from a normal host. Why my blood is not good enough for the fungus to continue growing.. It's not my immune system for sure, chemo has made sure it was shred to shit.. Is that it?"

I've sliced my palm on the sharp stone tip of the spear, making a bit of blood pour out of the wound. A few moments later my fingers simply brushed the remaining blood off, leaving only a thin reddish line. The bleeding stopped quite fast, making me frown - it wasn't normal that blood stopped that fast no matter what.

"But if I'm poisonous to the fungus, it would already die off.. or if I was still suitable.. then it would have started growing shouldn't it? So I'm not the perfect host or what?" - The fungus wasn't growing, but was still in the healing stage.. there was something I was missing really. But one thing was for certain - I was alive and better than well - meaning that all of this, I should simply put in the back shelf of my mind. Besides, this right in front of me wasn't what I came here for.

...

My eyes were staring blankly at the half rotten head with an exposed skull, which was really an overstatement, as there was not much head there.. the rotten flesh was eaten up by the moss or whatever insects that I haven't seen yet, leaving some sticky goop on the bone - can't call this flesh really. On the bright side there was not much of a smell to it, not enough to make you gag, just disgusting smell of vomit mixed with some spoiled meat.

The elder toad was looking at me with slight worry on it's face for the last few minutes. Seems like they've really set up watch in this area in case I came back.. And the one that was going to interact with me was the tribe chief, really - any toad would do. Whatever, toads feared me, mission accomplished and now I could use the fear to get answers. Problem was- the lack of dictionary.

"Crack?" - A younger toad with the spear spoke to the elder, only to get slapped on the back of its skull by an older spear-toad. Their faces had some fear painted across them, surely they didn't want to be here, especially this close to me - closer than before, as I was four fifths of the way from the paper-leaf patch to the place they stood at. I wondered if they could tell what my clothes were made of.. probably not, as most of them were covered by the green poncho. It seemed like my silence was rather long, in reality I was trying to figure out what I should do or say.. or what noises to make..

"Shit..." - I've felt my fingers bury into the soft goop inside of the eye-sockets, as my palm touched the sticky nearly jelly-like substance on the surface of the skull. I threw the head towards the feet of the elder. It rolled on the moss, stopping only as it bumped into his foot.

It looked up at me dumbfounded, like - "yes, its a skull..so?"

I pointed at myself with a thumb, then into the approximate area where my base was located, then I pointed at the elder and the location their village should be located, that's when all the three toads got a bit tense. Last I've pointed at the skull at their feet.. They waited expecting me to continue, but I've also waited - my eyes fixed on them, glaring rather than staring. Took the toads some time to figure things out and get the message.

"Croekcraararark" - The awkward silence was broken by the elder toad, who pointed at the older spear-toad, obviously ordering him something that he didn't like, all the croaks full of dissatisfaction were stopped by a raised hand of the elder. The face of the young one was full of relief, he looked sympathetically at his spear bearing comrade.

"I guess that's my guide" - I've straightened myself, holding the spear on the ready - just in case. The fact the toads were ready to help me, was in no regard a reason to let my guard down. Nothing was, everything was an enemy. Still I was already happy - I was going to find out where the human has come from, that could mean there was some settlement nearby or something.

...

The toad kept throwing wary glances at me for the first twenty minutes we were walking, but as my face didn't show much, and I could have obviously attacked on a multitude of occasions.. including two times the toad tripped while looking back at me, it calmed down and kept going through the forest. I could still quite easily navigate back to my place from here, so I wasn't that much worried. There was no-one following us as far as I could tell, and there was no obvious traps in front of me as I followed the spear-toad step by step.

I was anxious to say the least. Coming face to face with a fantasy-like world due to some crazy teleportation was one thing, but getting back to humanity after this much time alone in the forest.. it seemed life-changing. However the toad stopped in front of a hill surrounded by bushed - a steep hill that probably had a climbable slope on the other side.

"Croak!" - It pointed at the bushes and started shuffling sideways, glancing at me. I was pissed.. I expected a road, anything really.. anything but a fucking hill with bushes. I waved my hand in annoyance at the toad. Not even a second later I was alone with the new discovery.

I've crossed the remaining distance and made my way through the bushes, noting some half-broken branches hanging off the healthy stems. As I stepped out of them, before me was a big hole. I would be happy to call it a cave, a giant gaping black hole with millions of wonders inside, but it was really a simple man-sized hole obviously dug by humans.. as I stepped closer, I felt something below the moss creak.. The rotten wood probably belonged to the door..

"Well that's fucking disappointing.." - I stepped inside the narrow space, still hoping that it was a tunnel to a city.

...

It took me only ten minutes to scan the hole fully, mainly due to it's size. Not even going to make any comments on that other than it was underwhelming. Roughly dug out walls supported by some already rotting wood. The whole thing felt unfinished, hastily made and abandoned. There was no doubt that the human from the first day had come from here... the problem was- why.. Why would someone dig a hole inside a hill in the middle of nowhere?

I wish I didn't find the answer for that.. among a few moldy and half-rotten sleeping bags, I've found one covered in remains of human- a skull and a hand, as well as another set casually lying on the ground. That wouldn't tell me much about the people that died by the hand of toaders, but some things that were left along with the limbs did.

"I guess that's what happens when you let art face the elements.." - I sat cross-legged in front of a darkened wooden frame, which held some sort of fabric - which looked like colored tatters right now. Really easy to guess what it was some time ago.

"A painting..." - I looked at the broken pieces of stone on the ground - some were shaped like humans.. once again a piece of art..

"Sculptures..." - I even found a few copper coins in the ground after bushing by fingers through it.. - "Money.."

Considering that the place seemed to be in a haphazard state, with most of the paintings thrown around like someone was searching through the place hastily. The lack of any tools, as well as some glass shards littering the floor.. I came to a few conclusions.

"For one.. you guys..."- I slapped the half-decomposed skull, making a disgusting splashing noise and covering my hand in the smelly slime once again.. - "..were thieves.... who had a shitty stash in the woods.. I guess you had some valuables hidden here for some reason.."

I sat there, petting the skull laying close to me.

" ..But the toads took all they could find.. after killing you that is.. except for those coins they dropped... and paintings.. and sculptures... oh - and one horseshoe!" - Why would the toads need art either way? Why would they need money and tools?

"The answer is rather easy..." - I was annoyed, angry, dissatisfied.. My arm threw the rotten head into a support beam, making a bit of dirt fall from the ceiling.

"They like shiny stuff..." - I stared downwards. My hopes of finding civilization shattered. This was a stash, poorly made one at that... which would be dubious if there would be a city anywhere close. So what that meant for me? Well.. nothing new. I was alone in a forest, with no obvious way of telling a way out of this place.

"You most likely used this as a halfway point between hideouts, yes?" - the skull was staring at me mockingly, vile slime dripping down its left eye-socket.

"... and now.. all of your shiny stuff is at the toad village... and they don't use your weapons, which you surely had somewhere... of course.. it's shiny, precious loot."

I stood up, readjusted the spears tied to my back and moved out of the hole. There was nothing worth looting in here, nothing of use to me. I guess I was the same as the toads, only with a slightly different criteria, regardless - the scraps of art were useless to say the least. I made my way home, gloom and rather angry.. I've had my answers, but they weren't worth neither the effort, nor the risk.

...

That evening, I've broken a dozen of training spears trying to vent by training..