He knew he had been sent to do a job and he knew he should be sticking strictly to that job for the duration of that job, but after just a couple weeks all he could even think about was Syanna again. He didn't want her to come to Fenmyre so he knew that only left him going to her, but he didn't really want to get caught there by Artorias and get in trouble for leaving his post so instead he set out to go to God's Garden, figuring that was close enough to The Hallows that she wouldn't need to go very far, but it was far enough from the castle that there was confident he could avoid the Aegis. When he got close to the gardens, he sent Aquila up to the castle to tell Syanna where he was, making sure to tell the eagle to avoid Artorias if he could.

He found a secluded section of the garden that was tucked away by a section of winding, maze like hedge and he had intended to set up a little space for them to relax while he waited, but when he walked into the clearing he found himself absolutely surrounded by mushrooms. There was a pond on one side of the clearing and it looked like some recent rains had filled it and made the whole section of land blocked off by hedges fairly damp. It was most certainly not a good place to hang out with his girlfriend, but he knew Syanna would go crazy over all the bioluminescent mushrooms. Instead of finding a new spot he ended up sitting there on a drier piece of grass to wait for her, grinning as he imagined what her face was going to look like.

"Ezra Adravendi"

Syanna was busying herself with her studies around the strange glowing plants and fireflies that had sprung up around the world lately. Ever since Ezra had been sent off to support some neighboring pack, Syanna had found herself with an excess amount of free time. The vixen-coated wolf had spent almost all of that time trying to understand what was happening with the world. The glowing lily Ezra had helped her extract sat in a pot on the desk she'd brought into their shared bedroom, glowing almost all hours of the day now with twilight being the only time the sun was even remotely seen. She'd tended to the flower, watering it and keeping it healthy so she could observe it. Even if she hadn't discovered much about it yet and had no clue where to even begin, it was just pretty to keep in the room, and it was fascinating to look at.

She'd been busy mixing up some combinations of ground herbs to restock the pharmacy with when a rapping at the balcony door caught her attention. It was Aquila, and Syanna was shocked and overjoyed to see Ezra's eagle companion here. Did that mean Ezra was here too?! She opened the door and the avian informed her that Ezra was waiting for her at the gardens just beyond the border, and so Syanna wasted no time in hurrying out of the castle and cantering across the plains to reach her boyfriend. Arriving at the gardens, Syanna was shocked to see the glowing crystals growing on the ruins. Those were certainly new, even if the glowing flowers were no longer much of a surprise to her. It was fairly easy to pick up Ezra's familiar musk by now, grinning to herself while she followed his trail to a more secluded section of the gardens, provided privacy by the hedges that grew around this part of the gardens.

Syanna had been planning to sneak into the clearing and pouncing on her boyfriend for some immediate loving when she found herself frozen and stunned by the massive amount of glowing mushrooms all over the place. She gasped and gaped at the sight of them, spotting Ezra sitting and waiting, his handsome form bathed in the ethereal glow of the strange fungi. "Ezra!" she cried out with glee, rushing up to throw her forelegs around his neck and greet him with a series of frantic kisses. "What's all this?" She turned her emerald eyes back out over the hundreds of mushrooms, gawking at them like an amazed fanatic.

"Syanna Allurain"

Ezra wasn't kept waiting long and soon enough he saw Syanna's familiar and beautiful form slip into the clearing. A huge grin pulled across his face as he watched her shocked reaction to the surprise the clearing held. Just as he had hoped his plant obsessed girlfriend was thrilled by the little surprise find and a moment later she was rushing toward him with her forelegs thrown around his neck. He laughed and wrapped his larger limbs around her to hug her tight to him, returning her kisses happily, his tail wagging behind him. He had missed her so incredibly much and holding her now made him immediately feel better.

But first, before any loving of any kind could happen, they obviously had to address the mushrooms that filled the whole clearing with the weird glow. He chuckled and gave a little shrug when she questioned what this was, replying, "I just came to surprise you and spend some time with you, but while I was looking for a good place to wait I found this! I know how much you like mushrooms and the glowing plants and stuff, so..." He waved a paw toward all the mushrooms as he slightly reluctantly let go of her as if to say all of this was for her and to be free to explore it all.

"Ezra Adravendi"

Ezra was like a happy puppy to see her again, so giddy and full of energy. He was so damn adorable and Syanna hadn't realized just how much she'd missed him until this moment. It was easy to lose herself in her studies and work for days on end, but actually having her big dopey dire wolf hold her again made her acutely aware of what she was missing in her daily life. He explained how he'd just happened upon the mushrooms while coming to see her and all of this was just a happy circumstance. Syanna gave a thoughtful hum, but gave his neck an affectionate nuzzle all the same. "You know me so well." She giggled, then went to go investigate the mushrooms—only to remain immobilized by Ezra's strong unyielding forelegs wrapped around her. "Ezra, you're gonna have to let me go to look at them, y'know." Syanna rolled her eyes and managed to squirm her way out of his grasp, sliding across the ground with practiced grace while she sauntered closer to inspect the mushrooms.

Up close, Syanna realized that she had never seen these sorts of mushrooms before. Unlike the flowers and plants that were just regular plants that glowed, these mushrooms were an entirely different species of fungi, wholly unique and new to the healer. They almost looked like parasols or toadstools, but with enough differences that they couldn't exactly be either. Absolutely every single one glowed with that uniform bluish glow. Syanna quietly wondered if they were poisonous, or medicinal, or if they had any sorts of recreational effects. Dammit, she wished she had a test subject to try them out on! She wasn't willing to ingest one herself, and she sure as hell wasn't going to have Ezra eat one in case they were poisonous.

"I wonder what they do?" Syanna mused out loud, poking a sizable one with careful digits. Carefully, Syanna began to dig the mushroom out, doing her best to uproot the glowing fungus without breaking its stalk or disturbing it too much. Once she'd managed to extract the shroom, Syanna handled it with delicate paws, studying it from all sides. "Think Artorias will be pissed if I start trying to grow these in the castle for studying?" she asked with a roguish grin turned toward Ezra.

"Syanna Allurain"

He hung on to Syanna as long as he could, giving her a perfectly innocent grin as she reminded him that he'd have to let her go so she could look at them. "Fiiiiine," he said with a chuckle as he loosened his grip enough for her to escape and watched her go as she went over to one of the glowing mushrooms. He was always happy to see her in her element enjoying what she loved. The way her face lit up and how her eyes studied things was as attractive to him as her physical beauty and the more time they spent together the more he realized he loved her personality more and more. It might have been her beauty and her figure and her stunning eyes that had caught his attention to begin with, but her personality and her smarts made him absolutely obsessed with her.

He was too busy watching her with a silly grin on his face to initially hear her rhetorical question about what the mushrooms did and he blinked as he refocused himself in the real world. It was a good thing she wasn't actually waiting for a response from him. He got up and stepped closer to where she was working, watching as she carefully dug up the mushroom so she could lift it up and examine it from all angles. He laughed and returned Syanna's grin as she posed the question of what Art might think if she started growing them in the castle. "I think you should exclusively grow them in the castle... preferably right outside Art's bedroom door," he replied with a mischievous grin, chuckling as he reached over to tap one of the other mushrooms lightly with his paw.

"Ezra Adravendi"

Syanna couldn't resist an airy laugh when Ezra suggested she plant a patch of the mushrooms right outside of Artorias' door, shooting her boyfriend a wry smirk. "Look, just because you won't have to deal with the consequences doesn't mean you're allowed to give me terrible advice," she remarked, swatting her paw at his nose when he came closer. She peered down at the mushroom once more, studying it closely. She couldn't even tell if it was a hybrid of some other fungi, it was that distinct and unique. How were all of these plants starting to glow like this? Was the glow on the trees and flowers a byproduct of the mushrooms sprouting? Were the plants somehow infected by the fungi, or was something else causing everything to glow like this?

And still, Syanna couldn't stop wondering just what these mushrooms did. If they were going to be a beneficial medicine of some sort, she needed to know. There were so many of them, and the Hallows could really benefit from such a bountiful harvest! But... what if they were dangerous somehow? Well, only one way to find out, she supposed. Glancing back up at Ezra, she gave him a little daring grin that betrayed her intentions while her emerald eyes held his baby blues, watching how the glow reflected in those pretty pools of sky. Then, she slowly brought the mushroom to her muzzle and bit off a small portion, chewing it and sampling it for flavor before swallowing it down. "If I start dying, I need you to find some elderberry bushes and bring me a root of it." She gave her boyfriend a wink and a giggle, all while silently praying she hadn't just poisoned herself in front of him.

"Syanna Allurain"

Ezra

As you reach out to give the mushroom a light tap, your paw comes away with a zap of electrical energy. The fur between your paw pad sticks out straight, and smells a little singed. Luckily it wasn't too painful, merely.. uncomfortable and concerning.

Syanna

After you swallow your tiny nibble of mushroom an odd feeling - almost like you've consumed fog - begins to grow in your mouth. With your next exhale, small glowing spores are blown out with your breath. That's weird…

Maybe you shouldn't have done that...

Ezra tapped the mushroom and immediately was greeted with what basically felt like really strong static electricity. It zapped his paw and make him jerk it back with a wince and when he looked down at his paw he saw that the russet and white fur between his speckled toe pads were all standing on end like his paw had been electrically charged. He frowned down at the mushroom and was about to warn Syanna about it, but when he looked up at her she seemed to be holding one just fine. He blinked with surprise and glanced between her and the mushroom he had touched with confusion. Maybe the mushrooms had different effects on certain wolves? Or maybe the different types did different things? It was hard to tell and he certainly wasn't the right one to be making that judgement.

When his eyes met Syanna's again he saw the mischievous look on her face that worried him and as soon as he saw the mushroom moving toward her muzzle he knew exactly what she was up to. "Uhhhh, Syanna, I don't-" he began to try and stop her, but it was too late and he watched her take a little bite of the glowing fungus. He sighed with a resigned shake of his head and chuckled as she told him he'd have to find some elderberry bushes for her if something went wrong. "What makes you think I know what an elderberry bush looks like?" he questioned exasperatedly. "Nope, I'm gonna have to just sling you over my back and race you back to the castle."

"Ezra Adravendi"

It Continues for Ezra...

Huh? It doesn't seem like anything happened... Well, maybe that's for the best...

Ezra looked at her the moment before her teeth sank into the glowing blue mushroom. He tried to stop her and convince her that this was a bad idea, but it was far too late. Syanna chewed on the mushroom piece in her mouth, surprised by the sweetness of it on her tongue. Then all of a sudden, a chalky, almost thick aftertaste began to fill her mouth. She grimaced, her lungs aching as the sensation seeped down her throat, causing her to cough. When she did, a cloud of blue spores erupted from her mouth as if seeing her breath fogging on a cold day, except these sparkled and shimmered with that ethereal blue glow. She furrowed her brow and stuck out her tongue, brushing a paw across it to try to cleanse it of that nasty aftertaste. Well, at least she wasn't dying yet.

"We really need to get you some basic triage lessons, babe," she said with a sardonic glance to her dopey boyfriend. "Some poisons can work as quickly as a few minutes after ingesting. Even if you ran as fast as you could, you'd still only be bringing my corpse back to the castle." Fortunately, that didn't seem to be the case this time, as minutes slipped by without any adverse side effects. She still didn't know exactly what the mushrooms did, since she didn't feel any different, so she decided to leave them alone for now. No sense in fucking with things you didn't fully understand, right? The last thing she wanted to do was experiment on her pack mates and wind up accidentally killing one of them.

"Syanna Allurain"

Firefly Shoppe- Syanna

A firefly draws your attention nearby to reveal a cloaked figure with a small wooden table in front of him. On the table lay three items, with their prices beside them. "Choose wisely, and only choose one," the figure says. "If you can afford it, that is." Perhaps he accepts cŕ̷̕y̵̍͊stals and mushrö̸́̀ō̴̉ms... or perhaps its worth bargaining for something greater...


Inventory:

• Opaque Sack of Mushrooms/Crystals- 1 /
  Running out of event currency and not sure what else to spend it on? Gamble on this mysterious pouch and potentially find more mushrooms/crystals within it! Or perhaps something else!
  
• Small Unfleshed Thought- 2 /
  This bottle contains whispers of what has passed, what is passing, and what has yet to pass. It looks kinda like a firefly…
  
• Glittering Concoction- 2 /
  Smells like mushrooms, glitters like crystals.
  

No sooner had she finished chiding Ezra's lack of basic knowledge of poisons and remedies, a lone blue firefly buzzed right past her nose. Brilliant emerald eyes blinked in surprise and she stumbled back from the surprise of the lightning bug, following its movements to the hooded figure behind a shop stall. Where had he come from? He hadn't been there a moment ago... had he? She couldn't recall now. Was the mushroom causing her to hallucinate? Fuck, tonight was about to get weird... Swallowing back the thrill of nervousness that rose up her throat, Syanna stepped up to the cloaked figure whose glowing eyes seemed to pierce through her very soul. He bid she choose one item from his selection—if she could afford it.

Glancing down to the wares the entity had laid out on its stall, Syanna realized this was a store of sorts. Three items lay before her: a sack and two bottles. Beside each item sat a crude paper card denoting the item's price. At first, Syanna didn't understand what she was looking at, but the more she stared, the more she began to understand. Her mouth made a little O shape as she produced the mushrooms and crystals she had been gathering since the start of the strangeness. Were these currency to the entity? "Good evening, uh... sir?" she greeted the entity, not entirely sure what pronouns a paranormal being used for itself. Did creatures of other realms require pronouns? All three items appeared tempting, but her eyes kept getting drawn back to the glittering concoction at the end of the row. It was so beautiful, she couldn't take her eyes off of it.

Setting two mushrooms down on the table and sliding them toward the entity, Syanna's dainty paw moved to pick up the vial of shimmering liquid. "I'd like this, please," she said, looking up into those glowing eyes with curiosity. "Thank you. Uhm... what does it do?" Probably a foolish thing to buy something sight unseen, but she'd wanted the beautiful potion.

"Syanna Alluráin"

As her mate, Ezra may enter her threads not marked as Private.
____________________

Firefly Shoppe- Syanna

The wolf chose her item and paid, asking what the item did. The figure stood for a while before speaking, "It will let you change from one path to another, if you so decide." With those words, he vanished, leaving the woman to her potion.


You gain:

• Glittering Concoction- Smells like ̸̾͌m̴͑̋û̸́s̵̀͒h̸̏̒r̶̍͒o̷̢͊o̷͊̀ṁ̴̃s, glitters like ̶̿͘c̶͌̕r̴̔̉y̷̅͋š̵̾tals.
  

You lose:

• Currency (x2)- Used in Firefly's Shoppe, and perhaps elsewhere...