Nyla pushed her ginger fringe out of her eyes and pushed up her glasses, squinting though the woodlands. It was a cold and crisp day, overcast but still quite bright. She trudged along a small trail, feeling the leaves crunch under her boots. She glanced to the left and stopped suddenly. In the shade of a large tree, a cluster of bright red mushrooms were popping out through the grass. Excellent! She hadn’t actually expected to find any this early in the season. These were pretty common variety, but really pretty to look at and photograph.
She pulled out her camera and set up quickly, squatting in the undergrowth. The mushrooms really presented themselves quite prettily. She spent quite a long time capturing the pretty woodland scene from different angles, even grabbing out her macro lens at one point. After a half hour she sat back and sighed. Good. She though, these will be a nice start to the flora set I have to hand in for class at the end of the year. She packed up again quickly and stood, wiping some grass and soil from her long, dark brown skirt.
Ambling further along the path, she spotted a few squirrels chasing each other in the tress. Cute as they were, she was not happy with the small creatures right now, they had been digging up the onions and garlic from her garden. She frowned at them and wondered if the hot pepper she had sprinkled on the garden bed that morning was deterring them at all. Blowing out a big breath, she decided to turn around and head home to edit the photos she had just taken. It was getting chilly and there were some particularly dark clouds on the horizon. She turned and walked briskly back the way she had come. Next week she would try again.
The woods went still as her footsteps faded. The mushrooms sat still and vibrant, peeking out from under the tree. Slowly, a tiny figure unfolded itself from behind the toadstool it had been hiding behind. Dressed in autumn colours the tiny being blended quite well into the landscape. Stretching arms and legs out and glancing around, the gnome like creature wondered if the giant was perhaps a little simple. Who sits and examines mushrooms for so long? Shaking some life back into her legs, she set off for the little entrance to her home set in the roots of the large tree. She had collected quite a lot of food already that morning, but with the sudden appearance of the giant girl, she was now late. Tsking to herself, she lowered herself into the ground, through a little hatched door.
