Worm on a string x reader

Chapter 5

"Trilo, do you suppose we'll be there soon?" You ask, trailing behind Trilosophus as he follows the unkempt trail ahead. 

"It will be a while longer, Y/N. We're over halfway there, so do not fret." He turns to look behind you two, contemplating something behind his eyes that you cannot read. "Y/N, dear, please stand in front of me for the rest of this. I will guide you as needed." He guides you ahead of him, his hand resting on the middle of your humerus.

You heat up at the contact. It's been so long since you've been touched by a living being, or at least it feels like it. 

The forest got darker as the trees grew thicker here, but all you can think about is his fuzzy, worm hand on your back, guiding you.

"So, Y/N, I will warn you-- the person we are going to be meeting, they can be a lot." 

"That's alright, Trilo." You chuckled. "Everything is a lot right now, so how bad could they be?"

"I suppose that's true, dear Y/N. Just keep an open mind." 

"I will. Do you have fungi around here?"

"Yes, we do. It's usually colorful and bioluminescent, most can be used medicinally or as dye, but some are rather toxic. I am not familiar with the fungi from where you are from, but here the mycelium is of great importance to the forest."

"It is back there too." You murmur, confused about how you know this.

"Why do you ask?"

"I'm... Not sure, Trilo." Your feeling of balance seems to tilt, but Trilo's hand stays steady on your back. The front of your head aches, like a migraine with sinus pressure.

You find yourself back in the depths of your mind, everything like fog. You know you know things, they're on the tip of your tongue, but still, you cannot speak them. 

"Y/N, we're here. Just through this gate." Trilo murmurs softly, his wormy nose next to your ear.

You blink and realize in the dull light that there is indeed a gate in front of you, with beautiful, bioluminescent lichen growing on it, like you would see fluffy dust lichen grow. You touch the latch, it is lukewarm, just like the climate. Synthetic.

The small garden does not contain much, besides the small ground cover plants that reside on the (now more shallow) forest floor. They arrange in hues of pink, yellow and blue, growing like sphagnum mosses. A path darts through them, green stones with veins of white, black or grey running through them. 

Trilo lets his hand fall from your back, shutting the gate behind you and returning to your side. "Come, they're just through here."

Your hand brushes Trilo's fuzzy, synthetic, oddly muscular hand. You recoil, but he doesn't seem to notice, which is odd, because you'd expect his fur would be sensitive. 

You look away to meet the side of a house with a little door knocker in the shape of a.. cat? Trilo looks to you expectantly.

"Go on," he coaxes, as you reach for the knocker, tapping it firmly twice.

You hear nothing for a few moments, but then a thud, followed by some sort of scuffle. A quick shout of "COMING" comes from inside, before the door is opened by what looks to be a very exhausted green worm, wearing glasses? Do worms need glasses? 

"Apologies, I don't often visitors--" He jumps when he sees you, his soulless plastic eyes scanning every inch of your strange, human skin with all of its oils and such. "Oh. Trilo, you found a human." He murmurs softly, his eyes softening.

"A what?" Trilo asks, a slight tilt upward in his voice. 

"Please just come inside. The woods is the woods, is it not? My home is much different." He ushers you inside, shutting the door quickly behind you and Trilo. "Terribly sorry for the mess, friends."