The Turf War Twisted

Sike! There's More at the Cave of Contraptions

Grian started walking, looking back at Bdubs and shrugging. Bdubs gave him a sad smile and watched as he walked off. Curious, Bdubs squinted his eyes, looking closer at Grian. "I could've sworn he had mushrooms growing out of his head a few days ago..." he whispered to himself, tilting his head with confusion. "What happened...?"

When Zedaph and Grian had arrived in the area Scar was, he was lying on a bed, staring up at the ceiling. He was sprawled out, seeming much more calm than before. Though, when he saw Grian he sat up quickly, spreading his arms out wide with excitement. "Yay! Grian! Just the boyfriend I needed!"

This made Grian pause, stop his walking, his moving. "Boyfriend? When did we decide that?" Grian asked, putting a hand up to his face. It was suddenly so warm and flushing red, so he tried to cover it up.

"Ughhhh!" he groaned as he flopped himself back on the bed like a disgruntled toddler. "We made out in the middle of the forest! I thought that like- automatically meant we're dating."

Grian chuckled and Zedaph did so as well, just quieter. He found it more amusing than weird. Although, a lot of weird things seemed normal to Zedaph. "I mean... I'm not opposed to the idea," Grian said with a shrug, continuing his walk over to Scar. Once he'd gotten close enough, Scar wrapped him in a tight, unexpected hug.

They both released from it, both blushing messes. Scar looked just as goofy as ever, but even more so with how delirious he was. "Didn't you used to have head mushrooms? Or am I just crazy?" Scar asked.

Looking up at his head through his eyebrows, Grian shrugged. "Well, I can't see on top of my head, but I thought I still did. Also, you are crazy right now." He brushed his hand across his head and on the side of his face, feeling that everything felt in order again. At that point, it was strange for it to feel so normal, and he squinted his eyes with confusion.

"Head mushrooms?" Zedaph questioned, putting a hand up to his chin.

"Yeah. Some mushrooms started growing out of my head and face. Pretty painful, but I never figured out what the cause was. I'm not sure how they could've just... gone away," Grian replied, shrugging his shoulders. He seemed to have a million questions about everything that's happening, with him and with Scar.

"Here, uhh, sit down on the bed next to Scar for a moment. I need to take a look at your head if you're okay with that." Grian obeyed, sitting down as requested and dipping his head towards Zedaph. Zedaph shuffled through his fluffy, golden brown hair, looking thoroughly at his scalp. It felt strange to Grian to just let someone so close, but he trusted Zedaph enough and knew there was a reason for his madness. "That does make sense," Zedaph said, nodding his head and stepping back from Grian.

"How does anything relating to mushrooms growing from my head make sense?" Grian wondered aloud in a lighthearted tone, smiling as he looked up at Zedaph.

"Thinking about that serious injury where you basically got exploded, and seeing what's happened to you, I understand what's going on here." He paused, seeing both Grian and Scar look up at him intently. He knew that was his signal to continue on with an explanation. "Because of how severe your injuries were, I think your body was depending on a separate life source to keep you alive. And with what you told me about the base having a lot of mycelium, the spores were all in there so your body began to use it as a support to keep you alive. I think breathing it all in had made it so it was in your system, and the mushrooms started growing inside your body. I imagine to keep you alive, there are most likely mushrooms growing around your vital organs like your brain, and that's why they started to make their way out of your head. Now, it seems like they're just fusing with your skin and making itself at home."

The more explanation went on from Zedaph, the more both Scar and Grian's jaws dropped with shock. It wasn't really the explanation either of them wanted to hear, but there wasn't one they could've expected either. Grian raised his eyebrows with wide eyes. "What do you mean 'making itself at home'?! I don't want to have mushrooms in my body forever!"

"I do get that," Zedaph said in a surprisingly calm voice. "But those mushrooms have been keeping you alive for weeks. You'd have to undergo a lot of surgery to have them removed, surgery that I couldn't perform. Not alone at least. But this discovery with you does help me know what's going on with Scar."

"How?" Scar asked with wide eyes, leaning forward with curiosity.

Zedaph continued, "Well, with how your insides are partially mushroom, it seems like Scar got mushroom poisoning from you."

"He what?!" Grian nearly yelled. This new information shocked Grian even more. He'd poisoned Scar without even knowing it, and he didn't know how bad mushroom poisoning was. All he knew was that it was bad enough for Scar to be delirious and have serious stomach cramps. "What does that mean then?"

"Scar won't be able to make it."

Grian thought his heart might stop then and there hearing those words. He looked over at Scar, who was just looking down at the floor with a blank expression. Grian looked between him and Zedaph, breathing quickly. "You guys can't possibly be so calm about this!" he shouted, standing up from the bed. His vision felt almost blurry again, blinded by panic. "Show me your findings because there's no way Scar is dying!" He tried to look at Zedaph's clipboard, not even able to process anything written on it with how fast his heart was beating.

"I'm not calm, but there's nothing we can do at this point, Grian," Zedaph replied in a soft voice, moving the clipboard to press against his back so Grian would stop flipping through his papers. "I wish I had a cure, but this isn't stuff I've ever seen before and he's already in such severe condition. Not to be morbid, but I'm surprised Scar is still alive at this point."

"No..." Grian muttered. He faced Scar still seeing him look down sadly at the ground. He put his hands on Scar's shoulders, pressing down on them. "Please Scar, please don't leave." He collapsed into Scar, hugging him tight. Warm tears streamed down his face as he gripped onto Scar.

Zedaph mouthed a "Do you two want some alone time?" to Scar along with a couple hand gestures so Scar would understand. He nodded in response and Zedaph began to leave the room, giving him and Grian some space. Scar gave Grian some pats on the back, with a small kiss on the head. "You know I love you, right?" he asked.

Grian quickly lifted his head, his eyes red from crying. "Yes Scar, I know. I love you too."

"That's good," Scar said with a smile. He put his hand on Grian's cheek, elevating his head a bit. "Can I ask a few favours?"

"Yeah, of course, anything." His reply was brisk, genuinely willing to do anything for Scar at that moment.

"I actually have three favours to ask." Scar pulled his pocket watch out of his pocket, handing it to Grian. "Please give this to Bdubs for me. Tell him to regift it if he'd like, to someone else that deserves it. I'll tell you the second favour after you give it to him."

Grian nodded, and went out of the room without another word.

(word count: 2047 words)