355 Whisperer

Sorren gasped in shock, "Wait, really? You're just pulling my leg, right?"

"No Sorren, we can understand you! Really," Ronni reassured him. 

Sorren could not believe it! All the children were happy for him too. Vy had a wide smile on her face too. 

The next to get their red bands removed were some of the children. Once they've had the bands cut off, they tested out their abilities. Boss came to realise that he had the ability to heal. 

However at present, he only had the ability to heal minor wounds. His energy would also be drained when he attempted to use this ability. Tizzie, on the other hand, was able to levitate objects using her mind. 

She was able to levitate small objects, while larger or heavier ones would take more effort. 

"We can always hone our skills together, that way everyone can get stronger together," Vy suggested. 

With this objective completed, they decided it was time to leave the place. As they left the marble structure, Vy read through the letter again.

"Where do we go from here, Vyrena?" Maribelle asked.

"Hmm," Vy looked around before continuing, "Let me take a look from above."

She kept the letter back in her pocket before taking to her raven form. She flapped her wings and flew into the open sky, scouting the surrounding area. Based on the instructions given, she quickly spotted the key landmarks mentioned in the letter. 

As she flew down to meet back with the rest, Vy noticed an advancing group in the distance. She flew overhead to take a closer look. Much to her surprise, it was a group of human survivors. 

With her keen eye, she noticed that Mara was amongst them, along with the other humans. Some of them carried the stolen shooter weapons. The rest did not seem familiar to Vy. 

They dressed distinctively different from them. 

-Could they be survivors who've lived here for a time?- she wondered to herself. 

Vy quickly flew back down to the rest and took to her human form once more. 

"We need to go, now. There are people heading in our direction." Vy explained hastily. 

"What? Where?" Boss asked. 

"Close, they would likely reach here soon enough. Let's go, now," Vy instructed all of them. 

Together, they swiftly left the surrounding area of the marble structure. Vy took to her wolf form to lead them, using her keen sense of smell and sight to navigate them towards their destination. 

Ronni trailed behind them in his animal form. He did his best to cover up their tracks so that they would not be so easily found. 

After travelling for almost half a day, the sun was beginning to set. They made camp in a cave. While the children prepared their evening meal alongside El, the rest went out to scout the nearby area. 

It seemed like they had passed one another by. 

Ronni and Sorren covered the surrounding ground area. Sorren came to realise that his abilities enabled him to control plant life. But it was not just any type of plant life. His ability stemmed from mushrooms and fungi. 

There were advantages to this, as Sorren came to realise. The funghi acted like one big network, wherever they grew, they communicated with one another. Through them, he could see what was around them.

He was able to decipher which ones were safe to eat, which one contained lethal poison. Sorren was still figuring out the extent of his abilities but he was amazed by the abilities he possessed. Ronni grinned, seeing how well Sorren was adapting. 

"How does it feel, Mushroom boy?" Ronni teased. 

"Mushroom boy? I prefer Mushroom Man," Sorren joked.

Ronni laughed, putting more thought into his joke, "Oooh how about the Mushroom Whisper?"

Sorren lit up, "That is a good one, I like that."

"So, Shroom Whisperer, find anything good?" 

Sorren grinned as he took a deep breath in, locating what he was looking for. 

"We are going to have mushroom soup-"

"Bo-ring, what else?"

"-and meat enough for everyone."

About an hour or so later, the two returned to camp with bundles of mushrooms and a freshly slaughtered deer. All the children were in awe of the deer they had caught. Sorren placed it down carefully as they crowded around to take a closer look. 

Even El was impressed by it. It had been a long time since she had seen this much meat. Vy returned soon after just as they had begun cooking. She had found some garnishes that would add to the flavour of their food. 

She too was impressed by the deer they had hunted. 

"If only we had some way to cure the meat, so that it would last longer," she remarked as she watched them skin the deer. 

Everyone helped out however they could with the cooking process. Vy provided extra firepower when required. When the fragrant aromas perfumed their surroundings, everyone started salivating. 

"The food is ready!" Maribelle declared. 

All of them quickly gathered by the pot, ready to have a taste. Vy sat on the side, letting the children have theirs first before jumping in to join the queue. Everyone was raving about how good the food was. 

"These mushrooms are really good! What are they anyway?" Jos asked out of curiosity. 

Sorren listed down the list of mushrooms he had found, including one that had been buried in the ground. Vy found the taste of the soup to be familiar, something she had tried before in the distant past. 

The fragrance is uncanny, but she just could not quite recall what it was. 

"So the fragrance we are smelling is from this one particular mushroom?" Jos asked. 

Sorren nodded, "It would seem so, having it in the soup was enough to bring out its fragrance."

He scooped out the funghi to show the rest of them. It had been shaved into thin slices before being added in. 

"Is it black truffle?" Vy lit up when she finally found the answer she was looking for. 

"Ah yes, I believe that is what it was called," Sorren replied. 

Something about the fungi triggered her memories. As Vy stared blankly into the distance while she continued to eat her bowl of soup, her mind wondered what it meant to her.