Autumn was well and truly upon them now. It was cold and cloudy, if not raining, most days. Grezig did not mind the weather, but she did notice that it caused her some sluggishness in the mornings. She had to push herself up and out into the world some days, when all she really wanted to do was sleep in the somewhat warmer confines of the Door. She was up one cloudy morning, taking a brisk patrol of the area to try and warm up her limbs, when she came across an old rotted log. She stopped her jog and came closer to the log, inspecting if with her eyes as well as her nose. 

It was a medium-sized log, she supposed, and there was a strange slippery, sweat-like smell coming from inside it. She was cautious, making sure there were no animals nesting inside, ready to bite her face off lest she get too close. But there was nothing living inside the log, at least, nothing furry. Curiously, she pushed her head into the opening, trying to see what was causing the strange smell. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she finally saw what it was. Mushrooms!

As if alive, they seemed to react to her presence, puffing bright orange spores into the air, which were immediately stopped by the log surrounding them and went… the only place they could go: Grezig’s face! She quickly tried to back out of the log, but found that somehow her head was stuck! Gods, how had she gotten into this situation? How could she have been stupid enough to get her head stuck in a log? A couple of the spores entered her nostrils, and she let out a huge sneeze. “Achoo!”

After her sneeze, Grezig could hear pawsteps approaching. Her whole body grew hot with embarrassment at the idea of anyone seeing her with her head stuck in a log. —Oh, of course would be Kavik! Of all the wolves. Grezig took a deep breath with the intent to sigh, but she just ended up inhaling more spores, and coughed heavily. Then she sneezed again. Eventually, feeling stupider by the minute, she caught her breath again and said, “Yes, I’m stuck!” She began frantically trying to pull her head out of the log, but it was lodged tightly. How the hell had she gotten her head in here in the first place if it was so hard to get it out?

Then another wolf showed up to witness her mortifying situation. Oh, goodie! “Just—just get me out of here, Kavik!” she pleaded, a rare thing for Grezig to be doing. “Grab me by the scruff or something! But be careful! These mushroom spores are—are—achoo!—they make you sneeze!”

Between the two of them, Kavik and Ruenna managed to tear the log open enough for Grezig to quickly pull her head out, sneezing multiple times as she did so. She did not know it, but her entire face was covered in orange spores. Snot clung to her nostrils and she quickly ducked down and wiped her nose on the grass, hoping the worst of the sneezing was over. She groaned, and then turned to face the two of them. “Thank you. I was afraid I’d be stuck in there, sneezing forever—

But she didn’t have long to sit and thank her rescuers. Like something angry, the mushroom spores were pouring out of the now much wider hole in the log. Grezig turned and stared at them as they caught in the wind and flew straight for them, her eyes wide in horror. “Run!” she cried, not wanting to have the spores stuck up her nose for the rest of her life. Without waiting, she ran off through the trees, hoping the other two were following.

Finally, the three of them seemed far enough away from the orange spores, so Grezig slowed down. She was panting from her run, and turned back to Kavik and Ruenna to see how they were doing. That was when she saw Ruenna’s body clearly for the first time. She stifled the laugh that wanted to come up and said, “Ruenna, you’re… you may want to bathe in the river. You are covered in spores.” She turned to Kavik and looked him over. “You, somehow, came away without many, but you still have some on you.” Grezig realized then that her head had been closest of all to the mushrooms and a look of horror flashed on her face. “How—How do I look?”