“Gubo, duck!” Olm’s loud voice pierced through Gubo’s haze as colossal hands burst into the beautiful, lush green forest they had spent all their days in. Massive fingers clawed through branches and leaves, scrambling to grab them and just barely missing. With every step the giants took, the earth trembled beneath them, roots groaning and stones skipping across the ground. Even the trees shook, their leaves shivering with unmistakable fear of the towering creatures their moms had warned them about. The two helpless friends tried to run, but it was too late.
Suddenly, one of the hands slammed down into Gubo, wrapping its five thick fingers tightly around the mushroom. “Run!” Gubo shrieked, sharp and desperate. Olm felt his heart drop straight to his feet and his eyes well up with salty tears. A sharp pang shot through him as another enormous hand closed around his body. He felt like he could cry long enough to water an entire forest, as his tears rained down like an angry cloud.
The giant thing’s hand was rough and cold, with skin cracked like old bark. It squeezed him tightly as he was lifted up and up and up toward the blue sky. Olm had never really seen the sky before. “It’s so… so big,” he thought, his breath catching as the forest shrank beneath him. The vastness of it made him feel impossibly small, insignificant compared to these humongous beasts that could crush worlds without noticing.
As he rose higher, he could see dark brown fluff sitting atop the creature’s head, swaying gently with each movement. Two enormous eyes stared straight at him, seeming to peer into his very mushroom soul. That’s when Olm saw Gubo again. He’d been so mesmerized by the sky and the strange hair that he had almost forgotten. Reality snapped back into place as Olm was dragged closer to the terrifying face of the creature, its breath warm and heavy, and he realized this nightmare was far from over.
Just as Olm was preparing to be eaten or squished, he spotted his parents in the distance along with the entire village, all being plucked up from the ground and chucked into pouches on the beast’s back. The mushrooms screamed and cried with all their might, as helpless fungi called from the damp and lush floor that they once called home. Terror and fear ran through Olm like a sudden bolt of lightning. Suddenly, with an ear-piercing shriek, the beasts screamed a horrible, horrible scream that shook the leaves.
Olm tumbled into the rough brown pack on the back of the monsters. That’s when he found Gubo lying flat on his cap inside the woven basket. The two friends flipped and turned as the beast ran at full speed; they bounced from side to side in the pouch for a while. But then it stopped, and the big creatures seemed to have slowed down. Olm and Gubo remained stuck in that pouch for a long time. Soon night fell and the sky grew dark. They heard the chirping of crickets and the rush of the wind as the beast walked and walked. As the two friends were disconnected from the world, Olm wondered if he would ever go back to his beloved village.
The giant creature had been quiet for a very long time, and it startled the two friends when they spoke. Then they heard a sharp creaking sound that engulfed them in silent darkness. But that didn’t stay true for long, as with a light click, the place lit up with brightness. Olm shielded his eye from the blinding light. Once his little eye adjusted to the brightness, he looked around. However, Olm couldn’t see anything but the dry straw roof that separated them from the wilderness. Meanwhile, Gubo was busy cowering in a corner of the basket, crying.
Just as Olm was making his way to Gubo, the basket was flung around and they flew through the air. Once again, the two friends were tossed around in the crate, utterly helpless. Then, with a bang, it all stopped, and Olm watched Gubo as he slowly slid down from one side of the bag. Gubo groaned and continued to cry once he came in contact with the ground again. But he didn’t cry for much longer, because that’s when they heard it.
The light whispers and murmurs of other mushrooms! They were alive! With this sudden jolt of hope, Olm and Gubo leaped up and pressed their nonexistent ears against the woven surface of the beast’s bag. Although the voices weren’t recognizable, it gave Olm and Gubo enough hope to try and escape.
They tried and tried to climb out but just couldn’t; their heavy mushroom caps dragged them down every time they tried to clamber up and out of their prison cell. “Olm, we’ve tried this a hundred times and nothing has worked!” whined Gubo as he scanned the basket, looking up and down, up and down. That was it! If they couldn’t get out from the top, they had to get out from the bottom. The two friends immediately searched the bottom of the crate. That’s when they found a small hole, almost an inch wide. Gubo went first, and his small head slid through like a charm. However, it was a different story for Olm; his cap wouldn’t fit no matter how hard they tried. He felt his head squish and his back ache as Gubo tried with all his might to pull his best friend out. “Go on without me,” cried Olm, squeaking from the other side of the basket. “Gubo, get our parents and esca—”
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the basket was knocked over with brutal force. The impact sent Olm and Gubo flying away. They eventually hit something soft and fluffy; just the slight touch of it made Olm want to go into a deep, deep sleep—a sleep with a dream where none of this chaos and adventure had ever happened. But his daydreaming was shortly interrupted by a sharp hiss, which was followed by a devilish “meow.” “Run!” screamed Gubo as he took off, fast as the wind. Olm slid down the feline’s furry back and sprinted after Gubo. They ran past jars and cups, and Olm realized just how high up they were from the ground. The elevated platform was made of wood and decorated with all sorts of things. They finally found shelter from the furious feline behind an old dusty box.
They waited it out until the cat marched its way back, spun in a circle, and lay back down again. Olm sniffed the air only to find a gruesome smell, a smell of corpses and rotten food. Gubo gagged as he climbed up the box. Eerie fog filled the air as they reached the top, and the horrid smell got worse. They pushed up the lid with all their might, but the lid flung up before they could react, and they tumbled in. “Ugh. Why does this always…” Halfway through his sentence, Olm stopped dead in his tracks, frozen with fear. He realized what the awful smell was from. In the heavy fog, Olm and Gubo stood surrounded by shriveled-up dead bodies of their fellow mushrooms.