Hen of the wood

Once upon a time, about ten thousand years ago, the earth was covered with giant edible and non edible mushrooms who communicated within themselves in a language that only they understood.

They were the life of Earth who helped other plants grow by supplying them with nutrients. One day, the Edibles held a meeting and in that meeting a consensus was reached that mother Earth gave them creatures greater than they and of course mother Earth agreed and then humans were created.

The edibles loved the new creatures so much while the non-edibles hated them with passion and never let the new creatures(human) touch them or play around them but the edibles gave themselves freely as the humans used them more often as umbrellas.

One day, the humans figured the hen of the wood was so good for a pot of soup and began consuming most of them which in turn caused the innocent edibles to go into hiding because they were now scared of losing their lineage and history on Earth. They ran into the deepest part of the woods where humans couldn't trespass and spoke more in whispers while the non-edibles laughed at them not knowing that the humans were coming for them too. Since they weren't good enough for consumption, the humans removed them from the earth and threw them far away into a dark abyss (garbage can).

One by one they were decreasing in number and so they decided to go into hiding too. They were now scarce and no longer wanted to associate with humans which of course made them hide in the bushes, woods or close to swampy areas where humans visited irregularly.

Little did they know that when the humans need them, they'll go in search of them but then at least they were happy the humans only showed up once in a while and that once in a while took me to the bushes yesterday though not to find these hiding fungus but unfortunately some were out in my way chatting and I grabbed em so here's my story;

---

At the break of dawn I stepped out for a walk in the wet bushes and there I found these "hen of the wood" in my way looking so good and fresh. Without hesitation, I welcomed them into my caring hands. Hehe

This one here, I'm not so familiar with its name. It was already rotted and dry, plus it's not edible and was just for me to admire because of its reddish brown color.

How wonderful nature is by giving us edible mushrooms and the non-edibles.

The bushes were pretty wet but I was bent on finding more mushrooms so I walked further in to look for more as they really sprout when the bushes are wet. Painfully, I found this honey mushroom looking like an elf castle grown on a snag.

I was so disappointed to not have found it earlier because it was so big and of course is an edible mushroom which would have made a very nice mushroom soup had been left to grow dry and stiff.

^img

The story up there is a myth made up by me.

^{Images in this post are mine taken with my phone camera but the thumbnail which has been properly sourced.}