A Lot of Whispering

Once the mushroom managed to get itself standing up again, it started shuffling forward, without tripping this time.

It decided to head in the direction it was initially looking when it first woke up.

As it headed in that direction, some effort has to be made to get across certain obstacles, one of them being a tree root, which at first the miniature mushroom tried to climb over, but failed miserably, so instead, it tried something it never had before… jumping.

It put its strength where its body was meeting the ground, and managed to squat(yes, a mushroom can squat, deal with it), and, with all its might, it jumped.

It successfully managed to get over the tree's root, it was happy in its heart as the root itself was somewhere above 2 times its size, but then, it realized something.

"How am I going to land?"

It had the idea to jump, but never even thought of how it's gonna land.

The soon to be splat-mushroom started to panic, and before it hit the ground, it closed its eyes out of fear, but then, when it opened its eyes again once it was still, it found itself perfectly on the ground, unharmed.

"I landed it… I LANDED IT! YES!"

The little one was overjoyed in managing to get across its first hurdle unscathed, and why shouldn't it?

This is a being that woke up only half a day ago, it hasn't even discovered other living beings, much less any problems concerning its life, so this was the biggest(and frankly, its easiest) hurdle it has met and overcome, but this wouldn't in the slightest compare to the problems it'll face in the future.

There was also something else, this was the first time it has shown a hint of its personality, which, it didn't even have the foggiest clue on what the word itself was, much less its definition.

Anyhow, after gazing back at the tree root for a moment to appreciate its success a moment further, it turned and continued its path.

If it had stayed in a straight path, it would've actually avoided any more obstacles for awhile, but every time the shroom saw a tree root, it couldn't help but alter its path, just so it can experience jumping over it again, this time, with its eyes open.

It had completely forgotten to stay on its previous decided course, which was towards the northeast.

With it following a new direction, directly towards the east, fate started to do its work.

•••

As it continued to play like this while the sun sets, one would think it would get tired eventually, but nope, it continued endlessly, and soon, it was able to do this without worry, ironically, even with its eyes closed, from jump to landing…

But this led it to a new discovery.

It found a series of tree roots, and of course, the little shroom hadn't grown bored of jumping across them yet, so without even thinking or seeing where the gaps between the tree roots began and end, or realizing that it can't even see the gaps due to the shroom's glowing not reaching far enough to tell, it started jumping, 1 jump across, 2 jumps across, 3 across, 4…

"Annnnd 5! Done!"

It then looked behind to gratify this moment even more, but that's when the little one realized what it has just done, it didn't even know where or even if there were gaps between the roots, yet it felt no doubt whatsoever and that there wasn't a need to worry.

"Why did I feel so secure, so sure that I knew where to go and land?"

The shroom was curious as to why it felt so sure, when it jumped, it knew where to land, that knowledge shouldn't come out of nowhere, right?

So, it concentrated on that feeling of secureness to try and find an answer and sure enough, it found what it was looking for...

Sort of.

"What the..!?"

In its vision, a partial part of the last tree root it jumped over was beginning to look transparent, but what the mushroom saw in them surprised it.

"Those tiny green balls of energy!?"

It was those very same balls of energy that it felt in itself in the tree's root, although, it was a lot less; the majority of the vessel was empty space, with the green orbs here and there, sometimes alone, or sometimes in small groups.

"So this energy exists in these things too?"

One must understand that this little mushroom has existed for less than a day with nothing to help guide its way, it didn't know what trees were, it didn't even know if itself was considered 'alive', 'living', luckily, it won't remain like that for much longer.

Its interest was piqued and the shroom wanted to know more, so it focused on this feeling even more.

Suddenly, its vision went completely dark, it was immediately shocked and was afraid to why it lost its vision, but that was when it noticed the orbs from the tree's root were still there...

From that point, everything else slowly revealed itself, from the roots to the tree trunks and leaves, to the grass and the very dirt itself, the shape and figure of everything was exposed, shaded in vibrant green, contrasting well with enveloping darkness, the orbs of life energy filled everything with varying amounts, even the air was filled with them as they flowed through the air freely, some like streams heading in various directions for reasons unknown, some simply floating aimlessly, this completed the mystifying sight.

It even felt like all the orbs was responding back to the mushroom, acknowledging that all of it was seen by the small glowing mushroom and that all of it was at the little one's disposal.

It was then the shroom realized it WAS being responded to, it was so stunned it almost stopped whatever it was doing, so it immediately started to calm down, and once it was stable, it tried to communicate back to whatever was whispering to him.

"Who in the heck are you, or yous?"

For the little shroom, it felt like whoever is 'talking' to him is a single person but at the same time, multiple people.

After hearing this 'collective consciousness' murmur for a long time, it was able to understand, well, more like guess, what it was saying, the mushroom couldn't make full sense of its 'whispers'.

"So you all are basically a gathering of minds made up of all the energy in the area, and the only reason you have a… 'cons-cious-ness', is that the right word?"

Another short and faint mumble…

"Yes…? Thank you, so… you're only a 'consciousness' because of your gathered existence and because you all are energy that has existed...forever, because you are… you all, are energy that never really disappears."

Once again, another imperceptible mutter…

"Sorry! I'll refer to you as a group… okay, so, to summarize, you all are a consciousness formed from being temporarily put together by…me, as each of you alone are a collection of memories, so, together, you form a consciousnesses filled with millennia upon millennia of memories, and you all want to help me?

Another whisper…

"Really?! Thank you so much, I was even starting to think I was alone in the world… wherever I am."

The consciousness was surprised to hear that, so it immediately answered the short one's question.

"What?! There are billions of people! Wait, how many is that?"

Once it heard this, it was stupefied, it knew this one knows very little, but not that little, it immediately asked a question.

"How old am I? I don't know, how do I explain it?"

Just like that, the hive-mind of memories taught him how time works, and a little bit about numbers; that's when it did something special, all the energy in the area left its corresponding places and grouped together to form a hand to help explain for the little one, and after nearly an hour, the little shroom finally grasped it, thankfully, the little mushroom seemed like it was the curious learner type, else it would have taken much longer than just an hour.

"Okay, if that's how it works, I would say… half a day old? I think...?"

The consciousness was dumbfounded once again, for a being to come into existence in less than a day and already have an adult mind capable of complicated thoughts and learning wasn't normal, then again, throughout all of its memories, it doesn't have a single one on what this little mushroom is.

"Something new…", it murmured in its surreal, frayed voice.

"What was that?", the little mushroom asked.

"Nothing, nothing."

The little one didn't even notice the collected consciousnesses was actually talking this time as it still sounded like whispers overlapping with one another.

It was then it decided on a course of action; it knew it would take way too much time to teach this little young one about the world, so it thought of an alternate method.

"I'm going to consolidate all of my information into you, but, be aware the most of the information that I have is incomplete, while I have most of the information on the history of this world in the local area and of its nature, I still have gaps to what I know, like say stuff about enclosed events, complicated emotions or common etiquette, most of my energy that holds my memories has always been a part of nature, be it as a flower, a bee, and more… so I don't know much about the outside world, full of humans, other races, and technologies… at most, I'm a book full of answers to what, how, and why questions about nature thanks to existing AS them.

I have very few memories about the races culture and very existence, what's even worst, all of them are outdated, but they should still have some relation to today's era."

"I'm sorry, what? Emotions? Culture? History? Etiquette? I didn't undestand any of that… can you say it again?"

Another sound was made, this time, it had an overlapping echo, it sounded like…someone facepalming themselves?

"I'm going to put a lot of information into your head by connecting my life energy to the life energy in your body, most of it is about nature and a tid-bit of history while I lack info about the races, their cultures & common etiquette's, technologies etc, I am also putting the information from the orbs of life energy currently in your body into your mind as well."

"Oh, ok… WAIT WHAT?!"

It wasn't even given a second further to refuse or even ask as the collected group of green orbs immediately rushed at the mushroom like a conscious stream of water, and covered its entire body, forming a small ball around the little shroom, and the whispering became audible and constant as the orbs glow intermittently dimmed, but then grew stronger, every time getting brighter and brighter.

It remained like this for an unknown amount of time.

•••

It was now nighttime and back in the regular physical plain, and the little one was still in the same spot it landed in, with a little patch of grass starting to cover up to its eyes, but that isn't the takeaway here.

If one where to see this little mushroom and its surroundings, they would be shocked, the entire area was glowing a low tone of green from the little one, while it looked like green pulses were being released by the mushroom into the surroundings but in reverse, the pulses were focusing into the little mushroom, with it shining brighter for a second every time the pulse focused into it.

But the part that was most strange was while its eyes were gone, there was something else there, replacing it, it was two green outlines of…

A 4-sided star?