The Mushroom Cure

Chapter 1 - A portal between worlds.

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. As Chad and Theo step through the entrance of the cave the floor vanishes, a rainbow light surrounds them and they feel themselves instantly falling. They are able to grasp hands at the last second and use all of their effort to focus their thoughts on the cave near their home back on Earth. For several minutes they feel as though they have been thrown into a stormy ocean with the current and waves pulling them in every direction. Finally, the turbulence lessens and their feet stand on solid ground again. The rainbow light disappears and they are surrounded by blackness. They realize that they must be deep in another cave as there is no light and they can hear a trickle of water somewhere in the darkness in front of them.

"Are you okay?" Chad is the first to speak. Feeling disoriented and confused for a moment he is concerned for his twin brother Theo. They are no longer grasping hands and Chad feels alone in the darkness.

A few feet away Theo is getting his bearings and dealing with an unsettling queasiness in his stomach. His legs feel weak and he is not sure if he can remain standing for long but he answers in the darkness, "I am okay...I think. That was quite the ride. I am not sure if I want to do that again...I need to sit down."

Chad moves towards the sound of Theo's voice with his hands outstretched in front of him. He bumps into Theo and helps him lower to the ground. "I have never felt quite like that before, I thought I let out a scream but I couldn't hear myself. For a moment I thought we weren't going to make it."

"Yeah, me too!" Theo answers in a grateful tone, relieved to have Chad beside him." I just need a few minutes, it feels like that gravity ride we used to take at the fair. It always made me feel so weak and disoriented afterwards."

Chad puts his arm around Theo's back and listening to the trickle of water looks around them. There seems to be a faint light in the direction away from the sound of the water. "That must be the entrance to the cave," Chad points behind them but realizes that his actions are futile in the darkness. "Well, I guess we have survived the wormhole back to Earth. That is the first step of this adventure complete. Andrew wasn't convinced that this gateway could handle a physical transport anymore."

Andrew was the lead scientist on the high council of Avalon and the only vote against their proposed mission to Earth. He said that the risk of using the portal was too great but the others on the council were comfortable with the risk if the brothers were willing to take it to help their family.

The two brothers know that their mission is dangerous but they are eager to visit their family on Earth. Even though direct interaction is not possible, seeing their mom, dad and sister, Angela, again is something they have been longing to do. They know that their family have all been struggling with their loss after the accident and both the brothers are sure that they can help.

Their father's cancer is also growing and approval from the high council to bring a cure from Avalon had come through. They're mission is to transplant Avalon mushrooms into the forest near their family home and guide Angela to find them. The difficult part will be getting her to trust her intuition about the safety of the mushrooms. They can gently guide her with thoughts and feelings but she won't be able to see or hear them, they are like ghosts on Earth. Angela has already been receptive to suggestions they've made while in meditation on Avalon and as a result had enrolled in Botany classes at the local college with the hopes of using plant medicine to help her father. Actually being on Earth would make their suggestions to Angela much more persuasive.

They also hope to influence some of the local loggers harvesting the forest around the portal. This would be much more difficult because there wouldn't be the personal link that they had with Angela. Chad especially is hoping to finally connect with his girlfriend, Miah, whose foster dad and uncle are both involved in forestry and just might be the connection they need to limit the harvest. They may also find Guardians from other planets that might have the right connections to influence the loggers.

The portal near their Earth home is weakening and they are lucky that the high council has approved their use of it. The network of trees around it is diminishing due to the timber harvest of the trees. The energy required to create a wormhole will soon be unattainable by the collective conscious of the local forest. If only the true value of the forest was understood.

It is the trees themselves and their psychic link with the forests on Avalon and other planets that make the journey between planets possible. It is the energy from the trees and ability of the collective consciousness of twin forests that can create a wormhole for space travel between worlds. The trees of Avalon are ancient and their wisdom and abilities deeply respected and honoured. Scientists have been studying and communicating with the forests for centuries; and slowly the people who originated from Earth have become more evolved with telepathic abilities and psychic powers. The forests are central to the whole civilization and the reason that humans are there in the first place. Everyone living on Avalon is selected by the forests of other planets and transported to Avalon through the energetic gateways.

Chad and Theo had only been on Avalon for 6 months. Growing up near a portal had somehow given them abilities and the nearby forest had noticed their potential. When their car had skidded on an icy road into a tree, they appeared to be killed on impact but the forest had actually transported their spirits to Avalon, alive and well.

Accepting the limits and rules for interacting with another planet was difficult and the hardest part of being a Guardian of Avalon. Humans must always be able to make their own choice. You could give them thoughts, feelings and information that might influence where they go or who they run into but they had to be open to your suggestions and things often didn't go as a Guardian intended.

Angela thought about her brothers a lot with happy memories that kept her vibration up, especially when she was in the forest. These frequent thoughts and high vibration made it easier for them to have influence on her thoughts and feelings. At home she was so sad and her vibration was too low for the brothers to reach her. They had tried frequently to reach both their parents but were unsuccessful.

It had been interesting for them to discover who they could influence and they were often surprised at who was thinking about them. These kinds of thoughts pulled them in and gave them power to send feelings and thoughts of their own. They could also reach other people that had a vibration that resonated with their own thought frequency but they were not able to pull a stranger up from a lower vibration into a thought wave where influence was possible.

Chad had tried desperately to reach his girlfriend, Miah, but he just couldn't link to her energy. It was like she didn't exist on Earth at all. He usually could sense how she was doing through Angela's thoughts and feelings about her but Angela had been missing Miah for the last few days. Miah was the only friend that had been able to coax Angela out of her depression and they usually talked every night. Miah hadn't shown up to take Angela for a promised tour of the college campus yesterday and she hadn't called last night either. Chad was worried but had given up trying to connect with Miah directly months ago. After 6 months with no contact he almost had no hope that he would ever see her again. She must have moved on with her life after the accident, it hurt him to think that but he also wanted her to be happy.

"Chad are you alright?" Theo senses Chad's sudden worry and sadness about Miah. Chad shakes his head and realizes that he has been lost in his thoughts for several minutes. No matter how hard he tries his thoughts always drift back to Miah.

"I am okay. I was thinking about Andrew and the portal working and then somehow my thoughts drifted back to Miah as usual. I just don't understand why I can't connect with her. Do you really think she never thinks about me?" Chad's voice is filled with sadness.

"I don't know the answer Chad, but I am sure that she loved you. You were the perfect couple. Everyone thought so." Theo tries to help Chad feel better but knows that there is not really anything that will do that except them finding Miah while they are on Earth. There must be something they don't understand that is preventing Chad from reaching her during his meditation on Avalon. There have been few people from their past live on Earth that they couldn't reach.

"Let's get out of this cave and find Angela! I can feel she is close to us. She must be hiking in the forest right now." Chad moves through his sadness about Miah and focuses on his sister. He imagines the old favorite fishing spot where him and Theo were always guaranteed to catch a fair size trout and he knows that Angela is on her way there. Sensing Angela is so easy. He helps Theo up off the cave floor and they cautiously move towards the entrance.

The forest floor is covered in moss and Angel's footsteps are silent as she moves through the forest with ease. She loves being with the trees and always feels closer to her brothers when she is on a hike with Teddy, her faithful border collie. She wishes she could spend all her time exploring the forest or just sitting by the creek; somehow time stands still and she can be with her memories without being interrupted.

Her brothers, Chad and Theo, were 3 years older than her but they had always let her tag along on their adventures in the forest surrounding their home. They had all built an extravagant fort together and a bridge over the creek. Pretending that they were explorers and talking to the trees were just a few of the games they played when they were younger. The accident and the sudden death of both her brothers had left her with a broken heart and loneliness that often overwhelmed her. Without them she felt like so much was missing in her life.

Angela's father was fighting cancer and her mom was either at the hospital or working at the local pharmacy. She spent almost all her time alone and avoided the hospital and her mom as much as she could. She loved her parents, but seeing them both suffering was more than she could handle. After losing Chad and Theo, depression and isolation had taken over the household. They were each lost in their own pain and seeing it in each other was too much. Now that her father was sick and her mom carrying the load of supporting what was left of their family, Angela had become even more recluse, blocking out most of her friends and spending all her spare time alone in the forest.

At first she didn't want to go into the forest at all, but she kept feeling a pull that she couldn't resist. Not going was like punishing herself for surviving the crash and after months of hiding in her bedroom she finally allowed herself this one pleasure. Lately she was dreaming about the forest too and the plants and fungi were becoming so interesting to her. She kept imagining that there was a cure out there for her dad's cancer and she needed to find it. Reading about the forest flora had become a bit of an obsession but at least that was better than laying in bed day after day feeling the loss of her brothers and contemplating the value of her own life.

Angela reaches the creek and sits down with her back up against a giant cedar tree. Teddy sits beside her and licks her face. This is her favorite spot, just up from a small fishing hole that Chad and Theo loved to visit. The morning air is crisp and refreshing, waking her up more fully. The scent of the cedar tree helps her feel relaxed and almost happy. She can visualize her brothers fishing downstream and pretends they are still alive, like nothing has changed. She can almost hear their laughter and see their smiles as they each pull up another trout. She smiles too, if only this vision were real.

Suddenly Teddy starts to bark and Angela quickly opens her eyes. She knows right away by Teddy's reaction that there is something across the creek but she can't see anything. A thought flashes through her mind almost like a voice with no sound, "Don't worry." She feels Chad like she did when they were kids. She always knew when he was close playing hide and seek even though she couldn't see him. They always seemed to have some kind of psychic link that they accepted without question. The feeling of Chad gets stronger and she sees his smiling face in her mind's eye. She starts to feel Theo close by too and worries that she is finally losing her mind. She looks back at Teddy and he is wagging his tail excitedly and seems to be almost smiling. He runs upstream and walks along a fallen log over to the other side of the creek. He is jumping at the air like he is greeting an imaginary friend. Angela has a feeling of reassurance and clearly knows that something unusual but good is happening.

"Chad, Theo, is that you?" Both brothers stand across the creek shocked at her question and Teddy's reaction. Can Angela and Teddy both see them?