During the week that it took to process her move to the seventh floor, Keylynn felt like she was a hive of buzzing bees. Her first day back she was constantly trying to prevent massive noxious spore clouds. She failed miserably and was sent home by lunch. Grief told her that they could accommodate her as much as possible, but this was too much. She agreed, as she wasn’t getting much done constantly plucking puff shrooms, nor was anyone else when she missed a few.

  After a day of meditation, she felt she had her feelings under control. She was no longer overly anxious over her future because her friends will be there. She convinced her puff shrooms that they will be happier remaining at home. She's unsure if she will have more fieldwork or not, and they do not like fieldwork at all.

  The floor seven investigation was only a small piece in the greater problems of the Royal Assessment Department and Adventurer Welfare Council. But they were one small team who were nothing compared to the directors. And if it comes to it, she will resign. Besides, she is so small in the company; if she is caught doing anything that irks the directors, she can place the entire blame on Lark. That thought made her feel better than she’d like.

  Before she returned to the office, she chose a new fungi colony to join her. She felt naked without replacing her puff shrooms with another colony. She chose the one she has been struggling to cultivate in her spare time; it’s carnivorous and is less likely to have noxious spore clouds.

  The next day was decidedly worse, even though she felt better. She was constantly summoning bees. She assumed that her meditation wasn’t effective; her feelings were still a buzzing hive of bees. Grief gave her the one thing she’s always wanted: sick days. She had Dauven and Grief to thank for that wondrous gift. He gave her a hug before sending her out of the office and pleaded with her to remain home until she starts on floor seven.

  She knew little about floor seven, unless all the rumours about the higher floors were true. She heard tales of floors filled with individual offices, while others were one large office that they all shared. Some floors were painted stark white with glossy black floors, while others are shades of beige and worn carpets. And none of that would indicate whether or not the people of floor seven will accept her.

  She’s not the only druid in RADAWC, but she is the only one that deviates from what's expected of one. Rowan, who runs the Department of Flora and Fauna Consultations of Quest Design, can embody the form of any animal, including those she makes up on the spot. There is Wolfe, the Healer Botanist, who has the ability to grow any plant in any environmental condition. Then there is Ava, a Records Keeper, who can summon entire armies of creatures and control them, making them a force to reckon with. None of them had insects crawling over them or fungi in their hair. All of them looked the acceptable kind of dirty and gave the pleasing aura of one with nature.

  Wanting to make a good impression on floor seven, she added bell caps to her colony repertoire. Bell caps are luminous mushrooms that have long, narrow stalks that are topped with small, delicate, bell-shaped caps. The mushroom is translucent white and glows faint colours of blues, pinks, and purples. As each cap is disturbed, they chime softly.

  She set her alarms to go off ten minutes earlier, ensuring she won’t be late on her first day. With her box of personal items and desk friends clutched close to her body, she rode the elevating chamber up to the seventh floor, arriving early. Her first steps on the seventh floor would have been easier with her team, but none were here.

  Wyrm slithered across her scalp, reminding her that she’s not alone. Hyphae stretched down her arms and across her chest, hugging her. The buzzing of a lone bee circled her overhead. She chewed her lip anxiously. She has tried all week to stop the bees from appearing, and she thought she succeeded.

  Keylynn dispelled the bee before it had the chance to summon more of its hive. She gently pushed the hyphae reaching out from her box back inside as the elevating chamber’s doors opened, revealing floor seven. The walls were a similar beige to the ones on floor five, and the floor was covered with a worn dark grey carpet. She longed to reach out with her magic and see what resides in the carpet.

  She remained in the chamber long enough for the doors to begin to close. Quickly she adjusted her grip on her box to wave a hand between the doors before they sealed shut. The last thing she needed was to be sent down to the first floor again. Hyphae gently moved across her scalp, making her grateful that she convinced the puff shrooms to remain home.

  A tall naga, a snake humanoid, dressed in a sleek fitted business suit. Nagas are known for their ample abdominal muscles needed to balance their bodies upright on their thick, impressive tails. Nagas are covered in snake scales, have reptilian eyes, and have a forked tongue that they use to scent their surroundings. This naga’s scales are brilliant copper with black diamond markings, and they stared at her with cold amber eyes. “You mussst be the foressst elf.” As they spoke, their tongue flicked in and out.

  Keylynn started to bow, then saw that she was about to spill out her desk box and stood up abruptly. Her bell mushrooms chimed loudly. The naga looked at her like she was in the wrong place. “Yes, Keylynn. It’s pleasing to be meeting you,” she felt hyphae snake up her neck and cover her cheeks.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Their cold amber eyes scanned over her quizzically. “I mean no offencesss, but is your dwelling equipped with bathing facilitiesss? If not, I will sssubmit a requisssition on your behalf to rectify thisss error.”

  Her brow furrowed, she can't accept the idea that she appears unclean. She bathed recently, and her clothes are freshly laundered. Wyrm fell from her head to the box. She wiped her palms against the box nervously. This is not at all how she wanted her first day to go. “I am humbled by your concern, but there is no need for a dwelling improvement requisition.” She bowed her head. At the same moment a clod of dirt plopped on the pristine black floor. She looked back up, hoping they didn’t see it. Their narrowed gaze told her they did. “I assure you I bathe regularly. The mushrooms and the worms are entirely due to my connection with nature and not poor hygiene practices.”

  The naga’s tongue flicked out, and translucent eyelids slid across their eyes as they turned their attention to the dirt.

  “That too,” Keylynn said nervously. She sent a trickle of her magic over and watched two large button mushrooms appear and start to absorb the dirt through the hyphae. That’s not how she wanted that to go, but the dirt is getting cleaned up. She willed her cleanup mushrooms to work diligently and quickly, dismissing them only when the offending dirt was gone.

  “My apologies.”

  They turned their cold eyes back to her. “Would it be posssible to leave your friendsss home?”

  Her ears were filled with the buzzing of a thousand bees. Her corporate-themed nightmares are coming true. Her connection to nature is prohibiting her ability to work on higher floors. Floor five had little option but to grow accustomed to her. Other floors can refuse her entrance. “I am unable to. Will that be a problem?” She asked in a meek whisper. She should not have felt joy until she knew she was welcome on floor seven.

  “We ssshall sssee. Come, I will ssshow you to your desssk,” they hissed out, turning around. Their muscular tail slithered across the ground, uncaring whether or not she followed. “I don’t ssseparate basssed on ssspecialty. I group teamsss together to fossster interdisssciplanary dissscusions and team sssynergy and it allowsss for ssself-integrating team building.”

  There was something unnerving about the open-floor office that she walked through. There were few cubicle dividers creating individual workspaces; instead, there were desk clusters scattered across the entire floor. Upon a closer look at the desk clusters, she saw short cubicle walls marking the boundary between desks. She doubted they were high enough to block line of sight. It reminded her of an adventuring academy classroom.

  Each and every single desk was currently empty. In fact, besides herself and the naga, it appeared that no one else worked here.

  “You will be working here, with your asssigned team. The remainder of the Floor Five Team will be sssituated there,” they said, indicating a desk cluster towards the left side of the office floor, while the one she was standing at was near the centre.

  “Am I early?” She asked, setting her box on her new desk. She sent a firm glare at it, encouraging all of her desk friends to remain until the naga leaves.

  “You are both late and early.” They stated it as if they were simply discussing both sun intensity and cloud density. “We ssstart an hour earlier than your lower floor cussstomsss, I withdrew myssself when I wasss alerted to your arrival. I am waiting for the remainder of the Floor Five Team to arrive.”

  “I am understanding. I will arrive on time from this time onwards.” She bowed her head. Spotting the bright green-yellow slime mould oozing over the lip of the box, she caught it before it could crawl. She set it back in its fishbowl, ignoring its demands for coffee. A coffee enthusiast wasn't a trait she was aiming for with this cultivation.

  “I look forward to it. pleassse take this time to unpack your thingsss and read through the welcome packet I put together to eassse your transssition to floor ssseven. If you have any inquiriesss, do not hesssitate to approach me. I am Akzer, the floor manager.” They dismissed themselves from her desk and slithered back to the elevator.

  Her new desk lacked all of the charm that the old worn oak desk had. This one was made from both metal and wood covered in a strange hard dark brown coating. It felt cold and dead compared to her previous desk. She wished she could have brought her previous desk with her.

  She placed a large fishbowl beside her new computer monitor and scooped the vibrant green-yellow slime into it. She named it Eugene, after Eugene's mucus and their shared love of coffee. She hopes this variant will develop telepathy from a distance, as currently it can demand coffee from her without the need for contact.

  “Yes, yes, I’ll get you your coffee soon,” she whispered to it while she set out her stationary mug. Faster than she thought, she found a new home for all of her things and her desk friends. Wyrm found a lovely spot for her cultivation soil, and Charlos, her centipede, crawled up her monitor.

  She set her pot of large shelf mushrooms, which were only as large as they are because she fed them a spare piece of BEEG and they became giants, under her desk. She has no idea how to convince them to return to their normal size. She and Barnibus need to conduct further experiments about what could have caused their sudden growth, but that requires spare bits of BEEG, and he hasn’t lost any in quite some time. Luckily for her, the only place she can store them at work is under her desk, where they are happy to be avoiding light.

  She set her collection of luminous slugs in the pot of detritus housing her giant shelf mushrooms and dusted her welcome packet off. As she flipped through the first page, she saw Akzer leading Dauven, Riv, Barnibus, BEEG, and Gwen across the office, explaining to them everything that was explained to her. She truly was earlier than expected if they are just arriving now. She glanced at her desk clock and saw that the floor-wide meeting should be ending any moment now. She sucked in a deep breath and promised her slime mould, Eugene, that yes, she will get its coffee now.