We reached the other side of the tunnel in a minute. It was so short and I realized that it sloped upwards. On the other side, I could see ToadstoolVillage. The toadstools were as big as the cottonballs.

We walked towards the miniature village (miniature compared to us, since they were small). They did not live anywhere. They just roamed about on the open land and closed their eyes and lay down when they wanted to sleep. I saw many baby toadstools just being born out of the soil. They didn’t grow from mummies, there wasn’t any mummy-tummy business. They just grew out of the soil. Once they were big enough to live on their own, the roots that would hold it to the soil would release itself and the little toadstool would make its first jump. The other toadstools would have ceremonies for The Big Jump. They would also name it and it would be handed over to the parents. After 13 years, the toadstool had to live on its own till it withered, rotted away and seeped back into the soil. A group of toadstools came jumping towards us, leaping like a frog.

“Hello” said Madeline, who had just learnt a little English from Kiko. “You a toadstool?” she asked.

“The toadstools nodded their heads and sang-

“We are the people of toadstool village

Proud to say, happy to say

We can talk and we can leap

We can laugh and smile and weep.

We sleep on grass, we don’t have homes

We grow from soil, we love our land

We eat what we get, we are not fussy

We love it when children visit our village

“Cute, pretty” I heard Madeline say. “Nice song” she said learning her first few adjectives we use when we are appreciating something.

“So…….Have you come to take us somewhere?” I asked one of the toadstools.

“Yes, we have come to welcome you and to take you to our leader.”

“You have a leader?” I asked, astonished.

“Yes, Come” the littlest of the 5 said.

“Ok, we’ll follow you” I said. “Lead”

So we followed them into a small garden where 2 toadstools, a girl and a boy, were sitting in the garden.

“This is the leader and his wife” one of the toadstools said.

“Wife?” Kiko said, astonished.

“Yes, they just liked each other and said come and live with me”

“But how does a baby get born?” asked Dhruv curiously.

“When they want one, they just tap the soil where they want it to be born 3 times. They wait there and sleep near that point , guarding it from any worms and insects, till the baby is born.”

“Wow! That’s nice!” I said.

Whispering to one of the toadstools I asked “How do I address your leader?”

“Call him Tonto”

“What the heck is this?” I heard Kiko whispering to the twins. “The Old Quiggly is Ronto and the chief or leader is Tonto. What kind of names do they keep in Calypso?”

So we approached the chief and greeted him. In reply, he smiled and nodded.

“His wife said “Nice to meet you, come, sit down”

So we all sat down. They were waiting for their baby’s First Jump Day. It was almost ready to shoot out of the soil, only the roots had to release the mushroom. Excluding that point, the baby could talk too.

“I said “Little baby toadstool” and it said “Hi!”

Then the chief gave us 5 copies of photos of his and his wife for all of us as a memory of ToadstoolVillage.

“Where do we go next?” Kiko asked me.

“Water Squirt” I said. “How far is it?” I asked the chief.

“Walking distance” he said. ”I’m sure you can make it”

So all of us checked our digital maps to see where the red dot was. I could see Water Squirt on the map. So I started walking towards it, looking at the red dot marked, without shifting my gaze. We reached in 5 minutes.

“Madeline” I called. “Look, there is a small squirt of water in between these heavy large rocks”

“Yes!” she said. “Nice”

We washed our faces with the water from the water squirt and also drank some water as it was crystal clear. There wasn’t much to see and appreciate, it was just a spot where you could relax and freshen up after a long journey. Then we checked the list for the next destination.

“Where do we go next?” I asked Rishi.

“We find a portal to the ConeMountains” he said.

“But, where is the portal?” I asked too quickly without realizing that I could check the map.

“Ok, ok I get it. I’ll check the digital map!’ I said.

The portal was pointing north from where we were standing past the ToadstoolVillage.

“I said “We have only 2 more chances to make a bubble. Should we use one chance or walk?”

“Walk” everyone shouted. “You may never know when you’ll need a bubble.”

So we walked all the way to the portal. It was a hole in the ground. It was very short. We reached the other side in 5 seconds and guess where we were- ConeMountains! At the base of ConeMountains!