Since time immemorium, two rival foes had been in conflict: the Tzar Gorokh, ruler of the kingdom of the vetches, and the brave Borovik, Captain of the Mushrooms. One day, Borovik was sitting under the old oak tree and he heard in the distance the advancing Tzar's army. Surrounded by fungus of all kinds, he began his recruitment drive.
First, he turned to the white mushrooms,
"Come, you whites. The Tzar has an army as uniform and disciplined as peas in a pod. We are all shapes, sizes and colours, but if we work together we might yet defend this oak from the Tzar's soldiers."
But the white mushrooms would hear of none of it.
"We are too distinguished to join in your petty squabbles," they said. "The Tzar's army cannot reach us up here on the high branches. We will not join your war."
The brave captain was disappointed, for the whites would have been a huge asset to him, from their vantage point up in the tree branches. But he did not despair. He turned his attention to the saffron milkcap mushrooms.
"Come, you goldens. The Tzar approaches with his deadly forces. Will you join me in my fight?"
But the saffron mushrooms also refused,
"Why should we?" they scoffed. "We have gold to spare. We will simply pay off this Tzar when he arrives, and secure our safety. We will not join your war."
This was not the answer Borovik was hoping for. Even if the Tzar would allow the rich saffron mushrooms to buy their safety, which the wise captain very much doubted, Borovik knew that the saffron mushrooms would spend enough to save themselves and their families but the mushrooms with less gold would likely still be trampled.
The Tzar's army was still advancing, and everywhere the brave captain turned he was met with resistance.
The waved volnshki mushrooms were too old.
The honey openki mushrooms were too weak.
With the Tzar's army in sight, Borovik turned to the milk mushrooms, the youngest of the glade.
"I wish it had not come to this," he said, "but the Tzar's army approaches and there is no-one left to ask. Will you join my fight?"
The milk mushrooms, being too young to know otherwise, were excited by the idea of battle, and they readily joined Borovik on the battlefield to defend the homeland of all the mushrooms.
Many lives were lost that day, and the next, and the next. The other mushrooms, seeing the children being cut down by the invading peas, tutted and sighed that it was such a shame to see so many young lives being destroyed. Finally, Borovik's tactics were able to drive off the Tzar's forces, but the damage was done. With so few of the young milk mushrooms remaining, the once-prosperous fungal community dwindled and faded.
We must work together or be destroyed by forces much greater than anything any of us can muster alone.
