Blossom

Perry picked a direction and wandered off.

He really shouldn’t have. He nervously tapped on his map, trying to orient himself. He couldn’t. Every direction he looked was practically the same: nothing but near-identical trees and bushes. Funny, how he thought he had been on a trail a few moments ago. It was okay though. He wasn’t too worried. The day had barely started, and a few extra days in the forest wouldn’t be too bad. He brought extra supplies anyways, and he would just find a way back eventually. There had to be other hikers. Less so here, since he was probably far off the trail, and especially because this trail wasn’t very well-known, but he couldn’t have been that alone.

With his worries pushed to the back of his mind, Perry set off once more. Time passed by surprisingly quick, and he found himself enjoying the forest. The earthy smell of grass, birds singing in the trees, and odd flowers here and there. It was pleasant for a long, long time, but the sun had to set. Perry was a bit uneasy as the sky shifted from blue to darker and darker shades of purple, as his surroundings got harder and harder to see. He was confident, though, that soon he would find his way out. With how much he had already walked, he couldn’t be still that far from . He was bound to find some other person soon, right?

Eventually, the sounds of the forest he had gotten used to faded away, and the moon glowed high in the sky. It was still a bit hard to see, and Perry began to fish around in his bag for a flashlight as he walked. Until he fell. His foot found no purchase as he tumbled over a small, unexpected cliff. His heart fell faster than he did, and he was sure that if the fall didn’t kill him, a heart attack would. The wind sliced past him, and while he couldn’t see the ground, he knew it was coming. Neither of those happened. It was a far drop, but he landed on his back a lot less hard than what he would have expected, as if something cushioned his fall. Breathing shallow, quick gulps of air. He gingerly felt around him, quickly coming to a halt after his hand brushed across jagged rocks piles of rocks. Perry lay there trembling, but not ready to get up, for what seemed like eternity.

The night dragged on slowly, heavily. Everything was still, and the silence was deafening. It wasn’t long before the sun began to worm its way up into the sky. Perry finally gathered enough motivation to prop himself up, stumbling around drunkenly. He was shaking as he peeked over to where he had landed, where large, dangerous rocks surrounded a crushed mass of flowers that had cushioned his fall. He had been lucky. So, so lucky. He stood there, dazed for a while before remembering something was missing. His bag. It wasn’t on him. He must have dropped it during his fall. Looking around the dull colored rocks, he found his bag quite quickly, but moving there took almost the rest of the day. It was as if he was moving through molasses, every step taking an eternity. But he had to be careful. He had to make sure each step was safe. That each step wouldn’t lead to another cliff.

It took a long, long time, but Perry finally reached his backpack. It might’ve been a tough struggle to get here, but his old friend, filled with food and water, was right in front of him. Perry felt an unreasonable amount of triumph as he heaved his bag up from the ground and swung it onto his back. Perry sighed in relief and let out a little grin. It felt good to have that familiar weight on his back, and now that he had his things, he could finally start going home. Perry took a few cheerful steps towards the treeline, but he didn’t get very far. It wasn’t safe. It couldn’t be safe. The trees were big and could block his way. What if they’re obscuring another drop? One without a bed of flowers underneath? Plus, it was night time, and the chance of tripping on rocks or branches was too high. Maybe he would spend the night here.

But as he crouched down to get ready for the night, he hesitated. It wasn’t…safe here either. The ground below him might give way to a sinkhole and bring him to his end. There were so many things, so many things that could happen to him. No no no, this wouldn’t do at all. This forest would kill him. He wasn’t safe. Where could he go? He wasn’t safe! His breathing grew ragged as he spun around and around, his eyes zooming darting from place to place. And then at once he stilled. There it was: somewhere where he could be safe. Somewhere that had already protected him once. As the moon crawled back into the sky, Perry returned to his little safe spot and lay down upon the bed of flowers. The flowers weren’t comfortable. Not at all. But he was safe.

Perry was jolted awake the next morning by a terrifying feeling of loss and discomfort. The flowers weren’t under him. Perry felt so exposed, so vulnerable. Each crack in the ground was a chasm. Vivid nightmares of the ground opening up beneath him and swallowing him whole filled his head, and every direction he could run seemed dangerous and untamed. His eyes landed on his bed of flowers, a safe place in this terrible forest. Even as he was scrambling towards the flowers, he was rummaging through his bag, trying to find anything that would help him stay on the flowers, even in sleep.

Taking one last lunge, Perry collapsed onto his cushion of flowers, all his panic melting away. Perry sat on the flowers with his head almost fully in the bag for a good while, and when he came out, he was beaming brighter than the sun. He had found it. A length of rope to tie to the rocks. He would be safe. Everything would be alright. Perry heaved out a heavy sigh of relief as he tightened his extra layer of safety as much as he could. He would be okay.

Perry was happy. He had all the food and water he needed, and he was safe as can be. But as the days went by, Perry noticed the flowers beginning to look less and less lively. It must have been getting cold or something. Maybe they needed more water or fertilizer. Perry ignored it at first. Surely it wouldn't be for long. The flowers would surely come back more bountiful and more beautiful than before. He would help give it a little nudge in the right direction with a little extra water, and everything would be fine.

But as time passed, it became clear that the flowers could not support him any longer. The faint fragrance that the flowers had slowly rotted away into a foul stench. It tormented Perry to see his safe spot slowly wither into a putrid mess. The days were torment, with Perry trapped willingly in his sheet of flowers, and it kept getting worse. A slow trickling stream of bugs came, and as much as Perry tried, he could not block them. With decay and constant swarms of insects gnawing away at the flowers, the little cushion soon fell away, melting away into the rocky ground, and after many agonizing days and restless nights, Perry was left with nothing but a couple of petals that he clutched onto with a biting grip.

Slipping in and out of sleep, Perry trembled in a fetal position with his eyes squeezed shut for as long as he could, the days blending together in a flurry of endless worry. While Perry would occasionally be lucid enough to feed himself or get a bit of water, he would always fall back into place, not ready to keep moving. Until one day, something changed. In one of his brief moments of consciousness, Perry spotted an odd shape a small distance away on the dull ground. He inched as close as he could with his tether still strapped to him, and there, he saw it. A flower. His grip on the rotting petals loosened a bit as he picked up his pace towards the flowers, tossing away his tether as he strode onwards.

Perry was on the ground before he even reached the flower. It came back! The flower had come back for him! Perry was so happy. So, so happy. He gave a radiant smile as he looked at the flower. He picked it up, tossing away the old petals. He would be safe again. Perry noticed something else though. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw more. More flowers. They were scattered across the rocks, and he could even see some of them out deep in the forest. Perry stood in silence for a while, before giving the flower in his hand one final glance and slowly letting it go.

Perry picked a direction, and strode off.