Bryolic
[bry-Ö-lik] adjective. Having the quality of moss.
The forest is never silent, even at dusk. Leaves rustle, peepers sing in the distance, the creek trickles peacefully. The sounds, though, are dampened by the thick moss that coats the forest. It has spread like a blanket, like a virus, across the trees and the rocks and the earth.
The forest looks both dead and alive. Decaying and thriving, haunted by the things that have died here. Their remains lie beneath soft and vivid beauty.
The moss climbs even the tallest trees, living in harmony with its surroundings. The plant life of the forest has gingerly accepted its invader. The animals are less sure of its innocence. They step cautiously over it, never staying in one spot for too long, knowing what happens to the things that are still.
It feels offensive to tread on it, as if you are stepping on something that knows you are there. But there is no other way through the forest: you must walk through the moss. It is soft beneath your feet, and it feels as if it might move at any given moment, like it may pull you under, and you, too, will be buried, hidden, encased within the moss, along with everything around you.
About the Creator
Alana S. Leonard
A long-time lover of reading and writing.
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Six Feet Under
Buried alive. What a horrible way to go. Yazz lay there, in her own thoughts. What else could she do? She was hungry, thirsty, tired, mentally, and physically exhausted, and more than anything, she was bored. She hoped she would die of boredom before anything else, anything else would've been more painful. Like many people had, she and her friends had talked about what they reckon the worst ways to die were, it was a morbid subject, but it came up every now and again. Yazz had always been one to argue her point on drowning, others had mentioned burning alive, slowly and painfully bleeding to death, hung drawn and quartered, and being starved to death. It was strange that none of them had considered being buried alive, it had never come up. But now, she was thinking back to those conversations her and her friends had had, how could they have not thought about it? It took a lot longer than the others, you were completely confined, you couldn't move or do anything, you just had to wait, until your body was physically unable to support a life system anymore, which could take up to four days. Four! By far the longest out of all of them. She recounted some of these conversations just to try and pass the time, anything to pass the time. It was difficult to know how much time had passed since she had been underground, it was difficult to know anything. There were many things that Yazz didn't know, she didn't know where she was, she didn't know how she'd got into the coffin, she'd just woken up there. Yazz also didn't know what time it was, or even what day it was, she guessed at Tuesday, it was Sunday evening when she'd been buried alive, intentionally, and although it had felt like weeks had passed, she was still alive, which means she hadn't died from dehydration, and therefore it couldn't have been more than four days.
By Liam Storm6 days ago in Fiction
Comments (15)
You left me wanting more. Did the moss have an ulterior motive if you stayed still too long?
How evocative and mesmerising. There’s certainly more to this story. A part 2? 😁. Congratulations on placing in the challenge 🥳
Beautifully crafted! Well done!
Ohh this is excellent! I got vivid images of this eerie forest and I loved every second of it! Beautifully written and poetic. Great work!
Very well done. You brought the photo to life with your words. Congrats on the Top Story
Beautiful ! The story and word certainly transport you to the forest
This is great. Congrats on the TS
Lovely.
I am left wanting to read more about Bryolic. It is full of harmony and beauty. Definitely changing my perception about moss.
So visual and beautifully done-and a brilliant word to describe moss! Congratulations on TS!
You have totally altered my perception of moss here! I always think of it like a cushion or something that softens but now, I'm definitely going to be more suspicious of it and its motives. Very evocative. Congrats on TS!
I love this. It both fits perfectly within its own micro fiction, but leaves me wanting more. Beautiful and haunting all at the same time. Subscribed!
Good job
I love this. I'd love for this to be a word. I just used moss to describe a texture in a story I wrote and as pictorial as it was, the word itself made the scene less appealing. Like, who wants to think of moss in a sex scene? Lol! Bryolic sounds much more intriguing in context. (The sentence was "like a bed made of moss" but I think "I sank into its bryolic softness" sounds better)
Your description in such a short amount of words is so thoughtfully chosen and immersive. Such a good job.