User:Scholarly Breeze/nature stories

For the purposes of enjoyment and relaxation, I will attempt to write little blurbs about several areas of nature as if one is there, continuously expanding them with time. It might end up being a nice side project or a way to prove that I cannot write. Only time will tell. Either way, I would love to hear some feedback, whether it be the writing itself or the idea in general.

Deciduous Forest

You take a step as twigs crack and leaves crunch beneath your feet. You draw in a deep breath of cool, fresh air, calming your mind. You look up to see a large oak tree with its leaves a mixture of bright reds and dull greens. A squirrel scampers through its branches before running down the truck of the tree and off into the forest. A leaf gently glides through the air and lands on your head, you look up to see another one, and watch it fall to your feet. You look back at the path you entered the forest in; it is littered with leaves, twigs, and nuts.

You continue walking down the trail, taking in the magnificent sights of the forest, when a white-tailed deer runs out in front of you about thirty feet ahead. You peer down the path it took, a muddy trail of hoof markings, and see down a slope to a small pond. It’s surrounded by a thin wall of cattails, and has a small cluster of lily pads to one side bobbing with the small waves that emanate across the pond. The deer puts its head down into the water to drink. It snorts, looks up to see you – apparently having caught your scent – and runs off into the forest. You walk down to the pond yourself, hearing frogs croaking; the sound of a loon resonates in the distance, echoing off the trees. The sound of buzzing insects also fills the air as a gentle breeze touches down around the pond. Your reflection in the pond is distorted by small ripples, but is largely intact. You look up at the sky to see an almost perfectly clear blue sky; only a few fluffy clouds linger in the sky. A flock of geese are flying above you in a "V" formation, going south, and calling out through the outdoors.

Your sights return to the pond as a fish leaps out of the water only to splash back into it a few seconds later. Small gnats and other bugs float above the water - the cause of the fish jumping out of the water in the first place, the enticement of food. You begin to realize that you have sunk a few inches into the muddy, grassy earth beneath your feet, the smell of moist dirt filling your nostrils. You lift a foot, only to plop it back down into the mud, at which time you here the puckering sound of the displacement of air around the mud as your foot re-plants itself onto the muddy soil. Another fish jumps out of the water to snap up a few insects on the water. You decide it is time to head back towards the main path.

The crackle of twigs and crunching of leaves remains constant with every step you take back. Back at the main trail, you take in just how many trees truly surround you. You see their dense spacing, their stories tall trunks and branches. You see their curvature, and on a few, the nests of insects beneath the word, morphing it into an unnatural ball-shaped area. You notice the plethora of spots at the end of branches where leaves should be, but have already fallen to the ground. You picture their return in the spring, the green buds forming new leaves.

Northern Taiga