Word: Greenth

greenth

[ greenth ]

noun

green growth; verdure.

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              The man used to have a name.  He could almost remember it if he really tried.  He also used to have words.  He could remember those easier, but since he had not used them in so long, it became harder each day he was still alive.  He still had the names for everything else though.  He needed those to know what the things around him were.

               For instance, he knew he was in a city.  That was a place where lots of people like him used to live.  He once lived in a city, when he was boy.  When he still had a name and words.  The city he was in was not the one he used to live in though.  The city he was in was smaller than that one.  He used to remember the name of where he used to live, but he did not know this city’s name.

               What he did know was that nature had taken over many years ago.  Trees grew thick, strong and green, with roots that had broken through the concrete and cement that they grew out of.  Tall blades of grass grew out of asphalt.  Thick vines clung to the sides of buildings, spreading cracks throughout the various materials. 

               The man kept an eye out.  It was not just the plants that had taken over the city.  There were animals there as well.  Most of them avoided the man.  They were just small things like rabbits and squirrels and birds.  But then there were the predators.  Wolves and bears and coyotes ran rampant in places like these.  He clutched his weapon, ready to react at any moment.

               His spear was made of good, thick wood with a head of metal that he had meticulously pounded and shaved into as sharp a point as he could make.  It had saved his life many times, and it would continue to do so until the shaft broke.  Hopefully he would be able to reuse the spearhead once that happened.

               The man heard something.  The grass rustled.  Something disturbed a shrub growing by a tree.  The man leveled his spear.  His forced his breathing to remain calm, and his arms steady.  Whatever animal slowly emerged from the greenery and the man froze.  He lost control of his breathing and his eyes went wide.

               It was something he had not seen in years.  Something he had thought he would never see again.  It was a woman.  A real, human woman.  He remembered women.  He had been too young to really appreciate them when there were still many of them, but now?  Now he was grown.  And he could now appreciate the sight of a woman.  She was as wild as he was, wearing the bare minimum of tattered cloth scavenged from the rooms in the city.  She was covered in almost as much hair as he was, but he could still tell she was beautiful.

               She carried a crude bow and arrow, that was leveled at him.  She blinked and her head tilted from side to side.  Both man and woman lowered their weapon.  The man stepped forward, struggling to remember his words.  It had been so long since he had needed them.  He held out his hand.  She did the same.

               When they touched, his hand was larger and stronger than her, but he could tell hers were finer and more dexterous.  They simply stood like that for almost a minute before he found his words.  And it was the one word he thought he would never need again, his own name.

               “Adam.” He said slowly.  His voice surprised him.  It was thin from disuse, but it did what he wanted to do.

               “Evelyn.” She said.  Her voice was just as weak as his.  Her mouth twitched and she continued.  “Eve.”

               And with that, the man and woman found their words, and so much more. 

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The end of human kind, or the beginning of its rebirth?  One of those for sure, I'm just not sure which.