Bunyians

Bunyians live deep in the heart of tropical forests, accessible to man and beast only with the greatest of effort. They are melancholy souls of dejected lovers separated from their corporeal shell who continue to live the tangible life in the cleared plains of villages, towns and cities. Unable to bear their sorrow in their human manifestation, Bunyians inhabit the solid, thick foliage of the inaccessible forest. There they diffuse into the trees, palms, lichen and moss, and live invisible and alone most of the time. When longing to see themselves and remember the love lost, they breathe deeply and take form. Then sitting by one of the many still, dark pools that are found between trees and shrubs they see their reflections and remember the pleasure and pain of love and love lost.

Bunyians do not form communities but lead solitary lives of lamentation playing the streams, rivers and the sounds of birds and beasts for their sad music that fills the dense jungle.

Sometimes when humans wander into their habitat a Bunyian from mischief may lead them even deeper into the woods through passages projected into their minds that are really not there to make them wander lost in the woods, sometimes for ever.

But feelings cannot always be guarded and a Bunyian seeing a human is known to breathe itself into form like a butterfly from a cocoon pumping its wings to life and appear before a lost soldier, surveyor or woodcutter to enchant them. (The Bunyian’s garments are spun from the threads of moss, woven with spider web with butterfly wings and fallen feathers of birds.) A Bunyian in shape is a breathless sight because all souls that are in love are beautiful beyond imagination.

Alone in the clearing, in the impassable vegetation, in a clearing that is only an illusion in the mind of the wandering person, because in the depths of trees and undergrowth, the forest is as relentless as the sea that is far away from land, the Bunyian drives the human into a frenzy of desire. In the heart of the forest, in the clearing that is only imagined, amidst the lamenting songs of other Buniyans played on the streams, the rivers and the throats of birds and beast, consummation of the desire is inevitable. Then the Buniyan’s wispy nature turns to the solid of humankind once again. Thus reborn, it returns to the humanfold, but this time the love will always be returned; no soul that encounters a Buniyan will ever leave it. The bonding that happens in the clearing of the dense forest remains eternal.