The secret is this: the bush brats, the __elf, and the mossmen are all distinct life stages of the same creature. When it is time, the bush brat spins a cocoon around itself and later hatches into a __elf. The __elf eventually become more and more plantlike until it undergoes "the changing" and becomes a mossman. And the mossman eventually becomes more and more sedentary until it takes root and grows special tuber-like structures which under the right conditions hatch into 2 - 3 bush brats, completing the cycle.
