Bridger Trees
[Prompt: A useful plant found in a wild area of your world]
Man, that's a confusing name in the context of my skitter bridges. I will never, ever let the colonies have access to more than a bit of stray driftwood from a bridger. If they got their paws on more, they might colonize the whole Tomniverse. Let's not.
Now I'm going to start the article.
There is a genus of tree that grows only in the Infinite Ocean. I say "only," as if that ocean isn't ample space for everyone and their dogwood. Still, if that whole, infinite amount of definitely-water was to somehow disappear, this type of tree would disappear. And that's a damn shame, because these guys are hella cool and even more useful. First, a bit of biology. These trees take the mangrove concept and ent-lumber with it. Think tall root systems with a lot of direct exposure to the water. Okay, now add magic to it. Specifically, teleportation magic. Yep, these trees have the ability to cast Portal halfway down their trunk and effectively stretch themselves out. This power enables them to go much farther out to sea than any other tree; some trees can be found miles out, in areas where the ocean isn't fuckoff deep. Bridger trees get their anchorage from the ground, and their energy from the pokey-outey-in-the-sky-y bits, but there isn't a whole lot for the part hanging out in the ocean to do. So what did they do? They became reefs. Sort of. To minimize the amount of matter wasted on the useless part, these trees turn their midsection into a hollowed-out network of tissue just strong enough to keep the rest attached. Then marine animals did their thing and latched onto whatever structure they could find; voila, vertical reefs! When bridgers trees are close enough together, some critters (switters?) will even build these stringy structures in between them, kind of like a hammock or rope bridge, and create whole forest super-reefs. Not bad for neglected middle children. Back to the portal thing. Because of their stretching abilities, the entire top and bottom part of every bridger tree is shaped on the cellular level to create portals. (Occasionally, a bit of that magic will even make it into the middle, and a very confused clownfish will find herself very far from home.) And this makes them very valuable. For the few adventurers who can find their way both into and back from the Infinite Ocean, there is a wealth of arboreal treasure ripe to turn into permanent portals, or teleporting objects. One such adventurer, Percy Bährington (Bartender Bearian), has obtained a sizable pile of bridger trees and fashioned them into a multidimensional tavern/library/safehouse/ultimate neutral meeting ground called The Commonplace. From the comfort of his counter, he can go anywhere in the Tomniverse he wants, getting business from truly all walks of life. If a character of mine shows up in a world they weren't born in, chances are, they've bumped fuzzy elbows with our multi-hatted bartender. And don't worry. For every bridger Percy used to build The Commonplace, he has made sure to plant 2 in its place. He's good bears.
There is a genus of tree that grows only in the Infinite Ocean. I say "only," as if that ocean isn't ample space for everyone and their dogwood. Still, if that whole, infinite amount of definitely-water was to somehow disappear, this type of tree would disappear. And that's a damn shame, because these guys are hella cool and even more useful. First, a bit of biology. These trees take the mangrove concept and ent-lumber with it. Think tall root systems with a lot of direct exposure to the water. Okay, now add magic to it. Specifically, teleportation magic. Yep, these trees have the ability to cast Portal halfway down their trunk and effectively stretch themselves out. This power enables them to go much farther out to sea than any other tree; some trees can be found miles out, in areas where the ocean isn't fuckoff deep. Bridger trees get their anchorage from the ground, and their energy from the pokey-outey-in-the-sky-y bits, but there isn't a whole lot for the part hanging out in the ocean to do. So what did they do? They became reefs. Sort of. To minimize the amount of matter wasted on the useless part, these trees turn their midsection into a hollowed-out network of tissue just strong enough to keep the rest attached. Then marine animals did their thing and latched onto whatever structure they could find; voila, vertical reefs! When bridgers trees are close enough together, some critters (switters?) will even build these stringy structures in between them, kind of like a hammock or rope bridge, and create whole forest super-reefs. Not bad for neglected middle children. Back to the portal thing. Because of their stretching abilities, the entire top and bottom part of every bridger tree is shaped on the cellular level to create portals. (Occasionally, a bit of that magic will even make it into the middle, and a very confused clownfish will find herself very far from home.) And this makes them very valuable. For the few adventurers who can find their way both into and back from the Infinite Ocean, there is a wealth of arboreal treasure ripe to turn into permanent portals, or teleporting objects. One such adventurer, Percy Bährington (Bartender Bearian), has obtained a sizable pile of bridger trees and fashioned them into a multidimensional tavern/library/safehouse/ultimate neutral meeting ground called The Commonplace. From the comfort of his counter, he can go anywhere in the Tomniverse he wants, getting business from truly all walks of life. If a character of mine shows up in a world they weren't born in, chances are, they've bumped fuzzy elbows with our multi-hatted bartender. And don't worry. For every bridger Percy used to build The Commonplace, he has made sure to plant 2 in its place. He's good bears.
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I love your writing voice in this. Delightful!