Ice Blossom

They scraped away the thin blanket of snow with one gloved hand. There, below the layers of cold, grew the glittering blue flower, its petals glimmering like tiny shards of ice in a round, perfect bloom. It was exactly what they needed to save her.

The ice blossom is one of the few plants that manages to survive in the frozen lands of Oflij. It thrives in the cold because its sap is made of a viscous substance which in warmer areas simply turns to vapor. But here, in the ice-locked lands, it stays liquid while other plants would simply freeze.

Ice blossoms are very small, with the largest specimens only reaching an inch or so above the ground. It grows as a ground cover in large swathes under a blanket of snow. Their roots are thin and short, but create a large mat under the surface to hold each patch together like moss. The leaves are very dark green, tinged with blue, to better collect energy from the feeble sunlight which filters down through the snow and ice. They are wide and flat for their tiny size, and have a slightly fuzzy texture. The edges are oval-toothed like those of lemon balm or catnip. The leaves can be used to brew a bitter tea with a hint of peppery spice. This tea is said to be very beneficial when drunk regularly, and it is not uncommon in smaller villages for older and more traditional healers to prescribe some of it to their patients along with other medicines.

Ice blossoms are coveted for their tiny, puffball-shaped flowers. They are quite beautiful, and come in many shades of blue and white. Each petal resembles a tiny shard of ice and has a shiny gleam, so the whole bloom looks like it has been dipped in frost. These flowers are not only nice to look at, however. They are also a very valuable medicinal herb. Ice blossoms are primarily used to break fevers in sick patients, but medical research has found that they have a much more significant use. Something about the makeup of these tiny flowers makes them an ideal cure for the deadly and highly infectious disease known as Tixan's Rage. It spreads rapidly and leads to such high fevers that the proteins in one's cells can become denatured, leading to massive cell death, loss of limbs, and eventually death.

Ice blossoms are fairly easy to cultivate, but it is still unknown in which exact conditions the plant will bloom. Because of this, despite an ample supply in nearly every Oflijian settlement, there is still a high demand for gatherers whose task is to go into the frozen plains and collect the tiny flowers.