Dragon Fruit
Ithonida led me further into the city of Neteria. We then came across a courtyard. There were rows and rows of a plant I didn't recognize. This plant had long leaves with a thick skin and spikes running along the edges. They reminded me of the many aloe plants I came across in the Olimian Wastes, but they were not the same.
The fruits were pink with sparse leaves all around, pointing in the same direction. Even in my weakened state, I could sense the magic power inside these fruits.
"These are called Chacha," Ithonida told me, "They come from a realm far to the East of Vreathe, across the Ocean. I believe the Elves of Xolotl gave us the original fruits. We've been cultivating them here for thousands of years."
What she said made no sense to me. I have seen maps of the world, and there is no realm on the other side of the ocean. "I heard the oceans ended in a waterfall. How is there anything across the sea but an endless abyss?"
Ithonida started laughing, "Oh child, there is so much more to the dark lands than the edge of the world! There is much more to everything than you know." She then gathered around a dozen of these Chacha fruits before we continued on.
Fruit Details
Alternate Names: Pitaya, Chacha, Dragon Fruit, Strawberry Pear
Dragon Fruit is a roughly fist sized fruit, with pink skin and white flesh, with edible black seeds. It grows from a species of cactus, which are not native to the World of Vreathe. These plants are said to originate from across the sea, on a different continent.
Dragon Fruits are hardy plants able to survive extreme drought and heat, but they are sensitive to frost, often dying after just one or two days of freezing conditions. This makes the plant unsuitable for growing across the vast majority of Vreathe, which is still experiencing the effects of an ice age. Because of this, Dragon Fruits are exclusively grown in the Realm of Feylisa, a temperate paradise that almost never experiences freezing weather.
A unique property of Dragon Fruits (and all other species of cacti in this world) is their mana storage capabilities. They pull magic from places where there doesn't seem to be any, and it stores it for long periods of time. The fruits hold the greatest concentrations of mana. The flowers of these plants often bloom only at night. In places with higher mana concentrations, the flowers create their own light and glow, attracting bats and insects.
Across the sea in the kingdom of Xolotl, Dragon Fruits are grown in secure locations. The fruits are reserved for priests to perform magic rituals to their gods. The Therians of Feylisa also use Dragon Fruits for a ritual to welcome outsiders into their community.
by Adam Vesely
Ithonida cut one of the Chacha in half, revealing a white interior with many hundreds of seeds. she gave me one half and told me to eat, saying it would restore my mana. I bit into it, expecting some sort of exotic flavor to match the strange appearance of the fruit, but it was mildly sweet like a pear. I chewed on the seeds and swallowed it all. I even ate the skin, which was rather bitter, but I wanted every last bit of mana it would give me. I was so hungry I could eat ten of these wonderful fruits, but I was waiting to see where Ithonida was taking me.
"You should start feeling better now!" Ithonida said before she started eating her half of the fruit. I definitely was feeling my mana returning.When she ate the last of her half she started to explain that these fruits are excellent at gathering ambient mana out of the ground, and make for an excellent natural source of magic.
The adults eat these fruits freely. They are often the first food given to the children when they step out of the stone sanctuaries and into the wider Realm of Feylisa for the first time, charging their mana for the first time since they hatched. There's a special ritual and feast surrounding it and everything.
"What am I to you?" I asked, unsure of where this was going.
Ithonida put her hand on my shoulder and we stopped, "Ren, you are a child that entered one of the most dangerous places on Vreathe wanting to prove yourself. A week after you stole one of my eggs and surviving my wrath. Then you returned, asking for death. I am just simply trying to have you take a different path. A Descendant of the Elder Goddess shouldn't give up that easily. Neither should a Vernador. The Kingdom of Cassel is going to need you, much more than you know."
"I don't think I said I was--" I was cut off by Ithonida.
"Hush child and let me finish. I am offering you a choice. You can go back into the desert and die if you wish, Though considering you survived my dragon fire and those crystal guardians, it will be of painful starvation. Or, you can stay here. Let's say for one year. You said you wanted to prove your worth to your country. I will show you how."
Ritual
The ritual involving these fruits is to accept outsiders into the Therian community, whether it is of young Therians coming out of the stone sanctuaries for the first time, or of total outsiders that were invited to the Realm of Feylisa.
The ritual is always performed at the same location, at a great domed building in the center of Neteria, the capital city of the Therians. In this building are four dragon priests, each one representing a different Elder God. They will magically charge four different dragon fruits while chanting prayers from the elder god they represent. Outsiders will bite into these fruits, gaining knowledge and magic power, gaining enlightenment of a sort.
Therian children do not have a name until they become adults. This ritual is when they choose that name. Other Outsiders are also given the opportunity to choose a new name. After they successfully complete the ritual, they are accepted into the Therian community.
While this ritual seems harmless and straightforward, many outsiders often die from taking part in it. The stresses of accepting large amounts of magic and knowledge is often too much for the body and mind to bear. About 10% of all Therian children die in taking part in the ritual. Very rarely do humans survive the ritual unless they are half-elves or descended from one of the gods. Therians do not care about this risk or how it affects those they invite into their community. They respect strength and willpower above all else, and if you have none, you are worthless to them.
I did actually think about going back to the desert, but, this dragon lady was right. I didn't know my way out, the now dead explorers I hired were the ones that knew. It really would have been just to die...
After agreeing to Ithonida's terms, She led me to the center of Neteria, to a large stone building, covered in marble like the rest of Neteria. The Inside looked the same. The ceiling was in the shape of a large dome, with a cutout allowing the realms unique sunlight to filter through.
In the center of the temple was an altar, and there were four Therians standing around it. They each had differently colored robes and their cloaks were also styled differently. Instead of appearing like a window into the night sky, three of them had cloaks that seemed to cut into the morning, noon, and evening skies, but they were not the violet skies of Feylisa, but of the blue skies of Vreathe. I never learned their names, so instead I'm going to refer to them as the morning, noon, evening, and night priests.
"Is this the one?" The Noon Priest asked.
"Yes," Ithonida responded, "This is the Vernador Princess, the half-elf descendant of the Elder Goddess Nora. She thinks of herself as Cassel's Scion of Fire"...Okay, at this point, I think she was reading my mind or something, because I never told her any of those things.
"Good, and you have the fruits we require," The night priestess pointed at the ground, "Renelle Vernador, come stand right here." I did as I was asked, standing a few feet from the altar.
"We use this ritual to accept outsiders." The night priestess continued, "Almost always, it is of our children when they leave the stone sanctuaries and enter Feylisa for the first time." The Night priestess took a fruit from Ithonida and the other three priests did the same. "We are going to be charging these fruits with the cardinal magics. As you eat these, you will be gaining power and knowledge that very few on Vreathe will ever know."
The four priests then started charging the fruits with mana I could not recognize. Or...no, it wasn't mana. It was Aether! It was the primordial energy of the universe, the stuff the Elder Gods were made of. As they charged the fruits, they started to give off their own light, and they started to glow different colors, until the fruits appeared to be cutting windows into the sky similar to the cloaks we were wearing.
Each of the priests were chanting in a language I could not understand. Ithonida was standing beside me explaining to me what they were chanting, "Each of these fruits and the magic charged within represents a different Elder God: the morning fruit, of the Goddess Yanneth; the Day Fruit, of the God Alom; the Evening Fruit, of the God Tarcur; and the Night Fruit, of the Goddess Nora."
Ithonida paused for a moment, then said "After you eat these, it is tradition for the children to choose a name, but you already have a name, if you wish to keep it."
The Morning Priestess then approached me, holding her fruit, she said "cognoscere vitae". I took the fruit and bit into it. It tasted completely different from how it originally was. It was sour. I closed my eyes involuntarily. When I opened them again, I was not in the room. My vision changed entirely, and I was looking around what appeared to be a woodland area.
The vision went away quickly and I was standing in the temple again. I nearly lost my balance, but Ithonida caught me. "Three more fruits to go," She said.
The Afternoon Priest approached me, holding his fruit, he said "cognoscere spatii". I took this fruit after hesitating, I bit into it. It tasted spicy. I closed my eyes again and when I opened them, I was looking at Vreathe from an impossibly high distance. I felt as if I was an eagle flying in the clouds above the world. This vision also disappeared rather quickly.
The Evening Priest approached me, holding his fruit, he said "cognoscere mortem". This was the fruit of Tarcur, the evil god. I hesitated, but then I bit into this one as well. It was bitter, more than anything I've ever eaten! I shut my eyes tight, and then opened them again, but, this time, I saw nothing. It was absolute darkness. There was no sound, no senses of feeling or anything. It was as if I became nothing. This vision lasted an uncomfortably long time.
The Night Priestess then approached me, holding her fruit, she said "cognoscere infinitum". I bit into this fruit. It had no flavor at all. When I blinked, my vision didn't change. But then, I started to move. I felt myself leave my body and I floating above the floor of the temple. I floated up through the opening in the ceiling. I floating above the city of Neteria and the Realm of Feylisa. Then I floated higher, until I hit the edge of the sky.
I hit a wall of water and found myself floating through the ocean, then I went through the other side and found myself floating above Vreathe. The world was a perfect sphere and looked nothing like the maps I knew. Then Vreathe started to shrink, until it was nothing but a dot, and then that disappeared. The Sun also grew small and dim. The stars all around me were moving around. All at once I could percieve everything there ever was, the entire universe!
I tried to peer beyond the universe itself, but something was warning me not to, that a truth like that would be too great for me. Accepting that I shouldn't, I closed my eyes and felt myself moving at impossibly fast speeds back to my body.
I opened my eyes again, and realized I was back at the temple, laying on the floor. Ithonida was kneeling beside me. She said the ritual was complete. The night priestess said I needed to choose a name still.
Ithonida helped me to my feet. I then stated my name: "I am Princess Renelle Sela Vernador of North Cassel!"
Good job giving life to a real fruit in your world.