Submission (#5877) Approved

To sit at the lake's edge, toes barely submersed in the water to really connect herself to the natural world was a luxury. In her paws rests a freshly picked pyre flower, whose petals were made up of three natural shades of warmth that crawled upon each other to form a spire of color. Twisting this flower in the sunlight at just the right angle proved that the name fit the flora quite literally -- a false sense of fire burning from the reflecting light made this quite the popular gift to young kittoms everywhere. Once she's tired of twirling the plucked flower, Ramona gingerly plucks petal to petal, allowing the bright crimson red to scatter ripples on the clear water below. Not only was fire a contributing factor for their popularity, but the superstition of academic luck that followed through when one was said to wish on all the petals in a region such as prestegious as this one was another focal point of interest. Leaning forward to submerse the lower half of her body in the water, Ram glides effortlessly through the crystal clarity beneath her.

Pyre flowers grow on the edge of lakes, just before water meets land. They grow in clusters of at least four or more, each trailing off of a conjoined stem. She knows this because in her efforts across the lake was a bushel of many more of these flowers, allowing her to make her own deductions from passing word of what fellow elnin had said in the great city of Il'durahn. The strange appearance of their bulbed forms made the kittom grin, noting that they looked like little red peppers nestled together, but what was truly breathtaking was how they looked when withering away. Almost like the wonderment of a fabled phoenix dropping from the sky, the petals of a pyre flower seemed to lose their elasticity and droop to create a myraid of gradually dulling tendrils. The color fades from the pointed tips all the way in to the center, where the last remaining bits of color subside. Like a matchstick going out, the kittom pinches a withered petal between two fingers and rolls it around. She gasps in soft shock, the comments never spoke on how warm these petals were when they were giving out and it reminds her of a tender flame.

There was beauty in all that was around her, but these sure were a sight to behold.