The Plant of Living Flame

As we all know, tree blood is combustable.

What's that, you say? Tree blood? Flammable? Who-what-how?

Well it's simple, really. Tree blood (aka, sap) and its derivatives are highly flammable. Ever heard of turpentine? There ya' go.

I am telling you this, best beloved, so that you will better understand what I will tell you next. Perhaps you have heard of the phoenix? That legendary bird who, once every five hundred years, bursts into flames, only to rise up again from it's own ashes? Have you ever wondered what such a creature might subsist on? I shall tell you.

High on the tallest of mountain-peaks, far above the ordinary tree line, in complete and utter solitude, there grows a plant of living flame: the pyre-tree. The leaves of this tree glow with such an incandescent heat that no other living creature (save the phoenix) can approach it. Each day, over and over again, the leaves smolder away into nothing, only to be re-sprouted from their own ruins. It is upon the fruit of this tree that the voracious phoenix dines.

But this tree is more than just a source of sustenance- it is also where the phoenix makes it's nest. Most trees, you understand, are prone to exploding if the phoenix alights for too long (this is why, in the stories, the hero always sees them just flying away)- but to the pyre-tree, itself burning hotter than an ordinary fire, the phoenix is like any other bird- except that the phoenix can, in return, withstand the heat of the tree. Furthermore, the phoenix finds the frigid temperatures of the thin mountain atmosphere to be especially comfortable to sleep in.

(Fire)