Skrus

**Overview**

The skrus is a plant that thrives in extreme regions, most notably the mountains and the desert. However, there are two different variants of the plant, meaning a desert skrus is unable to survive in the mountains, and a mountain skrus is unable to survive in the desert. Both plants look the exact same, save for the color of the plant’s leaves.

The leaves are said to carry a mild amount of spice, and the wood of a skrus is rather flexible, being commonly used by those capable of properly harvesting it to make tools such as bows. The leaves of the plant can be used in poisons to essentially burn the inside of the drinker’s mouth due to the spice they carry. However, the leaves are also rumored to be capable of actually soothing burns, despite the spicy nature of them.

It is also said that the seeds of a skrus are able to be brewed into a potion capable of letting someone survive in the extreme temperatures of the mountains or a desert/volcano, depending on which variant the seed(s) come from. Despite this, it has not been truly tried yet, so the rumor is yet to be proven.

**Anatomy**

The skrus is, in many ways, a bush. It can reach heights of roughly six feet and has many branches that split off of the trunk of the bush. These branches make it difficult for even small animals such as birds to nest in the plant as there is very little room to form the nest, with branches even splitting into their own branches. Also on the branches are sharp thorns, which are actually stingers akin to those found on a jellyfish’s tentacles. Upon being touched, the stinger will lodge itself into the skin of its victim, with the rest being shot out in an attempt to further lodge tiny thorn-like entities into the skin of the victim.

The plant is covered by thick leaves that provide an outer shell for the plant’s protection, as well as being responsible for taking in sunlight for photosynthesis. The leaves, oddly enough, are white for the desert variant and yellow for the mountain variant, making them stand out like a sore-thumb. The leaves are often harvested by skilled farmers or herbomancers, and are then used as a seasoning for certain dishes due to being mildly spicy, another defensive mechanism for the plant due to its easy visibility.

The plant reproduces by spraying seeds over the nearby area or letting the winds and water carry them. Near the top of the bush is a series of small holes that are hidden by few leaves, leaving room for the holes to be exposed. When it is time for the plant to reproduce, seeds will spray out of these holes and into the sky, before being carried to their new location by wind currents or landing in water and being carried downstream. In the mountains, it is uncommon to find a group of skri in one specific area, due to the strong wind currents. However, in the desert, it is very easy to find skri in great amounts from a lack of strong wind currents to move the seeds far from the parent plant.

**Variants**

The plant is seen in both the mountain and desert regions, surviving much like how a member of the Archaea kingdom can survive in the most extreme regions. The skri that inhabit the mountains typically bear yellow leaves, while also having more leaves to protect it from the heavy winds and snowfall. If one were to look deeper into the plant’s anatomy, they’d find that the roots of a mountain skrus are thicker and grow deeper into the soil, further protecting it from the winds which may otherwise uproot it and blow it away, killing the plant. As the mountains are often covered in snow, the roots of the skrus are also known to, in addition to digging deep beneath the surface, grow directly under the snow, being visible if one were to dig away the white sheet of solidified rain. Due to this, the skrus can draw in water from the snow sheet around it, having an easy supply of water. The mountains, while they may block out the sun, don’t seem to have that much of an impact on the skrus. As the white snow reflects the sun’s light, this in turn allows the skrus to absorb the light from underneath it, using the reflected light to go through photosynthesis. However, it should also be noted that mountain skri grow in higher locations, such as the peak of Solus Mountain, where the sun itself can reach the plant’s leaves.

Desert skri bear white leaves, which reflects excess light and keeps the plant from burning in the hot desert. The roots of the desert skri are thinner but deeper into the ground, as well as splitting into more branches compared to the mountain skri, in order to draw up the water hidden beneath the sands of the desert. To add to the plant’s ability to survive are archaeans, tiny single-celled organisms that prefer to live in incredibly hot or incredibly toxic environments. These organisms feed off of the desert skri, eating away at a few of the leaves for the plant. From this, a desert skrus takes on the appearance of a short fir tree with more branches that make it impossible to get close to the plant’s base, but with fewer leaves.