Fleshfruit

"*That fleshfruit tree is an alien thing . . . I do not like to look at it, but the fruits are…real. The tree itself is grotesque.*"
―Augus Each Uisge[[The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague, Chapter 33: Soul Crying]]
**Fleshfruit** is a unique tree in the fae realm that Mosk Manytrees created through his magic in Dharnam, in order to provide Augus Each Uisge and Ash Glashtyn a food source when they couldn't access humans and were slowly starving to death. The Glashtyn came up with the idea. After the battle with Olphix, Mosk planned to travel to Dharnam to destroy the fleshfruit.

## Physical Description

The tree flowers with 'strange, skin-coloured things', and are filled 'with blood, encased in sacks of flesh'. The fruit is the size of a grapefruit.

Without fruit, buds grow on it, and 'strange skin-petalled flowers, wrinkling and blood-red towards the centre.' None of it is green. 'The trunk looked like it was twisted up bone, a veneer of skin dried over it. There were no obvious leaves. The twigs looked like fingerbones.'

## Abilities

The fruit itself is human, and served at least some fae who need to feed on humans as an alternate food source. Augus noted fleshfruit is 'much better than fae blood even with the Raven Prince’s charm. Though unfortunately, nothing will substitute living human flesh. But… one can almost have a life with those fruits'.

It does not require pollination in order to flower.

## Quotations

* To Augus: ‘I wish I could grow more for other fae, but I don’t know if I can,’ Mosk said. ‘I don’t even know if that one should exist. I don’t know what I did to make it, but it doesn’t feel right. I think the Raven Prince once said it’s unnatural for us to exist in the first place with this much magic, and we have to learn to make peace with the things we make that don’t quite fit in with the rest of nature. But one day I will destroy that fleshfruit, and the world will be a better place for it.'

## Trivia

* Creating the tree - an original plant as well as something that was part 'plant, part animal' - was so hard that it made Mosk sick. Mosk noted that 'something about what he was doing was repellent to the very core of his being, and he knew that even if this worked, there was something terrible here, and he’d have to destroy it one day.' Gwyn ap Nudd also acknowledged the danger of the fleshfruit's existence, and kept it secret.
* Mosk and Gwyn worked on a charm that 'helps the fleshfruit grow fruit more easily'.
* Mosk did not destroy it before leaving Dharnam.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 31 March 2022. https://archiveofourown.org/works/26266345/chapters/95108674. Chapter 29: Invention.
2. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 5 August 2022. https://archiveofourown.org/works/26266345/chapters/102269367. Chapter 40: A New Season.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 28 April 2022. https://archiveofourown.org/works/26266345/chapters/96646797. Chapter 31: Two Hundred Years.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 not\_poignant. "The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague." *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 14 April 2022. https://archiveofourown.org/works/26266345/chapters/95883649. Chapter 30: I Hated It All.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 26 May 2022. https://archiveofourown.org/works/26266345/chapters/98170593. Chapter 33: Soul Crying.
6. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 21 July 2022. https://archiveofourown.org/works/26266345/chapters/101357655. Chapter 37: This Is My Power.