Fire Melons

Phew! A bite of that'll wake you up!

— Chandra, Awakened Hunter.

Fire Melons belong to the Elemelon family and share the general shape of the water melon, but thrives in sand and heat. The hotter it is, the better for the Fire Melon. For those who live or travel the desert, the humble melon provides a vital source of both food and water.

Description

The Fire Melon has the form of a melon, with orange through red shades on its skin with blazing yellow to white lines. Its flesh is deep scarlet but lightens towards the edges, with bright red seeds. The flesh is juicy and filled with water, but the taste of both fruit and water is sharp and very spicy. The size of a fire melon range from no larger than a head to the size of a torso, depending on where it grows. It grows from dark hued vines that dig into sand and soil, with no leaves. When the shell of the fire melon starts to form budding protrusions, it has matured enough to harvest or eat.

Traits

Unlike most plants, Fire Melons thrive in heat. It grows in arid, hot lands and deserts in particular. Heat makes the Fire Melon grow in proportion and taste, becoming increasingly spicier in hotter climates. They grow in clusters dotted here and there in the deserts, often forming small islands of life with other plants growing near or on them while wild animals frequent those areas to eat or drink.

Even the shell of the Fire Melon has its use. Once dried, the shell ignites easy and is often used to as a fire starter.

In some places, the Fire Melons are actively farmed but these tend to grow smaller and less vibrant: too many melons in the same place reduce taste and size. Even so, orchards of Fire Melons are common sights in and around any settlement in the desert. The fruits handle cold very poorly and will shrivel up in a matter of hours or days, depending on the cold. Such fire melons are not edible.

Story and Narratives

The most common story of the Fire Melon is that of bounty in unexpected places and subverting the norm. Themes of fire, heat, spice and deserts are integral to the Fire Melon's narrative.
Other common narratives are
Succor in the sands for travelers lost deep in the deserts or arid plains.
Unexpected comedy when an unwary or unknowing person takes a bite of the spicy-packed Fire Melon and reacts accordingly.

Elemelons

The Elemelons are a family of fruit in Quentriandal that consist of the water melon, the earth melon, the fire melon, the air melon and the wood melon. They are found across Quentriandal and each have their own elemental theme and taste.

Seed-Spice

The seeds of the Fire Melon can be harvested, dried and ground into a bright red powder with a taste similar to that of the flesh of the melon: sweet and spicy. The spice is traded far and wide across Quentriandal, being particularly popular in colder climate where the fruit itself fares poorly.

Death By Spice
'The hotter, the better' is only true to a point. Fire Melons that grow in the hottest desert like the Ember Dunes can grow so spicy that grown men and women are reducing to weeping and babbling for such is the sensation.
This, of course, has made eating them one of the traditional ways of proving courage, toughness and poor decision making.

Rumors

There are whispers that the Fire Melon is not something conjured by the Dreaming World, but a plant made by one of the Awakened. The most common name attached to its creation is that of Sunlit Rose, though she has not been seen or heard from for decades.