The Flower Fox is a small mammal found in the Kessian Deserts and the southern reaches of the Sinak Plains.
Its most distinctive feature is it’s incredibly colorful and bright tail that constantly sprouts a variety of flowers, such as the Acasa and Kaseas flowers found in the Kessian Deserts.
As a very small species of animal, the Flower Fox is incredibly shy and when confronted with anything remotely threatening it will to run as fast possible, up 50 km/h in the opposite direction, easily outpacing all other desert predators on land. It's wide paws and gait are perfectly adapted to run through dry grasses, and rough terrain but its can also maintain the same speeds over loose sand. Its pale short coat of fur, large ears, and specialised kidneys have also adapted to the baking heat of desert environments. They have exceptional hearing and can hear rain approaching from miles away. They can also spend several days without drinking at a water source and can sustain themselves from the dew collected by their flowering tails.
Its main predator is the Blue Tailed Hawk, one of the only creatures capable of matching the Flower Foxes speed and agility.
In the wild, Flower Foxes live in some of the harshest locations on Calera, often living deep within the scorching sands of the Kessain Desert interior. They can be found further north but if anything these Flower Foxes are even rarer and are the subject of many myths and legends by local cultures.
The Flower Fox enjoys a broad range of food stuffs, typically eating what it can, when it can find it. It's favorite meal is insects like ants, termites, scorpions and spiders but it will occasionally hunt small rodents and even snakes when desperate. The Flower Fox will also drink cactus water, and feed from flowering plants and flowers as it wanders the deserts, these types of food however seem to supplement the Flower Foxes diet and the myth that Flower Foxes are part plant, requiring only sunlight and water to survive is false.
While speculation into the evolution and creation of such a creature has yet to offer any meaningful theories, the Flower Fox is very clearly a bizarre mixture of both animal and plant species. Closer examination of Flower Fox and most importantly their tail, shows that they can excrete the perfect chemical mixture that allows a few select plant species to grow directly onto the tail itself.
In addition the Flower Fox is notably a creature that instinctively and continuously uses a small amount of magical energy to create a powerful fertility and reproductive effect on nearby plants. In fact their primary role in their natural habitat, involves spreading pollen, fertilizing plants and carrying seeds and nuts throughout the Kessian Deserts.
The Flower Fox is prized by the indigenous peoples of the Kessian Deserts and for much of prehistory they were worshipped as the messengers of the ancient Kessian Pantheon. It wasn't until the rise of the Early Kessian Kingdom that the Flower Fox was domesticated over several centuries. Even then the Flower Fox was bred primarily for the ruling dynastic kings and queens and was rarely seen outside royal gardens and palaces.
Since the fall of the Kessian Kingdom, Flower foxes have become even rarer, only a single noble house of old Kessian Blood retains a few breeding families of the creature and they sell a single Flower Fox every 10 years to the highest bidder in a grand auction outside the city of Almoc. Domesticated breeds of Flower Fox have unusual fur colours, ranging from blues, pinks, reds and greens, including many different patterns of alongside these colours.
In addition to its speed and adaptation to desert life, the Flower Fox is also a very clever animal for its size, able to understand languages if exposed to commands and phrases early in its life. Wild Flower Foxes are just as clever but rarely interact with humans. The process of catching wild Flower Foxes is usually futile or leads to the Flower Fox mounting elaborate escapes.
