The Saulberry

The term loud would not do justice to the sound of the miracle of Saulkement. I can only describe the sound as enormous. The miracle started, in the manner which I had been taught miracles happen, it was quiet and any meaning it may have had was ambiguous. I and several members of my brother-in-law's household were gathered in a tight huddle on a frozen rocky beach, I was trying to set fire to a pile of seal of dung in order to cook the fish that natives had given us, when the sun broke through the clouds and a warm breeze rolled off the glacier to our backs. When I felt warm dry air spill over a wall of ice I turned around with thoughts racing in a state close to panic. I would not have been surprised to see Dahkturin himself standing there ready to consume us all in his liquid fire, but instead I saw the noise of the miracle. The sound lifted my empty stomach into my lungs and rustled my nose and lips so harshly that I sneezed. I was standing before the cry of the glacier receding, as far as I could see to the east and west, the glacier was moving backwards away from the shore. As the glacier moved back, it momentarily revealed a barren black rocky soilless ground, but then to the east and the west there were small blue-green leaves sprouting up through earth. This could not have not taken more than few heart beats, because I remember when I saw the leaves I inhaled for the first time since the sound forced the wind out of me.

Within a minute the glacier was a mile inland from the shore and the sprouting leaves had turned into shrubberies as high as a man's knee and as wide as a hog with child. These plants were twisty rounded plants with a tight shell of blue-green leaves that completely occluded any view of the central stalk. In addition to the blue-green leaves the plants were also covered in bright purple berries. The entire household stood stunned, but I realized that we had been offered something by the Gods. I stepped forward slowly one foot after another and picked a berry.

The berry was firm, perfectly round and plump. It had thick glossy skin and a very short stem. I place it gently on my tongue, tasting nothing and then rolled it around my mouth before bitting. My eyes immediately screwed shut and I recoiled slightly. I heard my sister gasp. The berry was extremely tart, but not bitter or unpalatable. I chewed it slowly finding a small pit, which I also swallowed. After the initial tartness the experience of sweetness took over, it was so sugary that I could feel a small trail of syrup hanging on to the back of my tongue, and I felt refreshed. I picked and ate another one.

Rachel the 1st

The Saulberry is a small round sugary tart berry endemic to the Islands of Saulkement in Northern Decathros. It was created by the God Saulke as part of his offerings to the Vartnadale exiles. The residents of Saulkement use the berry extensively, eating it raw, drying it, cooking it into numerous dishes and making wine and liquor from the berry. The berry bush is prolific, growing over almost any terrian quickly and if not controlled will dominate a land scape. In order to grow other crops the Saulkement residences must burn or slash the berry thickets, though the shrub has no thorn, in order to protect the other crops.