:: Random Item—Froggy's Fire ::

Froggy’s Fire

by Wm Jay Carter III, 6/12/15

a ranai

Beverages: Muddy Water

Culture: Ranai

Condition: Intact, Small

Color: Pink

Keyword: Wild Fire

The celebrating ranai pull you in for a drink. One of them tosses you a thimble-sized glass bottle stoppered with a tiny bulbed cork. Inside, you see what you assume to be slightly bloody muddy water. As you consider the wisdom of drinking such a gift, the ranai go back to toasting with the stuff, downing the contents of their bottles in a flash. Thinking such a small bottle of anything couldn’t possibly do much harm, you yank off the cork, toast to whatever the Ranai were toasting, and knock back the drink.

Immediately, you feel as though the ground has been lit on fire, the searing pain shooting up toward your head, causing you to jump into the air on impulse. Next, your hands feel as though they have been plunged into acid, the resulting unpleasantness following the searing pain. Just as you begin dreading the idea of what might happen next, the discomfort suddenly stops, and you realize one of your legs has shot out at an embarrassing angle, your hands are curled up in pain, and your face has frozen with a look of horror.

The ranai laugh at you.

Among the ranai, the combination of fly’s blood and swamp water is a favored drink, especially when fermented inside empty peanut shells for well close to a ranai’s lifetime. Traditionally, ranai parents will be gifted a full shell of the concoction for each of their tadpoles that hatches, which is kept unopened until the child is old enough to enjoy it. Drinking it literally warms the toes and fingers, gradually spreading comfort throughout the body, leaving the drinker with a spirit of contentedness and good cheer.

The everyday version of the drink is brewed in far less time, resulting in a curious side effect: the warming sensation is much more intense, and more sudden, and the speed at which it spreads is often compared to wildfire, earning it the nickname Froggy’s Fire among tavern-crawlers.

Good for a laugh at a rival’s expense, a challenge with a seasoned drinker, or a hard way to end a hard day, Froggy’s Fire is certainly the toughest—if the smallest—drink in the Ranai Forest.