#Inktober Day 7 - Exhausted / Apple

Exhausted and Apple

Like the roses of the legendary Flame Gardens, the apples of the Celestial Orchard are a highly-desired delicacy. The trees on which these apples grow are magnificent specimens, standing hundreds of metres tall, on high altitude mountains.

Protected by entities who might otherwise be considered demigods or primal avatars, the Celestial Orchard is a realm of rampant virulent life. But such life is inherently vegetative, animals who linger in the area for too long have their souls and energies drained to nourish the huge trees and their sacred fruit.

In the time it takes most intruders to climb the giant fruit trees, or even see the fruit, the psychic drain has already begun. In most cases, it's only the swiftest flyers can reach the fruit fast enough to avoid succumbing to the drain; but the most successful pickers of the fruit are the sloth totems, who exert such low levels of energy, and conserve their speed. Though they live in a state of perpetual exhaustion, they eat enough of the fruit to live forever. 

Note: The laws of physics vary from demi-plane to demi-plane, and don't necessarily make complete coherent sense. Most say this is because the spirit world draws on the dreams and beliefs of mortals in the central physical realm, where the strongest beliefs and dreams derive from those with the strongest creativity, and the weakest grasp of science. Don't try to make logical sense of it, the spirit realm doesn't work that way.