As soon as the bones fell apart, the half elf fell to a knee and laid his hand on Markus throat. With the other he performed the movements, which Julia recognised as moderate healing. As the half elf finished the movements and put the other hand also on Markus' throat, he seemed to mutter a small pray. A white light shone from his palms and the whole of Markus neck glowed.

As the light faded away and the half elf removed his hands, Julia could see what was just ripped skin with blood pouring out was now healed over and surprisingly clean. As he stood up, the half elf was muttering under his breath.

"Bloody things have been causing us trouble all month. Do the king's mages bother to come check it out? Oh no. We are inside the taint barrier. No way it could be evil. Must be a bunch of priests not able to handle wolves." With that he spat on to the pile of bones and turned towards Julia.

"Are you alright, well clearly not with that amount of blood loss, so I guess I'm asking, do you need me to heal you as well or are you capable of it your self?"

Julia stood there for a second, hand clenched to the back of her neck, before she seemed to snap back to her senses.

"ah, er, no im good thanks.".

Julia again flicked her wrist and performed another few gestures, similar to the priest but slightly different,

before her hands also glowed with a white light. With that, she clasped both hands to her neck and then slowly removed them once the glowing had subsided. The wound had healed over, however Julia still looked pale and weakened.

The priest watched this before gesturing to Markus and bending down to him.

"Would you mind helping me get him into the church?"

Julia nodded and hurried over to help move Markus unconscious form.

A few hours past before Markus finally came to. His vision was blurry and his eyes were disagreeing on what they should be focusing on. His hand jerked to his neck. He could feel no damage or scars. He realised that he was no longer wearing his armour, glancing around he noticed it was in a small pile next to the bed which he lay in. Once his eyes agreed that focusing was something they were up for, Markus swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat up.

He realised that he was inside the old church they had seen earlier, in fact he was inside the main and only room of the church and what he was lying was actually a pew with a sheet over it rather than a bed. Looking around, Markus noticed there was an elderly elf nelt in front of an alter with a few candle on top.

Noticing that Markus was finally awake, julia wondered over to him.

"You okay now?"

Markus rubbed his throat again before nodding. It was already becoming a habit. Soon the half elf priest came over and joined the two.

"Well, you seem to back in working order. Your friend was telling me about your, well here, little quest. The whole things like a stupid idea to me. However i do happen to know where you can find one of the things you seek."

By now the priest seemed to have a glint in his hazelnut eyes and a smile on his face.

"I know where a sleeping tree be at."

Markus stood up and started to put his armour back on, starting with the chain mail.

"I also think that the quest is a bit ridiculous but julia wants to do it and dragged me along. Not much i can do about that. So im guessing we won't be getting the place of this tree for free are we?"

The priest continued to smile.

"Well it won't cost you much really, in fact its more of a bounce to you guys really."

At this point the elf priest had walked over to Markus as well.

"Just tell them you want to travel with them and get it over with Garry!"

The elf then turned to and started walking away whilst muttering to himself. It was something about 'the youth these days' however no one was paying the old elf any attention. Julia seemed to be contemplating the idea whilst Markus had a slightly confused look on his face.

"Why would you want to travel with us of all people?"

Garry shrugged and went to reply however he was cut off by julia telling him that he could travel with them for a while but it couldn't be forever. Then she promptly walked out the church yelling behind her for the two to catch up. Markus and Garry just looked at each other before they both set off after her. As they left the church, Garry picked up a twisted oak staff.

It was a reasonably straight staff however the wood which made it up twisted around itself and had a few knots in before it got to the top where it was flattened and smoothed. Engraved in the side was the same sign as above the church door, with an emerald in the middle. Garry swung the quarterstaff on to his back as he chased after his newly found companions.

They continued on their journey, this time in the correct direction, towards a Sleeping tree. The group made camp in the woods for the night then continued on their way, chatting as they did so. It was mid afternoon on the second day when the group finally got to clearing in the woods. It was quite a large clearing, you could fit two or three houses buildings snugly inside however in the center stood a tall and what looked like burnt tree.

The tree had brown leaves which seemed like they would fall to ash if touched. The trunk itself was grey and scared. Bits of bark had fallen off in places to reveal blackened wood beneath. The earth surrounding the trunk was bare, supporting no other plant life for a good few meters around the base of the trunk. As the party drew closer, they could see someone had been digging at the base if the tree. There was a pile of dirty to one side and there several exposed roots could be seen in the hole.

Julia rushed forwards and crouched down at the side of the hole. She pulled a small knife out of the pouch around her waist and started to cut at one of the roots. Markus hung back eyeing up the tree.

"Are you sure it's safe? I mean look at how all other plants seem to avoid it."

Markus was stood right at the edge of the grass, however he did not move of it.

"Dont worry yourself. It won't harm us since we won't be here long enough."

As Garry spoke, he reached up and was picking things from the branches. They appeared to be small buds which were grey in colour. He picked about two handfuls and put them in his satchel before returning to stand next to markus. Noticing Markus' puzzled look, garry quickly explained that they were a useful ingredient in some potions and that he had been running low.

With a triumphant cheer, Julia stood up and put her knife back into her pouch before rushing over to the boys who were still stood on the closest patch of grass. She was practically beaming from ear to ear and was very nearly jumping up and down on the spot. She unclasped her hand to reveal a small gnarled root, about a finger in length, in her palm.

"Think that this will be good enough?"

All three of them leaned in and peered at the small root in Julia's hand. A few seconds pasted before they all looked up.

"I think it's good enough." Markus said with garry agreeing. With that Julia carefully put the root into her pouch on her belt with her knife.

"Right then, where to next and what for?"

Noticing Julia looking puzzled, Garry spoke up.

"There is a small village not that far from here and it's got an inn. We could go stay the night and figure out where to go next in the morning after a decent night's sleep."

Markus could see that Julia wanted to protest because she was biting her lip. However she couldn't think of any real reason, let alone a good reason, for while they should keep on going other than because she wanted to. Eventually she agreed and the three set off following Garry again. Markus really hoped they didn't make it into a habit.