Trelaine arrives at the fairly untidy area of woodland he keeps as a grove, there is very little sign that anyone has been here for several weeks although there is a larger than normal amount of small wildlife around than you would expect in normal woodland....As he approachs a squirrel runs up to him and up his leg, back and eventually perchs on his shoulder. 'Ah nutkin, I see you are keeping well...hows the family?' ....listening to the squirrels replies Trelaine grins before entering his small wood hut....'ahhh peace and quiet at last, prehaps a week or two before I take on any more apprentices don't you think'....nutkin doesn't reply but runs over to the pile of cooking pots..'You don't realy care do you?...just after a batch of acorn porrage as always'. I should have some acorns around here somewhere...Looking in his bag...'odd...wonder why this armours in here?'...Oh well I'm sure it'll be of use somewhere down the line....'now aha...acorns'....Starting to prepare some food Trelaine muse's...'I'm sure I was meant to be doing something now...I realy wish I could remember what it was'

After a large bowl or two of acorn porridge trelaine settles down to write a few notes in his journal..

'Dear Diary,
An interesting jaunt, Found some trolls...was like seeing a lot of big goblins after a few of those orange mushrooms...Pretty colours everywhere, Found some angels although I didn't take part in a strange ritual called...making an omelette which someone suggested...I presume a ritual from the pre-war days related to angels, Found Tree of Life, didn't get to see it though although I can imagine what it looks like.. Saw a big Dragon...Very impressive although I didn't want to mention that small dribble of green stuff from his nose in case he thought I was not respecting him enough.... Found spirit elves...stopped Ash beating up on spirit elves...he's very loud occasionally...Seemed to think I shouted at him...Don't think so...not like me at all... Anyway...Spiritelves very nice people.. although they told me I was dead...Something of a shock but if this is dead then life must be something wonderful and must try it sometime. Think i've been there before, recognised the scenery here and there...And the unique moss's they grow on the trees definately familiar....

Anyway Tree of life was well but Tree of unlife not well...well as well as a tree of unlife gets but not something that was good and nice and well for everything else...Shame had to cut it down...Prehaps a nice pruning would of made it a bit more helpful... Those undead realy don't know when treat a tree. Time was short however so cut it down and boom big flamy thing went off...Soots fault I think...Tree toasty same as my shoes...he could of given me more time to run away...

So generally very good...Would like to visit again, would be nice to find out how I died... Guess the lessions from Galrian were right, the circle of life thing is true and I'm proof of reincarnation...However I think I would of prefered to be a bird...Would be very nice to be able to fly about.


Anyway I've not had a chance to plant myself anyway for a while so think i'll dig myself a hole and bury myself for a few weeks... oh and a final note...Must remember next time i'm in town to buy some ink'

Trelaine finishes the last word of with a dramatic full stop manuveur on the page and looks at the blank page...'Yes, must get ink' he says before putting the book down, grabbing a shovel and heading off into the grove.

'Dear Diary,
Since I planted myself ankle deep in this rather fine patch of compost yesterday I have learned several important lessions...Firstly you should always check your planting site for moisture level.. A failure to do this combined with falling asleep shortly after planting has now left me waist deep in a rather boggy patch of ground....Secondly reading materials should always be carried when you are planning on being somewhere for some time.. As a result of failure to follow this second piece of advice has at least left me with a lot of time to stand and think about some rather important issues.

First as is becoming clear some sort of plant growth is taking over parts of my body, apparently something todo with the close connection I have with the land and the soul. However I got thinking, what sort of plant could I be...A tree, A small shrub...Prehaps related to lichen or even some sort of root vegetable...The latter has the most interesting possibilities...Could burying myself underground result in some sort of podding and there be more of me...Would certainly make parties a lot more fun to have several me's about...oh how we could talk about the old days when we played tricks on the shrubberys....I could even take a much more dramatic name...Galas Trelanee king of the Potato people...now surely that would make my enemies fear me....

Second I am begining to think that those I have associated with seem to be involved in some sort of violent endevour against those walking dead things....Quite rightly so but I realy must try to convince them that a more peaceful approach may be successful...I wonder if anyone has tried to talk those zombies into just giving up and accepting we are the best and they aren't....and that lich king they speak off...Well if I had a chance to have words with his mother I'm sure she'd put him over her knee even at his age because of the things he's done...

Anyway...Roots are settling in nicely now so I think i'll have another sleep for a bit...'

'Dear Diary...
Day two of being up to my waste in soil and i've discovered a problem, while trees and plants don't need the loo Druid's even when part plant apparently do...Will have to hold it in I guess or cut this planting session short.... While i'm sure it would be good for the soil and technically it's no worse than a nice pile of rotten plant matter the idea of self fertilisation is not one that appeals to me...besides i'm a little too far away from that large bush over there to get a leaf large enough to wipe...

The stars look pretty tonight...I do so much like the little group just passing my head right now...reminds me of a small horse being riden by a monkey wearing a pirate suit and charging towards that mushroom shaped dragon over to the left.. and the group over there to the right just dropping down behind my little hut is the spitting image of a mouse standing on a very small man..... I wonder if those townsmen stand around and do things like what I am now...they must be crazy if they don't but they are only human. Except that ogre chap Moregrill or whatever he's called.....strangest thing about the old boy is he looks different everytime I see him which is stange since generally ogres all looks the same to me.

I realy wish I'd brought more than one apple as my supplies for this, while the soil is fairly nice you get used to the eating thing....maybe soot will pass buy with someone of his bags of nuts...'

'Dear Diary,
For future reference the reason why page four of this diary is missing is related to the urgency for the toilet as mentioned in the page previous...needless to say details aren't required but I did discover that the pages of this tome are indeed quite strong and fairly absorbant.... Fortunately nothing of note realy went through my mind yesterday just a load of old phrases I assume were elven going by the grammer...Something to do with elemental stuff... I doubt would be of interest to anyone anyway, nothing that stuck in my head for longer than it took to write down anyway...

Something that should be of interest to most people is sensations, everyone gets them..pain, fear, hate that kind of thing...and in the last few months I've had my fair share of most....especially pain...the kind of pain that you often get when spears go through your body more than most...Realy must find myself a decent bodyguard...I wonder if nutkin could be trained to be some sort of guard squirrel? hmm must see how much rage he shows if i take away his nuts for a few hours.

But the sensation i've been feeling most of late is the cold clammy sensation of a family of worms setting up home in my socks...not an experience I initially enjoyed ..more to the point I'm wondering if they made a hole in the socks when they gained access to my toes...wool socks arent cheap...cost me 2 crown for this fine pair...not waterproof it seems..My feet are definately starting to feel some seepage. I wonder if trees enjoy the whole worm thing?...I suppose they must realy otherwise why would they stay in the ground...I realy think i'm getting to know my plants better by this hole thing....Why don't trees talk?...Well you try concentrating on what you are saying with a bunch of worms wiggling about in your clothing in places they shouldnt be... Why don't trees move around more??...well squidgy as it may be this soil is fairly comfortable...a dog quite happily lays by the fire until told to get out the way so why should a tree move when it's comfortable?

All enlightening stuff...you won't find this kind of proper research done by those elemental chaps in that big stone thingy they built...I doubt they would appreciate it if i said so but I think they whole place looks a bit like a giant stone jesters hat with all its pointy bits...Actually quite apt for them....When will they learn that this is the only way to learn...You must become what you use...That soot chaps got the right idea...why don't more of them become demon things....lack of style i guess...

Anyway...I think i've got some sort of breeding tangle forming in my left sock so as it's very hard to write with such wiggling I'll finish todays entry..'

'Dear Diary,
I have seen a great many sights in the last 3 years that I have found strange...no doubt I will of seen many before that if i can ever get them back in my head...I have seen the dead walk, creatures which drink blood, statues come to life and strike down my friends, plants which are designed to bring death, other plants which fight for their own brand of 'green power', I even saw an ogre turn spiritual and then walk inside an zombies pretending to be a ghost, I have seen images that may be gods, The very plance where nature is everything corrupted by the hand of dergo himself and more recently had my sock turned into a earthworms lovenest while I was still wearing it...all very strange indeed...nothing however could of prepared me for what happened first thing this morning...Image it..I'm there sound asleep basking in the morning sun when suddenly I wake up to a loud munching sound and find that my left nostril has bloomed a very pretty yellow flower...not only that but a caterpiller is currently munching it way through an attached group of leaves.

There are some things I had not prepared myself for and this to be honest was one of them.....canabalised by a caterpiller...oh how the skalds shall sing the tales of the mighty end of trelaine brought to his knees by the munching menace.... To be honest getting a little bored realy, stuck in the ground...I am the tree..I feel the tree yadda yadda yadda...realy wish I'd brought a few scrolls to read.....or something uber complex to translate...bit of practice never hurt anyone....except that Kyloris...he's totally lost it....two hours of practice and he's reading fire runes like he's a native...got to be mad to do that.....anyway got some digging to do...providing i can reach my shovel I'll be doing my next entry from slightly less muddy surroundings.'

Trelaine sits by the base of a nearby tree wiggling his bootless toes and singing quietly to himself...'I wiggle my toes, and I fuddle my brain...to much soil drives a elf insane, you muched my leaves, oh how I grieve...goodness gracious great balls of fire....dum dum de dum der.....' Reaching out past where he has left too rather disgusting socks he picks up his notebook and quill and starts to write.

'Dear Diary,
I have finally worked out how old I realy am, counting the wrinkles on my feet after standing in mud for a week and it quite clearly shows I am 63 years old....admittedly this is contrary to previous evidence but if it is a good enough method for trees then it's good enough for me...

The week in the mud has had several unfortunate side effects, firstly from my waist down my legs appear to of become a bit swollen in places and also been died a rather sickly shade of yellowish/brown...must be from the clay soil we have around here...It does unfortunately mean I currently look like my lower half is covered in a rather unhealthy batch of slugs..I think i'll wait a while before retuning to town in the hope it fades...

Secondly I'm starving, could murder a plate of cookies pears and cream.. Obviously those roots I can grow while good for short term sustinance do not provide enough to keep me going in the long run, unfortunate but good to know ahead of time...I wonder if they would do better if I found myself a better grade of soil to bed down in.

Third and finally I appear to have an infestation of barkrot...must get around to clearing that up before I spread it to half the forest...strange I thought it could only get passed during pollonation...I do hope that oak over there wasn't getting frisky with me while I was sleeping.'

Trelaine finishes that days entry and starts on a fresh batch of porridge.

'Dear Diary...
Today is a day of failure, after several hours of training I have finally decided that squirrels cannot be trained to sing in tune....I had hoped that I may be able to get each to shrill a certain note so i could make tunes by pointing at each in turn..It turns out they are pretty much tone deaf and as for timing...I won't even start....

That has taken up most of my day so very little else to write about, however a thought did pop into my mind...Since the old memory doesn't seem to be entirely stable right now and there is always the chance it all just pops out my head again I thought I had best make a few notes and comments about those people I have met
so that if I meet them again I know if I should trust them or not....

Who first though..well going back to the first few people I met all those months ago there are very few still around so I shall start today with a few of them.

Firstly ZZZZZZeeeeeeeee Great Didde Hammand....Now he is a complex soul I find...First of all he seems dedicated to the cause of his lady, but put a queue of ladies before him and he'll quite happily serve them all one at a time or preferably in groups. He does occasionally seem to have more than one passion in life however and does fight well when his friends need him to so quite a useful chap to have around, although not within earshot though for he speaks with ze language most terribla, wizz ze's and zere's and zo's everyzere....it affectz ze mind and cauzez all around to ztart ze speaking in zith way....

Now another complex person in Avian, The most heavy waisted air creature I have ever met...First he drinks ze blood, zhen he doesn't....opps I think i've been trapped by that french bug again....But yes Avian...he's dead, he comes back again...starts off as solid as a wall now he's an air creature....It is only made worse by the fact I can't work out if he's a mage or a fighter as he seems to switched between just about anything as we go along...and people call me mixed up.

Finally Smut...now what in the name of all nature is he doing with those horns...I think he's some sort of half fire demon thing...Now that can't be natural...how did his parents do the act without the non-demon being incinerated for one thing....I don't pretend to understand demons and angels and all that but if the images in my mind I get while thinking about this are anything to go by I don't think I want to... But anyway despite the horns and demonness he seems a jolly good egg...best not stand to close though and if he tries to use his healing spell on you best to kick him in the fireballs....

If I remember I'll do a few more tomorrow.'

'Dear Diary
Another quiet day today, Am thinking maybe it's time to pop back to town to see if anything of interest has happened of interest...It's strange but that place has days and days where nothing happens then half a dozen uber nasties pop up at once...Most displeasant, just the other day I was there having a drink of some human ale (they don't serve much in the way of elven wines) and what should happen Trevelians rod started to throb, he fell over and suddenly everything was a panic...what came out the end of it wasn't the nicest thing i've ever seen...but few undead are pleasant to the eye...However on the subject of trevelian I did promise myself to write a few more notes about who should be trusted and who is a bit dodgy.

Trevelian Moss, a nice enough chap although for some reason he seems to think that I have some idea about what i'm doing...hung around for a while trying his best to learn but while he has the power seems to have problems when it comes to diseases and poison...Not in the spent too much time with ladies of nights and now got a few to many of each way of course, more a lack of concentration when using healing magics...a fairly good egg however but he does carry around that rather worrying rod of his.

Moregrill the ogre, Now his race have seemingly got a lot of bad words said about them by people in this land but moregrill who is fairly important nobody around here makes me wonder why. But for a ten foot tall juggernaut of destruction with pure evil sword in hand (i must convince him that a nice selection of throwing rocks maybe better than that thing) he is a fairly decent fellow as are the band that follow him about.

Book the air mage, met him twice...he stole my elemental friends tower first time and then massively disrupted the balance of the plains the second....for someone who is obviously some agent of the forces of unbalance and chaos he does do a very pretty little dance when recharging his power......Defiantely keep an eye on him.

Mari the seer, Such a pleasant person, talks more rubbish than me.

anyway must pack up if i'm to reach town by nightfall...'

Trelaine tucks his journal into it's hiding place in his hut and grabs his belongings before heading back to town whistling a little tune as he travels.

Trelaine heads back into the grove with Alasse, Potplant and heavily squeeky wheelbarrow on tow...'Well heres home, feel free to make yourself comfortable....that my little hut there...nutkin resides in that tree over in the corner and thats a pile of compost over there.' he says pointing at a large heap of smelly matter....

'Now where the wine.' popping quickly into the hut he emerges with two wooden cups and a pottery bottle....pouring a little into both he hands one to Alasse...'Now i'm not quite sure what this has come out like but i'd drink it quick because i think the cups are melting.

Alasse discretely sniffs at the liquid, but is surprised to find there is very little odour to it. A vague memory flits across her mind, of waking up in the tavern with her head in a plant pot full of dribble after taking a small swig of Mama Dola's Dark Elf Absynthe, but she shrugs it off. After all, Trealine isn't a dark elf, he's a druid, so what harm could it do?

She takes a small sip from the cup...
It feels strangely warming as it goes down...

After a moments pause with no further effects, she happily takes a proper swig.

"You know Trelaine, thish shtuff ishn't half bad! What did you shay it wash? - thunder moushwoom wine? unushual earfy quality with an aroma of bark chippingsh and horshe hay... and ....a wee bit of a peaty after tashte. Hic!

......"Hic!

......"Oh dear..."

Alasse gives out one enormous "BBUUUURRRRRPPPPP...

"Oh I shay, do pleashe excushe m..."

Just as her knees give way and her upper body does an impersonation of a felled tree, toppling gracefully backwards, into the compost heap.

'Hmm prehaps the 50 50 watering down with orc mead may of been a little too much on the potent side.' Taking a swig...'Thissses nort too bhad reelee.....eey shee wrot yhu mheen ahbaout horshee hay thow...*hic* nheeds ah ikkle *does an indication of something tiny with his fingers* lhess khick nest thyme *hic*.' with a grin on his face he falls sideways to lie slumped on the floor.

'oooh shoft mhud....' he says making himself comfy...'Yhou mushed remend mhe to shou yhou tha reshippy four thish whine....'

rolling onto his back and looking at the sky Trelaine starts to giggle.......

'Inkh..*hic*...Inke..*hic*....Inkhomen.....' he finally gets out and then points to the sky just a moment before a plummeting squirrel lands full in in his face....

Nutkin momentarily stunned shakes his head and observes the pair before taking his chance and raids Trelaine bag for any edibles.

For a good few hours, all is peaceful in the Grove. The only sounds to be heard are the wind softly rustling the leaves; the gentle creak of the shed door as it swings back and forth on its hinges; Nutkin happily munching his way through an accumulated pile of fresh porridge acorns and two elves, snoring in synchronised harmony (well, one in a mud bath and the other in a compost heap, and both definitely humming!)

All of a sudden Alasse jerks awake; eyes wide and staring; nose twitching...

"AAAAAIIIICCCCHHHHOOOOOO!"

The startled squirrel drops his acorn in the mud and turns angrily to chatter at the elf, who is now sitting bolt upright in the compost with straw in her hair and red/brown smoke streaming out of her nose and ears. After a moment the air clears and Alasse lies back down, wriggling to make herself more comfortable.

"Thatsh better...hic!"

And she drifts back off to sleep, hardly noticing the tirade of berries the squirrel throws at her, or the gently smoldering leaf stuck behind her left ear.

As the hours pass Trelaine slowly stirs into life once more....noticing that someone has turned the world upside down trelaine blinks a few times to try to clear some of the fuzz....a chattering sound nearby draws his attention...nutkin standing upside down on a branch of a tree is looking at him strangely it slowly dawns upon trelaine that nutkin is correctly aligned and in fat it is he who for some reason is dangling upside down by his legs from a large oak...

fortunately his waterskin is still attached to his belt....seeing Alassa a few feet away snoring her head off he squirts a load of the water over her face....

Waking with a start Alassa's first vision is of a upside down dangling Trelaine swinging from a tree spraying water over half the forest.... 'Morning.......hope you slept well.....*sheepish grin*...a little help would be nice'....

While waiting for assistance Trelaine suddenly finds himself aided by one of the very forces of nature itself...in this case gravity....a cracking sound comes from the branch he is dangling from and seconds later barely enough time for a 'oh dear, I think is a bad start to the day' to be intoned by the leafy one before it gives way and he plummets down and lands in a crumpled heap on the floor

'ow, ouch, ooooohhh that ain't good........aaaa...eeeeeeernnnnn eek'

are muttered as he attempts to relocate various body parts to the positions they are meant to be in.....he then stands and looks around the grove....

'I wonder how I got up there...'

Seeing alassa still on the ground he walks over and touches her head gently just as a slight white glow surrounds it...

'That should cure the hangover before it kicks in fully....'

Still looking stiff Trelaine starts to walk around a bit to get rid of the creaks and cracks in his bones while also brushing a lot of the twigs and dirt of his robe....

'Looks like a fine day ahead not a cloud in the sky...maybe the weathers finally turning for the better........fancy some breakfast? I do a mean porridge....unlike the wine the recipe is tried and tested' he says to the partly awake Alassa...

Alasse opens her eyes again and blinks.

"Is it morning already? .... where did the time go?... I had the strangest dream..."

Alasse yawns, then slowly rolls out of her comfy nest in the compost heap and stands up, swaying unsteadily until she can focus on her surroundings. Bits of leafmold and a few slugs drop off her as she shakes herself awake.

"That's better. I thought the tree was moving; I could half see it swinging backwards and forwards and creaking... it seems funny now, but I thought it was asking me for help..."

~ removes a small purple and green spider from her hair, then spots a druid-shaped impresssion in the soft earth under the tree and a few broken twigs and scattered leaved. ~

"Oh dear, was that you Trelain? What on earth has been happening? Yes, I think porridge is a jolly good idea - puts the world back into perspective!...... Why am I all wet?"

'I must of been sleep walking again...happens occasionally, end up miles from where i was before with no dea how i got there...This time i happened to end up in that tree somewhat stuck.....I tried to wake you up with my waterskin but nature helped me out before you woke up fully.'

Trelaine heads into his hut and returns a few moments later with a large cooking pot and all the ingrediants of his acorn porridge....starting a small fire he begins breakfast...

'Water will take a few minutes to boil' he says before plonking himself down on the ground....

'I hope your heads ok that wine had more than an expected kick to it... Prehaps I shouldn't of asked the alchemist back in town for advice on improving it...he does like his experiments I think this one can be considered a failure.'

Checking his bag...'hmm thought I had some apples in here...Nutkin must of been raiding again....' Turning back to Alasse.

'If you don't mind me asking how did you end up in Prodigio?...Most of the town is seemingly made up of mercenaries, Berserks, rogues and Barely competant guardsmen not a place I would of expected to find a wood elf.'

Whilst Trelaine prepares the porridge, Alasse tidies herself up, then attempts to reassemble the wheelbarrow and sort out its jumbled contents.

She retrieves Trelaine's crown of leaves and admires the craftsmanship of the simple piece: sapling leaves braided with strands of moss on the inside to hold moisture, the whole thing a living, growing piece of topiary, with each new shoot carefully woven in with its neighbours enabling it to hold its shape around Trelaine's head. She wondered briefly whether the crown drew more than moisture from the druid, but quickly cast the thought aside.

"It is quite frightening, waking up somewhere with no knowledge of how you got there. I can relate to that feeling entirely because, to tell you the truth, I don't exactly know how I ended up in Prodigio.

"I'd lived in Traileat forest all my life and although I was curious about the world outside, I rarely ventured even as far as Traileat Town. My twin brother, Elsquare, was cast out from our community many years ago, for various reasons, and it never really felt the same without him. Oh I did what was expected of me, as a good elf should, and carried on as if all was well, but I started to have dreams - visions if you like, of strange places and creatures that I had never seen before. Sometimes I would wake up in the night shivering with cold, or perhaps it was fright. I started to think that I was seeing and feeling that Elsquare was experiencing, but when I ventured to suggest this to one of the elders he thought me immature and foolish. I tried to find out if there were any other elven twins that might be able to offer an explanation, but there are very few recorded births and none to my knowledge where both twins survived.

"I tried to take my mind off the dreams by studying hard (Elsquare always said I was a "swot") and I discovered an affinity for the use of soul magic, both light and dark, as you already know. So, I volunteered my services as a healer to the Forest Perimeter Patrol, which is where I learnt to use a sword, although not very well, I am afraid.

"It was about the time we started getting reports of increased undead attacks at the wall and Ferral creatures breaking through to the Protected Zone that my dreams became more frequent, more vivid, and somehow more 'real'. The morning after a particularly bad night, I was asked to accompany a patrol to investigate possible feral infiltration in one of the denser parts of the forest. One moment I was following a quiet track down to a woody glade, the next I was standing in a tavern full of lights and sounds, and all sorts of strange-looking people... and there was Elsquare sitting at one of the tables holding a flagon of ale with a look of utter disbelief on his face. I think the only word he managed to utter was 'Sis!'

"Anyway, that's how I ended up in a tavern with a big shield-shaped hole in one wall and a huge sword-shaped hole in another, shortly after Reiley had disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving behind two pairs of steaming boots, apparently. I don't think I really appreciated the significance of it all until recently. Quite frightening when you think about it, so I try not to!

"Is that porridge ready yet? my stomache's rumbling!"

Trelaine listens with interest to the tale as it is told while also tossing various oats, acorns and other assorted bits into the cooking pot...By the time the tale is complete it is bubbling nicely and starting to become suitable sticky and gloopy.

'I would say it's about ready' Trelaine says before grabbing two good sized bowls and some spoons from his bag...He then dishes up the porridge and passes one of the bowls over to Allasse before having a taste of his own...

'Oooh hot...good but hot...' he says before putting it down on the ground to cool for a few minutes.

'I am impressed you have stayed, it takes courage to remain here on what is effectively the front line against an numberless, fearless foe. Many would of sought to return to their homeland or at least return to the forest patrols away from the fowl smells and closed in streets of the city. It has been 3 years since I joined the band of travellers and even now I can't bring myself to stay in the town for too long, fortune granted me this place to rest in more peaceful surroundings.'

Taking his bowl again he tries a bit more porridge now it has cooled off a little.

'I have dreamed of my homeland many times, although each dream is different with different stars shining down upon different landscapes. Prehaps one is the real place I came from...But for now it seems this little grove is my homeland and those who call themselves my friend are my kin folk. Although somewhere out there there is no doubt an elven land that holds my true kin I had hoped the spirit elves with their connection to the land may of been them although I share none of their facial markings and none that I saw is joined to nature in the same way as myself.'

Taking a little more porridge.
'How do you like it? I have some blackberries inside if a little fruit would improve it.'

Alasse takes up a big spoonful of the porridge and blows on it to hasten cooling.

"Mmmm, this is good just as it is. I'm not too keen on blackberries, the pips get stuck between my teeth, but I could make up some blackberry gele - it's like jam but you sieve out the pippy bits before it sets. The blackberries last longer that way too!"

Alasse steadily spoons her way through the bowl, looking thoughtful.

"Have you considered recording your dreams? Not necessarily in words - you could draw pictures of the bits you remember when you wake up. Each time you dream of home, draw another picture, then perhaps we can put all the pictures together, like a jigsaw puzzle, and work out if it is just one place, or a series of places, like a map, each one showing you where to go to get to the next."

Trelaine raises an eyebrow

'An interesting idea although flair for drawing is not one of my strong points.....I have a journal i keep many of my thought in as I go along prehaps next time I have such a dream I could at least try to copy the stars...'

Finishing the last of his bowl off

'A friend of mine once told me you can tell where you are from the stars and in the days before the undead great fleets of ships navigated by them... If the dreams are more than just dreams prehaps there are those who could tell me where to go to stand and look up at these patterns.'

Pouring himself a cup of water and having a drink to wash down the breakfast he the goes on.

'But prehaps they are just dreams, I doubt there is a single person in this land that has not dreamt of a better place to live in peace.'

"My dreams were never of peace, or a better place when I was home in the forest; my dreams were of fighting and battle, of blood and tortured faces and dying.

"Elsquare has never really spoken to me about his life after he left Traileat, and I don't like to ask. In fact, I don't think he likes me very much. We were always treated differently, being twins. I tried hard to fit in and be like everyone else, and he... well, I suppose you could say he was an oddity. He wasn't good looking like elves should be, but rather than shying away from the world he stood up to it, and hit back. There were many who did not appreciate his outlook on life, his sense of humour, or his affinity for 'erbes, so they cast him out. I didn't defend him, nor did I tell him how I truly felt before he left and this I regret. But I don't know I can express this to him now - it has been too long. However, I am certain that my dreams were of him, and the situations he encountered.

"Since I have been adventuring, the dreams have changed - life is horrific enough at times when I am awake, so I am grateful not to see it in my sleep. Instead I dream of home. I think dreams help your unconscious mind focus on places or people that you have a fondness for, and give you an awareness of what is going on around them... Oh please, do not mention this to my brother - I think he would throw up in disgust!"

Alasse reaches the bottom of her bowl and sighs contentedly.

"Is there a spring to wash these in?" she asks as she gets up to tidy away...

"I say Trelaine, don't be in too much of a hurry to get rid of the last of that thundermushroom wine; look at this..."

She removes from the wheelbarrow a bright, shiny (if somewhat thinner-looking) metal watering can with a hole in the bottom, and shakes off the last few drops of the liquid she had spilled when she passed out.

'Anyway i'm always up for learning a new thing or two that gele sounds like a damn good plan and I had nothing planned for today anyway...thankfully everything seems to of quietened down of late.'

Putting his bowl to one side Trelaine stands and has another stretch...

'That fall has shaken the bones just a little, prehaps i'm just getting a little old for this stuff.' Suddenly a thought seems to come to his mind... 'I forgot to ask before we started on the wine did you need me for something or was my random wheelbarrowing a social call?' he says while chuckling about how comical it must of looked.

'Don't worry I won't mention anything to Elsquare cleaning up the vomit would be a thankless chore for one reason.' He says smirking...

'I have my fair share of troubled dreams, what I know of myself I only know because it was in a dream. Before I met pathfinder who greeted me as Trelaine I could not even be sure that was my name...many other names go through my head and at times I even think of them as my name and Trelaine is but part of a dream.' He pauses 'Prehaps that is more than I should tell, if people knew a fraction of the things swirling about in my mind each night they might think i'm going a little crazy.'

'If you have your bad dreams again prehaps I could show you a trick of the light soul I learned some time ago that allows you to rest peacefully for a while. I do not think it would be good to use all the time but a few hours of rest without the terrors of the real world is something everyone needs at some point.'


'Hmm I should forget about the wine' he says picking up a fallen bottle. 'Think we must of knocked it over when we fell asleep...might have to see about making a new batch up though although I think thundermushrooms are going out of season.'

Gathering up the breakfast things Trelaine says 'No great loss though, Grab your bits and follow me the springs over that way behind the two large oaks...forms a bit of a merky pond beneath it but the water is clean when it comes from the rocks.' Trelaine heads over to where he indicated while continuing to talk.

"I had got to the point where I was feeling penned in by walls and people, so when you came running out of the tavern with that haunted look on your face and knocked yourself out on the flower bowl, I thought it would be a good idea to get us both out of of the town for a while. I remembered you telling me about the grove so it seemed the best place to head for. I feel much better here."

Alasse and Trelaine clean out the dirty bowls and cups, then refill the waterskins.

"If you have the time to show me that light soul trick for restful sleep, I would be most grateful. You also said something yesterday about the wheelbarrow being beyond your skills to repair - does this mean you have more than a basic appreciation of woodcraft?"

'My skills to put it back together end once it has been cut down i'm afraid...Their are a few craftsmen in town i'm sure once you return you should be able to find a carpenter with basic skill to put it back together for you.'

Finishing the washing up...

'Teaching you the soul trick would not be hard...it does require some skill in the arts however to preform.....someone who has mastered the power neccesary to create rings of life and death would be able to cast it easily. If this is not within your skill prehaps i could teach you more than just that one power although that would take a little longer.'

"There is no hurry, Trelaine, for I have nowhere else to be at the moment. I have been reading about the rings of life and death in the library. Perhaps you could teach me those skills first? And it would be nice to know the correct protocol for giving last rights to a deceased soul. That ability would have been most useful at our last adventure as there were so few who could perform it!"

'Sorry I am afraid that is beyond my knowledge, the druid ways forbid affecting the path of the soul in it's travel around the cycle of life in any way wether it be by the powers of the gods, words of a necromancer or actions of the soul weaver. While in this time of war I accept there are those that choose to take such skills to aid against the undead I am neither able or particularly willing to try and learn such capabilities....'

Pausing a moment...'But the rings of life and death are within my abilities to teach...It should take no more than a week maybe two at most to master their casting. As with many powers of the soul to learn to cast and to learn to apply in the best way are two totally different skills with this i can advise based on my own experience but since soul magic is so new it is something you will have to mostly learn for yourself.'

A big cheeky grins spreads across Alasse's face.

"Excellent! Let's collect the last of the thundermushrooms before the sun dries all the dew off them. That will give us a couple of hours before lunch for my first lesson, if that's convenient, then we could spend the afternoon making wine and gele!"

'Sounds like a excellent plan, This place has been a bit quiet with just nutkin and my own thoughts to keep me company it will be nice to have someone around I can talk to.'

Picking up the remainder of the bits Trelaine leads the way back to the hut where the duo replace the cooking gear and grab a basket for mushroom and blackberry picking.

'We might be lucky and find a batch of wild strawberries as well, I have seen a few bushes here and there over the last few months... There maybe one or two nutkin didn't see as well with a few fruit left over.'

Some hours later Trelaine and Alasse return to the grove after completing the morning fruit and mushroom picking. A brief lunch is had before they make their way to a clearing and begin the first casting practice. Sitting down on a tree stump trelaine asks.

'Just so I know where to start, what affects have you successfully mastered with the soul art?'

Alasse sits cross-legged in the shade of one of the big oak trees, far enough away from Nutkin so as not to be hit by the odd projectile propelled in her general direction. It seems the squirrel has taken exception to her beating him to the last of the strawberries!

She takes another bite of her apple whilst considering her reply…

"Well, our recent adventures have given me ample opportunity to study various forms of undead, so my ability to recognise them is improving. I have developed the skills to hold or control lower undead forms, although my attempt to start a 3-zombie conga line went somewhat awry so I guess I haven’t quite achieved that level of competence yet! I can heal small wounds and stabilise the critically injured and I have been studying diseases and poisons in the library at the Order of Sortileges, so I should be able to diagnose their effects, but again, I can only cure the most common and least virulent varieties.”

* Alasse pauses, hearing a rustling above her head, then quickly dodges to one side to avoid some falling leaves and a couple of acorns. *

“I think the rings of life and death would be useful additions to my repertoire. I know they each have a duration of 5 minutes and a range of 10ft from the caster, and that the caster can move and the effect remains centred on them, but tell me please: once these spells are cast, must the caster continue to concentrate until the spell expires, or are they able to take offensive or defensive action? For instance, can they move to someone and heal them? Can they cast through the ring? Can they attack an enemy within the ring, or fire a crossbow at an enemy on the outside? “

More rustling can be heard overhead, and when Trelaine briefly closes his eyes to compose his response, Alasse takes the opportunity to lob her apple core up into the branches of the great oat. There is a faint ‘bop’, followed by shrill chattering. Trelain opens his eyes just as a collection of leaves, twigs, acorns, apple core and squirrel rain down from the tree.

Raising an eyebrow as the squirrel impacts but otherwise giving it no other attention.

'The rings should be thought of as a wall that surrounds you it is an eggshell to you easily broken should you push it against another, and easily pierced should you wish to throw things out of it. To others it is solid as stone, impervious while you wish it... You can cast through it as can others and it blocks no blade or arrow but living or unliiving flesh depending on the ring cannot breach it. It is two way however cast it with creatures inside and they cannot get away from you and should you flee from them it will break and the magic end.

To avoid this it those of advance skill tend do use powers to cast their enemies from them before creating the circle to hold them off after'

*wanders over to where nutkin fell and heals him*

'Just like this'

*mutters a few words and with a loud squeek the squirrel launches over a nearby bush*

'oh and Lesson 2 is don't pee on me when i'm unconcious from drinking to much alcohol, certain squirrels struggle with that bit'

Alasse sits wide eyed and innocent, expecting a reprimand for the apple core. She looks at trelaine in surprise and exclaims:

"I would never dream of doing such a thing!"

* Makes a mental note that tying his shoe laces together or braiding his hair with ribbons probably wouldn't go down too well either. *

'Don't be to concerned about nutkin, that bush will cushion his fall and I was fairly gentle...But you see how these advanced powers combined with the circles can be a powerful defensive strategy, One I have used many times before.'

*Trelaine noticing Alasse's expression thinks that she looks more the braiding of hair type... he makes a mental note to check mirror every time he wakes up just in case of naughtyness*

*trelaine looks suddenly worried and checks the skys..*

'Hmmm something tells me there may be hail ahead...looks sunny enough now though....and why do i get the sudden feeling that a new meat dish is suddenly available at the inn over in prodigio....most strange...I think I need to have a sit down for a bit think the suns starting to get to me.'

Alasse also looks at the sky. There is nothing to be seen: no clouds, no smoke, no birds, and the Grove is strangely quiet.

"If we have finished today's lesson, why don't we go back to Prodigio and see who's around?" she suggests, sharing Trelaine's uneasy feeling that something unpleasant is heading their way.

"I need to go to the forge, and you could check out the Tavern. We can meet back here later, if you like?"

'You go ahead, i'm going to have a few hours sleep first...having strange obscure messages apear in my head normally means i'm due for one of my blackouts...best if I stay here till it's passed. I doubt anything of interest is happening in town anyway, it's been quiet for months.'

Alasse looks at the druid and notices a change about him. His weathered skin has changed in tone to a mottled grey, and his eyes, normally a clear blue have a reddish tinge. He seems tired and drawn, a total change to a few minutes previously.

“Perhaps we should get back to your hut, so you can rest. My business at the forge will keep for another time, and to be honest, I don’t want to leave you on your own if you think you may black out again. Last time I saw it happen was after we had been teleported near to that T’Cra castle and it was quite worrying. Even after we managed to wake you, it was a while before you were fully compos mentis!”