<span style="font-size: 15px">The touch of Cassandra's helping hand, the sight of her exposed flesh so close to him, gave Marcus an incentive to fight harder against the sleepiness that had assaulted him.  The nerd in him silenty noted, 'endorphins and adrenaline....  This is nice.'  Then, outwardly he said, <span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(84, 172, 210)">"I think I'll be okay.  It was a good thing I only licked my finger, though." </span> He paused and then continued, <span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(84, 172, 210)">"If one of us gets really hurt and is in a lot of pain, a little of this fruit could probably put them to sleep."</span><br/>
<br/>
The desire for sleep went away.  Marcus shook his head a couple of times and was soon feeling okay.  He grabbed his trident and used it to help him stand.<br/>
<br/>
It was a strange tree, surprising himself that he hadn't noticed before, growing fruits of different shapes.  How did it do that?  The fact that there were different fruits on it probably helped attract different animals to carry it's seeds away.  The elephant thing hadn't fallen asleep, so maybe it had developed an immunity to the sleepiness side effect?  Each fruit might taste differently and might not induce sleepiness.<br/>
<br/>
Marcus wasn't in a hurry to test that theory yet.  But he knew that he would grow hungry in an hour or two.  Then he<i> would</i> have to try another fruit....</span>