These books have been favorites of mine for several years now, and I was rereading them when my muse decided that it was time to write again and Bedtime Stories was born. :) I hope you enjoy reading it!

Title: Bedtime Stories

Pairings: Lief/Jasmine

Time: Set after Dragons of Deltora, but it's not necessary to have read the series to enjoy the OneShot

Rating: K

Disclaimer: I am not Emily Rodda

Bedtime Stories:

"Just one story? Please?" The little girl's lip jutted out as she pouted up at him. Next to her, her twin brothers waited in anxious anticipation.

He looked down and felt himself smile. He couldn't deny these kids anything. "Alright." He relented. "But only one."

The little girl beamed happily and snuggled down into the blankets. "Tell us an adventure tale!"

He laughed. "But which one? I know several."

One of the little boys popped up from his blankets. "One with monsters!"

His brother's voice floated from beneath a mound of cloth. "And fighting!"

Their elder sister shot them a look. "And romance!"

The man laughed. "Those are quite the demands. I don't know if I can tell a tale with all that…"

His children pouted up at him. "Father!"

"Ok, ok!"

The man settled onto his daughter's bed and, after a moment of thought, began his tale.

"Once upon a time, there lived a young boy. This boy always longed for adventure, and one night, on the eve of his sixteenth birthday, he got his wish. The boy and his traveling companion set out for a dark and treacherous forest to find an ancient and lost treasure, a treasure that would help free the land from a terrible evil."

The eyes of the little boys were wide and enraptured as the man spoke. He smiled at them and continued.

"The two entered the forest. But they had not gone far when the boy began to feel eyes watching him. The boy tried to remain silent, to put on a brave face in front of his companion, but the eyes were red, and there were hundreds of them, winking through the dark trees. The two companions continued to walk, their hands on their swords, when suddenly—."

The man paused. "You know, it's late. Perhaps we should finish the story another…"

"Father!" The twins' faces showed looks of dismay. The man laughed.

"When suddenly there began a humming sound. It started out quietly, and then grew and grew and grew until the two companions could hear nothing but a terrible shrieking humming. They ran for their lives down the path, deep into the dark trees. But they could not escape, and soon, they were overtaken by the creatures with the burning red eyes."

The room was dead silent. "Did… did they live?" His daughter asked, her voice small.

The man nodded. "The two awoke some time later. The boy didn't know how much time had passed. He ached all over and was surprised to find himself alive. As the boy gazed above him at the light filtering through the trees, he could hear the groans of his companion next to him. He tried to turn his head to talk to him, but found he couldn't move. His entire body was paralyzed. His companion told him that the red-eyed monsters had stung them, stung them until they couldn't move. The boy felt despair fill his heart. Was his quest to end so soon after it had begun?"

"No!" The twin that had spoken looked distressed. "He lived, didn't he? The boy had to have found a way out of the forest!"

"Shh!" His sister shushed him. "Let Father finish!"

"Then, just as the boy was convinced he was to be eaten by the red-eyed creatures, he hear a voice from above him. The voice was clear and confident, and broke through the boy's dismay. As the boy looked around for the source of the voice, the leaves of the trees rustled, and out of them dropped a girl, light as a feather, to the forest floor."

His daughter perked up. "A girl?" She asked eagerly.

"But this wasn't just any girl." The man smiled at his daughter knowingly. "This girl stood with the haughty confidence of someone who wasn't afraid of anything. Her hair was midnight black and as wild as her personality. And, lying there on the ground, his body paralyzed, the boy thought she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen."

His daughter, a true romantic, sighed with pleasure.

"The boy was convinced that the girl had come to save them. However, she merely began to rifle through their belongings. She unlatched the boy's cloak, a magical thing woven by this mother, and with it bounded away into the darkness."

"That wasn't very nice." The other little boy, the quieter of the two, hugged his pillow to his chest.

"No, it wasn't." The man agreed. "The boy began to shout after her to bring back the cloak. It was special; he said. His mother had made it for him. Suddenly, the girl was back.

'How could your mother have made it for you?' she asked him. 'Grey Guards do not know their mothers.'

'I am not a Grey Guard!' the boy cried. He told the girl they were travelers from the city. But she did not believe them, as no one traveled through the dark forests. She was just about to turn away again when the boy asked her name and the whereabouts of her family. The girl's deep green eyes turned puzzled. She told the boy she had no family but the creatures of the forest. The Grey Guards had killed her mother and father long before."

The man appraised his solemn children. "The boy told her that the Guards were his enemies too. He told her of the companion's quest for freedom and begged for her help. The girl looked at him for a moment before throwing his cloak onto his chest and disappearing amongst the trees, a mysterious black bird flying with her. The boy was sure she'd left for good, and that he was to die there, deep in the forest." He smiled. "Imagine the boy's surprise when, hours later, the girl had returned to his side and was forcing him to drink a vile tasting liquid. He spluttered as, next to him, the girl forced some down the throat of his companion. Was she trying to poison him?"

"No." His daughter said stoutly from where she sat, entangled in blankets.

The man pulled the blanket up to his daughter's chin as she snuggled into the pillows. "Suddenly, the boy's entire body felt as though it was on fire. He began to thrash about and cry out, when he realized what had happened. He could move! The girl had given him a potion to counteract the effects of the red-eyed monsters. She had returned to save them!"

"Hooray!" cheered the twins in unison.

"But they were not out of danger yet. The three scrambled up the nearest tree— well, the boy and his companion scrambled. The girl simply bounded up the tree as though she lived in one, which, by the way, they found out later, she did. They just managed to haul themselves into the branches when the king of the red-eyed creatures lumbered into the clearing. This was the creature to which they were supposed to be fed. The boy's heart stopped and terror drove him up the tree as the king creature clawed and scratched at the tree, trying to force him down to devour him."

His daughter was sitting up again, clutching the blanket to her chest, her green eyes wide.

"The boy flung his magic cloak around the shoulders of his companion and the girl from the forest, hoping it would keep them warm. It did much more than that, however—it turned them invisible! After a while, the king creature gave up trying to catch what it couldn't see. The two companions and their rescuer huddled together beneath the boy's magic cloak and watched the king lumber away. They were safe… for the moment."

The man stood up and began to tuck his children into bed. "The girl decided to leave the forest and join in the two companion's quest to save the land. The three adventurers traveled throughout the whole land, defeating monster after monster, and slowly uncovering the truth. Eventually, the land was saved and the three companions have remained the best of friends to this day." He tucked the warm blanket around his daughter.

"And what about the boy and the girl?" She asked sleepily.

The man smiled softly. "The boy and the girl? Well, the boy had fallen so hopelessly in love with the girl during their travels that some years later, after spending weeks trying to muster the courage, he asked the beautiful girl of the forest to marry him."

"Did she say yes?"

"She sure did, baby." The man said. He bent down to kiss the top of her head. "She sure did."

"Good." The little girl let out a huge yawn.

"That was a good story, Father." The more talkative twin was snuggling down next to his brother.

"I should hope so." The man said, fluffing the twins' pillows. "It's the story of how I met your mother."

"And what a fool you were then." The man turned to find his wife framed in the doorway, her long black hair undone, and a radiant smile on her face. "Running headlong down the Wenn Del path? Fool. It was a good thing I was there."

He smiled. "You would marry a fool?"

"Perhaps if I loved him very much." She moved into the room and softly kissed first the twins, then their daughter.

"What a lucky fool."

The little girl snuggled deeper into her covers as she listened to her parents slip from the room, still laughing and talking. She smiled to herself in the darkness and felt herself drift away.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it; reviews are loved, cherished, and responded to. :)

xoxo

Allie