Disclaimer: I do not own Deltora Quest
Lief looked up from his book. He was reading the 5th Volume of the Deltora Annals. Although he found the 1st Volume with its stories and tales interesting to read, the other Volumes of Annals bored him out of his mind. But his mother made him read every one of the Annals to learn more about the history of the land. At the moment he was reading the spells and potions of Tamm, the wise, kind old witch with a horror of a daughter - Sorceress Thaegan. Lief flicked through the pages: Snake Charmer's Spell, Wild Parsley Size Increaser, Lip Healer… Boring, boring, boring, Lief thought. Suddenly something caught his attention. The paper used for the Rabbit Repeller looked different to the paper of the rest of the pages. It looked slightly paler and less yellow. It looked as if it had been stuck over another page. Lief looked more closely at the edge of the page. Yes, there were definitely two pages there. But why would Tamm want to hide one of her potion recipes?
Lief carefully prised open the two pages. His heart skipped a beat as he saw what the title of the potion was. Resurrection Potion. Too bad she could not resurrect herself when she was killed by Thaegan, he thought. He continued slowly separating the two pages. He had almost finished prising them open, when the paper of the stuck on Rabbit Repeller started sticking to the page of the Resurrection Potion. He cursed, and started prising the remaining part of the pages from the bottom upward, so as to minimise the amount of writing that he wouldn't be able to see. When he had finished, he started taking bits of the stuck-on paper off the Resurrection Potion, so in the end, there were only a few letters that couldn't be seen.
He read the page to himself:
Resurrection Potion
This potion recipe has been handed down our family for centuries, but I have finally decided to share the recipe with the whole of Deltora. I do not think anyone will ever make it anyhow: for some of the ingredients would be impossible to obtain. But anyway, here it is, the resurrection potion:
Ingredient 1, from Topaz Territory: 3 drops of nectar from the Lilies of Life.
Ingredient 2, from Ruby Territory: The skin of an Orchard Keeper Fruit.
Ingredient 3, from Opal Territory: Half a cup of the cider of Plains Apples.
Ingredient 4, from Lapis-Lazuli Territory: A cup of water from The Funnel.
Ingredient 5, from Emerald Territory: Two spoonfuls of Dreaming Dust.
Ingredient 6, from Amethyst Territory: A spoonful of sparkles from the Archway to Tora.
Ingredient 7, from Diamond Territory: e of a a is a .
(Author's Note: This shows really bad on Fanfiction. There's meant to be quite a big space [3-4 letters' worth] before the e on the first letter, then a little space at the beginning of the second to last word, then another little space before the a in the last word, and a bigger [3-4] letters after that a. There's also meant to be a break in the underlining between the e and the word of. Sorry for the confusion.)
Note: Ingredients 1-6 may be added in any order, but Ingredient 7 must be added last.
Lief could barely control his excitement.
"Marilen, could you go and get the others please?
"Sure, but what is it?"
"Wait and see."
A few minutes later, Marilen returned with Ranesh, Barda, Lindal, Sharn, Doom and Jasmine. Lief showed them all the Resurrection Potion recipe.
"Do you think this will actually work?" asked Lindal.
"It will work. Tamm was a well respected witch in her day, and so were all her ancestors." said Marilen, her voice was shaking with excitement.
"But what do you think the last ingredient is?" asked Ranesh.
"I was just thinking that myself..." murmured Doom.
"Oh, you should have been more careful, Lief! Now we do not know what one of the ingredients is!" exclaimed Sharn.
"Excuse me! If it were not for me, you would not know about it at all! And anyway…"
"Hang on! I think I have got it!" cried Jasmine, "The only word I can think of for the second last word is 'lapis', and that would fit with the last word being 'lazuli'. And then the first word - well I am not quite sure of that yet, but there must be three or four letters before it, and zero or one letter after it."
" Yes that is it! Maybe 'center' could be the first word?" suggested Barda.
"Come on now Barda, that's impossible. Lapis lazuli gems are made of the same substance throughout. They don't have a center. I was thinking more like 'powder'." said Lindal.
"Powder! It works! Powder of a lapis lazuli! But I do not see why it has to be from Diamond Territory? You would think it would be from Lapis Lazuli territory, seeming as it is a lapis lazuli." said Ranesh.
"Who cares about that?" cried Lief, "We have to go and find the ingredients! Just think, we could bring back Endon, and Josef, and…"
"Wait, calm down now Lief, what about the other ingredients?" asked Sharn.
"We can get the Lilies of Life. It is my 20th birthday in 4 days, and that was when we killed Gorl and got the Topaz and the Lilies of Life, so they will be blooming again in 4 days. Orchard Keeper fruit skin is easy, we can get them. Plains Apple Cider, well Queen Bee Apples are Plains Apples, so we can use Queen Bee Cider. The water from the Funnel is easy enough, so long as we do not fall in. I do not know what Dreaming Dust is, but surely it has a connection with the Dreaming Spring. The Sparkles from the Toran Archway is simple, and I am sure we could find a lapis lazuli from Diamond Territory." said Lief.
"He is right, Sharn," said Barda. "Let us leave tomorrow."
"Oh, all right, I suppose. Doom, Lindal and I will look after little Anna."
"Yes!" shouted Lief and Jasmine in unison.
"But let us get some rest, first." warned Barda.
That night, Lief and Jasmine went to bed bubbling with excitement, joy and delight, mixed in with a bit of fear.
"Goodnight, Jasmine." whispered Lief.
"Goodnight, Lief." Jasmine whispered back.