I don't own Deltora Quest.

Lief had always known the color of the sky. Everyone did. It was red, of course, in the daytime. In the night, it was black. Like everything else. In the daytime, the sky was a deep, bloody red – so were the clouds, and the rain that fell from them. All blood red. Everyone knew that. Lief hadn't ever thought that it could be another way.

So, understandably, on the morning after Lief's sixteenth birthday, he looked to the sky to assure himself that not everything had changed… but the sky wasn't red. Wide-eyed, Lief grabbed Barda's arm tightly.

"Barda!" he hissed. "This sky's the wrong color!" To his indignation, his strange companion began to laugh. Lief tore his eyes away from the strange sight to glare at him. Barda was chuckling merrily, shaking his head at Lief.

"No, Lief! This is the sky's rightful color."

Lief did not appreciate the comment, which he perceived as a taunt.

"Everyone knows that the sky is red."

Barda shook his head again and ruffled Lief's hair. "No, Lief! The Shadow Lord's clouds make it red. This is the color of the sky beyond those clouds."

He stopped and watched the sky wistfully. Lief stood beside him. Now that the shock of it had worn off, Lief found that he rather liked the blueness of the sky. It seemed more innocent, more pure, beautiful like the red had never been. He smiled and touched the Belt around his waist. None of the people in Dell had ever really seen a blue sky. Even before the Shadow Lord came, his father had said, the sky was gray and hopeless.

He would find the seven gems and restore Endon's heir to the throne, Lief decided with more conviction than he'd had before. Then everyone would see this blue sky. The sky beyond the clouds.