Disclaimer: Deltora Quest and all its characters are property of Emily Rodda and Scholastic Australia, not me.

Summary: Not one of us really knows what happened between landing from the Final Battle – I wonder if any of my readers recognise that, but I mean it here as in the gluggy blob – until Lief and Jasmine's wedding. This is what I think could have happened, but definitely did NOT.

If you do not like stories where the romance is not subtle, do not waste your time reading this. I will have to change the characters just a little so that they can work with the story line. After all, only Emily Rodda could get the characters perfectly right, anyway.

In case you had not noticed, or were confused, I got tired of the penname, 'angel-kitten-teddy', I found it pointless and immature, LoL. Hence I have changed it to 'Sophie Pendragon', in tribute to Diana Wynne Jones' novel, Howl's Moving Castle. I was torn between Sophie Jenkins, and Sophie Pendragon, but decided upon Pendragon because, like Howl, I much preferred the latter as it was more...magical; mysterious; poetic.

As always, thanks to my reviewers, without you guys, this story wouldn't be going ahead. This is the final chapter – I'm kinda teary, LoL. Not really. This is also the first Deltora Quest story I have finished. I wrote this chapter up in a rare break from study for my exams, so I hope you like the somewhat rushed job. By the way, thank-you to the reviewer who pointed out I was using contractions. I have hopefully avoided it in this chapter, but, as I have admitted many-a-time in my various stories, I am a lazy writer, and my stories suffer because of it.

PLEASE SAY YES

Chapter 4: Baby

Lief knocked on Doom's chamber door.

"Come in," the man's deep voice rumbled.

"Jasmine tells me you wanted to see me?" Lief slid into the room, nervous and unsure of what to expect from Doom.

"Jasmine informed me of what happened in the library," Doom stopped, his back still to Lief.

After a moment's silence, Lief prompted the man formerly known as Jarred. "And...?"

"And I wanted to congratulate the two of you for finally pulling your heads out of your – I wanted to congratulate the two of you."

Lief was a little stunned. "Why th-thank-you, Doom. Is that all?"

"For now, yes. That is all."

"Good. Then there's something I have to ask you."

"Hmm?" Doom invited.

"I wish to ask for your permission for me to marry Jasmine."

"Indeed? Of course you have my permission."

"More importantly, do I have your blessing?"

"Indeed you do, Lief. I could not find one single person in the whole of Deltora more deserving of my Jasmine." Doom smiled warmly, and stood to embrace Lief.

"Now," Sharn said, pausing over the parchment she was writing. "When do you want this to take place?"

Lief looked across the table at Jasmine. "That is for Jasmine to decide," he said.

"Well, it will have to be at least a year – how about Spring twelvemonth?"

"That appears to be quite a desirable idea," Sharn smiled, and went back to writing on her parchment.

"Where, may I ask?"

"Where were the weddings of old held, Sharn?" Jasmine asked.

"Well, when I married Lief's father, we were married at the altar, but since the room that was in has been demolished, the choice is entirely yours."

Lief and Jasmine looked at each other, uncertain. Neither had any idea where they wanted to be married; they had not known how much preparation had to go into a wedding.

Seeing the children's dilemma, Doom spoke up. "How about on the hill? There are rather pretty flowers there in the Spring."

"Any objections?" Sharn questioned. "No? Good. On the hill it is. Next item on the list – guests."

"Why, we shall have to invite everyone," Lief said. "I simply could not pick out of all of our acquaintance who I would value most at our wedding."

"There are so many," Jasmine sighed, ticking them off on her fingers as she went along. "There's the Raladins, the D'Or, the Noradz people, Fardeep, the Dread Gnomes, Tom and Ava, those in Tora..." Jasmine continued until Lief would not have been surprised if she had listed every person in Deltora.

After another hour of such planning, Lief and Jasmine were only too pleased to get away and spend some time together. They walked out onto the hill. Lief sat down, grateful for the fresh air; Jasmine walked in large, slow circles, gazing about her with a look of wonderment on her face.

"Please Jasmine," Lief sighed, with mock exasperation. "I beg of you to stop pacing, you are making me most nervous."

"I am sorry, Lief," Jasmine smiled, sitting on the grass beside him. "I am just so excited. Think! In just over a year, we will be wedded here! Oh, I don't know how I can express my joy. I love you, Lief, with all my heart. I cannot think of any other means which could ever in my life bring me such happiness."

"I could think of one," Lief smiled, taking Jasmine's hand. "I am sure you will agree; we will find equal, if not greater felicity when we have our first baby."

"Indeed!" Jasmine exclaimed. "Why, and equal joy with each child that follows! Oh Lief, I do not know how I shall bear such happiness!"

"Why, with your calm, collected, fiery manner with which you deal with everything – the same attributes I have come to love in you."

"Come to love?" Jasmine feigned a pained look. "Did you not find them agreeable at first? Why, you speak of them as though many would find them to be flaws, yet you have overcome some great difficulty, and can now see the charm in them."

Lief laughed, and drew Jasmine's hands to his lips. "It is best," he began. "To get all the embarrassingly romantic thoughts we have out in the open, before we both realise how absurdly we have both been behaving, and retreat into our commonplace shells. Jasmine, I feel as though I am fulfilling the dearest wish my heart could ever possess by marrying you, and I wish to thank-you for letting it be so."

"Lief," Jasmine laughed. "While I may soon regain my senses, and look with abhorrence on my behaviour, you shall never stop being embarrassingly romantic – you always have been. In all your thoughts, in all your views that you have aired before Barda and me, there has always been a sickeningly romantic quality to them. But it is one of your numerous flaws I have come to love."

Lief laughed and stood up, dragging Jasmine with him. "My dearest, loveliest Jasmine!" He exclaimed, laughingly. "One must wonder at your playing the martyr in accepting me!" Lief smiled down at the laughing girl, and continued on in a much more heart-felt tone. "Dear heart, I see this as the beginning of something very wonderful."

Fin

There it is! Done for! Over-with! Only the third multiple story chapter I have ever completed, and the first for Deltora Quest. YAY! I'm sure you all know what happens next – it just continues, a year on, in the book.

Now, for my apologies:

I apologise for using Emily Rodda's eloquent characters so ill and out of character.
I apologise for using contractions, and other language which is not fitting with the Deltora Quest style.
I apologise for the short chapters, they are my abhorrence.
I apologise for such a useless fic.
I apologise for not getting this done over half a year ago, considering the utterly unavoidable briefness of the Fanfiction.
I apologise for, as Shealtiel pointed out when she checked this chapter (thanks by the way!) for making Lief seem so much like Howl.

Goodbye for now,

:D Sophie Pendragon :D (née angel-kitten-teddy :P)