Hi! I'm back! I apologise if you got confused from my last 3 chapters so I will change some things to tell the differences. From now on, those from the other dimension will have a name extension or their name would be shortened. Lief will be Liefer, Jasmine will be Jazzy, Lindal will be Linda and Barda will be….Barder…? (Sorry, couldn't think of a better name). If you still are confused please tell me so in your reviews so that I may improve.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Deltora Quest. Only, and I mean ONLY Emily Rodda owns it.

Chapter 4: Fruit Trap and the Orchard Keeper

Grrrrrmmm…

Jasmine's hand shot to her stomach. Everybody's eyes laid to her. She blushed in embarrassment.

"Hehe, I apologise. I am hungry," she said.

Linda flew closer to the famished girl. "I got some meat in a container in my bag. Do you want some?" she asked.

"I am not a big fan of meat."

"What about biscuits?"

"I do not feel like eating biscuits."

"Okay."

Then, Jasmine's sharp eyes saw something.

"Can we get back to the ground? I see something!" she called.

Everybody descended.

Once they reached ground, Jasmine jumped off the wind platform and ran off on a path of rounded, bulky stones. Jasmine ran through a fluffy curtain of ferns and disappeared behind it.

"Jasmine! Wait up!" screamed everyone after her.

Once they caught up to her, Jasmine was standing in shallow water near a small tree, filled with blue coloured fruits.*

"Now a fruit indeed is what I feel like eating," she said. She took a deep breath. "Aah, such nice smell. Can you smell it?"

"It is a nice sent indeed but I feel something strange about this place," said Liefer in a suspicious expression, his eyes searching their surroundings slowly. The rest of his dimensional friends nodded in agreement.

"Oh come on!" complained Lief. "The smell of this fruit is irresistible." He picked a fruit and without a second thought, his teeth sunk into the juicy substance. Kree and Filli went from Jasmine's shoulder and onto a branch. They too, started to eat a fruit.

Just as Jasmine was to take a fruit herself, Lief spat out the chewed skin of the fruit into his hand.

"Ugh!" he yelled in repulsion. "It is bitter! The skin is horribly bitter! Ugh!" He wiped his mouth with the back of his other hand rapidly.

"Well, then," began Jasmine, taking out her dagger. She began peeling off the blue skin of the fruit. "I am glad that you tried the fruit before me."

After, peeling off all bits of the skin, Jasmine took a bite off the fruit. When Barda saw that it was safe, he too, began peeling and eating the fruit.

"Are you not going to eat this delicious fruit?" Barda asked the other them. The other them shook their heads in response.

"I still don't like this place," said Jazzy.

"It gives me the creeps," said Marilen.

"We feel something is not right here," said Ranesh.

"Besides, we aren't hungry but if we were we already got supplies in our bags," said Dain.

"I want to eat one fruit but if you say this place is not good then I will resist it," said Tira.

Everyone was sitting down to rest. But Liefer, Jazzy, Barder, Marilen and the others from the other dimension kept their guards up, hands at the hilt of their swords. They didn't mind if Lief, Jasmine and Barda were to sleep. They could sleep if they wanted to.

Linda's head bolted up.

"Do you guys sense any incoming danger?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah," all said.

Unexpectedly, a long, huge, orange leg appeared at the left of the seven magical (plus one mortal) friends. All stood up, whipping out their swords from the scabbards. Dain made a blue force field surround Tira for protection.

The orange leg belonged to a giant, white bird with grey wings (a bit like a seagull). All of them grew their wings and they charged at the bird. Kree was flying around Jasmine's head, his black wings brushing against her face. He squawked repeatedly, trying to wake her up.

Liefer went to his other self to wake him up.

"Hey! Lief! Awake! Danger is here! Wake up king!" he shouted as he shook the sleeping young ruler.

"What!" screamed Lief, with one eye open.

"Come on! Get up! There is a huge bird here. It looks hungry and it seems interested in eating us humans!"

Lief was now fully awake and aware of the bird but…

"I cannot move!" he shouted, his eyes wide with panic.

"What? Why?"

"I do not know! I just cannot! My body feels numb!"

Liefer put one hand above Lief's face. He stretched his arm to make his other hand hover above Lief's feet. Bright, red light illuminated between Liefer's hands and Lief's face and feet. When Liefer withdrew his hands, Lief was able to move again.

"Wow," began Lief, making sure he was able to fully move again. "You do have healing powers."

"No more playtime! There's a giant bird trying to kill us!" shouted Liefer.

Lief grabbed his sword as Liefer took flight to attack the bird from the air. But before Lief could even take a step forward a spear soared through the air and hit the bird on its wing.

"Get out of here you Orchard Keeper!" shouted out a voice. "Stay away from these people!"

Another spear raced through the winds of the air like a dart. This time, it scraped on the bird's neck. It decided, it had enough from the flying people and the flying spears so it ran off behind the trees.

"Impossible…"said that same anonymous voice.

A woman wearing a woven cap came walking out from behind the curtain of ferns. She looked at the flying people. Then she looked at Lief, whose sword was still in hand.

"Lindal of Broome?" said Lief, as he put his sword back into its sheath.

"Hello Lief of Del," Lindal's eyes were wide in confusion. "Er…who are they?"

She pointed at the flying people then strides forward to pick up her spears. Linda made her wings disappear and landed besides her other self.

"Hi there!" she said.

The sudden greeting made Lindal jump in surprise. She looked at Linda. Linda looked at Lindal.

"Aaahh!" shouted Lindal, more than shocked to see another her…and worse…WITH HAIR!

"Wh-what the hell?" she said. "Who are you? Please do not tell me you are an ol."

"No, no," said Linda, waving her hand up and down. "I didn't mean to frighten you but if you could just calm down then we will explain."

"Okay but we should get out of this place, for I do not want to go up against that Orchard Keeper again. People say it is unfortunate to kill an Orchard Keeper."

*I know in the book the fruit is golden but this is my version. XP

Okay, there goes another chapter! Please review! If you are wondering why Marilen, Ranesh, Dain and Tira don't have a different name is because they don't have anyone to compare to.