Unwanted

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Deltora Quest characters.  However, I do own Dakota, a character I have chosen to throw in.  My best friend, Stephanie, owns Dakota's boyfriend and best friend, the mimic, Lillend. (I don't think I will be putting Lillend in this, however, I probably will have Dakota in this)

Summary: This story is pretty much a story about romance between L/J (Lief and Jasmine).  It will also have quite a bit of romance between Ranesh and Marilen.  Anyhow, I hope you all enjoy this fanfic… although, I'm not sure how often I'll update it but I might update it once or more times than that a day, depending on my end-of-the-year homework and such from school.  Over summer you'll probably receive several more fanfics on Deltora Quest from me.

THANKS: Thanks to people who reviewed.  Of course, FFNet didn't let me upload when I thought I could. Ah well, here's a few uploads today for ya! ^_-

Chapter III

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Lief sighed.  He had given in and let Jasmine come as well.  She seemed somewhat happier at least.  Lief was standing outside with Jasmine, Barda, Doom and Sharn, bidding Doom and Sharn goodbye before they left.

The company then started on their way, carrying their small packs, one blanket each, one water flask each, only a small amount of food in each pack to last them the trip to Tora, where they would re-fill the food in their packs and head back to Del.  They walked for hours, before they finally came to a stop.  They had left later than Jasmine would have wanted to, so they did not travel as far as they could have, the only got to the third forest in the grouping of forests known as the Forests of Silence.  Jasmine's nest was still there, and so they found it, and climbed up to it to sleep there for the night.

They switched watches like they used to do, but Barda ended up taking up both his and Lief's shifts, since Lief slept through his.  The night was oddly silent, and by morning, all of them, except for Barda, were well rested.  The group moved on anyhow. 

As the day went by, and they got closer to their destination, and were now walking along the river, the water was oddly calm.  It looked as though nothing had touched it for days; it was so still you could have sworn it was ice.  Nothing moved under the water either, nothing at all disturbed its peace.  It gave it an eerie sort of look, like a dead body's eyes.  But Jasmine, Lief and Barda continued on their way. 

Jasmine was staying far from the water's edge; she did not like water and still did not know how to swim.  Barda walked not too far behind Jasmine, while Lief walked off to her side, right along the river bank, looking for any sign of life in the cool waters.  But he saw nothing.

"Give it up Lief, you aren't going to find anything," Barda said, not looking over at Lief.  Lief still looked though.

"No… I'll find something," he said.  Jasmine just sighed; she glanced at Lief, and then glanced ahead again.  Lief, things have changed.  Things are more peaceful for those in Del, but, by news we've heard of the messengers not making it, I doubt they are at peace here. Jasmine thought to herself.

Jasmine stopped abruptly, and, Barda, who had not been paying attention, walked into her.  She swatted back at him, and glared, then looked around.  "Do you hear that?" she asked.


"Hear what?" Lief and Barda asked in unison, looking around, then at Jasmine.

"Nevermind…" Jasmine said, and started walking again.  The two boys glanced at each other before shrugging it off and going back to walking themselves.  Jasmine remained alert as she continued to walk, but the boys were sort of drifting.  Especially Lief.  Jasmine looked at Lief, as did Barda.  For Barda the drifting was merely because he was tired, but the two looked at Lief worriedly.

"Lief?" Barda asked.  Lief did not respond, he showed no sign he had even heard Barda.  "Lief, are you all right?"

Lief's eyes were becoming glazed over.  Suddenly a pain shot through Lief's back, stomach and chest, and he fell to his knees, jaw clenched shut.  Jasmine and Barda ran to him, worried, Jasmine fell to her knees beside him, skidding to a stop, trying to see if he was all right, Barda dropped to his knees in front of Lief.  They were trying to get Lief to respond, but the boy did not.  Suddenly, Lief opened his mouth, and blood streamed out of his mouth, and he began to cough it up as well.

Barda dug around in his bag for a cloth, and, once he found one, wet it in the river, the first thing to disturb the water in a while.  Ripples spread through the water.  Jasmine snatched the cloth from Barda, and wiped the blood off Lief's chin, and held the cloth so he would not get blood on his clothes, but on the cloth instead.

Jasmine gave the cloth back to Barda, who washed it in the river and then handed it back to her, and again she wiped the blood off him and caught it.  They went through this routine repeatedly, and slowly, Lief started to be coming back to himself.

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The blood spread through the water slowly, the colouring of a few parts of the water changing from crystal clear to blood red with the young King's blood.  Not only the blood traveled through the water, but the scent of it did as well.

Something caught the blood's scent.  Burrowing its long, eel-like body under the sand, it moved easily underneath the sand, not disturbing the sand at all, but keeping the smell of Lief's blood in its nose and the rest of its sensory system.  The sand did not move, even with the giant body moving underneath it.  The creature moved easily under the sand, towards the river, where Lief, Barda and Jasmine still sat, still tending to Lief.

~*~*~

And that's that chapter.  Now I'm off to write the next.