Author's Note: Hello again and a day has passed since I last updated so I've listened to my two reviewers and updated soon. Now a response to my reviewers:

PJ Blindclown: Thanks for the review! And as you can see I HAVE updated soon.

Black Fury: Thanks for the review. Well I know, I sent you the e-mail and even that was wrong. I made a mistake. I said since they got married instead since their last child. Sorry about that. I'll change it after I post this.

LiefxJasmine: Thanks for the comments. No, I'm not Catherine Attard of the code cracker competition. I didn't even know that that was who won. When I got this review I picked up my SOTS and looked at the back and was amazed. This is by the way just a penname, it's not my real name.

Now, on to my comments about this chapter. It's hopefully, well written. It's descriptive. Lot's of imagery. Lot's of foreshadowing like there was foreshadowing in chapter one too ;)

Enjoy and a Happy New Year!

Disclaimer: I am not Emily Rodda. I do not profit from this story. This story is in no way associated with Scholastic publishing. I do not own any of the characters or Deltora, I merely own the plot of this story.

Catherine Attard.

Chapter Two – In the Belly of the Beast

The sky, a picture of gruesome red and velvet purple that had melted into one another thundered, shaking the earth of the Land of Thaldorn. The Land of Thaldorn was disgusting… Pathetic… Weak… This was what Thaldorn wished but he did not wish for things to go this far, he did not want he, himself to die within this pitiful land… His castle, his thrown had eroded into dirt and seeped through the cracks within the earth.

Thaldorn lay like a dead creature on the earth. His beard was rough and his clothes torn. His eyes looked like those of a mad man and his hair was nearly gone. He was going bald. His skin was drenched in dirt and was no longer a pale white.

His mind raced with thoughts… After the downfall he had began to seclude himself from his followers and slowly the guards that he had created began to malfunction. They could not survive… Evil was not strong enough. However, Thaldorn himself survived as the world he had spent hundreds of years creating became nothing… Nothing but a pile of dirt.

He screamed out into the sky… His voice cut off by the thunder. He was scared… Scared within his own land. How could things of come to this. Thaldorn picked himself off the floor and forced his knees to hold and his legs to move ahead of one another. He had been moving for what seemed like months. He had not eaten or drunk anything since the downfall. He was weak.

As he walked to the border of his land, he began to see the grace of the land ahead of him. The land he could of embraced when he first sailed across the seas… He had thought of this many times but he was not one to mingle with it's people… He wanted the land for himself and for none other than himself but it was… nothing but a dream… he could not rule the land of Grace… of Hope…

All his plans had been ruined but that was before the downfall. Now as he had spent months walking… thinking… He had devised one last plan and if it failed it would end him. However, death was better than what he was suffering now.

He stayed away from the border of the Mountain and used the last of his magic to summon the last of the Dragons… He would not be able to hold them under his will for long but he also had to let go of them at the right time.

And he saw them coming, seven dragons and all seven shining in the setting sun. Blinding Gold, Blood Scarlet, Multi-coloured Rainbow, Heavenly Blue, Deep Green, Purple and Silver-White.

He looked away from the dragons, with fear in his heart it was near impossible to control seven adult dragons. Thaldorn raised his hands but kept facing his shoes, not wanting to look at the powerful beasts. Seconds later Thaldorn lowered his hands and waited as the ground shook seven times as the seven beasts landed.

Thaldorn began to plant his evil into the creatures. Into the creatures mind so they could do as he wished. As soon as he had completed the ritual he let go of the beasts and withdrew the last of his power.

The seven dragons faced Thaldorn. They did not what his name was or who he was but they knew he was evil and a tyrant that must be put to an end. The dragons gathered into a circle and surrounded the man who was now lying on the dirt once more.

"Let us kill this… this thing!" roared Fidelis.

"We will but… I want to devour his flesh and so do the rest of you…" said the purple dragon, Veritas, Dragon of Truth, Dragon of the Amethyst. The dragons said nothing for a while, then little Forta spoke.

"We shall all scorch his flesh, together. Then, we shall each take a part of his body, seven pieces in all making a whole. Will this do?"

The dragons growled agreement in unison. So they took the places around the withering body and engulfed Thaldorn together. Ridding him of life… for a while… The dragons were now staring at a man who did not possessed life nor pain. Thaldorn's flesh had become a dark shade of black. Slowly the dragons bent their necks, surveying their prey. First, Fidelis decapitated Thaldorn and swallowed it whole. The rest of the Dragons took another piece of Thaldorn's body and swallowed it. So with Thaldorn planted within them they flew back to the city of grace and waited for Thaldorn's spirit to return.

They waited one year.

Lief woke to the surroundings of the Palace Infirmary. His body had been drugged for he could not think properly or feel any pain. The room was deserted, it's pink walls looking at Lief. Lief stared at the paintings that were hung on the pink, soothing walls. One in particular stood out. It was the painting of a dragon who's hide was a mix of gold and silver. Like the gold colour had dulled. The dragon was eating a man. At second look, Lief saw that this man was a King of Deltora for he wore the Belt of Deltora. Lief made a mental note to ask the Palace Doctors to remove it.

Lief looked away from the painting and to his bedside where the royal seal had been burned into the wood.

Lief heard the opening of the infirmary door and turned his head towards who-ever had entered. As he did his eyes once again wandered over the painting he had previously been surveying but this time… It was a painting of a man wrestling with a fish.

Jasmine had entered the room. She was in a royal gown and had a frown on her beautiful face. The ivory gown she was wearing flowed behind her. She walked then sat on the bed Lief was lying on. She looked at him then moved in to kiss him.

She caught his lips as he was about to tell her to not do what she was doing. Her lips were warm and smooth against his own which felt like ice. Jasmine broke the kiss.

"I was so worried," she began to cry, "how could you do that to me!" Tears were no flowing freely. Jasmine was not one to cry but she loved Lief with all her heart and she did not wish to lose him.

"I'm fine," Lief coughed.

"You didn't look alright when you passed out. You were shivering and you were white as a ghost and the doctor could find nothing to cause you illness," she cried. She hugged him tightly, scared that he would die beneath her.

"I'll be here forever, I love you," Lief murmured. Lief did not believe this. He had seen something… Not something. Things. Pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that gave an answer but he could not remember what they were. Darn drug.

The infirmary door was blasted open, nearly knocking off it's hinges. Barda stood in the frame of the door.

"LIEF!" Barda roared.

"DRAGON!"

"DEATH!"

"FI!"

As those last words left his mouth, he fell to the floor. His face was covered slightly in small bumps and his face was coloured a feverish red. Poison… The Toran Plague.

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