A/N: Hi everyone! This is my first ever fanfiction that I'm publishing, thanks to the pandemic giving me time and courage to finalize it. It consists of ten standalone stories, all revolving around a character's idea of the future which is later proved almost completely wrong. Except for a few characters in the upcoming chapters (which I will indicate specifically), I do not own Deltora Quest or any of its characters.
Castles Made of Sand
Chapter I: When His King Or His Queen Wears The Belt
Where he had clasped their hands would prickle later. That afternoon he would stare, unfocused, at the rustic space of the hut and let his mind sail the wild seas of his thoughts.
He seldom touched the belt under his still-damp shirt and thought of what laid ahead of them. Only one more gem. Even phrasing it into a mental note was wild, that they had survived the past six ordeals, that now six shining gems hid under his clothes, waiting for the last remaining stone to join hands with them. It gave Lief goosebumps to imagine the moment they would place the great Diamond in the last medallion and make the legendary Belt of Adin the Great complete once more. The great Belt, symbol of everything they were fighting for.
Then the magical thing would lead them to the heir.
His heart would beat crazily in his chest whenever he imagined the day they had found that wanted youngster in hiding who was almost the same age as him. Will it be a girl or a boy? It had become his counting sheep game for weeks by then. Will I have to bow to my queen or my king?
But what did it matter? Either way, he could easily weep at the picture of the moment the heir would wear the Belt and make all the darkness vanish. His father had told him what had happened when the Endon had put on the Belt for the first time: it had filled the Great Hall of the Palace with brilliant rainbow light, accompanied by a cracking sound so loud and clear it seemed the heaven itself had fallen from the skies.
How majestic it would be this time!
It gave him a savage pleasure to envision the enemy probably going crazy, while he had no choice but to retreat to where he belonged beyond the mountains, by whatever means and whatever physical form he had. If only he could see the Shadow Lord's face then. He could feel the blood rush in the veins of his neck. The dream of that banishment sufficed to rouse him, sword in hand, mind and body prepared, to fight for all the misery the people of Deltora had to go through in these years. They would definitely win this war, he was sure—he had to be sure—and the enemy would leave, never to return, for everyone had learned all too well what they had to do to prevent it. The heir had to wear the Belt always; as simple as that! And keep the people's trust, Lief noted to himself. But that would be easy as long as the heir did the former.
Hot tears would sting his eyes whenever he thought of the world after the times of the shadows — a world where no one was burned to death for staying out after the sunset; no one was arrested for speaking their minds about things that opposed the ruler's likings; no damned shadow marks were stamped on doors and walls; Del's calm shores would be opened to all while ships of neighboring lands ducked at the harbor, lands Lief had only heard of in tales, lands that they could visit once they won this fight.
Apples! There would be apples available for all in Del! And food would not be scarce anymore, for there would be no evil tyrant to take hard-working people of cities like Noradz as slaves to waste tons of food to transfer only a portion of it to the headquarters in Del. Instead, with the right trade routes established inside the kingdom, hunger would end for all. Lief had seen the countryside of almost all corners of Deltora, and he knew each part was a paradise for a specific plantation that could be the perfect salvation, not just for the food problem, but also for trade with other lands.
What was more, his parents would be free. They would return home, him and Barda, and perhaps Jasmine too, and they would once again eat the heavenly potato stew his mother mastered. He longed to return to the days he found boring before; days he would help his father in the forge just to be taught lessons of arithmetic and history by his mother in the afternoon before he could play with his friends, and, to his laughter now, before Barda saved his ass only for him to boast of his luck later.
He stared at the big man lying to his left, sleeping silently like the trained soldier he used to be. But this time Barda would not be a beggar babysitter. Lief liked to think that his friend would return to the royal guards' section and be given the rank of captain of the guards; something he probably fancied when he was still a guard in the middle of training. He would live in the palace and, Lief thought with excitement, we could visit him there.
In fact, the more exhilarating and historical meeting would be that of Jarred and Anna's with Endon and Sharn; parted friends who would have reached their goals by then. Perhaps I could be friends with the heir, just like our parents, he would wonder with a thrill.
This made him think of his old friends. He could not wait to meet their gang again. What would they think when they see me again! He would giggle childishly to himself, for a short time being the teenage boy he used to be before the quest began. I will show them every trick and move I have learned. And I am sure this journey has made me stronger and faster than Mazz anyway; I will outrun him in our next match for sure! And Uriah would not be able to laugh at me in rope climbing anymore because I will beat him too. Then he would change his mind. In fact, when I introduce Jasmine to them, none of them would dare take pride in their rope climbing skills, not even I. He mentally chuckled with satisfaction, proud that he was friends with one as agile and skillful as her.
Then his thoughts would take uncertain paths. Would Jasmine come to Del with us anyway? Or would she return to the Forests of Silence?, he would wonder. Then he would turn and lie on his other side to observe her, as if seeing her gently-breathing small figure, covered by a mass of tangled hair, would make him decide better. If he was honest with himself, he did not relish the thought of the latter possibility, even if it was what she absolutely desired. But then again he had no right to stop her. So perhaps he could convince her to stay?
For the first time, he tried to figure out the bizarre feeling he had come to notice growing within him lately. And with that, would inevitably come the thought of Dain. Lief was worried about him and wished they could have saved him. His frightened dark eyes as he was dragged out of the pirates' cave threatened to hunt his dreams. It stabbed at his heart knowing all the boy wanted was to reach Tora with hopes of finding his parents. But with how things were currently, he could never do that!
Yet somehow Lief realized, when he dug deep into his subconscious, that he did not wish to save him! But why would I ever wish that for someone as innocent as Dain?, he would ask himself, greatly shocked and disturbed by his own thoughts. He could not tell at that time, but would later deduct that it slightly had something to do with Jasmine. If he was honest with himself, he felt at a loss, a big loss, when the boy was around them. It made Lief a hundred times a bigger loser than when he had fallen in the mud in a rope climbing contest among his gang of friends.
Perhaps he was scared that she had found a better friend in Dain than in him. After all, they both were familiar with the wild and they both had experienced loss of parents and were looking for them.
But Jasmine and I are friends too. And I have traveled the land with her, which he has not. I know things about her he does not.
He felt ashamed seconds later to think as childishly as that. Nevertheless, he could not ignore that pang of jealousy either, or the unknown feeling when he looked at her that made him warm, excited and restless in anticipation. He would expect his thoughts about the last few days to roam around topics like Doom, pirates, Ols, beasts and running for their lives. But one strange picture burned bright in one corner of his mind: the picture of Jasmine's proud figure in her purple disguise. His face grew hot as it filled his mind again. He did not know how he remembered that specific instant with that specific angle, and not some other instances of their encounter on the River Queen. He just knew that the image was vividly carved behind his eyelids with all its small details. And it was not the fine clothes that had made Jasmine brilliant; it was her genius, manifested in such an unexpected yet gorgeous way, that had bewitched Lief.
He turned and lay on his back once more, putting one arm on his hot forehead, closing his eyes. What am I thinking about!
He would let his mind fly to distant hazy peaks again. He would think of a world where he would leave the forge to serve his king or queen and rid their land of the pirates that fed, like ticks, on the poor people they crossed paths with. This was something he could barely imagine a year ago; truth be told, taking over the forge was the only future he had envisioned for himself, in which he still ran wild with his friends in the back alleys of the city. But traveling the land, far and wide, had made him mature. He was now certain that this was not what he wanted. After everything he had been through, he could not bear to imagine staying in a single city for the rest of his life. He had to help with the purging of his country and no one could stop him. Worse than the contractors of the Shadow Lord were the traitors, he had recently figured out. He would take down the remaining pirates and the likes of them, even with bare hands if he had to.
And perhaps Jasmine will accompany me with that; at least she hates evil as much as I do and she rejoices at the downfall of the evils that have bound and blighted nature and its creatures.
Once again he would come back to her.
Maybe, just maybe we could someday...
Parts of his thoughts would flash and fade as quickly as lightning and would not give him time to linger on them. But they also shook him as strong as a crack of thunder. Those were the wildest parts of his dreams, what one might call wishful thinking. Perhaps that was why the picture was vague and fleeting, to protect him from getting hurt if they did not come true.
But he knew what they were about and he could well imagine the outcome of them. They were dreams of a hopeful life in his adulthood where he would become a traveler, protecting villages from ruffians. But he was not alone in those dreams. The captain of the guards, once a hero of the quest of the Belt of Deltora, would bravely lead his men to fight and take down the last of the traitors. And the well-known wild girl of the forests, now a stunning woman, would strike the final blow, jumping from the skies with her famous blackbird.
He stared at the ceiling, made out of straw. His head felt cooler. He had answered — or better put had made settlements with —most of his burning thoughts. His mind was quieter now, but some questions remained unanswered; the most noticeable one, Doom, would float around his mind seldom. And at last, it was the thoughts of the mysterious man that took reign of his dreams when sleep eventually fell on him.