NEW CHAPTER

            Lief opened his eyes to the morning light. His entire body was in pain; his muscles ached all over. Then the remembrance of the dream hit him like a rock. The dream had frightened him. He lay there in bed sweating as the dream played through his head over and over again. ‘What did the dream mean’ he thought ‘ did it indeed mean anything’, he sat there thinking about it for what seamed like an eternity, but in truth only lasted for 15 minutes. Lief realized that he wasn’t getting anywhere with the dream and decided to just leave it as a bad nightmare as a result of lack of sleep.

            Lief stretched his arms and jumped out of bed. He tried to shake the image of his friends heads impaled on pikes, but to no avail. ‘ Stop it’ he thought ‘ It was just a bad dream, it meant nothing.’ It had only been three weeks since he had returned from the shadowlands, but as soon as he had arrived back in Deltora Lief had wasted no time in moving from the castle back to the forge. Lief had wanted to destroy the castle, but since it was made by the Ralads he had a better chance of beating Barda in a wrestling match. In the end they had decided to leave it standing, and use it for great occasions. Today was one of those occasions; they were all finally able to celebrate the demise of the shadow lord. They were having a feast.

            As Lief walked down the hallway of the forge he looked around him and still couldn’t believe how much the place had changed. Because the forge was only bid enough to house one family they had built extensions so that Jasmine, Barda and Doom could live with them. After all, this was really Dooms house, and Barda and Jasmine didn’t have another home to go too. As a result of these extensions the house was much larger, but it still felt extremely cozy. 

            Lief walked into the kitchen and was surprised to see that every one with the exception of Barda was awake. It had turned out that Barda was a real snooze; he would stay in bed all day unless there was something really important on. Lief was slightly embarrassed at the fact that every one else was up because he hadn’t bothered to get changed and was still wearing what he had slept in, and was looking extremely crumpled. Nether the less he started to make himself some toast.

            “Morning Lief,” said Jasmine “ Did you sleep well?”

For a moment Lief considered telling her about the dream, but then dismissed the idea, not wanting to worry her. He knew that if Jasmine new about the dream she would make a big deal out of it and start attacking anything and everything that even looked like a threat.

            ‘Slept okay,” said Lief, smiling at her “Just didn’t want to get up this morning. How’d you sleep?”

            Jasmine frowned for a moment then smiled, “Great, though really Lief, you should have been up hour’s ago. We need to prepare for the feast and its already past nine!”

“ Its okay, we have plenty of time. Lief finish your breakfast and get dressed. We leave as soon as your ready.” Said Sharn.

Doom didn’t say anything, he looked lost in thought.

Hurriedly, Lief finished his toast and went back to his room to get changed. Stupid thought Lief  as he walked out the door, I don’t really need to go anywhere today. All they want me to do is make sure every thing is satisfactory, and I just don’t care! 

            First they went to the kitchens in the old castle too make sure all the food was as the ‘King’ wanted it. Then they dragged him of to the great hall to make sure all the decorations were as Lief wanted them. Lief just smiled and nodded, being polite to all that asked him question or talked to him.

  After countless hours of being asked countless questions Lief was finely finished and was aloud to return home. But when he returned home his Lief had to start about the tiring task of getting dressed. Because he was King Lief was Meant to look the part. Lief would just have liked to wear his normal leather vest with cotton pants, but instead Sharn picked out a white silk shirt with an embroidery of a red rose running down the right arm of the sleeve. She also picked out a cloak, that Sharn had made herself. The cloak was also made out of white silk, this had light blue embroidery along the bottom of small flowers. Lief noticed with some relief that the pants were just cotton, and didn’t have flowers all over them. He also wore, as a course of habit, his sword at his waist. He had been wearing it for so long that he almost felt naked without it.

Lief sat waiting for Jasmine and Sharn to be ready, half an hour later he was still waiting. He sat by the fire in the forge while Sharn ran around looking for a needle and thread to mend a hole in Jasmines dress.

“Lief,” said Sharn, sticking her head out from behind Jasmines door “Just go on ahead and we will meat you there.”

Lief hesitated. He had never seen Jasmine in a dress and was very curious to see what she looked like. “ Are you sure you’ll be okay? I mean, it’s no real trouble for me to wait.”

Sharn smiled, “Lief, if you wait for us you will be late! You’re the King, remember? You have to be on time. We’ll be fine, now go!”

Lief decided that she was right. He was the King and he did need to be on time. Besides, he would see Jasmine when she arrived at the feast. “Alright. I’ll see you two at the dance then.” After saying that Lief walked out the door and began his trek up the main road to the palace.