Deltora Quest Fanfic~ The Arrival * Book 1*

Chapter 7: Recovery

It was after a few minutes, Jasmine's face hardened." Lief, you must rest. That's your main priority right now. She was only with us because she was lost. Besides she was probably abandoned... or her parents were taken away from her..." She sighed. Lief didn't say a word. Barda closed his eyes in thought. They were in a lot of distress.
" Ouch. That hurts" groaned a voice. They all jumped in astonishment, when they immediately recognised the voice. By the way it echoed, it was coming from the chasm. There was a great amount of grunting, that grew louder by the second and in an instant a pale hand appeared, gripping the chasm's borders as if their life depended on it. In this case, it did. Then another hand shakily appeared, holding the edge. It pulled itself upwards and slowly blonde hair was visible, until it disappeared from their sights.
It was only then they knew it could only be May. Barda and Jasmine ran to the rocky cliff, each holding one of her limp hands and they began to haul her up.
They began to help her to her feet, when she just fell back onto her knees, laughing. She wiped the sweat and tears that had formed on her face, as she said," I haven't done rock climbing in ages," and fell face forward on rocky surface, unconscious.
Lief ran towards May and turned her around, so that her back was facing the ground and sighed in relief, when he realised that she was just sleeping. Her face was full of sweat and tears with dried blood, her hair tangled in the mess.
" She must be tired from all that climbing," chuckled Barda, under his breath. Jasmine nodded, smiling, then went to clean up her face with a cloth she had in her bag.
" What's rock climbing?" She asked.
" I don't know," replied Barda." Maybe ask Lief, he might know". Jasmine turned to Lief, who sat there with May's head on his lap, watching her with the look of something in his mind.
" Do you know what rock climbing is, Lief?" she asked, again. Lied didn't reply." Lief!"
Lief turned towards Jasmine, startled.
"What is it?" He asked, softly, surprising the two of them.
" What is wrong with you?!" Replied Jasmien angrily, placing her hands on her hips.
"I thought you were going to ask what rock-climbing is..." Muttered Barda to himself, crossing his arms. Jasmine gave a glare, then turned her head back at Lief. But he still didn't mutter a single word. This made Jasmine fuming.
" Hey! What's wrong with you? You keep on dozing off into your little mind of yours. Can't you see, we're trying to communicate?!"
Life tinted his head in confusion. This made her very furious." Why you..."
" We should get going..."
" Huh?..." Jasmine calmed down from her rage when she heard his voice.
Barda crossed his arms." He is right. Thagean will soon find out that we're in her territory and might come after us." Lief nodded.
" Let's go". He lifted May up onto his back, and they continued their journey.

May woke up to find herself lying against a tree trunk. She stretched and yawned, breathing in the forest air. She noticed that they were deep inside the forest and everyone seemed to be sleeping. She smiled, as she looked across from one to another. She still couldn't imagine herself to be in her favourite anime, but it was best for her to enjoy it as much as she could. Especially with her new-found friends. She stood up slowly and quietly, when she felt someone's body beneath her hand. Surprised, she back away from it when she realised that she was leaning Lief. Her face turned bright pink, from embarrassment. Lief stirred as he slept until he felt a gentle force on him. He opened his eyelids and opened up to find May staring right back at him. He quickly got up, as he scanned his surrounds.
" Is something wrong?," asked Lief, worried. May shook her head, furiously.
" No. I was... I was... I was just wondering where we were and how we got here," she said, nervously. Lief calmed down." Well, we did quite a lot of walking. We should be deep in the forest, Jasmine said it would be a good place to rest, since the trees said that they would protect us." May nodded, siting under a tree.
" Then why was I unconscious ... I don't really remember." Lief sat back and leaned the same tree as May, smiling off into the distance." Well, it seemed that you and I were a dangerous situation and we had to get across the bridge." Then he frowned.
" I was saved by the guardian of the bridge, who by the way turned into a huge bird. It turned out that he wanted to repay you and I for breaking the curse. Unfortunately he was able to save only me..."
" What happened... to me?"
" Well, by the time I was unconscious and the guardian had already placed me back to safety. It was only then when I realised that you were gone... But it wasn't until a few minutes later, you came back out with cuts and bruises all over you." Lief chuckled." Then you talked about this rock climbing nonsense before passing out." Lief turned back to May, who was in deep thought.
" ...I want to ask you a question."
" Huh?..." Lief looked at her with a serious look. " Well...Um. Go ahead, then."
Lief looked at his companions." Well, I've always wanted to ask you this, ever since we first met you."
He looked back at May and took hold of her hand, grasping it tightly. May held her flushing face with her free hand. " What is it?"
" Well, I wanted to ask you... How do you know about the belt of Deltora?"