Re: Kingdom Hearts: Keys to the Kingdom
Chapter XVIII: Arabian Days
Sometimes it seems to Azlyn that a day just isn’t complete without the familiar, though still no less jarring, sound of Telary shrieking in fear.
She bolts out of her room before he sound has even died down, passing the open door of Sora’s room and seeing the Keybearer cock his head at the odd noise, still not as “trained” to react as Azlyn is.
She climbs the ladder up and makes an immediate assessment of the cockpit as soon as her head is above the floor, peering around and seeing no apparent signs of danger. Just Telary, leaned back into the cushion of his seat with one hand clenching his chest. In front of him, a monitor that Azlyn has never noticed before floats above, held aloft by a thin but strong metal arm.
“Hey there, Azlyn!” Dale, the red-nosed, goofier of the chipmunk brothers and Gummi engineers, greets the knight as she finishes her climb. Below, she can hear Sora start his own ascent, having finally caught up with the program.
“Sorry to scare you, Telary,” Dale, black-nosed and responsible, apologizes to Telary, who by now has at least managed to get his breathing back under control. “We must have forgotten to tell you about the two-way comm system.” The flight controller pauses and gives Azlyn a knowing look. “Of course, if you hadn’t stolen it in the first place…”
“There’s going to come a day that someone will forget to remind me of that,” Azlyn sighs, taking her seat to Telary’s left.
“Not any time soon though, I’d imagine,” Telary quips with a hint of a smile, his spirits back to normal after the shock he’d received.
“That’ll be the first thing I tell Kairi about you guys,” Sora comments from his seat to the right. “I’ll say, ’Hey, Kairi, these are my friends Azlyn and Telary, and they stole a Gummi ship’.”
After the laughter dies down, Dale declares it time to get to business. “We actually called to give you guys some bad news.”
“Is the castle okay?” Telary asks, leaning forward and gripping his chair’s arm rests. “The queen? Something from Donald or Goofy?”
“No, no, we’re all fine,” Dale assures the mage. “New columns just went up out in the colonnade, and most of the audience chamber has been cleared up.”
“We called because we picked somethin’ up on our far-range scanners,” Dale says, looking more concerned than is his usual nature. “We’ve been getting a lot of Darkness readings from the worlds, ‘cause of the Heartless, but now we’re starting to see similar signatures out in Gummi space, mostly clustered among further out worlds.”
“What does that mean?” Azlyn asks.
“In short,” Chip answers, “it seems that the Heartless have found a way to use Gummi technology in combination with their own dark powers, which…”
“Would give them a fleet of ships all their own,” Telary finishes, a panicked edge to his voice. “They could attack us while we’re flying from world to world!”
“Afraid so,” Chip says apologetically. “We can’t get much of a read on locations, not in time to warn you anyway, but you
do have the turret in back, so…”
“Turret!” Azlyn exclaims, straightening up in her chair, a grin stretching across her face. “You mean like a big gun?”
“Sure,” Dale answers, nodding smartly.
“You’d have known that if…”
Azlyn slams a glowing button on the dash, apparently the way to shut off the monitor since Chip and Dale’s image winks out and the metal arm pulls the screen back behind the computer bay.
“Heartless Gummi ships,” Telary sighs, drooping backwards into the seat. “That’s just what we need, space battles! I’ve never flown in a space battle before. There aren’t even combat simulations. Nobody told me about the turret…”
“Relax, Telary,” Sora assures the older boy, leaning back in his chair. “If anybody can fly us through a bunch of Heartless ships, it’s you. Trust me, we’re gonna be fine!”
“Espescially with me on the turret!” Azlyn says, springing out of her seat and springing to the exit. “Once I get my hands on those guns…”
“Who said you’re in charge of the turret, huh?” Sora challenges, remembering all the times he and Riku chased each other with tiny peashooters. He hadn’t been a bad shot, for a ten year old.
“Oh, please,” Azlyn scoffs, crossing her arms indignantly. “Like I’m gonna…”
“You stole the ship!” Sora blurts out. “And that means that…”
“Okay, say that one more time. In grappling range! I dare ya, key boy…”
Telary lifts the ship’s yoke, sending it rising off the Gummi garage’s landing platform and shaking the cockpit enough so that both Sora and Azlyn lose balance, and therefore steam, preventing the fight from getting physical.
“You will take turns!” the mage barks, uncharacteristically authoritative. “Okay, happy? But for now, just take your seats because we’re gonna see if this warp drive is as great as Cid made it sound. Alright?”
Both mumble an apology as they go to their seats, though Sora maintains that Azlyn started it.
Telary shakes his head as he focuses on the instruments, finding the pattern to engage warp speed. Luckily he made sure to note the positions of all their previously visited worlds, so it’s a simple matter to call up Deep Jungle’s coordinates, the furthest out world they’d been able to detect, and punch in for warp.
“Hang on everybody,” Telary instructs, flexing his fingers around the controls. “This is gonna be…”
He pushes down the warp sequence ignition button, and the view space outside the cockpit shifts from a pleasant blue and green to a harsh white, silver streaks threading through it. All of this happens before Telary can even finish his sentence, so fast that none of the trio notice it happening at all.
“…Different,” Telary finishes. Looking out the viewport, he can see that they’re just out of Deep Jungle’s orbit, the green world spinning slowly beneath them. “Huh.”
“Whoa!” Sora exclaims, exiting his seat and pressing his face against the glass to get a better look. “We got here so fast I didn’t even know it was happening! Cool!”
“It is nice,” Azlyn admits, acting unimpressed. “Saves a lot of time stuck in here alone with you boys.”
Telary notices that the dash-inset monitor is beeping, and leaning over he can see that a new world can be located on radar.
“Can we warp to the next world too?” Sora asks.
“Sadly not,” Telary explains. “The nav Gummi just doesn’t give us anything beyond a vague impression of the world’s location. I need to maintain constant control to get us there.”
“Fascinating as that is,” Azlyn says with a yawn, rising and stretching, “I’ve got an appointment with some guns, so…”
“Who said you get the first turn?” Sora protests, turning and inching away from the glass viewport.
“I did!” the knight provides cheerfully, then dashes after the hatch, laughing like a madwoman. Sora is after her like a shot, arms pumping and face focused.
Telary sighs as he settles in for the flight, and winces when he hears a loud crash from belowdecks, and the frightened yelp of Jiminy Cricket.
KH-KH-KH
The streets of Agrabah, normally so crowded with people and children and animals and all sorts of things Jafar considers nothing more than annoying and messy, are empty, perhaps for the first time in years. Certainly the vizier can scarce remember a midday in the marketplace so devoid of life.
All in all, he’s pleased with his work.
“But you haven’t found the Keyhole yet,” Maleficent reminds her second-in-command imperiously, obviously not as pleased as he is. “You’ve searched the
entire palace, have you not?”
“Yes, Maleficent, every inch of it has been swept, from tallest tower to deepest dungeon,” Jafar informs her, fighting an urge to roll his eyes. Sometimes he suspects that the most evil thing about the jade-skinned witch is her micromanaging. “It’s been a task of days, but…”
“You should have searched more quickly. Or have you been mining all the enjoyment you can from ruling Agrabah?”
Jafar scowls openly this time, and is about to say something disdainful that could get him turned to a Shadow, but luckily for him at that moment a squawk rings out from above, signaling the arrival of Iago.
The tiny red parrot lands gently on Jafar’s shoulder. It’s been nearly a decade since the vizier had met the bird, recognizing almost immediately a devious heart not unlike his own. Ever since, the parrot has been a loyal, if mouthy, follower.
“I searched the whole town, Jafar,” he informs his sorcerous master. “From the palace gardens to the western wall, and I couldn’t find hide or tail of the princess.”
Jafar’s scowl grows deeper, and he puffs out an angry breath from his nostrils. “That girl has once again proven herself more trouble than she’s worth. First she escapes custody, and now she’s gone underground. It almost makes me question…”
“The girl is important Jafar,” Maleficent reminds him, arching her eyebrow dangerously. “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times: We need all seven maidens of purest heart if we are to make my Keyhole operational, or open the final door. We may have captured four so far, but if even one slips through our fingers…”
“I’m aware of the girl’s importance, my friend,” Jafar snaps back, noting that this prompts Maleficent’s eyebrow to climb another inch, a feat he’d thought impossible before. “I was merely expressing my frustration. If she needs be found…”
The vizier waves his hand and summons a cadre of Heartless, squat humanoids dressed in baggy pants and vests. Their faces are wrapped up in cloth strips like turbans, only a few inches of black face and yellow eyes poking out. Each carries a large scimitar, easily wielding it with one hand. The dread symbol of the Heartless stands out on their chests.
“Iago, take these Heartless, find Princess Jasmine, and bring her to me,” he commands with a flourishing wave of his staff. The bird nods, and launches off of his shoulder, the Heartless racing after with their swords held high.
Another hand wave brings a second group, then a third. He gives all three the same instruction to capture Jasmine and bring her to him, stressing the importance of not harming the girl. As he watches them charge off, he can’t help but grin at their obedience. Not even Iago follows orders so well.
“I would not advise becoming so attached to the Darkness,” Maleficent says, like a warning from a busybody schoolteacher. “It can prey upon your heart if you aren’t careful, and with you none-the-wiser. The Heartless consume the careless.”
Jafar laughs to hide his anger. “Your concern is very touching, dear Maleficent, but hardly necessary. I can handle the Heartless just fine.”
“If you say so. I just hope your arrogance doesn’t disrupt my plans.”
“I believe that you meant to say
our plans, Maleficent. Don’t forget my role in all of this.”
Maleficent turns away from her companion, mostly so he can’t see her roll her eyes. “Of course not, Jafar. Of course not.”
She leaves then, simply fading away until she is back in the safe darkness of her fortress and Jafar is left alone on the sandy street.
The vizier-turned- sultan of Agrabah scowls at the spot Maleficent just occupied. How dare she talk to him, the new ruler of Agrabah, in that tone! Hadn’t he been the first of their group to join her crusade against the universe? Hadn’t he served loyally, patiently waiting until the day arrived that he could turn the Darkness loose on the place that he was so desperate to rule?
She knows nothing of his other operation, a throwback to plans he had made long before she had offered him the Heartless. Somewhere out in the desert is the key to victory over even Maleficent. Somewhere, deep in the Cave of Wonders, a lamp awaits for the day Jafar finds it and makes all of his wishes come true…
He leaves eventually to return to the palace, and perhaps torture the former sultan a bit. He’d saved the man from the Heartless in order to prolong his vengeance, why not make use of him?
When Jafar is gone and the market is clear once more, a young woman emerges from behind a fruit stall, her eyes watery from the effort of restraining tears.
Agrabah
The trek in from where they park the Gummi ship is short, thankfully, and the heat beats down upon Sora, Azlyn, and Telary’s heads all the way.
The city’s walls are impressive, at least, strong white stone walls Telary estimates are about thirteen feet high, topped by golden domes every ten feet along it.
Over the top of the wall, the trio can see the top of a huge white building topped by the most massive golden dome in the city.
“I just can’t believe it,” Azlyn huffs, her nose wrinkling in angry disgust. “We fly through space for, like, six hours and there’s not one Heartless to shoot! Unbelievable!”
“Well, that’s just too bad for you,” Sora teases, grinning cheekily in a way that he knows will provoke the girl, “because next trip, it’s
my turn on the turret.”
Azlyn opens her mouth to say something, but Telary decides to just run over her and prevent further arguing. “I stand by the taking turns system. It should keep everything fair. Now, could you two please focus? This is a new world, and danger could be around any corner.”
Azlyn looks around at the absolutely empty plaza. A few stalls are set up here and there, but all of them are either locked up tight, or completely abandoned. It’s quiet, too, in ways that cities usually aren’t in the middle of the day. Not even ambient noise from surrounding streets filter in.
“It’s a ghost town,” Sora notes with a frown, spinning in a slow circle to take everything in. All in all, there isn’t much. When he turns back to his companions, a panicked look mars his face. “What could have done this to…?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Azlyn asks, trying to sound less caustically sarcastic than usual. “It must have been the Heartless. They must have…”
“A whole town?” Sora squeaks out, tears beginning to well up in his eyes. “They’ve… They’ve gotten rid of so many people and the world doesn’t even look a bit destroyed. How could they do this? How could…”
Telary steps up and puts a hand on the boy’s shoulder, then brings him in closer and wraps an arm around his shoulder.
“I came too late to stop this,” the Keybearer continues, the water in his eyes disappearing in the span of one hard blink, replaced by a righteous anger. “But I swear I’m going to make the Heartless pay for what they did here. I’m going to seal the Keyhole, stop Maleficent, and get justice for these people.”
“We all are,” Azlyn says assuredly, and Telary nods agreement. A half-hearted grin on his face, Sora shrugs Telary’s arm away and begins to march down the city streets.
The only sound accompanying them is that of their own footsteps and the occasional gust of wind, displacing sand here and there.
Suddenly, though, the silence is broken by the sound of new footsteps, coming down a ways around the curve of the street. From the sound of it, there are several pairs of feet in the group.
Just as the trio prepares their weapons, five Bandit Heartless round the bend, swords held high and feet kicking up clouds of dust!
“Well,” Azlyn remarks as she readies her shield for a throw, “I’d say that justice is about to serve customer number one!”
She pulls back and hurls the shield forward, but one of the Heartless twitches its wrist and knocks the weapon away, sending it flying into the dirt like an uncaught Frisbee.
Sora rushes forward with the Keyblade ready, grunting out a battle cry as he aims a swing for a Bandit’s head. The creature raises its own weapon to block, unfortunately, and turns the Keyblade aside, then steps forward for a retaliatory slash.
Sora blocks, and moves the sword out of his way, but a pair of Bandits rush past and head for Azlyn, who slides out of the way of one sword strike and barely dodges another, lashing out with a kick that sends the nearest Heartless stumbling into its companion. Telary calls down a lightning spell and skewers both with a single bolt.
But another Bandit is already on the move, snapping a kick from its small but powerful leg to the mage’s face, then slashing straight at him with its blade. Telary barely interposes his staff to keep from getting bisected.
Sora and his opponent continue to trade blows, but the Heartless is clearly working with much greater strength than the Keybearer, driving him back.
Azlyn goes for her deflected shield, but finds herself blocked by the efforts of the fifth Bandit. She jinks and jukes, but the creature seems more than well prepared, mirroring her movements as she makes them.
She moves quickly and jumps, executing half a flip, placing her hands on the bandit’s shoulders, and vaulting over its head, lashing out with a back-kick before she lands, sending it to the sandy ground.
It recovers and rises, but by then Azlyn has her shield picked up and ready, ramming into the Heartless and sending it flying into a stall selling various bejeweled items, knocking a support beam down and sending it all collapsing on its head.
Telary has his opponent down with a burst of fire, and Sora finally manages to find an opening to swipe the Bandit he’s been confronting since the battle began directly in the head, ending its threat.
More footsteps can be heard, a greater clamor than even the one that announced the last group’s arrival.
Azlyn turns to face the sound and readies her shield, but at a look from Sora, Telary taps her on the shoulder and gestures to a nearby alley.
“What!” Azlyn whisper-screams, looking defiantly angry at her mage friend. “You can’t be serious! We can…”
“Fine!” Telary shoots back in low, careful tones, already inching towards escape. “You can fight more of these guy if you want, but…”
The knight rolls her eyes even as she settles her shield into the magnetic plate on her back. “Fine, fine. Y’know, you don’t always have to be so passive-aggressive about everything!”
The pair move quickly to join Sora, who is already crouched in the alley behind some crates for cover. They wait there for almost a full minute, Azlyn risking a peek over the top of to observe. The Heartless stand in their group and glance around until, apparently satisfied, they continue their patrol of the desert city.
After they’re gone, the trio emerge from their hiding places to discuss a next move.
“Those Heartless are tougher than the kind we’re used to,” Sora admits with a frown, replaying his swordfight over again in his mind.
“Organized too,” Telary agrees. “I’ll bet it won’t be long until another patrol comes along. If we had time I could try and work out a pattern…”
“So you’re saying we should keep hiding?” Azlyn scoffs, pursing her lips angrily.
“It’s probably the best course of action,” Telary confirms, though he doesn’t look at his companion. “Safest.”
The knight sighs but moves toward the alley, her shoulders hunched slightly. The boys follow along after her.
The backstreets and alleyways of Agrabah are a confusing maze, and the presence of Heartless patrolling in groups doesn’t make it any easier. The trio moves about the city for perhaps half-an-hour, and in that time they face numerous dead ends.
Azlyn stops them eventually, fed up with running into high sandstone walls like the one they’re facing now at the end of an alleyway. Other than a few crates stacked in one corner, it’s empty.
“Great plan, guys,” she grumbles, kicking at the ground and rustling up a cloud of sand and dirt. “We’ve managed to avoid the Heartless, but we’re also completely lost!”
“You never know where the Keyhole could be found,” Telary defends weakly, grimacing as soon as he realizes he brittle nature of his argument.
“Down some random alley?” Sora chimes in, skeptical. “So far it seems like Keyholes show up in pretty special places. I bet it’s in that big palace.”
“Great theory, Sora,” Azlyn says, though her sneer places a little doubt of her sincerity in Sora. “Now if only we could get there! I’ll bet if we…”
“Hello?” a soft voice calls out, interrupting the knight and startling everyone. Turning to the source of the voice, the trio sees a girl poke her head out from behind the crates in the corner.
Telary takes point. “Uh, hi there! I’m Telary, and these are my friends Azlyn and Sora.”
“Jasmine,” the young woman says as she emerges from her hiding spot. “My father is the sultan of Agrabah.”
“So, you’re a princess?” Sora inquires, a bit awestruck to be meeting actual royalty. The wonders of the universe never seem to cease.
“Yes,” she replies, but then looks away nervously. “I mean, I suppose I still am. My father’s royal vizier Jafar and his band of strange raiders rule the city now, after deposing him. He’s still locked up in the palace, or at least I think…”
“How did you escape?” Azlyn asks.
Once again, a dreamy look passes over the princess’s face. “I wasn’t at the palace at the time. I’d actually gone out only a day earlier, my first time. When word came of Jafar’s attack,
he helped me…”
“He who?”
“Aladdin.” The wistful smile that briefly brightens Jasmine’s face disappears quickly, the cloud of worry returning to her face. “We were together, and he helped me escape the raiders, but… Then he went off into the desert. He said he had something to take care of…”
“As do I, dear princess.”
The voice comes down from above, and everyone looks up to see Jafar, standing atop the roof of a building a few feet off the ground, sneering at those below him. Behind him a twitching cadre of Bandit Heartless restlessly prepare for battle.
“After all, it isn’t safe for a princess such as yourself to be wandering the streets,” the vizier continues with a condescending sneer. “And in the company of lowlifes such as these…”
“Lowlifes!” Azlyn yells up at the robed man, shaking her fist at him. “We’re not the ones using the Heartless to take over a city and kill a bunch of people!”
“I suppose it depends on where one is standing, my dear.” Jafar’s smirk turns into a smile, happily realizing that he may be crushing all the birds that vex him with a single stone. “And I have the high ground!”
“Jasmine, run!” Sora cries, and the princess dashes away as the Heartless, three in all, leap to the ground with downward swings of their swords.
Sora, Azlyn, and Telary all jump back instinctively, evading the blades. Sora rushes forward and cuts down one before it can raise its weapon again, but the other pair barrel into Azlyn and Telary, pushing them back.
Sora whirls around to help his friends, only to find himself knocked forward by a kick from another Bandit, leaping from the building and planting its foot in his spine.
Azlyn blocks a blade and punches her Heartless, and Telary barely gets a shield spell up in time to block a blow.
Sora nearly stumbles into his companions, and as he turns to face the Heartless once again, he finds that several more have joined the forces already arrayed against the trio, and more are leaping down from the rooftop even now.
“Too many,” he grunts, scowling at the veritable horde coming down against them. “We can’t…”
“So what, we’re going to run and hide?” Azlyn scoffs, turning aside a blade with her shield.
“Don’t think of it that way,” Telary advises, bashing a Bandit in the head with a two-handed blow. “Think of it as more of a, uh, tactical retreat.”
The knight almost protests against the lame excuse, but a punch to her face silences the objection. Telary helps her recover while Sora knocks back a Heartless, then fires a blizzard spell in front of him, freezing two Heartless and leaving the creatures blocked for a moment.
Realizing it’s their only chance, the trio tactically retreat down the alley.
They can hear their pursuers behind them, seemingly an entire horde of Heartless feet charging them. The trio winds through the twisting, turning alleyways at top speed, but without an effective knowledge of the cityscape, it seems to be only a matter of time until…
New footsteps sound, but these are coming from the opposite direction, surely to cut the group off. Escape seems more impossible now than ever, until at the last second Telary finds a way to save them.
A long thin pole runs up the outside of a dilapidated sand brown building, leading up to a large hole and a possible refuge.
“Guys!” the mage shouts to get his partner’s attention. They turn to him and he runs for the pole, scrambling up it at top speed. The pair catch on quickly and follow along after.
They make it, but barely, Azlyn only just managing to squeak her foot in before the hordes beneath arrive and find an empty sandlot where their prey should be.
Sora watches discreetly from above as the leaders of both groups seem to converse for a bit, before splitting off once more, each cohort searching a different alleyway leading off the lot.
“Gone,” the Keybearer reports with a heavy sigh of relief, leaning up against the wall and sliding down, relaxing a bit more with every inch. He’d faced Heartless before, but the sheer number of foes arrayed against him in the city streets…
A loud thump sounds from somewhere in the trio’s hideaway. It’s shabby as all get-out, with chunks of sandstone rubble lying where they’ve fallen, the wooden beams above looking half rotted. A small, rough bed stuffed with straw lies in the corner, so apparently someone else has been squatting here.
The thump sounds again, and Telary moves to investigate the source. Lying in the eastern quadrant of the room is an overturned cabinet of some kind, made of dark stained wood. Underneath, a large square of carpet seems to be struggling to escape.
“Um,” Azlyn says as the first word, frowning at the scene before her, “is everyone else seeing the carpet moving?”
“Yep, I sure am,” Telary replies with a bit of a nervous chuckle, and Sora moves off his position at the wall and goes in for a closer look. The carpet is deep blue with a purple and gold bit around the inside edge, and shining golden thread around the exterior. The two tassels are flapping around, struggling for something, probably a way to find release. “So what do we do about it?”
“Uh, we should help it out!” Sora answers as if it’s the most obvious thing in the universe, he’s seen hundreds of carpets in need of rescue. The boy gives the cabinet a stern push, flipping it over and freeing the stuck rug.
The carpet takes to the air, accidentally knocking one tassel into the face of a shocked Azlyn, who barely reacts. It floats for a moment before coming down to rest on two tassels, flapping the other pair madly in some sort of odd pantomime.
Telary is the first to regain composure, blinking hard to clear his head. “Well, this is no good.”
“How do you mean?” Sora asks out of the corner of his mouth, eyes focused on the agitated throw’s every movement.
“I stink at charades.”
The carpet sags forward in apparent disappointment. Then it suddenly perks up once more, rising into the air and flying towards the mattress in the corner. It grabs something sitting next to it, which turns out to be a small wooden chest.
“It says something on it,” Sora points out when the object is dropped in his hands. “I’m not sure if I’m making this out right, but I think it says ‘Aladdin’?”
“Aladdin!” Azlyn exclaims, elbowing Telary aside to stand by Sora and examine the chest. “That’s the name of the guy Jasmine said helped her escape.”
“Yeah, and then he went into…” Telary begins, achieving a triumphant “eureka” moment halfway through his thought. “The desert! He had something to take care of he said. Maybe…”
“Something took care of him,” Sora finishes gravely. Noticing the carpet is moving again, he looks up to see it rise into the air once more, lying flat in front of the boy. “I think it wants us to get on.” A ripple runs through the rug, most likely signaling an affirmative. It lowers itself to a height at which Sora can step on. “C’mon. This Aladdin guy might be in trouble!”
The mage and the knight share a cautious look with one another, but Telary shrugs and takes a seat on the carpet, and Azlyn follows his lead.
The trio rise into the air on the magic carpet, and with an intense rush of air to their faces, take off through the hole in the hovel, and into the desert.
They fly for perhaps an hour, the sun lowering a bit from its prime noontime position in the sky, though still beating down a blistering heat that Telary has to expend magic to protect the trio from.
Finally they arrive at a ring of large rocks, in the middle of which rests a swirling sinkhole of sand. As the carpet takes them down, Azlyn points out that there seems to be someone trapped in it.
They land and the trio take up positions at the edge of the sand hole, peering in at the young, tan-skinned man trapped inside. About half of his body has been claimed, with most of his torso exposed to the open air.
Very exposed, as all he seem to be wearing is a vest of deep purple. His black hair haphazardly frames his face, which seems almost peaceful. Next to the man, also entrenched, is a small brown-furred monkey dressed in similar attire as its master.
“He’s totally knocked out,” Azlyn points out, cocking her head to examine the angles of their current problem, “so I wouldn’t count on a lot of help from him.”
“Maybe if we just got his attention,” Telary suggests, cupping his hands around his mouth. “Excuse me sir. Sir! Are you aware that you’re trapped in a sinkhole, sir?”
Aladdin’s eyes flutter a bit, but other than that there’s no response. Telary takes a step back and scratches at his chin, flustered by the problem he cannot surmount.
“I guess yelling isn’t gonna work,” Azlyn says, then glances at Telary and gets struck by an idea. With a quick swipe of her hand, the knight plucks Telary’s staff out of his holster, eliciting a yelp of surprise and indignation from the mage. The girl ignores her companion and moves forward, holding the staff out as far as she can.
She knocks it into the boy’s head, shaking him back to reality. He blinks a few times, clearing stray sand particles from his eyes, then looks up to his rescuer/attacker.
By the time he has recovered, it should be noted, Azlyn has handed Telary’s staff off back to him and assumed an innocent look and pose.
“Uh, hi there,” Sora greets the young man awkwardly, giving him a little wave.
“Hey,” Aladdin replies, nodding to the group so nonchalantly one would hardly believe him halfway trapped in sinking sand.
“Your carpet brought us here,” Telary explains, stuffing his staff back into its holster. “To rescue you, I suppose.”
“And how’s that going?”
Telary grimaces and shakes his head. “To be perfectly honest, not great. We’re going to figure out a way to help eventually but…”
“No problem!” the young man replies cheerfully, his arm beginning to wiggle in the sand. “Just sit back and, hmm… Okay, here we go!”
A puff of blue smoke explodes upwards out of the sand, startling the trio back a step. The smoke rises and expands, until a barrel-chested blue torso emerges from it. The creature that comes forth is a bit on the wider side, with a friendly blue face and large blue arms that end in blue hands, a single golden cuff on each wrist. Around his waist is some kind of red cloth, and a black as night ponytail protrudes from the back of his head.
“HELLO WORLD, HERE’S A SONG THAT WE’RE SINGIN’… COME ON GET
GENIE!!!” The blue man sings (To the tune of “Get Happy” by the Partridge Family) cheerfully as the smoke fades, revealing that beneath the red cloth around his waist is nothing but a wispy blue tail. “A WHOLE LOTTA WISHES IS WHAT WE’LL BE GIVIN’, COME ON GET
GENIE!!!”
This stuns Sora, Azlyn, and Telary even more than the flying carpet did.
“Well, Al,” the genie sighs as he observes the young man’s predicament, “it looks like you could use a bit of help there, don’t it?”
“Yeah, Genie,” Aladdin admits, nodding, “I sure could.”
“Well, you know what to do, don’t ya?”
“After that musical number down in the cave, how could I forget? Genie, I wish to be free of this sandpit. Oh, Abu too!”
“No problemo, kiddo,” Genie answers with a flick of his wrist. “Your wish is my command!” The magical being rises higher into the air, and in a puff of smoke transforms into a large round flying saucer, blinking lights all along the edge. His face can still be seen as well, sitting where the cockpit stereotypically lies on such ships. Suddenly a blue beam shines down onto the trapped boy and his monkey. They begin to rise almost immediately, Abu coming to and shrieking in fear as he realizes he’s getting higher.
Genie moves away from the pit, and Aladdin and Abu drop to the sandy ground, no worse for wear. In another puff of smoke, Genie returns to his normal shape.
“Thanks for the assist, Genie,” Aladdin thanks his rescuer, though he has to admit he has no idea what the big flying disk was all about.
“Oh, stop it,” Genie says, affecting a blush. “I was just doing my job, is all.”
“What the hell is that thing?” Azlyn demands, jabbing a finger at Genie. “And where can I get one?”
Aladdin chuckles. “Well, this here is…”
“Al, puh-lease,” Genie interjects, floating in front of the boy, “leave the intros to the professionals.” He grins and waves his arm, setting off colorful explosions of confetti all around him. “I am the one and only, Genie of
the lamp!” In a puff Genie disappears and reappears behind Aladdin, waving the arm that holds a small golden lamp in the air. “All you gotta do is give my lamp here a bit of a rub-dub-rubbity-roo, and all your dearest wishes can be granted. Assuming you only have three dear wishes, of course!” Another puff of smoke, and suddenly Genie is attired in a swanky tuxedo, and a neon light archway is behind Aladdin. There’s a smoke puff in his hand, and suddenly a giant check appears in his hands, Aladdin’s name signed across the bottom. Across most of it read the words “Three Wishes”. “Today’s lucky winner is Mr. Aladdin of Agrabah. Let’s give him a hand!” Aladdin takes the presented check and, of course, one of Genie’s hands along with it.
“Three wishes, huh?” Azlyn asks, a mischievous grin coming to her face. “
Any three wishes?”
As he hears the knight’s words, Sora can only think about how convenient it would be to just wish to find Kairi and Riku. Telary thinks about finding the king, and Azlyn is naturally thinking of munny to be made.
“Not so fast there, friend-o,” Genie corrects, holding out a STOP sign that suddenly appears in his hand. “There are of course a few ground rules.”
“Of course,” Azlyn grumbles. Nothing is ever simple in her life.
“Firs off, I can’t kill anybody,” Genie slices off his own head as an example. “I can’t use my powers to make people fall in love.” His head transforms into a heart balloon that floats up to his neck before getting popped by an arrow, leaving his head on his shoulders once again. “And I can’t bring people back from the dead.”
Telary shrieks as he notices several skeletons rising from the sand, but Genie snaps his fingers and they’re done away with in a flash.
“For some reason they always come back craving the taste of human flesh.” He shrugs, then turns to address the reader directly.
“And of course,” he says to you with a sly wink, “I can’t grant any wishes that might instantly resolve the story’s central conflict. That would just be cheap!”
He turns back to the confused group and smiles. “Other than that, anything’s pretty much fair game!” His smile widens as he turns back to Aladdin, gripping his tail and shoving the suddenly microphoned end into his face. “So, my master, what’ll it be for wish number two?”
Aladdin thinks it over for a second, then snaps his fingers as an idea comes to him. “How about making me a fabulously wealthy prince?”
Genie hoots and hollers as he rises into the air, ecstatic to fulfill such a grand request, already envisioning all of the things he can do. Azlyn also seems to approve of the idea, though she may just be thinking of the things
she would like to wish for.
“Oh, Al!” he croons, spinning in a circle. “This is the wishing jackpot! You’ll need servants, of course, at least a hundred, and perhaps some camels…”
“Uh, maybe we should hold off on that one, huh?” Aladdin suggests. “After all, things seemed pretty dire in Agrabah when I left to find your lamp.”
“That’s true,” Sora interjects, nodding sadly as he thinks back to the empty state of the desert city. “Nobody’s out on the streets but Heartless, and some guy named Jafar is in charge, and, uh…”
“That princess chick is on the run,” Azlyn adds. “They would’ve got her too, if it wasn’t for us…”
“Wait!” Aladdin interrupts sounding worried. “Did you say ‘princess’? Are you talking about Princess Jasmine?”
“Yeah,” Telary confirms. “She’s in real trouble, Aladdin. She got away from Jafar with our help, but…”
“We’ve gotta help her!” the boy declares, whistling to get Carpet ready for action. The purple throw straightens out and prepares for boarding. Aladdin gives Genie a look. “Might have to rethink that second wish, Genie. But we need to get back to Agrabah first.”
The big blue magic man shrugs easily. “No skin off my back, kid. The more time out in the open air the better, far as I’m concerned.”
“Thanks Genie.”
Everyone boards the carpet, and they take off into the clear blue afternoon sky.
I LOVE WRITING GENIE!!! That's all, hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Yup, everyone sounds in character. And I don't think I know these villains in particular, but that's okay. xD