I'm not very reliable when it comes to updating, I'm usually really busy. Even so, please read! It's my first magi story, and the first story I've written in a couple of years. Sorry if I'm rusty! I'll try and get better!
Morgiana walked through the streets with that day's shopping. Every step she took reminded her of her position – the sounds of the chains around her feet rang out clearly. She looked down, and her eyes saddened. The massive basket she had been carrying, one full of lemons, began to tilt forwards. Before it fell, she regained her balance and carried on walking. She could see stalls and vendors all throughout the streets. It was a merchant's town through and through. In the centre of the town was a large tower – a dungeon. It was a place of multitudinous treasures, amazing artifacts and powerful weapons. Once one person makes it through, the dungeon disappears. But it was still there. Thousands of people had gone in – single warriors, regular people, entire armies – but all had been killed by whatever was inside. It was the reason that the city was thriving with so much life and business. Families, children and others wandered from shop to shop, wondering what to buy. In fact, there were two boys nearby, one with blonde hair, and one with blue hair. "Hey Alibaba, let's get this thing!" The young, blue haired, boy exclaimed, holding up a large – and very sharp – spear.
"And just what would you use that fancy-ass thing for?!" the blonde-haired boy, Alibaba, yelled. The younger one, the one with blue hair, began to laugh as he played around with the weapon, almost hitting Alibaba several times. "Stop!" Alibaba yelped, "That's dangerous!" He stumbled backwards, and right into a person. Morgiana gasped, falling along with her basket of lemons. "I told you this would happen!" Alibaba snapped at his younger companion.
"S-sorry," the younger boy stuttered, looking at the wreck he had just created. He crawled over to the girl, Morgiana, and began to pick up the lemons that littered the floor. He looked at the girl, who had red hair and eyes, and then saw that she had already gathered all of the lemons. She stood up and balanced the basket on top of her head, pouting at the young boy.
"Sorry about that!" Alibaba apologised, grinning with stupidity, a blush growing on his face. She was quite cute. "He's such an idiot. Are you hurt? Do you need me to carry that?"
"No. I'm fine." She answered monotonously. Alibaba frowned at the girl who began to walk away. On second thought, she wasn't so cute. He glanced at his young friend, who seemed awfully confused at something.
"What's up Aladdin?" Alibaba asked the young boy.
"Those..." Aladdin pointed out the shackles around the girl's feet. She gasped, hearing the boy's conversation, and immediately grew red. She leant down and tried to cover the manacles with her long, white yet dirty, dress. The basket tipped once again, and she fell with it. She hurried to pick up the lemons.
"That girl...had chains on her feet..." Aladdin muttered.
"Yeah," Alibaba answered solemnly, "She's a slave."
"Slave?"
"Slaves are humans bought and sold for manual labour. They're treated like chattel until the day they die. People will take whole families and sell them like livestock." He paused for a moment, then chuckled to break the solemn silence. "Actually, I may be in the same boat if I don't get my debt settled." He looked down at his friend, to find that the boy was no longer there, "Aladdin?"
But Aladdin had already skipped towards the girl, "Hold on Miss!" he called out cheerfully. He took a golden flute that had been hanging around his neck and put his lips to it. The red-haired slave frowned and looked at Aladdin. He blew a short, sharp note on his flute, and immediately the chains shattered. "All better!" he grinned. "Now you walk around without hiding your pretty legs!"
The slave was shocked, and didn't move. Alibaba, however, was terrified. In those times, willingly freeing someone who was enslaved was the same as theft of another's property. It was a crime. "Hey!" He yelled at his new short friend who appeared to not know much about the world. "Taking off those chains is a big no-no!"
"Why's that?" Aladdin frowned, cocking his head to the side in confusion.
"Well...um...that's..."
"Why's it bad?" Aladdin repeated his question.
No one could answer. "Hey?! What's all the ruckus?!" guards closed in on the scene. Leading them was a rather large man with the beady eyes of a rat. "Hey, don't crowd around me!" He commanded the bystanders, "I'm in a bad mood!" His eyes landed on Alibaba.
"AH!" they both exclaimed, pointing at each other.
"W—why are you here?!" Alibaba exclaimed, beginning to hind behind the young Aladdin.
"Hey! I remember you from yesterday," Aladdin said, "You're that old guy with big boobs!"
"Shut the hell up you brat!" the fat man yelled, furious. He was the grape wine vendor, Budel. A man with a lot of money. Due to certain circumstances, Alibaba spilled all of his wine in the desert. He was...pleasantly plump. "DAMMITALL!" Budel shouted, stamping his feet, "It's your fault that I lost the trust of my best customers! I'll never forgive you!"
Alibaba was trembling behind Aladdin, who was quite confused about everything that was transpiring. Budel looked at the girl next to the them, the one with shattered chains. "Hm?" He frowned. "Peons like you...you do know that stealing slaves is considered grand larceny right?"
"We don't know anything," Alibaba muttered.
"Seriously?" Budel asked.
"Sir, take a minute to think this through rationally," Alibaba said, gaining at least a little bit of confidence. "We're just two ordinary, weaponless, guys. How exactly would we manage to cut chains? You see?"
Budel folded his arms. "What I'm interested in hearing isn't your little excuses, kiddo. I want to know how you're going to pay that 1000 Dinal that you owe me."
Alibaba lost that one shred of confidence. "Now, how are you going to do that?" Budel asked. Then he grinned a sickly grin, "I know, become my slave." He said. Alibaba gasped in reply. "You can be my slave for your whole life, and work! Oh, and don't worry. I will get every penny's worth from you." He sauntered over to the girl, who had not yet recovered from the shock of having her chains shattered. "Being a slave is tough," Budel said, grabbing a fistful of the girl's red hair, yanking her up and making sure he hurt her, "I can all kinds of things to you and you can't say a word,"
"S...stop it..." Alibaba whispered worriedly.
"If you don't like it, let's talk payment!" Budel exclaimed, dropping the slave girl to the floor. Aladdin took his flute in hand and hit the fat man as hard as he could. Of course, being the height that he is, Aladdin's metal flute connected with the fat man's shin. He fell to the floor and gripped his mild injury, rolling around yelling "It hurts!" Over and over again.
"Take this you pig!" Aladdin yelled, hitting the fat man as hard as he could, as many times as he could. "Why are you doing mean things like that Mister?" He asked, "Just cause he owes you some money for wine doesn't mean you get to boss him around!" he poked his tongue out at the injured fat man, "Because Alibaba isn't gonna be your slave! It's people like you that I hate the most Mister!"
Budel stood up quietly, only when you looked closely did you see a vein beginning to poke out of his head in anger. "OFFICER! I'VE FOUND SOME SLAVE THIEVES!" He grinned at the two boys and then continued to yell, "You'd better come quick! These two have a pure evil in their eyes! They're lowdown slave rustlers!"
A figure that was definitely not an officer darted past. It was a woman, you could see that much from her body, which had well-fitting clothes on it. However, that's all you could tell. She had cloth wrapped around her head, covering her hair, mouth, nose and forehead. You could see her eyes, but they weren't taking any notice of their surroundings.
"We have our hands full!" an officer yelled, "That thief is our top priority!"
Budel grabbed hold of the officer's shirt, "Do you know who I am?" He snarled.
"Oh!" the officer exclaimed, eyes dawning with recognition, "Master Budel!" he turned around to his troops, "Split the unit in half! One group after the slave stealers, the others after that damn thief!"
"Crap..." Alibaba whimpered, grabbing hold of Aladdin's arms. "Run away!" he yelled suddenly, "If they catch us now then it's game over!" the two ran, and soon caught up to the woman...no...the girl, who had slowed down. As she looked at them her eyes widened with shock.
"Slave stealers!" she exclaimed.
"Thief!" the other two yelled.
"Don't stay with me!" She exclaimed, "It'll make me an easier target!"
"Not our fault you dragged the whole damn army our way!" Alibaba retorted. The girl, before she could reply, skidded to a halt. The other two soon followed suit. "They've got us surrounded!" Alibaba yelled worriedly. The guards didn't waste a second, and closed in on all three of the criminals. "NO! I can't let it end here!" He was being attacked by one guard and his sword. "You bastards think I'm just gonna give up?! I'm onto bigger things!"
The girl was doing quite well on her own, striking down even the more experience guards. But their numbers just seemed to be increasing. They swarmed around the criminals and all attacked at once. It proved too much for the girl who had been running from guards for the best part of a day. But, as if to end their troubles, a low-pitched musical tone rang through the air. A gigantic blue body appeared out of the end of the flute. The girl fell backwards with shock, eyes widened in fear and wonder.
"It's not over!" Aladdin told his friend. "From here on it's our dungeon diving adventure!"
Alibaba had no words, but was picked up by the huge blue body. The masked girl looked up. None of the guards acted either, they were just as shocked as her. The gigantic, muscled blue body didn't have a head, the flute was connected to the neck instead.
"Don't let them get away!" Budel screamed, running after the two boys. He seemed quite out of breath. "Catch those dirty mice using any means necessary!"
The guards snapped back to their senses, and they began to realise that the criminal they had been chasing was on the floor, defenceless.
"Miss!" Aladdin yelled. The girl looked up. Aladdin grinned and gestured for her to join them, "Come with us!" he told her.
"O-okay!" she nodded, climbing to her feet. She bent down and jumped. As she did the ground cracked beneath her, sending the few guards who had gotten to their feet back down to the floor. She landed on top of the giant creature along with the two boys.
"I'LL CURSE YOU FOR THE REST OF YOU MISERABLY LITTLE LIFE!" Budel screamed at Alibaba, "YOU'LL BE MY SLAVE UNTIL YOU PAY ALL OF THAT MONEY BACK! I'LL MAKE YOU REGRET BEING BORN AND ONLY THEN WILL I KILL YOU!"
"Let's go dungeon diving Aladdin!" Alibaba yelled.
"Yeah!" the blue-haired boy nodded. He was looking at around the streets as the humungous, blue, headless man ran through the streets towards the tall tower at the centre of the city. Before long a big smile lit up his face, "Thank goodness, it looks like that girl got away!" he said, relieved. He felt someone tug on his clothes and looked over his shoulder to see the girl who they had saved from the guards.
"Thank you," She muttered, not able to look him in the eye.
"No problem, Miss," Aladdin smiled, he held out his hand, "My name is Aladdin, and this is Alibaba," He said.
"Aladdin...and Alibaba..." She repeated while taking the young boy's hand, making sure she had gotten the names right. When no one corrected her, she decided to introduce herself. "I'm Zumurrud."
"Z-Zum-Zummeru..." Aladdin struggled to say the name.
"Murr," She told him, "You can call me Murr." She laughed, "My name's kind of a mouthful,"
"Nice to meetcha Murr," Aladdin smiled.
"Likewise,"
My first Magi story, sorry if it wasn't to your liking. Some people don't like the way I write, but if you do then thank you for reading!