It must have been the odd clothing that first drew their attention to her. That and she was young, and gorgeous.

Her face and body somewhat like their king's. Perfectly proportioned features and build. A pretty and delicate almost fae like face with ivory skin as pale white as the pristine sands of the desert. With long black hair that fell almost to her hips, soft pink lips, and eyes the same color as Masrur's own.

A deep, deep red that was almost the color of red wine. Or perhaps it was more garnet?

It was difficult to tell unless she was looking right at them. And at that moment her focus was entirely on the small throng of hungry children attempting to steal some fresh fruit from one of the merchants present in the market.

Pausing in their steps, the three men watched as if entranced.

And who could blame them? The woman was a vision. Even if she was stupidly decked out in strange black clothing that all but covered her from head to foot.

One of the children managed to get an apple.

And was about to take a bite of it when the merchant noticed them and with a few choice words sent the other children fleeing for cover while their not-so-lucky-on-the-uptake-buddy was left behind to deal with being smacked rather hard and sent sprawling to the ground holding his little face in tears as the merchant picked up his apple and began to rear back his leg when something black went flying by his head.

Turning to see who had just thrown something at him, he completely missed the young woman moving herself over to his stall and while he was busy scanning the crowd- stuffed more than a few fruits and vegetables in the bag that she had been carrying over her shoulder before he could manage to turn back around.

By which point her bag had been put back into place over her shoulder, heavy with her newest additions as she pointed to the merchant's declined goods and told him that some brazen little tart had come by with a few friends while his back was turned and grabbed some stuff and run off with the stolen goods.

Earning a loud shriek of frustration and more than a few swear word from the man before he grabbed a sturdy looking walking stick and ran off to find said 'tart and friends'.

Leaving the woman behind to make a comical face at the man's retreating back before walking over to retrieve the item that she had thrown at the man and check on the kid.

Taking the time to slip the bag from her shoulder and to pull out several fruits and vegetables that she had pilfered so that the kid and his friends would have something to eat, and handed them to the boy and his friends before getting slowly back to her feet and then leaning over to pick up her bag and began to slip it back into place over her shoulder when their king finally spoke.

"You are a very brazen thief for a woman."

The woman stiffened ever so slightly and then turned her head to glance at them, her eyes were garnet- they each noted. Brilliant and bright like polished stones.

"I'm not a thief." The woman said haughtily as she turned to glare at them. "I left the guy money. I simply hid it under some of his stuff. Think of it as...retribution for him hitting that kid." She said as she then turned and began walking through the throng of people.

Believing that that was the end of matters, Masrur and his companion turned to their king only to note that said man was MIA.

"What the hell?!" His companion all but growled as he pulled at his shoulder length pale blond locks in dismay. Looking around the area a little bit, Masrur was able to pick up on his king's location easily enough. He was following the woman.

Typical, he thought as he rolled his eyes for a moment before he began carefully maneuvering his way through the crowd. Trailing after his king who was trailing after the strange woman. His fellow companion trailing after him all while muttering oaths under his breath about the himself and their king being 'annoying bastards'.

They followed the woman out of the market place and down by the river where she simply stopped moving and stood on the bank over looking the city as she absently untied something from around her wrist. It was a medium sized rope chain made of silver and at the end of it was a small dark purple stone cut to look like a spear head.

"Spiritus deliver. Lead thy lost child back upon the path. Guide me." She said softly to herself as her body began to glow a bright white and the stone at the end of the chain began to swing like a pendulum until finally it stood straight up and leaned just a bit to the left. The vivid purple stone turning pure white from the accumulated energy that she was drawing to her.

If she wasn't careful then her stone would shatter. Sinbad thought to himself as he watched her from just around the corner of a building not too far away, his golden amber eyes staring at her. Taking great interest in the way the ruhk fluttered around her slender body and danced in the air around her.

Under normal circumstances only those blessed by the ruhk would be able to accumulate so much of it. And in those instances such rare occurrences only happened with exceptionally strong sorcerers, magi, and of course anomalies like himself.

Which begged the question... Was this strange young woman a magi? Or perhaps something else? Sinbad wondered as he felt the air stir beside him and turned his head to look at his two friends and smiled as he subtly pointed to the woman.

The two looked and well- Ja'far's jaw dropped open in shock. But Masrur remained as unruffled as ever by even this specific turn of events.

"Is she a magi?" Ja-far finally managed to whisper his question as soon as he regained his wits. Sinbad shrugged his shoulders in response to his question. He had no idea if she was a magi or not. But she was certainly interesting.

And as such she bore watching.

Which was why the began following her again whenever she started to move again. Though her destination was unknown to them, each of them was intrigued by her in some way or another.

Sinbad because she was beautiful and spirited and last but not least, because of the possibility that she may be a magi. An unclaimed one at that. And as such he should offer her a place in his kingdom if she so wished.

Ja-far was interested in her out of curiosity.

And Masrur... Well, he was a little bit easier to read if you knew how too.

He was interested in her purely because he believed she may have fanalis blood in her. And as such would be an ideal candidate as a potential future mate.

(**********************************************************************************************************************)

Samantha Alexia Given's was having a fairly good day compared to just some of the days spent wandering this strange new world. She had appeared here a little over six months ago after her adopted father- Alex Given's, had finally passed away after a long hard and grueling battle with cancer.

Leaving her alone in the world until about a week after his passing when she had left her childhood home after locking the house up, loading up her car with a couple of duffle bags. One of clothing and other things as well as a second duffle full of food and drink.

And driving out to the remote wilderness of the mountains where the pull of power she had been sensing ever since she was a little girl finally spiked and a great ornate door had appeared and opened wide as she heard a voice from within say, "Welcome young princess. I'm so glad that you finally made it back-" After which she had grabbed her bags and stepped through the doors and had been mysteriously transported to an unfamiliar mountain region where she had first run into her adopted 'younger brother' Aladdin.

Who had led her into many odd and dangerous situations.

Including a potential war with a large military based nation that wasn't above taking women hostage to be used for entertainment purposes by the soldiers and then sold off as slaves.

She still shuddered to this day about being taken from her bed in the dead of night by such people. Thank god, her late father had been a martial arts master and one mean son of a bitch to boot. Otherwise she wouldn't have fought back like she had and would possibly still be in the Kou empire's clutches.

Speaking of... Her brother and his friend Morgiana would be crossing the desert soon to reach Balbadd. And since Samantha was already here, she had planned to rent out a couple of rooms using the money that she had earned a while back when she had captured her first dungeon so that all of them could stay in a nice place while the kids searched for their friend Ali...uhhh...

Whatzis name again? She wondered to herself, pausing in mid step as she tried to think of his name. She really should recall things like this, especially since he was so damned important to her little brother and his friend but for the life of her she couldn't recall-

Meow.

"Huh? M-Meow?" She said with a small frown when she happened to look down at her feet and saw her familiar, Stormy-Blue sitting there at her feet. Looking up at her with those bright gem like blue eyes of hers. "Meow." She said again, a bit more sure of the fact that she wasn't accidentally greeting some random kitty like last time.

Stormy-Blue was just a bit jealous natured and had tried to gnaw her arm off tasmanian devil style the last time that had happened.

Stormy-Blue meowed again in response to her greeting and then quickly used her little claws to climb up Samantha's pants leg until she was plucked off of her master's clothing by said girl and given a slight shake as punishment for clawing her before she set her up on her shoulder and began talking to her.

"Did you find those pesky mice's you were looking for?"

"Meow." Stormy replied easily as she curled her little smoky colored tail around her master's nape. Of course I found them. And the simple fact that I don't have any on me just means that I ate quite well. Stormy thought, using her telepathy to communicate with Samantha.

Sam just snickered as the kitten licked her paw delicately and began washing her face and ear. "Oh my. What sorry little mice's they are."

Sorry indeed. They were terrible at playing hide and seek! Stormy said with an irritated growl. Causing her master's shoulder's to shake a little bit in barely restrained mirth before Stormy suddenly said, You look like you've gone mad by the way, just walking around aimlessly, talking to a kitten.

Sam blinked her eyes at that but said nothing as she noted some people cutting a wide berth around her.

"Hn. I guess people consider speaking to animals as weird..."

It is a possibility. Stormy pipped in. Sounding just a tad bit more gleeful than she should. Causing Sam to pluck the kitten from her shoulder and dangle her over the side of the bridge she was currently crossing as she growled out, "Careful cat. You piss me off and I'm dropping you in the drink. And I'm betting that there's no law here saying that I can't drown a pest."

Stormy wiggled a little bit in her grasp before letting out a ferocious sounding little growl of outrage before yowling. That's it! Master or no master- you will pay for this indignity!

"Yeah, yeah. I'm really shaking cat."

It was while she was solely focused on Stormy that she completely missed being snuck up on by someone until she heard the same male voice from earlier whisper curiously in her ear, "What are you doing to that poor feline?"

Causing her to shriek and almost actually drop Stormy into the river below before she managed to catch the damn kitten and had said feline dig her sharp little talon like claws into her hand in an effort to get dropped and possibly drowned.

You're a terrible master! Stormy yowled again as Sam attempted to move back away from the person whom had spoken only to trip over her own feet and wind up crashing against something hard and unyielding with enough force to bruise something.

As Stormy managed to free herself from Sam's grasp and quickly shimmied up her arm to her shoulder where she then jumped on her chest and bared her little fangs at her before jumping down and quickly scampering away. Hissing aloud as she ran.

Leaving her more or less stunned, in the grasp of the person that she had tripped into.

She felt large callused hands grasping her slender shoulder's gently yet firmly as she slowly, very slowly due to her embarrassment, tipped her head back to look up at the one holding her, and squeaked when she met unblinking eyes eerily similar to her own hidden behind slightly long and shaggy red hair.

He was handsome, with a nicely muscled physique. Strong yet not too overwhelmingly strong. He also didn't seem the least bit bothered by the fact that she had tripped- Oh crud she had tripped and fallen against him and had yet to manage to apologize to him!

The realization that her voice along with her manner's having temporarily having fled her was well- mortifying to say the least. Blushing, she put a hand against his chest and gently pushed feeling that if she were able to put a bit of distance between them then maybe her voice would return and she could apologize for falling against him.

He didn't budge of course. But he did seem to understand what the slight push against him meant and while he didn't release her completely, he did carefully put her away from him while maintaining his grip on her shoulders.

"I-I uh...s-s-sorry I-" She stammered out as she tried to get everything out.

He didn't react at first, aside from continuing to stare at her with those unblinking eyes of his for a few moments longer before he finally blinked and abruptly removed his hands from her body as he inclined his head towards her to show that all was well.

Feeling a little bit relieved that he wasn't upset with her since she knew that men in this strange new world rarely had any negative thoughts about raising their hand to a woman in violence, she breathed a small sigh before turning to his two companions who had been watching the exchange with great interest.

One, a tall exotic man with golden amber eyes and long dark purple hair, whom was smirking as if amused.

And the other a slightly shorter, younger male with a slight spray of freckles across the bridge of his nose and his pale cheeks with emerald colored eyes and pale blond hair, whom was hanging back watching the exchange between her and red with a slight blush.

A blush? Really? Just how much of a girl can one person be? She wondered as the purple haired guy finally said, "So- you like the strong silent type eh? A pity. I would have liked to get to know you better."

"First of all, I'm not interested in getting to know you. And secondly- chase someone else's skirt. I have better things to do than entertain a perv."

His smile never faltered. In fact if anything it widened to the point she wanted nothing more than to slap the hell out of him. In fact, her palms were actually itching so badly to do just that that she couldn't stop her fingers from occasionally twitching.

"What do you want?"

"Oh nothing. Merely to ask a question." The man said as he crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head slightly to the side as he studied her.

"Then ask you're damn question and then get lost."

"My you have quite an abrasive personality." The man said almost cheerfully as she gave him a cynical looking smile that looked, for lack of a better phrase- out of place- on one so young.

"Annoying bastard." She in English just to throw him since no one in this strange new world seemed to know what English even was. The man blinked at her as if she had sprouted horns or something.

"First off my lady, may I have your name?" The man asked politely as he bowed to her. Ah, turning on the charm to see if that works on me any- This guy is going to be in for a rude awakening. She thought. Especially since mock politeness and insincere people tended to bug her.

However seeing as he had asked for her name- something that she wasn't feeling all that inclined to give him since names- like many other words held a certain sort of power in this land. And speaking one's name to someone showing so much interest in oneself was never really a very good or smart thing to do.

"No. You may not." Sam said in an icy tone that practically screamed, Your on thin ice pal. To the guy and watched as he sort of cringed a little bit as he rubbed at his nape with one hand.

"I-I see." His emboldened attitude finally faltering almost to a crawl he looked somewhat uncertain of himself for a moment. "Well that is a pity. I would have liked to know, but I suppose it isn't entirely necessary for my question..." Ah finally. Sam thought in irritation as he went on to ask, "I wondered if perhaps you were a magi since you seem to have an unusual amount of ruhk fluttering about you."

Sam stiffened slightly, as a terse sounding 'no' escaped her lips.

The man's expression brightened considerably. "You are!"

"No! No I'm not!" Sam denied adamantly. Dammit she had spent the better part of the past hundred or so years trying to hide what she was and by god she was going to remain hidden! She refused to have all of her efforts ended by some- some jerk who couldn't seem to take no for a fucking answer.

"Come now, I know that I'm right. You protest far too much to be telling the truth." He said with a chuckle, his expression bemused.

"Is that all?"

"Huh?"

"Is that all that you wanted?"

"Well yes-"

"Then goodbye." Sam said as she turned and quickly brushed past the somewhat startled looking red head as the man all but shouted at her,

"Hey wait! I wasn't finished speaking. I have a proposition for you!" As he began to go after her. Sam let out a low feral sounding growl from the back of her throat and used a spell to subtly freeze his feet to the ground along with his friends so that none of them could chase after her and quickly took the time the spell gave her to escape.