.
Morgiana feels as if it's summer, and she is a lantern.
.
She's never really liked warm weather.
When she was a slave, it did nothing but beat against her skin as she went about her daily activities. It was frustrating to walk from place to place feeling as if the heat of the sun would fry her skin dry.
Even now, despite no longer being a slave, she dislikes the day's heat. If anything, it was slightly better because she knew that she wasn't the only one suffering (though she slightly pities Aladdin and Alibaba).
But even so, warm weather was terrible. (...in more ways than one.)
What was strange was that, despite disliking the sun and all of the heat it gave off, she had a certain fondness for fireplaces, candles, lanterns, and anything else similar.
But for what reasons?
Maybe she liked the fireplaces because when it was cold she sometimes had the chance to curl up next to her favorite people.
Maybe she liked the candles because they helped her learn to decipher letters and numbers as she spent multiple nights learning to read. (too bad she couldn't write yet...)
But then why did she like the lanterns? The only ones she had ever used were old and worn, and yet she felt attached to them for some reason.
She always kept one of them under her bed, just in case. (...for what?)
Maybe it was because the lights inside the lanterns were caged, like she once was. Maybe because she wanted to give them the chance to illuminate the room, to spread the light that she had yet had the chance to spread. (and yet Aladdin and Alibaba have already helped, saved so many people.)
Either way, she quite liked them all. Too bad they couldn't be used all year round.
It was sad. During the summer, the fireplaces couldn't be used, and not only that, but the candles and lanterns were rarely lit. It probably had to due with the smoldering heat. Even during the night, the yellow glow of the summer moon was enough for most people.
Morgiana feels as if it's summer, and she is a lantern.
She isn't really that useful, to be truthful. The only thing she can ever really do is set out the stepping stones for other people. Never able to do anything herself, she guides the way and watches as other people succeed where she failed.
Just like a lantern, she shows them the way and then watches from afar.
It is in this way that she feels she isn't needed anymore. It is summer, and time for the last lantern to be extinguished. (permanently?)
She wonders, 'Would it really be that bad to be put out like a lantern? Aladdin and Alibaba don't need me to lay out their stepping stones anymore; they're already soaring in the skies.'
Who else could she help? (was she really helping anyone in the first place?)
She decides.
Grasping the lantern under her bed, she quickly lights it and searches for some paper and ink.
She still can't write, so she settles for the next best thing: a drawing.
By the next morning there is a horrified scream, loud sobs soon following after. When Jafar and Masrur and Sinbad and everyone else come to see what the commotion is, they all stop dead in their tracks. There, looking ever-so-comfortable, was a lifeless, charred Morgiana, proped up in her bedroom's fireplace. A blackened lantern hung from her neck.
Lying on the ground, a few feet away from the fireplace, was a face-up drawing of what looked to be Aladdin and Alibaba clasping a single, blood-stained lantern.
.