"I am not a prize to be won!"
Princess Jasmine left the great hall in a huff. Yet another suitor had arrived, this time without so much as a request for an invitation, and with such a ridiculously gaudy procession that she felt physically ill with rage. She didn't even notice, until she heard Razoul's voice, that she was no longer alone in the hallway.
"Your Highness," he hailed her with a bow. "You seem ill at ease."
It was undoubtedly diplomatic of him to make such an understatement, but his presence did nothing to alleviate her anger. "Another prince," she spat, "has come to call, and this one is more ridiculous than all the rest of them combined."
"He looks quite impressive to me," said Razoul.
"He would look impressive to men, wouldn't he?" Jasmine retorted. "But I would sooner marry that boy from the market, if you hadn't had him killed!"
"That boy from the market has been a menace to Agrabah for years," Razoul growled. "He has stolen at least a thousand loaves of bread and vandalized who knows how many merchants' carts. I would have had his hands for a trophy if Jafar hadn't demanded that I keep him in one piece."
"What?" Jasmine exclaimed. "Jafar told me he had been beheaded!"
"Not so, more is the pity," said Razoul. "We haven't had any beheadings since last week. That street rat is probably still rotting away in the dungeon."
"Let me see him," Jasmine demanded.
Reluctantly, the captain of the guard led Jasmine into the dungeon and showed her the cell where he had left the street rat last night. But the cell was empty.
"By Allah!" Razoul swore. "How did he escape? That monkey of his must have broken him out!"
"Jafar must have broken him out," countered Jasmine. "He ordered you to take him alive and keep him in one piece; then he lied to me that he had been executed. Whatever mischief happened here, Jafar was behind it."
"Why the Royal Vizier would order us to capture him only to let him loose again is beyond me," said Razoul. "Nonetheless, whatever Jafar wanted with him, at least we haven't seen him since then."
That evening, as Jasmine was preparing for bed, she prayed that whatever Jafar had done to that boy from the market, he was alive and safe.
With that hope in her heart, she drifted off into an uneasy sleep, hearing the boy's voice calling to her from afar.
Then she heard his voice calling her name more clearly, and a growl from Rajah responding to that call, and she awoke with a start. Somebody was just outside her bedroom!