Hi everyone. Saw Prince of Persia in the theatre five times now (as you can tell I can't get enough of it) and I just love this course I couldn't resist to write a fanfic. Have a couple of others up my sleeve but I can only write so fast :-P. As I said I really enjoyed the movie and I wanted to dive in with a story. This should be a bout 30 to 40 chapters long. Sorry but it'll take a few chapters for it to pick up in pace and reveal all the relationships described. Hope you like it - please review, reviews ALWAYS make my day :-)

Prince of Persia -Past, present and friendship

The sky was still a dark blue and the sun hadn't even come up yet when Keyla woke up. Soon the sky would turn a bright purple, then a light blue and then the sun would come up on the royal city of Nasaf. It was Tuesday today and that was always her favorite day of the week. It was the day of the big weekly market in the city and with all the merchants - foreign and local - and so many people out on the streets running errands for their masters, shopping for their families or just gossiping, it was easy to sneak in and take what she needed for her daily life.

Some people might have considered here life hard and in no way enjoyable at all but Keyla didn't agree with that. She lived in the slums of the royal town and the place she called her home could not really be considered a house anymore. It was more of a ruin. Half of it had simply just fallen apart at least half a decade ago. The structure of the place was old and made from inferior material and with the decay through times it had simply fallen apart. Maybe it wasn't structurally sound but as nobody else wanted to go even near it, she had it all to herself.

She pushed her thin linen blanket aside and got up from the cot she was sleeping on. The house - or ruin to be exact - had two stories, the lower one having a small but deep well that she used for cleaning herself up and washing her clothes. It was sort of her bathroom. The upper floor was closed off from view with a thick linen curtain where once had been a wall before half of the place had collapsed. It gave a great view of the palace if she pulled it aside but Keyla barely ever did. She didn't like seeing the palace. This was her life and she was happy with it. The palace only ever managed to show her what she could not have.

She pulled the black cotton kurta - something she had taken from an Indian merchant and that she loved to wear as she felt so very comfortable in it - she used as her nightgown over her head and walked over to the small wooden chest that - apart from her cot, a small low table and a couple of cushions - was the only piece of furniture in her room. She opened it up and sighed softly, chewing on her lower lip. She really needed some new clothes... She pulled a pair of white harem pants, a maroon blouse and a thin silky maroon piece of cloth to cover her hair.

She wrapped the cloth around her body and took another, smaller linen cloth as a towel to get downstairs and clean herself up. Getting downstairs however was sort of a problem because the staircase that lead to the upper floor had collapsed with the rest of that side of the house. Keyla however had a way of coming up and down and as she lived here - pretty much unknown for anyone else - she was the only one knowing about it. She pushed the small rope ladder down from near the whole in the ground leading to the lower floor where the staircase had once been.

She climbed to the lower floor and took the wooden cover off the well, using the bucket standing beside it to draw water from the well and cleaned herself up, using the towel to dry her face again. She carefully emptied the bucket and hurried to get back up to her room after putting the cover back on the well. Nobody had seen her. When she was back upstairs and had pulled the rope ladder back up, she took the clothes she had put out for herself and got dressed. The sun had come up by now, the sky a deep purple. It had to be about 6 in the morning now. It was time for her to go and start her day. She was hungry, she needed breakfast.

She sat down on the cot once more after getting dressed, pulled her hair up front and braided it into a ponytail so it would not be in her way. She reached underneath her cot, pulling a small but very sharp dagger from it that she hid underneath her blouse, before putting on the silk cloth as a veil to hide the dagger even better. She never left her home without this weapon. Walking through the slums of Nasaf as a woman alone without a weapon was a very carefree and stupid thing to do...

Even though it was still this early in the morning there were already a lot of people up and about roaming the streets of Nasaf, even here in the slums of the city. Keyla disliked being seen by so many people - or any of the patrolling guards and soldiers to be exact. She had another way of going about though. She pulled the wooden ladder that was leaned against the still existing wall of her room to the middle of the room, leaning it against the small ledge that surrounded the wooden door in the ceiling that lead up there. She climbed up the ladder and opened the door, getting through it and closing it behind her. She was now on the ceiling of her home and from here she would be able to get to the market of Nasaf without anyone noticing her.

She pulled the veil from her head again and tied the silk cloth around her hips, securing the dagger and not having it in her way. She took a deep breath and a soft grin appeared upon her lips as she focused her attention on the nearest rooftop next to her house that lead her way to the market of the royal city. She walked to the far edge of the ceiling of her house... and then she started to run. She jumped of the roof and landed on the other side, sliding a bit further and coming to a halt. She had done this hundredth of time already but still she always felt an adrenaline rush when she did this.

It always happened only on that first jump though. The rest of it felt a lot like routine to her. She had to take a small jump from here to the next three roofs, to a part of the old city wall before jumping down to a stable from where she got down to a small alley that was only another street away from the market. All she still had to do now was to find someone suitable so that her day could start and she could take care of her daily... work.

She needed to find a suitable stranger now, somebody who was not living here, who was just traveling through the royal town and who she would never see again. She could not risk to find someone who might recognize her later on or who knew the inner working of the city and would alert a soldier or a guard. A stranger was exactly what she needed and as this was the royal city of Nasaf, the capital of the Persian Empire and it was the day of the market, she would have no trouble whatsoever to find someone suitable.

She needed to get up on a rooftop for that again though to get a good overview. She walked back to the stable, breaking into a run on the way, jumped against the wall of the stable, took enough drive to get up on the other side as well and grabbed a small ledge above her head, pulling herself up and reached for the edge of the ceiling, getting back up. She didn't get up but stayed on her knees and looked out on the market place. It was probably a couple of minutes past seven now and the market was already filling up now that the sun had come up and it was time for all the booths to open.

She had a close eye on the people walking around. It was easy to tell who of them was local and who wasn't. Keyla had to grin when she found the perfect candidate. He was wearing brightly colored silk clothes and a pretty ridiculous turban. He was either Mongolian or Indian and definitely a nobleman. The way he... pranced around the market place told her all too clearly that this man had no idea what a normal life was like. This man had never worked a day in his life, she was sure of that. He was a perfect candidate.

She wanted to get up and back down from the roof now to find a way to attract the man's attention and lure him to follow her to this alley. But she was lucky. She didn't even need to get him here, she didn't even need to talk to him and find an excuse to make him come with her. He was coming this way. She had no idea why because it didn't make any sense whatsoever for this stranger to come here but maybe he was just lost. She didn't care though. This was perfect timing for her.

She carefully watched the man coming closer and closer and waited until he had passed her by. He hadn't seen her, hadn't even looked up, obviously not even feeling her presence. She carefully reached for the dagger at the back of her pants and pulled it out. She walked up to the edge of the ceiling. She knelt back down, held onto the edge of the ceiling and lowered her body back down. It strained her arm and it was still a deep fall but she could take it. She landed on her feet with a soft thud but the nobleman still didn't realize. It was almost too easy. She was right behind him with two large steps and pressed the dagger against his throat, keeping her voice low and deep, barely more than a threatening hiss.

"Give me your moneybag if you want to live."

She could feel the man trembling but still he tried to do the one thing that instinct told him - he tried to turn around to get a good look at the person that was attacking him. Keyla pressed the dagger harder against his throat and she could hear the man gasp. He was afraid and that was a good thing because it lead to him doing exactly what she wanted him to do. With trembling fingers he reached underneath the brightly colored kurta he was wearing and pulled out the bag she had forced him to give to her, handing it to her without even trying to look at her once more.

"Thank you."

Keyla pulled up her arm in which she held the dagger and let the handle of it crash down on her victim's head. It gave a soft thud when the hard medal connected with the noblemen's skull and he broke down unconscious without giving a single sound. Keyla grinned to herself. It would take at least half an hour before the foreign traveler would wake up again and in this remote alley, nobody would find him before that. It was all the time she needed. The moneybag was weighing heavy in her hands and Keyla grinned to herself. There had to be more money in that bag than a hardworking citizen of this town earned in at least three months. It had been a good morning so far...

Now she would put that money to good use. She wanted supplies and food and maybe she would even allow herself some luxury and buy new clothes or some jewelry or perfume... Or maybe she would just steal those things... Luxuries was not something to invest money into in her eyes. She barely ever had a chance to wear jewelry or fancy clothes anyway. But when she did not pay for it but just took it... maybe she would be feeling better about it. She would debate it once more when she would have finished with all her other errands... Keyla had one last look at her unconscious victim before she stashed both the money and the dagger away and pulled the cloth she had wrapped around her hips away and put it back on as a veil.

She carefully left the alley where the unconscious traveler lay, looking out for any guards who might see her. If somebody went looking to see from where she had come, they might found the nobleman and then she would be in trouble. But when she left the alley, there was noone to be seen and she reached the market without any trouble. There were a lot of people around by now but Keyla didn't mind. This way she could just blend in. She decided on a large booth where the merchant sold fruit and vegetables and different sorts of bread as well. She would get almost everything she needed from this booth. A little bit of meat and cheese and maybe some sweets seemed a good idea as well. She needed at least two to three other booths for that though.

Keyla didn't want to stay here very long. It had been almost ten minutes since she had left the unconscious traveler and she needed to have left this place before the man woke up again. She still drove a hard bargain trading with the merchants. Even though the bag held a lot of money she still needed to be careful with spending it. Attacking a rich merchant or a nobleman was always dangerous and the less often she had to do it, the better. She hurried to finish her shopping and was already on her way back when she passed a booth where two women sold cloth and embroideries and the conversation she overheard made her stop dead in her tracks.

"Did you hear the news from Alamut? Prince Dastan is to be married to Alamut's princess Tamina. She's supposed to be one of the most beautiful woman in the whole of the kingdom... It's a great honor. The merchants and soldiers coming from Alamut say the plans for a big wedding ceremony have already begun. It will be marvelous, something never to be seen before..."

Keyla had almost joined in on the conversation, jumping in with a question. She stared at the two women with wide eyes. She couldn't believe what she had just heard. This just couldn't be possible... She shook her head and almost winced when one of the two women talked to her now, obviously believing she could make a sale on Keyla.

"Is there anything that interest you young lady. Maybe a fine piece of embroided silk cloth? Makes for a fine dress... Or maybe a veil?"

"No, I... I'm not... are you sure about what you just said?"

"About the cloth?"

The woman seemed confused and Keyla could understand. She wasn't making much of any sense right now but she had a hard time to even collect her thoughts at this moment. She still couldn't believe what she had overheard was the truth and she could not repeat it. It sounded too senseless and unbelievable for her to even repeat what those women had been gossiping about. But it seemed the female merchant was absolutely sure. She was nodding her head vehemently, smiling happily at Keyla.

"No. About the princess of Alamut and..."

"Oh yes, I am sure. News arrived this morning. A group of soldiers has returned from Alamut with a message for the king. He will be leaving for his son's wedding this afternoon, so we were told. Isn't this wonderful news?"

"Yeah... Wonderful..."

Keyla didn't hear the woman call out to her again about her merchandise when she walked away now. She felt like she was... sort of in trance. She was definitely not thinking straight right now. Would she have been she would have hurried to finally leave the market place before her victim - who had to have woken up by now - alerted a guard and she would be arrested. She could not stop thinking about the gossip... or the truth as this women had proclaimed...

She had to make sure... somehow she had to make sure that what these women were saying had actually happened. Alamut was several hundred miles away from here and why would any soldier tell a couple of elderly female merchants anything... Maybe it was truly just gossip but there was only one way to find out. Keyla had to make sure herself. She had to get to Alamut - the sooner the better.