Authors Notes: Hello again!

I got this chapter done pretty soon after the last one, and since the last bit was only a prologue, I was eager to get this up. Don't get used to this speed of update thought, I don't think I'm going to be able to keep this speed up, especially with exams in two weeks!

I'm going to do review replies here:

Sorree: Thanks! I spend a lot of time when I'm writing with my eyes closed, going through what's happening in my head - like a movie! I'd love to be able to make movies, maybe I will one day!
StarfishOnTheBeach: Hopefully you'll get a bit of your wish here ;)
Holding Infinity: Wow, you said some pretty nice things about my writing there :D Thanks! And if you haven't seen the film, I'd suggest you do, or at least read a summary somewhere on what happened, because this might get a bit confusing otherwise! But nice to see you here!

So, here it is. I'm working with the two main characters here, so hopefully I've done them justice and kept them true to character!Thanks for reading, and remember I love those reviews! xx

p.s. I gave one of their item's of clothing their real Arab names. ¹A sirwal is the really baggy trousers that they wear in Arabic/hot countries. Like Princess Jasmin from Disney's Aladdin.

Chapter 1 – Time of Dreams

Why is this happening again?

Dastan looked down at Tamina, her normally beautiful face mixed with terror and determination. Burning pain shot through his arm as he tried to hold onto her, something which he could have done with ease had Nizam not stabbed him in the shoulder moments before.

"It's not my destiny it's yours," she was saying, as her eyes brimmed, "It always has been. Let me go."

"No!" he cried as another wave of pain threatened to overwhelm him. He gritted his teeth against it.
"I changed this, Tamina! We went back. I stopped this from happening!"

She seemed not to have heard him, and repeated her request.
"Let me go."

"I'm not letting you go!" he screamed with defiance.

He realised in that instance that those were the exact words which he had used before. It was happening again and he could do nothing about it. What had gone wrong?

"I wish we could have been together," she breathed as the tears began to slip silently from her hypnotic brown eyes. Then, her soft fingers released themselves from their hold on his wrist.

"No!" Dastan shouted as tendrils of confusion strangled his voice.

Tamina started to sob as, little by little, she slipped from his grasp. She may have chosen her fate, but that did not mean that ever fibre in her body was crying out in terror. Dastan was struck by a crushing sense of helplessness as her hand slowly slipped out of his. Tamina let out another cry, that was somewhere in between a scream and a whimper.

Then she fell.

"Dastan!"

Her screams reverberated off the cavern walls and returned to him as a thousand daggers piercing his heart.

"No! Tamina!"

Her body plummeted to the ground far below, and before he knew it, she had disappeared into the smoke.

"NO!"

The cry carried Dastan through into the land of the living as he sat bolt upright in his bed. A cold sweat dripped from his brow and his breathing was ragged. He looked around in the darkness of his bedchamber as he gathered his thoughts. A dream, he told himself, it had only been a dream.

Footsteps thundered along the corridor outside his room and suddenly, Bis, his oldest and most trusted friend burst into the room. He looked flustered as though he too had been asleep only moments ago.

"Dastan!" he cried breathlessly, "Are you alright? We heard a shout…"

Dastan tried to swallow before speaking, but his mouth was as dry as the desert. He cleared his throat with a small cough and answered.

"It's alright Bis. It was a nightmare. Only a nightmare."

Bis looked around suspiciously, then, accepting the answer as truth he returned his sword to its sheath.
"Very well. Is there anything I can get you?"

"No, I'm fine," Dastan replied.

Bis and the other men at arms who had accompanied him backed out of the room, and the door was shut.

Dastan blinked several times as he processed the events which had just occurred. It had been a dream? Surely the only reason which it had felt so real was because it had happened in the timeline that he had erased?

As he thought more on it, the lines between dreams, reality and alternate timelines became blurred and he wasn't exactly sure what was real.

Tamina.

Was she really dead? Impossible, was his immediate thought, but as soon as it had crossed his mind, doubts began to creep their way in. Doubts had a habit of doing that. He had to know for sure.

Leaving the bed, he crossed the room and pushed back the silk curtain which separated the balcony and the room. Although daytime in Alamut was punishingly hot, the cool nights offered a much needed relief. Moonlight flooded the city and Dastan would have stopped to admire its beauty had he not been distracted by the thoughts of seeing Tamina alive and well. He raised his eyes up, towards her balcony, several floors above. Scanning the wall he judged just how he would scale it. There were poles of wood sticking out from the mortar, the remnants of scaffolding used to construct the mighty palace. Along with the ledges of windows, a clear path up the wall was beginning to form in his mind.

Without taking a moment more to consider it, he began to climb. He leapt up the wall with a deftness that he'd learned as a child. In no time at all, he pulled himself up and over the stone railings of her balcony. He landed with cat like precision onto the mosaic floor. He hadn't realised it until now, but his heart was hammering with anxiety. What if he found the bed empty? With his breath held, he pushed aside the curtain and entered her room.

The smell of her perfume was instantaneous and it stirred a longing inside him. Was it only a lingering smell, or had she been scenting herself before her looking glass only that night? Her bed was also curtained, and in the darkness, he couldn't make out whether or not she was there. He crossed the room quickly and without hesitation, flung back the light drapery.

Although her back was to him, the long black hair, the slender legs and pleasing rear were unmistakably those of Tamina. He breathed a deep sigh of relief. She was alive, and she was safe. He allowed himself to smile as he considered the stupidity of the situation. How had he allowed the doubts of his dreams drive him to such an extreme?

He was about to turn and leave when his sensitive ears heard the faintest sound, as though a sword was being unsheathed. Then, with a cry, the figure from the bed sprang up and made a swipe at him with a sword.

Dastan lunged backwards, and felt a rush of air as the sword just missed the vulnerable flesh of his neck. He dropped to the floor and rolled backwards out of the way of her fervent swipes. He had just enough time to get to his feet before she came at him again. This time, he was ready for her and grabbed her wrists as she brought the sword down, two handed, towards his head.

"Tamina!" he hissed, pushing against her surprising strength, "It's me!"

He swung around in semi-circle until the moonlight from outside reflected in his face. She let out a little gasp of realisation. He let go of her wrists and the sword left her hands and clattered to the floor between them.

"Dastan?" she cried in disbelief.

"I apologise if I startled you Princess," he started, trying to calm her with one of his melting looks, "Believe me, it was not my intention."

"Startled me?" she asked indignantly. Pausing for a moment, she regarded him, blushing slightly on the realisation that his chest was bare and he was only wearing a loose fitting sirwal¹. Then regaining her composure, she narrowed her eyes in a scathing way that only Tamina could.
"What, noble, intentions did you have then, Prince?"

"I… eh…" he stammered as he hastened to come up with a valid excuse. He had not told her much about the events of their previous timeline, but without it, his real excuse would seem a fanciful lie.

"Think of the trouble you will be in when you're found in here, Dastan." She continued, "Your father will be very disappointed to learn that you were seen in the bedchamber of your betrothed on the night before your wedding. I don't know the laws of your Persian gods, but mine command that I be untouched before I am made a wife."

Dastan made a mock grab at his chest. He made a performance of it, overexaggerating the look of pain on his face.
"You wound me, Princess, to think that I would do such a thing."

"Then what are you doing here?" she asked again, displeased at being made fun of in this way.

"I dreamt that you were in danger, and I had to see for myself that you were unhurt."

Tamina looked decidedly unimpressed by his venture.

"It was a very vivid dream," he offered to further his otherwise dwindling excuse.

"Such a noble Prince, leaping to assist the damsel in distress," she taunted.

Dastan couldn't help but laugh.

"What's so funny?" Tamina snapped.

"You've said something like that to me before," he smiled knowingly.

Her curiosity was aroused.
"And just when, my dear prince, are you going to tell me what happened in this other life that you claim that we had together?"

He had hinted at his knowledge and use of the dagger of time, but had never spoken the whole truth to her.

"What happened is my burden to bear, not yours," he answered simply. Ashamed of his actions in the time before the sands were reversed, he kept the story to himself. He was a different man now, but he couldn't be sure she'd see it the same way. After all, she remembered nothing about it.

Annoyed that secrets were being kept from her, she smirked, then, took in a sharp breath. Dastan could see that she was about to call for her guards and bounded forward. He clasped a hand over her mouth. She frowned and he could almost feel the piercing daggers of her earthy eyes.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he warned. She replied by nipping the skin of his palm with her teeth.

"Ow!" he cried, more in surprise than actual pain as he let go. He looked up anxiously, half expecting for her to call for the guards, but she didn't.

From here, he was allowed to study her in the soft white light coming from the balcony. Her beauty knocked the wind from his gut, and he felt as though his heart would burst it was so full of love. The look in his eyes burned her, and Tamina had to look away.

Impulsively, Dastan cupped one hand around her cheek, and although she flinched slightly at his touch, she didn't move away. There was a voice in the back of her head screaming at her to stop this foolish behaviour. He was barely more than a stranger. But at the same time, she could feel somewhere deep inside herself that she could trust this man with every part of her being.

"Tamina," he breathed, "You can choose to believe me or not, but there was a time when I think you cared for me as deeply as I do for you. I'm just waiting on that day to come again."

He paused for a moment and studied her face, trying to read her reactions. Then, he looked her directly in the eyes, so deeply that Tamina thought he was surely looking into her soul. The intensity frightened her a little.

"And what makes you so sure you'll win my affections?" she asked. Her voice was soft, and her familiar scorn was absent.

"Time, is a complicated thing," he said with a knowing smile. "Tomorrow you will become my wife by name. However, I am prepared to give you time if you so wish, until you are ready to become a wife by all the meanings of the word."

Tamina raised her eyebrows in slight surprise as she understood his meaning.

"Although the wait will cause me much pain and frustration," he added mischievously.

Unable to resist, he lowered his face toward his. She stiffened, but did not resist.. It would probably earn him a painful slap, but he had to kiss her. It took every morsel of strength that he possessed not to ravage her with his mouth. The resistance was almost physically painful for him, but he had to remember that this was her first kiss.

Lightly, he brushed his lips against hers. It lasted only a moment, but the sensations of touching her mouth with his slaked a tiny portion of his lust.

"I'll leave now," he murmured, as he backed away from her, fearing what he would not be able to resist his other temptations should he remain. As he approached the balcony drape he turned back with a smirk.
"Have I managed to silence the princess?" he asked, feigning surprise.

"Don't flatter yourself Dastan," she said almost immediately,"You can't take the credit for silencing me when I simply have nothing further to say to you."

He chuckled and ducked through the curtain. Surprised as to his leaving that way, she suddenly realised that she had no idea how he'd managed to get into her room in the first place.

"Dastan?" she called hurrying after him, "How did you get…"
She stopped and gasped as she saw him leap off the balcony, apparently to his death. She was about to scream when she saw him expertly grasp onto a window ledge, without any apparent strain.

"Dastan!" she hissed, "What in the gods are you doing? You're going to kill yourself!"

"Have a little faith in me Princess," he urged as he swung himself effortlessly to the next beam, or ledge, until he landed softly onto his own balcony several floors below.

Even from a distance he could sense she was reservedly impressed. With a small nod of her head, she disappeared inside her room. Dastan smiled with content.

As she lay on her bed, Tamina brushed her fingers over her lips. They still tingled from where he had kissed her. Then, she stopped suddenly and grunted in frustration, berating herself for girly foolishness. In her mind, she played over how their little tête à tête should have gone. She shouldn't have dropped her sword and let him stay, she should have insisted he leave immediately, she should have called for the guards, she should have kicked him when he had touched her face, and by no means should she have allowed him to kiss her. But try as she may to resist , her heart was beating fast and it felt as though a kaleidoscope of butterflies had been set free inside her.

Despite herself, the barbaric Persian prince who had invaded and nearly destroyed her beloved Alamut had bewitched her body and mind. She knew that there was no possible way she could remember an alternate time line, if such a thing even existed, but there was something inside of her that knew he could be trusted. She closed her eyes and tried to calm the millions of thoughts and feelings flitting from one corner of her mind to another. Eventually, she fell into a deep sleep, and dreamt about running ostriches.

Unseen except by one, a shadowy serpent slithered its way across the cool floor of her bedchamber.