"Hm..."
If she had been hoping for any reassurance about doing well by managing so quickly, she wasn't going to get it. Being in the middle of the desert, he wasn't likely to immediately pick up on where they were going, but it wouldn't be long.
"Come, then. We'll travel as far as possible."
Of course she'd need no rest, and his curiosity rather undermined much need for breaks, so it was a much shorter trip than he'd estimated. Within view of the glittering domes of the city, he very much wanted to groan. There had never been a time in Agrabah when he wasn't thwarted by a certain irritating...
Ah well. There was no crime in a little treasure hunting, was there? Shaking his head, he pressed on, not waiting for either Zaria or Xerxes in the least. They could catch up. Zaria had no choice in the matter as it was.
"Show me."
In the tales Scheherazade spoke to her husband, she told of the djinni of the ring's magical transportation powers. She had brought back and forth many of her masters between the Arabian Deserts and China instantaneously as her master commanded. However, this was only to further the plot, you see, for if she took too long, the Sultan might tire of her never-ending, boring tale and behead her just as planned.
In truth, the djinni of the ring was like a cheetah. Fast, but for short periods of time. Mozenrath, it would seem, would be quick to find out of her strong limitations. Not that he had been fooled she was an all-powerful being right now. No, it seemed the exact opposite.
Of all the magical creatures in the world, he had to get stuck with their understudy's understudy.
As they both struggled to catch up within the bustling city, as even the darkest of alleys were filled with people, Zaria turned to Xerxes.
"So, what are you? A flying anchovy?"
Xerxes hissed, "No."
"A tuna, then! I knew it."
The eel slithered up to his master, "Get rid of her..."
Not like Mozenrath hadn't thought that option up. Hey, it didn't hurt to suggest it. Okay, with Mozey, there, it could hurt.
"Right behind this wall!" Zaria suddenly called out, "I sense it! Ooh! It's big! I don't know what it's for!"
"FOOOOOOOORREEEE!"
And crashing through the palace gate wall was, in fact, a large '4'. It left a hole in its exact shape and a certain blue djinni's head sheepishly peeked out from the damaged property. Luckily, Mozenrath and Zaria had been on opposite sides of the numerical disaster.
"I told you it was a large four!" The Genie stated, fixing his golfing cap. He tossed his bag of driving irons over his shoulder and looked around, as if he couldn't see the trail of disaster the four had left.
"If I hit another four, I might be able to see where the other one went off to." He continued, seemingly speaking to no one, "What iron should I use? The fourteen driving iron or the curling iron? I mean, my hair is a disaster."
"You have GOT to be kidding me." A certain red parrot's voice piped up from the opposite side of the wall. This was the particular no one Genie had been speaking to. The disgruntled avian fluttered up to the Genie's shoulder and settled, "Ya know, ya think you're driving this golf-thing, but you're really just driving me insane."
Zaria had a broad grin across her face. She looked over to Mozenrath through the crumbling wall. She found the source of the magic! Or at least, part of it.
Mozenrath, on the other hand, did not look impressed at all. In fact, microscopic examination might have revealed a nerve twitching under one eye, but only very slightly.
He was perfectly calm.
"Is that my curling iron?" came an amused voice, and its owner, a green female djinn, floated into view. "Really, Genie. Well, I suppose it's par for the course. How's it going?"
"He's knocked down a wall and you're asking him about his score?" Jasmine asked, half-occupied with keeping an eye out for the guards in case they had heard the crash. In case. Of course they had.
It was only a matter of time before they came careening in, ready to arrest everyone, even if there was no-one to arrest. At least no-one could say they weren't keen and alert.
"Well, he needed to play through," Eden attempted sheepishly, realising this wasn't much of an excuse. Still, to a djinn, a knocked-down wall wasn't such a big deal. All it took was a snap of the fingers to fix. The score, on the other hand...
"Alright, alright." Smiling, Jasmine to just give it up. They were entitled to their fun, after all. "As long it's fixed back up again. Where's Dandhi?"
"My dear little master-girl is fast asleep with Rajah!" Eden said enthusiastically. "He's such a sweet thing. Took to her at once."
Rajah did tend to take to people, social tiger that he was. He took to some people like he took to plates of food, or places to sharper his claws on. Luckily for Dandhi, he didn't mind her being alive in his presence. How sweet. Abu, on the other hand, he had less patience with, so the little monkey had been roped into watching where the balls fell after Genie's wild shots propelled them sky-high.
When he wasn't propelling numbers wall-wise.
"Aladdin's Genie," Mozenrath said blankly. "That will certainly be a lot of use to me."
He certainly, certainly wasn't happy with this development, and his gauntlet started to show it.
Zaria frowned upon seeing Mozenrath's reaction and in an instant, and a short burst of magic as a simple rush of wind past everyone: the djinn child had taken Mozenrath and herself out of plain sight.
"That was not me!" Genie exclaimed, "Abu, really! There's people present!"
Surely, that was going to get a confused expression from the poor monkey.
"Uh, Jasmine, can you let me handle this?" Finally, the hero of Agrabah made his appearance, standing proudly with his hands at his waist, "After all, I am the new Sultan of Agrabah!"
This was true. Jasmine's father, feeling his old age coming, finally stepped down from his throne and, with all measures of great honor, gave the fate of the City to Aladdin. The young man had proven time and time again of his great bravery and excellence in keeping Agrabah safe from harm.
Although, sometimes, the Street Rat Turned Royalty did let a little ego escape his modesty. Jasmine rolled her eyes in good nature and playfully pulled down the feather of his turban down, covering Al's eyes.
"Don't worry, Al." Genie exclaimed, magically transforming his garb into that of a janitor, "We's gonna do a good job cleanin' up the place. Let's go, Eden, Iago, Monkey-Boy."
Iago was taken by surprise as a vacuum cleaner suddenly appeared at his wings. The misplaced appliance revved up violently and shot out through the wreck the '4' left, leaving only the trailing screams of the parrot disappearing over the horizon.
Genie leaned back and grinned to his French Maid girlfriend, "And you keep that little outfit for later!"
"Genie!"
"A'ite, Sultan Al, which, by the way isn't as cool as when I made you Prince Ali because I went all out and got you your own huge musical number performed by ME." He stopped and caught his breath,"Woah. Talk about a run-on sentence. Anyhow, I'll get back to cleaning, and may you never EVER let the wild fours escape from the zoo again! What sultan you are!"
He made himself laugh. The idea of little fours running in a cage with horns just tickled him so. The blue djinn made his way down the trail, cleaning up as he went, and collecting as much of Iago's feather's as he could.
Aladdin sighed and smiled, "This job is harder than I thought!"
Meanwhile, Zaria leaned out of the lone, little window as the Genie made his way past. She couldn't understand. Well, perhaps the Genie's semi-phenomenal, nearly-cosmic powers just didn't attract Mozenrath, but the other djinn made up for it! The child looked back to him and frowned.
"Well, at least I proved I could track down magic, right?" The girl nervously said, "It was two genies, too! Okay, so the big blue one wasn't all there but it should count right?"
It did count, but it was starting to sound like she was trying to prove him wrong.
He certainly didn't like being wrong.
Rounding on her, he kept his expression perfectly neutral.
"Magic, yes, but magic that is both of no use to me, and quite likely to become an irritation if they find out I'm here. This was one chance for you to prove your worth. Do you really think your justification will make things any better?"
The little vanishing trick was quite nice, though. Maybe he shouldn't be too hasty. With that in mind, he bult up a little energy and brought the gauntlet right up near her head, keeping it there just long enough for her to be nicely terrified before releasing it out the window just past her ear. The room was decrepit enough that just the power rushing past make the rafters tremble, so letting it off into the open air was the better, if unsatisfactory, option
"But. You're young."
And useless. Holding that opinion back, he patted her on the head coldly. It wasn't in the least reassuring, since he had been threatening to burn her face off with the same had just a second ago. If anything, it was even more worrying.
"Maybe I'll give you one more chance. Yes?"
That was all very well, but Mozenrath had done precisely what he was worried Zaria would have done. The window was quite high above the streets, but Eden and Genie had that one more wonderful thing in common in that they were both inquisitive at the worst of moments. Entirely forgetting about dusting, she tapped her blue boyfriend on the shoulder.
"Genie, did you just hear something? Like a little bitty bug zapper high in the sky..."
Abu just shook his head and tilted her face up towards the window. He'd seen something. He didn't know what it WAS, but it was something.
"Is that where it is? I wonder... I'm going undercover," she announced, turning into a sheet and slinking towards the building and up it's side like an inchworm. She really couldn't have helped herself even if she'd tried. Nearer to the window, perhaps a little bugging would be more appropriate.
"Now what do we have here?"
Eden, however, would find nothing. Just the old abandoned room, with what perhaps was the last of a sizzle smoldering along the windows edges. Zaria, as soon as Mozenrath had detailed how the two sources of magic finding him would only spell trouble, and her unfortunate early demise at his hands, made it her sole duty to put in her escapist skills to work.
She had them, once again, zip through a small burst of pure wind. Extreme velocity but at the cost of low endurance left them now at a neighboring building.
"I'm sorry!" Zaria pleaded pitifully, "I didn't know! I'll find better magic but I can find it! Just don't burst me into a zillion, zillion, zillionbajillion pieces because I can't even do a hundred piece puzzle set! I mean, I guess I could if I started with the corners but I'm not exactly made out of corners!" Her distress turned comical. She flailed her arms.
"What if I lose a piece? I'll end up like the big blue genie! I don't want a beard!"
The girl quickly pieced herself back together after a show of a literal jigsaw puzzle taking apart her body. She exhaled and brushed back her hair.
Had he paid attention to Eden, perhaps Genie could have helped her find the source of the noise before it had gone away. He, however, was too focused on gluing Iago's feathers to the bird's butt to have noticed anything. Iago sat, grumbling.
"Do you know how many feathers I've lost since I started hanging around with you guys?" He inquired, "Six thousand seven hundred and eighty one."
"Now, hold still, honey." Genie, now a hairdresser, chimed as he let a hairdryer blow and fluff up Iago's head feathers into a stylish afro.
Iago settled his 'hair' and snatched the remaining feathers from Genie's hand, "No additions, jerk."
He let his wings expand as he took into the air to get away from that annoying djinn, and found a nice roosting spot to settle while he finished sticking the last of his feathers on his exposed skin.
"Six thousand seven hundred and eight two... six thousand seven hundred and eighty three..."
"I can find Solomon's Seal, I promise!"
Iago paused and hopped a few branches nearer to the window that he had heard this from.
"We'll start right away." Zaria said, looking through the old room's forgotten items, "Look, a pot. I can do something with this."
She shattered the pot on the ground and the bronze shards took shape of a lean, Arabic horse. The girl draped a rug over its back, "We have a long way. We must go to the Kingdom of Israel, where Solomon's power once reigned. Perhaps there, I'll be able to sense the magic from his grave to find the whereabouts to his ring."
"Sense magic of grave how?" Xerxes pushed.
Upon hearing that familiar voice, Iago listened in closer, practically pressing up against the wall of the building. He could care less about the dangling feathers at his tail.
"Well," Zaria said, "It's said that the Kingdom of Israel was practically buried with him! All the jewels, gold, silver, and magic to honor the wisest of Kings. It is said that his legendary wisdom was bestowed upon his tomb, and there is no greater power than wisdom. If these tales are true, I will be able to find him."
At the mention of jewels and gold, Iago stopped listening. He heard what he wanted to hear and with that, the greedy, little mongrel flew straight back to Aladdin.
"Kid! Kid!" The pudgy parrot gasped, obviously such a quick and fast flight had left him out of breath, "You won't believe what I just heard!"
"Iago, calm down!" Aladdin grabbed him before he could collapse on the floor, "What is it?"
"He probably just heard a gold coin fall out of someone's wallet." Genie quipped.
"Almost, that creepy worm thing-" He began.
"Xerxes." Nearly everyone responded.
"-yes... I heard him talking with, well, I don't know who, and they're going to go find Salamander's grave!"
"Solomon?"
"YES!"
"Mozenrath is up to something!" Aladdin said, "And we have to find out what! Genie?"
"Waaaaaaay ahead of you, Al!" The Genie said as he poofed in what was practically an entire library, shelves and all, "You know, I could never get the Dewey Decimal system right."
Reaching into a shelf he pulled out Dewey Duck who handed him a book, "Ah! There we go. Thanks. Tell Uncle Scrooge I said 'Hi'!"
Everything disappeared as quickly as it had come and Genie strolled up to Aladdin, using thick-reading glasses to look over a book entitled "What Mozenrath Could Use As Weapons: A Deep Study of Well Almost Everything In This World, Even A Whisk."
"So, that's how he'd use a whisk." The Genie commented, "Alright, under S, S, S, S, S. Sausage. Sombrero. Ah! Solomon's Seal. A magic ring that controls demons, the undead, genies, and the supernatural. It is also very stylish."
He sets the book aside and looks to Eden, "Well, that's good. I never did like gaudy rings."
Cue double take.
"WAIT A SECOND, I'M KIND OF, LIKE A GENIE."
Cue traumatic flashbacks of every little thing that happened each time Mozenrath would get his hands on him or Eden.
"Al! Al! At least the Crystal of Ix had elbow room! I do NOT fit in a ring!" He practically shook the turban off of his friend's head.
"Don't worry, Genie!" Aladdin said as he tried to get his eyes to stop rolling, "We'll stop him. We've done so many times before, right? Let's go! We got to get to this grave first before they do!"
And there are the two first chapters. Reviews decide whether I bother continuing to upload the story, since if I don't know if people are actually enjoying our work, I'll stop bothering to copy-paste me and Z's writings together.