(The Shadow Poet is walking through a vast desert. Eventually the searing heat gets to him and he collapses. He pulls out a brass lamp, rubs it, and the Genie pops out)

Genie: Greetings Master

Me: I wish to use one of my wishes now. I wish…

Genie: for a bottle of water? To be away from this desert? To be a prince? How about my freedom?

Me: No, I wish people would review for my story!

Chapter 4

The Princess

"Ok Babuk. You know the plan, right?" I asked to my friend. He nodded, rubbing his claws together with anticipation. It was the next morning and it was a busy day in the market. Merchants were calling out their wares to passing commoners, and the streets were jammed pack with caravans and traders. Al and I decided to use this commotion and 'pick up' some breakfast, if you get my drift. I had snuck up above a tent selling pistachios, with Babuk crawling up the nearby wall and meeting me on the top.

"You ready buddy?"

"Shisssssssss" he replied, his forked tongue licking his lips.

"Kay, go for it." I said, getting into place. Babuk crawled down the tent poles and grabbed a small basket of pistachios right in front of the stall merchant.

"Hey you filthy rascal! Hands off!" yelled the merchant, grabbing for the basket. Babuk maneuvered out of his way, taunting him. I lowered myself on the other side of the tent and grabbed a much larger basket while the merchant was distracted by Babuk. I was just about to pull myself up when I noticed a particularly large purse of coins in the corner. I few moments later, Babuk dropped the basket and returned to the top, where I was counting my new loot.

"Nice work, Babuk!" I said, pushing the mound of coins away and cracking open a few pistachios. I handed them to him, saying "Breakfast is served", as he grabbed one with both claws and chewed on it happily.

I waved across the street to Aladdin, who waved back from atop another stall. He had just pulled off the same trick I had, and was eating a melon along with Abu. I threw a few of the pistachios into my mouth and resumed counting. This was a good haul, eighty-three coppers and twenty-four silver pieces, my best yet. Well, besides the gold piece that I had in my pocket.

I then looked over to Aladdin, and saw that he was very distracted by something. He was just sitting there, propped up by his arm and had this stupid grin across his face.

"Yo, Al! Woohoo! Over here! Pay attention Al!" I mouthed to him, waving my arms, trying to get his attention. No success, he was in his own sad little world.

I then glanced at over to where he was looking, my jaw dropped and my eyes bugged out. There standing walking down the street, was the most gorgeous girl I have ever seen. Smooth fair skin, almond shaped brown eyes, and the silkiest black hair you have ever seen. I could clearly understand why Aladdin was so love struck with her. If it wasn't for the few ounces of common sense in my head, I would be gawking at her too. Ok, so I was, but only for a few moments. But despite her good looks, she was dressed poorly. A simple brown robe, with the hood pulled over her head. She looked like on of us, a street rat. But even this didn't dampen her beauty; she was one fine street rat!

I then noticed those two kids from the other day. I smiled to myself. They seemed to be everywhere nowadays. The two were staring up hungrily at the fruit piled on one of the stalls. It seemed that the money I gave them yesterday didn't last that long.

" Aw, you must be hungry. Here." said the girl, taking a pear from the stand and giving it to them. They took the pear and ran off, smiling happily. The girl began to walk away, but was stopped by the stall owner.

"I trust you are going to pay for that?" he said angrily, grabbing her hand and pulling her back.

"I'm sorry, but I don't have any money." She said, trying to free her hand.

" Thief!" he bellowed angrily, and slammed her hand down onto the stall and drew a sword.

"No, please, if you would let me go to the palace, I could get some from the sultan for you." she pleaded. I frowned, this was getting ugly real fast. And what was she babbling about? The palace? The sultan?

"Do you know what the penalty for thieving is, street rat?" said the merchant, holding the sword above her wrist. Everyone knew what it was. If you stole, and were caught, you lost your thieving hand if it was a minor offense. If you were a major thief, like myself, you'd most likely be sent to the dungeons for a swift execution. That is of course, if you were foolish enough to get caught.

"No please, don't!' begged the girl, trying to pull away. Just as the sword was about to come down, Aladdin appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the man's hand, stopping the blow.

"Come on Babuk" I said, scooping the coins back into the purse. He climbed onto my wrist and I leaped off the stall, running up to the scene Aladdin was making.

"Thank you so much for finding her good sir. I have been looking everywhere for her." Said Aladdin.

"What are you doing?" whispered the girl.

"Just play along" Aladdin whispered back.

"You, uh, know this girl?" asked the merchant, lowering the sword.

"Unfortunately yes," I said walking up to them, "she's our sister." "She's kinda crazy if you get my drift" I whispered in his ear.

"But, she said she knew the Sultan?" asked the merchant, curiously.

"Heh, she thinks the monkey is the Sultan," said Aladdin, shrugging his shoulders apologetically. I almost slapped myself but caught myself at the last second. Aladdin was screwing my whole plan up! Crazy sister, understandable. Crazy sister who thinks our pet monkey is the sultan, overkill. Besides, she definitely wouldn't stoop that low to get out of this jam.

"Oh wise Sultan, how may I serve you?" said the girl, catching on. She got on her knees and lowered her head, bowing to Abu. Abu winked at Aladdin and puffed out his chest, acting regal. Babuk just sat on my shoulder and looked at me as if saying, "O yeah, we are so dead. "

"Well it looks like there was no harm done," I said, butting in and handing the merchant a few coppers. It was then I noticed an unusually large bag of coins at the man's waist.

"Come on sister, time to see the doctor." Said Aladdin, pulling the girl's hand away from the stand. I snuck behind the merchant while he was viewing them and began to untie the strings to the bag. He would certainly notice if his entire purse went missing, so a few coins from it would suffice. He was still busy looking at the girl and Aladdin. By now I had gotten the strings undone and had slipped my hand into my bag. Dang, there were a lot of coins in here! I grabbed a fistful and silently closed the bag.

"Krssssssss" hissed Babuk, pleased with our success.

"Shhhhh, quiet buddy" I whispered, my eyes darting around cautiously. Good, no one had seen my little bit of thieving.

"Oh, hello doctor" said the girl to a nearby camel. I backed up from the merchant and looked at the coins in my hand. Bingo! Twenty-nine silver pieces. Today was definitely my lucky day. I placed the coins in my own bag and joined the other two.

"Heh, not that doctor" said Aladdin, leading her away.

"Come-on Abu," I called to the little monkey. He was still performing his sultan impression.

"Ba baba baba" he screeched. He took a step forward and fruit and coins fell out of his shirt. I smiled, so I wasn't the only one doing a bit of thieving.

"Run!" I shouted taking off as fast as my feet could take me, with Babuk clinging to the back of my neck. Aladdin ran right after me, still holding the girl by her hand and pulling her along.

"Theives!" shouted the merchant as the people around us laughed at Abu, who gathered what he could as he followed.

Sometime later, we were in the old neighbor where we made our homes and it was beginning to get dark

"So, was this your first time in the market place?" asked Aladdin behind me to the girl as we climbed the ruins of nearby building.

"How did you know?" asked the girl as Aladdin helped her up a ledge.

"That much was kind of obvious" I called from in front of them. Babuk rolled his eyes and both Aladdin and the girl blushed.

"Krssssssss?" asked Babuk, as he crawled on top of my head and peered down at me.

"You have a bad feeling about her too, huh?" I quietly asked my friend.

I took a quick glance back at her and Aladdin, who were avidly chatting together. Something about her was out of place but I couldn't put my finger on it. It kept bothering me what she said. About the palace and the sultan? How she never went to the market? This was no ordinary girl, but if that was true, then what was she?

I ducked under the fallen beam that was at the entrance of our home, ignoring the other two. As Aladdin helped the girl through it, I went over to the table and untied the pouch at my waist, pouring its contents on the table. My eyes gleamed at the small pile of copper and silver, never had my collection been so large. I silently patted the gold coin Babuk stole yesterday. My luck seemed to improve since it came into my possession. I turned and noticed Aladdin showing the girl our home.

"This is where you live?" she asked confused.

"Yeah, just me, Babuk, and Al here." I said, leaning against the wall, crossing my arms and staring at her. "So, tell me, why were you in the market place?"

"I ran away because my father wanted me to marry someone I can't love." She said sadly. I nodded, this made sense. Aladdin turned the conversation to another direction.

"Look at this," he said, pulling back the curtain, revealing the view of the palace against the star filled night sky.

"It must be great to live in a palace" said Aladdin absent mindedly.

"Its not as great as you think" said the girl, rather to quickly. My ears perked up at this. What did she know about it.

"Servants to wait on you, all the gold you could want…" he said, still off in his dream world.

"People telling you what to do, what to say, where to go…" said the girl, staring off at the palace.

"…it just makes you feel, trapped" they finished together, blushing and looking into each others eyes. I rolled my eyes but was brought back to my senses at the sound of crashing wood. I quickly looked over to the entrance and saw several guards moving through the rubble.

"They're after me!" they said together" They then looked at each other in surprise and exclaimed "They're after you!"

"Oh crime!" I yelled, running over to the table and began filling the mound of coins into a bag. I was not going to lose my hard won money to the likes of these. It was all I had, it couldn't start over.

"Father must have sent them after me!" cried the girl.

I stopped what I was doing and stared at her. These were the palace guards. They served only the sultan. Then that would mean this girl is…

"Cassim, come on!" cried Aladdin running towards the window.

"I'll be right there!" I shouted back, continuing to fill my bag.

"Do you trust me?" asked Aladdin to the girl, placing a foot on the window.

"What?"

"I said do you trust me?" said Aladdin, taking her hand.

"Yes" she said slowly, unsure of what he was going to do.

"Then jump!" he cried, jumping out of the window, pulling her with him. Abu glanced at us before following him. Babuk had turned an unhealthy shade of grey, and was shivering, clearly scared as to what would happen to us if we didn't escape.

"Don't worry Babuk, we'll be outta here in one second." I said, tying the bag to my waist.

I turned and ran smack dab into one of the guards.

"There you are street rat!" he cried, grabbing me. Babuk jumped at him, claws outstretched, but was grabbed by another guard and thrown into a bag.

"Babuk!" I cried, as my friend scrabbled around trying to get free.

"Looks like it's all over buddy" I whispered before the guard clubbed my head and I blacked out.

Ok, This chapter took me forever. Sorry about it. At least I have one review so my efforts werent a complete waste of time. I kept my promise, I uploaded the chapter regardless of how many reviews. For those of you who do read this, can you tell other people about my story, just so it feels like people are reading it?Thanks. Chappie Five is coming up.