So, my lovely people, I let you down again. So very first, let me say that I am so flattered that you stick with me and this little story at all. You are wonderful and beautiful and if I ever am a person of any level of importance in the world I will be sure to thank you publicly. Deal?
Anyway, I don't own Aladdin or any of the characters which are directly adapted from the Disney film into this story (which are not many).
Aladdi's wits returned to her just in time to take advantage of the guards' confusion and slip away, clutching the basket and pouch to her chest. Without looking back, she sprinted until she was out of sight and earshot. Heart pounding in her ears, Aladdi blended into the crowd and wandered until Rood appeared at her elbow.
"I didn't teach you how to tail people so you could use it on me, you know," Aladdi said without glancing his way.
"I had to make sure you were going to be safe," Rood protested stubbornly in his low voice.
Aladdi picked a string of blue beads out of a basket of wares, feigning interest. She hissed, "I told you I was going to be fine." Something ugly in her pushed at her tongue, and she continued. "You know that stopping to lace your sandal is perhaps the most obvious stall ever, right? An infant would have noticed and lost you in a second."
Sed would have punched her arm, and Nik would have hung his head, but Rood just looked at her evenly. "I thought you were going to pack today. You were found, weren't you?"
Aladdi casually flipped her scarf over her head to cover her lie. "Of course not. I forgot to pick up a satchel. My old one is torn."
Rood's eyes were still suspicious, but Aladdi looked away from him and grabbed a satchel from its hook on the post of a stall. Without another word, she slipped into the crowd.
After a moment's hesitation she walked across the market toward the alley where Nik lived with his little brothers. It didn't take long to find the little boy, who galloped to her side and smiled at her. "I thought you were going to pack today," he remarked.
The girl couldn't help smiling at his gap-toothed grin, the dust on his brown cheeks. "Yes, well, there was a little change of plan," Aladdi tried to keep her face straight, but the little boy hadn't yet learned to read a lie.
"Will you play with us?" A little boy on the other side of the alley called. They were playing a game, bouncing an apple on their knees and elbows. That simple red fruit threw her back to an hour ago, to the man in the blue, the prince, tossing an apple from one hand to the other. 'Is this where you live?' He had been straightforward, open, almost friendly, so different from the man she had been expecting to meet, and steal from. Why had he been outside the palace walls? And why disguised? If he had strolled through the marketplace in that fine blue linen, he could have got that apple and so many other things for only a glance.
"Aladdi? Pleeaasse?" Nik's voice joined the chorus of boys asking her to play.
She smiled at them all apologetically. "I'm sorry, I just came to ask Nik if I could sleep in this alley tonight." She looked at her friend, who at only twelve years old was almost an inch taller than her already. He was muscle and bones, like his eating hadn't grown up with him yet. Too many boys had that look.
Nik's eyes grew wide. "You were found?!"
"No, Nik! Of course I wasn't found," she said, smiling. "It's me, remember?" What mistake had she made? Why this time?
Nik's easy grin was back. "Right, it's you. You'd never get caught."
"Right." Her heart felt light. That was at least the third lie today. She shouldn't count.
So thank you so much! I know this was short but I kind of left it in the middle on purpose to guilt myself into finishing it. *grins* I hope you liked it at least a little bit, and if you have any constructive criticism or suggestions or questions or anything like that, the review button is right there. For all your lovely supportive reader needs.
-natalie.