They didn't speak the whole way to the temple. Several time Tamina would feel Dastan sigh and look ate her out of the corner of his eye. She expected him to say something but he never did. Every time he did she would watch him expectantly and then just end up resting her head on his back trying to hold back tears.

She was upset. She was furious, and hurt and above all scared. She never felt this way toward someone he was acting like quite a barbarian. When they rounded the grassy alps, nerves finally over came her stomach. What if they came upon the same scene they had encountered the last time. What if the Hasassains had come ans slaughtered her people again.

She must have been shaking pretty hard, because Dastan slowed the horse. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm just nervous."

Dastan nodded. "Do you want me to just go up there? You can wait here?" He suggested.

"No, I must see for my self." Tamina responded.

Dastan nodded again, kicking the sides of the horse to gallop up the side of the mountain.

Tamina's fears were confirmed when she looked in the doorways of the houses, all dead. Men, woman and children all slaughtered. As before, she knew what she needed to do. She watched Dastan out of the corner of her eye, for just a moment that he was out of arms length, not looking at her, before she made her dash for the sanctuary.

She had no doubt that he would follow her, she needed to be quick. "Tamina!" He shouted after her.

"I love you Dastan!" Tamina shouted back, reaching the knife for the opening in the stone, waiting for the inevitable.

"No, Tamina!" She heard the water splashing around her, and then a hand closing over hers on the knife.

Their hands were intertwined as the knife was plunged into the stone. "No Dastan!" Tamina pushed but it was too late, the couple was wrapped in a pink smoke that stung the skin and choked the lungs.

"Yay!" A peppy little child's voice came from the opening of the sanctuary. The child that Dastan had seen in the stables. "You figured it out! It's teamwork!" The child jumped from rock to rock, growing older with each step, finally reaching the water she resembled more the annoying goddess that Tamina knew.

"You are seriously deranged." Tamina struggled against her restraints.

"Don't you see? That's all that needed to be done in the first place, to let him put the knife in the stone. Did he not offer?" The goddess circled the couple, covering their hands on the knife, "I will take this." The dagger disappeared. "Tamina, Tamina, always trying to be the martyr." She snapped her fingers and the pink smoke released them. "Go, go have your wedding ceremony."

"What about the Hasassains?" Dastan asked.

"Don't worry about them," She winked, the danger sparking there, undeniable. "Call it a wedding present." And then she was nothing but a puff of pink smoke.

Garsiv was more than angry when they returned. "Where have you been?!" He shouted marching down the hall, his armor clinking together as he stomped.

"Now, Garsiv, I didn't mean to be gone that long." Dastan held his hands up in surrendering backing up, a sly smile painted on his face.

"Garsiv, it was my fault really." Tamina placed a hand on Garsiv's upper arm. "Can't you forgive him, just this once, for me?" Tamina batted her eyes the best she could.

Garsiv groaned, "Fine, just this once!" And stomped right back down the hall.

The wedding was fabled, all Alumtian creams and Persian reds, fairy tales were written about their love, just to justify the beauty of the wedding.

When the ceremony was over, Tamina felt whole. Like she was missing a bit of herself and didn't realize what it was till now. She was missing Dastan. After all these years of looking down on those who were in love with disgust, she did not who she would be with out Dastan's love.

Who knew she would agree, let alone enjoy, destiny's plan.

Tamina and Dastan were married for thirty happy years before his death. They had three sons that grew to be great warriors and saviors of their own. Dastan never took another wife, always claiming that Tamina was enough wife for him. Though they both knew that it was love that kept them loyal to only each other. A love so legendary, so strong it was a tale told for centuries.