Disclaimer: I do not own Disney's Aladdin or Saga of Tanya the Evil, they belong to their respective owners. I'm not making money, this is just for fun and a hobby at most.
Author Note: This is currently a side project and should be treated as such. I apologize if anyone thinks this chapter is a little bit exposition heavy, let me know if you disagree, I am trying to create "A Whole New World" after all. Anyways enjoy the chapter.
Chapter Seven: Waking Dream
There was a chill in the air Aladdin hadn't noticed before. It reminded him of the desert nights, though it was clearly day, wherever here was. He had never traveled too far from Agrabah. The furthest he ever remembered traveling was when he was very young. His mother, before she had gotten very sick, used to take him to the Jordan river once a year. At the time, he had no idea why, but as a fledgling young adult by Agrabah's standards he had a very good hunch.
Yes, mothers in Agrabah who miscarried or lost a child often traveled to the river Jordan to send off the baby they lost. It panged Aladdin to think he might never know if he had once had an older brother or sister. He wished he had siblings ever since he was a kid, he'd take anyone, despite whatever faults they might have.
Still dwelling on the past just reminded him of the recent loss of Abu and his mother years earlier. Aladdin was not the type to dwell on unproductive things. Besides he had a whole new world to explore. Before he had thought himself in a palace when he woke up, but now he was seeing that almost every building here looked as nice.
Without any direction, Aladdin started walking along the street. The path was some form of white elevated stone away from the black rock of the main road. Whoever he was the city dwellers most have been rich, and he had still not seen any street rats.
This place was clean, the smell from the passing carriages was slightly foul though. That said the lack of animals and their waste was much better than Agrabah's! The conversations around him were a bit odd, thankfully they spoke his language though.
*Chapter Seven: Waking Dream*
It never hurt to listen in on people. That was one of the first lessons he learned as a street rat. He needed information, this place was far too odd!
"Thanks for the paper." A random person in a suit said. Aladdin thought the clothes were very odd, how could a person properly move in those?
"Your welcome. I see you have some Coffee from below again." Said the strange vendor. He was a well dressed man holding many rough sacks of papers. How extravagant were these people?
"Yeah, I'm glad I can afford it, conjured coffee is just terrible." The man looked down at the unrolled newspaper.
"Well this is quite something. Our King has finally returned from down below?" As the man took a sip from his Coffee.
"Yeah, it just barely made the presses when the military showed up late last night." Said the vendor.
"Well have a good day, thanks for the paper." The man tipped his hat as he started to leave."
"Your welcome, you know the Empire pays my salary to hand these out you know." The vendor replied.
'What is The Empire?' Aladdin thought.
"Hey you!" The vendor called out.
"Me?" Aladdin pointed at himself.
"Yeah you soldier." The vendor motioned to Aladdin.
"You will want to read this! Well unless of course you just came back from below." He handed Aladdin a bound newspaper.
"Thanks." Aladdin replied halfheartedly.
"Just doing my job! Good luck Solider!" The vendor saluted him.
'What an odd man. He most have thought I was some sort of soldier.' He looked over his clothes. 'Most be because of these.
'Still I have no idea what this is written in, just like all the signs everywhere.' Aladdin sighed in thought. 'I guess I'll try and look it over later. He stuffed it into a large pocket on his pants, at least these clothes had better pocket designs then those in Agrabah. Clothes like this were quite the luxury in Agrabah.
Had Aladdin paid a bit more attention to the paper, he might have noticed the animated picture of his sleeping form snoozing away on a bed. This picture was right under the large print declaring the return of the king.
This city seemed endless, and was getting even more crowded as the morning stretched on. Everyone wore some very odd clothes, but that wasn't all. It seemed like all the citizens were rich, as many of them wore lots of accessories.
*Chapter Seven: Waking Dream*
One woman walking down the street wore a red dress and was even carrying some kind of instrument Aladdin had never seen before, and was that pink hair! Actually now that he looked closer, she was all sorts of odd, she even choose to have colored tattoo's on her face.
"Pardon me." Said a man carrying some odd contraption, as he bumped into a woman.
Clang!
"You broke my Guitar!" The woman cried out.
"Was it made down below?" The man tensed while he asked his question.
"No it was conjured. But I don't know the spell to fix it!" The woman was angry.
'What did conjured mean? And did she just say magic spell?' Aladdin thought deeply.
The man sighed in relief. "If that's the case, thankfully I'm a trained Artificer, I specialize in magic items, so I know the spell." He said as he set down his odd contraption in his hands.
"You better not screw it up! It took me forever to tune it just right!" She screeched much to everyone's annoyance on the street.
"Don't worry, I've been doing this for years." The man said as he held out his hand. The ring upon his finger started to glow, when all was said and done, the Guitar looked good as knew.
"There you go young miss." He handed back the Guitar.
"Be more careful next time!" She said storming away.
'Guess the rich will be like that wherever you go.' Aladdin thought.
Aladdin picked up the heavy contraption handing it back to the older man.
"Thanks solider. Do you think they will end the magic rationing now that the King has returned?" The man asked as he took back the device from Aladdin.
"I have no idea... Do you think the King is a good man?" Aladdin asked, hoping this country might be a nice place to live. Agrabah was not a very nice home after all, and the people here seemed more friendly in general. Back home everyday was a chance to loose an arm for stealing for crying out loud!
"Well isn't that the big question. We have been without a king for almost two decades now. As long as he's a good ruler and end these rations I'll have no problem serving him til death. The previous King was a fair man too."
'That was good too know, a fair King sounded like princess Jasmine.' Aladdin thought.
"I'm sure everything will be fine then.." Aladdin spouted quickly.
"Um, What kind of Magic items do you make sir?" Aladdin asked, still wondering what an Artificer was.
"All different kinds. Though I specialize in magic motors, ones which can be powered by one's own magic. These might become rare if the magic rationing ends." The man expunged happily over someone taking interest in his work.
Aladdin wasn't quite sure what a motor was, nor what magic rationing had to do with needing self powered devices. 'Whats a motor?' he thought. 'Best not to ask, don't want to make them realize I'm an outsider here.'
"Why would your Motors become rare if we stopped rationing magic?" Aladdin asked, looking for more information.
"That's quite the odd question, though he is just a kid. Still wouldn't hurt to educate him, most have joined the military young before he finished school." The Artificer thought.
"Well, if they stop rationing, that means magic devices powered off the city's magic grid can be used more. Like your parents cooking, cleaning, and lighting devices." The man tried to educate the young kid... No.. Young man in front of him.
"Like lantern and stoves?" Aladdin asked aloud.
'How could these motors be used on cleaning supplies?' He couldn't help but imagine a self sweeping broom in his head.
"Well yeah, though most use magic lights, not lanterns that run on oil. Though rationing has pushed some people to great lengths." The old man sighed.
"Has the military been using oil lanterns to conserve magic? That's not likely, the way their magic vessels consume fuel, then again using lanterns would reduce the magic consumed on vessels somewhat." He tirelessly thought.
"Had this young man lived under a rock?" He had a final thought.
"Well thanks for the chat old man, but I got to go... Umm, military business. Yeah..." Aladdin lied to the old man.
*Chapter Seven: Waking Dream*
'This place just got stranger and stranger.' Aladdin sighed once more.
'Everyone seems to think magic is common place here. Before a week ago I didn't even think it really existed. Then Jafar tricks me, nearly kills me, and now I'm in some crazy city that makes Agrabah seem like hell on earth. It's frustrating really!' Aladdin ranted in his head.
"Careful where you walking solider! You need to have better spatial awareness!" The man on the odd contraption passed him by.
'A two wheeled personal carriage? It looked like it was made of metal!' Truly this was an odd place.
Now that the sun had risen more, more carriages filled the streets, even odd two wheeled ones much larger and louder than the one that had just recently passed him by.
'Whoever created that honking horn device... I loath him.' Aladdin thought as another one of the horseless carriages passed him by while emitting a loud honk.
'I really need to find a proper market.. Well you know what they say, if you want to eat, just follow your nose.'
*Chapter Seven: Waking Dream*
"This... Now this is what I'm talking about." Aladdin muttered to himself as he stumbled into a marketplace.
The marketplace was much more lively then the streets. The damn streets with all those carriages and horns! Oh and then there was those crowded walking paths he had to stay on! While he had tried to walk in the middle of the street, the people on the walking path grabbed him and yelled at him! 'How was I suppose to know that only carriages were allowed down the middle of the streets!' Aladdin had thought back then. Oh, there were probably signs, but he couldn't read them!
Thank goodness he had found this marketplace. While it was large compared to Agrabah's, the reality was to these people this was a small district marketplace. Not that Aladdin would have know that, he was illiterate here, well he was barely literate back home.
He was one of the few street rats who could read back in Agrabah. Thankfully his mother had taught him. She always read to him fantastical fantasy children books, and when she couldn't she told wonderful stories. Yes the few memories he had of his mother were precious to him.
Aladdin was in his element here. The vendors where much like those in Agrabah, and better yet there was no guards anywhere in sight. Either these people were all rich, very altruistic, or very dumb. Needless to say, all of those were good for him, as he was getting hungry.
Many of the foods on display were like non he had ever seen, he honestly didn't know what even a third of them were. Vendors were yelling about the food being fresh from below.
'What did fresh from below mean? In fact he had heard the term down below used quite often on the streets when praising goods. Why were foods from below good? He still didn't understand what conjured goods where, but they seemed like a poor quality substitute for these people. Didn't these people realize that any food in there stomach was a gift to be cherished?' Aladdin couldn't help but berate these city dwellers in his head.
Well he would have no qualms about stealing from such people, just as he had in Agrabah to stay alive after his mother passed years ago.
That was when he noticed something.
'Is this de ja vu?' Aladdin looked on in wonderment.
In the marketplace, a girl with a well hidden face, wearing fancy clothes underneath a rob, was about to sneak some fruits into her sleeve.
If he didn't know any better, the girl in front of him seemed a dead ringer for princess Jasmine, but what would she be doing here? No it couldn't be her.
'Why is this girl trying to steal fruits, she looks rich, is she trying to help some street rats? But he hasn't seen a single street rat since he started wandering this city! This doesn't make sense!' It perplexed his mind.
'Should I act?' He thought.