Hey there!

Thank you to all those who have read and reviewed the story so far; I appreciate it. Now, finally, Leila will get the lamp, and a new character will be introduced!

Sorry if this chapter is long; I wanted to get as much as I could!

Unfortunately, the still night soon gave way to the howls of the wind that were whipping through the desert and in Leila's face as she tried to blow her hair away.

She was pulling the lead of a black horse carrying both Inaam with Dalia on her shoulder and the older woman across the vast stretches of endless sand.

Despite the sand limiting their vision, the cold temperatures and the fierce winds slowing them down, they determinedly plodded through the vast land, neither of them speaking as sand was getting in their mouths, and they were spitting it out.

As they shivered from the cold, the girls again wondered what they had gotten themselves into.

They hadn't even wanted to go into the desert when they arrived after a very long walk out of the dungeon as they knew that was where their father disappeared.

It brought back unpleasant memories for Leila, as she remembered seeing him leave their house to find food for them, never to come back, and her running to the window screaming and crying for him not to go as he faded from her vision.

But the woman told them that it was too late to back out now and that they must put any emotions aside if they wanted their reward, and seeing that they now had no choice, the girls found a horse and bravely made the way towards the cave.

In contrast, the woman smirked as she rode on the horse with Inaam trying hard not to breathe the foul stench she was omitting as the girl sat behind her.

Dalia chittered in annoyance as sand stuck to her fur, and she jumped up and down to try and get it off.

Leila was blinking her eyes against the wind and was wincing as she felt sand on bare feet, hoping that there weren't any scorpions around to sting her.

'How much farther is the cave, you hag?' Inaam said after a lengthy silence.

'Not too far, my dear,' the woman said, in her sickly sweet tone, 'just be patient.'

'Well, no offence, lady, but we've had a hellish day, and we are going nowhere! I mean, do YOU know what the cave looks like? Or are you too blind to see that it DOESN'T SEEM TO EXIST!' Inaam shouted.

'Of course, it does, my dear,' the woman said in her sickly sweet tone, 'it is shaped like a giant tiger..'

'Where is it then?' Inaam said, snarkily, 'and I'm starting to get over this!'

'We're cold and tired, sand is blowing everywhere, your body odour is making me nauseous, and there could be scorpions crawling around here! Please, can we go back?'

'It's too late to return home, my dear; you must get that lamp for me if you want to leave,' the woman said,

'Which you won't,' she muttered the last sentence to herself as Inaam sighed and wrapped her arms around herself in a vain attempt to get warm.

'Inaam, don't be rude,' said Leila, wearily as she was getting tired of her sister's complaining,

'And have you forgotten that I'm the one pulling the horse here and doing the work while you're doing nothing and arguing with the woman?'

'Alright, sorry, Lei, I didn't mean to snap. The desert is getting to me.' Inaam said.

Leila gave a weary smile as the party trekked through the desert, which seemed to keep expanding, and each step they took was getting slower. No one spoke, although the woman gave an evil grin while tapping her fingers together.

Soon, she thought, it will all be mine.

Eventually, after a very long and tiring trek, the wind died down, and the woman then said, her voice croaky from the sand,

'We're here, my dears,'

The girls looked ahead and saw a tremendous and magnificent tiger head standing proudly amongst some dunes while in a deep slumber.

'This is it, my dears, this is the Forbidden Cave in all its glory, and all those glorious treasures will soon be yours once you retrieve the lamp.'

The woman smirked triumphantly while Leila and Inaam looked in awe at the cave that stood in front of them.

'So this is the Forbidden Cave,' Leila whispered as the cave's eyes glowed and its mouth opened wide as it woke up and stared down at the party.

Dalia whimpered as she climbed on Leila's shoulder and hid behind her hair, shaking and squeaking while Leila and Inaam stood where they were, unsure about what to do next.

'How do we get in?' Leila said.

'You, girl, you're the one the cave wants,' the woman said, practically shoving Leila towards the cave as it glared menacingly at her.

'WHO DARES APPROACH THE FORBIDDEN CAVE?' the cave boomed. Leila looked confusedly at the woman whose expression on her face stated quite clearly, Say who you are, girl, it's not that hard!

Leila rolled her eyes at the woman before cautiously and nervously approaching the tiger while Dalia trembled in fear and Inaam looked worriedly at her.

Still, Leila managed to gather enough courage to clear her throat and said,

'It is I, Leila, a simple street urchin from Alzawaya,' while feeling strange for talking so formally,

'I've come to seek the lamp for my older companion. I believe that I am the street diamond that you so desperately desire.'

Upon hearing those words, the cave leaned forward towards Leila and looked at her, the girl unflinching while her companions were fearful except for the woman who was grinning so broadly, it was surprising that her mouth didn't fall off her face.

Once the cave saw Leila, it knew she was telling the truth as its expression softened and its eyes glowed white like diamonds.

'Finally, the street diamond has approached me,' the cave said, 'You may proceed, but you must only touch the lamp and nothing else.'

'Only the lamp?' Leila said questioningly.

Well, duh, she then thought to herself, that was the whole point of this mission and why Inaam and I were able to escape the dungeon! I made a deal with the woman for my freedom, and now I must return the favour.

'What about the treasures that you have down there? Can we take them as well?' Inaam said.

'ONLY TOUCH THE LAMP!' the cave bellowed.

'Okay, okay, you don't have to tell us twice.' Leila said when the woman glared at her and Inaam.

'Remember, my dear, bring me the lamp first, then you shall receive your reward,' she said, smiling when Leila looked at her.

'Alright, it's only fair since you helped us,' she said

'Enter, street diamond,' the cave said as it opened its mouth, and a set of stone steps appeared instead of its tongue.

A brilliant golden glow from the treasure cavern emerged and nearly blinded Leila as she squinted against the light. She took a deep breath and stepped towards the cave, with Dalia shaking nervously and clinging to her neck.

'Remember the lamp, girl,' the woman said as she watched Leila starting to walk down the steps, and Leila then called out,

'Inaam, are you coming?'

'Right behind you, Lei, there's no way in heck that you're going down there without me, and I'm not going to miss out on the treasures!' lnaam said, in her usual cocky tone and hurriedly joined her sister as they walked down the long and winding steps.

'Those poor naïve girls,' the woman said, chuckling maliciously, as she watched the sisters and monkey disappear into the cave,

'Little do they know that I'll be the only one rewarded! Everything is finally going according to plan!' as she laughed maniacally.

'I'm thrilled for you,' Tala then said, emerging from the woman's robe. The woman promptly shoved the parrot back in and settled down on the ground, eagerly awaiting her prize.

'How much longer do we have to walk down these steps?' Inaam complained for perhaps the fifth time that night as she and Leila slowly but surely made their way down the steps that seemed neverending and wincing when they felt the smooth cold stone on their bare feet.

'I'm getting tired, and my legs are seizing up! This whole thing had better be worth it!'

'We're almost halfway through the cavern, Inaam,' said Leila, 'and may I remind you again that YOU didn't have to walk through the desert, so there's no way your legs will be stiff, so please stop your complaining.'

'That's what you said half an hour ago,' said Inaam, 'and you do know which cavern the lamp is? There must be about ten different ones here! I mean, that creepy old hag wasn't very helpful or specific about it!'

'It must be the one at the bottom where the gold glow came from,' Leila said as she saw an amber door at the very foot of the steps.

It was nothing more than a brown-golden speck in the distance, but Leila could see the glow shine brighter than before.

'Oh, really, what was your first clue?' Inaam said, irritated. Leila sighed and rolled her eyes at her sister, for she was not usually this ratty and sarcastic.

Inaam shrugged her shoulders, and the sisters carried on walking down the steps in silence until Dalia squeaked and jumped down when at last they made it to the bottom, relieved to feel the softer sand on the floor.

They then saw the vast and glittering amber door with tiger shaped handles and Arabian-style amethyst windows in front of them.

'Wow,' Leila and Inaam said as they squinted against the bright glow from the door.

'Well, don't just stare there dumbfounded, Lei, open the door!' Inaam said, and Leila carefully grabbed the handles and slowly opened the door to reveal a magnificent sight that made both the girls' and Dalia's jaws drop in amazement and Inaam whistle.

'Woah, look at all that loot!' she then said, 'The old hag was on to something after all!'

Leila's eyes widened while Dalia greedily drooled a rushing waterfall that dripped on her tunic and her little paws were ready to grab anything she could get her hands on.

Surrounding them were a vast collection of various golden and amber objects and the finest and rarest jewels and treasures known to man and would make them more affluent than the sultana.

'Wow, the creepy woman wasn't kidding,' Leila said, scarcely believing what she was seeing,

'This would make the sultana go green with envy!'

Giant golden and amber statues with grotesque faces and holding every known gem in the world circled the cavern, and wooden chests overflowed with gold coins, jewellery, amber amulets, goblets, plates and crowns.

Piles of rubies, sapphires, emeralds, amethysts, garnets, topazes, pearls and expensive silks and fabrics and an elaborately decorated carpet-a Persian Kerman rug- lay on the floor.

However, Leila could've sworn that it moved one of its tassels at her when she walked past it but quickly brushed it off. There was no such thing as magic carpets, and if there were, they were nothing more than myths.

Besides, she wasn't here to get a supposedly magic carpet or any of the gold and jewels.

She was here to retrieve the lamp, and she started to look amongst the golden and amber objects while Inaam and Dalia were quite content to poke around and touch all the coins, jewels, plates and goblets.

Dalia grabbed as many coins as she could and placed a crown studded with pearls on her head while Inaam was trying on all the jewellery in one of the wooden chests, admiring herself in a hand mirror made of amber.

'What do you think, Dalia?' Inaam said when she turned around, wearing a gold, ruby and sapphire necklace, a gold chain with a single teardrop pearl and chunky golden bangles on her wrists.

Dalia squeaked happily and gave her a thumbs-up as she took some bangles as well and pointed to the crown on her head.

'Looking good, Queen Dalia!' Inaam said and mocked-curtseyed to the monkey, who snickered and did a mock bow, making the crown fall off, and it rolled towards Leila, which startled her when it hit her on the leg.

'What the.. where did this come from?' she said, as she looked down and saw the crown.

Then she heard Dalia's squeaks and turned around to see her and Inaam grinning as they tried in vain to hide the jewellery by hastily stuffing it in their pockets, but Leila frowned at them.

'Inaam, Dalia, what are you doing?!' she shouted.

'Busted!' said Inaam to Dalia in a sing-song tone as the monkey chittered in response.

'Didn't you hear what the cave told you? Don't touch anything! We have to find the lamp first; then we can have our reward! Put everything back where you found them!' Leila said.

At the same time, the carpet got up, stretched and crept up behind her while Leila was oblivious to it.

'Aw, why can't I have some nice jewellery?' Inaam said, as she reluctantly took the necklaces and bangles off and threw them on the ground,

'Nadir gave you a lovely gold bangle while Adil gave me diddly squat! I feel like I'm entitled to some nice things! Why should you get them?'

'Because the cave said we can't touch anything but the lamp! That's why we're here, so help me find it!' Leila said, putting her hands on her hips while the carpet copied her, even leaning forward and 'frowning'.

'What's so funny, Inaam?' Leila said when Inaam snickered at the carpet's antics.

'N-Nothing, Lei,' she said, trying but failing to hide her sniggers. Dalia laughed too as the carpet made silly 'faces' while Leila was still oblivious to what was going on.

'Is there something behind me?' Leila said while the carpet was swaying back and forth, making Inaam and Dalia snicker even more.

'Look, whatever you're doing, cut it out!' Leila shouted and turned around only to find that the carpet wasn't there, having slunk behind a statue and 'snickering' at having played tricks on its unsuspecting victim.

'I must be seeing things,' Leila muttered to herself as she, Inaam and Dalia walked around the cavern.

Since they didn't even know what the lamp looked like, they had great difficulty finding it, and their frustration grew.

'This must be the fifteenth time we've been around here, and everything looks the same! I'm starting to think that we're on a wild goose chase!' shouted Inaam.

'It must be here; we have to look harder.' Leila said as she felt something tug on her pant leg, unaware of the carpet slithering on the floor and grabbing her leg from behind.

'Not now, Dalia,' she said as the monkey then made silly faces at the carpet, which in turn 'pouted' and grabbed Dalia by the tail, making her screech as the carpet swung her back and forth and tossed her up into the air.

Dalia screeched even louder and was starting to turn green from all the swinging and bouncing as she felt herself throw up in her mouth, which she quickly swallowed, and the carpet put her down rather roughly on the ground as Dalia ranted and raved.

Finally, this made Leila see who was behind all the mischief as she turned around and jumped in shock as she saw the carpet looking 'sheepish' as it put its tassels behind its back and kicked some dust in a bashful manner.

'So, it was you that was playing tricks on us the whole time!' Leila said. The carpet rolled itself up and shivered in shame while Dalia blew raspberries at it.

'It's okay, don't be scared,' Leila said gently, 'I can't believe that you're an actual..magic carpet. I always thought that you only existed in myths and legends.

Are you male or female?'

Upon hearing that, the carpet unrolled and gave a 'huff', like it said, 'How dare you say that! Does it matter?'

Leila realised that what she said was very sensitive as she got a good look at the carpet.

It was a gorgeous rug with a creamy white canvas with pastel-coloured flowers surrounded by a light-blue border with more pastel-coloured flowers, and its tassels were pink and white.

It looked like something that one would have in the palace, and how it moved so fluently, you would think it was silk rather than thick fabric.

So in a way, it was a feminine carpet. It convinced Leila that it was very much alive and trying to apologise for its antics earlier as it gave a ladylike curtsey to Leila, and she smiled.

'Sorry about that insensitive remark before,' Leila said, ' I can see that you're real and you're a beautiful and polite carpet,' to which the carpet waved its tassels coyly.

'I wonder how long you have been down here, maybe for decades or centuries or even millennia, who would know?' she said as the carpet raised its tassels and 'shrugged.'

'I don't suppose you have a name, do you?' she then said as the carpet shook its head.

'Well, how about I call you... Magi? I think that's a lovely name for a lovely carpet, that is if you like it.'

Magi nodded enthusiastically and gave Leila a hug, to which she giggled as Dalia scowled at Leila's new 'friend' due to her rough play.

'Alright, Magi, it is then. It's great to have you join us. We need all the friends we can get, and I wondered if you would help me with….'

'Lei, I haven't found the lamp yet,' Inaam interrupted when she walked over to Leila and jumped back in alarm when she saw Magi, who curtseyed to her and waved her tassel.

'Woah, Lei, what the heck is that?!' she yelled and pointed a shaky finger at Magi, who cowered in fear.

'It's not a what, it's a she, her name is Magi, and she's our new friend. She is a real magic carpet, and you frightened her! Be a bit more sensitive, please.'

'Okay, sorry, Magi, I didn't mean to scare you. It's good to have you on the team. I'm Inaam, Lei's sister, and we're trying to find the lamp that is in the cave..'

When Inaam said, 'lamp', Magi jumped up in the air in glee and somersaulted, gesturing to the girls and Dalia to follow her as she bolted through the cavern at lightning speed.

'Hey, she can fly!' Inaam said, rather stupidly, while Leila gave her a 'no duh,' look, and Dalia sighed in exasperation.

'Oh, right, I forgot that she's a magic carpet!' she then said sheepishly.

'And she must know where the lamp is!' Leila said as Magi gave them a 'hurry up, slowpokes!' gesture as she sped ahead.

'Hey, Magi, wait up!' Leila said as she, Inaam and Dalia rand and struggled to catch up to her,

'We can't fly as you can! We've only got our two feet!' as Magi turned around mid-air and hung her head in disappointment.

'Don't worry,' Leila reassured her new friend, ' We'll try not to slow you down too much. Now, show us the way to the lamp, please.'

Magi 'nodded' and sped down the cavern again with Leila, Inaam and Dalia not too far behind, and the carpet was going slowly this time so that the girls could catch up to her.

As they walked through the cavern, the gold and amber walls soon gave way to the rugged and dripping stalactites, and stalagmites and the girls shivered both from the cold and uncertainty.

As they passed the statues with the gems, Dalia drooled in delight as they enticed her to grab them, but a quick jerk from Leila soon pulled her away from temptation, although her little paws kept reaching out.

'No, Dalia, don't touch them,' Leila whispered as the monkey pouted.

At the end of the cavern, Magi pointed towards a large stalagmite that stood in the centre of a vast circular chamber that glowed an eerie whitish blue, almost the colour of the sky.

Clear and calm water surrounded it, and an almost neat line of stepping stones floated above the surface, which led to the base, and a white beacon of light shone from the ceiling, illuminating an amber glimmer that Leila could see from a distance.

'This must be it,' muttered Leila, as she put Dalia into Inaam's hands,

'Inaam, you and Magi stay here, keep an eye on Dalia, and make sure that she doesn't touch anything. And don't you follow suit either!'

'Will do, Lei, but are you sure that you'll be okay?' Inaam said.

'I'll be fine; I've climbed walls and buildings for years. A stalagmite will be nothing to me. Just stay put and remember- Don't touch….'

'Yeah, yeah, you've said that too many times today, we get it! We promise that we won't touch anything!' Inaam said, annoyed.

But she waved Leila off nonchalantly as she, Dalia and Magi settled down on the ground and started to play rock, paper, scissors.

Leila carefully hopped on the stones. Despite occasionally slipping and nearly falling in the water, she managed to make it across to the stalagmite base and gulped when she looked up and realised that it might be more complicated than she thought.

It looked precarious and could topple over if she took a single step on it, and the roughly carved steps that spiralled to the top wouldn't be able to support her weight, but she took a deep breath and courageously started to climb.

Elsewhere, back on the ground, the game had finished, and Inaam was watching Leila make her way up the stalagmite with bated breath, hoping that her sister would not fall to her death, yet she knew that Leila would be okay, being the strong and determined girl that she was.

Magi could sense Inaam's anxiety and wrapped herself around the girl to comfort her, to which she smiled gratefully, and they both watched and gasped when Leila missed a step and almost slipped but was relieved when she got up again.

They hadn't even noticed that Dalia had quietly slipped away and was staring at the glimmering gems in an almost hypnotic trance, her eyes wide and glittering.

One particular jewel, a large and perfect ocean blue sapphire, was shining the brightest, luring the monkey towards it and telling her,

Touch me, little monkey; I know you want me. Don't resist the temptation any longer.

Dalia squeaked in delight and reached out to the jewel, almost touching it when she felt something tug her tail and drag her away, which she protested wildly.

The something was Magi, who was determined to stop her and the more Dalia pulled her forward; the more Magi pulled her back in a comical display of tug-of-war.

Meanwhile, Leila was halfway up the stalagmite and breathing heavily from having slipped on one step and nearly fell, and her calves were aching.

Still, she ignored the pain as she kept climbing while also thinking about what the older woman had told her about the lamp, which wasn't very much. She had only hinted that it was unique.

She wondered what made it so unique and precious that it was in the Forbidden Cave, out of reach to ordinary people and worth her making a deal with the woman to be used as a tool to retrieve it from this cave.

Does it contain something valuable like liquid gold or precious oils, or exotic incense? And why was I chosen to get it? And why did the cave refer to me as 'the street diamond? She thought.

Those thoughts were making her mind fuzzy, so she shook it off just as she approached the top of the stalagmite, which was a welcome sight for her and breathed a huge sigh of relief that she made it up in one piece.

'That wasn't so hard after all,' Leila said, and soon she spotted an ordinary-looking amber lamp that was glowing peacefully under the brilliant white light and resting on a smooth stone pillar.

'So this is the lamp,' she whispered as she walked carefully to the stone and looked at it closely while gazing at its beauty.

The lamp was a deep amber with amethyst swirls engraved on the sides, and the lid and base had amethyst and light amber pieces arranged like a stained glass window.

It indeed was beautiful and grand, but Leila couldn't see anything special about it. Apart from the elaborate designs, it was nothing more than a lamp, something a wealthy person would display on a shelf and leave to gather dust. It certainly didn't look like it had magical powers.

Nonetheless, Leila carefully reached out for it and gripped her fingers on the handle at about the same time as Dalia was still reaching out for the sapphire, and Magi was still trying to pull her away.

But try as Magi did, her tassels couldn't hold on to the monkey forever and was losing her grip and Inaam, who was getting fed up with Dalia's constant screeching, said to her,

'Dalia, do you want that sapphire?' to which Dalia squeaked as she finally slipped out of Magi's grip and the carpet frantically tried to catch her only to miss as the monkey quickly dodged her.

'But Leila said not to touch….' Inaam said as Dalia made a 'please' face at her. Seeing her cute expression, Inaam sighed and said,

'Alright, I'll get it for you,' and Magi threw up her tassels in horror, and Dalia held out her little hands in anticipation as Inaam carefully lifted the sapphire out of the statue's hand...

..just as Leila picked up the lamp from the stone. However, her victory was short-lived when she saw Inaam taking the sapphire and giving it to Daila, who eagerly snatched it out of her hands and hugged it gleefully.

'Inaam, what have you done?!' Leila shouted as the cave suddenly began to shake violently, and it almost threw her off her feet as she held the lamp tight against her.

'YOU FOOLS!' the terrifying voice of the cave boomed as it echoed through the caverns,

'YOU HAVE TOUCHED THE FORBIDDEN TREASURE!'

'Whoops,' Inaam said, rather nonchalantly.

Then realising the grave situation that she had caused, Inaam tried to snatch the sapphire back from Dalia, who stubbornly refused as she held it against her chest.

Eventually, she managed to pry it away from her and tried to put it back on the statue, but it was too late as it melted into a golden puddle.

'NOW YOU WILL NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY AGAIN!' the cave boomed again.

'This can't be good,' said Inaam as stalagmites started to fall off the ceiling.

Ooooh, a cliffhanger! Will they make it out? Stay tuned!