Back at the castle Jafar and Iago were making good use of the Sultan's blue diamond ring. The advisor had the parrot running on the gear of a bizarre contraption. At the top of the machine a storm brewed, lighting bolts striking out in all directions.
"With all due respect, Your Rottenness, couldn't we just wait for a real storm?" Iago puffed, trying to keep a steady pace on the wheel.
"Save your breath, Iago." Jafar demanded placing the ring between two prongs on top of an hourglass. "Faster!"
"Yes, O Mighty Evil One." Panted Iago, too winded for sarcasm. He sped up and a lighting bolt streaked through the diamond passing into the hourglass below. The sand inside began to swirl.
"Ah, sands of time-- reveal to me the one who can enter the Cave." Jafar said in a voice dripping with honey. The swirling sand of the hourglass formed the great tiger's head that was the Cave of Wonders. But then the cave fell through and revealed a boy climbing up a ladder. What was this? He was being followed, followed by no other then the missing princess dressed as a commoner. This was too easy. "Yes, yes! There he is; my diamond in the rough!"
"That's him?!?! That's the clown we've been waitin' for?" Iago squawked, losing his footing and getting stuck in the gears of the evil advisor's machine.
"Let's have the guards extend him an invitation to the palace, shall we?" Jafar said with an evil smile. Iago unwedged himself from the contraption and still disgruntled, flew past Jafar and slammed into the wall.
"Swell."
Aladdin reached the top of the ladder, followed by the girl he helped in the market place. "Almost there." He said helping her up. She got to the top, but tripped and fell into his arms. She quickly straightened up.
"I want to thank you for stopping that man." She told Aladdin sincerely.
"Uh, forget it." He said grabbing a pole. "So, uh, this is your first time in the market place, huh?" Aladdin vaulted to the next building leaving the girl on the other side.
"Is it that obvious?" She asked.
"Well you do kinda stand out." He reasoned and started staring at her, then realizing what he was doing, looked away. "I mean, uh, you don't seem to know how dangerous Agrabah can be." Aladdin laid a plank between the buildings so she could walk across, but as he leaned down to straighten the plank she hurdled over his head. He looked back up in surprise and she tossed the pole to him. Both Abu and Aladdin's eyes bulged.
"I'm a fast learner." She said off handedly.
"Right. C'mon, this way." They went inside the roof of a building, dodging planks and beams as they went. "Whoa, watch your head there, be careful." Aladdin told her.
"Is this were you live?" She asked, studying his living space.
"Yep, just me and Abu. Come and go as we please."
"Fabulous." The girl sighed wistfully.
"Well, it's not much," he pulled back the curtain that exposed the palace and the city. "But it's got a great view. Palace looks pretty amazing, huh?"
"Oh, it's wonderful" She said, not really meaning it.
"I wonder what it would be like to live there, to have servants and valets…"
"Oh, sure, people tell you where to go and how to dress." She argued.
"It's better then here, always scraping for food and ducking the guards." He told her.
"You're not free to make your own choices." She said
"Sometimes you feel so--"
"You're just--"
"Trapped." They said in unison. Aladdin, for the second time that day, stared at the girl and once again stopped himself before she noticed. "So...uh, where're you from?" he asked.
"What does it matter?" she replied, her eyes looking downcast. "I ran away and I'm not going back."
"Really?" Aladdin asked taking a bite from his apple then handing it to Abu.
"Humph!" The monkey huffed, crossing his arms. Aladdin ignored him and went to sit down next to the girl.
"My father is forcing me to get married." She confessed.
"That's--that's awful." He said. As they spoke, Abu slinked down behind the girl and positioned himself to grab her apple. Keeping an eye on the two, he slowly reached his hand to get it, and his fingers were almost touching it when--
"Abu!" scolded Aladdin, shooing his pet away. Abu raced up to a higher point, chattering angrily as he went.
"What?" The girl asked, a bit confused.
"Abu says that--uh--that's not fair" Aladdin told her trying to smooth over Abu's doing.
"Oh did he?" She smiled.
"Yeah, of course." He nodded.
"And does Abu have anything else to say?" She asked sweetly, catching his scheme.
"Well, uh, he wishes there was something he could do to help." Aladdin said sitting down next to her again.
"Oh boy." Abu chirped rolling his eyes.
"Tell him that's very… sweet." The girl said to Aladdin. Slowly, and undecidedly, the two moved in to kiss. Their heads were inches from each other, when suddenly--
"Here you are!" A handful of palace guards busted through the door, swords drawn.
"They found me!" The girl and Aladdin yelped at the same time. "They're after you?"
"My father must have sent them--" She panicked, her heart pounding.
"Do you trust me?" Aladdin asked her, running up to the window.
"What?" She asked, bewildered.
"Do you trust me?" He asked again extending his hand.
"Yes." She said, taking it with trivial hesitation.
"Then jump!" He called, pulling her out the window. They jumped off the roof and landed in a pile of sand. Scrambling to their feet, they attempted to put some distance between them and the guards, but the head guard blocked the way.
"We just keep running into each other, don't we, street rat?" But before he could reach the two fugitives Abu dropped down from above and jumped on the guard's turban, blocking his eyes. He pulled Abu off his head and threw him into a vase. The other three guards grabbed Aladdin.
"It's the dungeons for you, boy."
"Hey! Get off of me." He struggled, to no avail.
"Let go of him!" The girl protested.
"Look what we have here men--a street mouse!" The guard chuckled, amused by his own brains, and threw her down.
"Unhand him, by order of the princess!" Said the girl, standing up and throwing off the hood of her cloak.
The guards' jaws dropped and their eyes budged as they hurriedly bowed, forcing an astonished Aladdin down with them.
"Princess Jasmine!" Gasped the guard who had thrown her down.
"The princess?" Aladdin whispered.
"The princess?" Abu chirped from inside the vase.
"What are you doing outside the palace?" Asked the baffled guard, regaining himself enough to speak.
"That is not of your concern. Do as I say: release him." Jasmine commanded once again.
"Well, I would, princess, but my orders are from Jafar. You'll have to take it up with him." He offered to the angry princess. The guards then left, dragging Aladdin and bowing as they went.
"Believe me I will." Jasmine muttered to their backs.
Jafar opened the door to his lab revealing the palace. He slowly slid the door shut so no one would hear, but Princess Jasmine came storming in before he could fully close it. Jafar quickly slammed it shut, pinning Iago, who was following him, inside the doorframe.
"Jafar?" Jasmine yelled to the adviser.
"Oh, uh, Princess."
"Awk! Jafar, I'm stuck!" Iago called desperately. Ignoring the bird's plea for help Jafar bowed, spreading his cape and hiding the unclosed door.
"How may I be of service to you?" He asked.
"The guards just took a boy from the market, on your orders." She began.
"Your father has charged me with keeping peace in Agrabah. The boy was a criminal."
"What was his crime?" She interrogated further.
"I can't breath Jafar!" Iago complained again, hoping his master would heed him and open the door. He was once again denied freedom from the door's clutches when Jafar continued his conversation.
"Why, kidnapping the princess, of course." He replied smoothly.
"If you could just--" The parrot tried again. Jafar kicked Iago back inside the door and shut it the rest of the way. "Wow, that hurt."
"He didn't kidnap me; I ran away!" Jasmine protested.
"Oh dear!" The advisor gasped and walked away as if shocked. "Oh, how frightfully upsetting. Had I but known..."
"What do you mean?" She inquired.
"Sadly, the boy's sentence has already been carried out." He replied.
"What sentence?" She asked him and immediately regretted it.
"Death," He said in a sinister tone. "By beheading."
"No!" Jasmine gasped shaking her head, not wanting to believe what she was being told.
"I'm exceedingly sorry, princess." Jafar lied.
"How could you?" Said in angry whisper and ran from the room, her face in her hands. Iago finally made it through the door and flew onto Jafar's shoulder. He brushed off his feathers and watched the princess disappear around the corner.
"So, how did it go?" He asked.
"I think she took it… rather well." Jafar told him, a menacing smile spreading across his face and jumping to Iago's.
Soft sobs could be heard from the garden where Jasmine had her face buried in Rajah's fur. It was night and shadows draped across the palace. The princess sat on the fountain, which was spouting soothingly.
"It's all my fault Rajah. I didn't even know his name." She said petting her tiger, begging for comfort from him. Yet nothing could make her forget the boy from the market place and his horrible end. The thought of the ax taking his life only threw her into a new wave of tears and sorrow.
Even though she only had known him for a very short time he was the only one who made her feel like a person and not a fragile piece of glass. What had come from her fortune of meeting him? His misfortune of being hunted down and executed, and she couldn't help but feel responsible for his death.
A rat scurried through the bared window and onto the street outside. Aladdin watched it with envy, wishing he could fit threw the bars, or at least unchain his hands from the wall. He was alone in the dungeon, with no one to talk to but himself. "She was the princess," he said to himself. "I don't believe it, I must have sounded so stupid to her!" He scolded himself.
"Yep." Abu chirped from the window.
"Abu--down here! Hey, c'mon--help me outta these." Aladdin called to his fury companion. Abu came up to him and started chattering wildly, pulling his vest over his head and making his eyes big and girly, imitating the princess.
"Hey, she was in trouble. Ah, she was worth it." He told the monkey. Abu jumped to Aladdin's shoulder and pulled out a tool, which he used to pick the lock on his friend's restraints. "Don't worry Abu, I'll never see her again," he assured the monkey, while rubbing his sore wrists. "I'm a street rat remember, and there's a law. She's gotta marry a prince; she deserves a prince. I'm--I'm a fool."
"You're only a fool if you give up boy." Said an old man sitting in the far corner of the dungeon. A confused look came over Aladdin's face. He thought he had been alone.
"Who are you?" He asked the old man.
"A lowly prisoner like yourself, but together perhaps we can be more." He said in reply.
"I'm listening." Aladdin told him, interested in what the man might have to offer.
"There is a cave boy; a Cave of Wonders. Filled with treasure beyond your wildest dreams. Treasure enough to impress your princess, I'd wager." The old man said excitedly. The old man turned out of Aladdin's view momentarily, and Iago stuck his head out of Jafar's costume.
"Jafar can you hurry? I'm dying in here." Iago asked. Jafar stuffed the annoying parrot back in to a pocket.
"But the law says that only a prince can marry--" Aladdin started. He had not noticed the bird.
"You've heard the golden rule, haven't you boy?" The "old man" grinned showing a horrible set if teeth. "Whoever has the gold makes the rules!"
"So why would you share all this wonderful treasure with me?" The curious boy asked.
"I need a young man with a strong pair of legs and a strong back to go in after it." He said tapping Aladdin's legs and back with his cane for empathies.
"Ah, there's one problem- it's out there, and we're in here." He rebutted against the old man. He smiled again and hobbled over to the wall and pushed back a large building stone to make an exit.
"Mmm, mmm, mmm, things aren't always as they seem. So, do we have a deal?" He asked. Aladdin looked to Abu who shrugged his shoulders.
Abu was perched upon Aladdin's shoulder as they walked through the desert. His friend was leading a horse that the strange old man from the dungeon sitting on top. They had been walking for the longest time and Abu was starting to think that they were lost and there was no Cave of Wonders. Then he caught sight of something coming up over the next sand dune, it was huge. The little monkey could hardly believe his eyes., a giant cave of sand shaped as a tiger's head.
"This is it boy." The old man declared. Aladdin dropped the horse's reins and starred at the cave in astonishment. He slowly approached the cave with Abu still riding on his shoulder.
"Who disturbs my slumber?" The cave growled, the monkey tried to hide under his friend's hat.
"It is I, Aladdin." He offered to the sand-tiger.
"Proceed. Touch nothing but the lamp." It warned. The cave opened its mouth with a roar and revealed a flight of stairs, drenched in golden light.
"Remember boy: first fetch me the lamp and then you will get your reward." The old man called from horse-top. Aladdin nodded in response and began to descend the sand staircase.
"Wow." Aladdin's gasp brought Abu out of hiding, and the sights made him gasp. The room was filled to bursting with gold coins and precious stones. "Would you look at that!" Aladdin exclaimed to the monkey. Abu's eyes glazed over as he stared at the wealth and riches surrounding him. "Just a handful of this stuff would make me richer then the Sultan."
"Uh huh!" Abu agreed. He took in all around him and then just couldn't take it anymore. He jumped off Aladdin's shoulder and raced to the treasure. He was about to dive in when-
"Abu!" Aladdin yelled. Abu stopped in mid-step of his frenzied run to the gold, and was hovering over a rug on the ground.
"Don't…touch…anything. We gotta find that lamp." He scolded. They began their way again through the room when Abu got the feeling that they were being followed.
"Huh?" He chirped, looking behind him, but seeing nothing but a dark purple carpet on the floor. A strangely familiar carpet… but he started to follow Aladdin again. Still it felt as though something was after them, and to his terror, something pulled his tail. Abu jumped looked behind him again to see a dark violet carpet rolled up against a pile of gold. The same carpet from before… Abu yelped and ran to Aladdin and tugged on his pant leg.
"Abu! Will ya knock it off?" He asked, shaking the monkey off his leg. Abu still wasn't convinced and kept looking over his shoulder, then, something tapped him.
Abu jumped three feet in the air and landed in a karate stance, when his hat was plucked off his head. Abu looked in all directions to find that the culprit was none other than a carpet hovering over his head. Abu ran fearfully to Aladdin and turned his friend's head around to see the evil carpet.
"Abu, what are you--crazy?" Aladdin accused. The carpet peeked out from behind a pile of treasure.
"A magic carpet," He breathed. "C'mon… c'mon out. I'm not going to hurt you." The magical rug slowly came out, then shyly picked up Abu's hat and dusted it off with a tassel. It flew over and handed the monkey his hat, but instead of taking it, Abu screeched and jumped to Aladdin's shoulder again.
"Take it easy Abu, he's not gunna bite." He tried reasoning with his furious pet. The carpet tried again, but the monkey only chattered and screeched and shook a fist at it.
Sadly, it began to walk away with its head hanging in dismay.
"Hey, wait a minute, don't go! Maybe you can help us." Abu put his face in his hands and shook his head. Aladdin just had to call it back, huh? The carpet looked back excitedly, then flew over and wrapped its self around Aladdin.
"Hey, whoa!" Aladdin said trying to calm down the hyperactive tapestry. "You see, we're trying to find this lamp..."
At hearing this, the carpet motioned for the two to follow it. "I think he knows where it is." Aladdin said, grabbing Abu and chasing after it.
They passed through a long cave until they emerged into a giant and dim underground cavern. In the center of the room, there was a tall stone pillar with a staircase leading to the very top where the lamp, resting on a podium, was just visible. A beam of light made the lamp glint gold as if begging to be taken. The pillar was surrounded by water where an uneven set of stepping-stones formed a bridge.
"Wait here." Aladdin instructed Abu and the carpet. The monkey crossed his arms; he was stuck with the evil rug while Aladdin went for the lamp.
Well, while he was there he might as well look around. Then, something wonderful filled Abu's eyes. It was the biggest jewel he had ever seen, and he was instantly hypnotized with greed by the ruby's value. It sat in the paws of a large golden monkey shrine. Abu reached for it as the carpet noticed and pulled his tail in vain, trying to keep him from the jewel.
"This is it?" Aladdin had reached the lamp and was holding it, looking at what all this trouble was over. "This is what we came all the way down here to--" the cavern began to shake and rumble uncontrollably, Aladdin looked down to see Abu with a giant ruby in his paws.
"INFIDELS!" The cave's voice roared with all its might. "You have touched the forbidden treasure!" Abu made a pathetic attempt to right everything, as he placed the jewel back in the hands of the golden monkey, but the ruby and the shrine melted into popping lava. "Now you will never see the light of day again!" The cave bellowed again.
Aladdin raced down the pillar steps, but they flattened into a ramp and he skidded down until he flew into the air when the slide formed a lip. The surrounding water had turned into lava. He was certain he was to die a fiery death, when out of nowhere the carpet caught him.
He spotted Abu jumping up and down, waving his arms on one of the stepping-stones. Aladdin started to fly over to him, when the stones on either side of the monkey exploded into molten rock. Aladdin snatched Abu just as his stone burst.
"Come on carpet, let's move." He urged the rug as they dodged falling rocks and debris. Abu, becoming more and more frightened, jumped to Aladdin's head, covering his eyes. "Abu, this is no time to panic!" He yelled over the rumble of the crumbling cave. He pulled the frantic monkey off his head and saw that they were flying straight for a solid wall. "Start panicking."
At the last possible second, the carpet went into a dive through another cave. Finally, they emerged through the golden internal entrance. Outside the cave's mouth began to collapse.
Aladdin, Abu, and the carpet were almost to the top when a huge boulder dropped on the carpet, sending it plummeting to the floor. Aladdin clung onto the craggy rock wall for dear life. He looked up and saw the old man within reach.
"Help me out!" Aladdin called to him.
"Throw me the lamp!" He yelled back.
"I can't hold on! Give me your hand!" Aladdin begged desperately, as his hands started to slip. "Please!"
"First give me the lamp!" The old man insisted.
Not wanting to argue anymore Aladdin reached into his pocket and handed the insane old man the lamp. The man snatched it from his hands and raised it above his head laughing. "Ha ha ha! Yes! At last! Ha ha ha!" Aladdin climbed upward with the help of Abu, but the old man kicked the monkey away and grabbed the boy's wrist.
"What are you doing?" Aladdin yelled.
"Giving you your reward." He cackled, pulling out a crooked knife. "Your eternal reward." He said in a different and deeper voice. He pulled back the knife to stab Aladdin, but was stopped when Abu bit him. He screamed and dropped Aladdin, who fell back into the cave. In his blind fury, the man tossed Abu into the cave as well.
The carpet saw all of this and tried to get to them, but was still pinned under the boulder. It struggled, and finally broke free. It raced over and caught Aladdin, but he had hit the wall falling a couple of times and was rendered unconscious.
On the surface the cave gave a final roar and sunk back into the sand, as Jafar pulled off his disguise. "Heh heh heh! It's mine, it's all mine!" He reached into his pocket to pull out the magic lamp but—
"Where is it? Where is it?!" He yelled searching frantically for it, but it was nowhere to be found. "No! NO!!" He screamed to the inky black sky.
Jasmine sat on her bed, still upset, absent-mindedly petting Rajah. The Sultan walked into the room. "Jasmine, oh dearest, what is wrong?" He asked sitting on the bed next to her and putting a supportive hand on her shoulder.
"Jafar…has…done…something…terrible." She sobbed, looking and sounding as if she had been crying for quite a while.
"There, there, my child--we'll set it right. Now, tell me everything."
Scheherazade smiled at Riar. He had both eyes closed, and was so busy imagining Agrabah, that he hadn't even realized that his wife had paused her tale.
Finally, he opened his eyes, and looked at her expectantly. "Now that can't be all. What happens now?"
"All right, all right." Scheherazade replied with a smile. She cleared her throat and continued: "Above the Cave of Wonders, Jafar mourned his loss of the lamp…"