If There Be Thorns

By Maggie Griffin

CHAPTER 5: Watching You, Watching Me

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"What could we use against an elemental anyway?" Aladdin asked. "I don't want to end up doing…well, what happened last time." There was a guilty look in his eyes, as if deep down he knew that what had happened could have somehow been averted, had he listened to Jasmine.

"It wasn't your fault Aladdin! It wasn't anyone's fault. What happened was just a big mistake, and one that can be rectified if we do things the right way this time around!" Jasmine said softly, putting a comforting hand on Aladdin's shoulder. He was slumped up against the palace wall, looking up at the sky as if expected the answers to all his problems to fly down from the heavens and hit him in the face.

"We have to go about it some other way, don't we?" Aladdin sighed, his voice filled with the emotions present in his eyes. "I know you all want something different. Sadira wants to up and attack, Iago wants to leave the whole thing as is, Genie wants to go help Ai, and me….well, I just don't know. What do you want Jasmine?"

Jasmine paused momentarily, reflecting on what Aladdin had just said, and weighting the positions present before them. Each person wanted something different, wanting to come to Aini's aid somehow.

"Last time, I could have reasoned with him…," she trailed off, her eyes sinking to the floor with a forlorn sigh.

"So why don't we try? If it nearly worked last time. It was my fault that it didn't turn out, and we all almost died. Maybe this time around you can convince him….we both can!"

Jasmine shook her head, unable to decide but knowing that he was right. Perhaps reasoning was the answer in this case.

"We would of course, have to tell him Sadira wasn't responsible. That it was Aini…," she trailed off, worry creasing her features.

"And an accident! A horrible accident I know Ai would take back in a second if given the chance. She's so different Jas, we've all seen that. Maybe Arbutus will see she didn't mean it!" Aladdin cut in.

"Well in any case, we can't allow Sadira to go off after them alone. It will only make things a lot worst. There's no need to start a war with Arbutus about this, especially since people we love could be caught in the cross-fire!" Jasmine debated, trying to make her mind up.

"Then…we try to reason with him?" Aladdin asked.

"Providing we can find his garden. I sent Genie to check out where we last met him, but he's not there!" Jasmine sighed. "So he probably moved someplace he would feel safer….further from Agrabah!"

"Finding him won't be the hard part. Talking to him however….," Aladdin trailed off, shooting Jasmine a worried look.

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"These are a special sort of blossom, growing only in specific parts of the world, most extremely difficult to get to!" Arbutus lectured, rather enjoying himself for the last hour. The day had passed by peacefully, and his mood had brightened to a serene acceptance of the strange girl with him.

"You have so many, their pretty!" Ai smiled as she touched a petal of the beautiful pink flower gently, aware that Arbutus was burning his sight into her back, and that being under constant surveillance meant no getting in any more humiliating trouble.

"Indeed!" he replied softly, smiling when Ai looked up at him. "I am an Earth Elemental you know, I can grow any plant or flower you fathom here in my garden!" he felt a slight swell at his ego when Ai's eyes widened in surprise.

"Really?"

"Of course! Tell me, what sort would you like to see? Give me the name of any flower and I will give it to you!"

The hidden connotation of the phrase escaped Ai's attention, being engrossed in what Arbutus had said as she was.

"Any flower?" she asked, her eyes wide and naïve in the daylight. Arbutus laughed softly and nodded. "Pansies?"

At the inquiry, Arbutus arched his eyebrows, then rolled his eyes.

"Come now, surely you don't want me to be so unoriginal. Give me some credit please!" he mock-chided her, though a thin smile had begun to melt through his sarcastic sneer. "Honestly, you humans, no imagination at all!"

"I have i..imagination!" Ai said through a crooked grin, her cheeks turning red again. "Fine…I've heard of…Mandrake!?"

"Ah, a supposedly deadly root, made from the seed of a dead human man!" Arbutus quoted, his knowledge of plants endless. At the phrase, Ai's face burned bright red, and she giggled nervously. "Very well little one!"

With a wave of his hand, a root extended itself off the ground, growing into a rather ugly little plant that rested on the ground in front of Ai.

"Not a very pretty little thing, is it?" Arbutus spoke with a hint of disdain in his voice.

"Well, it can't help that!" Ai defended, looking down at the plant but not taking much interest in touching it, lest the myth behind its creation was true. Somehow, the idea was not very appealing.

"No…no it can't," Arbutus said softly, the look of disdain that had clouded his face moments before replaced in favor of one of surprise, if not a strange sort of admiration. He seemed to be thinking about something, his mouth open and closing a few times. "You…," he started, shutting his mouth quickly and shaking his head. "Never mind my little one….never mind!"

Aini looked at him quizzically, but shrugged and went back to looking at the Mandrake in fascination, wondering what was so deadly about something so small.

Arbutus continued looking down at her, while she was blissfully unaware of his gaze. He took the moment to study her further, coming to conclusions that had not crossed him mind before.

His eyes trailed over her hair, which fell unruly around her back and shoulders in dark black and brown curls, shining strangely in the sun. Much like he liked to refer to her as, she was rather short, her height no more then five feet, and rather average in weight, neither too thin or too stocky.

It was her face that caught his attention most however.

A full face, naïve with a pair of full lips that when she set them together, looked rather like an adorable pout.

Then her eyes.

He had noticed them first when she had stared wide at him in terror upon his arrival by the temple of Sand. He had grasped her small body in his hand, bringing her up to see her face-to-face when he had made himself grow an immense size.

Her eyes were the oddest colour, one he had never seen on anyone in a long time. The brightest shade of green, mixed with a darker shade near the top and outlining her irises.

"Beautiful….," he whispered, not aware he had said anything at all.

Ai looked back towards him, having heard him say something, but not hearing what it had been.

"Hmm?"

"Oh…nothing!" At that point, Arbutus was rather glad he was incapable of blushing. That didn't stop him from feeling an obvious warmth in his face. "Nothing at all….," he trailed off, turning away slowly to hide the shocked expression settling on his face.

Disbelief at the feeling he was experiencing.

~Not for a human, not…~ he thought to himself, shaking his head slightly to try to make it fade.

"Are you alright?" Ai asked, seeing the strange expression on his face. His eyes had narrowed, and the look he was giving her had Ai unsure of whether he should be feeling a good or bad sort of nervous.

Nervous, all the same.

"Hm? Oh, yes I'm fine!" Arbutus shook of the feeling, his lips breaking into a respectful smile once again. "Just pondering as to what sort of art I should try next!"

"Oh!" Ai grinned, eager to explore more of the garden. "Can I go look around more?"

"I suppose….," Arbutus trailed off, squinting his eyes in seriousness. "Providing you stay within the garden, and take care where you tread!"

Aini nodded eagerly, and ran off down a path without another word. She vanished into a bush seconds later, and Arbutus suspected she was headed towards the waterfall he had showed her earlier. She had taken a rather large liking to it, and he debated adding more around the garden.

Momentarily, Arbutus shut his eyes and listened. Something he had not done for a long time for fear of hearing what he didn't want to. The garden whispered back to him, like children to a father. But their wispy voices echoed together as if in jovial laughter, giggling about a private little joke.

"What?" He asked, slightly annoyed by the odd laughter.

But the garden said nothing, silencing as quickly as it had started, leaving Arbutus to ponder the laughter on his own.

And a little way off, where Ai sat down by the waterfall and looked into the crystalline waters, the branches and leaves of the trees around her stretched forward slightly, as if trying to touch her.

She didn't notice, not even when the childish laughter began around her.

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Next, Jasmine and Aladdin plan to reason with Arbutus, who isn't too keen on giving Ai up.