A Fool To Pluck My Rose Too Soon
By:Lynn Osburn
(DISCLAMER: The poem above is from Christina Rossetti's A Daughter Of Eve. Really cool poem too. I know it seems like I've skipped a rather large part here but don't worry, you'll catch up.)
Aladdin dropped the staff from his hands. The hard, metallic clunk it made vibrated around the dome of the throne room with the hollow ring of Death. That was what it had caused. He couldn't believe what he had done. He'd never taken another life in his entire life. He just stood, there staring at the horrible scene that had unfolded.
Mozenrath was on the floor, his arms wound around Randri's limp frame. At first he had been yelling, screaming incomprehensible words and shaking the nymph like a rag doll. But Randri hadn't moved. The thin trickle of blood from his mouth was still there and his head was cocked at an odd angel. Now Mozenrath said nothing, only held Randri close, his head bent out of view.
Jasmine was the first to move. She didn't know how, but the very feeling in the air told her there was something wrong done in the death of the handsome nymph. She walked up behind Mozenrath and gently touched his should, not entirely sure what she was going to say.
The sight that came when Mozenrath lifted his head was enough to make her knees go weak.
The sorcerer's face was stained with tears.
"What? The realization that your husband can no more hit the broad side of a barn then he could finally hitting you?" Mozenrath said, the sarcasm in his voice wavering thanks to the tears.
"Mozenrath…I'…I'm so…"Aladdin began and was cut off as Mozenrath's gauntlet flared up.
"Don't you DARE apologies to me street rat!" He screamed in rage and flung his power. But his aim was bad and Aladdin only had to jump to dodge the blast. "You wouldn't have apologized to Randri if you'd hit me like you were aiming for!" He fired another blast, tears blocking his sight. There was a terrified, screaming quality to his voice that closely resembled a teen girls. "I'll kill you for this Aladdin!" He rushed fowrd, intent on ending the hero's life.
Jasmine tackled him to the ground and wrenched his arms around his back. "No! Mozenrath stop! It won't bring Randri back!" she yelled above him. She didn't know why, perhaps it was the fact that she too had known the loss of a loved one. But Mozenrath wasn't acting rationally, he could very well use that poison cloud to destroy Agrabah right now if he wasn't somehow controlled. She had to calm him down somehow. "Mozenrath stop! Please."
The young wizard rounded on her. "He deserves it." He said in a suddenly cool voice. A downright creepy smile came over his face. "And how ironic is that?" He began laughing, the eerie laugh of a man who has no wish to attempt controlling his sanity. "All these years I've been trying to kill you both and failed, always because I supposed you didn't deserve it. After all, you'd never killed anyone except to save others. You've always done what's right." He laughed again and turned his dark black eyes on Aladdin, his voice going cold. "How does it feel hero? How does it feel to actually deserve to die."
Aladdin had an indefinable look on his face. Something between pity and justified necessity. "I am sorry Mozenrath." He said, trying to keep his voice steady. "This staff I was given, I was told it would contain you. He never said it could kill."
"He?"Mozenrath wrestled out of Jasmine's grip. "He who?" he hovered menacingly over Aladdin. When the former street rat showed reluctance, he grabbed the sides of his shirt and hauled him up, eyes boring into his. "He who? Tell me damn you!"
Aladdin still hesitated. Fasir had always been a good friend and helpful hand. He had never given them false advice, though he didn't always explained his advise. But then again, didn't Mozenrath deserve to know who had given him the weapon that had killed Randri?
Before he could contemplate things any further, a pair of big purple arms grabbed Mozenrath around the waist and hauled him up, squeezing him tightly. "Aww big hug!" Came the voice of Genie. He had morphed into a strange, at fuzzy creature with purple fur and a square patch on his tummy. His antenna was a triangle and the eyes on it's pasty peach face were large and doopy looking. " 'Ello!" the purple fuzzy thing said and prepared to throw Mozenrath into the air. "Say by by!"
Jasmine dropped the green bottle which had been Genie's prison. "No Genie!" she yelled just in time to keep him from throwing. "You don't understand."
"No Jasmine."Aladdin said softly. "We can't allow him mercy." He allowed her a glare of "how-can-you-say-that". "Mozenrath…" he said in as strong a voice as he could muster. "You have done too much to this city and it's people for me to pity you in your mourning. We can not allow you go unpunished for the crimes you've committed. You've murdered the Sultan of Agrabah, and so it is my duty to sentence you."
Even knowing full well everything he'd done to Aladdin and everything he'd planned to do, Mozenrath was shocked that the hero could show such ruthlessness. A spark of him struggled in Genie's grip, but finally feel limp as he saw Randri against the marble floor again. He realized, with an oddly relived feeling, that he didn't care anymore. His eyes traced Randri's dead frame. Those long locks of silvery hair, the lithe, supple body. He would never feel those long fingers touch him again. Those succulent lips would never press against his and warm his tongue with their intimate caress.
He screamed somewhere inside. But it died before making it out his throat. Instead he looked over at Aladdin. "Put him in Greece." He said.
Aladdin nodded. "All funeral rights will be taken care of." A moments pause. "For the both of you." The meaning was crystal clear.
Mozenrath smirked in a sad, pathetic way. "So, you've finally learned to be ruthless haven't you Aladdin? And to think, all it took was one innocent life." Mozenrath was beyond caring what retribution Agrabah's new monarch would seek. He wanted to make Aladdin hurt inside. He wanted to make him guilt ridden or what he'd done to Randri!
It should have hit me! His mind yelled as Genie brought him down to the very same cell he'd had Aladdin in. I wish it had hit me! His mind cryed until it ached in every last part, but his face remained erased of all emotion.
Fasir stood on the hillside of Agrabah that night, wondering if he'd made the right decision. For all he was omnipotent, he did not know how destiny would weave it's web around the mortals bellow. All he could do was be a fellow spider, always willing to weave his own thread into the tapestry.
A flash of silver caught his attention in the streets bellow and he smiled to himself. "Every spider spins a thread of silver if the light catches it right." He said and disappeared into the night air.
Aladdin saw Randri looking down at him from the balcony. It took him a moment to realize that the fog around the both of them was that of a dream. "Are you a ghost?" he whispered softly, remembering his experience with Iam Aghoul and the ability of the dead to walk into dreams.
The gorgeous nymph shook his white mane of hair. "No. I can not die by mortal means." He stepped down from the balcony and put a hand on Aladdin's shoulder. It was at that moment the hero realized that Randri was nude. He started to turn his face away, a slight blush on his cheeks. Randri's silvery laugh echoed off his bedroom and the nymph lifted Aladdin's chin. "You know why I'm here." He said.
Aladdin shook his head forcefully. "No Randri. You are free to go, but I can not allow you to rescue Mozenrath. He's done to much and must be held accountable for his actions!"
Randri's sea-blue eyes went calm and cool. "Oh? And do you wish to stop me hero?" he asked sweetly, as though issuing a dare. "I swear upon the Gods of Greece, once I have Mozenrath, he will never again think of entering Agrabah's domain."
Aladdin snorted. "I find that hard to believe."
"Do you now?" Randri asked in his silkiest voice. Without warning he pulled Aladdin ford and kissed him with all the passion and depth he could give. He felt the ex-street rat's body cave to him automatically, their curves melding in with one another's as water from joining rivers. Randri held onto the kiss for a few moments, then broke away, knowing the effect his kind had on humans.
"If you could hold that in your arms each night hero, would you have wish for anything more?" Randri asked a breathless Aladdin. "I am the very embodiment of natures ultimate meaning. I am an incarnation of lust and desire. Mozenrath will find bliss in my arms, such as will quell his need for dominance over others. This I can promise."
"And love?" Aladdin asked. "What about love?"
Randri bit his bottom lip, wondering how Aladdin had hit the nail on the head so accurately. "Look at Mozenrath now Aladdin. Do you think he knows what love really is? Do you think he's capable of understanding it even if it were staring him right in the face." Randri could feel tears swelling in his eyes and showed no shame when a few marked his face. "All he can really know right now is that the pleasure between him and myself is something special. In time, he may truly come to realize exactly how special. Right now even the words "I love you." From his lips have no feeling behind them."
"Your saying that for someone like Mozenrath, these feelings have to be taught." Aladdin felt a twinge of pity for the both of them. Mozenrath for never haveing known another's love, Randri for having to be the one to teach him.
The nymph nodded. "Love is no picnic, no matter what the stories say. There is no such thing in life as rose beds and forever blue sky's. If you wish to be happy, then you must realize the work that must go into it. Love isn't the butterfly-stomach, kissy-faced-,teenish-flight-of –fancy most take it for. Love is understanding that no one is perfect and accepting those faults as part of what makes a person a person. Love giving your partner a good slap upside the face when they need it, and still wanting to hold them when it all goes wrong."
Aladdin looked back at his bed, at Jasmine's sleeping frame, and understood completely. "Can you swear to me, by all the nymphs in the world, that Mozenrath will never again set foot in Agrabah? Can you swear that my children to come will be safe from him?"
"I can." Randri said honestly.
"How?" Aladdin asked. "How can you honor this word?"
Randri waved his hand and an amber glow appeared, from it issued the brown leather gauntlet. "Keep this. Mozenrath will not need it where I am taking him."
Aladdin took the gauntlet and looked at it. It never failed to amaze him how such a simple looking instrument could wield such power. "Very well. Mozenrath is in the last cell on the right. Third level down. Can't miss him."
Randri gave a swift bow and began to disappear.
"You really do love him don't you?" Aladdin said finally. But when he turned, Randri was already gone.
Mozenrath felt the warm glow of the sun on his back as sleep began to escape from him. The sheets against his back were softer than any material he'd ever felt before. The bed itself felt like a patch of soft clover. His naked body felt damp with morning dew.
Naked? A jolt of fear went through his body and he came full awake. Surly the guards at the palace wouldn't try to…
Mozenrath stared around his surroundings with pure shock. Instead of hard packed mortar he saw well constructed wood decorated with swaths of multi colored silks and the same soft gauzy fabric on his body. True enough, his bed was made out of clovers, soft green clovers patted together. The warm noon sun came through the branches and made his skin feel wonderful. "Where am I?" he asked aloud. "Is this…paradise?"
"It is for you sweet love."
Mozenrath's jaw dropped as he turned his head and started into the wonderful blue-green eyes of Randri.