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Chapter 6: The Swamp
It had seemed very pleasant to Dhandi as she through the forest. The fear that she had before had eased into curiosity for the gnarled trees with leaves of darker shades. Her bare feet felt the pricks of the thorns and twigs that accumulated upon the path. She had ducked her head as one of the strange birds of the labyrinth when she heard humming. Dhandi turned her head about, looking for the source of the melody.
Finding no one, two choices came to her head. She could call out to the hummer and wait for him to appear, though past experiences had taught her that it could easily be someone who could hurt her. She could also merely wait for him behind a tree, though this was just as liable for assault as her first option.
"What ya doing?" Dhandi yelped as she spun around and saw a smile hovering above a branch. Curious, Dhandi got on her tiptoes and watched as a pair of yellow eyes dropped down, just above that smile. "Ah, all clear now."
"You...you're a cat," Dhandi smiled, amused, as Chaos materialized in front of her eyes. "Wow, you-you're blue like Genie!" Dhandi began clicking her tongue, the international language of little girls trying to lull cats into a false sense of security. Chaos yawned and rolled his eyes. Quite literally, since his big yellow eyes rolled off his face, down the tree and landed at the girl's feet. Dhandi jumped a few feet back as Chaos leapt off the branch, eyeless but somehow able to find Dhandi, and began rubbing against her leg.
"You're...not like other cats, are you?" Dhandi observed, her tone uneasy.
Somewhere, possibly nearby, somebody was saying "Well, DUH!"
"Are you a genie?" Dhandi asked. "Eden once told me genies sometimes take the form of animals."
"Maybe," Chaos mewed, "maybe not. You never really know." He flicked a claw and his eyes flew back into their sockets. "By the way," he added, leaping onto the knot of an exposed root, "you might find him if you take to the right."
Dhandi's eyes widen. Was somebody finally giving her a straight answer in this place? "Who?"
"Mozenrath."
A smile of relief spread on her face. "I will?"
"Will what?" Chaos replied.
"Find him that way," Dhandi replied, pointing to her right.
"Who?"
"Mozenrath!"
"Who's Mozenrath?"
"D'oh," Dhandi groaned, growing frustrated but the hourglass caught her eye. "I think you're a bit confused and it's not that I don't want to help you out," she said, calmly turning to the right of the path, "but I really need to go."
"Aww," Chaos flicked his tail, "but I would really like you to stay."
"If I don't get to the center in time," she explained as she walked a little bit quicker, "that would be the case. Bye!"
Chaos curled up on the knot as Dhandi disappeared behind a bush, going down the trail.
"Perhaps it was the left path I meant," Chaos mused. "Oh, but won't she be surprised?"
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The path had grown rockier, causing Dhandi to resort to walk the rest of the way on the tips of her toes, sadly to no avail. She took a moment and sat down on the nearest thing, a log. She held her foot up, now throbbing red in spots on her feet. Dhandi winced as she plucked out a thorn.
Suddenly, something chuckled. Dhandi looked around. Maybe it was that blue cat again. Then again, it was at a higher pitch than the cat.
The chuckle seemed to double, two distinct but still high pitch. Then came three. Four. Five? Six, seven?
Suddenly, a quick jab in her thigh later and Dhandi bolt upright. Rubbing her thigh vigorous, she turned to the log and found pixies, wild haired, multicolored pixies that like to swarm. A smile stretched across her face.
"Hi there," she said, reaching out towards them. The pixies scattered as her hand drew close. They chattered as they swarmed around her head and began pulling at her hair.
"Hey!" Dhandi yelped as she backed into a brick wall, swatting at the pixies. Suddenly, something plopped down on her head. She found the end of a rope. She looked up the wall and saw at the top that clownish man, Amin deMoolah. Pixies still beating against her, she began to climb up the rope.
Finally, making it to the buttress, Dhandi grabbed Amin's hand. With a look of relief, Dhandi swung her arms around him, the thief resisting. Suddenly, the floor gave way and the two fell through, screaming.
The pair careened down a tunnel, passing through cobwebs and dangling roots. Dhandi screamed, but then stopped and turned to Amin beside her who was screaming at a very high pitch. Suddenly, the slide stopped and the pair flew out of the tunnel, into daylight and into a very gnarled tree down below.
"Uh, hi, again," Dhandi said to Amin, hanging upside down. She managed a weak chuckle as Amin, scowling, opened his mouth.
"Always, bad things happen whenever I meet you," Amin complained, his gangly legs tangled in the vines. "Pixies bite me; Master berates me and threatens to throw me in the Swamp of Armis Slime..."
"And would that be the Swamp?" Dhandi pointed down and taking a glance, Amin let out a shriek. The overgrown swamp, covered in weeds, gurgled with pools of what looked like black tar if tar was capable of reaching out and snatching those familiar specks of light.
"Ah! Merciful Allah!" Amin writhed in the vines, twisting himself and then Dhandi. The girl yelped as the vines wrapped around her arms and whipped her off the branch, making her fall. The pair dangled several feet above the ground like a duo of marionettes tangled in their own strings. "Ah! It never fails!"
Dhandi sighed as she began pulling at the vines wrapped around her hands, grunting with effort.
"Come on," she thinks to herself as she pulled, "break." Suddenly a taut snap heard, but before Dhandi could celebrate, the vines grew slacked and the pair fell to the foot of the tree painfully. Amin groaned as he rose to his feet, but turned white as he saw the pools of black tar-like slime. Dhandi, rubbing her head, sat up, saw the pools for a moment and looked up at Amin.
"Are they dangerous?" she asked as she rose, clinging to the tree. Amin, still white with fear, bobbed his head like one of those toys Genie had shown her, a small, big-headed man named Pete Rose. Dhandi picked up a rock off the ground and hurled it towards the nearest pool. The slime quivered and engulfed the rock before it could hit the skim of the pool. Dhandi's face contorted with disgust as she backed into the tree. "That would answer that question."
She turned to look at Amin, but found that he was gone. "Amin?"
She looked around the tree and found the thief huddled in a fetal position.
"Uh, Amin?" she asked, reaching out her hand and tapping him on the shoulder. The thief let out a long and terrified scream. Dhandi whipped back her hand and the screaming ceased. After a pause, she reached her hand towards him again, but the thief screamed again before she could place a hand on him. Pulling her hand back towards her again, she looked over at the thief and grimaced uneasily. She slowly stuck her finger out and, as if scheduled, Amin screamed.
"You're so weird," Dhandi sighed, shaking her head. "Did he do this to you?"
Amin stopped screaming and looked up. "Who?"
"Mozenrath," she replied.
Amin let out a yelp and huddled back into his fetal position.
"I'll take that as a 'yes'," the girl said to herself. She sat down on the tree root beside Amin. "Listen, Amin. Have you ever thought of...quitting your job?"
"You don't understand," Amin huffed like a four year-old, "I can't- uh, how did you know I worked for Mozenrath?"
"I don't know," Dhandi shrugged. "You were panicking over something when we first met and...well, why can't you?"
"Little girl, I'm a coward," Amin whined, "and he scares me." He turned the other way and began mumbling beneath his breath. "Here for three years...miss pie."
Pulling the hourglass out and glancing at it briefly, Dhandi sighed as she regarded Amin as someone would a scared puppy. "I stand a pretty good chance of getting out of here..." (Amin scoffed at this) "...but I could use some more help. I could pay you."
"Oh, like that shell you gave me earlier," Amin grumbled. "It didn't work."
"I must have given you the wrong one," Dhandi lied. She paused for a moment as she turned her back to Amin and rubbed her chin in thought. "I know this lady in Agrabah who makes these delicious pies," she said finally, emphasizing the word "pies". "There's this really good pie. I think it has these really sweet chunks of dried persimmons. Too bad, I'm stuck here. I could really go for some-"
She turned around and saw Amin standing erect behind her, eyes glistening with longing and lust.
"So, we have a deal?"
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"Uh, little girl," Amin asked Dhandi as she looped a vine around his waist, "what are you doing?"
"It's a life-line," Dhandi explained, tying it off. "If one of us gets pulled into the slime, the other can pull them out. I heard it from this guy who used to be an explorer."
"Yeah, but how will we get across? It's everywhere."
"We'll cross on that strip between those pools." Dhandi pointed to the thin levee between the writhing pools of black slime, as she wrapped the other end of the vine around her waist. "I hope our balances are good."
Dhandi tied off the vine and tugged at the rope. "Let's go."
The pair walked towards the levee, Dhandi taking a deep breath and Amin's teeth chattering. The slim gurgled as they stepped upon the levee, the girl picking up the slack of the vine.
"So far, so good," Dhandi thought to herself, holding on to the rope as she and Amin made halfway across. However, her relief was short-lived when Amin yelp and climbed on top of her, frightened.
"Amin!" she yelled, the weight of the cowardly thief pressed down on her shoulders. "We don't have time for this. You need to get down!" Her knees wobbled as Amin shook his head. "Amin!"
"THE SLIME IS CREEPING!" Amin shrieked, pointing behind them. Dhandi turned and immediately turned sheet-white. The black slime had latched onto the levee, pulled itself out, and was gaining towards the pair. Dhandi stared at the slime, apprehensive, as Amin scrambled on her with fright to get away from the slime. The slime crept closer, Dhandi back stepping away from it.
"Amin," she whispered to the thief, "I want you to get off me."
Amin whined, too frightened to speak.
"I can't run with you weighing me down. When you get off, we'll both run to the trees." Her eyes hinted to the forest brush feet away from the pools. "Count of three, we run."
Amin whimpered as he looked at the slime and the trees that seem to have shrunk back further in an instant.
"One..."
The slime was at grabbing reach. Sweat was pouring down Amin's forehead.
"Two..."
Suddenly, Amin darted across the levee, dragging Dhandi like she was a kite. The girl's legs flailed in the air as the slime leaped towards them, a deluge of massive proportions. The thief and the girl screamed as they twisted through the tangles of gnarled trees, felled branches and tall weeds. The slime oozed through the forest like rain through a window screen, its residue clinging to its hubris.
"Look!" Dhandi yelled as they reached the clearing on the other side. "I can see the center of the maze! It's so close!"
Suddenly, Amin and Dhandi found themselves somersaulting over a massive fallen log and falling flat on their back, painfully. Dhandi scrambled back to her feet when her eyes widened. The slime reached for her, face in range of its appendage.
Suddenly, it shot back into the forest with a snap. Dhandi climbed over the log and saw that the slime was stuck to the trunks of the trees, gurgling angrily. Amin peered over the log and, seeing this sight, fainted.
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"Amin? Amin?"
The thief opened his eyes and Dhandi was standing above him, waving her hand in front of his eyes. Amin yelped and sat up.
"Little girl!" he snapped. "Don't ever do that again! Even if you promise pie."
"Sorry," Dhandi apologized. "You weren't out too long." She then smiled slightly. "You were pretty brave. Did you know the slime would do that?"
"I was?" Suddenly, Amin cleared his throat and posed boldly as if posing for a statue. "Uh, yes, I was. Armis slime is very sticky."
"I can see that," Dhandi chuckled. She looked back towards where the center laid and pulled out the hourglass. She looked at it, a small confident smile on her face. "We might actually make it in time."
Amin bit his lip, uneasily. "Uh, Dhandi?"
"What is it, Amin?"
"I, uh, know this short-cut that might-"
Dhandi grabbed his shoulders, excited. "You know a short-cut to the center of the maze?"
Amin nodded his head sheepishly.
"Well, come on! Show me!"
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The sun reflected upon the field that seemed to shimmer like gold. It had nearly blinded Dhandi and Amin as they walked out of that patch of forest.
"Are those...daffodils?" Dhandi asked, holding her hand up to her eyes.
"Yes," Amin replied, not looking at her.
"Wow," Dhandi lowered her hand from her brow, "it's beautiful and I can see the center. It's much closer now." Dhandi darted from Amin's side and began wading through the daffodils. The powerful collective scent of the flowers burned Dhandi's nose. "Well, come on. Amin?"
Amin doesn't reply. In fact, he seems to disappear from sight completely as Dhandi's vision faded in and out.
"Amin?" She yawned, her walking becoming more disoriented. "Could you...help me for a moment? I think my legs aren't working right? Left, maybe? Maybe they're working left?"
She began to giggle as she began to twirl in the flowers, the trumpets of the flowers brushing against her body.
"The world is dancing." She plopped down on the soft ground, the sky spinning in her opiate-soaked mind's eye. She sighed as her mind began to dance and her eyes closed.
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Sticks of incense spewed smoke about Mozenrath, the sorcerer's legs crossed upon the floor and hands hovering above a bowl and brush. In one hand was gripped a silver needle, which with he pricked his index finger. Blood dropped into the bowl, soaking into the olive green powder rapidly. He then took a vial of sweet, acidic-smelling liquid and poured it in. His gauntlet glowed as the bowl's contents mixed together into a strong, earthy-smelling paste.
Mozenrath breathed in the mixing scents of the incense and the concoction as he sung in a low voice:
Djed-I,
Hab reswet en Dhandi.
A'q sey,
A'nen-es en wi.
He exhaled sharply, the smoke scattering and rising out the window. The sorcerer smiled maliciously.
"Pleasant dreams, Rabbit."
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A/N: With much prodding from a reader who has managed to contact me through Aladdin Central, I've actually completed a chapter. Thank for hanging in there, waiting for me to update.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.