This is from Shirin's view. Oh also, thanks Eternal Dark Princess for reviewing my first humorous story, I didn't think I would get a review so quickly, thanks to Kathryn too, who also gave it approval before anyone else saw it. Anyway, back to the story...

Chapter Eleven: Stealing a Princess

What the heck was that? I am not Farah, so he better stop thinking I am! Why would he want to kiss me! I'm a thief – I'm suppose to repulse everyone and be seen as a coward and there he is, ready to kiss me. Why, why would he like me? No one likes me...last night, I thought he was lying. Why would he put his trust in me and take me out here, trying to make his girlfriend princess remember and then kiss me!

My thoughts raced madly. I moved into the shadows and resided there. I was angry with him. He was messing with my mind, I liked him, yes, but I knew he liked Farah, he liked her more than he liked me. What exactly did he want me to do? Kiss him back? If I had done that...then what the heck were we doing here, in Amber? I tightened my grip on the hooded cloak I was wearing; I was back in my dark clothes that I wore when stealing things at night. Heh, I was stealing something now, I was stealing princess...of course; I wouldn't just be chucking her in a bag like all the other things I had stolen...however...interesting thought. I moved silently and almost invisibly through the streets, I was approaching the palace. I saw the elite guards patrolling the perimeter – what a dull job! I looked up at the darkening sky, it was time, if Farah had read the letter, then she would be waiting, but, if she wasn't, then I had a problem on my hands. Okay, this was it. I channeled all my energy and teleported. I wasn't particularly fond of teleporting. The speed I moved at and the feeling of projection. I was transformed in a shadowy ghost form. My physical body still in place by the wall, but time had stopped, and without time there were very few rules. Sepia bled into my sights, I could move now. I bolted towards the wall of the fort/palace, and in my projected state I could just pass through it. I found myself in the gardens, I saw the still frozen Farah, sat under a tree, she had her bow and arrow, the dagger in a black scabbard and was wearing a dress exactly the same to her red one, but it was black with a golden hem. My breathing could be heard but it was maximized and altered so it sounded like a loud undead groan in my head. I was here now, I released time and it began flowing again. It was a bit of a painful hit when my physical body caught up with me and met the projection of myself. My vision returned to normality. I felt so tired now...teleportation always took loads out of me, I had a painful stitch in my left side; I would have to wait a while before going again.

"Farah," I called to her. She leapt up and pointed her loaded bow at me. I placed my hand up and slumped against a tree. "No, it's okay, I'm not here to hurt you," I murmured. I saw she had the locket around her neck, she also had the medallion on. I looked at it, I don't know why, but I always felt so drawn to the medallion and now, I so badly wanted to steal the dagger, but I knew I couldn't.

"Who are you?" questioned the princess; she lowered her bow but didn't come near me.

"My name is Shirin, listen this is going to sound a bit crazy but everything I say next is completely true – and that's a first for me. Not so long ago your city and palace was sacked by the Persian Empire, they stole the Hourglass and a young prince took the dagger. They moved to the Persian City of Azad, there the vizier of this palace managed to persuade the mentioned prince to unleash the sands. Everyone was killed, however, the Prince didn't die because he had the dagger and you, you were there, you survived because of your medallion, and the Vizier had his staff. You and the Prince had to stop the Vizier and had to reverse what had happened. Through this you two became pretty close, but when you were nearly there, ready to reverse everything, it kinda went wrong when the Prince didn't do as he was told and it turned into a bit of a camel's ear. The two of you ended up in a tomb, there you stayed and you taught the Prince the word Kakolukia, making you both fall asleep in a slumber having a shared dream. However, you woke and stole the dagger. I guess you kinda wanted to rewind everything yourself, thinking that you would be able to do it yourself and be able to keep the Prince out of harms way. However, when the Prince caught up with you, you were a little bit tied up...actually if you were tied up you probably wouldn't have ended up falling to your death, which is pretty much how you died in that reality. However, the Prince did his best to save you," I explained. Farah seemed a little unmoved as she stood with folded arms.

"I very much doubt he did, if I was in his position and someone I cared about had done such a thing then I would have happily yet him fall to his death," said Farah.

"Well, there is a thin line between loving someone and hating them. He really did try. You were holding the hilt of the dagger and he was holding the blade. Could you honestly say that you could have kept on holding on?" I asked her.

"Well...I suppose I would not be able to do so, not with the excruciating pain that would come with it," murmured Farah.

"See, and after all that agonizing pain, it wasn't him that let go, it was you. Anyway, after that, he managed to rewind time and ended up at the point before his father's army entered the city, he had to kill the Vizier, as it was the Vizier that betrayed your father. He went to your room and – "I continued but was interrupted by Farah.

"Wait...I know this. A few months ago a Persian came to my room and he did slay the Vizier. The story you have told me is true to the one he told me," explained Farah. I cried out loudly.

"You mean to say that I went through that whole story and you already knew it?" I leapt to my feet. "Well that's good I suppose, now lets go," I said taking Farah's wrist. Farah managed to pull herself away from me.

"I can't trust you! I don't even know your name or where we are going," cried Farah backing away. I stood akimbo.

"Oh so you trust a prince without a name but not me. Okay, well I am Shirin, I am Persian and I met the Prince while robbing his palace, so I'm a thief. I am now technically kidnapping you...actually, forget the 'technically' I am just kidnapping you. Now, the Prince wants to take you to the Fountain of Sight to get you to remember exactly what happened so you two can fall in love again, get married, live in a palace and have loads of mini-Princes and Farahs, oh and by the way, if you do get married, don't invite me, or you could just not wear any jewelry. Now COME ON!" I cried and grabbed her hand again yet she fidgeted so much and pulled away in the other direction.

"Let go of me!" she cried loudly. She grabbed an arrow and drew its head across the back of my cloak. As well as ripping my cloak she also caused a large cut down my back.

"OOO-WWW! Yeesh! You try and help someone and then they just slash you across the back!" I moaned jumping up and down as the heat from the pain wouldn't go. Someone must have heard Farah and I shouting as I heard the heavy trampling of feet – oh great, this was suppose to be a bloodless, silent mission, it was going to turn into a bloodbath now! At least twenty elite guards ran to the princess's defense. All pointed their gleaming, sharpened blades at me.

"Get away from the princess!" they ordered. I backed off. My options ran through my mind. The Power of Revival? No, there was no real way I could get out of this, Farah would never agree to come with me peacefully. The Power of Delay? No, I couldn't take on all these people even with the martial arts training I had (that was my weapon, sure, it wasn't as good as a sword or mace, but it was something) and the slowness of time. The Power of Haste? No, it would take several punches and kicks before these people went down, even with the sheer speed of a mega-freeze I wouldn't manage to get them all down...plus it took too much out of me. There was one last power left, one that only I had. The Power of Summoning. It was far too dangerous, I could even be killed and it would take a lot out of me even if I did survive. It was on par with The Power of Haste...but unlike The Power of Haste, The Power of Summoning would guarantee all the guards' deaths. It was my only option...plus, if I was to be honest, I had never tried this out yet so I wasn't quite sure what it would be like. I had learnt what the Power was about. You called up the minions of time, the undead, they would kill all that posed a threat to you. I stepped back, I summoned up the sands, a state where I almost fell unconscious. A sandy golden hue came over my eyes, an aura of a dark yellow surrounded me. The guards hadn't a clue what was happening, but they knew they should have been scared. The sudden energy-drain hit me, a painful feeling of loosing all my consciousness, but I was still awake, I crouched up covering my face and eyes, I was literally crouching in mid air. Then the dark figures began forming at my side. My own army of undead creatures. The sky turned a dark gray, there was a hellish roar and then it began to rain heavily, the ground was rumbling. The guards were now fleeing – they hadn't even seen what was to come, Farah backed away and loaded her bow. She aimed at me and then fired her bow...a pointless action as a decaying hand grabbed the arrow before it hit me. The shadows had formed into skull-wearing, scimitar-holding demons. The guards and Farah could barely behold what they saw. With a flash, the demons teleported in front of the guards and slaughtered them, as if they were helpless lambs! It barely took five seconds before all the guards were on the ground, with blood stemming away from them, like tributaries to a river. They then turned to Farah, no, I didn't want her dead...that was enough. I removed my hands from my face and set my feet down, the demons began walking away, back to my side and were returning to dark shadows and then nothing. The sandy golden hue from my eyes seemed to disintegrate slowly. I was back to normal. I fell to the wet ground. The sky had returned to its blackness that came with it being night and it had stopped raining. I felt so empty, drained and slightly demented, I was oblivious to what I was doing in the gardens. But then I suddenly remembered. I looked up at the mystified Farah, I could see the fear in her face; she loaded an arrow into her bow and pointed it at me.

"I don't know what you are, and I hope you won't be alive long for me to find out," she said, her voice trembling.

"Wait! Listen, I really didn't want to kill those people, but they pretty much gave me no choice! The Prince is waiting north of the city, please can't you just come with me?" I asked. Farah turned and fled. Just my luck! I try to explain things nicely and it doesn't work! I ran after her...I didn't think she would be so fast but also, she seemed to know the gardens off by heart, I didn't so it was hard trying to avoid the trees. I finally ran close to a wall and leapt up so I was running on it. I leapt and seized her, making her fall to the ground. She was taller than I was, so it was inevitable that she would end up falling when I grabbed her.

"For Ormazd's sake stop running and just listen to me!" I screamed holding her at the waist.

"I don't even know who Ormazd is! Let go of me!" she screamed, she grabbed a lock of my hair and began pulling it. I screamed out loudly.

"Ow! Quit it you bitch!" It didn't matter if she was kicking and screaming, I was making physical contact with her so I could teleport...although I was seriously going to need to rest up after all the energy I had used. I shut my eyes, projected myself and raced north of the city. With a golden flash I appeared on the slopes outside of the city. Farah was obviously very shaken. She got to her feet quickly.

"How did we get here?" she demanded. I stood up, my scalp hurting terribly, I placed a hand on it and gave a little sound of discomfort; I wasn't too bothered with watching where Farah was going; she wasn't going to get anywhere soon.

"We're north of the city. Oh, and Ormazd is the Zoroastrian god of goodness and light," I murmured rubbing my head. I looked around and saw the Prince on our black horse approaching.

"Shirin! You're alright! What took so long?" He asked quickly dismounting. I opened my mouth to answer but I saw the Prince's attention be completely removed from me and placed primarily on Farah. He darted up to her and placed his arms round her, holding her tightly. He was so happy and joyful...I couldn't help but be a little bit jealous, after all, I was the one that had gone to the trouble of getting her, loosing several strands of my glossy black hairs on my head. However, Farah's feelings were far from mutual and she pushed him quickly away from her.

"Who do you think you are? I order you to return me to the – "she started but then stopped, the Prince had been wearing a hood when he had embraced Farah, so she hadn't seen his face but the hood fell down as she pushed him away. She looked at his face, in this reality she had only seen it once, but she knew it was a face that had protected her and her whole city...but nevertheless she still probably wasn't going to trust the Prince or me.

"Who are you? Why have you brought me here?" she asked, she asked this quieter but her voice was still trembling. The Prince explained who he was and explained about the Fountain of Sight, but Farah shook her head cutting him off half way.

"No, what is your name?" she asked. That was a question that I too, wanted to know the answer to.

"My name...uh, you want to know my actual name?" asked the Prince. Farah nodded. "Why? I mean it is just a name..." the Prince said. I looked at him slyly.

"Tell us Prince or I'll make you!" I cried. He raised an eyebrow at me, okay he was asking for this. I got him in a headlock and began running my knuckles across his head. "Tell us! I can do this all day!" I warned. He managed to struggle free.

"Ah! Okay, I promise, I'll tell you Shirin, and then you can tell Farah, but only after I have got Farah to remember! Okay?" he cried rubbing his head – great, so now it was only a matter of time before he was going to tell me his name. Although the moment appeared rather light, I could see from her eyes that Farah still felt scared and didn't want to go with us. Yeesh, didn't that girl ever smile? I had almost got a bald-patch and was totally drained yet I was making light of things!

"Well, I understand the predicament you are in but I honestly can't go to this place, please return me to the fort," said Farah. I knew the Prince couldn't just do that, he could just let Farah go back. He shook his head.

"I can't..." he murmured. Farah stared at him. That had probably been among the few times someone wouldn't do what she wanted. She turned her back.

"In that case I will just find my own way back," she said, she was so worried, it could be told by the uncertainty in her voice, she probably didn't know the way back. The Prince grabbed her hand.

"You can't go, please, will you just come with me?" asked the Prince. However, Farah tried her best to pull away and put up a great fight...finally one thing came up in both my mind and the Prince's. An option that I was happier to use then the Prince was.

"I honestly didn't think we would have to result to this," murmured the Prince. We had left Amber far behind, we decided that we would travel for the night and then just rest for tomorrow. We gave Farah a horse of her own; I traveled with the Prince. So Farah's horse wouldn't run off, we attached its reins to our saddle.

"Mmm-hh-mmm...mmm, ghmmn hmm?" said Farah muffled from the gag I had tried around her mouth. We had tied her up and placed her on the horse. She had stopped having her mad fits now, finding it a little bit futile, she was just sat now looking slightly depressed on the horse. Oddly enough, the Prince and I managed to understand what she was saying.

"It's about midnight now, why? Are you tired?" I asked. Farah looked at me; she wasn't glaring so much now.

"Hmm hhm-eem mhhh," she replied.

"Yeah...I suppose this is something out of the ordinary to do, I guess it stops you from being tired. I've never personally been kidnapped, how is it?" I asked. Farah shrugged as she spoke and her eyes moved from the ground up to me continuously. She muffled something in reply. She looked at the Prince.

"Hmmm ummm mh-hmmm um?" she asked. The Prince looked at her.

"What? No, why do you think I would kill you?" asked the Prince; Farah muffled something in reply, this time the Prince couldn't understand her. "Wait a moment," he said, he reached over and removed the gag.

"I said, 'well, being kidnapped usually leads to being killed'," repeated Farah. The Prince was amazed at Farah's thoughts, almost amused.

"Haven't you listened to a word I have said? Do you think I have just come here to kill you?" he asked. Farah looked blankly at him.

"You mentioned a fountain and something about taking me there," she said. The Prince placed his head in his hands.

"Uw...women, they're all the same, in one ear and then out the other." He muttered. How dare he! I jabbed him harshly. "Ow...okay, Indian princesses that exist at this moment with the name Farah, especially the ones that I loved," He said correcting himself. He removed his head from his hands. "Okay, we'll set up camp here, Shirin you go and get some firewood while I explain everything to Farah," he ordered, I got off the horse and began walking off.

"I'm in the middle of the desert! Where I'm I going to find wood? I know you just want me out of the way so you two can have it away with each other...with all the having away with 'it' there will be no more 'it' left," I said walking off. I wasn't actually in a desert but I liked to exaggerate. I looked back at them. He was helping Farah off the horse, huh, he had never done that for me, well...it wasn't me he loved was it...was it?