Previously:
"Hello… Aladdin, right? Nice to meet you, I'm Hope." Hope greeted the younger boy with a smile as they entered the tent. "I hear you've been taking care of my sister for me. Must've been tough." She said sympathetically.
"Yeah, it really was…" Aladdin said with a small smile, causing Faith to flinch.
"Wha!? You traitors…!!" Faith snapped incredulously. "Come on, give some credit! I think I did pretty good, considering the circumstances… It's not like I got arrested or anything... although, it was a pretty close call…" she said defensively, muttering the last part under her breath.
"What was that?" Hope asked pointedly with a shit-eating grin that told her sister she had definitely heard her. From the sound of it Faith had been really enjoying herself while she was being held captive. A bead of sweat slid down the side of Faith's face as she avoided her sister's gaze a bit guiltily. Toya, the young woman who had come in with them, smiled and let out a soft laugh as she set Aladdin's tray down on his bed for him.
"Ah, I'm sorry!" she apologized. "I'm glad that you're all fine. We found the three of you unconscious near the edge of the mountain… If night had come, the wolves would've killed you…"
'Night? Just how long have we been out…?' Hope wondered.
"Oh, scary!" Aladdin said while stuffing his face with the food they had brought him. "Then, you saved me, onee-san?"
"No, the person who saved you is… Dorji, a friend of mine…" Toya replied as someone lifted the tent flap.
"Oh… So you've woken up?" said Baba-sama as she entered the tent, unsurprised to find all three of them together again. "Children of the rukh."
Chapter 21: Rukh
"… Rukh?" Aladdin asked as the twins furrowed their brows in identical looks of confusion.
"… What is that?" Faith asked.
'Rukh… I know I've heard that somewhere before…' Hope thought.
"Oh, Obaa-chan…" Toya said, standing up and stepping aside so the old woman could get closer to them.
"Hmm, let me see your faces…" Baba said, leaning in close as she opened one eye as wide as a dinner plate, while keeping the other closed.
"…" Aladdin and the twins said, sweat-dropping, as they leaned back in an attempt to protect their personal space while the old lady stared long an hard at them to the point where it started to get a bit creepy.
"It's okay." Baba said just as Faith was about to tell her to back off. "The rukh is happy."
"Ah… The rukh is a tale Obaa-chan created…" Toya explained for them since the old lady didn't seem to have heard their questions.
"It's not a tale." said Baba. "The rukh is spread around now too."
"This again…" Toya said, sweat-dropping.
'Okay…?' Faith thought wryly, also sweat-dropping. Was this old lady senile?
"Hm… Obaa-chan can see them too?" Aladdin asked.
"Huh!?" Toya said, surprised.
"I can." Answered Baba. "So you also can? This movement of countless lives in the shape of birds…"
"Birds…?" Hope asked, exchanging a glance with Faith. Wait a minute… she didn't mean…?
"Whoa! It's the first time that I've met someone that can see it besides me!" Aladdin exclaimed, jumping up and down in his excitement.
"Actually, I saw something like that in the dungeon." Faith chimed in. "At first I thought they were glowing butterflies, but…"
"Ah!" Hope gasped. "I've seen something like that too, now that you mention it… A few times I've seen what looks like winged lights flickering in my peripheral vision, but only when I was drifting somewhere between waking and dreaming, so I thought they might be hallucinations… And, wait, you've been in a dungeon, too?"
"Eh!?" Aladdin and Faith said, surprised.
"… 'Too'? You mean, you've been cleared one!? As expected of my sister! What was yours like!?" Faith asked excitedly.
"Um, yeah, but it's part of the long story I mentioned earlier… So how about we finish listening to our host's explanation about rukh first?" Hope suggested calmly.
"Well, it's nothing special," Baba said, picking up from where she left off, "my great-grandmother could see it too, she used to say… in other words… rukh is… the home of souls… While we live, it is every man for himself, but when you die, all go back to only one place… this is 'rukh'. When humans die, their bodies return to the earth, don't they? The souls return to the rukh… the home of souls…"
'Sounds a bit like the Catholic idea of the immortal soul…' Hope thought.
"???" Aladdin, Faith, and Toya said, looking confused.
"I don't understand…" Aladdin said amazed. "Hm… I didn't know that. They've always helped me…"
"Have they?" asked Baba, surprised.
"Yes, when I shared the strength in my belly with them, grains of light gathered and gave me powers." He explained.
"Oh, so that's what happened back then…" said Faith, recalling how the lights had swarmed around Aladdin while he was fighting Morgiana and Jamil in the dungeon.
"What…!?" said Baba, taken aback. "That means…"
"Baba-sama, come here!" one of the women called, beckoning her outside.
"W… What is it?" Baba asked, wishing she hadn't been interrupted.
"The patrol has returned again."
"I understand." Baba said, following her out to receive their latest report.
"Patrol?" the twins asked.
"Yes, then men often go on patrols around our territory. That's how they found you." Toya explained. "Would you like to meet them?" The twins exchanged a glance with Aladdin.
"Sure." They answered, letting her lead the way.
"How did it go?" They heard another woman ask as they exited the tent.
"Fine, no enemies. And we still got a deer." Said one of the young men on horseback, holding up their prize for the gathering crowd to see. "Share with everybody."
"Aladdin-kun, Faith-chan, and Hope-chan… this is Dorji." Toya said, introducing them to a young man with rusty-red hair.
"Oh, you're that kid and those girls." Dorji said. "Are you fine? No wounds?"
"Amazingly, no…" Hope answered with a wry smile as a bead of sweat slid down the side of her face. Come to think of it, how did she manage to land without killing herself? The last she remembered, she was still pretty high in the air…
"Yep, we're totally fine!" said Faith with a grin.
"Yep, thanks for rescuing us, onii-san!" Aladdin added brightly.
"That's great." Dorji said with a friendly smile.
"Hey, Toya!" two other guys, whose names were Bator and Boyan, said with mischievous grins as they rushed over holding the deer.
"Dorji got this deer for you!" Boyan said with a snicker, earning himself an elbow to the head from Dorji.
"Idiot, that's not it!" he said, trying to play it cool, even though he was clearly embarrassed.
"Tell him that he's the best, Toya!" Bator said with a grin. Dorji paled and then blushed, sweating nervously as Toya stared up at him, waiting anxiously for her to say something.
"W-Weren't you scared, Dorji…?" Toya asked, seriously concerned. "Didn't you cry…? You used to be afraid of even bunnies…"
"Pfft…!" Faith snorted while his friends burst into a fit of laughter.
"That's all in the past!! I've grown up and become a man!" Dorji cried defensively.
"Hey, don't laugh so hard." Hope chided her sister. "For all we know, in this world bunnies are like the rabbit from Monty Python…" she whispered.
"Ah, that's so true…" Faith said, stopping for a moment to picture it. And then, for some reason, she laughed harder. Hope sweat-dropped. She must be remembering the rest of the movie…
"I'm a Kouga warrior!" Dorji declared proudly, still blushing a little. "I fight for my clan!"
"You're the best, onii-san!" Aladdin said with a smile.
"…" Toya smiled, but it seemed a little strained.
"Oh, Ugo-kun needs to say thanks for the rescue too!" Aladdin said, getting ready to blow into his flute.
"Ugo-kun?" Hope asked.
"Fufuh, you'll see…" Faith said with a Cheshire cat grin.
"So, is the rumor from the east true?" Baba asked the patrol leader.
"Ah, Baba-sama… The empire of the east is even more powerful. They've conquered much of the far eastern plains, and they will not take long to arrive in our village… And the enemy uses suspect monsters for war… It's worrying." He reported seriously.
'Empire of the east… They must be talking about the Kou Empire…' Hope thought worriedly.
"Don't worry!" Dorji said determinedly. "We have proudly defeated other countries for more than a hundred years! We'll beat them this time too!!"
"Yeah!! For the clan's pride!" Everyone cheered, pumping their fists in the air, including Ugo, whose giant blue arm was now sticking out of the flute. Suddenly everyone froze in shock as their eyes nearly popped out of their heads in surprise, all except for Dorji, who couldn't see because Aladdin was standing right behind him.
"?" Dorji turned to see what they were all staring at. "WHAAA!?" His scream echoed across the plains.
"… That's a Djinn, right?" Hope asked quietly behind one of her hands.
"Yep~!" Faith answered with a grin. She really loved watching people's reactions to seeing one for the first time.
"What the hell are you? Huuh!!" Dorji demanded once they had all gathered in Baba-sama's yurt to question the suspicious trio. "A suspect monster… You're a spies from the enemy empire, aren't you!?"
"What are you saying? A small kid and two girls can't be spies from an enemy country…" Toya said in their defense as Aladdin clung to her and the twins.
'Uh, we totally could if we wanted to…!' Faith thought, biting her tongue to stop herself from saying it aloud.
'I guess it's a really good thing I grabbed an unmarked carpet and left that uniform I borrowed behind…' Hope thought, sweat-dropping. Seeing how on edge they were, it would probably be better if she refrained from mentioning her brief stay with the enemy's general…
"Then why were they on the edge of the mountain?" Dorji asked. "And they were unconscious and all alone. How and where did they come from?"
'That's a really good question…' The twins thought, wondering that themselves since they hadn't had a chance to swap stories yet.
"That's what I want to know!" Aladdin said. "Faith and I were in a place called Qishan before… Do you know where it is?"
"Oh, that's where I was headed!" said Hope. It sounded like her calculations for Faith's location had been correct after all. "It's an oasis city in the desert, right?"
"Yeah, that's the one!" said Faith, impressed. She knew Hope would figure something out and come looking for her.
"Ah… I've heard of a city like that, from a caravan of the west." One of the older men said. "According to rumors, after several mountains are crossed in the west, there is a country of sand that is said to be very far from here, and they say walking there would take two years."
"Eh!?" Aladdin and the girls flinched in shock.
"So long…!!!" Faith exclaimed with wide eyes. But it only took 12 hours to get from the US to China, and they were on the opposite sides of the globe from each other!
"It's that far away!?!" Aladdin asked, startled.
'Ah, well… I guess it's not that surprising considering it took settlers at least five months to travel the Oregon Trail in covered wagons…' Hope thought, sweat-dropping. She wondered how long it would've taken via flying carpet…
"It's too far…" Dorji said, sweat-dropping. He suddenly felt really sorry for these kids.
"Does that country even exist?" Boyan asked dubiously.
"H-How are we supposed to get back…?" Aladdin asked dismally, visibly deflating at the idea of a two year journey.
"There is no way I'm walking for two years…" Faith said with a frown, chagrined. That was just way too ridiculous.
"…" Hope said, furrowing her brow slightly.
"Don't worry." Baba told them. "In two weeks, there shall be the spring market. You only need to ask someone to take you in the next caravan, so you can go more quickly."
"That's great… I'll do it!" Aladdin said, extremely relieved to hear such good news.
"Until then, you can stay here."
"Yes! I'll stay here for two weeks!" He said happily. "What about you, Faith and Hope onee-san?"
"Pleeeaaase~?" Faith asked, fluttering her eye lashes at her sister.
"Hmm… All right." Hope agreed. Faith was obviously very excited about it, and it's not like they'd figured out how to get back to their own world yet… Plus the further away they got from the Kou Empire the better, since she didn't know how upset Kouen might be for ditching him like that. He definitely wasn't going to be pleased. "We'll do that as well, if you don't mind. Thank you for your kind offer of hospitality."
"Yaay~!!" Aladdin and Faith cheered, slapping each other a high-five.
"You really want to go that badly?" Toya asked.
"… Yes, because we made a promise… with a friend." Aladdin said with a smile.