Previously:

"… I've been thinking about that incident in the dungeon, when we met Amon-kun…" he said after a moment, deciding to share with them. "I think that must have been 'choosing the king'… I'm not sure what's going to change if I meet Alibaba-kun. But I'm going to see him because I want to!" he said determinedly. "By moving forward, I've learned many things I wanted to know, and it never stops! I want to know! I want to know! I want to know more about who I am!" he finished excitedly.

"Yeah… I get what you're saying." Faith said with a wry smile. "Well, I don't know how long we'll be here…"

"… But as long as we're here, we're with you." Hope finished reassuringly.

"You can count on us!" the twins said with a grin, taking him by the hand as the three of them started to run. Aladdin smiled and laughed.

'You were right, obaa-chan…' Aladdin thought, overcome with a feeling of belonging. 'I think the three of us were meant to meet.'

Chapter 30: Guide

Defeated by Aladdin, the traitor Ryosai and his troops were captured. Afterwards, the Kouga village became part of the Kou Empire. Under the command of Hakuei's troops, the village is courageously stepping toward a new beginning. And, once the remainder of the two weeks had passed and the day to leave for the spring market had arrived, it became the day for Aladdin and the twins to depart.

"Onii-saaaan!! These clothes are heavy and hard to move around in~" Aladdin whined, tugging on the thick clothing. The twins smiled wryly in understanding. They could barely even move. The Kouga women had bundled them all up as much as humanely possible before sending them off. Oh well, at least now they had a change of clothes that helped them look like they might actually belong in this world…

"What are you talking about? Don't you have a long journey? This much equipment is necessary!" Dorji chided him.

"Hey, speaking of bundles… what was that wrapped up package I saw you hand off to Hakuei before we left?" Faith asked her sister curiously.

"Uh… I'll tell you later." Hope said, sweat-dropping. She didn't want to say in front of the others, but it was actually the magic carpet, spoon, and everything else that she had 'borrowed' from Kouen to make her escape. She had also slipped in her pearl necklace as compensation for whatever trouble she might have caused. Hope figured returning everything she took might help ensure that he had one less reason to come after them… She really hoped he wasn't holding a grudge. She had made sure to emphasize to Hakuei that Kouga Clan had no idea what she was doing, and that it had absolutely nothing to do with them in any way. Hakuei had been surprised to leaned that Hope had met Kouen before and understandably confused by her cryptic message, but the princess had promised to keep it in mind as she accepted the package to pass onto him for her.

"Look, you can see the market!" Boyan said excitedly as it came into view. Aladdin and the twins immediately perked up after hearing that and smiled as they looked down upon the lively and colorful market below the plateau.

"Huh, two girls and this lil' kid?" A tall man with a really intense face asked as he leaned down to get a closer look at the twins and Aladdin. The guys introduced them to a member of a caravan they were familiar with who was a really muscular and macho middle-aged man. He had a thick mustache and was covered in scars. Even the little squirrel/Tasmanian devil thing riding on the man's shoulders looked tough with the matching scar it had over its eye. The three friends sweat-dropped. He and his little critter were staring really hard at them…

"Give them a ride to Qishan." Said Dorji. "They'll do any kind of work."

"Hmph. I guess it won't matter if we have a couple more girls or one or two more kids." The man said, biting one of the coins someone had handed him to make sure it was good. "But going through the desert is tough. You kids sure you can handle it?" The three friends exchanged a glance.

"Yep." They answered with a smile.

"We can handle it." said Hope.

"I'll do my best!" said Aladdin.

"We're tougher than we look." Said Faith.

"That's for sure!" Dorji agreed with a smile, patting Aladdin on the back.

"…" The man stared at them for a moment. "You have ten minutes until the carriage leaves. Finish your goodbyes." He said with a huff as he turned away, deciding to accept them. "You siblings probably have memories you want to recount." Aladdin, the twins, and Dorji stared after the man in surprise.

"Hehe, he said siblings." Aladdin said, blushing happily as he rubbed the back of his neck, and they all shared a laugh. That man might look scary, but he was a pretty nice guy.

"Can I really have this?" Aladdin asked when they presented him with Baba's staff when it was time to board the carriage.

"It's all right, since it's Baba-sama's memento. Plus you've saved us… I'm sure Baba-sama would be happy for you to have it." Dorji said.

"Yeah…" Aladdin said, bowing his head. The twins smiled and place a hand on his shoulders.

"Be well, and eat this." Toya told them with a smile, handing over some extra provisions for the road.

"Yay, food!" Faith said excitedly.

"Hey, want a weapon instead of a cane? Since traveling can be dangerous." Asked Boyan.

"Stupid! Aladdin's perfectly fine without one! Right?" Dorji said with a laugh.

"Yeah, and we've got a pen, so we're good." Hope said with a smile.

"Huh? Pins?" Bator asked, sweat-dropping.

"You know…" Faith said, staring at the sword in Boyan's hand. "This whole time it's been bugging me, but there's something awfully familiar about the swords y'all carry…"

'Oh yeah… I wonder where I've seen that before…' Aladdin thought.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Hope asked curiously.

"Oh!" Aladdin and Faith gasped suddenly when they remembered Goltas, and it clicked.

"Wait, onii-san!" Aladdin said excitedly. "Do you know a guy named Goltas?"

"!?" Dorji and the others said, surprised.

"… I see, so that happened…" Dorji said once they had explained. "'Goltas' and 'Dorji' are common names around Kouga. We've been separated countless times because of the slave hunting… He was probably also part of our family… I'll pray for his soul."

"… I see…" Aladdin said quietly.

"… Though it was a coincidence, thanks for seeing him off at the very end!" Dorji said with a smile.

"No, it wasn't a coincidence!" said Aladdin.

"Eh?" Dorji and the others said, surprised.

"?" said the twins.

"Because Goltas-kun and Faith and I met, Goltas-kun's soul was able to return home… Because we came to Kouga, Faith and Hope were able to find each other, and we met a lot of great people. These encounters can't be coincidences." Aladdin said, tightening his grip on Baba's staff. "That's why, we'll all see each other again someday!!" he finished with a smile.

"!" Dorji and the others said. The twins smiled. That was a really nice way of thinking about it.

"Time to leave!!" someone with the caravan shouted, beating a gong to get the people walking and the carriages rolling.

"Aladdin!! Hope!! Faith!! See you again!!!!" Dorji shouted as he and the others chased after their carriage.

"See you!!!" Boyan and Bator yelled.

"Be well!!!" Toya called.

"You too!!" the twins shouted back as they waved goodbye.

"We'll meet again! People of the Kouga Clan!" Aladdin said. He looked up when he saw a flutter of rukh. 'I'm going obaa-chan… please look after us!' he thought with a smile.

Aladdin's journey, which had at first seemed lonely, was actually guided by the great will of the rukh. He would later go to the river of the world's history. Those meetings and partings would not be coincidence… and the twins, too, would come to learn more about themselves and have important encounters of their own as they continued their journey together. Traveling through the desert was tough, wrought with danger, and often required hard work. Sometimes they would have to get out and push the carriage when it got stuck. Sometimes they found themselves at odds with the natural predators of the area and (one more than one occasion) had to battle a desert hyacinth or two. But despite everything, the three friends enjoyed themselves immensely. Every day was exciting, and sleeping under the stars after a day of hard work felt extremely satisfying. Hope's fears of relapsing and becoming unstable without her medicine gradually began to fade further and further from her mind, and she began to dare hope that perhaps her illness had somehow managed to go into a sort of remission, as day after day went by without incident. And then, after half a year, the setting changed to a small country in the southwest…

The caravan had just left the oasis city of Delemmar and started down the route to Balbadd, passing through a ravine, when Aladdin decided it would be a good time to take a nap in the cart, while the twins continued to walk a little further up ahead with their scar-faced boss.

"So, how much farther is it again?" Faith pestered him eagerly for the hundredth time that morning. "We're almost there, right?"

"Geez, give the poor man a break, will ya?" Hope chided her sister with a wry smile. "We'll get there when we get there."

"Yeah, but when—" Faith started to ask, when they heard a great rumbling crash behind them. Their eyes widened as they whipped their heads around and saw that the cart had been partially crushed by a large boulder.

"Aladdin!!" The twins cried in alarm, immediately rushing over to check on him, hoping he wasn't still inside.

"Look out!!" the boss shouted, tackling them out of harm's way as more boulders came crashing down in their path.

"It's an ambush!" they heard someone cry as a band of thieves suddenly descended upon them from over the top of the ravine. In an instant the twins were swept up in a swarm of violence and confusion as the thieves did their best to divide and conquer the caravan and its members.

"There's too many of them!" the boss said after fighting back to back with them for a while. They had managed to regroup with the caravan leader and a few other members, but the majority of them seemed to have already been captured or run off. "We have to go!"

"What about the others!?" asked Hope.

"Yeah, where's Aladdin!? Has anyone seen him!?" Faith demanded.

"I saw your little brother being carried away by one of the thieves! Unless you want to join him as their prisoner, you're better off leaving with us!" the leader said, grabbing them by the arm to drag them away.

"What, and leave him to rot!?" Faith asked incredulously, pulling back. "They'll kill him!!"

"No, they won't, because this isn't a simple raid." The boss said grimly. "Thieves don't take normally prisoners... This is… slave hunting!! If they catch, you, you'll be sold into slavery!"

"!!" the twins gasped.

"Oh man, not this shit again!" Faith cursed angrily, gritting her teeth, as both twins furrowed their brows.

"Hey… What are the odds of all of us getting out here and finding them again before they can be sold?" Hope asked, looking down.

"Terrible." The boss answered frankly. "To be honest in a ravine like this, I don't think more than half of us will even make it without some kind of distraction, and their hideout could be in anywhere. There's a number of caves and abandoned buildings within riding distance of here…"

"Then, I guess we have no choice…" Hope said reluctantly, clenching her fist. "Faith."

"Yeah, I think I know what you're gonna say…" Faith said with a wry smirk as a bead of nervous sweat slid down the side of her face.

"We're staying." Hope said firmly as she looked up at the men.

"You can't—!" They started to protest, but Hope held up a hand to silence them.

"You guys need a distraction in order to escape, right? You can leave that to us." she said determinedly. Her eyes landed on the boss's furry little friend. "We'll buy you time to escape, but in return…"