Warning: the following chapter contains nudity, fire and muffins. Okay, maybe there's no muffins but they're tasty aren't they? Mmm…muffins. I want muffins now. Muffins tasty. Okay then. Read at your own warning. – ZeroSoul

All's fair in love and sorcery; chapter four: "now included: female nudity"

Billy was practically exhausted by the time he had managed to pull the carriage all the way towards a large castle (Mozenrath, to tell the truth, was actually surprised he managed to get it as far as two miles away from the pyramid). Mozenrath stepped out of the carriage to find Billy was panting and gasping on the ground – still hooked up to the carriage. Mamluks – being their idiotic undead selves – were wandering around aimlessly.

"…my are lungs collapsing…" Billy panted.

"Yes, yes, that's fascinating," Mozenrath said, not truly paying attention to Billy or his lungs. He was more or less studying the castle in which that irritable sorceress resided. The castle wasn't as large – or as well taken care of – as his but it still looked as if it belonged to someone not-as-nearly-as-powerful-but-only-a-smidgen-close to his power.

'But there's no way that girl could rival my power of course!' Mozenrath thought, being his normal, but egotistical, self.

Still, that image of her flying away on a giant raven remained in his mind. Especially her sticking out her tongue at him. A tongue that said "Nyah, nyah, you suck, Mozenrath because you got beaten by a little girl".

"Damn it all!" Mozenrath cursed out loud, "I won't be shown up by some amateur sorceress!"

"Mister, why are you talking to yourself?" Billy asked.

"Oh, shut up!"Mozenrath barked at the serpent child. He then fumed his rage towards other things, "And where the hell is Xerxes?"

Mozenrath had been following Xerxes' lead towards the castle until he suddenly disappeared. 'Knowing that stupid thing,' Mozenrath realized, 'he probably got lost inside of the castle,' Grumbling and complaining as he usually did when things didn't go his way, Mozenrath decided to take things into his own hands and enter the castle on his own.

Unknown to Sadira, who was still lounging in her bathtub, Xerxes was sneaking around her castle. But Xerxes – being the uncoordinate and not so bright god-knows-what-kind-of-creature-he-was – he was lost within the multiple hallways and towers. And unknown to Xerxes, Mozenrath was walking through the hallways – lost as well.

'Damnit! I've seen that window at least five times already! How the hell does that sorceress find her way through this place! It's a maze!' Mozenrath thought, irritated at the fact that he had no idea where he was going. He suddenly heard sounds coming out of one of the rooms and thought, Wait a minuet! That must be her! Aha! I'll surprise her and get my pendant back!'

Sadira, who was getting out of the tub at this exact moment, had no idea what was in store for her.

"I swear!" Mozenrath growled as he opened the door, "If this door leads to another hallway I'm going to–"

The door did not lead to another hallway. It did lead to an old room cluttered with old furniture and books of all sorts, which was very odd considering as to why Sadira had a room like this in her castle to begin with. Mozenrath stepped onto the creaking floor beneath him, scratching his head. 'How did I get here?' Mozenrath thought. It wasn't another hallway, but it was still puzzling. As for Sadira, she had no idea that she was in store for their to be a spider in the pool.

"Bugs! I hate bugs!" Sadira said as she gave the swimming creature a magical blast that killed it instantly, "If there's nothing I hate more than anything else, it's bugs!"

Mozenrath was still in the furniture room, wondering what was going on. But then again, maybe he could find something use in the room to–

CRASH!

The old wooden floor underneath him – which had been suffering at the hands of termites – gave in. Several chairs, a footstool, an armchair, some scrolls, and Mozenrath fell into the room below them…

SPLASH!

…and into a pool of water, which just happened to be the same pool Sadira had been bathing in. She had gotten out of the pool and put a robe on. Mozenrath gasped and surfaced, clinging onto the floating remains of a wooden chair nearby, sucking in air and trying tom get rid of the water in his lungs at the moment.

"Are you okay?" Sadira asked, walking over to the stranger who had oddly fallen from the ceiling. There was wet hair over his face, so she couldn't identify him or her. She was more concerned about the safety of the person (and also if they were going to sue her or not for injuries).

Mozenrath looked up at her and took another gasp. Though Sadira was not naked, he could see her figure very well and notice some very interesting things about her. He wasn'ts exactly sure what to say towards her, since his interaction with females was very little.

"Hey, nice–"

However, his choice words were the bad choice, for at hearing the exempt last part of this sentence, Sadira sent a fireball at Mozenrath's head.

Mozenrath saw the fireball and ducked under the water to avoid it. While he was busy avoiding, Sadira rushed out of the water and put a nearby robe over herself.

"Two can play at this game!" Mozenrath said, as he resurfaced from underneath the water. He then chanted, "King of Waves!"

The water in the pool rose up in a giant wave and splashed down on Sadira, drenching her.

"By the caverns of Jung, Ice Shuriken!" Sadira chanted. The water around her rose and changed into sharp ice throwing stars that darted in Mozenrath's general direction, "What in the name of Agrabah are you doing here?"

"Sapphire Storm!" Mozenrath chanted back. The remaining water in the pool rose up into multiple sharp points and clashed with the ice throwing stars. He then got out of the pool and said to Sadira, "I'm here for my pendant of course!"

"No way! I won that pendant fair and square!"

"You won nothing! You stole it from me, you little pest!"

"Well, it's your fault for being too slow to catch me to get it!"

Mozenrath grew irritated with her, "I've had enough of this! I came here to get my pendant! Not to bicker with some little girl!"

"Little girl? Do you need glasses or something?"

"Only an amateur sorcerer would need to do some chanting for an attack spell!"

"Any sorcerer who doesn't is as old as time!"

Mozenrath fumed at this, "You take that back!"

Sadira stuck out her tongue at him, "Make me! How old are you? Are a hundred? No, I'm being too generous! Maybe you're a thousand years old!"

Now, it was a well known fact among sorcerers that they don't age as rapidly as regular people due, though this reason was unknown, it had something to do with the constant usage of magick, or something like that. Many sorcerers considered this a blessing to remain younger than they actually looked, but it also opened up many insults for those – like Mozenrath – who were sensitive about their ages.

"I've had enough of this!" Mozenrath yelled, "Fire Tempest!"

"Bring it on then, old man! By the eyes of Naeni – Water Tempest!" Sadira chanted.

The two elements clashed against each other and cancelled out, but the two sorcerers were on a war path to win. It wasn't only about the pendant now, oh no, it had escalated to a whole new level – young sorcerer versus old sorcerer, street girl versus upper class boy, and most of all – a battle of the sexes, mixed in with magick and a strong determination to be the victor of the battle, and their pride fuled them more than anything else.

However, pride couldn't fule their magick abilities and both of them had exhausted it within an hour, so they continued to fight physically. They were both getting a little exhausted, but they were having an andenaline rush at the moment. Sadira's robe was ripped up and was barely enough to cover her nudity. Mozenrath had several bleeding scratches on his face, which irritated him.

"I've got you now," Mozenrath said to Sadira. He had her in a head lock, smirking as she tried to get away, "Everybody knows men are far superior than women. Now, where's my pendant?"

"People are stupid," Sadira huffed and promptly bit Mozenrath in the arm that he was holding her in.

Mozenrath let out a long stream of curses, mainly directed at Sadira, and then tackled her.

"Now I've got you," Mozenrath growled at Sadira.

He then realized two things at this point. One – he was lying on top of Sadira, which looked very strange. Two – the top of Sadira's robe had slid away and he could see her breats in all their female glory. The last thing made Mozenrath, take the most notice, since he had never actually seen them before.

Well, – to tell the honest truth – he had seen them. It was the time after he had turned Destane into a Mamluk and looked through his things to see what he could throw away and what he could use. One of the items he found was a very graphic picture of a naked Mirage in several interesting positions, but he had suppressed those images into the back of his mind never to be remembered again for sanity reasons.

"…what?" Sadira growled at him.

Mozenrath couldn't help but stare/ "…nothing…" he said in a very small voice.

"You do anything to me and I will scream," Sadira hissed at him.

Mozenrath made a face. The idea of doing anything with this girl – or even touching her to begin with – repulsed him on many levels, simply because he himself hated to be touched by people, or anything to begin with. Sadira saw Mozenrath's reaction and was about to say something when the door opened.

Yes, I tricked you by letting you think Mozenrath would catch Sadira bathing. Don't hit with olives...they hurt me badly. - ZeroSoul

"Mister!" Billy said, "I found the eel! He was–"

Billy then stopped when he looked at Sadira and Mozenrath.

"It's not what you think! It's not what you think!" Sadira and Mozenrath said, panicking.

"Am I interrupting something?" Billy asked.

"SHUT UP! " Mozenrath growled, flushing with embarassed, and angrily left the room, as if pretending Sadira no longer existed. She didn't matter any longer, since his pride was on the line again.

Sadira was left on the floor, feeling very confused and a little cold.