Dream Two: Why I'm Stuck
Oh Ra, I've been afk for nearly 3 months, forgive me! ( _ _ ( I had so many finals and stuff that I lost track of time, but yay, I updated one thing so far this summer! Hope this is okay ^_^
Thank you Whiplash Kotetsu, KF, and ElephantLover69 for reviewing, I love you guys! Especially Whiplash Kotetsu, since you know the manga!
"I'll always take care of you. No matter how far we're apart. No matter the time or place. I will be there for you."
Ah, Seira. She be a vixen no matter what world she's in. How did she get into that situation with Sinbad in the first place? Well, it all began in a little bazaar…
"Stop that kid!"
A little boy ran as the owner of the voice pursued him. The boy's large blue eyes were lit with panic as he dashed as though monsters were licking at his heels. Perhaps one really was, as the man chasing after him was as large as a Maurenian saber-tooth tiger.
But the man had a good reason for doing so. He was just trying to sell his apples when he noticed the boy snacking on two or three without even notifying him of their purchase.
And when the boy ran when he asked for payment, the chase ensued.
The boy had gained some great distance between him and the angry man on his tail.
"Just a bit further." The boy thought. Just a little more until he was home free.
At least that's what he thought before he crashed into a wall. A warm one to boot. His curiosity peeked as he felt a weird big bump where his outstretched hand hung above him on the warm wall. So he just had to squeeze it. It was really soft too. So he squeezed aga-
"Oi, kid," A voice rang from above him. "Stop groping me before I break your wrist."
The boy blinked twice before looking above him to see his "wall" glaring down at him. A feminine wall at that.
"Kid, are you deaf?" The lady growled. "Get your hand." The lady grabbed his hand that was on her chest. "Off my breast." With that, she dropped his hand, which slowly swung back to his side.
"Sorry, lady." The boy bowed slightly. "I wasn't looking at where I was going."
The woman snorted, flicking her long brown hair before crossing her arms. "Must've been something big distracting you for you to ram into the only person standing in the middle of the road."
The boy's eyes widened, remembering his situation. "I-"
"There you are, boy!" A hand roughly grabbed him by his blue hair, which was conveniently tied into a braid for the man. "You can't just expect to chew and screw like that. The only surefire way to put food on the table nowadays is money. And I can't make money if you eat all of my products now, can I?"
"This kid haggle his way out of your prices, Hassan?" The lady asked, putting a hand to her hip. She was amused at the prospect of her friend finally losing a bidding war to a customer.
"More like haggled his way out of paying in general." The burly man growled. "You know how hard it is to grow rajka apples? I'll tell you, it's hard! Very hard!" He lifted the kid up, putting him face-to-face with Hassan. "So you better hand over some cash right here, boy, 'else we gonna have a problem here. A bigger one."
"I'm sorry!" The boy squeaked, squirming in Hassan's grasp. "I was really hungry and I didn't have any money! I'm really, really sorry, mister!"
"Doesn't matter. I still want payment for my produce." The man gritted his teeth and hauled the boy over his shoulder like the bag of rajka apples he would have carried home if not for the fact they were in Aladdin's stomach. "Maybe the guards will have better sense with what to do with a street rat like you."
The boy shrieked at the sudden motion of both the man and his words and began squirming even more in Hassan's grip. "Please, not the guards! Anything but the guards!"
The brunette silently watched the scene before her, contemplating whether she should step in. Sure, the guards in the market were harsh, but surely they wouldn't punish a child so young.
Assuming they still had feelings left.
She racked her head for any other ideas and scratched the side of it when she couldn't find any others. Knowing the pure white voices of conscious in her head, which usually twittered about like mad birds, they all agreed on the humane thing to do.
She sighed, "And here I thought I could finally buy a hot meal with meat."
As Hassan attempted to pry the boy's hands off the edge of a nearby building, the brunette pulled out a sack from the sleeves of her cloak.
"Hassan." The struggling duo looked up at the sound of the brunette's voice. She shook the sack in her hand, the sound of metal clinking softly. "Trade?"
Said man narrowed his eyes at her. His friend knew fully well the price of his apples and they weren't cheap. "Are you sure?"
The brunette sighed again before nodding.
Hassan shrugged his shoulders. "Alright." He took advantage of the boy's distraction and managed pulled him off the building. "On three?"
"One."
He rolled his eyes at her impatience. "Fine."
Simultaneously, they tossed their respective objects to each other, one which was alive and screaming, and caught them.
Jingling the bag, Hassan nodded, satisfied. "Thanks."
"No problem, man." The girl nodded back.
With that, Hassan left to go back and tend to his beloved fruit stand.
"Now…" She held the kid up, staring at him.
The boy quivered, thinking of all the horrible things she would submit him to and shut his eyes in fear.
Instead of doing anything he had thought, she merely set him down.
She turned, waving at the boy as she walked away. "Stay out of trouble, kid."
The boy blinked in disbelief at the woman's retreating back. Was he really that lucky? Could there actually still be good people in this country? If so…
"Hey wait!" The boy cried, chasing after her.
The brunette, not paying mind to his cry, grumbled loudly. "Ugh, guess it's back to eating burdock."
"Lady, wait!" The boy cried again as he finally caught up to her.
"Ra, what do you want?!" She turned to the boy, irked by his loud voice. "All my money is gone, and I need to go find some jobs to recover it all!" She waved her arms around in fury. "Why, of all people, did you decide to eat Hassan's apples? Hassan, the merchant with the most expensive apples in the province!"
"…He has good apples."
The girl facepalmed.
"Look, I know you lost all your money from what you just did and I'm really grateful, miss." The boy cupped his hands in a pleading manner. Perhaps he could lead a better life if he tagged along with her. "So why don't I help you get it back? You could earn it all much faster with another set of hands."
She stared harshly at the boy before pinching the bridge of her nose. "Ugh, fine! I guess I could use you, kid. Come on then, we have work to do."
The boy smiled and walked alongside her.
"Name, kid?" She asked as they walked.
"Aladdin, miss!"
"Aladdin? Nice name." She smiled for the first time in the entire ordeal. "I'm Seira."
And so they traveled for some time together, scrounging up money, however they could. It was a nice life for a while until that happened.
"Thank you for your hard work today!" The store clerk placed several gold coins in Seira's hand.
"It was nothing." The brunette waved away the statement as she counted the coins in her hand. What she called nothing was the simple chore of carrying several 50-pound bags of flour over the span of 10 yards in one go. But really, it was nothing.
You should've seen that time she had to carry a full-grown horse over a river when the bridge nearly broke under the weight of the horse and its master, who should have bought an elephant as his steed to better carry the mass of a man he was.
The man, although grudgingly, carried his own weight across the bridge, the structure creaking under his every step, but the horse refused to cross the bridge after such a scare nor did it wish to cross the river. It seems, as the scaredy horse it was, also had a fear of touching water.
Thus, Seira carried it over without a single drop of water on the animal, for double the price its master had agreed upon for her help along the journey. So really, a few bags of flour were nothing compared to that poor, fidgety horse.
"Seira-nee!" She turned to the call of her name to see Aladdin running towards her. He panted as he stopped in front of her. "Did you hear?"
"I hear many things a day, Aladdin," Seira chuckled, pocketing the gold coins. "Of which do you refer to?"
Aladdin pouted at her reply. "Mou~, Seira-nee!"
Seira continued to laugh and fondly ruffled Aladdin's hair. She really loved to tease him. "Sorry, so what exactly is this thing you ask if I've heard?"
The bluenette immediately cheered up at her question. "They said the carriage of one of the princes is coming here! To Balbadd!"
Seira blinked several times before sighing. "Of course I've heard of that. It's all anyone is talking about around here."
From that store clerk, who had asked her to help him pack his store early, just so he could catch a glimpse of the prince, to that tubby wine merchant on the bridge a week ago, traveling from the distant Musta'sim when he heard only rumor that the prince would journey here.
She was only surprised that Aladdin hadn't said anything about it until now. She turned her gaze at the closing marketplace, having lost interest in the subject. "Is that all you wished to tell me?"
Aladdin tilted his head, perplexed by her unenthusiasm. "Eh? I thought you would be excited. It's not everyday you see royalty, let alone the great third prince, Sinbad!" His eyes sparkled, thinking about how much of a hero that prince was. Though the thought was quite ironic, since his Magi counterpart was quite discouraged by Sinbad's heroism.
"Third prince Sinbad?" Seira placed a hand on her chin in contemplation, attempting to place a face to the name. "Can't say I remember which one he is. Then again, I don't know much about Sindrian royalty…" She turned back to Aladdin and smirked when she realized the reason behind his mention of this. "You want to go see him, don't you?"
Aladdin gaped at her, opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water. He blushed in embarrassment under the teasing gaze of Seira's glinting eyes. Looking away, he replied without excuse, as Seira would have seen through it anyway. "I-if it's not too much trouble."
Seira furrowed her eyebrows slightly. She didn't really care for such fake parades such as this. It was just some noble passing by; it should be no big deal.
They were not gods or mythical creatures or even celestial bodies that one could only see once in their lifetime, let alone at all. They were just as human as anyone else. But then again, Aladdin hasn't seen such before so there should be no harm done in going.
She smiled sincerely. "If we go now, we could get a close look of him at the front of the crowd."
"Really?" Aladdin looked back at the brunette, who answered back with a nod. He beamed and leaped in joy. "Alright!" He grasped Seira's hand and pulled her along. "Hurry, he's going to be at the town square any minute now!"
Seira's smile faltered for a moment when she felt how hot and cracked the skin of the bluenette's hand was.
Had he been working too hard? She hoped Aladdin hadn't pushed himself during that job he took out in the fields. Well, there'd be plenty of time to rest after seeing this "Prince Sinbad".
Perhaps if she had made a different decision at the time, things would be different.
"Prince Sinbad!"
"Hail, Prince Sinbad!"
"Live long and prosper, Prince Sinbad!"
Seira had been wrong when she said they would be able to see the prince from the front of the crowd. Well, she would have been right if everyone else did not have the same idea.
And so they were pushed and shoved by the people behind them, so they themselves could catch a glimpse of this prince. What's worse was she had lost Aladdin in the wild crowd.
"Aladdin!" Seira decided that if these people had no remorse to shove her aside, then neither would she. She had a much bigger purpose for shoving too. She had to find the child who she had raised for quite some time now.
"Hey kid, get out of the way!"
Seira glanced over at the area she heard the voice, taking note the voice came from the driver of Prince Sinbad's carriage. Coincidentally, the crowd had parted for a moment, long enough for her to see someone kneeling in front of the horses. Someone with blue hair.
Seira's eyes widened in fright, remembering how mangled bodies were after being stomped by horses. And the driver seemed to have no intent of stopping for the person in front of the road nor did anyone attempt to pull the person out of the way.
"Please move!" Panicking, she pushed past the crowd to the road. "Aladdin!" She screamed, seeing the boy barely moving. Aladdin was panting and his face was flushed. The horses continued their steady clip-clop, unaware that they were heading straight into a child.
In a split second, Seira pushed forward and grabbed Aladdin, the force of the push sliding them past the path of the horses. Frightened by the sudden movement, the horses reared up and the driver desperately tried to calm them down.
Seira huffed and looked down at the bluenette in her arms. "Aladdin, are you ok?"
Slowly, he opened his bleary eyes. "…Seira?"
Seira pressed her forehead to his and scowled. "I knew it! You succumbed to the sunstroke! You should have told me!"
"Sorry," he smiled faintly. "I thought I could deal with it long enough to see Prince Sinbad. I didn't mean to worry you."
"Ugh, you prick of a child." She clutched him, placing her chin atop his head. "Don't scare me like that!"
"You brats!" The carriage driver yelled after managing to calm down the horses. "What are you doing, jumping out in front of Prince Sinbad's carriage?!"
Seira gritted her teeth and shouted back. "Aren't you the one at fault?!"
Acting all high and mighty just because he has some pretty clothes and a bit more gold than her!
She snarled, "Can't a prince of this country wait for a child to cross the street?!" She was right in her judgment of these people! They cared nothing for those that are covered in the tiniest bit of dirt.
The driver sweatdropped at her audacity. "This woman dares to bite back at the prince…" He slumped in his seat upon the carriage. Maybe he should just get it over with and apologize.
"Do you oppose the royal family?"
Without the notice of the driver and Seira, a man had stepped out of the carriage.
"Ah, Prince Sinbad!" The driver sat up in his seat. "What are you doing out of your carriage? I had this under control, sire!"
"It's quite alright, Kassim." The noble patted the driver's shoulder to assure him. He turned to look at Seira. "I'll ask you again; do you oppose the royal family?"
Seira merely continued to glare. She despised the royal family, but she knew better than to voice such distaste in front of one of its members and Aladdin, who could easily be identified as someone associated with her. Her work saving him from the guards would be for naught.
Sinbad turned back to his carriage, deeming her glare a good enough answer. He gestured the guards over to the brunette. "Guards, seize her. Take her to the palace."
Seira's eyes widened as men grabbed her arms and pried her hands free of Aladdin, despite her white-knuckled grip on the boy. "How dare you! Unhand me and that child! It is not a crime to have a dislike for nobles!"
Sinbad glanced back at the brunette and flashed her a smirk. Seira's glare grew fiercer and she thrashed in the grip of the guards. "Arrogant bastard!"
Suddenly, a blunt force smashed into the back of her head and black spots filled her vision.
Damn it!
Seira grit her teeth in anger, knowing that she couldn't fight against this. When she would awake later, a noose would probably be around her neck and a man would be yelling false or exaggerated accusations of her, like her "rude" behavior to the third prince.
If only I had noticed Aladdin's sickness sooner. Oh, Aladdin, I hope you're okay.
When she awoke later, not only was she not executed for her behavior to the third prince, but he had liked it. He had liked it.
The first thing that came to her mind was, "What is wrong with this weirdo?"
And that brings us around full circle. Now if only she could run circles around this idiot, she'd be scot free. Unfortunately, he's not so much of the idiot she makes him out to be.
7/26/2016: Edited small parts for bigger logic.