Chapter Fourteen: The Cave

Merida opened her front door carefully.

After she and Peter had made sure that the cage would hold Jafar, they told everyone to meet at Merida's. All that was left for them to do now now was get Jafar into the one thing that could hold him.

Jack, Sweet, and Aladdin were sitting around Merida's table playing cards. They looked like they had been at it for quite a long time.

Merida gasped, and the three men looked up at her.

When she had left her home, a clone of Jim had been tied up in a chair. Tied to that same chair now was a man with olive skin, ragged clothing, black eyes, and a black beard.

Merida felt Sweet's hand on her shoulder.

"That's what Jafar really looks like. Nasty, isn't it?"

Jafar looked up at them, sneering.

"It's time." Peter said, walking into the room.

Jack stood up, grinning.

"Where are we goin'?"

Peter gave Jafar a sideways glance.

"You'll see when we get there."

Peter kneeled down next to Jafar and began to untie his bonds. Merida got on the other side of the chair, acting as a guard.

Once he was untied, Peter tied Jafar's hands in front of him.

When Peter had Jafar secure, everyone walked out of the house and joined the others.

The entire group consisted of Peter, Merida, Jack, Aladdin, Doctor Sweet, Jim, Tiana, Naveen, Jasmine, and Mulan. Each one of them was positioned around Jafar.

Peter set off in the direction of the cave, and everyone followed him.

Aladdin and Naveen kept a small conversation going, but other than that, the walk was silent.

Once they got to the trap door, Sweet walked up to it and put his hand on his chin.

"Peter, we can't all fit down there."

Peter looked around at everyone and nodded.

"Me, Merida, and Aladdin will go down. The rest of you, stay out here and stop anyone from coming out."

Aladdin nodded and began to climb down. Once he had gone a few feet down the hole, Merida began to descend the ladder.

After a few seconds, she could hear (and partially see) someone, most likely Peter, pushing Jafar towards the hole.

"I can't very well climb with my hands tied, can I?" Jafar said, looking down the hole. He smiled at Merida. She focused on her hands.

There was a brief silence, and then someone began to untie Jafar's hands. After a few seconds, Jafar began to climb down, with Peter climbing as close to him as possible.

The four were silent as they went down the ladder, excluding Jafar, who was softly humming. Merida carefully put her hands on each rung, making sure that she wouldn't fall.

When they had all gotten down, Peter re-tied Jafar's hands.

"Not too tight." He said, smiling at Peter.

Peter pulled the rope hard, and they walked down the narrow path to the cave in silence.

When Merida got into the room, she felt along the wall for the light switch.

"Peter, I can't find the switch, can you help me?"

There was no response.

"Peter?"

Merida tried to look for him, squinting into the darkness. No one responded.

"Peter? Peter!" Aladdin called out from the other side of the cave.

Suddenly, the lights turned on. Aladdin's fingers scraped off of the switch, and Merida looked around.

The only people in the cave were she and Aladdin.

Merida ran down the path, screaming Peter's name, but there was no response.

Once she had gotten back to the ladder, she quickly climbed up it, taking two rungs at a time.

It took her two and a half minutes to get up to the surface, and she flung herself onto the ground.

"Merida!"

Tiana grabbed her arms and sat her up.

"They're gone. They're gone." Merida said, panting.

How could she not notice? She felt a stab of guilt in her chest.

Aladdin crawled out of the hole and sat next to Merida. Jasmine went to him and rubbed his shoulders.

"They?" Mulan asked, kneeling next to Merida.

Merida was breathing hard, and she could see her vision going blurry from tears.

"Peter and Jafar."

The only sounds were Merida and Aladan's labored breathing.

"That's impossible, no one came out." Jim whispered.

"Then," Merida said, looking up at Jim "then they must still be in there somewhere."

She got up to go back in the cave, but Jim put his hand on her shoulder.

"Stay here, I'll go."

She looked up at him, her face hard.

"No."

They stared at each other for a long second, and then Jim sighed.

"Well, I'm at least coming with you."

Merida was going to protest, but every second that passed, Peter could be getting farther and farther into the caves. She nodded quickly climbed down the ladder.

When they both were on the ground, Jim put something long and skinny in her hand.

"Here." He said.

She looked down at it and realized that it was a flashlight. She turned it on and whipped the light beam along the sides of the cave, and her jaw fell open.

Each wall was dotted with different turns and pathways.

There was a small silence, and then she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay, Merida, We'll find him."

She couldn't say anything, so she just nodded.

"Where were you when you last heard Peter?"

Merida felt panic creeping up her spine.

"Right here."

Jim took a sharp breath.

"Well, then, let's get started."

Merida started to go into the closest path on the left.

"You take the right and I'll take the left."

Jim grabbed her arm.

"Merida, that's a terrible idea."

She was becoming impatient. They had already wasted so much time already, and there was no way of knowing how long Peter and Jafar had been gone.

"But we'll find them faster!"

Jim pulled her face an inch away from his. She tried to wriggle away, but he held her tightly in place.

"Merida. It's not going to help if one of us gets lost, or worse, finds them and can't handle Jafar alone. We need to stay together."

Merida was beginning to feel how close his face was to hers.

"Fine." She cleared her throat "Let's start with the left."

Jim nodded, and they walked into the first sub-cave. After a few minutes, they hit a dead end.

Merida turned around to walk back, but Jim ran into her, pressing her against the wall.

"Oh. Sorry." He said, backing up.

"It's okay." She said, feeling a blush creep up her neck.

She quickly walked to the next path.

The next few were similar in structure, and brought no sign of Jafar or Peter.

"If they're all like this, then this should be easy, right?" Jim asked.

Merida looked at him. Nothing was ever easy.

The forth path they chose went down just like the others. Merida was expecting a dead end, but instead they hit a fork. She shone the flashlight down each one, but couldn't see anything.

"Left?" Jim asked, and Merida nodded.

The path got smaller and smaller until Merida thought that she wouldn't be able to go anymore. She was about to suggest that they turn around and go down the right path, but her flashlight caught a curving of the wall.

Merida and Jim ran until they were inside of the small cave.

"Mer?"

She shone the light to her left and saw Peter lying on the ground.

"Peter!"

Merida dropped to the floor and tried to help him up. He looked like his arm was hurt, and his face was bleeding in a few different places.

"Where's Jafar?" Jim asked after Peter had stood up.

"I don't know. He threw me in here and then left."

Jim nodded and put his arm around Peter, and the two helped him onto the main pathway.

"I'm going to keep looking for Jafar. You stay here with Peter, okay?"

Merida nodded and carefully lowered Peter to the ground.

She sat across from him and looked his face over. He must have put up a good fight.

"What happened?"

Peter rubbed his arm lightly.

"I don't know. I was walking, and then all the sudden, Jafar had his hand over my mouth. He managed to pull me into that cave and knock me out. I woke up when I heard you guys coming."

Merida carefully wiped the blood from Peter's face. To her relief, it looked like he wasn't actually bleeding anymore.

"Oh, Peter." She said.

It seemed like this always happened. He got hurt trying to save her, and she was perfectly fine.

Was that fair?

He looked up at her and smiled. It looked pained.

"It's okay, Mer."

Merida looked at his face for a long time. Something felt wrong.

"Merida?"

She had seen that look before.

"Are you okay?"

How could she be so stupid?

"Mer?"

She jumped on top of him, pinning him to the floor.

"What the-?"

He looked up at her face, and she stared back down at him.

"You're not Peter."