Chapter Four
The Sultan's Daughter
Flying back in the palace at close to midnight, I landed on the balcony. I was greeted by none other than Jasmine, the Sultan's daughter. She hated me, for no good reason mind you, all I did was accidently bite her hand for trying to feed me disgusting stale crackers, not that big a deal. But apparently to the Sultan's daughter, the biggest drama queen in the whole world, almost biting off her hand earns you a place on the "You are dead to me" list.
"Hello bird" she said scolding, I didn't answer her, I wasn't supposed to. "Look I know you probably don't understand I word I'm saying" she continued, "but I really need you to listen okay?" I nodded my head to show her that I was listening and perched myself comfortably on the head board of her bed.
Jasmine was about the same age as Aladdin, which is extremely convenient and awkward at the same time. I mean, hey if you're boyfriend/husband was the same age as you it would at first, be a little weird don't you think? I thought so too.
"Daddy's getting really serious with this whole marriage thing" she began, "I don't know what to do" Marriage? She was 10? Marriage technically shouldn't even be an option here, but what am I talking about this is the Middle East, the men here are more desperate than a starving homeless guy when it comes to getting sexual satisfaction. Especially Jafar. Seriously the guy is a creeper rapist, I've seen him look at her or try to when she goes to the bathroom, it's disgusting and I know now that the saying, "There are some things that you can't un see" is completely and totally true.
Not knowing exactly what my response should be considering that I'm not supposed to talk to any human expect Jafar, I squawked again. Squawking by the way, is extremely uncomfortable, seriously, to say that it hurts my throat is an understatement in itself. But nonetheless, Jasmine smiled at me, "Thanks for understanding" Understanding? What exactly did I do? Nothing. That's humans for you.
When Jasmine left leaving me alone in the room, I felt immensely sorry for her. Here she was stuck in the palace, forbidden to leave and not to have any contact with anyone who wasn't already in the palace walls. I knew that I would have to help her, like I helped Aladdin, but now the situation was much more delicate because of two particular set of people, Jafar and the Sultan himself.
Dinner at the palace was always the same, crackers. How I hate crackers. I used to love them to be honest, but then I kept getting crackers- every single meal. Do you have any idea what's it's like to be fed almost nothing but crackers? It's terrible. I've resorted to eating the garbage just to get protein, only to find nothing but leftover bones. This is the reason why I hate the Middle East.
The Sultan is an eccentric to put it lightly, well normally he would be an eccentric, but now he was just depressed. To be fair, his wife did just die from a horrible disease that has no cure and is nameless, so I guess I'll cut him some slack on the crackers for now-at least until the mourning period is up.
"So my dear" the Sultan said gravely, "You know that I only want what is best for you" Jasmine huffed slightly to herself, "What's best for me?" she answered, "Marriage dad? Really? I'm 10!" the Sultan only let out a small sigh and continued eating. Jafar meanwhile gazed at Jasmine as if she were prey. I had to intervene, it was too much, "Jafar" I yelled but nothing happened, "Jafar!" Still nothing. I sighed, "Polly want a cracker" Jafar looked me and stuffed three large crackers down my throat. Struggling, I saw that Jafar immediately turned to Jasmine again, so I could only think of one thing. "Polly want a cracker, Polly want a cracker" I continued this for most of the meal, which was close to about two hours before Jafar finally snapped. Taking the entire bowl of crackers, which was big enough to fit three grown men into, Jafar began stuffing the entire contents of the bowl into my mouth. He never stopped to check and see if I was still breathing. To this day, I never want to eat another cracker again.
Jasmine walked over to me and got a small bowl of water. Holding it up to my mouth, which was extremely dry- I was probably close to death I was dehydrated so much, I drank. I think that was the moment that Jasmine didn't hate me completely, looking at her with surprise and seriousness I squawked happily and then spoke, "Thanks for that" Jasmine then smiled, "You're welcome" the Sultan meanwhile was too busy eating to notice that I was speaking and Jafar was too lost in himself to care, "Listen" I said, "you don't have to live your life the way your father wants you to. It's your life after all" Jasmine's smile only increased, "You know, for a bird, you're not so bad, Iago" I bowed my head solemnly and she returned to her seat. It was then that our estranged relationship began.
On the days that I wasn't with Jafar, which were many I must admit, I was with Jasmine. I tried to show her the beauty of the world by bringing her all sorts of different things from around the city, her favorite things were the flowers, so I taught her how to plant them. I also taught her the basics, becoming something of a tutor. I taught mathematics, science, politics and government, writing, poetry, singing and music. I was the jack of all trades and the best part was, it was our secret.
One day we were sitting in the garden next to the large fountain. The scenery was quite beautiful and honestly would've made for a prefect romantic session but I had strict rule, no teacher-student relationships. Despite the fact that I was growing some pretty strong feelings for her, and almost came close to breaking that rule. "What's a Street Rat?" she asked, cocking her head to the side as if she were playing with me, "A street rat?" I answered, my first thought came to Aladdin and how I hadn't seen him in close to what would've been a year. It made my heart sink a bit just thinking about him, wondering if he was still alive, "It's a criminal. Nothing more than a common thief" I continued. My answer was a lie and I knew it and I think that she knew that I knew it. Luckily for me, Jasmine was smart enough to see that I didn't want to talk about it anymore, so we never did.
Do you ever get the feeling that you're doing the right thing for the right reasons? Well I only had that feeling once, and that was when I decided to end my friendship/relationship with Jasmine. It was too risky me being Jafar's servant and her being the Sultan's daughter for us to continue the lessons. That and the fact that secretly I was falling in love with her. To make it official, I did the worst thing that I have ever done to any one person, I destroyed the flower garden, the books I had bought, the instruments we used, and everything else that was even remotely related to our lessons. I then had Jafar use his staff to erase her memory of the entire incident and our friendship as a whole.
I swore to myself then that I would never fall in love again, and so far I've kept that promise.