whooo just withing the 3 months I said after which you could worry about me XD I'm sorry it took so very long. first there was the MarcoAce week and then suddenly real life got very busy, but the new chapter is finally here ^^ I hope you can forgive me.

Thanks to Aerle and Thérèse for betaing! :D

Enjoy~!

Chapter 5:

Genie in a bottle

I was surprised at how much luxury there was inside Izo's home. At the back of the room laid a mattress with a lot of cushions on and around it, which seemed really comfy. Against the side wall stood a small cabinet and it even had a mirror above it! A small window took care of the light inside the room. When I turned around, I saw there was a small closet against the other wall as well. It wasn't even a third the size of the princess' closet I had hid in only a short while before, but still big enough to store a lot of clothes.

"Make yourself comfortable," Izo said, but I had already let myself fall down on the mattress. He chuckled and sat down next to me – a little too close for my taste, but I didn't try to move away. Thatch laid down on the other side of me, placing his dog's head in my lap. I raised my eyebrows, but again didn't do anything to change it.

"So, uhm, what is this place, where you live?" I asked my colleague thief. "It looks like a brothel."

Izo chuckled. "And how would you know what a brothel looks like from the inside? You're as green as grass."

"I'm not!" I protested while fighting the blush off my face. I sent him an annoyed look. "Not at all."

"Oh, so you have visited a brothel then?"

"No!" What the hell was he thinking of me? This was just how I imagined a whore house to look like. "That doesn't mean I have no experience at all, though!" Well, it didn't. Those two things had nothing to do with each other.

Izo laughed. "This is not a brothel, Ace, it's just a place that offers a roof above our head, for a very low price. It's for people with shady jobs, let's put it like that. And it's a place where women and… men like me gather. Even though we don't have that much contact with each other. It's more that we don't need to worry that one of our neighbors creeps up to us at night."

I nodded understandingly, but wasn't exactly sure of what he meant by 'men like me'. "Can I ask you a question?" I started carefully. When he looked expectantly at me, I continued. "Are you a eunuch?"

The crossdresser looked amused. "You want to check that for yourself?"

An image formed itself inside my mind that I couldn't appreciate. It showed on my face too. "No, thanks."

Izo chuckled. "I can assure you, everything is still where it's supposed to be."

But then he came down to business. "Now, tell me what happened inside the palace walls."

I shook away the image that was still inside my head and remembered why I was here. "Well, it was as you said, I landed in the gardens. There was one man standing at guard at the back entrance of the palace and another patrolling along the wall. I was lucky to land when he wasn't at that particular spot at the moment. Anyway, the princess has a duck, one of those super spot-billed ones, which had spotted me very quickly and he immediately got Vivi, so it wasn't very hard for me to find her."

"Good, so did you become friends?"

"Don't be silly. No one makes friends that quickly." Especially not me. "Besides, I'm still a criminal and she knows that. Despite that, she still took me to her room to talk. You wouldn't believe how gigantic the palace really is! We didn't come across many guards, which surprised me a bit, but I guess they thought it would be enough to have a guard at every entrance. Inside her room, the princess told me something interesting though. She is held hostage in her own home. She can't leave without anyone to accompany her. This means that the guards aren't only there to protect the palace from outsiders, but also – and according to her, mainly – to keep her inside."

"Really?" Izo looked thoughtful. "I hadn't expected the king to treat his daughter like that. But now that you mention it, I have rarely seen her outside the palace, so I guess it does make sense."

"Well, she said her father did it for her own good, or what he thought was right, but that's beside the point," I said.

"So did she tell you anything more that could be of use for us?"

I thought about it. "Not really. We were interrupted."

The crossdresser raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean? Did you get caught?" The tone in his voice betrayed that he was very displeased if this were to be true.

"I didn't get caught! Well, not really. There was a servant who wanted to check up on her, but I had enough time to hide," I explained. "However, before that, I had taken off my boots and I forgot to hide them with me."

Izo pinched the bridge of his nose. "What a thief you are. Can't even clean up your own trail?"

"Oh, shut up! It could happen to anyone." I wished he'd just let me talk. "The guy saw them, but instead of searching for me, he gave her a lecture on how I would be a thread to her virginity."

Izo snorted. "You?!"

"Yeah." I still thought it was ridiculous. "But after that, he told her he'd get tea, in other words, gave me an opportunity to get away."

He frowned. "Why?"

I shrugged. "Dunno. He said he wasn't really one for rules. Apparently, he trusted her, I think."

Izo didn't seem convinced, but let it rest. "Okay, so he hasn't seen you? He doesn't know who you are?"

I shook my head.

"Could you get away without problems?"

"Yeah, pretty much," was my answer. "I had to hide one time and distract another guard with a little fire, but I don't think anyone has seen me."

The crossdresser sighed. "Well, that's something. Can you tell me a bit of how the palace is build up? I mean, how do you get to the princess' chamber, for example?"

I looked apologetic to him. "I'm not sure. You know how big that building is? It's easy to get lost in there! But she lives on the second floor. I think I could point it out from the outside." Suddenly, I realized something. "Well, I hope I can. I'll have to. We agreed to meet again the day after tomorrow and I promised to come through her window."

"How romantic," Izo commented slightly sarcastically. "So you don't know where the important stuff is, like the treasure room and such?"

I rolled my eyes. "No, she didn't give me a tour through the palace." But then I remembered something. "However," I undid the first buttons of my clothing, "I did bring you something." Carefully I took out the candle stand.

Izo sat up and took the object from my hands. "Is this real gold?"

Shrugging, I said, "I'm not an expert, but I don't think they put fake golden candle stands on their tables in the palace."

Izo nodded satisfied. "Okay, well, it's something." He put the candle holder on the floor next to him. "But we need to think of the bigger picture. When you go to visit our princess again, I'll come with you. Not to her room," he added when he saw I was going to protest. "Whatever the hell you do there is up to you, but I want to take a look around and, if possible, inside the palace too. Just to get an impression, since you're not really succeeding in giving me one."

I was going to throw a remark back at him, but was interrupted by a wet nose that was pressed against my leg. My dog gave me a pleading look and suddenly I noticed that his scar was visible around his eye. Thatch was probably trying to tell me that we should go home. He had said he wasn't able to keep a different appearance for a very long time, after all. It seemed that time was running out now.

"Alright, fine," I said while standing up. "I'll help you get on the other side of the wall. Shall we meet at the same spot again?"

"That doesn't seem like a very good idea. They found two half dead guards there today. Don't you think they'll keep an extra eye out around there?" Izo stood up too. "Let's meet in that alley you waited for me today when I did my little act."

"Okay. Well, I'd better get going now," I said, not wanting to come across as if I was in a hurry to get away, but still being just that.

"Don't you want to stay for a cup of tea?" Izo asked, seeming a little offended that his company was already about to leave.

"Uhm, next time. Stefan really needs to be taken out for a walk." Well, that sounded like a bad excuse.

The crossdresser looked at my dog, cocking his head slightly. "Why did you call him Stefan?"

I frowned. What did that matter? "I… uh… it just seemed fitting. It was like he told me to call him Stefan," I said slightly sarcastically. "Why?"

Izo shrugged. "Oh, nothing, it's just not a very common name for a dog."

"I guess so." I turned to face the exit. "Well, see you the day after tomorrow then. Eleven p.m.."

"Sure," Izo said. "It's a date."

I rolled my eyes while walking out of the room. "No, it's not."

Me and my dog had only barely made it out of the building, into the empty alleyway, when Thatch turned into his normal form again. "Jeez, I really couldn't hold that much longer."

I snorted. "You were the one who wanted to come along so badly, so stop complaining."

"Oi, I couldn't know you two would take so long, could I?"

"What, you thought we could go home again in five minutes?" I shook my head. "We'll, you'll have to turn into something other than yourself again or go back into the lamp, 'cause I don't want to be seen with you."

"You talk of me like I'm something embarrassing," Thatch said offended.

"You are."

"Hey, that's mean!"

I chuckled. "I was only kidding. But you're too obviously a genie."

"Talking about being a genie," the brunet started, ignoring my wish to transform completely. "Did you already decide what your second wish will be?"

Looking around the corner, into another alley, I stopped and whispered, "No, I didn't. Now turn into something less genie. There's people on our way."

Grumbling, Thatch took the form of the dog again. "Just hurry up. I won't be able to keep up this look for very long."

The sun was almost setting the next day, when I reached the building I was going for. This time I had managed to go out alone and left my genie at home. He should be able to take care of himself.

I walked through the entrance of the coffee house, taking off my hood so that I could get a better view of the room inside. However, I already knew my way around and went straight for the bar.

The barista immediately looked up at me. "Ah, Ace! How nice of you to visit again. The same as usual?"

Nodding, I sat down. I only had to wait a short time, before a damping mocha was placed in front of me. "Thanks Magura."

"That one's on the house," the man said and I smiled. The first one for me was always on the house. Sometimes I wondered why I didn't come here more often.

"So how's life going?"

Oh yeah, that was why. They always wanted to know everything about me. It wasn't without reason that I had left their house, while I was still practically a kid. Even though life might have been slightly easier if I had stayed with them, I just couldn't bear their constant concerns and interferences. They were always trying to control me one way or another.

"Yeah, fine, thanks," I tried to get away with a short response.

"Yeah? What're you up to, lately?" Magura continued. "Not much good, I heard."

The downside of having your former caretakers own a coffee house, was that they always were the first to hear the gossips going around about you.

"Set half of the market place on fire a few days ago?" He pushed on, trying to make me talk.

I rolled my eyes. "You know things always get exaggerated. It were only one or two stands… I think. Though the neighboring stands could have caught fire too… but hey, I can't help that!"

The barista chuckled. "I'm glad to hear you never change, Ace."

I looked around as he asked me another question, concerning my health. I didn't really listen as my eye caught sight of a story teller that had gathered around a lot of customers to hear his story. He had graying hair, though traces of blond could still be seen, and a small beard. On his nose rested a pair of round glasses that didn't really do anything to hide the scar that ran across his right eye.

"Who's that?" I asked the barista.

"Oi, Ace, I was asking you a question," Magura replied slightly displeased. "You aren't sick, are you?"

"No, I'm not! I said I'm fine!" I answered and hoped the guy would stop asking questions already. "I don't think I have seen that man before. Is he new here?"

Magura shook his head. "Nah, he's a traveling story teller. He's been here a few times before, through the years. He is a bit mysterious though. Don't know much about him myself, but he and Dadan seem to go way back, so he stops by here every few years, when he's in the neighborhood."

"Huh, can't remember seeing him before." I took a sip of my mocha. "Does he have a name?"

"Probably," the barista answered. "They call him the Dark King."

I raised my eyebrows. "Sounds fancy." Looking at the guy, I snorted. "And more dangerous than a story teller should be."

I started to listen to the narrative the man told for a while. It was about two thieves, a day thief and a night thief, who appeared to be both married to the same woman, but never met each other, because when the one was home, the other was working. One day they did find out, however, and they decided to hold a contest in who was best at stealing from people with a trick.

It was interesting, really, how detailed the Dark King could tell about those tricks, almost as if he had experience on that part. But that couldn't be; a story teller was a respected man.

However, he didn't seem to be just a story teller, but a magician too. One of the thieves – the day thief – tricked a soldier by exchanging his purse for a cucumber a few times, without said soldier noticing it, driving him mad. While the story teller told about this, he held up a purse and within a second, it changed into a cucumber. The audience was obviously impressed with it and again, when he 'magically' changed it back into a purse. Really, how did he do that? I couldn't find a flaw in his act that could explain how he changed the two so quickly. The purse just seemed to turn into a cucumber.

By the time the Dark King was halfway through the story, every one of the customers in the coffee house were hanging on his lips. It was always fun to listen to a good story teller, after all. And it was a pretty funny tale too. Eventually the night thief had the better trick and so, won the house and the woman. Well, that might be a bit of a flaw in the story, I thought, because what woman let herself be won? But oh well, it was an old story, I supposed.

My cup that had contained mocha, was long empty and I decided I should head home soon. I did leave Thatch alone there, after all, and I wasn't sure how good of an idea that had been.

As if I had voiced my thoughts of leaving, I heard an all too familiar voice enter the coffee house, from the direction of the living part behind it. "Ace! You weren't planning on leaving without saying hello to me first, did you?"

Only a few of the customers looked up at the voice, but most were used to it and had started conversations again. However, the story teller did look up, right into my eyes and smiled at me. His smile had something reassuring.

Then I tore my eyes away from him, facing Dadan's immense bosom, where I was pushed into at the moment. I tried to struggle out of her tight hug, but I didn't stand a chance. It was a good thing she was on my side.

"Let me go, you old hag," I said, finally freeing myself. "I was indeed just planning to leave."

"Is that your thanks for all these years of raising you? Putting up with your bullshit?!" Dadan said, obviously faking her anger. "You're still the same brat you used to be."

I chuckled. I would never say it out loud, but I did miss her a little when I wasn't here.

"Do you take good care of yourself?" Dadan asked me. "You don't seem to get enough food, there barely is any flesh on your bones." I was going to protest, but she cut me off. "You can always come back here and help out and we'll feed you, you know that."

"No thanks. I'm an independent man, I can take care of myself, don't worry." It was not like I got that much food anyway, when I had lived here. They themselves barely made ends meet. And not only through the legal coffee business, that would not be enough to feed the whole 'family'.

Dadan snorted. "Well, could you not destroy half of the market next time, while being independent?"

"Why does everyone talk about that little thing?" I muttered. It wasn't like it was the first time I had set something on fire and neither would it be the last. But it had been a while ago since I did something so obvious, so... I guessed people just needed something to talk about.

"At least it's good you didn't get caught yet." The woman ruffled my hair, much to my annoyance.

I moved my head away from her hand. "Of course I won't get caught. Don't be stupid." I jumped off the chair. "Well, I gotta go now, got someone waiting for me at home."

Dadan and Magura both raised an eyebrow. "Someone?"

Just now I realized how that must have sounded to them. "Not like that! A friend, sort of... just someone I know, okay, don't ask."

The two of them looked at me, nodding slowly, but clearly not believing me. Oh, whatever, I didn't really care what they thought. I was just happy if they'd let me go without a fuss.

So I waved them goodbye and walked towards the exit, casting one more look at the crowd inside, but the story teller, who had just been smiling at me a minute ago, had already disappeared.

On my way towards my tower, I passed a small bazaar where they sold different kinds of clothes and stuff. One stand was selling cushions too, reminding me of Izo's home, where I had been the other day. Well, his bed had been comfortable...

I slowed down a little bit, thinking of just taking one with me. The salesman was busy with one of his customers, and not paying any attention to me, so it was kinda easy to just... I grabbed one of the turquoise colored pillows and walked on as if nothing happened.

However, from the corner of my eyes, I saw that a passing city guard had seen me. Oops.

I began to run, as the guard began to chase me. It was a good thing I was almost home already. But the guard was fast and almost caught up with me, when I reached the street that led to the tower I lived in. This was a good opportunity to test how well Thatch's magic worked.

I took a final sprint and ran right into the open doors of the building. There I stopped and turned around. The guard that had been chasing me a moment ago, had stopped as well and was looking around, rather confused. "What the hell... Where the fuck has he gone too?" I heard him mumble, while I was standing only a few feet away from him.

I sighed relieved. Good, so the genie's magic had worked. I would be save here.

Still holding the cushion between my arm and my side, I walked up the stairs. Slowly, very appealing scents reached my nose and they were accompanied by a sound. The higher I climbed, the better I heard the voice. "... be with me, baby there's a price to pay, I'm a genie in a bottle, you gotta rub me the right way~!"

As I reached the last stairs to my floor, I could clearly hear it was Thatch who was singing. "If you wanna be with me, I can make your wish come true, just come and set me frreeee baby, and I'll be with you~!"

I had reached the fourth floor and saw Thatch cooking some stuff above a fire that he apparently had started, while he was using a wooden spoon to sing at. "I'm a genie in a bottle baby, gotta rub me the right way honey, I'm a genie in a bottle baby, come come, come on and let me out."

I snorted. "That just sounds wrong from your mouth."

My genie brusquely turned around to face me. "What do you mean 'wrong'?"

"Just wrong," I said as I dropped the pillow onto the floor. "'Rub me the right way honey'... just, no." I shook my head.

The brunet rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, it's a genie classic!"

I chuckled, but then tried to look over his shoulder, into the pan he was holding. "What're you making? It smells good."

"Just some wild moose meat," Thach answered.

"Moose? What's a moose?" I looked at him with some skepticism. "Can you even cook?"

Thatch laughed mysteriously. "Oh, they come from a land, from a faraway place... In the far north of the world, there are lands covered in snow... you know, frozen rain..." he tried to explain, but he probably saw the doubt on my face.

"Thatch, those are fairy tales."

He chuckled. "No, no, it's true. There are countries where it rains constantly and where it's so cold that the rain turns into snow. Anyway, that's where moose live. They are some kind of deer."

I didn't know what to think of it, but decided to just trust him on this. He was a genie after all, and I was getting less and less surprised about the things he did. Besides, it smelled delicious, so who was I to complain?

And apparently Thatch was a very good cook, because I had never eaten something so tasty in my life. It was so good, in fact, that I dreamed about weird deer-like animals in a completely white world, that night. I was riding one towards the palace, where I took the princess with me to help her escape. It would all have gone perfect, if it wasn't for that pineapple headed servant that showed up to stop me, right before I woke up.

TBC~

The story about the night and day thieves is an existing Arabic story, just so you know that I haven't made that up when I was drunk or anything (Because Aerle thought so :P)

Also, if there is anyone who didn't recognize it, the song Thatch was singing, was 'Genie in a bottle' by Christina Aguilera. It was stuck in my head since the beginning of this story, so I had to make Thatch sing it XD

Next chapter will have some Marco in it again, I promise.

Please leave a review with your thoughts! :D