Chapter Eight- When Everything Unfolds

"So, this must be your first time in the marketplace, isn't it?" Aladdin inquired when they were safe and away from the palace guards. Jasmine gave a mental sigh of relief. She didn't need Razoul or the others to discover her just yet; she hoped it would never come.

Savannah stared at her while she climbed up the building, only to fall into his arms while she tripped on that last step. The two gazed at one another; both in confusion, both could feel their hearts pounding while Aladdin's grip tightened on her. Savannah slipped past the two, moving to find a pole to use to vault over to the next building. She still couldn't watch them.

"Is it that obvious?" Jasmine asked the other, referring to his previous question that she had just realized then that she hadn't answered.

"You do kind of stand out," he blushed a little, moving back a bit from her, but then cleared his throat when Savannah tossed him over a pole that nearly struck him in the face.

Jasmine looked at the two cautiously, noticing the way he looked at her. "So, you two are married?" She inquired.

Lucky for him he was quick on his bare toes. He used the pole, jumping over to the next building, he turned his back to the two women for a second, grabbing a plank for the new girl to use.

"Her and I? Oh, no, no. That's just a routine we use to get the guards off our back. We're not married."

Jasmine gave a slight smirk to herself while she thought the gesture was simple and cute; she wasn't going to say aloud she didn't need it. She grabbed a pole from the side and positioned it while the other was busy.

"What a clever idea," Jasmine hummed, digging the pole into the ground. Aladdin appeared to have changed the subject, looking to impress the girl with his skills and warnings.

"You just don't know how dangerous Agrabah can be," Aladdin commented in a supposedly manly voice that Savannah just rolled her eyes at. She glanced for a pole for herself, only to find Jasmine in the process of jumping over the building.

"Hey, wait!" she called out, but already found her safely on the other side of the building. He stared in pure surprise, he and Abu both.

"I'm a fast learner," she smiled, tossing the pole to Aladdin before moving towards the end of the building, Savannah still teetered behind.

The other street mouse sighed a bit and found a slightly shorter pole, but thought it would do. She positioned it as Jasmine had done moments ago and moved to jump, although with a dose of misfortune, she missed a step and nearly fell from the building while she caught onto the edge she had been aiming for. She pulled herself up; her eyes witnessing the other two forms walk away. She blew her hair from her eyes and groaned a bit as she tried to pick herself up, raising her leg, she used it like a grappling hook and rolled over onto the top of the building, discovering the two of them gone.

When she eventually caught up with the duo, Aladdin had been protecting the new female's head from the beams and poles that were rotting away. He brought her up to the very top just as he had shown her months ago.

"Is this where you live?" Jasmine was the one to inquire this time. Aladdin offered her a smile.

"Yep, just me and Abu, come and go as we please." Savannah's eyes widened a bit, clearing her throat purposely for a little attention. "Oh, right, Savannah, too," he laughed nervously, suddenly feeling like a husband that had just gotten himself into a fist full of trouble.

"Sounds fabulous," Jasmine said awe stricken while she hurried up further with the male who had both her hand and now her heart.

"It's not much," he added, letting her take a seat before moving the tattered and moth eaten curtain back to reveal that same amazing view of the palace that Savannah had grown to hate. "But it has a great view," he promised, noticing the sudden drop in her face, the glow that was once there was no more.

"Oh, sure, it's wonderful," she commented. Savannah leaned against the wall, raising a brow. Perhaps she possessed the same views as her? Could it be? Maybe she wasn't all that bad.

"You know, I always wondered what it would be like to live there," Aladdin said, hoping she wouldn't get the wrong idea, maybe, if he impregnated her head with a dream that she would suddenly have that glow again; that glow that made him blush. "Have some servants, valets…"

Unfortunately for Aladdin, this new woman wasn't biting.

"Oh sure, people telling you where to go, where to stand, what to do, where to do it, how to dress, how to talk…" She sounded absolutely miserable, which on some level delighted Savannah.

"Ah, but it must be better than spending your life here. Always scraping for food, ducking the guards, Savannah knows, don't you?" The other female nodded.

"They balance each other out, though," Savannah commented. "That's why the system is the way it is. You have your pros and cons. The system thrives on a balance of rich and poor. Unfortunately, we fall on the poorer end of the scale. We've been cheated of an actual life."

"Sure there's luxury and riches," Jasmine added. "But you're not free to make your own choices. You're always bottled up inside, locked away in some room…"

Aladdin took it as though she were talking about the life in general, how she must picture it. But he could relate. Being a street rat was the same token just the other side of it.

"But, sometimes you feel so…" he couldn't find the word.

"You're just so…" she couldn't find the word, either.

But sure enough, they found it, and in unison, they said, "Trapped."

Only two people who knew they're meant for one another claim the same feeling and say it the same exact moment they think it. Savannah cleared her throat once more, this time, on her own without any meaning behind it and turned her back to the two, staring out at the sky, ignoring the glimmer and glitz of the palace. Confusion overrode her, feeling this sickly feeling bubbling up in the pit of her stomach and she didn't like it a bit.

"So where are you from?" Aladdin asked taking an apple Abu had in his hands; the poor little monkey had just gone in to take a bite, too, only to open his eyes to find the red fruit gone.

"What does it matter?" Jasmine responded. "I ran away and there is nothing anyone can say or do that could make me go back."

"Really?" Aladdin asked, curious now what made this girl run away, he was sure she had a family waiting for her right at that moment that probably missed her, too.

"My father is forcing me to get married," she replied, biting her lip softly, disgusted at the words, the mere thought of being married to someone she didn't love. Savannah couldn't help but feel a little sympathy and a dash of compassion towards the girl. That was a good enough reason to run away.

Aladdin handed the apple back to Abu after he had taken a bite from it. "That's awful," he replied.

"You don't have to worry about a thing," Savannah said encouragingly, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder. Keep positive, she reminded herself. "You don't have to worry about any arranged marriages so long as you're here." The newcomer placed her hand upon Savannah's, nodding. It was a comfort knowing.

While the one comforted the other, Abu had plans of his own, eyeing the fresh, uneaten apple in the new girl's hand. Aladdin caught him trying to reach for it.

"Abu!" Aladdin shouted, shooing the animal away, only to receive monkey speech in response.

"What's wrong with him?" Savannah asked.

Aladdin quickly cooked something up in his head. "Abu says that's not fair and he wants to know if there's anything he can do to help?"

Jasmine smiled, finding it very sweet and thoughtful. "Oh really?" She glanced up at the monkey who just exploded with confusion, now perched on Savannah's shoulder who had been peeling her own apple, giving a shaven slice to the monkey. "Tell him that's very…" she moved in closer to the other. "Sweet…"

Aladdin would seize the opportunity, doing what his manly genes told him to do. There was no one else in the room but the two of them. They understood one another. He remembered long ago, his mother taught him about true love and how she met his father. Love was a force that possessed you, made you do crazy and uncontrollable things. Such crazy and uncontrollable things possessed him now. He leaned in, finding the girl hadn't been objecting him either. That was...until…

"There you are!" Razoul and his group of guards stood there, proud at finding what they had been searching for. The trio quickly stood.

"They've found me?!" The trio looked at one another.

"They're after you?!"

"Ohh, father must've sent them," Jasmine moaned, moving back towards the gaping hole in the wall. Aladdin quickly looked behind him, another brilliant idea coming to him, reiterating what had been said before about him being quick on his toes.

"Do you trust me?" He asked, offering her his hand. Savannah knew she had heard those words before.

Jasmine, at the moment had no choice as she took his hand, feeling the weight lifting as she fell and landed onto a pile of salt, Savannah falling right on top of Aladdin, the male gave an 'oof' in response.

"Looks like we keep running into one another, don't we, street rat?" Razoul smirked in triumph as he tossed Savannah off of Aladdin, grasping the male by his vest.

"Let him go!" Jasmine ordered, however, Razoul did not recognize her in the least.

"Well, look and what we have here men, another street mouse!" he and the men had themselves a hearty chuckle. He threw her down not too far from Savannah. Jasmine helped the other up before yanking off the hood from her robe, revealing the blue gem tiara. Desperate times called for drastic measures. As much as she didn't want to reveal herself, if it saved those who saved her, she had little choice.

"Unhand him, by order of the princess!"

That shifted the entire mood. The laughter ended, and bows fell all around her, aside from Aladdin and Savannah. Aladdin who had been forced to bow by Razoul and Savannah who had been wrestled down by another guard.

"The princess…?" Aladdin had been both dazed and confused. That vision, that dream girl, was the princess?

"The princess?" Savannah looked down. She didn't need anyone to make her bow. All this trouble; all because of the princess. They wouldn't have found them if she wasn't there.

"What are you doing outside of the palace?" Razoul inquired. "And with this common trash no less?"

"That is none of your concern. Unhand them now. Do as I command." If there was any time to throw around her power it was now.

"As much as I would love to princess, my orders are from Jafar. You'll have to take it up with him." It truly was out of Razoul's hands. He was all muscle with no real power.

Jasmine, now fuming, crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh believe me I will."

Now inside the palace, safe and sound, much to her displeasure, Jasmine walk throughout the palace searching for the man responsible for all of this. "Jafar!" she shouted when she saw him.

The tall lanky man, covered in garbs of maroon and black bowed as he opened up his cape. "My princess, how many I be of service to you?"

"The guards just took a boy and a girl from the marketplace," she began, then glared. "On your orders."

"Your father kept me in charge of keeping peace in Agrabah, the two were criminals."

"And what was their crime?" she questioned, placing her hands upon her hips, fingers biting through her pants. She felt the biting sensation in her flesh, it distracted her from shedding angered tears.

"Why, kidnapping the princess, of course," Jafar responded, giving her a smile to satisfy her, but the princess was hard to please.

"They didn't kidnap me, I ran away! What possessed you to think I was kidnapped?"

"Oh dear, how frightfully upsetting." He caught the look upon her face, no different reaction yet. "Had I but known."

"What do you mean?" He then went onto explaining to her how his sentence had already been carried out and there was nothing more he could do.

"What sentence?" She was almost afraid to ask.

"Death," Jafar replied, her eyes widened. There, that was the response he was hoping to find. He had dug into her long enough. "By beheading."

She collapsed onto an ottoman, lost and dumbfounded. But why? If only they had questioned her first. If only they consulted her first, this could have been avoided and the two would have been safe.

"I am exceedingly sorry princess." Jafar walked over to her, placing his long, seemingly decrepit fingers upon her shoulders, she yanked herself from his hold, glaring once more.

"How could you!?" Her voice had been hushed, choking back tears as her mind wandered further and further to the boy that had made her feel so strangely, but her tone was sure to bite into the vizier. No longer could she fight back her tears and restrain her emotions. She released herself from the environment and the scene, fleeing to tell her father of the horrid things Jafar had provoked. But only one thing really upset her more than anything: she didn't even know his name.