Later on the balcony to her apartments Jasmine turned to her blue companion. "Genie, I have a favor to ask you."

"Heck." Genie declared. "What're friends for if not to help each other."

Razoul said softly. "I hope you can do it as she's missing her friend very badly."

"Now, Jas." Genie declared. "You know I can't bring back the dead. It wasn't just a rule. It was a fact. No one but Allah can do that."

"I hope this one's still with us." She said. "I hope you can find and bring Rajah here."

Genie nodded and raised a cautionary finger. "I'll try but I must warn you that I'm not what I used to be. I'm only semi-phenomenal. Thus, I cannot even create a facsimile of your friend if the man's no longer living."

"Rajah's not a man, Genie." Jasmine said with tears at the edges of her eyes. He was my tiger guardian whom Jafar took away from me and I want him back."

Genie scratched his head. "We could ask Jafar down in the dungeon what he did with him, but I'm afraid he's enough of a rat that he'd get greater pleasure out of spitting in our faces. Boy, is that man a rodent and Aunty isn't much better."

Razoul grinned at him. "You could light a fire under him."

"You mean mentally?" Genie took in the missing tooth grin. "No, you mean physically. Sorry, but I don't do torture."

Razoul nodded. "I don't hold with it either. But if Jafar ever badly hurt Jasmine, I'd make him an exception."

Genie nodded. "You might have to stand in line."

"Genie, will you at least try and find him?" Jasmine asked.

He sighed. "I'll try but I need some description as I've never met the striped critter in question."

Jasmine screwed up her face in thought and then said. "Rajah is a very powerful and strong, orange-striped male tiger who is very intelligent and cunning and was extremely loyal to me after I won his trust."

Genie had a notebook out and a reporter's hat on his head from a nineteen fifties' movie. He was scribbling fiercely in the notebook. "Any distinguishing characteristics or habits? Did he drink schnapps or wine? Did he like loose women in black leather?"

Razoul glared at him. "He was a tiger, not a man."

Jasmine sighed. "He hated all the foreign princes who tried to woo me. Rajah tore their pants off and they thought this is a man killer. Genie, please try to find Rajah for me."

Genie put the notebook away and the hat vanished as he became Sherlock Holmes. "Dr. Watson was right when he declared I had a soft spot for a lady in distress. I'll try. One man killer coming up."

He metamorphosed into Gandalf complete with white beard, robes, and magic staff and began chanting. Blue circles of magic formed around him and radiated outward about ten feet before vanishing.

"Tiger, tiger, burning bright in the jungle of the night.

What the hand, what the eye that formed thy dread symmetry?"

He intoned. A low rumbling answered him as if off in the distance a storm was approaching.

"Tiger, tiger, burning bright in the jungle of the night,

No matter what the obstacle be, with Jasmine tonight here you be."

He brought his hands together. There was a flash of blue light about twenty feet in front of them, followed by a deafening crash of thunder. The odor of scorched hair and burning leaves filled the air. Genie reappeared in the midst of the smoke, looking weary. "Let's not make this a Hobbit." He declared before breaking into a coughing fit.

Blue smoke boiled skyward and then vanished to reveal a huge male tiger. His body frame rippled with muscles as he swiveled his head, looking frantically around. His eyes seemed to glow and moisture drooled from his mouth. His skin which appeared to have streaks of charcoal running across the white areas only to vanish in the striped areas heaved as he desperately drew in breaths. It was obvious that he'd been running hard. Grey smoke drifted out of the circle that was burned in the floor and as it dissipated it carried the odor of a fresh fire with it.

The tiger's eyes took in each one in turn and finally ended up on Jasmine. He stared at her for a long time, sniffed, frowned as if considering something, and then with a sigh nodded his head to her. He looked around again; this time taking in his surroundings before he spoke. "As God is not an Englishman, this is not the Punjab."

"No, my good man." Genie told him. "It's Arabia, but to be more precise, it's called Agrabah. Welcome home, Rajah."

The tiger regarded him for a moment as if taking his measure. "And you're right out of a Thousand and One Arabian Nights by that idiot Burton." He retorted.

Razoul leaned his head towards Jasmine who was tightly clutching his hands. "I didn't know Rajah could talk." He whispered.

"Rajah couldn't before." She whispered back. She frowned. "I don't think this is Rajah."

The tiger looked at her and there was something steely about his gaze. This was no laughable sidekick. This was a thousand pounds of killing machine. "So, do I have you to thank for my being here?" He snarled.

Jasmine snapped. "Yes, and we can send you right back where you came from immediately."

The tiger glared at her. "I'll die, before I let you send me back to that hell." He declared, leaving it very clear he was ready to fight.

Razoul said in an aside to Jasmine. "He might be even more valuable in a fight than Rajah would've ever been." To the tiger he asked. "Was someone trying to kill you? Is that why you don't want to go back?"

The tiger snarled out his reply. "They set the entire jungle ablaze in their mad desire to kill me. They didn't care that they were killing more creatures in minutes than I'd taken for food in years. They didn't care that they were killing thousands and thousands of animals."

"At first I tried to hide in the caves or the ancient ruins but their witch women flushed me every time. Finally, I ran until I could run no more. My choice was to stay in the jungle and burn or attack my hated enemy and die with a lead ball through my heart and my body trampled under the feet of their elephants."

"I'd steeled myself to try and take my greatest enemy with me when you snatched me from the fire." He nodded towards Jasmine. "I can sense you are the one who called me here. Do not send me back and I swear I'll serve you as well as Rajah did."

Jasmine scowled. "I don't want or need a slave. I only wanted to get my friend Rajah back. Do you know of my friend?"

The tiger nodded. "I met a tiger named Rajah in the jungle, smelling of humans and their magic and scared and confused. Rajah was lucky that I'd just gorged on a fat water buffalo and was bored."

"Rajah claimed to be from Agrabah and had been exiled here by an evil witch man, called Jafar, far from the one he adored, Jasmine." The tiger paused and sniffed. "You're Jasmine, aren't you? I smelled you faintly on him and I never forget a scent."

She nodded. "Yes, I'm Jasmine. What happened to Rajah?"

The tiger sat back on his haunches and sniffed. "I can scent another man here."

"Yes, there are a lot of us." Jasmine snapped. "What about Rajah?"

The tiger's eyes came back to regard her and there was no emotion there. "I told Rajah to be careful or the jungle or man would quickly take care of the dying. I told him that all territories here had been claimed."

"Rajah asked me where an unclaimed territory was. There was a vacant territory fifty miles north of us I told him and I left. However, I did not think Rajah would last too long."

"Unfortunately Rajah apparently did not take my advice and went seeking humans not knowing that the hand of man is set against our kind. Rajah's attempts to get food led to the villages and their livestock and brought their wrath down on all of us."

"The next time I saw Rajah was during their hunt for all tigers. The first I knew of it was when I heard the hunting horns and smelled the smoke from the red devil flower men call fire."

"In such a moment all thoughts of territory are abandoned. I led Rajah to the ruins where we could hide from the red flower and it was there that I lost track of your tiger. Rajah stumbled through some great arch with tigers engraved on its columns and vanished. I tried to follow but was denied. Then the hunt came and I heard my hated enemy call out that they'd found the killer, and then they were after me." He sighed. "The rest you know." He began licking the soot off his paws.

"Jasmine, I'd be careful with him." Razoul warned. "I think there's much he's not telling us. Having said that, I think it'd be useful having another tiger that'd help protect you while we're trying to save Agrabah."

Jasmine sighed. "What I want is my friend Rajah." She looked over at her other friend. "Genie, do you think you could trace Rajah from that temple?"

Genie shrugged. "I'll give it a try after the fires have died down, but as I'm no longer phenomenal I can't promise anything."

Jasmine turned back to the tiger. "The big question is what are we going to do with you?"

The tiger looked back at her and replied. "I'm not going back there. The enemy will be waiting for me and there'll be no cover to protect me. It'd be a death sentence."

He raised his head and declared proudly. "There I was a king. Here?" He shrugged and seemed to shrink a little. "I know nothing about the prey animals or how to hunt them. It would be to my advantage to do what your big friend with the missing tooth said - to be a guard for you; that is until it's in our interests to separate and go our own ways."

Razoul said. "You have good hearing."

The tiger shrugged. "Comes with the territory."

Jasmine looked over at Genie. "Can you put a loyalty spell on him?"

"There's no need for that." The tiger said. "Once I give my word I never break it and I rarely give it. Once I swear in my true name, I'll be yours until death."

"Whose death?" Razoul muttered.

Genie replied to her. "I'll know if he's lying, Jas, when he gives you his true name. If he does give it, then you don't need any spell from me. I know something about Shiva and the rest of that crowd." He shivered. "He'll wish he'd never been born if he breaks his word."

Jasmine stared at the tiger, taking in his strength and the rippling muscle work as he paced awaiting her reply. "Very well." She stated. "Swear to Shiva by your true name to serve Jasmine of Agrabah until your death or I release you."

The tiger spat on the floor and then looked at her coldly. "You're no fool. You caught the trap in my words and destroyed it." He smiled showing several inches of deadly fangs. "I think I'll like being in your service." His nostrils flared and he went still. His eyes seemed to be focused on Jasmine.

Genie looked over at Razoul. "Trap?" He asked.

Razoul nodded. "She saw it at once. If he served until death which was unspecified, it meant he could've killed her and satisfied the oath. That's one dangerous animal."

"You can say that again." Genie grew three heads which all repeated the phrase and then vanished. Razoul shook his head in disgust at the antics.

"Swear, tiger, or go back to the fires." Jasmine ordered.

The tiger instead of answering reared back on his haunches and roared until the castle echoed to the sound and then he leapt straight at her. Genie gasped in horror and fumbled with a spell to blast him as Razoul leapt forward, drawing his sword.

But the tiger sailed over Jasmine's head as she ducked and the spell missed both of them; he crashed into the wall behind her and met something unseen and then bore it to the ground.

Someone cursed in Arabic and the tiger bit savagely, got a purchase, then jerked his head back, and started shaking something. There was a scream and red blood squirted from the tiger's side. The tiger's large right front paw with its three inch talons went ripping across its right side. There was another scream and abruptly there was a dagger bouncing across the floor, spraying drops of red blood from the blade.

The tiger growled, knelt down and his jaws gripped something hard. There was a faint gasp, followed by a shimmering and suddenly the tiger was holding an unconscious man by the throat in a death grip.

Genie recognized him immediately and let his next spell die unborn. "It's Jafar! Somehow he escaped from the dungeons and came here to kill Jas."

Razoul who was helping Jasmine back to her feet after she'd assured him she was all right declared. "Those cells were never really meant to hold people like him. I bet that cursed old hag is gone too."

Jasmine said. "Genie put a holding spell on him." When it was in place she commanded. "Tiger, you can let go now."

The tiger gave Jafar another shake for good measure and then stepped back. "I told you earlier I smelled a man. This one's scent was all over Rajah." He grinned down at Jafar. "I'm hungry. I can solve a lot of problems with your permission."

Jasmine sighed. "You're tempting me, but maybe later." She smiled at the tiger. "I don't think we have to have a formal swearing now as you've proven yourself to me."

The tiger shook his head. "The swearing will be made so that none will ever say I broke my word." He then looked in her eyes and said. "I swear to Shiva to serve you until my death or you release me. This I swear by my true name, Shere Khan."