Just a bit of a quick preface to this chapter, I also added it to the bottom of the first and second chapters, but I'll put it here as well. If you've already read the edit about Neal, you can skip to the bolded chapter title. I've gotten three reviews, some even rather angry, because Prince Neal wasn't at the war meeting. Since this is apparently the most fascinating things so far in this story, I will explain where he is so you can all stop getting your panties in a knot. He's in Arendelle, he married the eldest daughter of Anna and Kristoff and she's currently under duress because she's having an extremely stressful pregnancy and needs her husband by her side. He's staying with his wife and unborn child which is why he couldn't deal with his parent's problems in the Enchanted Forest. So for the three guests, from July 1, July 8, and July 14 respectively who asked where Neal was: now you know. Why didn't I explain it in the earlier chapters? It wasn't relevant, the focus was laying exposition for Elizabeth, Melanie and Merida's quest, not for saying where all the family members are. So, thanks for your concern.
The Skeleton Army Is Underwhelming
It was the night before they left. Melanie had spent the day with the mathematicians, talking about commerce and economy and things that she found fascinating. Merida and Elizabeth played games with the young princess Jasmine, who marvelled as Merida would shoot apples off of Elizabeth's head, or when Elizabeth would perform magic tricks. But night fell, Jasmine was taken to bed, and the three girls eventually all went up to their room and fell asleep.
The next morning, the palace was abuzz with the expedition. Twelve men, the three girls, thirty camels, five elephants, three horses and baskets and containers to load up the riches as they left were all being assembled in the courtyard.
"We will travel west for three miles and south for one mile," Melanie was explaining to the group in Agrabah-ian, "There we will reach the coordinates of the temple. Merida, Elizabeth and I will break down the protective enchantments. Us and seven men will enter the temple to clear it of any other spells or protections. Once it is clear, we will load the gold onto the camels and elephants and return here. If lucky, we will be back by daybreak tomorrow. The rewards will be one percent of the riches per person, which based on the information from Jafar's records, will be over fifty thousand riyals."
"I see you've had practice," Elizabeth told Melanie.
"Two days with mathematicians who spoke primarily their native language really brought it all back for me." Melanie replied. "We go when you're ready, Princess."
Elizabeth nodded. She looked at all the men loaded onto their camels. She climbed onto one of the three horses that the Sultan got for her and the other girls. "Let's go!" She called. Melanie also climbed on her horse and shouted a translation at the men. The group moved forward, past the palace walls, into Agrabah. The citizens saw the Princess, dressed in her red leather, and her two companions, the camels, the elephants, and the men pass, and they stood there. Elizabeth smiled and waved at everyone, but all of Agrabah was looking at them, staring, sending them one silent message. Don't screw up.
Travelling through the desert wasn't fun. The heat scorched them, sweat dripped from their brow, underarms, down their backs and down their fronts.
"Oh, Melanie," Elizabeth said after almost an hour of silence. "I have a question."
"Ask away."
"How do you spell lieutenant?"
"L-I-E-U-T-E-N-A-N-T," Melanie said. "There are two pronunciations. The one you said, with a 'Loo' sound, or 'Leftenant'."
"Why 'Leftenant'?"
"Well, It was originally French, but in the late 16th century, it was introduced into the english language, and they pronounced L-i-e-u as 'Left'."
"Thanks," Elizabeth said.
"No problem," Melanie replied.
And then they continued on through the desert in silence.
The sun had reached its highest point in the sky and was slowly descending when Melanie motioned to stop. "We shouldn't be more than five yards away."
Elizabeth nodded and got off her horse, as did Merida, and the three walked forwards. "Do you feel it?" Melanie asked.
"It's primitive," Merida inferred. They stared at nothing but two boulders partially buried in the sand.
The three girls outstretched their palms towards the boulder, magic surrounding it. Instantly, the boulders broke free from the sand, and rose into the air. The boulders however, were not boulders, they were the tips of ears. From the sand a giant head of a tiger, at least fifteen feet tall, broke free. It's mouth was open as if it was roaring and a dim light was down it's throat. The seven best fighters accompanied the girls. To light the way, fireballs were conjured by the girls. Like their magic, each was a different color. Melanie had bright red and orange flames. Merida's were an acidic green. And Elizabeth's fire was bright blue. The multicolored lights lit the passageway down the tiger's throat, as the ten people went further into the mouth. Elizabeth, who was leading the way, slipped, and fell. She slid down the narrow, steep passage.
"Liz!" Melanie and Merida exclaimed as she vanished.
"I'm okay!" Elizabeth yelled back up. "I think it's supposed to be a slide!"
Merida and Melanie glanced at one another, Merida jumped down the passage as Merida explained to the Agrabah men, before following. They followed her as well. The ten met at the bottom of the slide.
Merida shot an acidic ball of flame around the room, the ball of flame bounced between the torches that surrounded the room and the entire room was soon alight. Elizabeth and Melanie dissipated their balls of fire, and they looked around the room. Skeletal figures holding various weapons stood poised, ready for attack.
"What activates them?" Elizabeth asked Melanie. Melanie looked at the floor, "That," She motioned to a slab of brick in the narrow passage, almost impossible not to step on. "See, the entire floor is covered in sand, so it's hard to see the outline of the slab, but that block is outlined, because it's a trap, the sand falls down in the crevice, because it's supposed to move, it's a pressure plate. You step on it, it activates a necromancy spell." She waved her hand and the trick brick vanished. "Just don't fall in the hole."
"That was incredibly underwhelming," Merida said. "Can I burn them anyway?"
"Of course you can," Elizabeth said. Merida smiled, and shot another ball of acidic flame at the skeletons. Their bones cracked and turned to ash in the scorching hot green fire. The group watched as the skeletons smouldered, and then they made their way to the end of the passage, where a golden door led to another chamber. Melanie tried to open it, pushing hard. "Ugh, it's jammed."
"The joints probably rusted," Merida said.
"Gold can't rust," Melanie said. "Either something is blocking it, or it corroded another way."
"How would it corrode?"
"Sulfuric acid," Melanie said. "Elizabeth, can you cut through it?"
"I can try," Elizabeth said, pulling out her saber. "A katana would work better at slicing through stuff." She noted. The metal of her sword bubbled, and changed it's shape. She no longer held a saber, she held a long samurai sword. She sunk it into the gold door, and sliced down on the side near the hinges. It cut through the golden door as if it was butter. There was some resistance however, which is why it wasn't melted butter. "Get the guys to lift it, we can take it with us, it's a slab of solid gold!"
Melanie nodded and told the men to pull the slab down so they could pass. The men obeyed, and the door was set down.
"There's nothing blocking it," Merida said. "And I don't know what Sulfuric acid smells like, but all I smell is dust."
"There is also a possibility that I may have overlooked," Melanie said. "It was a pull and not a push."
"God, Melanie, for the smartest one here, you really can be a dumbass sometimes," Merida sighed before walking into the room and lighting more torches on the walls with her acidic green flames. This room was a thousand times bigger than the previous corridors and was full of nothing but literal heaps of gold coins and objects, jewels, paintings, ivory sculptures, and rich tapestries and rugs.
"What if there's a dragon?" Elizabeth asked Melanie.
"There isn't a dragon," Melanie sighed. "Although I understand your apprehension."
The seven men were laughing, picking up the gold and throwing it in the air, dancing under it.
"We need to find the hourglass," Melanie said. Elizabeth and Merida nodded.
"I don't sense any protection enchantments on this gold, we should be able to teleport it directly into the cases." Elizabeth said.
"Do we have enough room in storage?" Merida asked.
"The dumbass here put an expansion spell on the insides of all the containers, we'll have enough room," Melanie replied. Merida nodded.
"On three?" Elizabeth asked.
"One… two… three!" The girls chanted in tandem. A giant funnel of red, green, and white smoke vanished all of the gold. The hourglass appeared in Melanie's hand. The men looked at the girls with shock. Melanie told them what they did with the gold and the group made their way up out of the temple. When they reached the slide, it transformed into stairs, and all ten of them exited the tiger's face. As they finished leaving, the tiger's head submerged under the sand dunes once more.
The five men who stood guard gazed in awe at the baskets now full of gold, and the camels and elephants, now heavy with gold, and the members of the expedition, made their way, slower than last time, back to Agrabah. The sun was setting when they left, and so they could not make their way all the way back to Agrabah, even though they were barely two miles away when night fell. They slept, the men told stories happily to one another over the fire, and spoke of what they would do with their money.
"We could have done all this all alone," Merida said.
"But we helped Agrabah, and that is a good thing," Elizabeth said. She marvelled at the hourglass. "Is that it? How we will stop him?"
"Yes," Melanie said. "It won't activate until we purposely use magic, but, this is how we'll stop the Shadowman."
"We should sleep," Elizabeth said. "I'm sure tomorrow will be filled with feasts and parties. And the morning after tomorrow, we return to the Enchanted Forest."
"Our parents are going to yell at us," Melanie said.
"We gave them a boon," Merida told her. "We did what we need to do to help out our lands and our people."
"What if something terrible happened while we were gone?" Merida asked, apprehensively.
"They'll be okay," Elizabeth told her. "If something happens, when we go back in time, we'll return until just before anything bad happened and destroy the army of shadows."
Melanie nodded, and then the three girls did finally decide to go to sleep.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
As they rode into Agrabah, the people in the streets cheered, all of the adventurers waved, and flowers were thrown from rooftops. The group waved and smiled at the citizens. They made their way to the Sultan's palace, the Sultan happily hugged Elizabeth, "Thank you! Thank you!" He exclaimed. "Agrabah is forever in your debt. I knew I was right to pick you!"
"I dueled with your head guard to be able to go home because you wanted to imprison us in Agrabah rather than let us help," Elizabeth replied.
The Sultan's smile wavered slightly, "Oh, but I knew you'd win! Come! We will have a grand celebration!"
It was a grand celebration indeed. Cheerful music played, people ate and danced, belly dancers and comedic puppet shows performed. The Sultan invited young men as suitors for Jasmine, but they were far more interested in the young women from Misthaven than young Princess who was still going through puberty, which Jasmine was complacent with. That night, fireworks shot off into the starry sky over Agrabah, and the entire city went to sleep with smiles on their faces and full stomachs.
Morning came, the girls had their last meal with Jasmine, who they wished. The Sultan gave them a trade contract he wished for them to present to King David and Queen Snow. Riches were loaded into the cargo hold of Elizabeth's ship. As the Sultan promised it was as much as all three women were in weight. The people of Agrabah threw more flowers under the hooves of the girls' horses (which the Sultan insisted they keep). Bakers insisted on having their best loaves and tailors made sure before they left they didn't go without their finest dresses and robes of the finest silks. Elizabeth smiled and waved as she sailed away from Agrabah's docks. And the sail back to the Enchanted Forest was calm, with clear skies and crystal blue water. The girls were very satisfied with their adventure, and were quietly begging for their next quests to be just as interesting. They docked in the royal docks and all seemed very well and good indeed. Except, it is always calm before a storm.