I would quickly like to mention that I have a poll on my account page. It will determine what fanfiction I will update first after I finish one of my current fanfictions.

I do not own Magi. Eleanor and Serpentes are mine.

Chapter 6 New: Red Lights

Eleanor walked down an empty hallway, whistling "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." By her count, it would be Christmas soon in her world which made her both smile and worry at the same time. Had it really been so long since she arrived here? She wondered if the neighbors had put up their spectacular Christmas decorations yet. They liked to go in an order, so this year, red Christmas lights would have hung throughout the whole street.

She suddenly stopped when she heard voices, ending her song before she told why people shouldn't pout.

"I was really surprised when Aladdin said that he wanted to go to Magnostadt."

"Yeah… but I can't let him go."

Eleanor frowned at Sinbad's words. You can't just control him. He's not your servant to do as you please.

"Who's there!?" Sinbad commanded.

Eleanor froze before biting her lip and turning past the corner that was hiding her. "Haha... did I say that out loud?" Serpentes hissed in warning at the group, eyes shining with mistrust.

Sinbad frowned, eyeing the snake for a moment before meeting her eyes. "Eleanor. What are you doing here?" His words were calm but she could hear the caution in them. Jafar and Yamraiha watched her closely, though Jafar seemed ready to spring at her any moment.

Word had spread around the palace that Eleanor had a talking snake, and when Sinbad asked her where she got it she had refused to answer. Of course that hadn't sat too well with Sinbad which in turn made Serpentes antsy. And when Serpentes gets antsy, Eleanor learned that he likes to take on his humongous form and form a protective barrier around her with his body. Well… that led to Jafar assuming it was an attack to which he retaliated. Long story short, Eleanor had to yell at Serpentes to spit Jafar out. "You don't know where he's been!" she had said, trying to lighten the mood. Turned out her words only made Jafar angrier. Yep. Big mess.

"Would you believe I was looking for the little girl's room?" Eleanor grinned, placing a hand on Serpentes' head. When they said nothing, Eleanor waved at them. "Continue with your conversation, I was just passing by." With that she turned away, humming "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" as she ignored whatever they were about to say to her.

"Missstresssss, I do not like the white haired assasssssin." Serpentes hissed, looking over her shoulder down the now empty hall.

"Shh, I know." She patted his head. "But I don't think he's all that bad. Just thinks we're a threat." She sighed as she thought back to what they had said in hushed voices in the hall.

So, it's getting close to the time when the group leaves Sindria. I need to figure out if I should stay here or go with one of them, though I would probably die if I followed them. I'm not strong, like them; I would just get in the way. Eleanor stopped in the middle of the hall, glaring down at her hands. I guess I'll be staying then.

"You think too much, Misstresss."

Eleanor blinked in surprise, looking over at Serpentes. He stared back at her, unblinking. "Yeah." she sighed again. Glancing around, she realized they were near the palace gate. "Huh? When did I get here?" She eyed the gates then the palace behind her. I never did get to look around town.

"Sooo... Where exactly have I wandered off to?" Eleanor thought to herself out loud. She had asked Serpentes to return to his earring form earlier because of the fearful way people kept looking at her. Now she was lost, it was getting dark, and she was really wondered if he would reappear to help guide her back. She looked at the colorful lights hanging in the streets and the beautiful girls waving at passing men from the doorways of decorated buildings.

Eleanor bit her lower lip. I think I wandered into the Magi equivalent of the red light district. As she continued walking while looking around her, she didn't notice something on the ground until she tripped, landing on her hands.

"Oomph."

Eleanor blinked. That sound did not come from her, though she was holding in a hiss of pain. Her hands stung. Did I scratch them up? She glanced behind her and gasped. "Alibaba? What are you doing here?"

He looked teary-eyed at her. "El'nor." He sniffed. "I wen' with Master 'cause I wanted 'is advice and he just kicked me out on the street."

Master? Oh right, he called Sharrkan master because he's teaching him swordplay or something. Eleanor frowned and helped Alibaba up, wincing at the pain coming from her hands. Yep, definitely scraped them. But she decided to ignore it for now. "Why did he do that? It's not nice at all."

Alibaba sniffed again. "I-I don' know. Aladdin wan's to leave and won' take me with him and then he said stuff about me deciding things for myself." He leaned closer in his drunken stupor. "And Master didn't understand and called me Whining-baba."

Eleanor pushed Alibaba away from her face and fanned her hand over her nose. "First of all, ew, you smell like alcohol. Stay out of my face and we'll be good." At his puppy eyes she sighed. "Secondly, I don't think that was something a teacher should do to a student. Do you want me to… maybe talk to him?"

Alibaba nodded his head vigorously, pointing at a door which Eleanor assumed lead to Sharrkan. She sighed. "God, you'll owe me for this later."

She strode up to the door with a hand on her hip and threw it open, causing a loud bang to reverberate through the room. Glancing around the place, she found a wide-eyed and confused Sharrkan on a couch not too far away, surrounded by alcohol bottles and girls. She felt a tightening in her chest at the sight. Forcing the feeling down, she stomped up to him. "What is this I hear about you being an ass to poor Alibaba? Just look at him." She motioned behind her at the boy in the doorway who didn't look very comfortable with the sudden attention. "He's a sniveling mess and you just kicked him out." After a moment's pause, watching as Sharrkan took a drink, keeping an eye on her the whole time, she added with a straight face, "Is that how you treat him in bed too?" She had to hold in a laugh when Sharrkan spat out his drink and began coughing. He pounded on his chest, face turning red. She did, however, laugh when she saw Alibaba's own red face. The girls around Sharrkan giggled into their hands.

When she had finally stopped laughing, she gave Sharrkan another glare before adding. "Come on. Get up and apologize."

He frowned. "But I didn't-"

"No. No need for buts. They have plenty in this area I'm assuming." She gave a pointed look at the girls, who gave her either shy or offended looks.

Sharrkan coughed, looking away from her. Well, at he has the decency to look guilty.

When he made no other move, Eleanor added with a smile, "You know what? This place looks interesting. America didn't have any place like this. Mind if I sit with you? Maybe I'll spread around the stories from my home." She gave him a wink. She was now glad she had told him about fanfiction.

Almost immediately, Sharrkan jumped up, as if the couch had burned him. "Looks like I need to get going. Sorry ladies," he said to the pleasure house girls, before grabbing Eleanor's hand and Alibaba's wrist and dragging them out of the building.

Eleanor ground her teeth in an attempt to stop herself from crying out in pain. Sharrkan's grip on her hand was strong and tight and didn't ease up its hold until they were out of the red light district.

Eventually, Sharrkan slowed down just past the palace gates. Turning to Alibaba, he frowned. "Right, sorry. I shouldn't have ignored you."

Ignoring the conversation for the most part, Eleanor frowned as she glared at the hand that still held onto her own. While the grip wasn't as painful as before, she was beginning to wonder if Sharrkan would be able to feel her scraped-up hand. She wondered if there was any blood. She hoped not. On the plus side, she wasn't lost anymore.

Sharrkan continued in annoyance, never noticing Eleanor's glare, or their still-connected hands. "All Aladdin probably means is you can't just follow him around your whole life. You need to make your own choices. He still cares about you, and will probably always be your friend. Just like I'll care since you are my student."

Alibaba began tearing up. "Master!" he cried, hugging Sharrkan only to be thrown off in aggravation.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm the greatest. Now scram." Sharrkan made a shooing motion with his free hand.

Alibaba nodded, bowing respectfully before leaving Sharrkan and Eleanor to themselves.

Sharrkan sighed, his grip on her hand tightening. "And as for you. Ele, w-" When he turned though, words left him at the sight of Eleanor wincing in pain. "Are you ok?" His grip slacked in his surprise.

Eleanor frowned, pulling her hand out of his loosened hold and tucking both hands close to her chest. "I'm fine."

Sharrkan noticed the movement and grabbed her hands, palms up. He eyed the dried blood and scratches all over her hands. "What happened?"

Eleanor tried to pull her hands back but was unsuccessful. "It's just a few scratches, nothing much."

Sharrkan glared at her before repeating "What happened?"

Eleanor puffed out her cheeks in irritation. "I just tripped, ok? Are we done with the interrogation?" She didn't fully understand why she was being so hissy. Having Sharrkan worry about some measly scrapes just made her feel… weak. She didn't like being so weak in such a world of strong people. She hated herself for probably being the weakest person in the Magi universe. How the hell was she supposed to fix anything if she couldn't even protect herself?

After a stare off, Sharrkan just sighed and began leading her somewhere, holding her wrists gently in his hands.

"Where are we going?" she asked, trying not to trip over her own feet as she was dragged.

"To get those wounds taken care of."

"It's not that bad! They'll heal on their own."

Sharrkan didn't respond as he led her to what she assumed was his room. He threw the door opened and pulled her in. "Sit," he ordered as he went in search of something.

Eleanor sighed in defeat and looked around the room. It was actually rather tidy. She hadn't expected that. The only problem was she didn't see any chairs; the room was almost too empty. Bu-dump. With a blush on her cheeks, she sat on the large bed at one corner of the room.

Sharrkan came back, holding a first aid kit, Eleanor assumed. When he looked up at her, he stopped and just stared for a few moments.

"Hello, earth to Sharrkan," Eleanor called in confusion.

Sharrkan blinked a few times, a blush forming on his face as he hurried over to her and sat beside her. "Er, sorry. Give me your hand."

Eleanor nodded, lifting one hand. Bu-dump. Sharrkan took it gently and began cleaning the opened cuts with some sort of stinging liquid.

Eleanor hissed. "You could have warned me it would sting."

Sharrkan looked at her apologetically. "Sorry… I forgot." Next, he took out some bandages and slowly wrapped up her hand before moving on to the next one. He was so gentle with her as if he was worried he would hurt her more. Bu-dump. Eleanor forced herself to sit still even as her body became restless and just wanted to run away.

When they were done, Eleanor stood up quickly. "Um, thanks…" she murmured. "I'll uh, see you around." With that, she rushed out the door before Sharrkan could say anything.

So far only 2 people have suggested ideas for Serpentes' power. These include:

ElephantLover69's suggestion for rebirth and occult. That's not very detailed though. What do you mean by rebirth? And occult as in foresight right? That does sound interesting.

Hades' Neko's suggestion healing and ying-yang. Your idea sounds like he uses venom as a healing fluid correct? As for ying-yang... What do you mean by "it makes people switch their views on things?"

Anyone else have any ideas?