Chapter 2: Cooperation or Co-possession?

Lati wasn't expecting to find the stranger lying among a group of rocks near the river edge. She also wasn't expecting to find him barely alive. Most of the bodies that had washed down the river were long past departed. Stacks upon stacks of bones belonging to humans and creatures were nothing new. Nor were the broken boulders, rocks and sticks.

She was not a spirit whose life was taken by the river. Rather, she'd been bound there for countless moons wondering if there would be any living soul that would free her from the dark curse that her and her brother were under. For that, they'd have to have a willing, living soul. It didn't escape her notice that this was a man teetering on the edge of death. His deep wounds told as much of a story.

"Komal," she spoke. "Komal, come quickly! There's a young man here!"

Komal snorted. "There's been no one down here for years. Even then, no one who would survive a fall into the river from such a series of cliffs. Not unless they were blessed by the gods themselves."

"I know what I see. He is alive! Barely."

Komal appeared beside Lati, his gaze falling upon the young man whose body lay strewn across the rocks, washed up somehow by the river. Watching the stranger's chest rise and fall, struggling for air, he was convinced to to take a closer look.

"Well then," Komal said, impressed. "Don't imagine he'll live for much longer. His injuries are much too grave. Deep bleeding cuts. Terrible head wound too. If that's not the thing that will kill him, I don't know which other will claim him quicker."

"That's my point!" Lati snapped. "We can't just let him die!"

Komal frowned, his thick brows furrowing as he stroked the tip of his beard with his spirit hand. "I'd like to know what you think we can do, having no bodies ourselves. He seems beyond our help. There's no one else here to help him either."

Lati observed that was quickly proven false, as she heard several voices that were in the area with them. They weren't close, but Lati could sense them further upstream. She folded her arms across her ghostly corporeal form, narrowing her eyes at Komal. "I should say that he's drawing quite a crowd. You wait here. I'm going to see who they are."

Komal's gaze flared, even from his spirit form. "Don't you dare let them see you. We can't afford to be taken advantage of by strangers, and we can't leave the river without suitable bodies. You know the rules."

"I do, which is why I'm not doing any of those. Only going to observe. And if you care to, watch over him at least." She pointed to the stranger, who at this point was quiet, but still shivering and clearly in pain.

Komal rolled his eyes. "As long as they don't see you."

Lati nodded before she floated away, down the length of the river as close to the shadows of the cavern as she could. She'd nearly reached the middle of the course when she heard the anguished scream of a name, so much it echoed through the whole area.

"Aladdin!"

She stopped in her path. Aladdin. Was that the stranger? Lati admitted that such was a nice name, but quickly realized how inappropriate of a thought that was for the moment. From the way the stranger's name had been mentioned, it was likely the person who called out to him thought the young man dead. Lati followed the river further, until she came upon a genie - an actual Genie - sitting on a rock in the middle of the branching river. He had been the source of the voice.

At first, she nearly shrieked and covered her mouth, thinking that a magical being like him would definitely detect her. But no recognition at all. Too distracted by his grief, even crying. It made Lati feel bad for him, even as she found a hiding place nearby.

Lati's shoulders fell as she observed where the Genie was seated. She noticed that he was clutching something in one of his hands. Something purple and covered partially in blood. Piece of clothing? A vest maybe?

"Genie!" Lati looked up in the direction of the second voice she heard. Her mouth dropped open over several different observances in this group. The owner of the second voice was clearly a beautiful princess. She rode on a magic carpet and had a monkey and parrot for company. These are his friends, it would seem, Lati thought. Or more than that.

"Genie, what happened? Did you find anything? Please, talk to us." The young woman's words were frantic. She was scared for Aladdin. That's when Lati realized something. Wait a minute...if this is a princess, then Aladdin must be a prince! That's his wife!

"Jasmine...I.." Genie began, his voice was choked with sobs. "I think we were too late. This is all that I was able to find, trapped between two rocks." Genie held up the piece clothing for the group to see. Lati could see it was a vest. It was torn on one sleeve, and a good part of it was covered in blood. She remembered that Aladdin hadn't been wearing a shirt, so it must've been the vest he'd been wearing before he washed up close to where she and Komal were.

Maybe I can read the river and see what actually happened, Lati thought. Reading the river was something she could do - an ability she'd acquired over her many moons of being trapped in the vicinity of it. It was a way of determining the memory of the river - who passed by it, swam through it, lived and died by the waves. She didn't like doing this because sometimes it made her see the brutal ends of long departed souls. But she'd also seen a few - very few - survivors who made it out. It wouldn't be hard to see the river's memory of what had happened not long ago.

She closed her eyes, focusing her attention fully on the sound of the river. That's when Lati learned the truth. Aladdin had fallen into the river a good while before he reached that point, drifting in and out of consciousness from his injuries. Aladdin had desperately tried to keep himself afloat, choking on water as the river carried him furiously forward. He'd managed to dodge some of the more perilous rocks, even tried to grab hold of one, but it was too much for him.

He'd managed to reach the rock that Genie was presently sitting on. His vest had caught firmly between the rocks. Had Aladdin stayed trapped in that very spot for long, he likely would have drowned and died there. Lati saw Aladdin struggle to free himself, the rush of water crashing over him and pulling him under, far too many times. It was only a fourth time that he managed to slip out of the vest. The blood had already been on his vest from a really bad chest wound.

But the momentum of the river pushed against him, so great that Aladdin couldn't struggle anymore, and passed out again.

At least he hadn't drowned there. But his friends didn't know that.

Lati came out of the vision slowly, missing a great piece of the conversation that had happened between Aladdin's companions. But it was clear that the Princess wasn't giving up in the same way Genie had.

"We need to keep looking, Genie. Please. If we find Aladdin...and he's gone, then I can accept that." Jasmine's voice wavered on the last few words she spoke. But her brow narrowed and she spoke with more determination after a moment's pause. "But if there's even the slimmest chance he made it out of the river and is somewhere around here, we need to find him."

Lati wasn't sure what was said, but it appeared Genie had changed his mind. He was still sad, but not crying anymore. "Okay. I'll keep checking riverside since it's a little too dangerous. Don't want any one of you falling in here."

Jasmine nodded. "We'll stay on Carpet and check the areas around here. Keep calling for Aladdin; we want to make sure he hears us and knows we're looking for him."

The parrot cringed. "Yeah, I hate to think about dyin' in a place like this all by my lonesome. Creepy enough as it is. Who knows what kinda spirits and other things are lurkin' around here?"

The monkey, who seemed just as sad as Genie had been a moment before, looked at the bird and frowned. Lati could just barely understand the monkey's words, but it seemed like he was telling the bird to not be creepy and focus on finding Aladdin.

"Not just sayin' this to be scary, Abu," the parrot said, holding up his wings. He lowered his voice, but Lati could still hear him. "Rumor has it that this place has claimed more lives than a little bit. And a lot of creepy stuff - magic or otherwise, has happened down here near the river. This is one of the reasons I don't like bein' here at all. Don't tell Jasmine that, though. We're searchin' for Al, but he might've already met his own dark fate. Could be hauntin' us as a spirit right this minute."

That earned the parrot a well deserved smack on the back of the head by the monkey. Lati had to cover her mouth, afraid they might hear her utter any kind of sound. She decided it was time to leave, because even the hint of the spirit mention was enough to spook her into thinking they could discover her.

The parrot hadn't been wrong. After all, the means by how Lati and Komal found themselves trapped down there had been a result of darker magic. Lati knew now - more than ever after hearing from his friends - that she wanted to do her part to help the prince stay alive.

"I don't understand why you want to help him so badly," Komal complained once Lati returned and told him the full story. "They'll take one look at him and see he's a lost cause."

"Not if I can help," Lati said quickly. "I can enter his body. Help him heal. I was a healer before I lost my body, remember?"

"Of course I do. I remember the people we both were before we lost our bodies to that horrible sorcerer's magic." Komal grimaced at the memory of a conflict long before, but shook his head and continued. "Still, that would mean you'd have to stay in HIS body for a while before those wounds completely healed. The others would be really suspicious if they found him here and he turned up with no wounds. Especially with all the blood on the vest they found."

Tati exhaled a long, shaky spirit breath. "Then I'll stay as long as I can in his body until he heals. I can mask some of his wounds and keep visible others. Fake it until you make it. Sort of."

Komal uttered a low, disapproving growl. "Do you know how long it would take for you to heal him like that, with those wounds? By the time that group gets here, they'll want to take him back to the kingdom they came from. You'll still be in his body and I'll be...wait a minute."

Tati saw Komal's face transform from annoyance to a beaming grin. He grabbed her shoulders, slightly shaking them. "Tati, that's brilliant! What a great idea."

"Feel like I'm missing what's great about it, but go on," Tati said, hesitation wavering in her voice.

"I never imagined we would have the opportunity so soon. He could very well be the one destined to help us."

Tati's eyes widened. "I only talked about healing him. I didn't say I wanted to steal his body! Komal, how can you even say such a thing?!"

"Hear me out." Komal took a deep breath. "Not saying it's forever. I'm not even saying that he has to know that we're in *his* body. But we need one to get out of this place, right? So, if you're going to use your spirit form to enter him and cure him, I can enter along with you."

"B-but that's..." Tati didn't even know where to start. "Two spirits can exist in a body - that won't cause any problems. We talked about this. But three spirits in one body can be really dangerous on a living being. And we're not truly dead! We could...he could..." Tati was furious thinking about all the things that could possibly go wrong. Especially since she was thinking of Aladdin's well being at the forefront of her mind. Komal was only thinking about breaking their curse. It wasn't right or fair to the prince for them to use him.

She understood where Komal was coming from. They had been trapped a long time; she wanted to leave too. But she was never comfortable with the idea of taking over the essences of barely alive travelers to this cursed place in order for her and Komal to have an escape route to find someone who could free them from their respective curses.

It felt wrong.

"Tati, I'll say it again, it's temporary. This is the only chance we'll get. He won't even have to know."

"And how do you suppose we'll get past his friends to do what you're proposing?" Tati snapped. "I don't think his semi-phenomenal Genie would want to help us if he knew we were possessing his body."

"The Genie is semi-phenomenal? How do you know that?" Komal asked.

"No active magic cuffs - he's a free Genie. That's probably why he didn't notice me there."

Komal grinned. "Even better. A semi-phenomenal Genie wouldn't be able to help us anyway. Not with our special curses. We need someone powerful in a different way. Another dark sorcerer or magic user. If you remember my abilities, I can teleport and detect powerful allies in magic for what we need. It was my power when I had my body."

Tati's shoulders slumped. "Yeah, I remember." She realized that more of Komal's plan was making sense and she hated almost every bit of it.

But it could work.

Komal could see that he was starting to convince her. "Sooo, let's do it. Let's have you heal Aladdin and get out of this place together. Win-win. And if we're quick about it, then he won't ever have to know we were in his body."

"You didn't answer my question," Tati recalled, frowning. "How do we get past his friends during times when his spirit isn't active? They'll know something's wrong if we say or do something out of character for him. Also if we have to travel for long periods of time, they're going to wonder what happens to him. Not to mention Aladdin is a fully human, non-magic user. If we use too much magic while he's weak, it could hurt him. Take him longer to heal." Tati knew from the brief interactions she's seen from the group that they really cared about Aladdin. They'd be particularly observant of him while he was recovering.

"We won't do what we need to immediately. We'll observe - see what his life is like and get to know him through his interactions. It'll take a while to heal him, so better to stay in the background before we make our move, unless opportunity arises."

This sounded reasonable, but still weird, to Tati. Even so, helping Aladdin was the goal. If it meant they'd be able to do something in breaking free of their own respective curses without hurting the prince, then she would be okay with that. She hoped she wasn't making the wrong decision according to her brother's whims.

That's how they'd gotten in this mess in the first place.

She sighed and nodded. "Okay, let's do it." She hoped she wouldn't regret it.

Aladdin jolted awake, gasping for air as if he'd been underwater for much longer than he'd known he could hold his breath. HIs chest heaved, his hands shaking not just from cold, but as if he were trying to shake his impending demise from his body. The feeling of falling, the feeling of drowning, the feeling of him losing and seeing so much blood. But he realized there wasn't an immediate threat anymore with any of those things, despite the ache that filled him.

Wait, where am I?

He could barely think past that point. But just as soon as the panic and pain hit him, he felt his mind clear, his breaths even out. Like something was pushing him to be steady. He blinked away the stinging salt water that sprayed in his eyes, tried to move his body on what felt like jutting rocks digging into his back and legs.

I hope everyone's okay. Aladdin tried to recall his last memory. He remembered the magic blast between Genie and Mozenrath, falling and hitting a ledge that crumbled beneath him. Abu was there, had made it to the cliff, but he hadn't. The prince remembered seeing blood, but it was hard to tell where it came from. His head wound, maybe? Made the most sense as Aladdin felt the firm ache messing with his senses. He remembered almost drowning and moving out of his vest to get free, but then...nothing.

Aladdin steadily rose to his feet, though he stumbled a few times with how much his head swam from the effort. He found it easier as he walked, limping at first before his steps came more steady. It was only when he heard the familiar voices a fair distance out from him that he realized what direction he needed to go.

The back of his mind kept pushing him on one thing about his experience. How in the seven deserts did I survive all that?