Chapter 26: Lost and Found
Princess Jasmine could not sleep or rather she did not want to sleep. She had been having dreadful nightmares all week. Her sheets morphed into typhlopids. Her pillows became Nadim's slimy lips and then there were the nights, her mother visited her. Those dreams started out as a much-needed respite, but always ended with her mother transforming into the tittering Syreeta who was so pleased to have her Sweetie-wheatie back.
Tonight, however, had been worse than all of that. The night terror had disturbed Jasmine so much that she had given up on sleep completely and had left her bed.
Jasmine was in dire need of air and space and even her large balcony with its city views was not good enough.
"Rajah?" she called out.
Immediately, a side door opened and her tiger entered the main bed chamber.
Normally, Rajah stayed in his own suite of rooms next to hers, but ever since she had returned from the city, he had taken to using his old side room. It was part of his campaign to become a guard tiger. Jasmine wished she could say she did not need Rajah to watch over her day and night, but it was usually very reassuring to have him around.
However, tonight was, yet again, different. The princess did not want to weep into her tiger's fur. Tonight, "I want to go for a walk in the gardens."
Rajah proceeded towards the doors that led to the rest of the palace, but the princess's next words stopped him.
"I want to go alone."
Rajah turned back to look at her.
She could hear his question:
Why?
Jasmine did not know. After dealing with Nadim and Syreeta, she was feeling a lot of things she did not understand. It frightened and disgusted her and made Jasmine wish she had more people to talk to than her well-meaning father and her loyal but very male and prudish tiger. All she said to Rajah was, "Please give me a couple of hours alone."
Rajah frowned at her, unsatisfied.
"Please Rajah, I know you want to protect me, but I need to do this," she tried to explain. Even that was too much. Jasmine felt tears prick at her eyes again. She wiped them away.
She did not want to cry. She was so tired of crying every other night.
Rajah went up to her and nuzzled one of her hands.
Jasmine petted his head the way he liked. "I will be back soon," she promised. "If I haven't returned in two hours, you can come find me."
Then Jasmine's hand fell away and Rajah looked back up at her.
He still seemed worried, but he nodded his assent.
With that, the princess left her rooms hoping that the gardens would somehow ease the feeling coiling inside her.
They did…
And yet they did not.
It was good to be outside and alone, but it was also terrifying. Jasmine half-regretted not asking Rajah to come with her. She could not understand it. She had been fine during her adventure and she was normally fine during the day while she was working, but at night, things felt different.
She felt different.
She felt…
She still did not know what to call it.
Jasmine went over the events again trying to reach some sort of decisive conclusion, but when she finished her latest iteration of post-battle analysis, she was only left with the memory of looking up at the meeting spot for Aladdin and Abu and seeing it empty.
"I wish I could have seen them one more time to make sure they were alright."
"Me too," a voice replied.
Jasmine whirled around and found herself face to face with:
"Aladdin! How? Wha-?"
"Shush!" he said, putting a finger to his lips before he took her wrist and pulled her off the garden path.
Jasmine stumbled after him.
To her bewilderment, they kept going until they were in another part of the gardens.
"Okay," he announced, "I think we're clear of the guards."
"Aladdin," Jasmine began again. "What are you doing here?"
Aladdin, who had been looking around, focused on her and said, "What? Are ya not happy to see me?"
"I am delighted to see you," she said and it was true, "but…this is extremely dangerous. Surely, you know it is a capital offense to enter the palace without permission."
"One week back in the palace and you're already talking all fancy and prim-like. What happened to my partner in grand theft tiger?" Aladdin shot her one of his smiles, but Jasmine suspected his question was not a jest.
"She…she has been stuck in the palace," Jasmine admitted, "but I did my part, did I not? I kept my side of our bargain?"
Aladdin nodded. "Yeah, ya did. Abu was dancing for joy when your little gift basket arrived."
"And Omar and Babkak?" Jasmine inquired.
"Gone. Just like you promised," he confirmed. "Syreeta too. The guards auctioned off her stuff yesterday."
"That is good to hear," Jasmine concluded.
After she had returned to the palace, the princess had given Jafar an abridged version of her adventures and told him about her need to honor her agreement with Aladdin. The Grand Vizier had been surprisingly accommodating in granting her request. He had promised to handle Syreeta, Aladdin's friends, and Aladdin's reward himself. More than that, Jafar had even agreed to keep the details secret from her father to reduce what he called 'over-sentimental meddling'.
Rajah had not approved of the exchange, but when Jafar had said, "Consider it done, princess," Jasmine just knew she could trust the Grand Vizier to keep his word as he always did, and here was the proof.
"Yeah…it's good," Aladdin agreed, but the response lacked his usual enthusiasm.
"Is something wrong?" Jasmine asked even as she recognized that the answer had to be yes. Since Aladdin had not come here to ensure she fulfilled her part of their bargain, there must be some other reason he was risking his life to see her. Maybe he wanted to change their bargain somehow? Perhaps he thought he deserved a bigger reward? Could it be that he figured out who she truly was? What if Abu was sick?
Possibilities whirled through the princess's mind before Aladdin finally spoke. "Well…" he rubbed the back of his neck, "it's just that I…figured I should say sorry for how the rescue fell apart. Abu told me that he just sort of ran off and abandoned ya at Syreeta's tent and before your gift basket showed up, I wasn't even sure if you'd made it here safe. I did do my best to free your tiger the right way. Really, I did, but he didn't listen and then there were like a billion guards and stuff, so I had to run, so…Sorry."
As Aladdin dug into his pocket for something, Jasmine said, "You did not need to come all the way here just to offer me an apology. You do not need to apologize at all. You did exactly what you said you were going to do."
"But you got hurt because of me!" Aladdin burst out. "If I'd warned ya to eat nothing she offered you, coached ya through your cover story, or suggested that you talk to your tiger before I tried to free him, then…"
"Aladdin," Jasmine said softly. "It's fine."
"But I could of-!" he started to protest.
"It's fine," she repeated more firmly. "I do not blame you for what happened. Everything that occurred on your end was within the parameters of my plan. You did enough."
Aladdin stared at her like he had not quite understood.
The princess repeated herself once more. "You did enough. You have nothing to apologize for. I am just thankful that all of us are alright. I too have had plenty of time to reflect on my actions. There are many things I would change if I were to try to rescue Rajah again. Luckily…" she paused and then forced herself to continue, "Luckily, I will not have to. I will most likely be forced to stay within the palace walls until I come of age."
"What!?" Aladdin yelped.
Jasmine managed a shrug. "I rarely got to leave the palace before and now…" The unnamed feeling that had been plaguing her worsened, and she, at last, recognized it:
Jasmine felt trapped.
The princess turned away before she started to cry yet again.
"Hey," Aladdin said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I um…wanna make another deal."
"A deal?" Jasmine echoed, wiping her eyes. "What type of deal?"
"Turn around," Aladdin said.
Jasmine did and she saw that Aladdin was holding out her headpiece. The cloth was dirty and there were a few splotches of blood on it, but the gem was unmistakable.
"Oh!" Jasmine exclaimed, reaching for the comforting keepsake.
Aladdin pulled back. "Not so fast. You haven't heard me out yet."
The princess realized her mistake. She did her best to compose herself and said in as calm a voice as she could, "Name your terms."
"First, I wanna give this back to you," Aladdin placed the headpiece in Jasmine's hand and held it there, seemingly contradicting himself.
Jasmine frowned. "I do not understand. Why are you giving it back?"
"Because it's important to you, right?" he said with a smile.
The princess nodded, cautious and alert.
"Instead of this thing, I was thinking…the deal we had before wasn't really fair, you know? You basically saved my life twice and I only save yours once."
Jasmine bit back the retort that he had saved Rajah too. That only hurt the princess's position in this blind negotiation. "What are you saying Aladdin?"
"I want ya ta have this," he blurted out. "And in exchange…I…want you to come see me again and hang out."
Jasmine's heart skipped a beat. "I…"
"And I get that you're kinda in a prison here and things did get pretty rough back there," Aladdin added on. "But Agrabah isn't always like that. I want to show you more of it, the good stuff I mean, and to spend more time with you, so…I rather have that than this," he concluded, letting go of the headpiece.
Jasmine did not hesitate.
She wrapped her friend up in a tight hug and whisper-shrieked, "Aladdin!"
Jasmine was suddenly feeling happier than she'd been in a long long time. Somehow without him seeming to realize it, Jasmine's new friend had given her exactly what she needed.
A/N:
Well, Jasmine's feeling better, but I'm sure you're wondering about Aladdin. We'll check in with him next time for this story's last chapter.
See you then!
