Chapter 6: The Cave of Wonders

The three of them traveled across the desert during a sandstorm. Jasira rides on her black horse while Aaliyah pulls on the rope to lead them through the harsh elements. Eventually, they arrived at the spot and Jasira summoned the tiger head again. Aaliyah stands in front of it, with Aba hiding behind her back.

"Who disturbs my slumber?" The Tiger Goddess asked once again.

"It is I... Aaliyah." she answered.

The Tiger Goddess narrowed her eyes at Aaliyah before speaking. "Proceed. Touch nothing but the lamp."

The Tiger Goddess opened her mouth, and Aaliyah saw the staircase leading towards the bottom.

"Remember girl, first fetch me the lamp! And then, you shall have your reward!" Jasira reminded.

"Come on, Aba." Aaliyah whispered.

Aaliyah walked slowly on the way down and when she reached the treasure chamber, Aaliyah's jaw dropped and Aba's eyes widened with absolute greed. The room is filled with every treasure that was known to mankind.

"Would you look at that! Just a handful of this stuff would make me richer than the Queen." Aba suddenly dove for the nearest treasure. "Aba!" Aaliyah yelled. Aba froze about two inches from the treasure. Aaliyah walked up to her. "Don't. Touch. Anything. We have to find that lamp." Aaliyah walked off with Aba trudging behind.

Just then, a richly-woven pink carpet that lay on the ground suddenly comes to life. It rose up and followed the two strangers, floating just above the ground. It decided to have a little fun with Aba as it flew right behind her. Aba sensed something and turned around, but the carpet quickly lay flat. Aba was sure it wasn't there a moment ago. Aba continued following Aaliyah as the carpet flies after her again. Aba quickly looked at the ground again, still nothing, but she noticed an identical-looking carpet is all rolled up besides the treasure. Aba hurried after Aaliyah and grabbed her pant-leg. "Aba, will you knock it off?"

Frustrated, Aba followed Aaliyah as the carpet continued this game of peek-a-boo. When Aba turned around, the carpet swerved behind her. It then pulled Aba's tail, causing the monkey to whip araound in a karate stance breathing heavily through the teeth with the carpet behind her. The carpet then took Aba's fez and puts it on, and greeted the monkey with a little wave. Aba screeched and ran after Aaliyah, and jumped on her shoulders, making her trip to the ground.

"Aba! Are you crazy?!" Aaliyah yelled, but Aba then turned Aaliyah's head into the carpet's direction. When she saw the carpet hiding behind a pile of treasure, Aaliyah gasped. "A magic carpet. Come on out. We're not gonna hurt you." The carpet came out shyly and slowly picked up Aba's fez that fell off in its frantic rush, and flew towards Aaliyah.

The carpet tries to hand Aba her fez back, but she hid behind Aaliyah. "Hey, take it easy, Aba. She's not gonna bite." Aba screeched at the carpet as soon as she got her fez back. The carpet began to walk away sadly. "Hey wait a minute, don't go! Maybe you can help us." This caused the carpet to happily fly back to them and spin around them, making Aaliyah giggle. "You see, we're trying to find this lamp." Aaliyah explained. The carpet pointed excitedly and zipped off. "I think she knows where it is." Aaliyah said to Aba as they chase after the carpet further into the cave.

They followed the carpet through the tunnels before coming to a huge stone staircase surrounded by water. There are stepping stones across the water that leads to the staircase, and at the top of the staircase in a beam of light shining from the ceiling, was the lamp.

"Wait here." Aaliyah tells Aba, before skipping across the stepping stones.

Aba then looked behind her and saw a golden statue of a four-armed goddess. She appears to be as tall as Aaliyah, maybe a few feet more, her eyes are closed in a serene expression. Her upper hands are together above her head, and her outstretched lower hands hold a beautiful giant ruby. A ruby that quickly catches Aba's widened eyes. As Aaliyah climbs the long stairway towards the lamp, the carpet saw the monkey making her way towards the ruby and panicked, and grabbed Aba's tail.

After reaching the top of the staircase, Aaliyah picks up the worn-out brass lamp from a stone pedestal. "This is it?" Aaliyah asked herself skeptically as she examines the lamp up close. "This is what we came all the way down here to..." She trailed off as she looked behind her and saw Aba slipping out of Carpet's grasp and her hands about to snatch the ruby. "Aba! NOOOOO!"

"INFIDELS!" The furious roar of the Tiger Goddess echoed.

"Uh-oh!" Aba whispered.

"You have touched the forbidden treasure!" Aba sheepishly places the jewel back into the hands, but the jewel and the statue started to melt. The statue's serene expression morphs into a hideous grin before it completely melted, causing Aba to run to Aaliyah. "Now you will never again see the light of DAAAAYYYYYY!" The Tiger Goddess raged as the pedestal which held the lamp suddenly burst into flames.

Aaliyah quickly put the lamp into her pocket and raced down the stairs. But suddenly the staircase magically transformed into a chute and sends Aaliyah sliding down to what was once a pool of water has now been replaced by a pool of boiling lava. "No, no, no!" Aaliyah screams as she falls into the lava. "Nooooooo!" But fortunately, the carpet zoomed in to rescue her just in time.

Then they heard a scream. They look back and saw Aba standing on a rock surrounded by lava. The stepping stones are exploding one-by-one until the Aba's standing on is the last one left. The carpet flies lower towards Aba, and Aaliyah manage to grab her to safety just before the last rock exploded as well.

But they're not out of danger yet, as suddenly the lava reared back and formed a wave of magma that began chasing the trio.

"Whoa! Carpet, let's move!" Aaliyah yelled. Carpet started picking up speed as it flies through the narrow tunnel from which they came from. The lava is still on their tail, and gaining fast.

A boulder nearly fell on top of them, which caused Aba to cling into Aaliyah's face. "Aba... Aba, this is no time to panic!" She pulls her off, just as she saw they're flying towards a wall. "Start panicking." she squeaked.

Carpet dove down and into the treasure chamber, which. The lava splashed down, melting away the treasure. Though the large piles got turned into mountains of fire as the lava followed them, and nearly scorched them.

They nearly reached the entrance, when suddenly a boulder dropped onto Carpet, sending Aaliyah and Aba flying to the ledge right below Jasira.

Carpet got pinned down by the boulder.

"Help me out!" Aaliyah cried, as she hanging by her fingers.

"Throw me the lamp!" Jasira loomed above the girl.

The wind from the worsening storm swirled violetnly as Aaliyah struggled to pull herself up. "I can't hold on! Give me your hand!" She tries to reach towards Jasira.

"First give me the lamp!"

Aaliyah pulled out the lamp out of her pocket, and held it out to Jasira who quickly grabbed it.

Jasira leapt up laughing wickedly as she clutches the lamp with both hands. "YES! At last!" Jasira stashes the lamp in her robe and sees Aba helping Aaliyah out of the cave, but she kicked the monkey and grabbed Aaliyah's hand.

"What are you doing?!" Aaliyah yelled.

"Giving you your reward!" Jasira stated. Then she raises a gleaming dagger at Aaliyah, while dropping the old woman voice. "Your eternal reward."

Just as Jasira was about to bring down the dagger, Aba quickly bites Jasira's hand, accidentally dropping Aaliyah. Jasira then throws Aba down the cave to join Aaliyah's fiery demise.

Aaliyah got hit by the wall as she and Aba were falling, becoming unconscious. Carpet manage to pull itself out of the boulder and flew over to them, grabbing the two and tumbled down to the cave floor.

Outside, Jasira watched as the tiger's head collapsed back into the sand. The entrance to the Cave of Wonders was gone forever.

Finally, all was still and quiet as the storm died down.

Jasira laughed victoriously. "It's mine." She pulls her mask off. "It's all mine!" She reaches into her robe for the lamp. But felt nothing. "I.. where is it?" She frantically searched everywhere, but still couldn't find it. "No!" To her horror, the lamp has somehow disappeared. "NOOOO!" She screamed at the night sky and fell to her knees.

Author's Notes:

The Kali-like statue resembles one of the enemies from the Sega Genesis Aladdin game, which appeared in the Cave of Wonders and Jafar's Palace levels.

The way the statue's face morphed into a grin is a reference to Ron's nightmare where he finds out he's dancing with a Kim syndrome in the episode "Ill-Suited".