Length: about 12 pages
Overview: Original story combining Aladdin, Dragon Ball, Ranma 1/2 and others.
A parody.
C'mon!  Read it.  You got the time.  You'll like it!

The Man who brought you the Ace Ventura/ DNR crossover,
HAYES
presents:

ARABIAN KNIGHTZ


Prologue

     A dark night in the mountains.  A caravan has set up camp in a plain on a
plateau.  In the distance, a field with many springs is seen in the background. 
The reflection of the moon can be seen in many of the small pools, each about 4
meters across.  Palm trees sprout straight up all around the pools.  The valley is
surrounded by jagged rocks.  The only foot path leading into it is guarded by two
worn statues of demons, left by some forgotten civilization.
     The caravan itself was of a dark nature.  It was filled with brigands.  All
watching each over others' backs, as not to be stabbed.  
     For all there efforts, the only thieving done was from outside.  A mysterious
figure grabbed a bag from under the largest tent and ran into the Oasis of the
Damned.
     The figure was a mere boy.  Not 13 years old.  He was dressed plainly in a
vest and worn white pants.  A rug served as a cloak to shield him from the
elements.
     Pausing by a pool, he rests to make sure no one followed him.  No one did. 
Resting, he opens the bag to see what is inside.
     He uncovered some clothes, rags and other such things, but at the bottom he
discovered gold...
     Holding it in the moonlight, the boy examines it clearly, It is a broach shaped
like a scarab.  Or at least half of one.  It was incomplete, yet it did not seem to be
broken.  It was as if it was meant to be half of a scarab.
      But the boy did not particularly care.  It was gold.  Even if it was gold
plated, it would feed him for a very long while.  The boy put the scarab back in
the pack and started to walk off.
     He only traveled a few steps when bumped into some one .  The figure was
seven feet tall.  He was black against the night sky.  He had jutting shoulders
pointed outward and even more pointed were his ears.  He spoke in an old
sepulchral voice.
     "Give it back."
     The boy froze in fear.
     An instant later, the boy turned the fear into action.  He was used to fighting
to keep alive.  Some would say he was the finest fighter in Abadan,  For his age. 
Surely, he could take down an old man no matter how tall he was.  Or so he
thought.
     The boy lunged forward, aiming at the dark figure's midsection.  Before he
could hit him, he felt a blast of energy, and was propelled upward, dropping the
rug and bag.
     The boy found himself in the pool.  He tried to struggle upward, but he
couldn't swim.  Hey, he lived in the desert.  He tried to climb up the sides of the
pool, which seemed to stretch forever, but it was no use.
     The pool seemed to come alive, and had a will of its own,  At first the boy
thought the pool was trying to kill him,  but the pool knew, as the boy soon
would, that there are things much more sinister than death.



Chapter 1



Yokobue
     
     On a dark night, a dark man, waits for a dark purpose.
     In the middle of the desert, on top of a dune, a dark figure sits on a black
horse in the moonlight.  Soon another horse rode up and his rider dismounted.
     The figure wears a dark green monk's cloak,  He is small, gnarled and has an
insidiously wide grin.
     The figure on the still on the horse speaks, "Did you bring it?"
     "HEHEHEHE!  Hoodwink steal sparkly!  HEHE!"
     Hoodwink holds out a gold object.
     The figure grabbed for it, but Hoodwink pulled it away.
     "AH!AH!  AH!  You promise Hoodwink many sparlkies!"
     Squawk!
     A parrot swoops down and snatches the gold object from Hoodwink's hind.
     "Hey Give back to Hoodwink!"
     "Patience, my psychotic friend, you'll get what's coming to you...", said the
dark figure.
     The parrot drops the object into the figure's hand and returns to its perch on
the figure's shoulder.
     "Squawk!  Get what's coming to you!", the parrot reiterated.
     The figure takes the object in his hand and then takes another object out and
brings them together.  There is a flash of light.
     In the flash we see that the the gold object was a half scarab.  Now combined,
the figure now has a whole scarab.  It glows before him,  In the light, Hoodwink
sees the figure's face for the first time.  It is old and green.  His features are
demonic and pointed.  His parot, the contrast, is bright red and plump.
     The scarab suddenly flies off to the west.
     "After it!", the figure yells.
     The figure darts off on his horse.  In a moment, Hoodwink is right behind
him.
     After a few kilometers, the scarab stops, spits in two again, and each half
burrows into the ground.
     The figure and Hoodwink stop.
     Light emits from the ground in two places.
     "Now what?, Hoodwink asked.
     His question was soon answered.  A great rumble shook the earth, and the
sand began to form around the two beams of light.
     "Who dares?!", a thunderous voice from the sand bellowed, "who dares
disturb the slumber of Shen Ryu, the guardian of the Cavern of Wonders?!?!".
     The sand began to sway and lurch, and then began to rise up in a pillar and
form.  Soon, the figure of a long, serpent dragon was half crept out of the earth. 
Gold light shone from its eyes and mouth.
     "Well.", the figure said to Hoodwink.
     "Well what?", was the reply.
     "Go in there and get me the lamp!", the figure ordered.
     "In there?", replied Hoodwink, as he indicated the dragon.
     "You're not scared, are you?"
     "Scared!  Squawk!"
     "Hoodwink is beyond scared, Hoodwink is somewhere between bedwetting
and a near death experience!"
     The figure paused.  "There are 'sparklies' in there, remember?"
     This got Hoodwink's attention.  He would run naked through hell for a shiny
object ... in about one minute.
     Hoodwink got of his horse, and slowly approached the dragon.
     While he crept up, the parrot commented under his breath to the figure,
"Hey Yokobue, where did you pick this chump up?".
     "Hush, Nageku!", hushed Yokobue.
     Hoodwink reached the dragon.
     "Who dares seek entry to the Cavern of Wonders?!", bellowed Shen Ryu.
     "Hoodwink, the thief.", said Hoodwink, humbly.
     "HEAR THIS! ONLY ONE MAY ENTER HERE!  ONE WHOSE WORTH
LIES FAR WITHIN!  A 'DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH' ! ".  After saying this, a
whole opened up before Shen Ryu and Hoodwink.  In the hole was a stairway
leading down into the bowls of the earth, which were surprisingly well lit.   
     Hoodwink looks back at Yokobue.
     "Sparklies, remember!"
     Hoodwink mustered all his courage.  He stepped down into the cave.
     The earth shook.  Shen Ryu closed the gate; and Hoodwink was never seen or
heard from again.
     In a moment, Shen Ryu was reduced to a pile of ordinary sand and the two
scarab halves lay on the ground, motionless.
     "Argh!  I don't believe it!  I just don't believe it!  We are NEVER gonna get
our hands on that stupid lamp!",  Nageku flew down to retrieve the halves.
     "Patience, Nageku!  Hoodwink was obviously less than worthy.", stated
Yokobue, calmly.
     "Oh!  What a surprise!  I can't believe it!  I just may have a heart attack and
die from that big surprise!", Nageku dropped the scarab halves back in
Yokobue's hand.
     "So what do we do now?", Nageku said.
     "Now, we must find this one ... the 'diamond in the rough'..."



Atila
     
     Abadan.
     City of mystery, enchantment, and the finest merchandise this side of the
River John.  This merchant city is particularly attractive to thieves, or at least it
was.
      The city of Abadan was ruled by a kind Sultan, but the law enforcement was
completely the work of the RED SASH group.  It was led by Doctor Deadston,
and his cabinet of military officials who all seemed to be named after colors for
some reason.  Doctor Deadston was a darkskinned man with a talent for sorcery.
     It is said that good help is hard to find.  Doctor Deadston took this saying to
heart and decided to make his own.  Doctor Deadston had a talent for bringing to
life golems of incredible strength and power.  He would use these to patrol the
streets and maintain order.  They were all humanoid and made of stone, but
that's where the similarities end.
     They were all different colors, sizes , shapes, makes and models.  The earlier
ones were mindless drones when it came to personality, but around number 19,
they developed more human intelligence.
     Practice makes perfect.
     While  he  was creative in the actual golems, he was never good at thinking
up names, so he gave each a number.
     At this point in the story, there have bee 27 golems.  (not 27 in existence,
occasionally a band of brigands would gang up on one and destroy it.)
     Of the twenty one patrolling Abadan at the time, one seventh were after one
particular thief... 

     "Atila!", Number 25 shouted.
     "Atila, get back here!  I know you stole tat bread!  I'll rip off  your hands
with ...
my bare hands!!"
     It was no use.  The crowded market place was filled with the hustle and
bustle of
hundreds of people, and none of them were responding.
     Number 25 was an advanced model.  Unlike  Number 1 and Number 2 who
were accompanying him.  Number 25 was a gray figure, about six feet tall.  His
forearms, upper arms, thighs, forelegs, and feet were all solid pieces of rock.  His
joints and torso were compiled of spheres, each a few centimeters in diameter. 
They were held together by some strange magic force.  His hands were complete
with five fingers made from stone segments.  His head was a solid skull shaped
rock with the face area painted solid black.  He had to glowing white eyes.  No
ears.  No nose.  No mouth either, but he could smell, hear and talk.
     Number one and Number two were simple.  Slow.  Dumb.  But then again,
they were twelve feet tall and weighed 3000 pounds each, so no one messed with
them!  They were constructed of simple sandstone and had rigid joints like action
figures.  They had large forearms and hands with three fingers.  They looked
almost identical, except that Number two had two tiny horns on his dome head.
     The three passed down the street, scanning for Atila.
     A heavily clothed figure walked to a clique of scantily clad women ( there
noses were exposed for the world to see!).
     "Getting into trouble a little early today, aren't we Atila?", one woman
commented to the heavily clothed figure.
     "Ha!  You're only in trouble if you get caught!", Atila said.
     At this point, a giant sandstone hand grabbed Atila by the neck and lifted
him five feet into the air.
     "I'm in trouble!"
     "Number one has apprehended target.  Will commence with penalty."
     And, y'know, he would have done it too, if a little monkey had not leap onto
his head and covered it with a pot.
     "ERROR!  Visual failed.  Who turned out the light?  ERROR!"
     "Perfect timing as usual, Kiki-chan", thanked Atila.
     "Kiki!", Kiki-chan squeaked triumphantly.
     Atila struggled free.  He dropped the cloak, but held onto the loaf of bread. 
Seeing him in his only outfit, Atila wore ragged pants held up by a red sash, a
red fez, and a blue vest held together in the front by two yellow bars.  He had
poofy black hair, and was barefoot.
     "Don't let him escape, you idiot!", shouted Number 25 as he pushed his way
through the crowd with Number two.
     However, Atila's thoughts were not on escaping.  Atila pulled back his free
hand and landed a heavy uppercut to Number one's crotch (he was 12 feet tall,
remember?).
     The stone cracked.  Slightly.
     "Fool!  Did you think you could destroy Number one single handedly?!", said
Number 25.  At the sign of a battle, the crowd backed away.  Now Atila stood in
a clearing with the three guards.
     Atila looked at his hand holding the bread.  "Your right, Rocky, not with one
hand tied behind my back...".
     "Don't call me Rocky!", Number 25 bellowed.
     "ERROR!  ERROR!  ERROR!", Number one reiterated.
     Atila hunched over and seemed to strain every muscle in his body.
     RIP!
     A tail not unlike a scorpion's ripped out of Atila's pants from his lower spine.
     Atila impaled the loaf onto the stinger of his tail and resumed a fighting
stance.
     Number 25 looked quite shocked.  "You... you freak!", he shouted.
     "I'll show you what a 'freak' can do!", Atila bellowed, now quite agitated. 
Atila brought his hands close together, as if holding an invisible ball of one
decimeter in diameter.  He brought his hands, still in formation, to the center of
his stomach, around his center of gravity.  In another instant her shouted and
brought his hands out in a double opened handed strike right into Number one. 
"HI KENTSU KEN!"
     His hands hit.  Hard.  The stone began to crack.  In a moment, the central
brick
of Number one shattered, and the rest of his stones fell lifeless to the ground. 
     "Imm...Impossible!", shouted Number 25.
     "Heh...", said Atila.  He staggered, and fell on his haunches.
     "Hmmm....", said Number 25, regaining his confidence.  "You've drained
your energy with that little outburst, haven't you?  Number two, get him."
     Number two complied.  He sidestepped around Number 25 and proceeded
toward Atila.  At this, Kiki-chan squeaked in terror and ran up the side of  a
nearby building.
     "Good thinking.", said Atila.  He squatted down into the horse stance, then
sprang straight upward into the sky.  He landed on the roof of the building
before Kiki-chan could reach it.  Two stories up.  This was just out of the reach
of Number two.
     "Nice trick!" said Number 25 sarcastically as he also squatted down into the
horse stance, " looks like I'll have to take care of you myself!"  Number 25
sprang up and landed next to Atila on the empty rooftop.
     "Think you're up to it?", said Atila in a macho sort of way.
     "I'll crush you!", Number 25 shouted.
     "I'm not afraid of you." said Atila.
     At this point, Kiki-chan had departed to safer regions.
     "Well, that makes you either very brave or very stupid.  My theories go with
the later.", Number 25 lunged forward.  He began striking and punching.  Atila
dexterously dodged every swing.  Each one of Number 25's punches could have
brought down a house.  
     In desperation, Number 25 took one last lunging swing, only to find out that
he was on the edge of the roof, and had lost his center of gravity when Atila
moved out of the way.  Touching Number 25 for the first time, Atila used his
index finger to push Number 25 headfirst to the street below.
     And he would have hit the street too, it Number two hadn't been standing in
the way.  Number 25 crashed into Number two with an incredible force.  When
you're made of solid rock, you have a lot of inertia.  Number two shattered into
many fragments of sandstone.     
     When Number 25 came to a few seconds later, he saw Number two as a
lifeless pile of stones.  He was fine.  At the loss of his comrade, he shouted up at
Atila, but he had disappeared.
     Number 25 started leaping from rooftop to rooftop, desperately searching or
Atila.  He was hopping mad.  
     Eventually he found another clique of girls talking around an urn in the
street.  One of the girls was wearing the exact same cloak as Atila was before.
     "Aha!", Number 25 said as he grabbed the figure and ripped of its cloak.
     Big mistake.
     Before his eyes was not the appearance of the felon, Atila, but a rather large
pair of curtesy breast.
     "EEK!  Pervert!  Help!", the half naked girl shouted.
     Immediately a crowd of merchants, ladies, thieves and some of the
not-so-bright golems where pounding Number 25 into the ground for its atrocity. 
The girl grabbed her cloak and the urn and ran off.
     As Number 25 was getting beaten into the ground, he noticed that the girl
had a scorpion's tail...

     In a far off ally, the girl begins to put her clothes back on, with no prying
eyes around.  After dressing, she opens the urn.
     "Kiki!", Kiki-chan cried.
     From the urn, Kiki-chan, with bread, emerged.  
     "Way to go, buddy!  Now, we feast!", the girl took the loaf and broke it in
half.  She gave one half to Kiki-chan and kept the other.  They began to eat the
loaf of bread.
     Just then, the girl saw something.  Something most people would not see; but
because she was pure of heart, she saw it.  An emaciated child was rummaging
through some garbage.  It was a pointless task, really.  There was nothing there
to eat, at least nothing that wouldn't kill you faster than starvation.
     The girl walked over to the child (its sex was questionable and of nil
importance) and gave it her share of the loaf.  The child began to immediately
scarf it down.  The girl then looked at the monkey sternly.  Kiki-chan just
snarled and wolfed down his half of the loaf.  
     The girl just sighed, and began walking west, to the well...

     At the well,  the girl set down the bucket and drew up a bucket of water.  
     "Hmmm," she looked skyward in thought, " Its been about an hour...".
     She took the bucket of water and doused herself with it.  She then took off
her cloak.  It was Atila!  
     "Heh.", Atila said to himself (there was no one else around) ," It may be an
awfully embarrassing curse, but it sure is handy for alluding guards."  
     Atila took new care in folding his tail around his waist.  The tail had thirty
segments and the sting, and was about a meter long overall.  After the tail was
folded around him like a belt, he then covered it with a sash, to hide it.  The trick
to being a thief is being inconspicuous.  The tail might slightly draw attention.     
     After which, Atila and Kiki-chan took to wandering the streets, looking for
potential pockets to pick.
     Before long he came a crowd centered along the main road in Agrabah, the
widest road that lead to the palace.  It was obviously a procession for a
neighboring prince.  For the past four years, princes have been coming and going
from the palace, trying to win the hand of the eldest princess, Aisha.  And in each
crowd, Atila had been able to steal enough to eat for at least a few weeks.  As far
as he was concerned, the princess could never get married.
     Now these processions were often gaudy affairs.  The rich in those times were
VERY rich and they rarely got a chance to show it.  In this parade of horses and
military guards, the leader was the captain of the guard.  He road a white horse,
and wore frilled white and gray clothes of lunatic amounts of layers in this heat. 
Apparently, the Sultan had run out of princes in the middle east and had to
resort to suitor from the west.
     The parade leader's job extended beyond being first and looking pretty.  He
had a whip and flailed it around to get all loly-gagers out of the way for the
prince.  Those who would not move fast enough would get a good lashing.  Most
had the sense to get out of the way.  Most.
    The captain came to one small emaciated child.  The same Atila had helped an
hour earlier.  Seeing the man on horseback was obviously a terrifying sight.  The
child froze.  The captain shouted and shouted but it was no use.  The child just
stood there terrified.  At last the captain swung his whip and slashed the child
across the throat. 
    The child fell, dead.
    Now this was a unfortunate occurrence; for the child;  but not normally for
the captain.  Yet on this particular day a man was watching, a thief named Atila.
     Atila was, at the time, picking the pocket of a very fat man who was
completely mesmerized by the sight of the "pretty horsies".  At the crack of the
whip, Atila had finished picking the pocket and darted out into the street.  At the
slash of the throat, Atila was right behind the captain.  And as the child hit the
ground...
     "HI KENTSU KEN!", shouted Atila.  He slammed fists-first into the back left
leg of the horse.  The horse's leg broke, nearly off.  The horse staggered and fell. 
The
captain barely got off before the horse hit the ground.  
     The captain was furious.   He began shouting at Atila in a language no one
could understand.  Atila just stood there and gleamed at him.  Eventually the
thought of "actions speak louder than" words occurred to the captain, and he
lashed his whip at Atila.  Atila caught the whip with ease and pulled it from the
grip of the captain.  Atila grabbed the whip with both hands and with a grunt,
began to pull.  In a few seconds, the whip snapped in two.
     Atila threw the two half whips, each to short now to be useful, to the feet of
the captain.  Shocked, the captain ran back to the other troops.
     The troops came.  Atila held fast in the middle of the road.  He was mad.  He
would take them all down if he had too.
     Surprisingly, the troops stopped right before him.
     Atila stood there, not sure what to do.
     In a minute, the troops parted and the captain returned, this time with
another figure.  This figure had to be the leader of the parade.  He was dressed
in fine black cloaks which covered his form and his hair shot straight up.  He had
a massive widow's peak.
     The two soon reached Atila.
     Now the captain was about Atila's height, which was rather tall at 5'6".  But
the prince seemed to be just as tall in carrying himself, but when he got to Atila,
he realized he couldn't have been more than 4'11".  Still, he seemed quite
confidant.
     "So, the local street-fighting champ thinks he can take on the Velvitan
army?", insert maniacal laugh here, "Well, your a brave one aren't you?  Let me
introduce myself, I am Prince Velvita, of the flying island of Velvita!",
surprisingly, he spoke perfect Arabic.
     Atila seemed puzzled.  "Your parents named you after your country?".
     Another maniacal laugh. "Ha!  Not quite!  You see I conquered the floating
island and named it after myself.  It's old name was "Raputa" or something. 
Now that I have a kingdom, I need a queen, so I inquired here.  Now enough
about me, what about you?  What's your name?  I just had to meet anybody who
could scare the daylights out of captain Chida, here."
     "I am Atila!  The finest fighter in Abadan, and I could drop a stuffed shirt
like you any day!", proclaimed Atila, pompously.
     Velvita gave a flagrant grin.
     He swung his arms out, pushing aside his cloak to reveal his shape.
     And a pretty nice shape it was, too.  Unlike the normal, loose robes, Velvita
wore tight garments, showing his massive physic.  Though he was smaller, he was
twice as muscular as Atila.
     Velvita took a fighting stance.  "You seem to have misinterpreted my
statement.  You see, "my army" didn't conquer the floating island, I DID! 
PERSONALLY!".  He got ready to strike.
     Atila took up a defensive stance.  He anticipated every kick or punch Velvita
could dish out.
     Unfortunately, Velvita did none of the above.  To Atila's shock and
amazement, Velvita threw out his hand, striking toward Atila.  His hand stopped
two decimeters from Atila's chest, but he got hit.  Hard.  
     Atila flew back twenty yards, and fell on the ground.
     "Rest in peace.", said Velvita, his eyes closed as to portray that he could
defeat Atila without even looking.  To his dismay, when he finally opened his
eyes, he saw that Atila was not dead.
     He was struggling to get up, and obviously injured, but alive, and kicking.
     Velvita looked at him for a moment in surprise.
     "Well, looks like your more formidable than I gave you credit for, Atila.  For
that, I shall let you live."  with a wave of the hand, Velvita resumed his troops'
march.  He and each of the member of the parade walked carefully around Atila,
who was standing in the middle of the street,  which was really all he could do.
     A dark figure in a purple robe stood on a nearby building.  He saw
everything.


Aisha

     The palace was constructed by a thousand slaves and it had lasted a thousand
years.  This was strange because palaces do not usually last that long.  While a
palace is a home for a Sultan, it is not a "castle", and is not built for war.  This
usually means it is susceptible to demolishing during some war or another.
     However, this palace was a palace within a castle.  The entire complex was
constructed on and out of a small mountain, east of town.  The outer walls were a
military complex of  unequaled efficiency.  With the new golem guards, Abadan
was a hallmark of law and order in the seven deserts.
     The inner palace, beyond a third, ten-story high wall, was a shining jewel in
itself.  It had large, gold, turnip shaped domes and ivory white walls.

     Aisha was a beautiful  young desert flower.  She had a fire burning within
her that made her restless.  She was about 5'4", very tall indeed for a woman.  
She had bangs extending over her head, and long midnight black hair down to
her waste.  To sway the hair from getting out of place, it was tied together
around the small of her back, making two segments of hair.  She wore the finest
gowns and had the finest jewels to decorate herself with, and since she had
servants to dress her, she often wore them, even though it seemed pointless.  Even 
in her most melancholy moments, no jewel
outshone her eyes, nor no gown could compliment her natural beauty. 
     Now Aisha had two sisters, each one already ready to get married.  Only one
sister needed to be married to a prince, since you could only have one Sultan. 
Nakibi was fourteen, and had found a rich nobleman named Dokkers to marry. 
Nakibi was pale and had skin of impeccable clarity, besides that, she was just a
normal girl with short hair.  Mistina, twelve, had found a traveling medicine man
named Puddin to be betrothed to.
     Nakibi and Mistina's mother, Atarashi, was still alive, and so were two of the
Sultan's other three remaining wives, Neo and Nuova.  None of these could seem
to bare any more children.  And the Sultan himself was quite tired of trying. 
Aisha was never at a loss for a "mother", but still she felt alone most of the time.
     Her two sisters were very happy, but Aisha had to marry a prince, and she
felt jealous because it didn't seem like she was going to be wed for love, not even
love of money!  And worse yet, her sisters couldn't wed until the eldest sister wed.
     Now, Aisha was quite old, sixteen.  She should have been married years ago,
but alas, she could not stand one prince that came through the castle door.  And
because her mother died in her birth, she had to marry a suitable future leader
for the country, not that it wasn't ninety percent run by Red Sash.

     A recap of the past nineteen princes' visits was about to occur as Velvita
entered the door to Aisha's room.
     He was accompanied by his captain, Chida, and his first officer, Mozzarela. 
Upon opening the large, double doors for him, they shut them behind Velvita,
leaving Aisha and the Prince of Velvita alone.
     "Ah!  The lovely princess Aisha.  At last we meet.", Velvita swung open his
cape, obviously to show off his physic.
     Aisha bowed respectfully, as expected of her.  "Welcome, Prince Velvita." 
Aisha then looked up and saw Velvita striking a "Superman" pose, upon which
she immediately and embarrassingly began to gape.
     "Impressive, aren't I?", said Velvita with his usual arrogance.
     Aisha immediately turned her head.  "No.", was her reply.  A lie of coarse,
she would never admit to being so easily allured.
     Velvita took the message with a grain of salt.
     He walked up to and around Aisha as she stood in the middle of her large,
beautifully furnished room.  "I must say, you are quite beautiful."
     "Thank you, Prince Velvita.", said Aisha nervously.
     Velvita looked at her backside for an instant, as if looking for something. 
"Hmm.", he said.
     "Hey!", said Aisha, turning to glare at Velvita.
     This bothered Velvita none.  "Very nice indeed.  I'll take you."
     "You'll take me?", said Aisha.
     "Yes, I'll have your father arrange the marriage arrangements at once."
     "Don't I have any say in this?!"
     "Should you?"
     "Yes I should!  This is my life!"
     Dead silence.
     Velvita turned and began walking toward the balcony.  "Hmph.  Women
don't have lives.  They are ornaments to be sheltered and treasured in our
society.  You should be glad.  You've managed, by birthright, to be free from
war, fighting, work and toil.  I've always wondered, maybe if I had been born the
other gender, I wouldn't have turned out to be such a sadistic little conqueror."
     "So you're saying I should be free from living my own life?!"
     Velvita looked out upon the city.  "Not really.  That's just the way it is."
     "And what if I want MORE than that?!"
     Velvita turned and faced her.  "Then you're screwed."
     "Igneous!"
     
     The Sultan was listening at the door.
     He couldn't seem to make out much, but what he did hear, he didn't like.  
     In a moment, a very angry Velvita stormed out the door.  His cape was
ripped of and his left leg was gashed and bleeding in several places.  
     "Prince Velvita!  What happened?!", cried the Sultan.
     "What do you think, you old fool!", shouted Velvita.  He took this
opportunity to rip off what was left of his robe and fold it into a bandage.  He
then, assumed the horse stance and began to grunt.  Suddenly, a mysterious force
seemed to close his wounds.  He applied the bandage over it, and proceeded to
limp down the hall to Mozzarela and Chida.
     He left.
     
     The Sultan was an elderly man of about 5'4" in stature and long white hair. 
He had a white mustache as well.  He was thin and square in form and always
wore his Sultan's robes.
     Normally, he was a very calm man.  But now he was angry.  He stormed into
his eldest daughter's room.  
     He didn't get far when he was stopped by a dragon.  Now I don't mean to say
"dragon" in the mythical sense, I mean it in the "National Geographic" sense.  A
full grown Komodo dragon stood in front of the Sultan with black cloth in his
fang filled mouth.  He was almost five meters long, but more than half of that
was tail.  He slept eighteen hours a day, but in his active period, he had enough
strength to tear an elephant in half with his jaws.  
     "Hmph!  So THIS is why Prince Velvita stormed off!", speaking over the
giant lizard to his daughter.
     "Oh, Igneous was just playing with him," said Aisha, acting innocent, "you
was just playing with that mean old, self-absorbed baka, weren't you?".  Igneous
walked over to Aisha's side and accepted a scratch behind the ears as a reward. 
Which was not easy for Aisha to do, given that Komodo dragons do not have
ears.  Still, there is a place on the lizard's head that picks up sound, and behind
it, it itches.
     "Aisha!  You can't keep rejecting every suitor that comes to call!  The law
states that you must be married to a prince by your next birthday!  And you only
have six weeks!"
     "Father!  They all see me as some kind of trophy!  An ornament!  They don't
CARE about me!  I could never be happy with any of them!", Aisha pleaded.
     The Sultan was thoroughly flustered.  He stormed off to his study.
     Aisha stood in her room, on the balcony overlooking the city.  She then
decided, she needed to escape. 


Home
     
     The child's body had vanished, apparently disposed of by some kindly
passerby.
     Atila managed to make his way home.  
     Where does a wanted street fighter and thief live?  In a mansion of course.  A
particular haunted mansion that lay in a mostly crumbling  and decaying part of
the east side of Agrabah.  Maybe because they are magic themselves, the golems
were particularly superstitious.  
     The mansion was thoroughly haunted, by a particular ghost.  His name was
Kasupa and he was really quite friendly.  He kept guard over Atila's crumbling
domain while he was away and asleep in exchange for simple friendship. 
Apparently, it is very difficult for the undead to make friends.  
     Atila greeted he spiritual friend and crept up to bed.  He would go to sleep
hungry and injured, but that was nothing new.  "What ever doesn't kill you, only
makes you stronger" was Atila's motto.  Kiki-chan accompanied him.  The
monkey crept silently to his bed of rags.  Atila was not in the best of moods when
he got beaten.
     On the second floor, in the last remaining  complete room, lie Atila's and
Kiki-chan's beds.  Well, the room wasn't entirely complete.  One wall was
missing, and was covered up by a curtain.  At night , Atila pulled back the
curtain to sleep in the moonlight, as he did here.

     Atila often dreamed of the Palace.   He dreamed of someday living there, of
having servants, all the food he could eat, the whole nine meters.  It was
something he did when he was depressed.  Like now.
     He looked up at the shining jewel of the desert, and drifted of to sleep...

     On the outskirts of town, the purple-cloaked figure stands.  He is holding the
murdered child in his arms.  
     He is in a graveyard.  He finds an empty plot and holds out his hand.  In a
instant, a flash is seen, and the earth explodes in front of him, making an neat
grave-sized hole.  He lays the child in it and begins filling the grave in.  
     When he is finished, he kneels down and begins to pray.


Preview of Chapter 2


     Now this it the part of the story where I come in.  I, dear reader, am one of
the three main attendants to Princess Aisha.  Not a particularly glamorous job. 
Dressing, undressing, feeding the dragon...  
     I am Kasumijin, an for those of you who MUST know, I am a eunuch.  Fine,
yuck it up now and get it over with.  All the other servants are eunuchs as well. 
The other two main attendants to the Princess are Shonen and Kamishiro, but I'll
get around to those lunkheads later.  They are actually the newest servants, my
last two were an emaciated pair and extremely crude.  I cannot quite remember,
but I think there names were "Buffcoat" and "Beaver".  Anyway, they were
beheaded for incompetence.  Nobody was sorry to see them go.
     As stated before, I am the main attendant and a eunuch.  To add to this I am
the most highly educated servant.  Because there are certain (*ahem*) activities
that I simply do not partake in, I have come to use my free time to record these
amazing events on paper for future generations.  Granted paper is expensive, but,
as stated before, the rich are very rich and are frivolous with there paper, the
backs of all there memos are sufficient, even for a story of this magnitude.
     Many of these events were related to me later, through investigation or
interview and this story is now as complete as it will get.

     It was just after Prince Velvita left in a huff, when the Princess called for
Shonen.  Shonen was not the brightest of servants, and he was rough around the
edges, but he had a good heart deep down.  
     "Shonen!", she cried.  I think this is significant because Princess Aisha was
the only royal member who addressed us by names instead of "servant".  The
three of us had to fight for the lofty positions of being her private servants.
     "Shonen!  Come here!", she yelled.  Shonen stormed through the palace and
pushed open the mighty doors to Princess' chamber with his mighty arms, he
stumbled into the room, shut the door behind him and turned to the Princess,
bowing subserviently.
     "Yes, your majesty", Shonen huffed.
     "I want your clothes!"
     Shonen was naturally puzzled.
     A pause took place.
     Eventually, Shonen began to undress.  Upon this, the Princess quickly threw a
bauble at his head.
     "Baka!  I mean a SPARE pair of your clothes!  And some bandages!"
     Now Shonen got the idea, or at least more of it.  He quickly replaced the
clothes he removed and ran to his quarters.  He brought back some bandages,
and his "street clothes"; his only other set.  Besides the normal white garbs, each
servant keeps some ordinary clothes in case they need to venture into town for a
task.
     Per the Princess' precise command, Shonen undressed and redressed her, in
his garb.  He tied her bosom back with the bandages, and covered her almost
completely. 
     By the time they were finished, The Princess looked like a common man, and
it was night.  Most people set to bed at sundown, but not the rich, who could
afford lamp oil.  A LOT of lamp oil.
     She then ordered him to bring her a rope, which he did.  The Princess tied
the rope to the banister and climbed down.  She waved goodbye and disappeared
into the night.  
     Shonen waved back dumbly for a few seconds.  You realize by now that
Shonen was not the brightest of servants.  
     Suddenly, he realized what he had done.  The Princess HE was responsible
for was gone.  He was in deep sheep dip.

.................

MORE
coming soon.