Chapter Text
Aladdin hummed contently to himself, sitting on a couch with girls on either side of him.
"You been to every continent? What was it like?" One of the girls asked.
Aladdin laughed. "All of them were magical in their own respects, but I think Asia was the most fun! Especially Arabia, I have so many stories from there."
One of the girls crawled into his lap. "Mind telling us one?" she asked.
Aladdin laughed. "Of course, ladies."
He stood up in front of them and stood with his back to them. "Imagine a land, it's a faraway place, where the caravan camels roam." he turned around. "Where you wander among every culture and tongue. It's chaotic, but hey, it's home."
He began to wave around his arms wildly. The ladies watched him in earnest. He smirked. "When the wind's from the east and the sun's from the west, and the sand in the glass is right." he pointed to each of the directions and pulled out a tiny hourglass to emphasize his point. "Come on down, stop on by, hop a carpet and fly, to another Arabian night!"
Aladdin raised his arms dramatically and sand started to swirl around the room. The girls look around, shocked. Aladdin laughed. "As you wind through the streets at the fabled bazaars with the cardamom-cluttered stalls," he spoke again, the sand settling down a bit. "You can smell every spice while you haggle the price of the silks and the satin shawls."
He sat down in thin air like he was floating. The women continued to watch his magic in awe. "Oh, the music that plays as you move through a maze in the haze of your pure delight. You are caught in a dance, you are lost in the trance of another Arabian night!"
The sand spun around again at the command of Aladdin, causing moving pictures in the grains. The girls looked at them, completely entranced. "Arabian night, like Arabian days!" Aladdin sang. "More often than not are hotter than hot, in a lot of good ways! Arabian nights, like Arabian dreams. The mystical land of magic and sand is more than it seems."
He hopped down from his air seat and walked to one of the girls and picked her up, spinning her around. "There's a road that may lead you to good or to greed through the power your wishing commands. Let the darkness unfold or find fortunes untold. Well, your destiny lies in your hands!"
The girls gasped. Aladdin smiled and gently traced the girl he was dancing with's jaw. "Arabian nights, like Arabian days! They seem to excite, take off and take flight to shock and amaze!"
He spun her around once more, the other girls cheering them on. "Arabian nights 'neath Arabian moons! A fool off his guard could fall and fall hard out there on the dunes..."
The sand settled down and Aladdin leaned against the walls. "Now, ladies... let me tell you about a story of a man I once knew. Alibaba. A street rat become Sultan."
"Is this is a true story?" one of them asked. "That doesn't sound possible."
Aladdin chuckled. "Of course it's true! Would I ever lie to you?"
He smiled to himself. "It all started with one greedy man that wanted more than he was given..."
~~~
Kassim stood with his camel and another man in front of the Cave of Wonders. He had spent months trying to find it's location, and now it was right in front of him. Finally, he would get the thing he had been searching for ever since he was young.
He pushed the man forward with the walking stick he usually carried with him and he stepped forward. His parrot, Ren, squawked. The man warily stepped into the cave and tried going down the stairs in the mouth of the tiger's. However, what came out was a loud roar and the tiger closed it's mouth on the man, killing him instantly.
"Only one may enter here! One whose worth lies far within! A diamond in the rough!" the tiger roared and sank back into the sand.
Kassim cursed. He was so close to getting what he wanted. "The diamond in the rough? What the ever-loving fuck is that supposed to mean?" he exclaimed. "This is tiresome. We're going home."
His parrot squawked again. "You really shouldn't be surprised. After all, do you really think they'd let some random go into the frickin' Cave of Wonders? I think not." Ren chuckled.
"Be quiet unless you want to end up spit-roasted over the hearth." Kassim scolded. "But you're right... looks like I'm going to have to find this 'diamond in the rough'..."