Disclaimer: Disney Buena Vista and the characters such as Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and any fairy-tales that might have been used in this story do not belong to me, with the exception of Fox and Professor Coyote.
Author's Note: Thank you to the reviewer who notified my mistake about the 'crocodile tears', in the future I will do my best not to overlook such mistake.
Chapter Two: Jasmine
The hall was large; its inside craved out of the glimmering jewel encrusted walls, giving it a natural kaleidoscope glow when the torches are lit. The floor was more so, its tiles were black-polished marbles and reflective diamonds shone like stars in them. Wide, pillars stretched out into the high ceiling, thousands of flowers were etched into it.
A large sphere floated in the end of the hall, giving out an eerie blue glow, creating a mass shadow of the imposing throne situated at the middle end of the large chamber. A woman was sitting at the end of the throne's steps, seemingly interested with the scythe she held in her arms. A man was standing up, staring at the blue orb, while keeping his hand onto the gold dais.
Then suddenly the man's back stiffened, the woman stopped fidgeting with the weapon and raised an eyebrow when a strong wind blew past them; a low howl drowned the high-pitched singer who had been strumming her harp. As fast as the wind came, it died down, putting out one of the torches underneath a large tapestry.
There were intricately made tapestry decking the otherwise empty walls, each of them depicting a beautiful maiden in different poses but everyone of them share a similarity. Their eyes were hollow, empty, save for one at the first end on the left side, the one now bearing dark-brown eyes.
The man took his hand from the dais and stared up the picture, underneath it a silver plaque bore the name:
SNOW WHITE
Prince Adam paced back and forth, his face twisted with worry; his advisor's eyes darted back and forth, like a pendulum, thus why it is with no surprise that he was beginning to develop a headache.
Prince Adam had been as such since he returned that evening, in his hands he carried a dwarf man covered in scarlet blood and was losing each and every breath as the time passes by. It was by miracle, he even survived the trip, without answering his father about who was the person Adam forced the healers to quickly do their work on the man.
That had been two days ago.
The advisor of course had been sent to question the young man but in vain. Prince Adam would barely even look at the wizened old man in eye, much less answer his questions. What spooked the rest was the nature of the wounds; it was nothing like what the healers had seen before. Prince Adam shook his head every time he was asked of this and as they did, his parlour blanched, as though he was reminded of something terrible.
"My Prince?" the advisor dared to ask, as he massaged his leathery throat. The man in question slowed his pacing but did not look at his way.
"May I enquire (again) as to why are we having the company of a dwarf in the palace?" he spoke slowly, Prince Adam froze within his pacing, his dark circled eyes fixed upon the old man.
"Hope…" was the only thing that came out. The old man looked at him with surprise. "Hope?" he echoed the words. Prince Adam nodded and continued with his pacing. The advisor wanted to ask what he had actually meant but was cut off when they heard a low strangled moan coming from inside the closed doors.
Professor Coyote was sickly looking man, his skin were bleached pure white, his eyes were deep and bore a sort of sleepy-dangerous look that would sent any shivers down on anyone's spines, his lips were thin and his teeth had two fangs much like a vampire.
His looks were of someone that nobody would trust their lives to.
Fox definitely hated him, and while she never complained about it, she utterly despised him too. But each for different reasons; the former because he was utterly disgusting, the latter because of what he does for a living.
"So…marvellous tidings you bid sire Fox, Snow White I see in your hands." He said, his voice was thin and had a sort of hypnotic effect to the man.
"Yes…in my hands," He muttered; his eyes gave a swift glance to his right;" But not quite. I want her soul removed; such beauties have no need for it," He said and paused for a while, his eyes blanked as he recalled a vague memory." Nobody has the need for it!" he added.
"Oh, another cleansing!" Professor quipped gleefully; his eyes darted suddenly towards the woman beside him. She narrowed her eyes with contempt as a reply. "And, what about Mademoiselle Vixen? Shall she go through the cleansing as well?" he asked, his leery-silver eyes trailed her body.
"Looking at something that you can never have?" she asked, tearing his eyes away from her physique, Coyote grinned.
"No, just wondering, how long that could keep up." He replied; his smile widening, it took her two seconds to realise what he was implying. Vixen turned towards Fox, hoping for some help from this perverted man. But alas his eyes had caught something interesting and once he does, it's hard for him to pay any attention to anything else. Fox was staring into a large-yellowing map pasted against the otherwise dull-grey walls.
Coyote's laboratory was consisted of scientific objects, ranging from a simple microscope towards a super-complex computer with a semi-intelligent (Coyote disliked anything that is more intelligent than he is, be it human or non-human) towards the most dangerous objects known to men, elves, dwarves and creatures alike.
Fortunately to those kindred, these objects had been half destroyed or beyond of any use since it were obliterated by the so-called heroes. Most of them are branded as antiques and Coyote had been collecting them for purposes of which nobody knows for sure.
Laid at one desk were a battered black lamp, which Coyote had "found" stuck in a lump of cold lava; a large piece of what used to be a silver crystal; a chewed piece of bright red apple; a dented curved sword, a crisp dragon scale and a metal hook. On the next table were a bunch of glowing cauldrons, with thick smokes and odd miniature fireworks that bursts at each breath.
At another lay a large crystal ball, covered with a sort-off iron prison and was kept behind glass cube, thousands of tubes and wires attached to it like webs to a bug that led towards a large liquid filled tube situated in middle of the room.
But for now Fox seemed intent with the battered piece of paper. It was the Map of Realms, as one man explained to him once. He seemed to be focused on a new mark on the map, which was etched with the New Language instead of the Old. It was quite hard to know which location is new or not since Professor Coyote had taken it to him to age the paper to make it look old most of the time.
"I've never heard of a place called Agrabah," he said breaking the mounting tension between the woman and the sickly professor.
"Oh, that." Coyote said, tearing his eyes away.
"Agrabah…a nice place, quite dry but the princess there is known for her beauty. Lovely gal indeed; a bit feisty though." He explained. "Like someone I used to know." He added in his mind.
"Have you uploaded this into the Mirror?" Fox enquired, the professor nodded curtly. "Of course, any new location must be inputted into the Mirror. It's a standard procedure." Coyote explained, he sounded quite cross.
Fox didn't reply; he merely grabbed the woman by her wrist and left, leaving the gangly man behind with the comatose princess.
"Indeed…now lets see how John would take to you my dear," he grinned and carefully steered the table towards the middle of the room.
Snow White woke up feeling extremely cold, which was quite odd since the sun was shining brightly against the blue sky. She stood up and noted that she was no longer in the forest.
In fact, nothing that she saw was anything that she recognised or knew. Strangely she felt quite at home and safe, very safe. Endless of pinkish petal-flowers and green grass covering the plain, which ended at the end near a small stream with a small vegetable patch across it. A little, badly made wooden bridge was placed in between it.
She scanned the area for a while, wondering how on earth she arrived there and where were her friends. As she did, she noticed a small brown hut just a few yards from where she stood. Judging from a thin cloud of smoke coming from the chimney, she reckoned that it was occupied.
"I wonder if the person who lives there could tell me how to get home," she said to herself and began walking towards it. But paused when suddenly a thin long shadow loomed behind her.
"What are you doing here?" asked a voice, Snow White jumped out of her skin, her brown eyes widened and spun around. A stern young man towered her, he was clad in a dusty brown clothing and was carrying a large basket filled with fruits; his chin was unshaved, bristles of hair stuck out like sore thumbs, he wore a black and white checker cloth upon his head. Snow White's first impression was that of a rogue, she continued staring until the man snorted, his hawk-green eyes rolled with indignity.
"Well? Are you going to stand there and gawk all day? I have things to do you know!" he cried out; Snow White wondered what on earth can one person possibly do in this undoubtedly barren land but kept her tongue in check. This man looked as if he could kill. The man again snorted and brushed past her, "Women!"
The man was walking down the pathway, a set of weed-crept stones placed next to each other, and was about to open a battered, red-painted door, which was hanging sideways by a single rusted hinge, when he heard a bell-like voice floating behind him.
"Now see here sir! I was not trying to be in your way! I was merely going to ask you for a way home. " Snow asked, trying her best to be polite, though she needn't have to. He placed down the reed-woven basket on the cracking steps, his head twisted around and he putted on a feeble scowl.
"Home?" he said; Snow White nodded, "Just where have you been living? In a well?" he asked with scrutiny. "A well? Oh no, just with the dwarves in the forest! Surely you've heard of my mother Queen…" Snow White tried to explain but the man shot up suddenly, his face frowning that he looked like a shrivelled prune.
"Dwarves? Are there seven of them?" he asked, Snow White nodded again, wondering why does he ask of such. The man's parlour blanched his lips quivered; "Leave!" he managed to blurt out.
"What? Oh yes I must but I need…" she began again but the man didn't even wait for her to explain, he grabbed his basket, ignoring the fallen onions and snapped carrots.
"Leave, never return! Your kind will bring us to ruins!"
Snow White's mouth opened but no words came out, and that were such her reaction when the man rushed back into the house and slammed the door right into her face.
"The desert?" questioned Fox; his face frowned. "Heat…why does the desert have to be hot? Sand I can tolerate but the heat…" he murmured to himself.
Aladdin coughed out another splatter of blood, Fox scowled more; it had landed onto his boots.
"You street-rats just don't know when to die, don't you?" he said, his heels digging into the man's neck. Aladdin gritted his teeth in pain; Fox sneered, and swung his feet between the man's eyes and his mouth. Promptly breaking his nose and sent the poor boy into an unconscious state.
"NO!" screamed Jasmine, she lunged forward towards Fox, her eyes blazed with fury.
"JASMINE!" cried out the Sultan, alerting Fox; he spun around, and smiled before disappearing from the girl's view. "What?" she barely cried out when suddenly he reappeared behind her and delivered a sharp blow to her neck.
The Sultan stared in horror as his daughter collapsed into the mysterious man's arms. This man had came out of nowhere, disrupting Aladdin's and Jasmine's long awaited wedding. Normally this wouldn't seem out of place since he had guessed that travellers from far and wide would have heard of the grand celebration.
But what made him stood out was the fact that he appeared on the altar, out of thin air, by magic (no doubt) and swiftly kicked the groom from his daughter's side. Next he snapped his fingers together and Genie, Carpet including Abu were trapped within a circle of flames. The flames spread across the room, killing most people in its way.
This lead to the inevitable pandemonium and by the time the chaos had been enervated, Aladdin was lying onto the floor; his body badly bruised and Jasmine wore the terrified face The Sultan had never seen since Jafar took over.
The man's green eyes fell onto the Sultan's trembling figure.
"Looks like I missed one…" he said, The Sultan's blood ran cold as the man stepped forward, slowly as though he enjoyed watching the old man's fearful expression. The Sultan knew he did but he couldn't let himself be killed in fear, he was the SULTAN for God's sake, he should at least die with honour trying to protect his daughter!
"How dare you? How dare you interfere this evening, I as Sultan command you to unleash my daughter and leave!" he barked, not intimidated as the man strolled up to him, still cradling Jasmine.
"You forgot to say please…"
The last thing the Sultan saw was a glimmer of metal and darkness consuming him.
End of chapter two: Jasmine.