.: A Goddess Adventure - Chapter 16 :.

When all of them entered back to the white world, the portal behind them closed. They immediately changed back to their normal shapes. The carpet and the lamp were Still on the white floor just like the portals remained in that world.

“What about that one over there?” Iago proposed and pointed to a portal on the left. Aladdin stepped closer to the portal which looked like a strange place, yet to him somehow it was familiar.

“Let’s give it a try,” Aladdin finally said and the gang went through the portal. This time it wasn’t as bad as the previous one and they sighed with relief that they stayed in the same forms. Everyone expect Genie. He felt a strange force taking his newly found freedom away and tried to trap him in a small object. He tried to fight against it, but it was useless and he got trapped once again.

“Hey, where’s Genie?” Aladdin asked when he noticed that his friend was not with them. They all looked around calling his name, but Genie was nowhere to be found. Something caught Aladdin’s eyes on the ground. It was Genie’s lamp. He picked up and saw a strange symbol on it that he had never seen before on the lamp. Thinking Genie may be in it, to rub it, but nothing happened. “That’s strange.”

“Did you find something?” Jasmine asked.

“This,” Aladdin held up the lamp for her and Iago. “It looks like Genie’s lamp and I thought he might be in it, but when I rubbed it nothing happened. And look at this symbol,” he said and pointed to it on the lamp’s surface.

“I think this is just the effects of this world,” Iago said landing on Aladdin’s shoulder. “After all, you turned into ponies in that earlier one. Who knows how this world works.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Aladdin said and tucked the lamp to his belt. “Come on, we have to find Lila! She might be here.” They nodded and started to walk. As they went, Aladdin started to have a bad feeling about that place. Not only he didn’t like the fact that Genie couldn’t be with them here, but the place looked to him too familiar. Even with some differences, it looked like the Cave of Wonders.

A bit later, they arrived to a hall’s entrance. In the hall, near to the walls, there were golden monkey statues which looked like the one Aladdin saw in the treasure cave. In front of them a huge tiger head was in the front wall and in its mouth a huge door was standing. Jasmine wanted to go to that door, but Aladdin stopped her holding his arm before her.

“Wait! I don’t think it’s a good idea to go in.”

“You mean it’s a trap?”

Aladdin nodded. “Something’s not right with that place.”

“Relax kid,” Iago said flying to them. “These are just for decoration,” he said and flew around the hall. “Nothing bad’s gonna happen,” Iago stated and landed on the floor. Suddenly, the ground shook as the tiger’s mouth closed. The eyes of the monkey statues started to glow dangerously, narrowing them at the parrot, Aladdin and Jasmine as they stood up from their places.

Iago gulped and laughed nervously. “Or maybe yes.” Before they could say anything, the statues started to walk towards them trying to attack and illuminate the intruders. “I think we should GET AWAY FROM HERE!” Iago cried and immediately flew away before one of the statues could hit him.  He sighed with relief when he got high enough from the ground, but it was short lived as he noticed that some of the monkey statues started to climb on the walls. Even worse, it seemed like the statues blocked the entrance.

Meanwhile Aladdin and Jasmine were trying to block the attacks. Even if those golden statues weren’t that fast, their strong hits and the fact that there were at least twenty of them, made the monkey statues very dangerous. Making things worse, Genie or Carpet wasn’t there to help them out. We have to do something, before we get smashed. He thought while he blocked another attack and the fist of the statue hit the wall behind Aladdin. The statue stuck, giving Aladdin enough time to come up with an idea. If we can’t defeat them, maybe they can destroy each other.

He ran to Jasmine, who was still blocking the attacks, and whispered his plan in her ear. Jasmine, finding the plan good, nodded and ran from her attackers in a brief second. Aladdin did the same and caused the statues to chase them. Some were following Aladdin and the rest were after Jasmine. Even the ones from the walls, who couldn’t reach Iago, got back to the floor and chased them.

“What are you two doing? Trying to kill yourselves?” Iago shouted as he watched them from the air.

“Trust me!” Aladdin said as he was running from the statues. When all of the statues were either following him or Jasmine, he changed the direction and ran to the middle of the hall. Jasmine did the same. In the last second, they jumped to different ways letting the monkey statues crashing to each other, braking into pieces.
“All right!” Aladdin cheered.

“We did it,” Jasmine hugged him tightly.

“You know, kid, it was a really good idea. Crazy, but a good idea,” Iago commented as he flew back to them. “Now, could we get out of here before anything else tries to attack us?”

Aladdin laughed. “Of course Ia- Watch out!” He tossed Jasmine away from him and a statue hit him very badly right in the shoulder. Aladdin yelled in pain as he felt his shoulder being dislocated and maybe even broken by the attack. Jasmine wanted to rush to him, but she gasped as she saw the statue pieces getting together into monkey statues again.
“NOW WHO’S GONNA SAVE US!” Iago cried as he and Jasmine backed to a wall as the statues surrounded them.

Aladdin tried to stand up, but he couldn’t. The pain in his shoulder was too great. He managed to look up to see the statue ready to hit him again. Knowing what’s going to happen, he closed his eyes waiting for the final strike. To his surprise, the attack never happened. He opened his eyes and they widened as he saw a blue force field around him. The statue was hitting it rapidly, but never got through it. In the corner of his eyes, he saw the same force field around Jasmine and Iago.

“Are you all right, sir?” He heard a boy’s voice asking him and he looked behind himself. A young, blue-haired kid was standing near to him. His clothes looked like his expect that the boy’s vest was blue and he had no patches on his pants. He had a kind smile on his face.

“Expect my shoulder, I think I’m fine,” Aladdin managed to say. “And who are you?”
The boy grinned at him. “I’m Aladdin,” he replied. “Don’t worry. My friends and I are here to help you.” He reassured Aladdin and pointed to the left. “Look, they have already started.” Aladdin looked where the boy pointed and his eyes widened. A short, red-haired woman, who looked like an assassin, was shooting the statues with a gun-like weapon. She shot the statues rapidly with green energy until every one of them was nothing but pieces.  

“Now, Laura!” she shouted and another woman came to the hall. She had long blonde hair and had deep-blue clothes with gold streaks on it.

“Got it!” She put her hands together and started murmuring something, which to Aladdin was unrecognizable. Her hands and the statue pieces started to glow with a strange light until she finished the murmuring. With her last words, the pieces became nothing more than dust. Then she sighed with relief. “They won’t attack anyone from now on in that form,” she said then she turned to her friend. “Did I do well, Jade?”

“You did well, Laura” Jade replied as her weapon changed back to its normal form, a having the same symbol as Aladdin had seen on the lamp before and she put back to her brown clothes. “You did improve a lot since last time.”

“You were great, Laura, Jade!” young Aladdin shouted to them. Then he looked back to the now open entrance. “Lila, you can stop it now. Everything’s okay, but we need your help. He got injured.

The force fields disappeared and a young woman stepped in. She had long white hair and a beautiful, yet not too girlish, sky-blue Arabian dress. The gang immediately recognized the woman. “Lila? Aladdin asked, still on the ground. “Is that you?”

“Yes, I’m Lila, but how do you know my name?” She frowned at him. “Have we met before?”
Aladdin’s face fell. Again, she wasn’t their Lila. “No. Sorry, you just remind me to someone I know.” He said, sadness was in his voice. Maybe going to this world was pointless after all.

Lila went to him and checked his shoulder. She caught the sad tone in his voice but said nothing. Instead, just as Laura before, she started to murmur something as she placed her hands on Aladdin’s shoulder and blue energy surrounded his shoulder. Aladdin could feel that his shoulder slowly recovered as Lila was murmuring. When she finished, she gently smiled at him. “Do you feel better now?"

Aladdin placed a hand on his shoulder. “Yeah, it’s much better. Thank you, Lila.” Just as he said that, Jasmine rushed to him and hugged him. Iago followed her. Aladdin hugged her back, his eyes never leaving her.

Laura and Jade joined to Lila and to young Aladdin. A bit later Jade cleared her throat getting the attention of the gang. “Um, excuse me, but what the hell did you think? Going into a dungeon like this? It’s a miracle you haven’t died yet.”
“Dungeon?” The three of them said in the same time.

“Yeah,” Laura said. “You know: big treasure with a genie in the-“
“Did you just say treasure?” Iago interrupted her. “Oh, this already sounds good to me.” He rubbed his wings and smiled greedily. Even though he became a good guy, he still loved treasures and luxury.

“Maybe, but first you have to survive all the danger the dungeon contains,” Laura added.
Iago’s smile faded as he heard these words. “You know what? Never mind. I like big treasures, but not the danger.”

Laura laughed a bit at the parrot, before she looked at the young couple with bit seriousness. "But seriously, try to capture a dungeon without any weapon is like going willingly to death. What were you thinking?"


"We didn't know that this was a dungeon," Jasmine said before frowning at the strangers. "And who are you?”

“Oh, sorry, we haven’t introduced ourselves yet,” the boy said and, now in he stood in front of them still smiling. “My name is Aladdin.” He introduced himself. Then he pointed at Lila. “She’s Lila. Princess of Balbadd and she’s a very good healer.” Lila warmly greeted them. “Next to me is Laura. She’s a magician from Magnostadt.”
“Nice to meet ya!” Laura happily greeted them.

“And here is Jade,” The boy introduced her, but all Jade did was just looked at them for short time. Aladdin noticed that her eyes are different from the others. Those eyes were more like an animal’s eyes. “Don’t worry. She might look a bit unfriendly, but she has a good heart if you get to know her better.”

“And she’s also the greatest fanalis and assassin in the world!” Laura added happily and rather a bit hardly patted her friend in the back. Jade didn’t like it too much, but said nothing. “And who’re you guys?”

“I’m Aladdin, but you can call me Al, and they are my friends, Jasmine and Iago from Agrabah”

“Agrabah? I’ve never heard of that place before.” She frowned a bit then she asked,” So, why did you come here then if not for the treasure?”

“We came here because we thought our friend might be in this world,” Aladdin answered making Laura, Jade, Aladdin and Lila surprised.

"In this world?" Lila raised an eyebrow at the princess. "You mean you're not from here?"

Aladdin nodded and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, you see..." and he started his tale starting with how they chased a beast in their world, who later turned out to be their friend, how she then went through a portal and they followed her, how they found themselves in a strange white world with portals and their visit in a world where talking ponies live. When he finished it the girls looked at him in disbelief. "You don't believe me, do you?”

“Uh… No” Lila shook her head. Jaded didn’t say anything, but seeing her expression, she didn’t believe him either.

“Not really, but it’s an interesting story. Could you write a book around that story? I’m sure everyone would love it,” Laura joked. Jade narrowed her eyes a bit annoyed by her.

“What?”

“I do.” The little boy stepped closer to the gang. Aladdin’s eyes brightened up with hopes, hearing the boy believing him.

“You do, Aladdin?” Lila asked.

Her friend nodded then crouched and started to draw with his finger in the dust. “Ugo once told me that there are other worlds besides ours,” he stated as he drew some circles near to each other. One as the middle circle and some others around it.

Then he continued. “He even told me that there are ways to go across them.” He drew lines connecting the middle circle with the other circles, illustrating what Aladdin tried to explain. When he finished it he stood up. ”So, if what he says and what Ugo told me are true then I think the middle circle would be that white world and the rest would be theirs, that pony world and ours.” He looked up at Aladdin. “Am I right, sir?”
Aladdin could only nod as a response. There was something special about that kid. He didn’t really understand it why, but he could feel it.

The girls looked at their friend for a bit. They still couldn’t really believe that those strangers came from a different world, but in the end they accepted it. Aladdin might be young but he knew a lot of things they didn’t.

Caught Aladdin’s guard off the boy went to him and took the lamp from him studying it with curiosity. “Where did you find that?”

“At the portal when we arrived. We assume that Genie is in it.

“Genie?” His eyes widened. “You mean your friend is a genie from your world?” Aladdin nodded. “I see. Let me try this,” he stated and touched the symbol. The lamp glowed and blue smoke was coming from the spout. The smoke slowly formed into Genie’s shape until he was completely out.

“Wow, I thought I would never be out from that lamp again.” He stretched before he noticed the boy with lamp in his hands. He grinned widely and shrunk down to their size and hugged him. “Thank you, kid. You have no idea how good it is to be out again.” Then he flew to his friends and hugged them tightly. The boy grinned as he watched them.

“Oh, great,” Iago mumbled when Genie released them. “Just when I finally got used to be without blue boy.” He crossed his wings but inside he was happy to see him again, just didn’t want to show that to the others.

“How did you do that?” Jasmine asked.

“Aladdin is a magi,” Lila said getting the gang’s attention. “A person who can control the world’s Rukh. He has more magoi than any of us. This is why he could summon your genie,” she explained to them and the young man looked at the boy. A magi? So this is why he seemed so special.

“But why Genie got trapped? He’s a free genie.

“Maybe in you world he is, but in our world they can’t be out,” The boy said coming closer to them. “Mostly genies are in their containers and only can be out by a huge amount of magoi for a limited time. I think the laws of our world effects on him and this is why he is trapped again.

“You mean I can’t be out?” Genie asked and the boy shook his head sadly.
“Even with my powers you can only be out for a short time. But you will be free again if you leave this world.”

“But what about Lila?” Genie asked in concern. He was still in pain and really wanted to find Lila wherever she was. “She can be here, can’t she?”

Aladdin went to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Sorry, Genie, but I’m afraid she’s not here.”

“Maye you should go and try somewhere else,” Lila suggested. “If you still know where that portal is, we offer our help to get there safely!”
“You would do that for us?” Aladdin asked and Lila nodded.

“Yes, after all you are looking for your friend. She must be a very good friend if you are worrying about her that much.” She smiled at them kindly.

Aladdin and Jasmine gratefully thanked them and they headed back to the portal. Genie returned back to the lamp for that time. As much as he wanted to be with the others, he felt that force again, tugging him back to the lamp. In the lamp he wondered about his Lila’s whereabouts and hoped she’s okay.

In the meantime, the couple, Iago, Aladdin and Laura were sharing stories with each other while Lila and Jade remained silence. Young Aladdin was amazed by the adventures the young couple were telling him from their lives. Even Laura liked them and both of them would have loved to hear more.

It was the same with Aladdin, Jasmine and Iago when Laura and the boy were telling them their adventures. They couldn’t believe what they were hearing: the first dungeon capturing, how they met with each other, Sinbad the king of Sindria and the Eight Generals, the Balbadd incident with the Fog Troup and so on. They were more amazed when the boy started to talk about the world itself. So many new things were told to them in that short time that they almost got a headache from it but they could have listened to him and Laura the whole day.

Lila caught some parts of their conversation and smiled at the group. They seemed to get along with each other really well and that made her really. Though to think of it, she should have expected that. Since she had known Aladdin, the little boy always made some friends wherever they went. Even Jade smiled at the group watching them.

Later they arrived back to the portal. Young Aladdin went to it and studied the portal. He tried to go through but he couldn’t even touch it. It seemed that only the couple and the parrot could enter it and no one else.

“Something’s wrong, Aladdin?” Lila asked him brought his attention back to them.
“No, I just checked it out a bit.” He said quickly before regaining his smile back. “I think it’s ready for you.”

“Thanks for everything,” Aladdin said to them with a smile.
“Ah, don’t mention it,” Laura said.

“We hope you will find your friend!” Aladdin said and Jade and Lila nodded in agreement. Aladdin thanked them and all of them said their goodbyes to each other. Then the couple and Iago entered through the portal and returned back to the white world with the portals.