The Snake Princess (Magi Fanfiction)

Chapter twelve

Chapter twelve

The sound of several people rushing about slowly drew Amirah from her sleep. They were poking and prodding at her, making her furrow her brow in pain. As she began squirming -eyes still closed- one of the people gasped, "She's waking up! Everyone back off for a moment." The voice was familiar, but Amirah struggled to focus on it. Everything was so loud and bright. Even with her eyes closed she felt like she was staring directly at the sun.

The familiar voice spoke again, this time farther away, "M-My Lord, you can't! She's only just waking up, you-" They seemed to be struggling against someone. "S-Sharrkan, Zaahira, please, wait!" The person let out a sigh of defeat, and several pairs of footsteps ran up to Amirah.

The princess groaned, trying to turn her head away from the bright light, but it seemed to fill the room. As she came to her senses, what the familiar voice had said clicked in her mind. King Sinbad...? And Sharrkan, and Zaahria... Why are they here? Where...is here? Amirah slowly opened her eyes, forced to close them again a few times from the lighting in the room. Once she could keep them open, she realized it wasn't abnormally bright in the room, it was just that she wasn't used to a normally-lit room. She sat up, taking in her surroundings.

"Princess Amirah! You're okay!" Zaahira tackled her in a hug.

"Mind her wounds!" The voice form before reminded. Amirah now knew it belonged to Yamraiha.

"Z-Zaahira..." Amirah's wounds ached under the blonde's weight, but she didn't care. "You're alright...Good."

"Me? I'm fine! I'm more worried about you!" Zaahira pulled back, a smile forming on her tear-stained cheeks.

"I'm alright..." Amirah returned the smile. She turned to her left, where Sharrkan stood with Akido around his neck. She let out a relieved sigh, "I'm glad you're all safe..." Now that she was cautious, she came up with several questions, starting with: "How did I get here?"

"It seems you washed up on the island's shore," Sinbad spoke, standing at the end of her hospital bed. He looked just as relieved as Zaahira and Sharrkan that she was safe. "A couple and their child found you and brought you to the palace, where the mages began treating your wounds."

"You're lucky you survived," Yamraiha spoke, moving to stand beside Sinbad. "Your wounds were so severe... What happened?"

"I..." Amirah didn't want to think about what happened. Instead, she asked, "How long was I gone?"

"About a month or so," Sharrkan answered, directing her attention to him.

"A month?" Amirah could feel her heart beating faster. "Does Brother Armakan know?"

"When our search parties couldn't find you I notified the members of the Alliance to look as well," Sinbad spoke. Everyone could tell Amriah was avoiding answering what happened, but they were alright with letting her. They could only imagine what horrors she'd seen.

"I was somewhere near the Dark Continent," Amirah said, her eyes staring at the floor to avoid the other's gazes.

"How do you know?" Sharrkan asked.

Amirah shook her head somewhat, "I don't know for sure. I was on a boat for a while, about as long as it took to get from Heliohapt to Sindria."

Then, quietly, Zaahira asked, "Where did they take you?"

"Some prison somewhere. I don't know anything about the area- I was unconscious while they transported me."

"Who were they?"

Amirah shrugged, "I have no idea. They all wore masks and dark clothing. I only really saw three different people -siblings- they all had green eyes and the girl had blonde hair." Thinking back only made her more anxious.

"You don't see green eyes a lot..." Zaahira spoke, troubled.

"You don't know anything else about them?" Sinbad asked calmly, also trying to piece the puzzle together.

"I'd rather not think about them more..." The princess admitted, fiddling with her fingers.

"You don't have to," Sharrkan assured, offering a gentle smile.

"We should give her some privacy now, she has a lot to recover from." Yamraiha said, her professional mage side showing once again. She began ushering the three from the room, gently pushing particularly Sharrkan away.

Amirah laughed a bit, "It's alright, Yamraiha. I feel fine."

The blue haired mage looked over her shoulder, frowning seriously, "You're not. You're in no condition to be interrogated right now, nevermind tackled!" She continued to force the three from the room, all of them attempting to remain in place.

Amirah couldn't help but laugh harder. She felt like she'd forgotten what it felt like to be in Sindria. It was warm, and comfortable, and the people there genuinely cared about her and about each other. The group stopped to look at her, happiness mixed with sadness at her condition. She was alive, covered head to toe in white bandages, but was extremely malnourished. Despite her smile, she was still shaking- completely on-edge. Not only was she trying to fool them, but herself as well. And so far, no one -not even herself- believed she was fine.

~

A few hours later, Amirah was in much better condition. Mages specializing in healing magic were able to close most her wounds, save the large, infected, gash on her stomach. Thankfully, Sharrkan had given her his Sindrian robes, allowing her to cover the scars that now covered her body ranging in size and shape.

She'd heard of scars being great story content, but she'd never imagined the story that went along with the new additions to her skin would be so dark.

Amirah looked around her new room with curious, yet tired, eyes. Sinbad had relocated her to the Purple Leo Tower, an extremely restricted and monitored area of the palace. Home to Sinbad and Ja'far's quarters, very few people outside of them were allowed entrance. Amirah's room was just a door away from Sinbad's, with two Sindrian guards keeping watch outside her door. Sinbad had told her with his typical charming smile to come to his room if she needed anything at all, no matter what the time.

The princess thought it was a bit excessive -and a bit too flirtatious-, giving him a kind smile and sly remark in return. Just like their first meeting, his cocky exterior crumbled, but this time was replaced with a genuine smile.

After that, Amirah explained what her mysterious captors had wanted, and how she'd told them nothing because she knew the same: nothing. Sinbad believed her, and returned her metal vessel to her with warning not to try to activate it until her wounds were healed.

Now, Amirah sat upon her silk sheets with the golden fan in-hand, while Akido slept on her pillow. She stared down at her metal vessel, only able to see it by the moonlight shining through her window. She didn't know how to feel, how to act. Without anyone to distract her she was left to her thoughts, unable to ebb the flow of bad 'what if' questions.

What if they returned? What if they actually attacked Sindria? What if Amirah had said something crucial in her half-dead state and Sinbad or Armakan got angry with her? What if Sinbad made her and Zaahira go back to Heliohapt? Zaahira seemed really happy in Sindria, Amirah couldn't let that happen to her. What if, what if, what if...

It was nearing midnight when Amirah realized she couldn't sleep at all.

~

Author's Note-

So the next update will be on April 11th EST just so everyone knows

And I've also started posting another new Magi fic if anyone is interested it's being updated daily so it might be able to hold you off in between this fic being updated xD