Knightly (A Reverse Harem)

Chapter 15: Desert Adventure

Snowen has been staring at me ever since we started the trip through the swamps again. Man does that guy know how to make my blood boil. I refused to make eye contact with him and ignored him. Sure, it was childish but he was the one who started it. I was just trying to do my job.

"Are we there yet? My feet are starting to hurt!" Aries started to complain. I looked at my map, calculating how much longer we needed to walk. I sighed.

"45 minutes, give or take." I responded. I was starting to get tired too. The journey to Agrabah after this trek is going to suck. I haven't figured out how we were going to get from the swamp to the desert. I don't even know if there's an oasis on the way. I should've planned more.

"Wait, do you guys hear that?" Tianos croaked. I stopped and focused on my hearing. I could faintly hear the sound of a fire crackling and ringing. I headed towards the sounds. There was an undercover path that led to a tree with a boat trapped within the branches. I could see a figure dancing in the port window.

"Blaise? How dated is this map?" I accused. He sheepishly shrugged. I guess we'll have to get a new map as soon as we can. "Well, I guess we're here."

We approached the tree to get ready to enter but then suddenly someone shouted. "I've been waiting on you guys for forever! What took you guys so long? Any longer and I would've died of old age!"

I looked up at the port window to see a little old lady spouting on. "Well, get up here! I don't have all day. I got things I gotta do and I'm sure you do too."

I looked to the princes. "I guess it's now or never."

The inside was a lot warmer than the outside. Knick-knacks were strewn about the place, some common, some rare. A big pot was sitting over a small fire. The substance inside started to bubble. I didn't know what it was but it smelled great. A snake slithered around on the ground and around the lady's legs.

"So many people came to see me today! That makes me so happy considering that I can't see them back!" she laughed.

Tianos hopped out of my bag. "Excuse me, but we came here so I could become human again. Not trying to be rude here but I would really like to be myself again."

"Now now! You'll be fine in no time. Besides it's your fault you messed with something you shouldn't have. You need to be more observant to other people besides focusing on yourself!" she scolded.

Before Tianos could retort the old lady waddled over to her pot on the fire. She stirred it and waved us over. She peered into the pot, seeming to look for something. Instead of explaining to us what she saw, she just whistled and hummed. She suddenly slammed the stirring stick into the pot and turned to Tianos.

"You gotta kiss a princess. All of you are idiots for not realizing it before! I mean, it's the oldest trick in the book for crying out loud! You have until midnight or else you'll stay a frog forever." she nonchalantly shrugged. I sighed. I don't think we could find a princess or head back in time.

"I'm feeling nice today! I'll do you guys another favor. I wanna help Mr. Frog so I'll use my magic to transport you to where you guys need to go."

"You can do that?" I rushed over. She rummaged through her treasure box and pulled out some purple powder. "We need to get to Agrabah as soon as possible. It's our last stop!"

She threw the purple powder at the princes and it began to swirl around them. "No side effects, you'll get to the desert safely. Just be careful of hallucinations. Come back and visit me soon, sweeties!"

And just like that the princes disappeared. Including Tianos. I waited for my turn but instead the lady just pulled me down to her short level. "You're lucky I'm so nice! You need to tell them eventually. And you're cruel for not helping the froggie out. I don't know why you wanna hide yourself so much."