Villians Or Heroes

The Cove

TW: Fire and also, this is a pretty short chapter compared to the last two, so sorry about that.

There are several things you'd expect when you're helping a sorceress burn down a school while using her own son as the weapon. You'd be expecting the screams, the crying, the smoke, the heat and the pure chaos of it all. You wouldn't be expecting a young student to suddenly tackle you from behind then steal your lamp right off your belt. Especially when you're about twenty feet high, or more. And you're a genie. Yeah, that's not something you'd expect.

Patton clung to the cold lamp tightly running from the big, bad genie-man as fast as he could.

Well, this was fun.

Jesus, he really should have tried more in PE.

Hurtling and coughing through the thick smoke, Patton made a run for the burning forest before him. All he had to do was find the cove that he had found Virgil and Roman in several weeks ago and hide from the fire, hoping that Jafar would be too cautious of the fire to follow him in.

Neither of the other two women seemed to see him dash past, but Jafar followed, roaring furiously. Patton darted among the burning trees, suddenly regretting his choices. The air grew even thicker and the heat was unbearable but he kept going. This was one of the most stupid things he had ever done. What the hell was he doing? He was gonna die. Jafar was gonna pick up his burnt corpse and take the lamp from his sizzled hands. Yeah. That sounds about right.

A jet of flame from Virgil took out a huge portion of the forest on his right and Patton only allowed himself a brief moment to look at the blackened stumps and torched ground. Okay, so that would be another way to go. The fear made his heart pound and his feet move faster, despite the stitch rapidly growing.

Jafar was rushing into the forest behind him, uprooting trees in his anger and desperateness to get to Patton. The prince could hear him getting closer, he could see the shadow looming over him, he could feel the fury radiating from him.

He rushed through the forest, finding that there was less fire the deeper he ran in and that definitely made it better. He breathed in the slowly cleansing air and his feet were in a lot of pain. Honestly, that was probably one of the only things on his mind. How much his feet heard, how his knees were tiring and his legs were just slowly burning up. His lungs felt like they were collapsing on him but, still, he pushed forwards. Suddenly, the floor beneath him vanished and he ran straight into the cove, flying forwards in the air.

Jafar was right behind him, screaming in fury and reaching a hand out to grasp Patton. It was all happening in slow motion. The wind that ran through his hair seemed to hardly move, the gravity that slowly tugged at him barely did a thing at all, the stark cold rush of breeze did nothing to cool him. The only thing that actually moved in this slowed world was his rapid heart, pulsing the fear and adrenaline around his veins. Jafar's' fingers stretched to close around Patton when, suddenly, the world moved again.

Patton plummeted into the cold pool below, sinking down a metre or so and bouncing harmlessly off the sandy bed. Water filled the lamp, and Patton swam up to the surface, gasping for air.

Jafar just stood there. He was no longer a genie. He was just a normal man once more. But he seemed different. As if he were lighter. As if he were shocked. As if he were brighter, stunned, different. He was not the same. He stood, blankly staring, looking at the water. He didn't attack.

Patton began to swim forwards fearfully, climbing out of the water, soaked to the skin. Jafar didn't react and Patton suddenly realised.

"The water," He breathed. "It's magic, of course! And so's your lamp! It must've done something to you."

Jafar didn't respond and Patton placed the wet lamp in the genie's' hands. Nothing. No response, no glance down at the golden lamp in his hands, no sudden attack. He just stared at the water.

So Patton left him there, venturing back out into the forest. Well, that solved one problem.