It wasn't long after we crawled out of the tunnel that we were all walking through the desert. The Old Man had acquired a horse for himself and shouted out directions as Aladdin and I lead the horse through the storm. A few times I mumbled to myself. "I hate sand storms.....I despise sand storms...I ABHOR sand storms."
As we reached the place where the cave would appear, the storm died down. The old man pulled out the pieces of the beetle, sent it flying off and it formed the cave. We all watched, amazed. As we approached the cave, I wondered what treasures awaited for us. Then, the Cave of Wonders spoke to us: "Who dares disturb my slumber?"
"I-it is I, Aladdin." He said as he approached, "And I, Besnik" I said as I joined his side. The cave studied us with a critical eye. "...Proceed. Touch NOTHING but the Lamp." As it's mouth shot open, the old man called called out to us. "Remember children, first fetch me the lamp, and then you shall have your reward." We all glanced at each other, as if reassuring ourselves that we should go on. Aladdin gave a determined nod.
"Let's go, guys." Abu started shivering and I had grabbed him for reassurance. We stepped into the Cave's mouth and started walking down the flight of stairs. At the end of the stairs there was an archway. It was only large enough for one of us to walk through at a time. Aladdin went in first. "Would you look at that!" He walked through, then went me. "Oh my God." I said.
Okay, there was wall to wall gold in this place. "Just a handful of this stuff would make us richer than the sultan!" Just like that, Abu went charging out of Aladdin's vest and went to grab a big red jewel. "Abu!" we both screamed. Abu stopped in midair then slowly floated down. Aladdin got on his knees and got into Abu's face. "Don't. Touch. ANYTHING. We gotta find that lamp."
I walked behind Abu and rubbed his head affectionately before taking my place at Aladdin's right, as we walked on. As we walked a little further, I heard a few strange sounds coming from behind. "Aladdin! Aladdin!" Abu called, coming up and pulling on Aladdin's pants. "Abu, will ya knock it off?" Aladdin replied as we walked on. Abu sulked but followed us anyways. A few steps and a few more interesting sounds later, Abu knocked Aladdin to the ground.
"Abu, what are you--crazy?" I turned quickly as a Carpet peaked his 'head' out from behind a pile of gold. "A magic carpet!" Aladdin said, shocked. "Woah..." I whispered amazed. Aladdin started trying to coax him out. "C'mon out. We're not gonna hurt you."
Carpet cautiously came out and picked up Abu's hat. Dusting it off, he flew over and tried to hand it to Abu. Abu freaked out and jumped onto Aladdin's shoulder. I rolled my eyes. "Abu. He's not gonna hurt you." I told him. "Yeah, take it easy, Abu. He's not gonna bite." Aladdin added. Carpet tried again. This time, Abu took his hat back, than screeched angrily at Carpet. Carpet hung his head and started to walk away. I look scoldingly at Abu. "That wasn't very nice, Abu." I told him, Abu's shoulders drooped and he looked at me guiltily.
"Maybe he could help us...?" I told Aladdin, Aladdin nodded and called out to him. "Hey, wait a minute. Don't go. Maybe you can help us." Carpet pointed to himself, then flew up excitedly and wrapped himself first around Aladdin, then around me. "See, we're trying to find this lamp..." Carpet thought for a moment, then motioned for us to follow him.
"I think he knows the way!" said Aladdin as we took off running. As we ran, I said under my breath: "No shit, Sherlock."
We ran for about five minutes before we came across another large archway. We walked through and saw a famous staircase, with an even more famous object at the top. As I gazed at where I knew the lamp. Aladdin looked at Abu and told him sternly: "Stay here."
He looked at me as if he were about to say the same thing. I beat him to the punch. "Forget it." I started, "I'm going with you." I moved closer to the stairs. Aladdin looked up to the sky as if asking 'why bother?' before motioning for me to follow.
We hopped across the stepping stone bridge, one after the other until we came to the wide stone before the stairs. Seeing them up close, the stairs were very narrow and very high. There was no way the two of us could get up there safely. Aladdin shot me a 'told ya so' look.
"Shut up, and just go get the lamp." I told him, Aladdin sighed, but nodded and started up the stairs. I watched Aladdin climb the stairs. I wonder why the old man was wanting a lamp like this? I had to be important if so, right? I was pulled out of my thoughts by Aladdin's voice.
"ABU! NO!" I looked around quickly to see the huge red ruby in Abu's hands.
"Shit!" I said, knowing trouble was now upon us.