World reckless at its end,
Follies, miracles and unpaid dues,
Love passed along through ages,
How much of it can be saved though ?
Jasmine felt a throbbing pain in her stomach when she opened her eyes. She exhibited the pain with an expression on her face. She was welcomed by two sad eyes, looking at her in worrisome. She relaxed her mind.
"Aladdin", she whispered.
"Jasmine, please don’t move. You need the rest", he said pushing her head back with his palms.
Jasmine scanned the surrounding with a small roll of her head and saw she was in the middle of the forest. Massive figure of Abu was sitting in the far end of the corner looking at her, concerned. Another spectator who wasn’t showing the same enthusiasm as others, was her mare, Sahari. She failed to identify the last person , with the back turned towards her and doing something over the fire.
Taking a cue from her V-shaped eye brows, Aladdin explained to her.
"She is Cipha, the one who is trying to help you get better soon"
On call of her name, Cipha turned to Jasmine and smiled across her wrinkled face. She held a small vessel with a cloth tied around it. She brought it closer to Jasmine's mouth gesturing her to drink. Jasmine obeyed her.
The drink was very bitter and dry, but Jasmine didn’t complain. She was full of gratitude towards Cipha and Aladdin.
She recollected the last night's fight. She rubbed Aladdin's cheeks and he kissed her palms. She touched the bandage that was tied tightly around her waist. There was surprisingly no pain.
"This is tied very tight and in expertise"
"You just need to drink these another 2 times, and let the wound heal on its own. You are young, my dear, and you should be back in great health in no time. Don’t let your worries, and ambitions get in between", Cipha said to Jasmine, while she patted her arm.
She then looked at Aladdin.
"Can you get some neem leaves?", Cipha asked Aladdin.
"Yes", he said stroking Jasmine's hair.
"I will be back soon", he whispered and placed a kiss on her forehead.
With Aladdin gone for some time, Jasmine tried to sit up. Cipha came forward and helped her.
She saw stains of dry blood on the clothe tied to her abdomen.
"How long have I been unconscious?", she asked Cipha who returned to cooking the herbs.
"Not for long, Queen", said Cipha, not looking back.
"You knew I am a queen ?"
"Cipha knows everything", she said under her breathe.
She felt heavy breathing on her back, and realized Abu was closer to her now. She couldn’t turn to him.
"Come on this side, Abu", she said caressing him on his chin without turning behind.
Abu turned towards her. She saw sadness in his eyes.
"It's ok, Abu. Thank you for saving me"
Abu brought his head on the stretched palm of Jasmine and rubbed his head over it.
There was a complete silence except for the boiling of herbs.
"Do you live in the forest?", Jasmine asked Cipha.
"As long as I have known"
"Why don’t you come with me to the palace? My people can make use of the herbs you prepare,"
"Is that a demand ?", Cipha asked turning her head, but still not looking at Jasmine.
"No no, Cipha. It was a request. I…", Jasmine was cut off before she could speak.
"Then , you don’t say, come. You need to learn to use the word 'please' "
Jasmine's pride was hurt by this. She had always been a disciplined and responsible child. She never threw air of royalty around her people.
Cipha brought another drink towards Jasmine.
"Men are to be loved, and women respected", Cipha told in decrypted words.
Jasmine just pondered over the sentence while she drank yet another bitter dry drink.
"Take some rest, and you will feel better already".
She suddenly heard hooves clunking on the ground, and it dawned on her that she had ignored Sahari. The mare was standing under the tree with no ropes tied to her to keep in a place. Sahari was the wildest animal in her father's barn, and it took Jasmine a year to tame her. Jasmine loved Sahari because she saw herself in the animal. Wild, free spirted and hard to tame. When she rode her, it gave an essence of freedom and independence.
"Come here, Sahari", she called out
Sahari shook her white mane, which indicated that she heard Jasmine, but didn’t move.
"This is not the time to be arrogant, Sahari, Come here!", Jasmine shouted sternly.
The animal still didn’t move an inch from the place.
Jasmine heard Cipha snort.
'Men are to be loved, and women respected'
Sahari, will you please come here?, Jasmine requested.
The animal trotted towards her.
"See my Queen, all you had to do was ask nicely", Cipha quipped as she picked her stick to balance herself.
"But this is only an animal", Jasmine explained
Cipha inched towards her with the balance of the stick on one hand and bundle of herbs in another.
"Any woman, be it a queen , animal or a monster. All it takes is respect", Cipha enlightened.
Jasmine continued to just look at Cipha who was now stroking Sahari.
Aladdin showed up from the bushes with the herbs and some fruits. He handed over the leaves to Cipha, which she returned to him.
"Just make a paste with the herbs I gave you earlier, and rub it on the wound till it is healed completely"
Aladdin nodded in understanding. Cipha smiled at Jasmine.
"Your man has a good heart. You both have my blessings. I believe you will rule Agrabah in fair and kindness"
"I don’t think I am the queen anymore", Jasmine retorted placing her head back. "Jafar has taken everything from me"
Cipha didn’t console her, instead, began to walk to the dark green barks of the forest.
"Men are to be loved, and women respected", she murmured and walked on.
2 comments:
Starting with a confession: Haven't read or seen alladin.. so read this almost as a new story with no past overlays..
Loved it.. thought it flowed beautifully. "And men are to be loved, women respected".. woah clincher. as master shifu tells po, "you have reached such clarity at such a young age"....
On the style... I have always struggled to hold an engaging narrative in conversation mode.. you have done that beautifully, that too with short articulate exchanges throughout.
If I am being picky, I would just say, for the alladin uninitiated reader like me, the character development/ introduction felt a little sudden.. believe the assumption that the reader knows these famous characters could have been a subconscious narrative driver.
Thank you so much !!
My bad, I assumed everyone knew Aladdin. So built many characters from the book - Rajah was actually a tiger, Lago was Jafar’s parrot and so on. But let me check how other people do this, and do justice here.
Thanks again, but ‘such a young age’ had me in splits 😁
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