Into Aladdin
Dawn slipped out of the portal and was immediately blasted by a wave of heat. Then she noticed the sand and the bright glare of the sun. looking around, Dawn’s eyes glowed and she noticed a young boy, not much older than she looked running from a trio of guards.
The boy clutched a single piece of bread in his hand as he ran, trying to outrun guards who yelled and waved swords and spears around.
Dawn knew she had come out of the portal to help him. He was who she had meant to find, and he was who she would learn from while in this world. So, without any further internal debate, Dawn began running to intercept the guards. They weren’t paying attention to a young girl, instead looking to the rooftops where the young boy had disappeared to.
Without pause, Dawn purposely crossed the path of the guards and had to hold back the immediate reaction to jump out of the way. She wanted a guard to run into and trip over her.
The second the older man’s legs smacked into Dawn’s small little body; they both fell sprawling into the hot sand. Immediately, Dawn began crying loudly and giant crocodile tears fell down her chubby little cheeks.
Her crying gathered the attention of everyone around her, including the three guards. The man who had tripped over her was yelling at her, but Dawn just began crying louder. She drew upon every technique she had learned from Sally and Jack and made herself look small and harmless. This had the other two guards berating the man who had practically kicked her as he tripped over her.
One of the guards finally came over to her to check if she was alright, “Little child, are you hurt? Where are your parents?”
Dawn drew her loud sobbing into a quiet whimper, hiccupping sobs still bubbling from her little body. At this point, her fake sobs had turned to real ones as her body had simply took over. “My parents were killed, and now I am lost!” Dawn couldn’t help it, no matter how many years she had been playing, having fun, and learning; all her sorrow spilled out of her at that moment and she could not help but cry for what she was missing. Maybe it was because she was finally in a realm where there were no fantastical creatures or beings of myth or magic. These were normal human men, asking her where her parents were.
Before this moment, she could pretend to be in a wildly creative dream. A figment of her imagination. There had always been some sort of outlandish and fantastical thing to distract her and catch her attention. Now, she was in a realm with normal people and there was no changing the fact that her parents were dead, that she had been abused by her only living family and was now lost traveling through portals. There was no reasonable explanation for Dawn to be breaking down in tears, especially for how old her clock said she was.
However, just because she had been living as a child for much longer than any human normally lived, didn’t mean she was an adult. She was a child. Her brain chemistry was that of a child, she was not an adult in a child’s body, and she was not fully mature; she was a child who had been playing in places that seemed more like dreams than reality and where time blurred into a fast flowing current in which Dawn had been swept upon without realization.
The guard knelt and simply grabbed Dawn to pull her into a hug. He had children of his own and seeing a little girl crying broke his heart. The other two guards simply stood back, feeling out of place and uncomfortable in such a situation.
It took a few moments longer before Dawn calmed down, her sobs finally coming to a halt. “Thank you, sir.” Dawn hiccupped as she rubbed at her teary eyes.
“That’s alright, little one, how can I help you?” The man was obviously referring to her statement of being lost.
Dawn shook her head, “Sorry, I remember where my family said to meet up if I got lost. I’m sorry for crying on you.”
The guard simply smiled, patted Dawn on the back and finally stood from his kneeling position. “That’s alright, little lady, do you need me to escort you to your family?”
Dawn shook her head again, “No, but thank you!” Dawn finally gathered her wits and raced off. She did not want to be around any more than she already had been. She was entirely embarrassed and mortified of how she had broken down. Plus, she was in a real need for a serious nap. Crying as hard as she did wiped her out, and she was exhausted.
Finally, having run off, Dawn searched for that boy from earlier. It was impossible to find him as she didn’t have the capabilities to climb or run far. Her body was still that of a very young child, her watch (the very same one given to her by the white rabbit) stated her body was only around five years old now.
Once she grew too exhausted to continue searching, Dawn simply found the best hiding place to take a nap. It was on a roof hidden by some old drapes that shielded Dawn from the sun. There, she took off her excess clothes from when she had come from Jack and Sally’s place. She was surprised the guards hadn’t made a fuss over what she was wearing but Dawn simply chalked it up to magic and left it at that. Honestly, she was hot and sweaty, and it felt wonderful to take off the extra layers she had been wearing.
Dawn stored her extra clothes in the Neither Space before pulling out a pillow she had stuffed in there. Once she was comfortable, Dawn fell asleep, exhausted but with a weight having been lifted from her shoulders.
~~~o0o~~~
Dawn awoke quite a few hours later, the sun was hours past its zenith and was starting to set. As she awoke, Dawn stretched and rubbed her eyes before letting out a surprised little shriek. Infront of her was that boy!
“How did you get here?” Dawn exclaimed. Her heart was racing from being startled but that boy was simply crouched over her continuing to munch on some stolen fruit.
“I climbed, you’re not very hidden. It wasn’t hard to get here.” The boy shrugged his shoulders and continued munching on his fruit. “I saw you run into those guards on purpose, thanks.”
Dawn smiled brightly, “You’re welcome, my name is Dawn.”
“Dawn? That’s a weird name. My name is Aladdin.”
Dawn couldn’t help but pout, “My name isn’t weird! Your name is weird!”
Aladdin shrugged again and then held out his hand which had a small dried date in it. “Here, you must be hungry. Your distraction with the guards allowed me to steal more than I can usually manage on my own.”
“Thanks.” Dawn took the dried date and nibbled on the fruit. It wasn’t what she was expecting but she didn’t dislike it. It was new, and Dawn was truly coming to realize on how many new experiences she would begin to encounter the more portals she jumped through.
Aladdin and Dawn continued to chat for a while longer until finally Aladdin left again, not really trusting Dawn to bring her to his hideout. Dawn didn’t understand how he didn’t trust her immediately. All the other places she had been to, the people had trusted her and took care of her. This was a place where she would have to take care of herself for once.
Maybe that was why she had met Aladdin. He wasn’t much older than she was, and he took care of himself just fine. Dawn continued thinking on her situation until finally, she fell asleep.
~~~o0o~~~
The next few days, Aladdin met up with Dawn and they began terrorizing the city together. They began playing and having fun along with stealing small little baubles to sell elsewhere, stealing food for themselves, or stealing soft blankets or pillows for Aladdin’s hideout he had finally shown Dawn.
For weeks, Aladdin taught Dawn how to really begin fending for herself with needing someone to hold her hand and guide her. Dawn finally shared with him how she was a traveler, not by land, but through magic.
They grew closer until finally a year had passed. After a year, both Dawn and Aladdin knew it was time for her to leave. To them, her body hadn’t seemed to age a day and it would become far too noticeable to the guards and the people of the city that Dawn was an ‘immortal.’ They would covet her unending youth and both Aladdin and Dawn feared the consequences of anyone else finding out about her circumstances.
When it came time to leave, Dawn couldn’t help but give her friend a parting gift. A little baby monkey. The little guy had been stuffed into a tiny little cage and so Dawn had freed it and then used a little bit of her magic to give a blessing of intelligence and good luck to the little monkey. For Aladdin, she used a little magic and gave him a simple braided cloth bracelet that she imbibed with luck and good fortune.
With the parting gifts, Aladdin and Dawn hugged each other and said their goodbyes before Dawn stepped through a portal to head off to her next world.