The last light of day stretched long and red across the horizon as Helios, Alira, and Aladdin stood outside the city walls of Agrabah.
The great desert yawned before them — a sea of golden dunes, rippling under the dying sun.
Helios gave no grand speech.
He simply turned toward the dunes and began walking.
Alira followed silently, her cloak fluttering like a wraith behind him.
Aladdin hesitated, glancing back toward the safety of the city walls, then cursed under his breath and jogged after them.
They walked for twenty minutes across the darkening dunes, the cool breath of night rolling over the golden sea.
Then Helios stopped.
Aladdin stumbled to a halt behind him, glancing around the empty desert.
"...Is this it?" the boy asked, eyes squinting into the gathering darkness. "I don't see any giant tiger heads."
Helios chuckled quietly.
"No," he said. "This is just the doorstep."
He raised one hand casually — and with a twist of his fingers, a swirling dark portal ripped open in the air.
Aladdin nearly jumped out of his skin.
Alira, without hesitation, stepped calmly through the darkness.
Aladdin gawked.
"You—you just—she just—!"
Helios gave him a sardonic look.
"Move along," he said lightly.
Aladdin hesitated — so Helios grabbed the back of his collar and hurled him through the portal without ceremony.
The boy vanished with a startled yelp.
Helios followed a heartbeat later.
They erged in a place untouched by ti.
The sand here was unnaturally smooth, glimring faintly under a sky heavy with stars.
The air buzzed — low, deep, ancient.
No footprints.
No sound but the whisper of shifting dunes.
Aladdin tumbled onto the ground, groaning. He quickly patted himself down.
"I'm alive?"
Helios smirked.
"Would've been a boring trip otherwise," he said dryly.
Aladdin shot him a glare.
"What's the big idea, throwing in like that?!"
Helios shrugged.
"Efficiency. You'd have dragged your feet. I don't have much ti to waste."
"So where's this Cave?" Aladdin demanded, peering around suspiciously.
Helios didn't answer.
Instead, he drew a small object from the pouch at his belt — two halves of a golden beetle, glinting under the stars.
He pressed them together.
With a chanical click, they fused into a single, flawless scarab.
The mont it ford, it began to tremble in Helios' hand — a living thing awakening after ages of sleep. Soon after it zipped into the sky with a high, keening whine.
The ground trembled beneath their feet.
Aladdin stumbled backward as the sand exploded outward.
The dunes before them began to shift — twisting, rising, folding in on themselves.
A low, thunderous growl rumbled up from the depths of the earth.
The sand exploded outward.
And from it rose a titanic head — the head of a monstrous tiger, carved of sand and magic, its eyes burning with molten light.
It towered above them, dwarfing them like insects.
The massive jaws creaked open, revealing an endless blackness within — the entrance to the Cave of Wonders.
The tiger's maw moved, its voice like grinding boulders.
"WHO DISTURBS MY SLUMBER?"
The force of it shook the air itself.
Aladdin dropped to a knee, covering his ears.
Helios stood firm, his jacket whipping around him.
Helios stepped forward without fear.
He gestured to Aladdin.
"We bring the Diamond in the Rough," he said.
The tiger's burning eyes studied Aladdin — peeling back skin and soul with a gaze ancient beyond imagining.
For a mont, the world seed to hold its breath.
Then—
"YOU MAY ENTER."
The jaws opened wider, revealing a narrow, winding path descending into the earth.
"TOUCH NOTHING BUT THE LAMP."
Helios turned to the others calmly.
"You rember the rules?"
Aladdin swallowed hard and nodded.
"Yeah," he croaked. "Only the lamp."
Helios smiled faintly.
"Good."
He motioned forward.
Alira entered first — graceful, silent.
Aladdin hesitated again, looking up at the massive teeth overhead — then, steeling himself, darted through.
Helios followed last, the darkness swallowing him whole.
The interior of the Cave of Wonders was breathtaking.
Gold and jewels cascaded in great, shimring waves.
Towers of precious tals rose from the ground.
Ancient weapons glittered in broken piles.
Crumbled statues wept molten silver from cracked eyes.
The light inside was soft, sourceless — dreamlike.
It was a kingdom of lost things.
A graveyard for empires.
Aladdin stumbled forward, awestruck.
He spun slowly, overwheld, his hands twitching at his sides.
Even Alira stopped — her usual blank expression faltering, a flicker of wonder slipping through.
Only Helios remained detached, barely sparing the riches a glance.
They walked slowly — carefully.
Helios made no move to rush.
The cave was vast, and the path was winding.
In so places, narrow bridges spanned dark chasms. In others, collapsing pillars forced them to climb or leap across gaps.
The deeper they went, the stranger the treasures beca.
Mirrors that reflected different worlds.
Swords humming with bottled storms.
Cages containing the petrified remains of ancient beasts.
Aladdin caught himself staring too long at a golden harp strumming itself without touch — and tore his gaze away with effort.
Helios noticed — and said nothing.
Ti passed strangely within the cave.
An hour?
Two?
It was hard to tell.
The deeper they went, the heavier the air beca — thick with magic and old curses.
The map in Helios' mind showed they were only halfway to the true heart of the cave.
The lamp was still far beyond reach.
But he was patient.
Patience had always been his weapon.
As they reached a narrow ledge overlooking a glittering underground lake, Helios paused.
He let the others catch their breath, pretending to inspect a crumbling column nearby.
But his real attention was elsewhere.
Outside.
Far above.
Beyond the sand and the starlit dunes.
Soone else was coming.
At that mont — beyond the cave, beyond the reach of its ancient guardians — a lone figure appeared on the edge of the desert.
Jafar.
He stood tall against the moonlight, his black robes trailing behind him like wings of shadow.
His serpent staff pulsed faintly with gathering power.
He had seen the great tiger's head erupt from the sands. He had felt the shuddering of ancient magics reawakening.
And he had co.
At last.
He smiled thinly, the desert winds tugging at his sleeves.
His ti was near.
And the boy, the fool, he would kill — would unknowingly hand him everything he desired.
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