Aladdin : Lian's Story

“Help! Please, let me in. I am Lian. Please let me in, please.” she pounded on the palace doors and pleaded endlessly to be let in. Finally, after much efforts, she was let in and presented in front of the royals.

She pounded on the palace door, wanting to be let in.

Dripping wet from head to toe, Lian said, “Your highnesses. Please forgive me for how I am dressed. I fell overboard during the voyage and now I am searching for my parents. They said they’d be in Shirabad or here, in Agrabah. I wanted to ask you their whereabouts, since they wanted to meet you.”

“Who is this girl and what is she doing in the royal courtroom?” Prince Ali, the son of Sultana Jasmine and King Aladdin said in disgust.

“Please, help me find my family.”

“Who are your parents and how do they know us?” Sultana Jasmine was very calm throughout and asked.

“I am the daughter of your friends, Dalia and the Genie.”

Jasmin was shocked, “Did you just say that you were the daughter of Dalia?”

“And the Genie?” Aladdin joined in.

“I thought those were just fictional characters from a fairy tale you guys created!” Even Prince Ali was in shock and couldn’t register a thing.

“Yes, I am Lian, their daughter. Can you please help me, Sultana Jasmine?”

“Yes, sure.”

“Wait! Mother, how can we know for sure that she’s their daughter?”

“I can prove it. King Aladdin, when you first met my baba, you were struck in the cave of wonders and faked a wish to get out of there, right?”

“Yes, but everybody knows that.” Aladdin replied.

“Okay, but how many of them know the song that he sang to you inside the cave?”

“I never told that to anyone.”

“If I sing that, will you believe me?”

“Definitely.”

“I’d like a little help from you Abu, and you too, Magic Carpet!” Lian said. As soon as her companions were ready, she broke into the song.

“Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves
Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves
You got a brand of magic never fails
You got some power in your corner now
Some heavy ammunition in your camp
You got some punch, pizzazz, yahoo and how
See all you gotta do is rub that lamp
And I'll say
Mister, man, what’s your name? Whatever
what will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order
Jot it down
you ain't never had a friend like me
Life is your restaurant
And I'm your maitre d'
C'mon whisper what it is you want
You ain't never had a friend like me
We pride ourselves on service
You're the boss
The king, the shah
Say what you wish
It's yours! True dish
How about a little more Baklava?
Have some of column "A"
Try all of column "B"
I'm in the mood to help you dude!
You ain't never had a friend like me
can your friends do this?
Can your friends do that?
Can your friends pull this out their little hat?
Can your friends go, Poof!
Don’t sit there slack jawed, buggy eyed
I'm here to answer all your midday prayers
You got me bona fide, certified
You got a genie for your charge d'affaires
I got a powerful urge to help you out
So what-cha wish? I really wanna know
You got a list that's three miles long, no doubt
Well, all you gotta do is rub like so - and oh
Mister Aladdin, sir, have a wish or two or three
I'm on the job, you big nabob
You ain't never had a friend, never had a friend
You ain't never had a friend, never had a friend
You ain't never had a friend like me”

Aladdin was in real shock. Nobody ever knew the whole song except the Genie. “She is surely the Genie’s daughter. I have never been so sure about anything.”

Jasmine went into action mode. “Get her some warm clothes and help her get comfortable. At once. Hakim, you’re in charge of her safety.”

In a frenzy, Lian was surrounded by maids, servants and guards. She was taken to one of the most luxurious chambers in the palace and was given a truly great makeover. In the meanwhile, discussions were going on in the courtroom where everyone was talking about Lian and her situation.

“Did you really let a street girl into the palace and are now giving her the treatment as if she was a princess!?” Prince Ali said, in rage.

“Ali! She is as important to this kingdom as a princess, if not more. She’s the daughter of the two people who helped this kingdom without thinking about their personal gain or loss. Do you know her father saved your father’s life? And that her mother was the first person in the world who understood me for who I was?”

Silenced by his mother, Ali left the courtroom and bumped into Lian on the way. “I am keeping an eye on you, commoner.”

Confused, Lian went on to the courtroom and sat at a horribly soft and expensive-looking chair, she was flooded with questions by both, Aladdin and Jasmine.

“Where is the Genie?”

“How’s Dalia?”

“Last I heard, you had a brother too. Where is he? How is he?”

“Where were all of you all these years?”

“PLEASE, let me speak. All these years, my family and I were travelling the world on our ship, ‘The Lamp’. After years, we decided to come back to Agrabah, but first my parents wanted to visit my mother’s ancestral home in Shirabad. I wanted to see this palace so I went on a little boat myself and was struck in a storm. I fell overboard, but thankfully landed here. For days, I have been to Shirabad and all places in Agrabah. I couldn’t find them but I did find the remains of my boat. I swam to it to find my things, but they were lost to the unmerciful sea. Finally, I came here, to ask you for help.”

We were travelling the world on our ship,

‘The Lamp’.

“Oh my! That’s really sad. Where did they go?” Aladdin said in surprise.

Jasmine was speechless for a moment, something she thought she’d never be again and then found her voice. “Wait a minute, Dalia has an ancestral house in Shirabad? I never knew that.”

“Yes, you see, my grandmother came with your mother here to serve her in Agrabah. We still have the ancestral house and since my mother never went there, she wanted to see it. That is where we met that…”

Before she could continue, the Hakim came in and said, “My Sultana! There is a huge problem. We have a cat, no, a huge cat in the market and no one is able to control it. It is creating huge ruckus and the subjects are really scared of it. It is not allowing any of the guards to come near it.”

“What is its colour?” Lian asked, alarmed.

“Black, like the darkest of nights.”

“THAT’S MY CAT, SHER!” Lian shouted and ran out of the palace, towards the market. Just as the Hakim had described, Sher was destroying everything in its way, to find its owner. The second it saw Lian, it leaped over everything in its way and leapt on her, soaking her wet with its slobber.

“Sher! I had been looking for you everywhere!”

The panther was overjoyed to see its owner and the people were overjoyed that the panther was finally calm (in a way) and was not creating any more chaos.

Sher was delighted to see its owner.

“T-This is YOUR pet?” Ali was scared of his own mother’s cat, Rajah and was surprised to find that even the ‘new girl’ had a pet equally as ferocious as Rajah.

The courtroom which had shifted into the market, was walking back towards the palace. Everyone except the royals were internally placing bets if the two cats would get along or not, after all, two queen bees can never stay in the same hive.

Everybody was wrong. Both Sher and Rajah got along as smooth as butter. They played with each other and had friendly fights too. After all, there could be two kings under the same roof.

Now that the ‘cat problem’ was solved, Aladdin and Jasmine focused on the main problem at hand. Dalia, Genie and Omar – their friends who were missing.

“I will ask the royal guards to go and look for them. Lian, you will be taken care of by the maids and Prince Ali will show Agrabah to you. I hope you will find our little corner of the world as interesting as the other places that you have seen.”

“Thank you, Sultana.”

In his chamber, Prince Ali said to his mother, “Why mother?! I don’t want to leave the palace and I surely do not want to show her the city.”

“ALI! This is your city and you should be proud of it. You will follow my orders and show her Agrabah while we search for her parents.”

“Fine.”                                           

“So, this is the market where my parents met for the first time and here we have the orphanage along with the meal room for the people who can’t afford meals. You won’t believe but just this one thing has really decreased the crime rate in Agrabah.” Ali said in a monotonous voice.

“Nice. Can you show me the place where your father lived before he came into the palace?”

“Sure, right this way.”

“By the way, why are we wearing these hideous clothes?”

“You think these are hideous? I thought you were used to such clothing, being a vagrant and all. But, we have worn these so that none of the people recognize me.”

“What’s so special about you that people will notice?” Lian said, sniggering.

“Um, I am a PRINCE? Well, we are here. You may take a look at all the things here, but you can’t touch any of them. My father believes that they still have ‘the Genie magic’ on them.”

“Hello? Genie’s daughter here?”

“Oh yeah. You can touch them.”

 ~~~~~~~~~~

“Sultana Jasmine! Sultana Jasmine! Prince Ali is nowhere to be found!!!” Lian shouted as she entered the palace.

 Jasmine said, “What?!”

“Where is he?!” came in Aladdin’s reply.

“I- I don’t know. He was with me in the place King Aladdin used to live with Abu before they came into the palace. I was looking around and suddenly, when I turned, he was gone! The only thing that remained was this map. It points towards ‘Ababwa’.”

“Ababwa!”

Ababwa

“Yes, Ababwa. Also, there is some sort of parrot-like mark here that moved as soon as I came into the palace. It is like it’s following me wherever I go.”

“A parrot you say? There is only one person in the whole of this land who had a parrot and we all know who that was, right Jasmine.”

“Yes. Jafar has woken up.”

~~~~~~~~~~

“We have been on this camel for days. How long will it take to reach Ababwa?”

Lian said after looking at the map, “It shows that we are here. It’s just a few minutes. The parrot has stopped at…..This is Shirabad! We are here!”

“After all this while, it wanted us to go to Shirabad?”

Abu seemed perplexed. Sher and Rajah also sensed some tension in the atmosphere. Something was about to happen. Something huge.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

When they reached the palace of Shirabad, the place the map was pointing to, they say Lian’s family all there, safe and sound. Nobody knew why they were in the palace for days and had no way of coming out. It was a real mystery. After the meet and greet session, the whole room was surrounded by a black-ish red fog and suddenly, out of nowhere, Jafar appeared, in human form.

He looked as evil as before and had surprisingly, not aged at all. With him, on his shoulder, Iago sat, with an evil smile on his face too. Suddenly, Jafar summoned his staff and it looked like he was going to do something bad. Sure enough, with one thud of his staff, Jafar ceased everyone in the room – Dalia, Genie, Omar, Rajah and Sher – in a time warp of some sort.

Jafar was burning with anger.

“Jafar, you don’t need to do this. You have a problem with me. There is no need to drag the others into this” Aladdin was trying to be brave. But really, his emotions and his eyes betrayed him. To see Genie after all these years, ceased in time, really made the tears flow into his eyes.

“I have nothing to do with you, street rat. I want her kingdom. She will have to die. And your son too, he’s the heir, after all.” Jafar said in a shrill voice, just like when someone asks Rajah to let go of its favourite toy.

“Why are you doing this? And who let you out of the lamp? Who granted one of their wishes to let you out?”

“It was me, Sultana, or, should I say, Jasmine?” Lian spoke in a harsh, cruel voice.

Everybody in the room was shocked. Nobody knew how to react to this. Finally, after a long, dramatic pause, Lian continued.

“You see, your mother’s father, your grandfather took the throne of Shirabad from my grandmother’s father. We had to serve you and your family because you were royals, something you had snatched from us. My grandmother served your mother and my mother served you. You were going to take control of Shirabad and become its Sultana too after forging an alliance with your uncle, the ruler of Shirabad. I never wanted to be like my mother or my grandmother when I came here, so I found Jafar and asked him to grant me a wish to get my revenge from you. Finally, after all this, that day, I kidnapped your son with Jafar’s help and let him free. Now if you’ll please excuse me, I need to reclaim my throne.”

“Not so fast, little girl. You are going nowhere. Two kingdoms are better than one and now that I am human again, I can rule both – Agrabah and Shirabad. My name will go down in history as the mightiest ruler!” Jafar had double-crossed Lian. She could do nothing, she too, was stuck in the time-stopping spell Jafar had put under her parents and was witnessing it all in front of her eyes.

There was no way anyone could stop Jafar. He was all-powerful, the best sorcerer in the world and was now the ruler of both Shirabad and Agrabah.

Ali came up with an idea, winking at his father, he said, “Please Jafar. I want to be your servant. Please make me a Genie. I will serve you forever. I won’t even ask for you to free me, ever.”

Jafar, pleased with the boy, said, “Sure, I think I’ll like that. You will grant me as many wishes I want and will still be my slave.” He took his staff and turned Ali into a genie. As soon as Ali’s lamp touched the ground, Aladdin took it, rubbed it and asked for his first wish.

“Son, I want you to turn this person, Jafar here, into a Genie forever who can’t turn back into human, ever. He must never come out of his lamp.”

Before Jafar could do anything, he was turned back into a Genie, with an even smaller lamp. Ali threw him in space, lost to the aliens, forever.

With his second wish, Aladdin turned everyone in the room normal and with his third wish, he turned his son back into a human prince.

We forgive you, Lian.

“Thank you, baba. I thought you were never going to turn me back into a human.”

“The idea was tempting, Ali.”

Everyone laughed. Then, Lian spoke up, trying to apologize, “I am sorry, I couldn’t see beyond my own desire. I messed everything up and because of me, everything happened. I don’t know how to apologize.”

Touched, Dalia said, “Lian, what you did was wrong. But the most important thing is that you have realized your mistake and are sorry for it. We forgive you., Lian”

“Yes, Dalia’s right. Also, I think I can help you. Let’s go to Agrabah.” Jasmine gave a smile that was difficult to crack, for everyone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“My loyal subjects, today, I, Jasmine, want to announce a very important proclamation. The ruler of Shirabad would be Lian, the daughter of Genie and Dalia.”

“Um, actually, I go by…never mind, Genie is fine too.”

“What?! You are giving me Shirabad, even after all that I did?” Lian was awestruck.

“Well, technically, it IS your kingdom. We had just borrowed it for a while!” Jasmine winked.

“What about me?” Omar yelled.

“Well, I’ll need someone to watch over the kingdom while I go on my adventures.” Everyone rejoiced in the courtroom, when suddenly, they felt a thud. It was a rhythmic thud, like music. 

Also, a note: The lyrics of ‘Friend Like Me’ , the names of characters {Jasmine, Aladdin, Prince Ali, Genie, Dalia, Lian, Jafar, Omar, Rajah, Iago, Hakim etc.} are all the Copyright of Disney. I have used them in my story because it is an interpretation of the continuation of the 2019 Live Action Aladdin Movie. The characters like Sher are made by me and this storyline is also written by me, these are my Copyrights. I have tried to include the source (mostly random Google searches for the photos added in the story too, but they are also mostly the Copyright of Disney, or from whoever I took the photograph. Those are not mine.)

I hope you liked this story. If you do, please like, share and comment on it so that it can reach Disney and can be an official movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!