Aladdin: A Fairy Tale Fantasy
Prologue- A Gray Hope
by Umi
February 2002
Disclaimer: Zidane and all Final Fantasy 9 characters belong to Squaresoft, not me!
Aladdin belongs to Disney, not me, as I am adapting Disney's version of the classic fairy tale!
Note: This is an Alternate Universe fanfiction. I have inserted the characters of Final Fantasy 9 into a fairy tale, and have altered the plot, relationships, and characters to fit the fairy tale! There will be some spoilers about the game, mostly concerning who the characters are!
Pouring rain mixed with a child’s tears.
Gray clouds masked the skies in a chilling, haunting emptiness. Rain streamed down from the darkness above, flooding the dirt roads and desert sands. The rain didn’t lightly trickle down, nor did it relentlessly pound the ground. Instead, the rain simply fell endlessly from the gloomy sky, without a purpose, without a wish to soothe the dry crops, without a desire to destroy the beautiful lands…
The rain just fell.
Emotionless. Uncaring.
Just like the world it was falling in.
Just like the world that didn’t care for the young boy, no more than 6 years of age, who was crying as he sat upon the damp earth, drowning in the rain, drowning in his sorrow…
A woman knelt down and kissed her son’s head of fair hair softly, sobbing as she spoke in a tired voice, “I’m sorry, my little one. But, I can’t keep you…” She looked up at the man standing at her side, her turquoise eyes pleading, begging.
The man shook his head solemnly as he got down on his knees and hugged her tightly. His handsome, but tired, face remained calm, showing no expression. However, his cerulean eyes betrayed the hint of tears… “You know we have to do this… We don’t have anything to give him. We don’t have enough money to support him. You know that if he stays with us, he’ll have no hope for a bright future…”
The woman leaned back into her husband’s embrace for several moments, her tan rags soaked from the incessant rain. Shivering slightly, she willed herself to relax, and she turned her attention back to her son. Clutching the boy one last time to her chest, she softly whispered, “I love you, Zidane. Even if you forget who your parents are, or where your home was… Always remember the strength of our love for you.”
Her husband wrapped his arms protectively around the two, and bent to kiss his son’s cheek affectionately. “Stay strong, Zidane. Never forget what you’re living for… Keep your memories alive, for one day they may be all you have left.”
The little blond simply cried, unsure of what was happening, and only focusing on the bitter cold of the falling raindrops. He couldn’t understand why his family and he were outside on a deserted road, and not in the warmth of the covered tent that they called their home.
The woman wrapped the youth in a soft, wool rag, damp from the endless rain. For a moment, the boy’s small lips curved into a smile as he rubbed his cheek against the warm cloth.
The parents reluctantly tore themselves away from their only treasure, their hearts breaking into thousands of little pieces. They gazed longingly at him before they walked away, their feet slipping from the mud and their fatigue.
“Mother… Father…” The young child’s wide turquoise eyes brimmed with tears. Even though he didn’t know what was happening, he understood the only thing that mattered, the only thing that he needed to know…
His parents, his whole world, were abandoning him.
“Mother! Father!” The boy’s screams echoed throughout the darkened skies.
The woman stopped in her tracks and dropped to her knees, drenching her torn, frayed skirt in the deep mud. “No… There must be something else we can do! There must!!”
The man knelt beside his wife, kissing her soft, gentle face. “I wish there was… But, if we keep him, he’ll starve with us. You and I… we aren’t going to last for much longer. We can’t save ourselves, but we can save him… We can give him the chance that we never had for a better life…”
“But, how can he survive on his own?! He’s just a boy!” Sobbing, the woman crossed her arms over her chest, trying desperately to stop her shaking. “And… He’s our son! Why can’t he have that better life with us?! Why… Why does it have to be like this?!”
“Because we’re poor.” He clenched his hand into a fist, his knuckles growing a ghastly white. “Because we were born poor, and we’ve always been poor. This is how the damn world works. The rich prosper, and the poor die out… Nothing can change that.”
A soft, almost silent whisper. “Not even love?”
Pained turquoise eyes met somber cerulean ones.
The man turned his gaze back on the young boy. “No. Not even love….”
Taking his wife’s hand in his, the man led the way to the alley where they lived in. They solemnly walked on, quietly accepting what was meant to be.
Our son… Our only happiness lies in our memories of you…
Even if we don’t have anything else, that is all we’ll ever need…
The young boy could do nothing but watch the only two people he had ever loved walk away from him… He continued to cry, cloaked in a soaked rag, slowly freezing to death with the gray nothingness above him. At that moment, he didn’t care if the rain swept him away, for all he knew was that he was alone.
His ears still rang with the words of his parents, the last times he would hear their soft voices…
Some of what they said made little sense to him, but he mouthed their words nonetheless, silently muttering in the dark, “Not even love…”
<To be continued…>
Author’s Note: Hi there! Okay, I know that this prologue is similar to the beginning of my other fic, “Cinderena: A Fairy Tale of the Stars.” Sorry, but I like starting stories off with sad flashbacks from the hero’s past! Even though the two stories may seem similar now, they will go off in pretty different directions soon. So, I hope that you enjoyed this little prologue! I'm also planning to write or in the process of writing the following fairy tales as well:
* "The Little Mermaid: A Fairy Tale Fantasy" starring Tidus and Yuna from FF10
* “Cinderena: A Fairy Tale of the Stars” starring Rena from Star Ocean: The Second Story
