Aladdin's twin sister

Chapter 9: A Lively Town

Jasmine's POV
"Okay, all done!" I said as I finished packing.
"All done too," Atticus said.
That surprised me, he seems okay. After what he said, his demeanor changed. Now all we need is some firewood. Aislinn went to go get some, is she still not back yet?
"Hey Atticus," He turned around at me. "Did Aislinn come back from getting firewood?"
"No, not yet" he answered.
"Huh? That's weird, she left about an hour ago and she still haven't come back yet?" I said, getting concerned.
"Maybe she got distracted?"
"No she wouldn't..."
"You might want to think again. It is Aislinn"
"Actually, yeah it's possible that she got distracted. Oh no, what if someone kidnapped her? Or worse... she fell and hit her head?" I started to panic. Atticus pat my head to calm me down and it worked.
"Don't start thinking the worst, maybe she just got distracted or got lost on the way." He said.
"Yeah, you're right, let's go look for her." We both headed to the forest where Aislinn went.

One hour later...

"Aislinn!!!" I shouted.
"Aislinn!" Atticus yelled.
"Ugh, it's no use, it's been an hour and there's still no sign of her. What if she got kidnapped?" I said, getting worried.
"Actually, it might be possible. Look, this is her hair tie." Atticus came up to me and showed me a cute hair tie with a symbol that has an A on it.
"Yeah, that's definitely hers, she told me that her mom gave it to her when she was a little girl. She would never let go of that so someone must've kidnapped her. But why?"
"Maybe there's more to her than you think? There's something she's not telling us." Atticus asserted.
"Huh? Why do you think that?" I asked.
"Something was off with her story yesterday. There's holes in it."
"Maybe she just didn't feel like telling us?"
"No, she's definitely keeping a secret from us."
"Well in any case, we need to find her."
"Yeah, let's go back to the campsite, get our stuff and find her."
"Okay.." I guess my concern for Aislinn was showing because Atticus rubbed my head again.
"Hey, we'll find her, don't worry." he assured, still rubbing my head. This feels nice. Nobody ever touched my head like this, I feel like a kid again. "Yes, you're right. We'll find her for sure. But um, do you mind not rubbing my head?" I said, blushing.
"Oh sorry." He blushed too.
"It's okay. I actually didn't mind it..." I muttered that last part quietly. We went back to the campsite in awkward silence and packed the rest of our stuff. Atticus looked at the map to see where to go next "I think there's a town just up ahead, maybe the person who kidnapped Aislinn is there? They couldn't have gone too far.
"Okay let's go there. Maybe we can finally sleep on a proper bed." I said, excitedly. Ever since we left, we had to sleep on the rock hard ground. "My back hurts so bad of having to sleep on the ground." I groaned. Atticus laughed. "Yeah, maybe" he smiled. I'm glad he's back to his normal self again.
"Jamine, are you ready?" He asked.
"Yep!"
"Okay, let's go!"
After a bit of walking, we managed to reach the town. Wow, ever since arriving in this world, I have yet to see other towns, this one seems so lively and busy.
"Oh wow! Atticus, this town seems so lively."
"Yeah, they are probably in the middle of shipping season." He said
"Shipping season?" As soon as I said that, a guy bumped into me.
"Hey! Watch out!" The guy yelled as he left.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Atticus took my hand. My cheeks turned slightly pink. What's with him? He always makes me blush, but I only have platonic feelings for him. It's just that in the my world, no one would do these kind of things to me except my sister but we are sisters so it's normal to do these kind of things to each other.
"Just so you won't get lost" he said, slightly red.
"Thank you. "
"And to answer your earlier question, shipping season is when products are in high demand and it get ships to other places. So everyone here is probably busy making products and getting it shipped." Atticus explained.
"Ohh okay." Atticus stopped in front of a place.
"Atticus, what is this place?"
"it's a inn. Didn't you say you wanted to sleep in a proper place?"
"Yes, but are you sure we can afford to waste our money like this?
"Yeah, we're getting close to Balbadd anyway so it should be fine."
"Okay, if you say so." Not going to lie, I am so excited to sleep in a bed. We went inside and from the outside, it didn't look much but the moment we stepped inside, it was beautiful. The ceiling had beautiful paintings of people and the crystal chandelier was so big. The wall had a bright color floral design and the pillars were beautifully sculpted.
"Hello, how may I help you?" A lady said.
"We are looking to stay here, may we get a room?"
"Yes, might you want one bed?" She said as she looked our hands still intertwined.
"Hm?" I looked at my hand. Atticus and I started to blush.
"Ah.. No, just two bed, please" I said as I let go of Atticus' hand. This won't do, we need find Aislinn right away, my heart can't take much more of this. Atticus went ahead to pay so it was just me, the female attendant took me to the room that we were staying at.
"Here's your room" she said as she opened the door. "I hope you enjoy your stay here" the female attendant left. Woah, the room was just as beautiful as the lobby. The wall had a green floral pattern and there was a alcove near the window. The ceiling had a painting of the sky and the clouds. There was pillars and it had angels on top of them. The carpet had a swirl pattern design on it, the colors was tan, red, and a hint of green. There was also a wooden in the middle of the room, it had pillows around the table. The two beds was queen size, big enough to fit 5 people. I guess it's the style of this world, not that I mind, it's absolutely gorgeous. Atticus came in but I didn't hear him because I was too busy fawning over the room.
"I'll take it that you like the room." Atticus said
"I don't just like it... I love it!" I said as I jumped on the bed. Oh my goodness, it's so fluffy and comfortable. I didn't know a bed could be like this. Is this what heaven feels like?
"Are you sure we could afford this? This seems like a luxury."
Atticus chuckled. "Yeah, it's actually pretty cheap."
"Really? How much does it cost?"
"It cost about 2 Dirham."
"Dirham? How much is that worth?" I blurted out. I was completely new to this world so I didn't understand the currency here. Maybe I shouldn't have said that because Atticus got a little suspicious of me. "What? You don't know how much a Dirham cost? Even a 7 years old know how much that is." Atticus looked at me blankly.
"Uh, the reason is that I was raised in a small island and the currency is different there." It seem like he believed me but I could see a hint of doubt in his eyes.
"I'll teach you."
"Okay!" Atticus put his stuff on his bed and sat besides me. He got out a pouch and pour all the money on the bed. I got up and sat upright.
"The copper coins are called Fals, Dirham is the silver coins, and Dinar is the gold coins. Fals is singular and Fulus are plural. 1 Dinar(gold) equal to 10 Dirham(sliver), 1000 Fulus(copper) equal 1 Dinar, Dirham(sliver) equal to 1/10 of a Dinar(gold), 1 Dirham(sliver) equal to 100 Fulus, and Fals(copper) equal to 1/1000 of a Dinar(gold), 1/100 of a Dirham(sliver) Do you understand now?" Atticus explained.
"Ohhh, I think I get the gist of it now." But it's going to be hard transitioning to this new currency. I sigh, "Thank you Atticus"
"You're welcome." He said as he put the money back in the pouch. "Okay, we need to look for Aislinn"
"Oh rightttt, Aislinn got kidnapped!" I had completely forgotten about her.
"Don't tell me that you forgot?" He swear dropped. Honestly, I was distracted from the inn beautiful interior design and learning the currency.
"No..." I looked away.
" Right... okay."
"How are we supposed to look for her?
"We should ask around if they have seen her." Atticus suggested.
"Yeah, that's our best bet." We left our room and went outside. We asked around if they had seen a suspicious person with a young girl. Some said no and some just ignored us. Atticus decided that it would be better if we went our separate way to ask more people. I kept asking around until this woman came up to me. "I heard that you are trying to find your friend. Is she female and have blonde hair?"
"Yes. Have you seen her?" I asked, getting my hopes up.
"I think so. I saw a suspicious man carrying her, she was passed out." The woman said.
"Really? Do you know where they are?"
"Last I saw, they went that direction." I started to head to that direction but she stopped me.
"Be careful."
"I will, but thank you!"
"You're welcome." I need to tell Atticus about this new information but where is he? I don't have time to look for him, I'll just go to the inn and write him a note. So I went back to the inn, wrote a note saying "A lady told me that she saw Aislinn passed out, being carried by a suspicious man. She said that they went east. I'll see you when I get her back." I left right after that and headed east. After walking quite a bit, I reached a house. It seems to be empty, maybe they're staying there? I knocked on the door but no answer. I opened the door and saw a campfire but what I saw next, shocked me. "Aislinn?!" She's passed out on the floor, I went up to her and shook her to wake her up. "Aislinn, wake up! Please wake up, Atticus and I have been looking for you."
"Jasmine...?" She mumbled, slowly starting to wake up.
"Aislinn!" I said excitedly.
"Oh no, what are you doing here? You need to leave right away!" She said panicking.
"What? What are you talking-" before I could finish, I got knocked out.
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Heyyyy guyss!! How are you guys? Thank you for continuing to read this story and support me. I'm so sorry that I haven't updated lately, I got so busy with school and other stuff, I'll try to update every week but please continue to read my story and support me. I love you guys!