Book 4 - Schemer of the Scalding Sands: Chapter 28; Not Hard But Smart

The screen turns on as the next chapter title plays "Chapter 28; Not Hard But Smart".

Yuu had just gone to bed, before she felt herself get pulled away in spirit, back to Ramshackle dorm and that same mirror.

The mirror swirled and glowed as it sucked her inside of it.

It showed a city but despite that it was still mostly sandy and only a couple of buildings were clearly seen, most likely being different parts of the palace. The sky was dark and despite being in black and white somehow it was clear that the clouds were red.

Yuu seeing this thought "The skies are so dark and ominous…"

Just then the sorcerer of the sands popped up holding an oil lamp, with a parrot on his shoulder and stepping on a clearly inhuman character. It then pans over to the right as a streak of white flashes across the sky. The place is now much more clearly seen as the inhuman character from before is now much bigger, and buffer, as it's behind the palace but is much taller than it with glowing eyes as it reaches out to grab it. A male voice shouts "Genie, stop!" in the direction of the inhuman character. The being, now known as Genie, answers back "Sorry, kid. I've got a new master now." It then fades into a balcony in the palace as the sorcerer stands on the edge with his staff, he then shouts demands "Kneel and pay tribute to the great sorcerer Jafar!" Then two figures appear, shrouded in magic as they are forced to bow down to Jafar. One being the princess and the other being the older sultan, although he was stripped down to his underwear for some reason or another. Jafar then says "Now, where were we? Ah, yes – abject humiliation!" It then shifts to a different scene as Jafar pushes apart the princess and a man with torn up, baggy and patchy clothes, as a matter of fact he doesn't even have a shirt, just a vest. Jafar while pushing them apart pretty much sings "He is no prince!~ And that's a fact!~ Now that he's unmasked!~ Do you recognize you prince?!~ It's Aladdin!~ His punishment?~" Jafar then uses magic to send Aladdin into an empty tower as he continues on "Eternal banishment…!~ From this life!~" Jafar then sends the tower into the sky and far away as if it was a rocket, continuing singing still "Farewell!~ Ex-Prince Ali!~"

It then fades into darkness or rather that abyss as Yuu questions "A genie…?" and "He made himself the ruler?" slightly confused about what she had just seen.

Yuu was then brought out of the mirror and dragged back to her body, she was about to be able to actually rest when suddenly a familiar voice said "Yuu. Grim. It's time to wake up."

Yuu blinks her eyes open, in slight confusion as normally the dreams are shorter but it lasted the entire night, or maybe that abyss had some time-changing abilities? But either way there was a small amount of sunlight coming through the one window in the room so Yuu knew it was fully morning.

Yuu then sees who had woken them up, it was Jade.

Grim grumbled "Myah… Are we marchin' to the oasis?" Azul, who was already up, answered "No, we're waking up early precisely to avoid that. Come along, now."

It then shifts to Kalim's room.

The room isn't square and is instead rectangular and arranged in a way that the door is on one of the walls that is longer. On the wall opposite of the door, there is only a mini wall at the bottom before it changes to a bunch of mini arches leaving the room to be very open.

Kalim's bed is placed against the wall long-ways with the mini-arches and is in the opposite corner of the room. The bed seems like a poster bed with fabric hanging over it, but actually it's just wood beams that are attached to the three arches that are within the range of the bed. The bedding is mostly red with a couple of gold accents and the fabric itself has a complicated design with quite a few colors. Only a heading is seen on the bed in a dark brown with a few different pillow types resting against it. Then the fabric that creates an overhang seems to be mesh at the top of the bed but changes to a solid fabric at the ends, with a design being seen on the part of the fabric that hangs over the beam and on the opposite side, against the wall, hanging down is a triangular piece. There are also what look almost like red curtains on the four edges of the bed making it look more like a four poster bed, despite the fact that they're just hanging on the beams.

Next to the bed on the smaller wall is an almost gray night-stand with a lamp on it, then next to that is another tall dresser, same as the one in the empty room the guests were and are staying in. In front of the gray night-stand, towards the middle of the bed, on the floor is a circular pillow looking item. Then on the longer wall in front of the bed is a off-white or light-yellow vase with what seems to be a gradient green to blue scarf hanging out of it. There is another vase against the longer wall as well, although there is no scarf in this one.

But there is a small book-case between the two vases. On top of the small book-case seems to be a bottle, a lamp, and a white box with unknown writing on it and a heart below the writing.

The book-case and second vase are on a purple and gold rug. The rug's corner that faces most of the room is about in line with the end placement of the tall dresser. On the rug there is a bit of a couch with a whole bunch of pillows on it. Then in front of the couch or seating spot is something that resembles an ottoman that is a gray-green color. On top of it is a piece of fabric covering that doesn't cover the whole thing, most likely due to being misplaced or just being the style, the fabric is red with a solid gold outline. On top of the fabric there are three candles, a red and blue one that is on the side closer to the door and a yellow one on the opposite side, there is also a silver candlestick holder with a candle inside that is in between the two sides.

On the ground, on the side with the two candles there are two more, red and green candles. Then on the side of the ottoman, opposite to the seating spot, there is a pillow with tassels on it. Then next to that there is a golden tea-set and tray on the ground closer to the door.

There are also four lanterns hanging from the ceiling.

Kalim is asleep on his bed as the Ramshackle duo and Octavinelle trio, well except Floyd, walk in.

Jade was the one who actually woke up Kalim though, shaking him lightly as he said "Good morning, Kalim."

Kalim started to wake up at that, groggily asking "Mm… Izzat you, Jamil? Morning…" Jade seemed slightly amused at that as he told Kalim "No, it's Jade. Though our names do sound a bit similar." before letting out a chuckle.

This fully woke up Kalim as he asked "Wait… What?" He then looked around and saw the full group and asked them "What are you all doing here?"

Jade told Kalim "I've brought some tea to wake you up and a change of clothes. Now rise and come with me, if you please."

This only further confuses Kalim and makes him ask "Huh? Wha? What's going on? Where's Jamil?"

Azul then spoke up and assured him "Don't worry. We're perfectly capable of helping you get dressed without him."

Just then there were two knocks on the door before it clicked open. Jamil walked in and started talking "Kalim, it's time to–"

Only for him to freeze for a second as he saw the group in Kalim's room and shouted "What?! Azul, Jade, Grim…and Yuu?! What are you doing in Kalim's room?!"

Azul ignores the question and instead says "Ah, good morning, Jamil!" He then starts to explain "You're welcome to sleep in today. In fact, I encourage it. We'll be taking care of Kalim starting now until the end of break."

This causes immense shock to Jamil and he shouts "What?!"

Azul further explained "After our chat last night, I realized something. Who's the busiest guy in this dorm? Who works the hardest by far? It's you, Jamil!" Jade then adds on "We've been taking advantage of Scarabia's hospitality during our stay, you see. So we'd like to pay it back somehow." Grim then exclaims "You can call us the Jamil Support Squad!"

Jamil looks down and pinches the bridge of his nose and mumbles "O-oh, of all the ridiculous…" He then looks back up at the group and tells them "I mean, no, I couldn't possibly ask you to…"

Kalim goes "Oh… Ooh… OOOH!" As it sinks in what they're actually doing and exclaims "That's BRILLIANT! I've been thinking for ages about how I wish I could make Jamil's job easier!"

Jade crosses his arms and tells Kalim "Your compassion is a touching thing to behold, Kalim."

Then, most likely still bitter about last night he adds on "With that Azul could take a page from your book." Azul seems to brush it off with a laugh but a slight glare and small staring contest happens as Azul says "You just had to get in a dig, didn't you, Jade?"

The two then break it and move on very quickly as Azul tells Jamil "Anyway, allow us to handle matters here. You can kick back and take it easy, Jamil."

Kalim readily nods and agrees as he tells Jamil with a large happy smile "By all means, take them up on it, Jamil! This is great for you!"

Jade then starts to push Jamil out of Kalim's room while telling him "Run along now, Jamil. Go back to your room and catch up on your sleep."

Jamil is then fully pushed out with the door slamming behind him. Jamil is kinda confused by the turn of events as he puts a hand to his head and questions "What in the world is going on here?" with wide eyes.

He quickly recovers though and says to himself "I can't just rest. I'd better at least see to breakfast.."

He then walks away to the Scarabia kitchen, he opens the door to Floyd saying something to a student "Hey, minnow. That ain't been seasoned yet, so don't run it out." The student apologizes "S-sorry, sir!" Another then calls out "The vegetables in the oven are done!" Floyd tells the student "Those are already dressed, so plate 'em and get 'em on the table~"

This shocks Jamil even more as he whisper-shouts "B-breakfast is already made?!"

Jamil then walks up to Floyd and asks him "Did you do this, Floyd?"

Floyd turns to face Jamil and answers "G'morning, Sea Snake! Yup, me 'n the minnows took care of it!~ Azul was goin' on and on about how much he wanted to help you~"

Jamil struggles slightly to find a good response and counter "But… But I can't put our guests to work!" But Floyd has a perfect counter answer for that "We ain't exactly guests, remember? We're trainin' buddies~"

Jamil then says "But Kalim can only eat food prepared by me. It could be poisoned."

Floyd seems offended and upset by the notion and tells Jamil "Ha?~ That's an even more unbalanced diet than what I eat~ And I ain't poisoned anything here, by the way!"

But Floyd, as his usual self, gets over it quickly and seems to come up with a solution for the problem Jamil presented "If you don't trust me, test it yourself! If it gets Jamil's Poison-Free Seal of Approval, I'm sure Sea Otter will eat it right up!~"

Jamil still tries to stop that from happening "You have a point, but still…"

But the other students have been hearing the whole conversation and seem happy with Floyd's solution, so they interrupt Jamil as one asks "Vice Housewarden, could you taste-test these grilled vegetables?" Another then says "I think this soup came out nicely. What do you think, sir?"

Jamil seems slightly conflicted before ultimately saying "Rgh… Fine. I'll test them all myself."

…

He taste tests Kalim's portions before states "Actually, are we prepared for our morning oasis trek? Usually, breakfast comes AFTER the march."

But suddenly Azul pops up from behind him and pretty much announces "Ah, about that. As housewarden of Octavinelle… I've given my fellow housewarden Kalim an alternate proposal."

Jamil is shocked once again and shouts "Wh… What?! You can't just do that!"

Azul ignores what Jamil told him, then kinda explains "Rather than aerobic exercise like long-range walking… You'll see far greater gains in strength and stamina from proper indoor weight training. Not to mention Scarabia's desert is a terribly hot place, you know. We wouldn't want to risk anyone getting heatstroke."

Floyd then says "In fact, there's a HUGE fountain in the courtyard! If you wanna build stamina, how about swimmin' in that?~ It'd be more fun too!~" Azul nods at that and says "Agreed. I can tell you from experience that swimming is a far better way to burn fat than walking."

The students aren't able to process the change all at once as one student asks "So… We don't have to go on those marches anymore?" Of which a nod is received.

This makes another student jump for joy as another exclaims "We're safe, Vice Housewarden!" Azul then says "It's also worth mentioning that skipping breakfast can make you more easily fatigued and distracted. Not that overeating helps either, of course."

Kalim, Jade, Grim, and Yuu then all walk up and join them. Kalim greets everyone "Good morning!"

He then notices the food and asks "Ooh, breakfast is done already?" Grim cheers at that "Hot diggity! That looks delish!" Jade simply nods his head and states "Floyd's in fine form today. It comes out considerably worse when he's not in the mood…"

Floyd then passes a plate to Kalim and tells him "And Sea Snake's already poison-tested your portions, Sea Otter!~ Go on and dig in!"

It then cuts to when everyone has their food as multiple students shout "Bon appetit!" before chowing down.

Kalim then compliments "Ooh, this is wonderful soup!" Floyd smiles as he says "Ain't it? That's a Coral Sea staple!~ It's packed to the gills-" Floyd let out a small laugh at the mini-joke before continuing "-with seafood!~"

Jamil is silent due to the mass change of events and situation.

It then cuts to later as they're starting to study and work.

Azul states "First, the key to ancient incantation is memorizing vocabulary." Kalim worriedly complain "I'm aaawful at memorization… It puts me to sleep!"

Azul tells Kalim at that "Then I've got the perfect study method for you: recitation while walking!" Jade adds on "It's a good study method for people with shorter attention spans."

Grim also exclaims at that "Sounds like it'd be just as great for me!"

This makes Kalim tell everyone "All right, let's all try it together, guys!" The students shout "Yes, sir!" before they all start.

The screen then fades to black as "To be continued" plays before fully turning off.