Almas was stirred awake by the gentle rocking of her shoulder thanks to Abu. The monkey squeaked something vaguely sounding like he was extra hungry, which she kind of figured since he had to unwillingly give up his half of the bread due to guilt. With a hum, she sat up and ran a hand through her hair, pushing her bangs out of her eyes. After stretching a little, she gathered up the worn blanket she had kept since her father’s death - the man was a fabric maker - and folded it up before tucking it away somewhere safe.
Abu was perched at the sill of the giant window, watching the neighbors leave their homes to head to the marketplace. He chattered at Almas, who waved at him dismissively. “Hold on, will you?” she yawned as she pushed back her bangs again, stooping to pick up another piece of fabric, a rectangular scarf that was a deep red hue that her father also made. She walked over to a broken, smudged mirror that leaned against one of her hovel’s walls so she could fold and wrap the scarf loosely around her head and her neck.
“All right, buddy, ready?” she grinned and the monkey immediately headed for the staircase that led out of their home with her quickly following behind.
With Abu perched on her shoulder, the two weaved through the busy crowd that already gathered in the marketplace. Without anyone noticing, she ducked into a corner and leapt onto a window sill of a home that she knew was unoccupied. She quietly made her way to the other side of the building where she lowered herself out of another window. Carefully, she found her footing on the canopy of a fruit cart. Silently, she settled near the edge and whispered, “Okay, Abu. Go!”
After a salute, Abu made his way over to the other side where the vendor was and hung down by his tail to grab a melon. The vendor stopped calling out to the crowds about how delicious his fruit was to angrily yell, “Hey, get your paws off that!” The vendor only got monkey babble as a response. The man turned to grab the melon away from Abu, giving Almas the chance to grab another melon unnoticed. As the vendor turned back around, he detected something was wrong then turned back at the monkey, who only tipped his fez before disappearing out of sight.
Almas managed to force open the fruit as Abu appeared again. “Nice going, Abu. Breakfast is served,” she grinned, handing half of their prize to the small primate. The calls of the marketplace went ignored as the two happily ate, still unnoticed by the bustling crowd around the cart.
In the corner of Almas’s eye, she noticed a flicker of flame from the local firebreather. However, who really caught her eye was the man that had bumped into him. She had never seen a man as handsome as he was and the warmth in his eyes, even from so far away, stirred up something inside of her. “By Allah,” she whispered under her breath as she leaned over the edge of the awning to take a closer look. Abu noticed her change in demeanor, only to wave a paw in front of her face, but she never broke her dreamy gaze. She continued to watch as the man grabbed an apple from a cart and handed it to a little girl before walking away. Immediately that cart’s vendor grew irritated until the situation escalated quickly as it seemed that the man couldn’t pay for the apple.
Without much of a second thought, Almas jumped down from the cart beside them and raised both her arms to catch the vendor’s tight fist holding the sword on the down swing. Her days of dodging the guards for many years have paid off with her great upper body strength. “Thank you, kind sir,” she said out loud, feeling the vendor’s grip loosen from surprise. That allowed her to quickly swipe the sword from his hand and swept it behind her back to hand off to the handsome stranger behind her. Her grip switched to shaking the vendor’s large hand with both of hers. “I’m so glad you found him.” Quickly, she turned around, placing a hand behind the man she just rescued and pushing him a little forward to guide him away as quickly as possible. “I’ve been looking all over for you!” She wagged a finger at him as she continued to push him along.