Cairo  

XXXIX  

Jasmine rolls her eyes at my joke, but I can tell that a part of her likes it.  

“Well, Ro, you don’t exactly have to be royalty, in order to know that real gold and silver,” she holds up one of her bracelets, and points to a little grey charm on it, “don’t stick to magnets.”  

Well.  

I guess I never thought of it that way.  

… This is why Jasmine is the smart one.  

“That makes sense,” is the only thing I can manage to say in my state of embarrassment. Jasmine rolls her eyes again, and begins to laugh.  

“You’re so stupid sometimes, Ro,” she giggles. “But... that’s why I like you so much.” Jasmine begins walking away after this last line, her shoes clacking on the cement floors.  

I can feel myself blush. Did she really just say that? Wow, Cairo, look at you. Getting all the women!  

I shake my head, and run to catch up with her. To direct the attention away from my blushing face, I change the subject.  

“So, where’s Calipso?” Jasmine puts her hand up to my mouth, and motions for me to be quiet and listen, so I do. After a few moments of silence, I can begin to hear screeching, that seems to be a few corridors away from us. After seeing a look of understanding spread on my face, Jasmine removes her hand from my mouth.  

“So... we follow the sounds of the yelling hyena?” I ask. Honestly, it’s interesting to see this side of Calipso. I always knew her to be quiet, soft, and... eerily emotionless before, but I suppose that was all a façade.  

Jasmine nods, and motions for me to follow her. “We have to stay quiet, so we can sneak up on them. Got it?”  

“Got it.”  

Here we go.  

Jasmine  

XXXX  

After ten minutes or so of walking, we can hear Calipso yelling loud and clear, and her voice seems to be approaching us. I grab Cairo, and pull him against the wall with me.  

“Ro, you can’t mess this up,” I whisper. He nods, and grins. Ugh.  

“Listen, here’s what we’re going to do. Once they turn this corner, we-”  

Before I can finish my sentence, Calipso and the guards turn the corner, and all I can do is hope that he understand what my plan is, and follows my lead.

Ro steps out beside me, and we grab her, each holding one shoulder. I shove Calipso closer to him. He grabs her, and holds her close, taking up a threatening stance with the frying pan near her face.

"Trade?" I yell, and Cairo's grin widens. He throws me the frying pan, and I let the sword clang to the ground in front of him. He holds it to Calipso's neck, and I twirl around with the frying pan, just in time to see two huge guards. I swiftly smack them both across the head with the frying pan, and before they can know what hit them, they both knock out. Mission accomplished.

Now, for once, we have the upper hand.