Everyone stood on the cliff overlooking the ocean where Princess Dunya's funeral was being held, awaiting Aladdin's arrival. It had been four days since the young Princess had passed away in the presence of Sinbad, Yamraiha, and the young magi Aladdin. And Aladdin had been acting oddly unlike his usual cheerful, and oddball-ish self ever since.

Sinbad and his generals had received more than one report from the palace guards about the young boy locking himself away in his room and refusing to come out to eat, drink or even to speak to his friends.

The king and his right hand man, Ja'far had tried multiple times to coax the boy out of his room in the past few days but to no avail. Aladdin hadn't seemed to give a damn that he was scaring them.

And while Sinbad and everyone including many of his palace guards understood that the boy was busy grieving- none knew the true depths of Aladdin's sorrow at Dunya's passing.

"It's been over an hour," Ja'far said anxiously from beside his king as his green eyes watched the small trail that led to the cliff carefully for some kind of movement. Actually scratch that. He was looking for any kind of Aladdin-like movement from somewhere beyond the foliage. "He should have been here by now, shouldn't he?"

"Stop worrying so much Ja'far," Sinbad chided the younger man gently before saying, "Aladdin was truly distressed by the Princesses death. We can't expect him to pull himself together at the snap of one's fingers. He'll be here when he get's here and not a moment before. Now kindly stop complaining-" He stopped speaking as the underbrush parted and Aladdin suddenly appeared.

At first everyone seemed relieved that the young boy had finally left his room, but upon catching a second look of the boy- their relieved expressions changed to horror.

Aladdin looked paler than normal, the boy's normally lively and expressive eyes were dull and devoid of life. His features were weary, and haggard. His normally clean kept long back-ish blue colored hair was loose from his usual trademark braid. His clothing was torn and he had blood on his small hands, and bruises on other various parts of his small body.

Face, neck, arms, ribs, stomach, legs.

Just what the hell had the boy been doing to himself? Sinbad wondered in concern as Aladdin stumbled past his friends without greeting them, bypassed the white lilies that had been picked and brought for the funeral, and headed straight for the stone where Dunya's body lay.

Before finally coming to rest when he suddenly fell to his knees next to the stone platform with his head bowed some and heaved a tired sigh.

He sat there in silence for several heartbeats, with his long hair falling over his shoulders and in his face. Partially hiding it from view before finally saying, "I feel lost," In a choked sounding voice before saying sadly. "It isn't often that I walk this world. Nor is it often that I manage to come across one of my own..."

There were quiets sounds of shock from those around him as they tried to process what Aladdin had just said.

"From what little I have learned of magi's while I've been here, I know that we usually do not have families. Whether it's because they are killed, or die during difficult times, or they are simply ripped away from us so that we are forced to walk the world alone... I have been in this world for such a short time and yet I have found at least three uncles, one mother, two sisters, and four brother's... that I recognize as mine."

"I've met them, spoken with them, laughed with them, and yet I've already lost two of them. And I don't know if I'll ever have the chance to meet them again in this life nor any other. And for that reason, and because I couldn't protect you nor save you, I feel so, so very lost." His voice broke as he bowed his head and tears began slipping down his face as he sobbed.

Sinbad started to break away from the others to get Aladdin and try to comfort him but before he could take more than a half step forward something flared along the edge of his senses. Some...nagging feeling of pure apprehension as the light around Aladdin shifted, shimmered, danced and then seemed to bend and then gather together to create something that looked strangely akin to the shadowy figure of a person and then quickly dispersed while a faint almost ghostly figure appeared behind the boy.

His breath caught in his throat, Sinbad watched as the ghostly figure solidified and then reached out and laid a delicate hand on the boy's head causing him to stop sobbing for a moment and snap his head up to look and see who was touching him.

His eyes widening slightly in shock as he stared at the tall and imposing figure of a reddish-blond haired young woman wearing strange clothing appeared directly behind the boy.

Aladdin's breath left his lungs in a rush and he shouted as he threw himself against the woman's body, his small thin arms wrapping around her waist as he buried his face against her stomach crying, "Mama! Mama! Mama!"

Everyone seemed to freeze up upon hearing the small boy crying out 'Mama'. Their minds reeling from the shock of what was happening before their eyes as the woman bent down and carefully scooped the boy up in her arms and then straightened her spine.

"Hey, squirt. What'cha crying for?" She asked in a soft, raspy tone.

She had a beautiful voice, even if it was somewhat exhausted.

Aladdin was still crying, though the woman's presence seemed to have calmed him considerably as he shook his head and then wrapped his arms around the woman's neck and buried his face against her shoulder.

She absently reached up with her free hand and lightly patted the boy's back as he told her what was going on. By the time he explained why he was so upset, her eerie turquoise eyes flickered towards Dunya's body and she made a barely audible humming sound before sighing softly. And with more grace than any person should possess, dropped down to sit on the ground and settled Aladdin in her lap and just held him patiently while he continued to cry.

The rest of the funeral went as planned, though Aladdin, as exhausted physically and emotionally as he was- finally seemed to slip into an unconscious state in the woman's arms. Leaving the king of Sindria in the rather awkward position of going and making an attempt of taking the boy from the unknown woman. Who was watching the flames from her spot next to the funeral pyre as they slowly ate away at Dunya's body.

Stepping forward, Sinbad awkwardly cleared his throat and tried to think of what to say to the woman to get her to hand Aladdin over without a fight. "Excuse me...miss...b-but um-" He started to say when she slowly turned her head to look at him and simply said,

"I'd let you have him if I could. But he's sort of holding on pretty tightly at the moment." She reached up to move some of her hair aside from her shoulder and Sinbad saw that Aladdin was clutching the long strands tightly in his small hand.

Sinbad stood up a little bit straighter and blinked at the woman, his mind absolutely full of questions that he so-very-desperately longed to have answered.

"M-May I ask you're name, miss?" He finally managed to articulate enough to ask.

"Ichigo."

"Ichigo? Is that a name from the country of the Kou empire?" He asked, his mind already somewhat suspicious of her. Though not terribly so, he just really didn't like the mere idea that Aladdin or anyone from his family could have strong ties to the Kou. They were their enemies after all.

The woman merely looked at him strangely for a moment before shifting her gaze back towards the fire and muttered tiredly, "No."

His next question was, "How did you get past the barrier protecting our kingdom?"

The woman's head snapped back in his direction so quickly that her neck popped. Loudly and painfully enough to make him flinch slightly at the sound as she asked in an incredulous tone, "There's a barrier?" Her expression was a mixture of startled and confused.

If not for how serious she sounded and the current situation they all had found themselves in- he might have thought her jesting with him. But unfortunately, she wasn't. She genuinely seemed to be unaware of the fact that Sindria was behind a protective barrier.

In fact, she seemed as if it had never even once occurred to her that Sindria might be behind a barrier at all.

He studied her for a moment, not really comprehending how she couldn't know about the barrier when he'd never seen her around the island before. So to his knowledge there was no way that she could have just been hanging around his kingdom unknown to him or anyone else.

Could she?

"May I ask how Aladdin came to call you mother?" He asked curiously, wanting to at least have all of the information possible before making any snap judgements about her. Though he could tell already that she obviously wasn't a bad or terrible person. Aladdin wouldn't be so attached to her if she was.

It was against a magi's nature to attach themselves to evil people.

She blinked at him again and then frowned and then slowly said, "Cause he's mine. I carried him and gave birth to him."

"O-Oh." Sinbad said with wide disbelieving eyes. He couldn't believe that he was maybe actually looking at Aladdin's flesh and blood, living, mother! Magi's usually didn't have families outside of those that they met and bonded with while they traveled the world and picked and chose their king's candidates. However if the woman really was Aladdin's mother then she must be quite powerful in her own right. After all, someone who could birth a magi had to be. Right? "I see... I-Is his father still-"

"He's dead." She said flatly. Her tone telling him that he should tread carefully.

"Oh." Sinbad muttered, not really knowing what else to say about that particular subject, so he dropped it and then asked, "W-Would you like to stay with Aladdin here in Sindria and rest a spell? I'm sure that you'll be comfortable here. And he...would miss you if you were to leave him so soon after coming here."

She was silent for a heartbeat or two before slowly nodding her head in agreement.

Dunya's body had been reduced to nothing but ashes by this point, before any of them even thought to begin to file away from the area. Sinbad's general's decided to stay back along with Alibaba, Morgiana, Hakuyuu to see if Aladdin was alright as Sinbad, reached his hand out to help the woman to her feet, and once she was standing again, slowly began the walk back to the palace so that he could see to it that Aladdin and his mother were taken care of.

Sinbad sat back in his seat once he was certain that Yamriha was finished cleaning and tending to the bloody cuts and dark bruises littering Aladdin's body and sighed heavily.

So this was what it was like when a magi mourned someone.

It was eerily strange to see such a powerful inhuman creature act so- so damned human. Sure he technically knew that magi's were born of mankind. But they, themselves were ancient and somewhat ageless beings. Keepers of men, and knowledge and wielders of great power.

He knew how to handle a typical magi. Since most of them were somewhat calculating in their actions, but he didn't know how to handle Aladdin or his apparent breakdown. Nor the abrupt and sudden appearance of his unknown mother.

Perhaps it's because he is still very much a child. He wondered to himself when he heard a soft knock at his bedroom door and called out to bid the person knocking, to enter. The large heavy wooden door to his chamber opened and Ja'far peeked in with a worried look on his face.

"Come in Ja'far," Sinbad said without looking away from the boy currently resting comfortably on his bed as the younger man entered quietly and walked over to where he sat and paused by his side before Sinbad demanded, "What do you have to report?"

"I've had Aladdin's room checked. Apparently he had been throwing himself against the walls and floors with enough force to injure himself. I noticed some of his blood in certain places all around the room..." Sinbad sighed tiredly and scrubbed his face with his hands, taking his eyes off of the young magi for just a second seemed to yield nearly deadly results. It's no wonder his mother appeared, Sinbad thought as Ja'far went on to say, "I'm very worried about Aladdin, Sin. I've never heard of a magi reacting to anything so violently before."

"Nor have I." Sinbad admitted with a small frown.

"What do you think it means? When a magi reacts violently to something, I mean?"

"That I cannot say. For all of our knowledge of magi's, they are still very mysterious beings. All that I can say is that we may need to keep a closer eye on Aladdin from now on. And maybe keep his mother from leaving for now. At least until he starts acting normally again."

"Yes, my king." Ja'far said with a respectful bow before rising and turning to go and start assigning duties to the others.

Neither Aladdin nor his mother, Ichigo were seen that evening for dinner- which was somewhat understandable to them all. Especially given how banged up Aladdin was. And Yamriha had reported that the woman had watched her carefully earlier. Her keen eyes scrutinizing her for any signs of a potential threat to Aladdin's well being.

Sinbad had nodded his acknowledgement upon hearing this, and then decided to try and send some food for the two since neither of them were likely to show up later on to get themselves something to eat.

One of his servant's reported that they had found the food, untouched on a table outside of Aladdin's room. Rejected. Leaving the king to sit back and plan out his next move.