Through the doorway stepped Aladdin, prince of Agrabah, dressed in his royal white clothes. At his side walked a shorter man, dressed in similarly regal garb. But while Aladdin looked like the prince of an Arabian country, the other looked more as coming from some wealthy African nation. His clothes were a royal purple, woven from the finest silk. He wore a number of heavy gold rings, and around his neck hung a thick gold chain and a golden pendant. The man's jewelry and clothes were so fine that they seemed to be more valuable than half the Sultan's treasure troves. So when a sudden downpour of water from a cloudless sky soaked both Aladdin and his guest, leaving everything more than three feet away perfectly dry, the African was right to be infuriated.

Aladdin turned to look at the blue-skinned Genie hovering nearby.

"Uh... it was all Abu's fault," exclaimed Genie, poofing suddenly into an exact likeness of Aladdin's monkey friend.

"Very funny, Genie," replied Aladdin, not in the least bit fooled. "Now, fix Prince Maamadu's clothes right this minute, and apologize. He's traveled a long way, all the way from the Kingdom of Gomali. This isn't how we treat guests in Agrabah."

"Right, Al," said Genie, poofing back to his normal form and drying the African Prince's clothes off in a magical second. He then floated over to the rather shocked man to apologize. "I'm sorry, Your Highness. I wasn't expecting the two of you to step through that doorway next."

"That... that's quite all right," responded the Prince hesitantly. "No harm done."

Aladdin and Prince Maamadu continued on their way as the Genie returned to wherever he had come from. "I'm sorry, Prince Maamadu," said Aladdin graciously. "With a Genie around, one can never tell what's going to happen next."

"Don't worry about it," replied the Prince. "I had heard stories that the Sultan kept a Genie as a member of his royal court. I came expecting anything."

The two continued their walk, and once they were out of hearing range, Genie reappeared. "Now that was unfortunate."

There came a series of harsh screeching and whining from behind a bush next to the door. "Sorry about that, Abu," said the Genie to the small monkey that made himself visible. "It was an accident."

Abu put his hands on his hips and stared at Genie.

"Oh, that. I was just kidding about it being your fault. You know that, right?"

The monkey screeched indignantly.

Genie was about to reply, but looked in the doorway again. "Quick, someone's coming! It might be him!"

Abu disappeared into the bush again, and Genie vanished, leaving only a bucket of water floating above the doorway. As soon as a shape began to poke out of the doorway, the bucket flipped, and dumped a gallon of ice-cold water on... Princess Jasmine.

"Oh Your Highness!" exclaimed Genie, reappearing as soon as he realized what had happened. The Princess was soaked, her long black hair dripping and matted, her silk clothes clinging to her body. Within the blink of an eye, she was dry again. "I am so sorry, Your Highness," replied a very sorry Genie. Abu mimicked his cries.

Princess Jasmine flared up. "Genie! How could you do something like this! This is so irresponsible of you! Stop goofing off, and go make yourself useful!"

And with that, the Princess stormed off in the direction of Aladdin and the African prince, leaving a bewildered Genie and monkey. "What got into her?" asked Genie. Abu only shrugged his shoulders.

At that moment, Iago flew out the door. He saw Genie and Abu standing there, and flapped over. "What the heck is going on? You two look like you've seen a ghost."

"Well... never mind," said Genie. "It's probably nothing." He started to poof away, but then, on an afterthought, wiggled his fingers. A bucket of water formed over the flapping parrot, and dumped a gallon of ice-cold water on Iago. He fell to the ground, soaked.

"Gotcha," said Genie with a smile.

"This is a very nice palace, Prince Aladdin," spoke the African. "It's almost as grand as my father King Gomali's palace. The Sultan must take a lot of taxes from his people."

"He only takes what he needs," responded Aladdin with a smile. "The Sultan is very fair to his people, taking enough taxes to maintain the kingdom, but not so much as to make the people angry. He believes in treating his subjects like real people, not slaves."

"I understand," replied Prince Maamadu. My father is a just ruler. He is content with the lands he owns, and has no need to wage war upon other people. The people are happy, and consequently the royalty is happy. It's nice to see that the countries to the north are as civilized as we are."

"We try our best."

There came a rustling from the bushes behind Prince Maamadu. Aladdin turned around and faced the bush. "You know, Genie, this is really beginning to be annoying. Can't you guys play somewhere else?"

The creature that leapt from the plants was neither a blue skinned Genie nor human. It bore some resemblance to a wolf, but was far larger than any normal wolf. It was covered with thick brown fur, and its limbs ended in wicked-looking claws. Its mouth was filled with sharp teeth, and its eyes held a red glow. The wolf creature let out a sick growl and pounced towards Prince Maamadu.

The prince gave a yelp of surprise. But Aladdin jumped in front of the creature, in front of the African Prince. The wolf creature fell upon Aladdin, and the two figures rolled to the ground, locked in combat. The creature tried to grab Aladdin's throat in its jaws, and the Hero of Agrabah tried desperately to hold death at bay. Prince Maamadu looked frantic, not sure what he should do. "Oh my!" he cried out. "What should I do?"

"Getting help would be nice..." gasped Aladdin. As the Prince ran off, Aladdin struggled with the wolf creature. It opened its mouth wider, dripping saliva on Aladdin. "Fhew..." muttered Aladdin, inhaling. "You sure do have bad breath!"

He tried to fling the monster off of him, but it continued to hold on to him, intent on ripping him to shreds. They continued to roll around, locked in battle. Finally Aladdin, seeing an avenue, twisted himself with all his might and pushed the creature into the side of a stone fountain. This stunned the creature just enough that he was able to get out from underneath it. He faced the creature as it recovered, got up, and turned to him. It let out an inhuman scream that chilled Aladdin down to the bone. And then, it leapt into the bushes to the right, disappearing. Aladdin leapt after it, but soon realized that he would never find it in the plants... it was too fast. He turned around, just as Prince Maamadu returned with blue genie in tow.

"I found your genie as fast as I could... where is the monster?"

"It ran off into the bushes," panted Aladdin. "I couldn't find it. What the heck was that thing?"

Genie's left hand suddenly transformed into a small little box with letters and numbers and a small glass screen. With his right hand, he started pressing buttons as he spoke. "Describe the creature."

"Well..." Aladdin thought. "It looked like a wolf, but it was far larger. And there aren't too many wolves in the Arabian Desert, last I checked... It had glowing red eyes, and it's front legs were more like arms... it had sharp claws and teeth... and it leapt for Prince Maamadu first. I barely had time to stop it... it moved so fast... and it was strong!"

Genie entered the information into his left hand, which then made strange sounds and spat out a long stream of paper. He read the paper. "Well, Al, it looks like you were attacked by a werewolf."

"A werewolf!" exclaimed Prince Maamadu.

"A werewolf? Genie, are you serious?"

"I've never been more serious in my life," responded the blue-skinned genie, suddenly wearing a bright yellow curly wig and a large red ball on his nose. "But seriously... did it bite you? If it did, we could have some problems..."

"No, I'm fine," replied Aladdin. "It didn't bite me. It didn't even scratch me. But if there is a... a werewolf running around the palace, then we are all in danger. Where is Jasmine?"

Genie's jaw dropped. "Last I saw her, she was running out here, into the garden."

"We have to find her. Where's carpet?"

Within moments, Aladdin was perched upon his intelligent flying carpet, and the two were scouring the garden for a sign of either the Princess or the werewolf. They could find neither. "I don't understand it... where could that creature have gone?"

The carpet merely shrugged, then flew down to meet Abu and Iago down on the ground. "Hey guys, have either of you seen Jasmine? Or a large wolf-like creature?"

Abu screeched and chittered. The parrot translated. "Well... the princess just passed by a few minutes ago, headed towards her room. But what is this about a wolf-like creature?!?"

"There's a werewolf running around somewhere. It attacked Prince Maamadu and I while we were out in the garden. I was afraid for Jasmine. Is she alright?"

"Well... she didn't look hurt, if that's what you mean..." Iago paused. "But she's been acting kinda funny. Almost mean..."

"I better go make sure she's alright," said Aladdin. He jumped off of Carpet and ran into the palace, and to Jasmine's room.

Aladdin knocked on the door to the princess' room. "Jasmine, are you alright?"

There was no answer.

"Hello? Jasmine, are you in there?"

Aladdin leaned against the door... and it pushed open. Surprised, he peered into the room, and saw Princess Jasmine standing in the middle of the room, her back to the door. "Jasmine, did you hear me knocking? Jasmine?"

The princess didn't respond. Aladdin took a step forward. He was about to put his hand on her shoulder when Jasmine suddenly convulsed, and doubled over. Aladdin, shocked, stepped back. He watched in horror as some sort of change began to come over the princess. Lines of dark hair began to appear on her body, spreading and replacing her light brown skin with thick brown fur. Her arms grew larger and more muscled as her legs became shorter. Hands transformed into wicked claws. Jasmine's long black hair disappeared, as her head changed shape as well. Her Princessly clothes disappeared in the transformation as well, although her new fur coat kept her decent.

"Jasmine?"

Suddenly the figure that was once the princess of Agrabah turned its head towards Aladdin. The werewolf let off a familiar growl, and leapt at the hero.

Aladdin gulped, and dodged out of the way. The creature landed on all four feet and jumped at him again. It was incredibly fast, and Aladdin could barely keep out of its reach. He ran as fast as he could towards the bed, the werewolf hot on his trail. He leapt onto and over the bed, grabbed the sheet, and flung it behind him at the creature. It caught the werewolf and covered it. Aladdin quickly jumped to the covered monster, grabbed more sheets and blankets, and tried his best to keep the creature trapped. But it was incredible strong, and struggled greatly. It was all Aladdin could do to keep the creature covered and from ripping him to shreds. Already it was starting to break through the thin blankets.

"Genie!" cried out Aladdin at the top of his voice. "Genie! I need you! Help!"

The Genie appeared at the entrance of the room. "What's up, Al?" Then he saw what was going on, and flew over. "What do you need me to do?"

"Stop this thing!"

"Oh. Right." Genie poofed, and suddenly was standing there wearing khaki hunting garb and wielding a dart gun. "I'll tranquilize it. Now Al... don't move."

Genie took aim at the large moving shape beneath the sheets. Aladdin tried not to be in the way. "Here goes nothing," spoke Genie, closing his eyes and pulling the trigger.

With a loud bang a feathered dart flew from the barrel of the gun into the struggling monster. It let out a cry of pain and with a sudden surge of strength broke free from Aladdin's grasp. It leapt to the floor and away from the bed, towards the window. "Genie, stop it!"

Genie aimed again and fired another dart into the werewolf. It connected. This time the creature began to slow down. It made a few more uneasy steps, then collapsed unconscious to the floor.

Genie and Aladdin walked over to the werewolf. "Wow," muttered Genie. "One of those darts should have been enough to put an elephant to sleep for a week."

The form on the ground at their feet slowly began to shift back into the figure of the princess. After seconds they stood over the sleeping body of Princess Jasmine, clothed and all.

It was a full five minutes before anyone could speak.

"Umm... this is bad, Al," muttered Genie.

"I know... I know... Can you do anything to help her?"

At that point Prince Maamadu entered the room, with Iago and Abu alongside. "Did you stop that werewolf creature?"

"Yeah... but it was Jasmine," said Aladdin. "Jasmine is the werewolf. There must be something we can do about this. Genie... can you cure her?"

"Well... I can certainly try. But... there's something wrong with all of this."

"What?"

Genie scratched his head. "Well... I'm no expert on werewolves... but I could have sworn that they only change on the full moon."

"Maybe this is a different kind of werewolf," said Prince Maamadu. "But I've heard that the only way to get rid of a werewolf... is to kill them."

"What? We can't do that to Jasmine!"

"Calm down, Al," said Genie. "Let me take a look at this and see what I can do..."

Genie concentrated on the unconscious body of Jasmine. "Yup... there is definitely some strong magic involved here. ...really strong magic. Let me see if I can nullify the spell..."

There was a flash, and some smoke. A pair of bats flew away, looking confused. In the distance, thunder could be heard. Jasmine remained unchanged.

"Did you fail to break the spell?" asked Aladdin.

"Oh now... I haven't even cast the spell yet. That was just for effect."

Genie put a hand over the princess. There was a rippling in her appearance, and then she changed.

Everyone gasped.

Where Princess Jasmine had once lain, there was now the unconscious body of Mirage, the feline foe of Aladdin, and a powerful magic user. Right now she was unconscious, looking almost pitiful.

"Who's that?" asked Prince Maamadu almost instantly.

"That's Mirage, a powerful sorceress who doesn't like us very well," muttered Iago. "But where's the princess?"

"This is pretty crazy," said Aladdin. "But this is just like the kind of thing Mirage would do. She loves to lead us on and hide the truth beneath illusions... but she's not the kind of person to allow herself to be captured like this."

"She must have made a mistake," replied the Prince.

"We should do something before she wakes up," added Iago.

"But what?"

Aladdin looked thoughtful. "Hmm... Genie, can you tell where Jasmine is?"

"Yeah, this compass will point to her, wherever she is." Genie pulled out a compass from nowhere. It had a large red arrow on it... which pointed straight towards the body of Mirage. Genie looked embarrassed. "Umm... Mirage's magic must be distorting the compass. Sorry, Al."

"No, wait... something's not right. There's more to this than meets the eye..." Aladdin thought for a moment. Then he had an idea. "Genie... where is Mirage?"

"Huh?" said Iago. "Are you blind? She's right in front of you."

"No no... just tell me, Genie. Where is Mirage?"

"This is a waste of time," muttered the Prince. "I thought the prince of Agrabah would deal with things a little more... efficiently, not waste time while there was danger to be dealt with."

Genie pulled out another compass, this one with a yellow arrow. "See Al, it's pointing right..."

The compass arrow did not point towards the body of Mirage on the ground. It pointed towards Prince Maamadu.

Iago paused in midflap. "Uh..."

"Genie!" cried Aladdin. "Stop him. I mean, her!"

But it was too late. The figure of the African Prince leapt out of reach and shifted, growing thinner and taller, sprouting a fine layer of fur and a more catlike head. Soon an exact duplicate of the body on the floor stood in front of them. "Curse you, Aladdin," she spat. "I was hoping you would deal with the werewolf before you figured out the truth..." She smiled. "But at least you won't find that Prince Maamadu!"

"I've got a bone to pick with you," growled Genie, now in the shape of a huge blue bulldog. He took a step towards the feline enchantress.

"Not this time, I'm afraid," said Mirage, becoming transparent. "But don't think this is the last you'll see of me." And with that, she was gone.

"That was close," said Aladdin. "But what about Jasmine and the Prince."

"Jasmine is right here," replied Genie, waving a hand over the body of Mirage still laying on the floor. Once again it rippled, and suddenly Jasmine was laying there. "Mirage put a double illusion on her. Pretty smart... but not smart enough." Genie pulled out a third compass, this one with a green arrow. It pointed out the window, into the garden.

"Mirage must have traded places with Prince Maamadu when he left to get help, back in the garden."

Princess Jasmine groaned. "Unghh... what happened?"

"Jasmine," exclaimed Aladdin. "You're alright!"

The Princess of Agrabah stood up uneasily, aided by her betrothed. "The last thing I remember is getting really tired all of a sudden, and falling asleep. What happened?"

"It's a long story, Your Highness," squawked Iago.

In seconds Genie had returned, African Prince in tow. "Hey Al, look what followed me home. Can I keep him?"

"Genie, are you sure it's the real prince this time?"

"I've never been more sure in my life..."

Prince Maamadu began to recover. "Uhh... what happened?"

"It's a long story, Prince Maamadu. A long story..."