Mulan watched Aladdin soar away in fascination before refocusing on Abu and Carpet.
As though noticing her gaze, Abu looked back at her with a raised brow.
Mulan quickly withdrew her gaze and focused on eating.
Abu snorted and shifted his attention to the new delicacies that Carpet had brought before him.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the mountain, Aladdin found a secluded spot and landed. He summoned the box Carpet had brought him from his storage ring and took out the Oracle Sceptre.
He summoned the Oracle.
Smoke-like magical energy spiralled upward from the staff, and an ethereal entity gradually materialised from the light and mist.
The Oracle emerged.
"Why was Mulan's camp attacked?" Aladdin asked.
This was the first time he was personally using the sceptre to ask a question. And this was the only question he could ask.
The Oracle remained silent.
The Oracle P.O.V
She had been sealed within this sceptre for as long as she could remember.
Time was merely a wheel that only began to turn whenever someone obtained her sceptre and summoned her to seek her knowledge.
She was the Oracle.
She had seen all.
She had heard all.
She knew all that had been and all that would be.
Not even the mysteries of the cosmos were hidden from her sight.
Even the intentions of her summoners were not hidden from her gaze.
Yet after existing for untold ages, her interest had been piqued by a young man.
Emperor Aladdin Ababwa.
Not only did he use the sceptre in a way no one else had ever dared, by having others ask questions on his behalf, but his questions were neither self-centred nor self-serving.
Soon, she realised that somehow he had begun tampering with fate.
Still, she remained certain that she could answer all things. It was, after all, her innate nature to do so.
She was mistaken. She realised she did not know all when she was asked about a warlord who had strangled fate itself, twisting and bending its course.
She hadn't thought it would happen again.
After all, fate always had a way of rectifying the wrongs that had occurred.
Yet fate proved her wrong once again.
"Why was Mulan's camp attacked?" Aladdin asked, his emotions boiling.
For the first time in her existence, the Oracle shook her head.
"I do not know."
Aladdin was left stunned and confused by the Oracle's response.
"You don't know? What do you mean by that?" Aladdin questioned. "Hasn't this event already happened? All I'm asking is why it happened."
The Oracle did not respond to Aladdin's emotional outburst.
"Fate has become entangled across both the past and the future. Those responsible have their intentions and actions obscured from my sight," the Oracle replied. "Therefore, I cannot tell you why the camp was attacked. However, I can tell you who attacked it."
"And who attacked the camp?" Aladdin asked, calming himself.
"Shan Yu and his several thousand men. They attacked not only this camp, but several others as well. Whether this camp was targeted due to special circumstances, I do not know," the Oracle replied.
Aladdin sat down on a nearby rock.
This was exactly what he feared would happen.
How was he supposed to track Shan Yu, protect Mulan, and prepare her to face him if the man was becoming more unpredictable with every passing moment?
"May I offer a suggestion, Your Majesty?" the Oracle asked voluntarily.
Aladdin was once again stunned by the Oracle's words.
He hadn't expected her to say anything further, considering it wasn't in her nature to offer guidance beyond answering questions.
Still, he quickly regained his composure and nodded.
"Go ahead."
"Do not lose yourself in becoming another chain forged by fate. You do not correct a flawed script by clinging to it, but by writing something new. The beauty of life lies in experiencing its newness every day," the Oracle said.
"I see all that has been and all that will be. But perhaps, from this moment onward, I will witness something new."
For the first time since Aladdin had met the Oracle, she smiled.
"I hope that by then, I might be able to answer your question."
The Oracle bowed slightly.
She was neither annoyed nor frustrated that she could not answer Aladdin's question, nor that the world had become a stranger to her.
Instead, she was happy.
For an entity like her, one who had seen the past, present, and future, this was a sight she would gladly trade all of her knowledge to witness.
Her form scattered into smoke and vanished back into the gem of the sceptre.
"That's convenient. She couldn't answer the question, so she ran away," Aladdin muttered with a click of his tongue.
However, he understood the meaning behind her words.
While he didn't want to become chained to doing fate's job, he couldn't simply sit back and watch the world burn. He had to find a way to act.
Aladdin stored the sceptre in his storage ring and took out the Book of Destiny.
He rubbed the cover of the tome.
"You heard what the Oracle said, didn't you? Now give me an easy solution," Aladdin said before opening the book.
The tome glowed softly as its pages rapidly flipped open.
Then they stopped.
He was on his own.
Aladdin sensed the Book of Destiny's intent.
"We're in this together. If I'm unable to fix this, then sooner or later you'll become just as useless as the Oracle," he said, growing increasingly annoyed at how quickly things were slipping beyond his control.
The book pulsed softly once more before snapping shut.
Aladdin tried to reopen it, but he couldn't.
It was as though an invisible force had sealed it closed.
Afraid of damaging the artefact, he returned it to his spatial storage.
Aladdin leapt into the sky and soared high above the clouds.
Then he lay flat in the air as though resting upon a bed of clouds.
For a moment, he wondered if perhaps he should abandon everything and return to Ababwa.
No! That would be too cowardly.
How was he supposed to face Jasmine and Rakim after all the grand promises he had made to them?
The worst-case scenario was Mulan giving up and returning home.
But if even she hadn't made that choice after everything she had endured, then there was no reason for him to entertain such thoughts either.
Perhaps this was his chance to prove that he could succeed not only when things went according to plan, but also when they didn't.
Aladdin straightened his back and stretched his limbs.
After settling his thoughts, he decided to return to their camp in the mountains.
When he arrived, he found Mulan speaking and laughing with Abu as they continued eating their meal. He landed, drawing their attention.
"Have you handled whatever you needed to settle?" Mulan asked, looking at him.
"Yes."
"How did it go?"
"Not exactly as I'd planned," Aladdin shook his head.
"Oh... my day didn't exactly go as planned either," Mulan replied. "You can always start again tomorrow."
Aladdin nodded.
"What have you guys been talking about?"
"Nothing," Mulan quickly replied, shaking her head.
He turned to Abu.
"Nothing," Abu said, shaking his head as well.
Aladdin narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the two of them.
"Let's finish our meal so we can get some rest," he said, deciding not to press the matter further.
The next morning,
"The commander revealed the locations of the surrounding camps to us in case of an emergency, so it should be somewhere around here," Mulan said, surveying the landscape through a pocket telescope.
"There it is."
She pointed in the direction of the camp.
Aladdin steered Carpet toward it.
Suddenly, Mulan's expression turned to one of horror.
The telescope slipped from her hands.
Soon, they discovered the reason for her reaction.
The camp had been destroyed, pillaged, and burned to ashes.
Carpet slowed down.
"Let's search for survivors," Mulan said, tears gathering in her eyes.
They dismounted and searched the area thoroughly.
However, they found nothing.
Not a single survivor.
"Let's go," Aladdin said softly, helping Mulan back onto Carpet.
"Yeah. Let's check the other camps. They can't all have been destroyed," Mulan replied with a nod.
Aladdin sighed inwardly.
He already knew the truth, but he hadn't told Mulan because he feared it would break her heart and destroy what little confidence she had left.
Sensing Abu's gaze, Aladdin looked at him and subtly shook his head.
Abu moved closer to Mulan and gently took her hand.
Mulan tightened her grip around his small hand as tears streamed down her face.
Carpet soared through the sky and, within half an hour, arrived at another camp.
Unfortunately, the result was the same.
The camp had been destroyed.
Then another camp. And another after that.
The results were horrifyingly identical.
All five camps had been destroyed.
Not a single survivor remained to tell the tale of what had happened.
Mulan sat silently on Carpet, her eyes devoid of tears.