Hadithi ya Alfajiri Safi EP1: Arid Tales

Hello everyone, and welcome to Hadithi ya Alfajiri Safi! 

In this series, we'll be telling a variety of different stories from different parts of the world. 

This time, it's the very first episode of the series, which serves as the main frame story for the series itself, even though the rest of the series will be posted on a completely different blog due to the announcement of YunokiRoom's indefinite hiatus that'll be posted on a later date.

One day, while Yasmina was at a local library, she grabbed one of the books from the bookshelves and started reading the book.

Suddenly, when she was in the middle of reading the book, she suddenly got transported into the world of the book itself.

There, she found herself in an idyllic desert and saw a man dressed in blue before waking him up with hand gestures.

"Wait, where am I...?", he murmured to himself before looking at her face.

He then introduces to her as Ilham, before explaining to her that he was lost in the middle of nowhere after he lost his entire camel caravan in a sandstorm.

Upon her taking him to a village, everyone was frightened upon seeing him except for a woman who knows the man and his tribe before taking the two of them in.

While in the woman's house, Ilham explains to Yasmina about his culture when suddenly, the chieftain informed them about a beast wandering around the village and ordered everyone to stay indoors for their safety, except that his daughter found herself trapped by the beast while she was in the middle of gathering plants.

And so, Ilham sets out to save the chieftain's daughter by jumping and attacking the beast.

As a result for his heroic actions, the chieftain healed his wounds and allowed him to leave his village with Yasmina.

Upon arriving in his hometown, he was reunited with his family and thanked Yasmina for helping him out in his journey before giving her a necklace and a blue scarf before parting ways with each other.

After leaving Ilham's hometown, Yasmina found herself in the middle of the desert again, only to put the blue scarf on her head.

A few minutes later, she saw a local herdsman wandering with his camels and heading towards a faraway kingdom.

Upon seeing her with the blue scarf, the herdsman takes her on one of his camels before they headed on their way to a town.

While on their way, the herdsman tells Yasmina about a king who was scorned by his unfaithful wife to the point where he killed several women in the morning after sleeping with them the night before for 3 years until a storyteller came along to tell him a variety of different stories for 1001 nights before he made her his queen for the rest of his life.

By the time he told her the story, they have already arrived at the entrance of the town and jumped off from their camels, before heading towards the entrance of the town.

Later that evening, while standing at one of the stalls of the vibrant night market, Yasmina received a ring and a mysterious oil lamp from a merchant, who was heading to his house in a hurry after he was done selling all of his products for the day.

She inserted the ring in her left ring finger and held the lamp in her arms.

"What is that lamp doing in my hands? Let me try rubbing it to see if this actually works or not."

She rubbed the lamp, only for the lamp to summon a djinn in front of her.

"What is happening here?! Why is there a demon in front of me?!", she panicked.

"Hey, calm down Yasmina, please, I'm not a demon!", the djinn said.

"Ah I see, my bad, so you're what then?", she replied.

"I'm a normal human just like you!", the djinn responded, to her shock.

By then, it was already too late, as everyone saw what was going on and ran away from the scene upon hearing the djinn from the lamp telling her that he's a normal human being, leaving just the two of them behind.

Upon seeing unconscious, the djinn was horrified and tried to wake her up but to no avail.

"Oh no, what have I done to scare everyone away?"

Soon, a few minutes later, she woke up and got up from the ground.

"Alright Yasmina, so since you don't know who I am, let me introduce myself. My name is Zuhair and nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Zuhair. Why are you trapped inside a lamp?"

"It's because of Shaytan's friend who killed people in Al-Thalj and despite all this, he manipulated others into believing his lies about me when in fact he's in the wrong."

"Wow, I want nothing to do with him anymore."

"Me neither. By the way, Yasmina, since you have three wishes left, what is your first wish?"

"My first wish is to become a princess."

Her first wish was granted, and now Yasmina became a lovely princess under the name of Princess Karima.

Upon seeing her as Princess Karima, Sinan, the prince of the faraway kingdom, fell in love with her at first sight, only for her to tell him that Zuhair made her a princess, but the prince didn't mind and was genuinely interested by her experience in said world.

Later that night, after having her second wish of having a flying carpet granted, Yasmina and Sinan flew on a magic carpet and looked at the stars.

After returning to the balcony through the carpet, Sinan confessed his feelings before proposing to Yasmina, to which she agreed.

Afterwards, she told Zuhair about her final wish, which was to turn him into a human and to return to the human world.

Zuhair granted her last wish, turning himself into a human and summoning a portal to the human world.

"After all this time, it was nice seeing you. I never thought you'd be my husband in this world, but I have something important to tell you." Yasmina said to Sinan.

"What is it about?", the latter asked.

"Since I don't have much time left in this world, I need to go back to the human world to live a normal life just like others."

"Wait, can I join you there?"

"No, you can't."

"Ah, that's sad. It'll be great if we can still be together in the human world in an another life.", he responded.

The two of them kissed and hugged each other goodbyes before Yasmina left for the human world through the portal.

A few days later, Yasmina was now back in the outside world, hanging out with her friends Yara, Lael, Bruno and Yatomi at a local café.

"So Yasmina, how was your trip?", Bruno asked.

"It went great, It felt like that I was living my best life in the Sahara when in fact it's a completely different world." Yasmina responded.

"Wow, I would love to go there!", Yara said.

"Me too!", Lael responded.

"That's amazing!", Yatomi said.

After everyone had a good time at the café, they were all on their way home, when they came across a strange car stopping in front of them in a grocery store.

"Hey, what is that car doing here?", Lael said.

The car's left window opened, revealing the driver, who was none other than a man wearing a kofia and a thobe.

The man in the thobe greeted them in Arabic, to which Yara, Yasmina, Bruno and Yatomi greeted back.

"Guys, who is that strange man?", Lael asked.

Yara then explains to Lael that the strange man is a known celebrity in this town and his name was Wahid, but people call him Zama Shingo (Uncle Salt in the Shimaoré language) because he loved putting salt in the food he makes and eating salty food.

"I see. Thanks for letting me know about him.", Lael said to Yara.

"Zama Shingo, can you please drive me and my friends home?", Yatomi asked Wahid.

"Of course I can, Yatomi.", he answered before letting the four of them in his car.

While in the car, Yasmina saw a picture of Sinan on the bottom of the rearview mirror and said to Yara and Lael "Wait, is that the man who proposed to me in an another world?"

"Yes, that's my great-great-granduncle. He had a wife that looked just like you and her name was Karima, and together they had 5 kids.", Wahid responded.

"Ah, I see, so that means I'm your great-great-grandaunt-in-law?", said in complete shock.

"No, you just look like her.", Wahid laughed while teasing her.

After the conversation, Yara, Lael, Bruno and Yatomi got out of the car and waved goodbye to Wahid before heading to their homes, leaving their friend Yasmina behind.

Later, while in the car, Wahid and Yasmina were talking about the latter's adventures in the book, even after he took Imran in.

Just as the three of them stopped in front of Yasmina's house, after she left the car, Wahid started falling in love with her before touching her pink hair, only to be caught red-handed by Imran.

"Wallahi, what the hell are you doing with a young girl's hair?! You're 20 and she's only 3 years younger than you!", Imran yelled at him before beating him up with his shoes and leaving the car as well.

2 months later, Imran and Wahid found themselves in court with their lawyers present.

After their lawyers argued and Yasmina's testimony, the judge ruled in favor of Imran and sentenced Wahid to prison.

A few days later, Yasmina decided to sleep over at a shared apartment.

There, she saw Imran waving at her, telling her to join her friends who have been waiting for her to start the adventure through the globe.

Upon arriving at where her friends were, Yasmina saw Yara, Nate, Bruno and Yatomi sitting and cornering an interactive globe and a magical crayon.

"What is this globe doing here?", she said.

"We're waiting for you to decide on which country we should go to.", Bruno told her.

"Hey, where did Lael go?", Imran asked.

Yara showed him a text message from Lael saying that he returned to Finland on his own to serve his military service along with a selfie of him in Helsinki.

"Hetkinen, onko kuvassa oleva mies poikaystäväsi? (Wait, is the man in the photo your boyfriend?)", Nate said to her in Finnish while looking at the selfie.

"Yes, he's my boyfriend.", she responded back.

"Alright everyone, what place should we go to?", Yara said to the people in the room and grabbed the magical crayon.

After everyone all agreed on going to Egypt, the scene switches to Xyuro typing and concluding the rest of the story on her computer while doing her homework.

She looked behind and saw Nate's younger brother waving with one of her letters.

"Hey! About your response to my brother's letter... How many postcards?", he asked her

"Who are you? Are you Nate's brother?", Xyuro responded.

"Yes, I'm his brother. My name is Ingvar.", Ingvar told her.

Ingvar then proceeds to tell his story to Xyuro about how his father had lied to him and his mother for years about his past to the point where he reached out to Nate on Instagram after he ended one of his VTuber livestreams.

"Ah, I see. Let me call your brother first.", Xyuro replied back.

She then calls Nate to tell him that his brother was at her house and to come over at her house.

He then came over to her house in a rush and said "Xyuro, what's the matter?"

"Your brother Ingvar came over to bring the envelope containing the response to your letter.", she responded.

"Is that so? Well, let me explain to you about my family."

After explaining to her about his family, Nate tells Ingvar to come with him at his house and waved her goodbye, saying to her "Thanks for looking out for my brother!" before leaving her house to bring his brother back to his mother.

The next day, Xyuro received a call from a panicked Niels telling her that he stumbled upon a leaked video of a random man cosplaying as Nate's VTuber avatar.

"Well, listen sweetie, you won't believe what I've seen last night, but I think that the man on the video looks like someone who you might know."

"No way. I don't think he looks like Nate. I called him yesterday about his brother, so there's no way it can be him.", she said.

"Ah, I see. I called Nate earlier this morning and he told me it wasn't him but rather some random guy from Sweden who I've known before.", he replied.

The phone call continued for about an hour until he ended the call telling her that he's going to have fun at her house.

"Now, let's pick up where we left off in the story last time before Niels arrives at my house.", Xyuro said before going on her computer to write the rest of the story.

Upon arriving in Egypt, Yasmina found herself on a boat sailing across the Nile with Imran and her friends Yara, Bruno and Yatomi.

"Wait, where am I?", Yatomi said.

One of the locals sailing the boat answered to her in Arabic that the boat is heading towards the city of Cairo and that they'll be in a hotel.

A few hours later, upon the boat arriving at a port in Cairo, the four of them left the boat and headed towards the streets of the capital.

"Are we really in Egypt?", Bruno said.

"Yes, we're staying there for 4 nights before we head home.", Yara responded.

And so, Yasmina and her friends headed to a nearby hotel to spend the rest of the night.

The next day, after they all checked out of the hotel they were staying at, Imran rented a car for them to drive across the Nile to visit the city of Luxor.

Will Yasmina and her friends somehow manage to spend the next 4 nights in Egypt? Find out next time in the next episode of Hadithi ya Alfajiri Safi!

To be continued...