Justin sighed. He got caught. And the sentence was: life imprisonment. Justin wasn’t sure, if this was better than dying. Now he had to suffer until starvation got him. And he was all alone in here.

To Justin all hope was gone. He had to think about, how he came into this situation. It was all the fault of this guy... Prince Joshua. But he looked so beautiful. Justin didn’t know what to do. He never felt this way, especially not for a guy. But Joshua was something else. Joshua was smart, had beautiful eyes.

He remembered, how Justin was staring at Joshua, when he saw him first, he thought an angel fell from heaven. Even if he was dressed in a brown, plain garment. And his skin was so soft. And his lips, so sensual.

And now he would never see him again. Even if he could come out of this prison, he was the Prince. And Justin was a nobody. A street rat.

Suddenly Justin heard some familiar sounding noises. He looked up and saw Trace coming through the barred window. Happy to see his friend again, Justin hugged Trace.

“You don’t know how much I missed you!”

Trace rolled his eyes, offending Justin, because he got blind, when he met Josh.

“I know… but did you saw his face? He looked so beautiful!”

***

Lance was in his secret room, searching for his magic scarabaeus. This was the only way to find the cave of wonder again.

“Oh Michael, we are so close to get this lamp. Finally.”

"Are you going to use him to get the lamp now?" Michael asked, standing on Lance's shoulder.

“Why am I even talking to you? Surely I will use him! He is the only reason, why I don’t own it yet!”

"Then why don't you go get him so we get the lamp already?"

Lance sighed. “And how should I find the cave of wonder, without the scarabaeus?”

Michael rolled his eyes and flew from Lance's shoulder to a corner of the room, picking the scarabaeus with his peak and flying to Lance's shoulder again. "Here it is!"

“Instead of annoying me, you could’ve done it before. You stay here, I will get the lamp.”

Lance went out and left Michael behind.

***

Justin sat with Trace in a corner of the big prison and played with a little stone, when he heard steps from the other side. Curiously he looked up, watching out, who makes those noises.

Lance stayed by the other side, looking at Justin with a blank expression. "Hey you... come here."

Lance was disguised as an old man. Justin had no idea, which he was or what he looked like.

Justin raised an eyebrow. Something was at Lance that gets his hackles up; otherwise he was in here… what could happen to him?

Justin stood up and went to Lance.

"Do you want to get out of here?" Lance asked, with an evil smile.

Justin thought about it a few seconds. “Yes”, he answered hesitantly.

"Well, I can get out of here easily... but I need your help first."

“What do you want me to do?”

"I need you to help me find something... I am old and my best years are over... but you, you are young. I’m sure you could do that."

“What shall I do?”

"I need you to go into a cave. There are big treasures in there. So much gold, you can’t even think of! All I want you to do is find a lamp that it's hidden in there. If you get me the lamp, you can keep the rest. Would you help me?"

“Sure… but how do we go there? The cave is outside and we are trapped in here.”

Lance got the key of the prison out of his pocket and showing them to Justin, opening the prison door then.

Carefully Justin looked around for some guards. When he didn’t see anyone, he ran out of the prison with Lance and Trace.

Together both of them broke out of the prison. They went into the desert. There Lance ‘stole’ a horse. It was his own, but Justin couldn’t know. Lance plaid an old man, so he had to act, like he couldn’t walk that much, especially not through a desert.

After they went a few hundred meters, Lance pulled out the scarabaeus and let it fly. Together they followed it, until it buried into the sand. The earth started to quake and a giant tiger head, made out of sand raised out of the earth.

“And… I should climb into the tiger mouth?” Justin asked shocked.

"Yes. Remember, you have to find the lamp. You can keep all the gold you find if you bring me the lamp."

Carefully Justin went to the tiger head. Before he could enter the cave, the tiger head began to speak:

“Who disturbs my slumber?”

Intimated Justin answered: “M… My name is Justin.”

“You can enter. Remember, don’t touch the forbidden treasure. Just the lamp.”

Justin swallowed and entered the cave. Slowly he went down the stairs, step by step, looking at the golden walls.

“That’s impressive, isn’t it Trace?”

Trace looked around him, with wide eyes, looking at the golden walls and made some noises, showing his surprise at the sight of the inside of the cave.

Together they arrived the end of the stairs and went through a little gate. They entered a giant room, full of golden coins, chalices and other stuff.

“Wow… imagine what you could do with all these gold”

Trace made some noises, agreeing with Justin, still looking at all the gold around them. Trace wanted to grab everything he could.

“Trace! Don’t touch anything! You heard it!” Justin made sure that Trace was following him again and kept going to search for the lamp.

Trace followed Justin, when he had the feeling to get picked up a tail. He turned around and saw a carpet lying on the ground. The carpet was purple and had a beautiful, oriental pattern. Trace watched it a few seconds, but turned around again to follow Justin.

They went a few meters, but then Trace got the same feeling. He turned around and saw that carpet flying behind a hill of golden stuff. Trace started to scream and jumped on Justin’s head.

“Trace, what are you doing?” Justin grabbed Trace’s tail and pulled him from his head. “Stop annoying and start helping me to find the lamp!”

Trace pulled Justin's pants, pointing at the carpet several times, but when he realized Justin wouldn't look back, he started following him again to find the lamp.

At least the carpet came and pulled at Trace tail.

Trace turned around and started to scream, annoyed, pulling at Justin's pants again and pointing to the carpet.

Justin turned around and couldn’t believe his eyes. “Holy shit… this is a… magic carpet…”

Trace rolled his eyes, thinking 'No shit, Sherlock!', and then he got closer to the carpet, walking around it and watching it closely.

The carpet stroke Trace’s head and flew scared away, when Trace started to scream at him. Justin got closer to the carpet. “Don’t be scared… we may need your help…”

The carpet got out from the hill of golden coins in which it hid, and flew to Justin again.

“You don’t know where we can find a special lamp?”

The carpet 'thought' for a moment and then led Justin and Trace to a long hallway. The walls were out of golden stone, golden stalactites were hanging from the roof and golden stalagmites were raising from the floor up. Slowly they went through the hallway, entering a dark room. The room wasn’t golden anymore. It was made of stone and was dark grey everywhere. In front of them was a lake and a street of stones, which leaded to a high, bold mountain. Stairs were carved into the stone and directed to an altar. This was lighted from a little oil lamp, which was fixed at the roof. On this altar stood the lamp.

Justin looked at Trace and whispered in a strict tone: “Stay here and don’t touch anything!”

Trace rolled his eyes, while Justin was about to jump to the mountain, over the lake. Justin started to climb up the stairs, when Trace looked around and saw a golden stature standing in the corner of the hall. It had a giant ruby in his hands, which was shining and sparkling.

Trace was delighted with this beauty of the stone and was about to grab it. The carpet saw it and grabbed Trace’s tail, to delay him doing it. Justin, who was on the half of his way, didn’t recognize, what was going on there.

The carpet tried his best to stop Trace, but it couldn’t hold his tail for a long time.

Justin arrived the top of the mountain. He carefully grabbed the lamp and lifted the lamp. “And this old lamp was the reason why we made this far way…” Justin turned around and saw Trace, who was about to touch the ruby.

“Trace, stop!” But before Trace could react, the carpet had to release Trace and Trace took the ruby. Directly the earth started to quake. The deep voice of the cave was about to hear. “Liar! You touched the forbidden treasure! Now you will never see the daylight again!”

Trace jumped up, when the stature began to melt. He threw the ruby away and jumped on the carpet. Justin put the lamp into his pants pocket and ran down the stairs, when the stairs broke under his feed and he fell down. Right before he thrust his head on the other stairs, the carpet collected him and flew through the hallway back.

When Justin looked around, he saw that the lake changed into a big wave of lava. It was right behind them and Justin screamed: “Faster!”

When they passed the room full of golden stuff, the lava melted all the gold in seconds. The carpet arrived the great hall to the opening of the cave, where the long way of stairs was breaking away too.

A meter before they could come out, a big stone fell from the roof and hit the carpet. The carpet was falling down, while Justin could jump the opening of the cave. He hold himself with his hands at the end, but couldn’t climb up alone. Trace was standing at his shoulder climbing up and tried to help Justin up.

Lance was already waiting for him.

“Pease help me!” Justin screamed desperately.

“You got the lamp?” Lance asked.

“Yes, please help me up!”

“No!” Lance answered angrily. “First you give me the lamp and then I will help you!”

Justin took the lamp out of his pants and hand it Lance.

Lance grabbed the lamp and screamed: “Finally the lamp is mine!”

“Now help me!” Justin screamed, still trying not to fall.

Lance put the lamp into his pocket and came to Justin. He pulled Trace’s tail and threw him away.

“What are you doing?” Justin asked madly.

“I give you your reward… your last reward!” He pulled out a knife and was about to stab him with it, when Trace jumped on Lance head. He bit into his arm and grabbed the lamp with his tail.

Lance could grab Trace and tossed him against Justin. Both fell down and the cave closed finally.

Both were falling to the ground, thrusting his head against the walls two times. Before he could fall on the ground and hurt himself dangerously, the carpet could free himself and caught Justin as well as Trace.

On the upper ground Lance was laughing evilly. “It’s mine. It’s finally mine!”

He wanted to grab the lamp, but when he searched for it, he couldn’t find it. He screamed curses into the air, not knowing what to do now.