Chapter 2
The Prince entered the cave and the door he entered through then slammed shut behind him, trapping him in. "Great, now how do I get out of here?" he asked himself looking around the large cave he'd just entered. The cave was large and looked very old with torches lit on the walls; there were also a few potions still fresh and sitting down on the flat ground to the left side. The torches made the Prince wonder if someone lived down here, maybe it was the woman that had spoken to him back on the merchant ship. A tunnel leading right lead the Prince deeper into the large cavern; he chose the right tunnel and began walking down it, hoping to find a way off the island and back to Persia so that he could fight Jaffar and win back Persia from his wicked deeds that he may be planning. As the Prince ran down the tunnel, he didn't notice that a trigger panel had been built into the cave floor which controlled a booby trap dart shooter; he stepped on it and set off the dart shooter blowpipe built in the cave floor just a few feet in front of the trigger panel. A small dart shot out of the pipe and struck the Prince on the side of his neck, causing him to stop running and gasp in pain. "Ow, what in the world?!" he exclaimed painfully and pulled the dart out of his neck and examined what it was that hit him; he tossed the small red dart down to the ground and saw the blowpipe in the ground that fired the dart at him, and then scowled. "Booby traps; I'd better keep my eye out for those. No telling what sort of hocus pocus I might run into down here" the Prince replied to himself and continued walking down the long tunnel and came to a large flat rock blocking his way; he looked around for another way out and then he noticed another trigger panel just a few inches in front of him. The Prince looked cautiously at the floors and ceilings, not wanting to risk getting hit by one of those pesky darts again. He then pressed down on it with his foot and the rock in front of him slowly opened up with a whirring sound; another tunnel came into view along with another trigger panel on the floor just in front of the now opened door and a small pit of lava and a pile of skeleton bones near the end. The Prince entered the new tunnel and stepped on the trigger panel in front of the door, slamming it shut and startling the Prince as well; he shook his head as he jumped over the lava pit. "I hate it when those doors slam like that" he said and reached the end of the tunnel and came to a dead end; the pile of bones began rattling as the Prince looked around for another way out. "What the-?" he said suddenly as the bones then constructed themselves into a living skeleton, and it had a sword to go with it. The skeleton growled at the Prince and slowly started towards him; the Prince reached slowly for his sword in fear. He had faced a skeleton just like the one in front of him eleven days ago back in the dungeons of Persia's royal castle; Jaffar had placed a black magic spell on a pile of skeleton bones in the dungeon causing it to come to life and attempt to stop the Prince from proceeding any further from trying to reach the tower of the Princess and stopping him. However, the Prince forced the skeleton backwards with his sword and caused it to fall into a long drop into the dungeon pits and break into pieces again. The Prince hoped then he'd never have to face such a creature again, but it seemed now that he'd have to; the Prince drew his own sword and swung at the skeleton, knocking the sword out of its bony hand and into the pit of lava behind it. "Not so tough without a sword, are you, you walking bag of bones?" the Prince taunted with a grin and kicked the bony monster into the lava pit, causing it to melt instantly. The Prince returned his sword to its holder and then felt the floor under his feet beginning to crack; it then gave away and the Prince fell into another tunnel area with more piles of skeleton bones and a wall full of holes in it. As the Prince climbed down the wall, he jumped back from it in surprise as a bunch of razor sharp spikes suddenly came bursting out of the holes; he'd barely missed getting spiked from them. "Whoa, didn't see that coming; I'd better keep a better eye on the walls in here" the Prince said, a little nervous from the surprise; the spikes retracted back into the wall as he continued down the long tunnel and then came to another door that looked the same as the one he'd enter the cave through. The Prince then realized that this door might just lead out of the cave and he then quickly looked for the trigger panel that would open it; he also wondered if maybe he'd find something on the other side of this door that would get him off the island and back to Persia. As he thought of Persia, he also began to worry about the Princess and what Jaffar might be doing at that moment; the Prince missed her deeply and hoped that he'd be able to return home soon and rid Persia of Jaffar once and for all. The trigger panel for the door was located on a small platform just near the end of the tunnel; the Prince grabbed it with both hand and pulled it down, causing the door to open up, revealing a pair of stairs that lead upward to another part of the strange cave. The Prince looked at the stairs and then started up them quickly; his mind was on getting off the island as quickly as he could. "I've got to get out of here and back home to Persia; Jaffar might be planning something awful back there" the Prince said to himself as he ran up the stairs and into another upper part of the cave.
Meanwhile, back in Persia, things were indeed getting worse just as the Prince predicted; the Sultan's enemies' continued to march towards Persia in attempt to invade the land and subdue it. As a result, the Sultan had to leave home once again to aid his armies in battle; no sooner had he left, the phony Prince (who was Jaffar in disguise) immediately seized power over Persia and began to destroy justice with his iron fist of tyranny once again. When this happened, the people of Persia began wondering why the Prince would do such a thing, after all he'd done to save Persia from Jaffar and his evil deeds; the Princess was heartbroken to see that her husband would betray hers and her fathers trust after all he'd done. However, she didn't know that the man she thought was the one she loved was really Jaffar disguised as her lover; he'd ordered the guards to make sure the Princess didn't leave the castle so that she couldn't tell anyone what he'd been planning to do. The Princess sat at a large table and began writing a message to her father on a long scroll in attempt to warn him of her husbands treason; tears of sorrow flowed from her eyes. "Why...why would you do all this? After all my father did for you..." the Princess said softly; her pet mouse sat on the table looking sad as well. Just then, outside her quarters she heard the guards making a commotion just on the other side of the door. "NO, STOP...YOUR NOT-!" she heard the guards cry out; she then heard both of them being struck down by a sword and then the door swung open. The phony Prince stormed in holding his sword; the blade was stained with blood. The Princess gasped in shock when she saw the bodies of her slain bodyguards outside her quarters; Jaffar sneered and shut the door, locking it behind him. "Sorry about that; those guards were being so...rebellious" he replied in a sinister tone of voice; the Princess quickly moved over to the corner of her room with the scroll in her hand. Jaffar caught sight of it and then walked up to her and demanded that she hand it over; the Princess refused which made Jaffar angry. "Hand it over...NOW!" he thundered and drew his sword; not daring to risk getting hurt, the frightened Princess dropped the scroll at Jaffar's feet, which he picked up and read. When he saw that she'd written about his acts of distrust, he glared at the Princess furiously. "So, planning on turning stool pigeon on me, huh?" Jaffar snapped coldly and reached for the Princess. "Why are you doing this?! I thought you loved me!" the Princess cried out stressfully; Jaffar only sneered. "Oh, I do, but unfortunately..." he said and then he lowered his disguise and revealed his true form as the evil vizier with brown skin and a black beard; when the Princess saw this, she was terrified beyond her life. She couldn't believe it; this man whom her real lover had fought and then struck down back in the dungeon's eleven days ago...was alive and once again, back to do more evil. "No...it can't be...!" the Princess gasped softly and placed her hands over her mouth in shock; her pet mouse squealed in terror and dove under the table and hid in fear. Jaffar sneered and then let out a malicious chuckle. "Oh, but it is, and this time your so called "Knight in Shining Armor" isn't going to save you from me; now that I finally have him out of the way, Persia will be mine to rule once I've taken care of you" he told her and then burned the scroll with a fire spell; as Jaffar burned it, the Princess snuck a small dagger from under a wardrobe and was about to stab Jaffar when he turned around and grabbed her by the throat, glaring with rage in his eyes. "You sure have some fight in you, don't you? But I'm afraid that you won't be fighting any longer; it's time for you to take a long nap" he hissed and then chanted a black magic spell in Persian language and then the Princess fell from his grasp and lay still on the floor; Jaffar then let out a cackle. "Did you honestly think you could kill me, you silly girl? I am the most powerful sorcerer on this planet, and now with you out of the way at last, Persia's throne will now be mine!" Jaffar cackled and then he left the room, disguising himself as the Prince again; no sooner had he left, a few of the royal palace doctors heard the commotion from the Princess's quarters and then they came in to find the Princess laying unconscious on the floor by the wardrobe; her pet mouse was whimpering next to her. The doctors alerted Jaffar and then had the Princess placed in her bed and told Jaffar that they could not find any cure for the "strange illness" that had been inflicted upon her and that all they could do was hope and pray that the Princess would recover somehow; Jaffar nodded and told them that he'd keep an eye on her from time to time. As they left the Princess's quarters, Jaffar sneered and then looked back at the Princess laying asleep in her bed; no one knew what had really happened since he used a spell to make the bodies of the Princess's bodyguards vanish after he struck them down. Jaffar leaned down and looked at the Princess's beautiful face. "Thought you were pretty smart, weren't you? And now with you finally out of the way, seizing Persia's throne will be easy as pie" he grinned and then left the room, chuckling. When the news of the Princess's sudden illness had gotten out, the kingdom of Persia began to panic when they heard that the Prince was now in command of the throne; they already knew of his treachery and knew that they were now in trouble since the Sultan was out fighting in the war and the Princess was now ill. The People of Persia prayed that this new reign of terror Jaffar was causing would end, but all hope seemed lost...for now. The Princess's pet mouse squeaked and hoped that the Princess would wake up, but she stayed silent; the mouse whimpered with worry and hoped that his beloved mistress would awaken.
Back on the island inside the ancient cave, the Prince exited another door to another upper part of the large cave; this was the third room he'd come up to and he was beginning to grow worried and impatient. He'd already searched for a way to get back to Persia below in the other levels of the cave, but found nothing, and now he was in yet another cave room. The Prince turned to his right and saw a tunnel that lead down into another room full of booby trap dart shooters and a few closed doors; there was also another spiked wall underneath the pathway the Prince was walking on. As the Prince came to the door and opened it with the trigger panel on the floor, he sank to the ground near another closed door ahead of the path and buried his head in his hands; he was desperate now and wanted off the island as quickly as he could. He thought of the Princess back in Persia and what might be happening at that moment; as he did, another strange thing happened in his mind like on the merchant ship, but slightly different. In his mind, the Prince saw a large oak tree in the middle of Persia's royal garden with seventy-six leaves on its branches; one leaf fell off. And then the Prince heard that mysterious womans voice again in his mind, and when she spoke, it was with grim news that made the Prince's worst nightmares come true. "Prince, your bride is dying; when the last leaf on this tree falls, she will be lost forever. You must waste no more time; you have seventy-five minutes to return and defeat Persia's greatest nemesis, or all hope for your lover and Persia will be lost. Come to me" the woman explained in a grave, but calm voice. The Prince immediately bolted his head up and then got up to his feet in a flash; his palms began to sweat with fear and anger. "No...no...no...NO, NO, NO, NO!" the Prince shout while pounding the cave walls with his fists in anger; Jaffar had finally done it. The Prince leaned his head on the closed door and breathed heavily through his gritted teeth; he was now filled with a rage he'd never felt before. His Princess, his beloved Princess whom he loved so much was all the way back in Persia, suffering from the hands of Jaffar in someway he didn't know of and could only guess. Was Jaffar torturing her for information, beating her, or using her as a human guinea pig for practicing his horrible black magic spells? Whatever it was, it was beyond the Prince's or even the the Sultan's knowing for anyone; Jaffar was pure evil, and he had to be stopped, no matter what the cost was. "I swear by God, I will have your head for this, Jaffar!" the Prince screamed angrily; his voice echoed throughout the cave tunnels. The Prince continued through the cave and opened as many doors as he could and when he was about ready to give up hope, he came into a large room with old rusty chains on the walls and a large royal carpet laying in the middle of the room bathed in sunlight; sunlight! The Prince looked up and sure enough, there was a large opening in the ceiling with light coming through it, only there was one problem, it was blocked with a metal gate. The Prince sighed and looked around the room for anything that might open the ceiling gate; he spotted a trigger panal at the top of the room on another path, but it was too high for him to reach up and grab onto. "Great; now how do I get up there?" the Prince snapped in frustration and placed his hands on his hips; he then spotted a tunnel up ahead and saw that it went further into the cave. "Well, I guess that's the only tunnel I can go through. Maybe I can find another way up to that path to open that gate in the ceiling and get the heck out of this rusty old cavern" The Prince said with a shrug and went down the tunnel. As he went down the tunnel, he wondered how he'd be able to leave the island once he got out through that hole in the ceiling once the gate was opened. He still hadn't found a way to leave the island and that merchant ship was scrapped from Jaffar's lighting spell, so there was no going back on that; the Prince vowed to find a way off the island even if he had to swim back to Persia even though he knew that doing that was suicide. The Prince almost lost the Princess one and he was not going to lose her again; the Prince then entered a room down the way with yet another skeleton with a sword standing near the door. As the Prince started towards the door, he drew his sword and slashed off the creatures fleshless hand and grabbed it by the neck and look at it straight in the eye. "Piss off, bone head; I've got a wife who needs me and your holding me back" the Prince said coldly and then threw the skeleton behind him, which hit the wall so hard it shattered into small pieces like crushed gravel; the Prince then returned his sword to it's holder and then continued down the path and then came across a large space that lead upward into the cave, along with small spaces to climb up. The Prince realized that this would bring him up higher and maybe even to that trigger panel to open the ceiling gate back there where the rug was; he could then use the rusty chains in that room to form a rope and climb out of the cave. "I'd better watch my step and not fall" the Prince said aloud and then climbed up each path by pulling himself up; he repeated this until he finally reached the top and came up to a long old, wooden rickety bridge with a skeleton armed with a sword guarding the end. The Prince growled in frustration and started towards the skeleton with his sword drawn. He carefully stepped across the bridge trying hard not to move too fast or the bridge might have broken; a long dark pit lay beneath the bridge. The skeleton also started towards him with a snarl and then met up with he Prince and swung its sword which the Prince blocked. He then swung his sword and attempted to sever its bony head, but his idea was foiled as the skeleton blocked his blow and then tried to strike him again; the Prince grew impatient as he tried fighting his way past the bony creature. "Get out of my way, you dang pile of bones; I haven't got time for this!" the Prince shouted and then he swung his sword hard and knocked the skeletons sword right out of its hand and then the bridge cracked and then shattered into pieces; the skeleton screeched in terror as it fell into the bottomless pit and was gone forever. The Prince jumped and grabbed onto the ledge just in time to avoid falling into the pit, but when he climbed up onto the ledge, his sword fell from his grasp and into the pit; the Prince then looked into the black pit and stumped his foot angrily. "Oh great; brilliant. Now I have defending myself to worry about now as well!" he snapped angrily and then continued down the long tunnel and then he came to another gap in the ground which he jumped over and then he finally re-entered the room with the chains and carpet, and of course the hole in the ceiling. The Prince then saw the trigger panel for the ceiling gate and then pressed it as he climbed down; the gate opened with a swish and the Prince sighed with relief. "Finally, now I get out of this god forsaken cave once and for all" he said with relief and was about to grab the chains when he slipped on the end of the carpet and fell on it; the carpet then suddenly rose into the air a few inches above the ground and towards the opening in the ceiling. "Whoa, neat-o; a magic carpet" the Prince said in surprise and then suddenly he realized that this carpet was his ticket off the island; he leaned down towards the front of the carpet. "Can you take me back to Persia?" he asked the carpet softly; the carpet suddenly rose into the air and flew out of the opening and started flying across the sea. The Prince was free at last and on his way home; as the magic carpet flew him across the sea, the Prince suddenly remembered the strange woman who had appeared to him back on the merchant ship and wondered where she may be. She had told the Prince to come to her, but never told him where she was; maybe she knew what was happening and knew of a way to stop Jaffar. As he thought about it, the carpet suddenly shook and then headed up into the clouds on a new course; the Prince was puzzled. "Hey, where are you taking me?" the Prince asked the rug; no response. The carpet continued across the sky on its new course as the Prince sat and held on tightly to it to avoid falling off. After a few minutes, the magic carpet descended through the sky and an ancient city atop a large mountain came into view; it was a large blue city, or what was once a blue city. The place lay in ruins from years of being abandoned and was practically crumbling in some places; the city looked decades old, maybe even older. As the Prince gazed upon it, he suddenly got a strange feeling inside him, like deja'vu. The large city had a large, faded symbol of a circle with a triangle above the entrance to the city. "Hmm, this place seems...so formiliar in some way. I don't know if I've been here before, but yet these blue ruins seem like something I might have seen before, but I just don't remember when" the Prince replied as the carpet lowered itself near a ledge where the entrance to the blue ruins was. Then, the Prince heard that strange womans voice again, but this time it sounded louder and much closer. "Come to me..." the woman replied as the carpet flung the Prince off of it and onto the ground in front of the entrance to the blue ruins. "Oof!" he grunted as he hit the ground; the carpet then flew off into the sky as the Prince got onto his feet. "No, wait; come back" the Prince called out, but the carpet was gone and already out of sight; he sighed and placed his hands on his hips and took a look at the large city in front of him. He had expected the carpet to return him to Persia, but instead it took him to a ruined city that seemed vague, yet formiliar. The Prince then decided that he couldn't just pout around, he had only sixty-nine minutes left to get back to Persia before his lover perished forever; he then remembered the womans voice and realized that she must be inside the ruins somewhere. The Prince exhaled and walked towards the entrance. "Well, I guess I'm off on another adventure again, without a sword" the Prince said disdainfully as he entered the blue ruins and prepared himself for the dangers that might be inside.