Now by this point you're probably wondering about Austin. Well he hadn't encountered any traps yet, but it just made him more wary. He slowly and cautiously walked through a path surrounded by two rocky walls. You have to be careful with those kinds of paths because there was a risk of an-

At that moment, Knuckles pushed down some boulders!

-AVALANCHE!

Austin quickly tied a rope to an arrow and fired it into a tree on top of one of the rocky walls. He swung around on the tree, missing all the rocks that were falling. He then was able to swing to safety by landing on the other side of the path.

Uniqua the swan, who remembered what the map on the note Austin got looked like, soared over the general area looking for Austin.

Austin now was walking through some woods. Knuckles cut some ropes, unleashing a net! Austin instantly sliced though the net with his sword, but then had to leap backward over a spiked log that was swinging towards him! He then ducked down as the spiked log swung back, and ran off before it could return. Knuckles cut more ropes, firing crossbows. Fortunately Austin was able to dodge all the arrows, but his quiver wasn't so lucky. It fell to the ground without him noticing.

Austin collapsed onto the ground, slightly tired, when three swords headed for his head! Fortunately, they missed but Austin was still frozen with fear. He quickly recovered when he heard growling: it was a savage wolf! Well, not really, just a hungry one but it looked savage. Of course if you had been starved on purpose you'd probably turn out savage too. Yup, Knuckles was the one who set the wolf on Austin and Clavius had been the one who starved the poor thing.

Austin quickly got up, and had to use his bow to throw the wolf off him. Unfortunately, he did not have his arrows with him. But, he was able to use a very small tree to help himself down onto a ledge, which caused the tree to hit the wolf on the head. This slowed the wolf down, and caused him to be a few feet behind Austin. Austin was able to grab a branch as he ran, and quickly lit it by striking it against a rough rock. Just as the wolf leapt onto the ledge Austin fired the burning branch, causing it to set a bush on fire. The wolf gave up and ran away whimpering. Knuckles was disappointed.

Meanwhile, Uniqua knew that she was on the right track when she saw Austin's quiver with an arrow in it. She was worried, but not panicked or anything since she didn't see blood.

Not too far away, Austin came across a deep pit filled with quicksand and decided to swing across on a vine. Unfortunately, Knuckles was nearby. Even more unfortunately, he had a dagger.

"Toodle-oo!" Knuckles grinned, slicing through the vine.

Austin fell into the quicksand!

"Sticky situation huh?" Knuckles joked, chuckling.

"You can't let me die like this!" Austin pleaded as he started to sink.

"Wanna bet?" Knuckles retorted.

"Help me, help me, I beg you." Austin still pleaded. "Please."

"Good-bye hero boy." Knuckles replied.

Austin disappeared into the quicksand. Knuckles left.

Fortunately, Uniqua arrived at that point and saw Austin's bow on the quicksand.

"Austin!" She gasped.

She then grabbed a vine and dived down. There was a pause, then the vine tightened and Austin's hand appeared grabbing onto it! Austin pulled himself and Uniqua out of the quicksand with the vine.

"Austin." Uniqua said; fortunately Tasha did the spell so that she could speak human.

"Uniqua?" Austin was shocked. "How did you...? What happened?"

"We have to get back to the castle, I'll explain on the way."

"Uniqua, thank you."

Uniqua just smiled.

As they headed back toward the castle Uniqua quickly explained. They both hoped that Clavius hadn't gotten the orb yet.

Pablo, Morton, and Tommy were still hiding in the dungeon tower with the orb, watching it glow on and off. Unfortunately, they didn't know that the glow could be seen through the windows at the top of the tower.

"So that's where they're hiding it." Clavius chuckled, seeing the glow from an outdoor walkway.

"Yeesh, it's kinda spooky in here." Tommy watched the orb nervously.

They heard a quick hiss. They looked up and saw Tasha at the doorway to the tower.

"Come, the coast is clear." Tasha said; she seemed nervous but Pablo and the others didn't notice.

"Are you sure it's safe?" Pablo asked.

"Yeah." Tasha said.

Actually, Clavius was making her say it by hiding behind her and threatening her with a dagger pointed at her back. She didn't want Clavius to get the orb but she knew he'd stab her if she didn't agree to repeat his words.

"And bring the orb." Clavius whispered.

"Bring the orb." Tasha said.

Pablo, Tommy, and Morton grabbed onto the chain, allowing Tasha to bring them and the orb up to her through a pulley.

"Good work Tasha!" Pablo smiled. "I was afraid old Clavius was going to-"

They then saw Clavius behind Tasha.

"Find us." Pablo finished nervously.

Clavius quickly grabbed the orb.

"Everyone in for a dip?" Clavius pushed Tasha down.

Tasha crashed into Pablo and the others, causing them all to fall into the water.

Clavius laughed as he shut the door and locked it.

"Oh I should've known it was a trick." Pablo said sadly. "Now Uniqua will be stuck as a swan forever."

"Not to mention the badguy's got the orb and he's probably going to blow the whole kingdom to bits." Morton added, climbing onto Tommy.

"Thank you for that cheery little update." Tommy replied sarcastically.

A bit later, Pablo came up with a plan to get out. Tommy started climbing the walls towards the pulley. Despite being a hippo he wasn't too bad at climbing.

"Come on Tommy." Tasha said encouragingly.

"You can do it buddy." Morton said.

"No fear big fella!" Pablo grinned.

"Shut up with the 'no fear' stuff or I'll jump on purpose!" Tommy warned, shaking a fist.

Unfortunately, he lost his grip and fell back into the water anyway.

"Oh I'll get it." Morton zipped up to the pulley.

"Why didn't you have him go up there first?" Tommy glared to Pablo.

"'Cause you need to pull your weight more." Pablo replied.

"Was that a 'chubby' remark?" Tommy grabbed Pablo by his bow-tie.

"Hey guys I got it!" Morton dropped the chain. "Hurry, Clavius is taking off!"

Tasha, Pablo, and Tommy grabbed onto the chain.

"Okay, Morton, pull us up!" Pablo called.

"Oh sure, and after that I'll fly around the world and reverse the Earth's rotation." Morton said sarcastically before struggling to pull them up. "Good...thing...I took up...weight...lifting." Morton grunted.

"Eat your heart out Rothbart!" Clavius laughed inside his hot air balloon. "This world is about to see the reign of Clavius!"

Pablo, Tommy, and Morton made it outside to the roof of the tower and reached for the rope hanging from the hot air balloon. Pablo and Morton made it, but Tommy missed and grabbed Morton's tail instead. This caused Morton's tail to bounce up and down.

"What is my tail, a Slinky?" Morton said sarcastically.

"Don't forget Morton, no fear!" Pablo said.

"That does it!" Tommy moved to the rope, climbed it, and started strangling Pablo.

Morton waved to Tasha, who wasn't able to grab the rope in time. Tasha gave them a thumbs up back.