Red and Purple

Author's note: Somehow I thought that last review from Nail Strafer was from Deltoran Merchant. Shows how much attention I pay. Oof. Well, here's the next chapter of this story to occupy you.


Segment 5: From Bat to Curse

Chapter 3: I can't marry Sonic like this!


(Leo)

"Let's look around some more," Kim suggested. "We've got to find our map thief."

Various other tents besides the fortune-teller's lined the area. Amy led us from tent to tent, and we chatted with everyone. Nobody seemed to have seen Rouge, though.

At the end, I spotted a familiar face staring near the pyramids. It was Wave. For some reason, she'd come here. The three of us rushed up to her and said hello.

"Oh, hey, Leo, Kim," Wave returned our greeting. "Fancy running into you here. What brings you here?"

"Some thief stole our map," Kim explained. "We believe she fled here."

Amy gave a short physical description of Rouge. "You wouldn't happen to have seen her, would you?"

"I think I know what you're talking about," Wave confirmed. "I saw someone like that rushing into the big pyramid over there about ten minutes ago."

At that moment, Wave snapped her fingers. "Oh, wait a minute. Leo, Kim, there's something I wanted to tell you about. Remember that maneuver you showed me today? The Drive Spin, I believe it was called?"

Kim nodded. "Yes? What about it?"

"Well, Jet and I tried out that Drive Spin move some time after you left. We had Storm watch us from a good distance away. Then, a bit of turbulence caused the airship to tilt, and we skidded right into Storm, knocking him silly. Thing is, no matter how the ship tilted, we never tipped over as long as we were spinning."

I laughed. "Sounds interesting. I'll keep that in mind."

Around then, we heard Amy shriek. Kim and I whirled around to see what the big deal was, and saw that she was not quite her former self. The female hedgehog now had sharp claws, a long tail, and a cat's face. For some reason, her clothes were unaffected.

"Wow," Wave commented. "You don't see a hedgehog spontaneously turn into a cat every day."

Amy was completely panicked. "Leo! Kim! This is terrible! I can't marry Sonic like this! Do something! DO SOMETHING!"

A self-satisfied laugh interrupted the scene. The four of us all turned to face Princess Mariko, who had come from her fortune-telling tent just to see all this. "It looks like you understand the curse I applied to you," Mariko began. "I followed you here after you left my tent."

"You!" Amy yelled out. "Undo what you did to me, or I'll clobber you into next week!" With her hammer in her hands, she seemed very intimidating.

Mariko seemed a little scared. "Calm down, calm down. If you really want to undo the curse, all you need is one of the golden vulture feathers from King Frara's treasure room. His pyramid's the big one over there. Go straight in, and take the third right. When you reach a dead end, push on the brick with the hand icon to open the secret door. The feathers should be in a box with an eye marked on it. Got all that?"

"Big pyramid over there, third right, dead end, push the hand, secret door, box with an eye," I repeated. "I got it."

"That's the same pyramid Wave pointed out," Kim added. "Looks like we can kill two birds with one stone. Er, no offense, Wave."

Wave just shrugged it off. "None taken. You're not the first."


"Sure is dark in here," Kim commented as the three of us entered the pyramid. Not only was it dark, but the walls were slightly damp, which was a little creepy. There were a few cobwebs on the walls, but apparently Rouge had knocked most of them down when she'd come through here.

"Doesn't seem that dark to me," Amy replied. "I can see fine."

That's because you're a cat, I thought to myself. I thought the remark might offend Amy, though, so I didn't dare say it out loud. I just led the way, with my flashlight in my hand.

We skipped our first opportunity to turn right, and our second as well. The third time a hallway passed us by on our right, we turned and began down it. Had Rouge been down here? It seemed likely, because this passage was as clear as the previous one.

The hallway ended abruptly at a stone wall. To the left and right, many hieroglyphs lined the walls. Amy inspected the left wall, while Kim and I looked at the right, until we found the telltale hand mark which Princess Mariko had told us about.

"You do the honors," I instructed Amy, who approached the hand mark and pushed in the brick it was marked on. A loud CLICK echoed through the halls, as the stone wall which formerly blocked our path began to slide to the side.


Movie night down in Emerald County, eh? I've decided to alternate between this story and Saul from now on. With both in progress, it's a good idea for me to keep some kind of balance.