Did you like the introduction to the Dark Ages? Sorry if I overdid the
stench thing, or offended anyone. In any case, this next one is focused
more on action than smell. Hope you like it!
Disclaimer: Why should I?
Sauron snickered as his flyers were led from the portal. He turned his head and shouted to his troops, who were having extreme fun burning down the town. "Hey, you lugs! I need some volunteers to take three Greatwings out to a swamp in the northwest to find the Ruby!" Several raptors and Massopondylus rushed over, each wanting to ride the great beasts. Sauron chose a few of those he deemed strongest for the job. "Okay, you bunch head for the swamp while the rest of us finish the destruction of this town and follow on foot! The Ruby is somewhere in the swamp, and I don't care what it takes, just find it! If you see anyone in the swamp, kill them! Good luck, all of you." The dinosaurs mounted the great winged beasts and took off, flying for the northwest. Sauron grinned and looked back at the others. "Well, what are you waiting for? Keep burning stuff!" As the soldiers eagerly went back to their task, Sauron took several troops and torches, lighting up the church in flames. The omnivores laughed, enjoying the carnage.
The crone Bristol cackled for no reason at all as she rowed the two heroes through the swamp. Scales and Arik were starting to get a little scared of this woman. It was possible she was deranged. She kept cackling incessantly as she rowed the boat. They went through a tunnel formed of low branches. Then they rowed past what looked like Bristol's house, but abandoned. They went through another tunnel, then passed by several old crates floating in the water for some reason or other. "Uh, Bristol, what are those crates doing in the water?" Scales asked. The old woman took a look at the crates. "Oh, those are empty crates that we dump in the swamp." "Why do you dump them in the swamp if they're empty?" Scales asked. "And who else lives here?" Arik asked. The woman grinned, freaking them out. "The crates are too weak to be of use for firewood once they're empty, so we just throw them away. Anyway, I'm the only one who lives here, aside from the goblin and Beanie!" Scales and Arik exchanged glances. "I'm sure I'll regret asking, but who is Beanie?" Bristol cackled. "Beanie lives in my head! He tells me to burn things! But since we live in a damp, wet swamp nothing burns so he's always miserable." She started her long cackling session again while Arik and Scales started hugging out of fear. After passing by the crates, they rowed past several tall poles sticking out of the water. Past the poles, Scales and Arik notices what looked like part of a bridge attached to a nearby tree. They didn't ask, not sure they wanted to know. They started weaving their way through more poles, and the lizards suddenly noticed there were people on the poles! These people were transparent and appeared to be holding fishing poles. The old lady noticed where the lizards were looking and cackled again. "Oh, don't mind them! Those are just the ghosts!" "Ghosts? What ghosts?" Scales asked fearfully. "Oh, the ghosts of people who fall in the water. There are some nasty things beneath the surface." Bristol said simply. Scales and Arik gulped. One of the ghosts looked down and slowly waved at Bristol. She waved back. "Hi Lancelot! See you on the way back, okay?" They kept going, moving out of the poles and fishing ghosts, out into a wider part of the swamp. Cliffs rose on either side, forming walls in a way. As Bristol kept rowing, there was suddenly a loud screech from above. Bristol looked up, as did they all. In unison, the three screamed. "A dragon!" shrieked Bristol. "A Greatwing!" Arik yelled. "A Pterodactyl!" Scales screamed. It was indeed a Pterodactyl, with a couple of raptors on its back. The flying reptile screeched and flapped its wings hard, flying in circles over them. The aerial lizard opened its long beak and spewed a huge energy ball at them. It hit Bristol, instantly knocking her into the water. She sank, leaving no trace. The Pterodactyl circled and prepared to fire again. "Scales, I'll steer us away, you try to fend that thing of!" Arik yelled, grabbing the pole. He started pushing against the bottom of the swamp frantically, moving the boat. As the Pterodactyl spat another energy ball, Scales threw one of her own. The two blasts impacted, exploding. The flyer spat another ball, which Scales quickly negated with one of her own. Arik steered the boat towards a large root extending from the water. As he got closer to it, something rammed the boat from underneath, causing a hole to appear in the bottom. The vessel started sinking. Arik and Scales quickly jumped to the root before they could go down with the boat. As the pterodactyl spat another blast, the two lizards quickly jumped to another boat they saw right next to the root. As Arik started pushing them away, Scales started firing energy balls at the prehistoric beast itself. The balls exploded on impact with the pterodactyl, causing it to screech and spew several more blasts. Arik frantically pushed the boat over to a bank near the cliff, getting off and running for an alcove in the cliff wall. Scales raced after him after futilely firing some more balls. Inside the alcove was a ladder, going higher up. Scales climbed after him. They reached the top of the ladder and ran through a short tunnel. They came out and were face-to-face with another pterodactyl. "Damn it all!" Arik yelled before running down a ledge to their right. The pterodactyl shrieked and started spitting energy balls. Arik and Scales saw a bridge leading across the water to the other cliff some distance below them. Arik jumped down while Scales hovered. The instant both of them were on the bridge, it started to collapse! As the pterodactyl continued to spew energy balls, Scales and Arik frantically ran across the collapsing bridge, jumping to another one going along the cliff wall when they reached the end. Unfortunately, this bridge started collapsing as well! Still under fire, they ran across the bridge and jumped to another one going back across the river, only to have this one start to collapse as well! This was getting tedious. They desperately rushed across the bridge, jumping across a gap and landing on another bridge going alongside the cliff wall. They stopped for a moment to catch their breath, but started running again as the pterodactyl continued spitting energy balls and the bridge was collapsing AGAIN. And to make matters worse, the dinos on the pterodactyl moved their mount ahead of the heroes, firing energy balls at sections of the bridge in front of them. Scales and Arik barely managed to leap the gaps, avoid the blasts, AND keep from falling into the deadly water below at the same time. But finally, they leaped off the end of the bridge and grabbed a ladder. They began climbing up it, running across a ledge to a tunnel in the cliff as the pterodactyl unleashed a few more blasts. The two stopped for a moment, panting. "Well, this is rough!" Scales said. "You don't need to tell me. Sauron's obviously serious about this Ruby. He doesn't want to lose it to us." Arik said. "Well, he's just going to have to get used to it! Come on, let's see where this tunnel leads." Said Scales, walking down the tunnel ahead, Arik trailing after her. The tunnel sloped down sharply, letting out on the other side of the cliff, near the waterline. Scales peered out. "The coast's clear. Come on." They came out of the tunnel and walked along the ledge before them. When the ledge stopped, they looked around for somewhere to go. Arik saw a boat waiting in the water just below them. "Scales, look! Another boat!" Scales frowned. "Why are there so many boats lying around in this swamp?" Arik shrugged. "I'm sure it has to do with that crazy old Bristol. She probably left these boats out as spares in case something bad happened to one of them." Scales thought that over. "Strangely rational for a woman with a man named Bernie in her head." Arik jumped in the boat. "Come on, let's move before another pterodactyl finds us!" Scales jumped after him. Arik took up the pole and started rowing out into the swampy river. As they rowed, some ghosts started to manifest. Scales frowned at the specters. "I don't like the looks of those ghosts." She muttered. The spirits wailed and started to fly towards them. Scales quickly started to fire off energy balls, dissipating the ghosts as they attacked. "Ya! Take this, deadhead!" she yelled. Arik watched her, bemused as she blasted the ghouls to the afterlife. The remaining ghosts turned and fled. "Ha, that's right! Run back to the netherworld you were spawned from, you transparent sissies!" "You're a very violent girl, aren't you?" Arik joked. Scales looked a little sad. "Being locked in a tiny capsule with no food, water, air or light for forty five years can do that to a person." She whispered. Arik blinked, taken aback. "S-sorry." He said. "It's okay." She whispered. "But hey, you're one to understand how I feel, right? You lose everything you ever cared about, you lash out at things that might take away whatever's left, you know?" She sighed. "Just forget about it, okay? Let's keep going." Arik silently nodded and kept rowing. In the awkward silence that followed, both of them were thinking about how they had both gone through horrible, traumatizing experiences and come out as harder individuals. In a way, they were kindred spirits. In a way, they were the same...they were snapped out of this line of thought when suddenly, a leak sprung and the boat started sinking. "We're going down!" Arik yelled. Scales saw a large root up ahead on the right. "Arik, jump to that root!" She leaped out of the boat and hovered to the root. Arik made the jump just before the boat went under, making it to the root. They looked around and saw the beginning of another bridge going up and along the cliffside. They jumped to it and were relieved when it didn't start falling apart, so started walking down it. Of course, just then a pterodactyl showed up and ruined everything. The scaled bird started spitting energy balls at the bridge, blasting sections of it to pieces in its attempt to kill the two reptiles. Scales and Arik quickly started running and jumping along the bridge as the pterodactyl kept blasting it apart, reaching a stable ledge. They saw another bridge extending to their left, going over the river at a downward slant. They started running down the bridge, once more trying to watch out for the volley of shots from the pterodactyl. As the bridge was finally blasted to pieces, they leaped to another bridge extending to their right along the cliff wall. As the pterodactyl continued to fire at them, they started jumping in time with the sound of the energy balls, avoiding a nasty explosion. They made it to the end of the bridge and jumped off, landing on a ledge leading into a cave. They ran into the cave. The pterodactyl pilots cursed angrily for missing their targets. Scales and Arik stopped once they were in the cave. "Well, I'm glad that's over." Arik panted. Scales nodded, then noticed something. "Arik, get down!" "What-" Scales shoved him to the ground, saving him from attack by a ghost. She quickly shot an energy ball at it, destroying the spook. Arik gaped, realizing how close to injury he could have been. "Th-thank you Scales!" Scales shrugged and helped the raptor up. "No biggie. Let's see where this place goes, okay?" They walked through the cave, coming out into a larger room. Before they could get a look at the place, three huge eyeballs dropped from the ceiling and started bouncing towards them! Scales and Arik popped the eyeballs with a few whacks from their tails. Once the eyeballs were goo on the floor, they could see their location. The cave was a little big, but not too large. In the back was a pair of torches, standing before a giant spider web. Sitting in front of the spider web was a strange creature. He had green, shiny skin. His limbs were long and so thin they looked like bones covered with skin. The creature wore what looked like blue trousers and an orange tuxedo, and had a tall purple top hat with yellow stars and moons on his head. Never mind the fact that these clothing items didn't actually exist in this time period. His hands ended in long fingers with extremely sharp claws. He had a large mouth with a grin that literally went from ear to ear. He had two yellow eyes, each slitted like a cat's. He grinned openly, showing several irregular and pointy teeth. "Ah, Nagus has visitors! Nagus hasn't had new visitors for a long time." After a tense moment, Arik spoke up. "Er, Mister Nagus, we hear you have something of great value. Could we please have it?" The goblin's grin did the impossible thing and actually got bigger. "Ah, you want Nagus' treasure! Sure, Nagus let you have it." Scales and Arik were more than a little surprised that he was giving it up so easily. "Really?" Scales asked hopefully. The goblin nodded. His grin began to look a little sinister. "Nagus let you have treasure...IF you can stay alive!" The goblin jumped up, flying through the air. He grabbed a startled Arik by his neck and easily lifted the raptor into the air. "If girl lizard can find Nagus without dying, Nagus give you treasure and boyfriend! If not, Nagus gets a double dinner! Mweeheeheeheeheeheeheehee!" The goblin flew at high speed toward the spider web, ripping through it and flying through a concealed tunnel at the back. "Arik!" Scales shouted. "Scales, help meeeeeeee!" Arik wailed back. Scales buckled down and raced after the laughing goblin. She shot down the tunnel, following the sound of the goblin's pathetic excuse for a maniacal laugh. She came out of the tunnel and gasped. She was now in a new cave, one that was incredibly freaky and more than a little scary. The surrounding rock of the cavern was blue-green and purple. The cavern floor was covered in a river of purplish-green water. Only inches beneath the water's surface, great blue vines covered in poisonous thorns could be seen filling up every inch of ground. Scales shivered as she heard unearthly screams echoing throughout the cave every few seconds. The goblin was nowhere in sight. Scales saw what appeared to be a giant spine extending before her. Wary, Scales walked across the giant spine. When she got to the end, she saw a floating vine. She grabbed it and started swinging, dropping to a ledge on the left wall. She jumped and hovered forward, landing on a ledge on the opposite wall. She looked ahead and saw several giant skulls bobbing in the water, forming a series of stepping stones up the river. Disgusted, Scales jumped from the ledge to the first skull. It immediately started sinking! Scales jumped to the next skull and the next after that, each sinking just as she landed. Not wanting to get anywhere near the thorns beneath her, Scales jumped from skull island to skull island until she saw an angled block sticking out of the water. She jumped and hovered to it before she could sink and jumped from there to another block. She jumped from that block to a ledge on the wall. She started walking down the ledge. Suddenly, a monster's arm erupted from a hole in the wall and started swiping at her! Shocked, Scales hit the arm with a Homing Kick. The monster shrieked from inside the wall and pulled its arm back. She kept going, reaching the end of the ledge. She looked around and saw a floating vine in the middle of the area. She hovered to the vine and grabbed it, swinging the vine to the opposite wall of the cave. She jumped from the vine and grabbed a large portion of the wall that seemed to be comprised completely of bones. The bones were glued together by some strong secretion. Not wanting to think about this too long, Scales shimmied along the wall of bones, dropping to a natural bridge extending over the river. Up ahead was a big pillar made completely out of glued bones. Getting even more disgusted, Scales hovered over to the column and grabbed some bones. The column shook and started to sink! Scales quickly climbed up the column as fast as she could, trying to avoid the water. She reached the top and jumped off, grabbing onto another floating vine and swinging onto the side of a second bone column. She quickly started climbing as this one sunk as well, then jumped from the top and hovered to a third bone column. As this one started to sink as well, Scales quickly climbed to the top and jumped off, hovering to a ledge at the end of the cave. There was a tunnel on the wall. She went through and walked down its length. As she did so, more monster arms tried to attack her, each getting a nasty kick. She reached the end of the tunnel and found herself on a ledge overlooking another room. A stream of water and thorns surrounded a tall platform. Scales hovered down to the platform, noticing as she did a familiar-looking glowing orange pyramid base. As she landed on the platform, two hideous monsters appeared! They were essentially balls with clawed, skeletal arms. The ball was their head, with a mouth full of jagged teeth and a single eye. The monsters croaked and started hurling fireballs at her. Scales quickly negated the fire blasts with a couple of energy balls, then grabbed one of the monsters by the wrists. She picked it up and started spinning around, letting go of the monster. The creature slammed into the back wall, its feeble bones cracking instantly. The beast fell, dead. The other monster started throwing fireballs again. Scales jumped over the flames and hit the monster with a Homing Kick. While it was stunned, she smacked the monster with a Tail Whip, knocking it off the edge of the platform, into the water. As both monsters died, a familiar-looking orange sphere dropped from the ceiling. Scales picked up the sphere and placed it on the pyramid base. It levitated into the air, revealing a triangular hole in the ground beneath it. Scales jumped into the hole and landed in another tunnel. She walked down the tunnel and entered a medium-sized room. At the back were two pyramid bases, one blue, one orange. Between them was a large round door, closed. Scurrying around the cave were a pair of giant caterpillars. The caterpillars squealed and scurried over towards Scales. She started lashing out at the bugs, reducing each body segment to dust until finally they died. Once the caterpillars were gone, Scales examined the door. It obviously wouldn't open until she found both matching spheres for the bases. She saw a ledge on the left wall with a tunnel entrance. She jumped to the ledge and went into the tunnel. It forked, leaving Scales a difficult choice of which way to go. After some deliberation, she went to the left. She came out in another large cavern with a floor covered in water and thorns. There were several ledges around the room, as well as spinning bridges on pillars. Scales looked down from her current ledge and saw a trail of skull islands. With no other option, she jumped down to the first island. As it started to sink, she quickly hovered to the next skull, and the next one after that. As each skull sank under her, she eventually reached the last skull. As she stepped on it, the skull rose out of the water, levitating to the level of the first spinning bridge. Scales was a little startled and almost fell off. Regaining her composure, she jumped to the bridge when one of the ends got close to her. She passed up the ledges the bridge passed by, since they were dead ends. Instead, she jumped and hovered to the second bridge, timing her jump and landing perfectly with the bridge rotations. Once on the bridge, she jumped to a ledge at the back of the room. This one had the blue sphere she was looking for. She hefted the sphere to her shoulder. It was too risky for her to hover with this thing, she could drop it. She looked at the bridge she had used and got an idea. When one of the bridge ends came around, she flung the sphere at the bridge, landing it on the end. When the next end came along, Scales jumped to it, then walked down the bridge to pick up the sphere. She didn't want to risk dropping the sphere in the water if she got the timing between the two bridge rotations wrong, so she threw it to a nearby ledge instead. She jumped to the ledge on the next revolution of the bridge and grabbed the sphere again. She threw it to the spinning bridge and jumped after it. She picked up the sphere once more and hurled it all the way to the cave entrance. She hovered after the sphere and picked it up, then walked back through the tunnel. Once she was back in front of the door, she placed the sphere on the blue pedestal, locking it into place. She then returned to the tunnel, taking the right fork this time. She was now in another cave with thorns and water. She looked around for any way to proceed. She noticed a floating vine nearby. She jumped to it and swung to a ledge on the wall. She walked onto a large floating skull. The skull started flying across the room, stopping at a ledge on the other side. Scales followed the ledge down the cavern wall on saw a floating vine positioned across from the end of the ledge. She hovered to the vine and swung to a small pillar. She jumped and hovered to another pillar, and walked on another floating skull. It flew down the cave passage, stopping at a pillar in a group with five others. Two giant caterpillars appeared and started attacking. She quickly killed the insects and jumped across the pillars to another floating skull. She hopped on the skull and it raised to a high ledge. On that ledge was the orange sphere she was seeking. She picked it up and was about to step back on the skull when she saw it had disappeared. She looked around and saw a large ledge nearby. She threw it to the ledge then hovered after it. She picked it up and walked to the end of the ledge. She threw it as hard as she could. Miraculously, it landed on the ledge she had started on! She jumped off the ledge and started hovering down. When she saw she wouldn't be able to make it to the ledge, she instead hovered over to the vine she had used earlier, grabbing it and using it to swing to the ledge. Once there, she picked it up and went back through the tunnel. She placed the sphere on its base. The door opened up, inviting Scales inside. She walked through and was in a small cave with a large green crystal formation in the middle of the room. There were no exits or clear ways to get out. Scales looked carefully at the crystal and saw that it seemed to be growing from a hole. She curled into a ball and started spinning, her battle blades popping out. She shot at the crystal with a spindash, shattering it and revealing a hole in the ground. She uncurled and jumped down the hole. She was now in a creepy tunnel. Up ahead, more green crystals blocked the way. Sticking out of the ground was a skull on a pole. Scales curled her lip in disgust and started her spindash. She smashed through the crystals, finding herself in a room with a tunnel entrance on the left side. Taking up most of the room was a pool full of stagnant green water. Scales was about to go through the tunnel when she heard a bubbling noise. She looked at the pool and saw bubbles rising from the surface. Then, one near-skeletal clawed hand rose from the pool, then another. The goblin rose from the water, his ever-present grin on his face. "So, girl lizard better than Nagus thought." He said. Scales frowned. "Okay, four questions. One, where's Arik? Two, where's your treasure? Three, what were you doing in that pool? And finally, why do you keep referring to yourself in third person?" Nagus actually frowned at her. "Why should Nagus answer girl's questions? Just because girl got this far doesn't mean Nagus has to do anything for her." Scales' eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about, creep? You promised that if I found you without dying, you'd give me Arik and your treasure." The goblin laughed his irritating mockery of a malevolent laugh. "Nagus doesn't care! You know, Nagus think you good enough to eat anyway!" His mouth opened wider than was humanly possible as the goblin lunged at Scales. Frightened, she jumped out of the way and ran for the tunnel entrance. She ran into the tunnel and fell down. She had accidentally walked off an incline and was now sliding on her back down a winding slope. She managed to pull herself to her feet with some leverage from her tail, allowing her to control her slide with her feet. She swerved around several green crystals in her path. She heard a roar from behind. She looked over her shoulder and saw Nagus the goblin flying after her, mouth wide open and revealing his nasty incisors. Scales crouched down to increase her speed, pulling away bit by bit from the hungry goblin. After a minute or so of sliding down the slope and avoiding crystals, Nagus pulled back, disappearing! Cheering herself, Scales passed between a pair of skulls on posts and came to the bottom of the slope, exiting into a really big cave on a large ledge. She was shocked to see Nagus was floating in the gap between her and the next ledge! "Wha-how did you get here before me?!" Scales asked incredulously. Nagus gave his irritating laugh again. "Nagus knows this cave like the back of Nagus' hand, girl! Nagus will kill ye now!" The goblin started spitting fireballs at Scales. She ran out of the way of the flames and hurled energy balls at Nagus. The balls hit the goblin, knocking him back a few feet in the air. He looked angry. Opening his mouth really wide, he spat out a huge skull at Scales! She reacted instinctively, hitting it with an energy ball right before it reached the edge of her ledge. The skull quivered and froze in midair. Getting an idea, Scales jumped on the skull. Nagus spat more skulls at her. She timed the projectiles and threw energy balls, striking one skull after another and freezing it in place, forming a bridge. She ran from skull to skull, firing at any new skulls to add to the bridge. Nagus flew back to the next ledge to stay away from Scales as she got closer, still spitting skulls. Using frequent energy balls, Scales froze all the skulls into the position she needed to complete the bridge across the thorny chasm. She ran across the last few skulls and made it to the ledge. Nagus quickly flew away from her, going over the great river of thorns. The goblin began spewing fireballs again. Scales dodged the fireballs and shot Nagus with some energy balls. Nagus rocked backwards as the balls exploded on his form, hovering over a pillar. He began spitting skulls again. Scales hurled energy balls at the skulls, freezing them. She hopped across the skulls as she froze them to form her bridge, getting closer and closer to the retreating goblin. When the skull bridge was close enough to the pillar, Scales jumped to it and hit Nagus with a Homing Kick. The goblin flew away and started throwing fireballs again. Scales dodged the flaming projectiles and threw a half dozen energy balls at Nagus, knocking the goblin back and forcing him to use his skulls. Scales quickly froze the projectiles once more, forming a bridge to the next column. Before Nagus could fly away again, Scales hit the goblin with another Homing Attack. The creature flew away and started spitting fire again. Scales dodged the flames and threw energy balls at the goblin. They obviously hurt, but Nagus kept spitting fireballs! Scales looked around and saw a floating vine nearby. She jumped and hovered to the vine, grabbing it and swinging out of the way of another fireball. She swung hard and jumped from the vine, hovering to the next column, which was made of bones, She grabbed the bones at the base of the column and started climbing up, relieved it wasn't sinking. She pulled herself to the top and was almost knocked off by a fireball. She threw an energy ball at Nagus, hitting him. The goblin squealed and flew far back, spitting more skulls at her. Scales hurled enough energy balls to freeze all the skulls in a neat line, forming a bridge. As Nagus retreated, Scales ran across the bridge and jumped to the next pillar. She was now at the bottom of a series of closely grouped pillars. The goblin hovered near the top of the pillars and started spitting fireballs at Scales. She dodged the flame blasts and jumped to the next pillar. She jumped to the next one, and the one after that, hopping from small pillar to small pillar in succession and getting closer to Nagus. When she reached the top pillar, she hit the goblin with a Homing Kick just before he could fly away. The monster squealed and floated away, towards another large pillar. He started spitting skulls, allowing Scales to build another bridge. Once she had frozen all the skulls in place and started running across, Nagus flew away again and began spitting fireballs as Scales stepped onto the pillar. She hit him with several energy balls, knocking the weird goblin all the way to the back of the cave, over a large ledge. Nagus started spitting skulls once more. As Scales waited for the skull to get closer, she was a little nervous. This gap was much bigger than the others, so it would take longer to form a bridge. When the first skull got close, she froze it and jumped on, then quickly froze the next one. She took the process one skull and step at a time, eventually reaching the ledge. She hit Nagus with a Homing Kick, knocking him into the wall. As she ran over, hoping to get in another blow, the goblin flew up again and raced for a tunnel in the back wall, next to a skull on a post. Scales chased after him, keeping up with the goblin as he flew down the twisting tunnel. Finally, the tunnel opened out into a large chamber. Scales stopped, gaping. The room was full of gold coins, heaped in piles fifty feet high. The goblin dropped to the top of the highest pile of gold and sat there, waiting. Scales blinked, recovering from the sight of all the gold, and glared at the goblin. "Where's Arik?" "He's right behind ye, lass." Said Nagus, pointing. Scales turned around in time to see Arik pull himself from a large pile of gold. "Arik!" Scales exclaimed, glomping the raptor. As he started choking, she said, "I was so worried about you! Did that slimy goblin hurt you in any way?" "Scales, you're hurting me!" Arik rasped. She quickly let go. "I'm happy to see you too. No, Nagus didn't hurt me, he just half-buried me in a pile of gold coins and made it impossible for me to get out unless you got here. Well done, I was worried you would succumb to the horrors of this place!" Scales smirked. "It'll take more than a cave of unspeakable terrors to take this lizard down! Now," she said, turning to Nagus. "I believe we have a treasure to talk about." The goblin grunted. "Ye beat Nagus fair and square, girl. Ye made it here almost completely unharmed. Ye may take the gold." "Well, that's all well and good, but the gold isn't what we're after." Said Arik. "Would you happen to have a large jewel that shows mystical visions if you look at it long enough?" Scales asked. Nagus scratched his hat. "Large jewel that shows..." He reached into his tuxedo and pulled out a large blue gemstone. "Is this what ye were wanting?" "Yes!" Arik and Scales said eagerly. The goblin clutched it tightly to his chest. "Well, ye can't have it!" "What? Why?" asked Scales incredulously. "Because it's MINE!" Nagus wailed. "Mine! My precioussssssss!" Arik rolled his eyes. "Oh god, don't tell me you're related to the Gollum!" Scales narrowed her eyes. "Give me the Ruby!" "Noooo! It's my preciousssssssss! My precious! Mine, mine, mine, mine! Ye can't have Nagus' preciousssssssssss!" the goblin hissed. Scales' eye started twitching. Arik backed away, knowing she was very close to going berserk. "Look mister, since we got to this time period I've been subjected to numerous foul smells, forced to sit right behind an old lady who's never bathed or washed her hair in her entire life and also had flatulence problems, got shot at several times by pterodactyls, nearly sank into swamp water with god-knows-what swimming in it, had to chase through this horrible thorn and monster infested cave to chase after you, nearly get eaten, and battle you in a long and tedious repetitious fight, all so I could get back Arik and the Ruby you happen to be holding right now. Will you please give me the jewel I deserve from going through all of this?" Nagus shook his head. "No. Ye can't have my precious." The poor, stupid, foolish goblin had just made the biggest mistake of his life. "OKAY, THAT'S IT! PREPARE TO FEEL PAIN BEYOND ANYTHING YOU'VE EVER FELT BEFORE!" Scales roared and rushed the pile of gold. Arik shut his eyes tightly, not wanting to see what Scales was doing to the crazy goblin. He was unable to block out the sounds, though, even with hands over both his ear spots. He winced as Nagus started screaming at a pitch high enough to break glass. The screams were fairly continuous, rising and falling as Scales did things to the goblin that made loud squelching noises. There were several snaps and the screaming reached an ear-piercing crescendo. Right when Arik felt like his eardrums were going to explode, the screaming stopped. Arik waited for a few moments, then called out, "Are you quite done?" "Yeah, you can look now." Said Scales. Arik opened his eyes and saw a gruesome sight. You know how in some cartoons strong guys wrap weaker things into pretzels? Well, Scales had actually managed to physically twist Nagus' body into the form of a pretzel. As you can imagine, it was incredibly painful for the goblin. Scales was standing nest to the pretzel goblin on top of the coin heap, holding the blue Chronos Ruby. "Well, what do you think?" Arik shivered. "Remind me to never, ever make you angry." "I will. Come on, let's get out of this age of filth and disease." Scales slid down the coin heap and started walking towards Arik, who came towards her as well. Nagus opened his mouth, eyes bulging. Astonishingly, he was able to talk despite his seriously torturous position. "N-n-nobody takes away Nagus' p-p- p-p-p-p-precioussssssssss! Y-y-y-y-y-you t-t-two w-w-will never leave th-th- this cave alive!" He started shrieking. The entire place started quaking. Rocks started to fall from the ceiling. Arik looked around fearfully. "The entire place is caving in! Scales, we've got to get out of here!" Just then, a huge rock broke from the ceiling and started falling for Arik. He saw it and gaped, too petrified to move. Scales tackled Arik, knocking into him just before the rock could hit. Time seemed to stop for a second. "CHAOS CONTROL!" She yelled. They warped away, the rock hitting the ground and breaking apart where they had been just a millisecond ago. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nagus screamed, just before the entire cavern collapsed, burying him alive.
One quick trip through the time stream later, Scales and Arik were back in the Cretaceous period, relieved they would only have to smell the sweet scents of the jungle for now. "Ah, this place is heavenly to my nose!" Scales said, sighing happily. Arik took a deep sniff of fresh air. "I'll never take smelling for granted again. For now on, I'll make sure to maintain proper hygiene. I don't want to end up like Bristol!" They laughed at that. Scales took a sip of purple juice. They were both eating dinner, and joking around. "That goblin didn't know what hit him! Geez, I was really angry wasn't I?" Arik nodded, chuckling. Then he paused, getting serious. "Scales, I want to thank you." "For what?" Scales asked after swallowing a hunk of meat. "For saving my life twice today. You know, I really couldn't have gone on this adventure at all if it weren't for you." He said. She smiled. "That's sweet. You're very welcome, Arik. I thought you've been pretty brave despite everything, though. I mean, you led the way to the cave when we were being attack by the pterodactyls! That was very courageous." "It was nothing." Said Arik, blushing a little. "Nothing? We would have died if you hadn't been as fast as you were! You know, I think if we raced, we would be on even footing." Scales insisted. "You really think so?" Arik asked, impressed. "I know so!" said Scales. Arik smiled, mollified. He looked out the window. "Oh, it's getting late. Perhaps we should retire and start our Ruby hunt anew in the morning?" "Okay." Said Scales. They both got up. As Arik went to the ladder, Scales suddenly said, "Arik?" "Yeah?" he said, almost on the first rung of the ladder. "Would you like to sleep in my room tonight? It must be lonely, being in your old bedroom with nobody else. I mean, you've only been using the same room for the last thirteen years, right?" Scales reasoned. Arik paused for thought. Scales did have a good point. It was lonely in his room. And perhaps he could get rid of some of his old fears by sleeping in his parents' room for once. But then again, he'd have to sleep in the same bed as Scales. Darius' words echoed through his head, about Scales being the right one. He was admittedly starting to like her, but didn't really want to sleep next to her just yet. "Maybe tomorrow." He said. "Oh." Said Scales, looking a little disappointed. Arik started up the ladder. Scales followed him up to the second floor. Both of them parted ways, waving goodbye and goodnight as they entered their rooms. They got ready for bed, and sleep quickly followed. They dreamed of each other.
Was this a good chapter? Please tell me! But until you do, here's the next Scales interview! Scales: Pi2, are you trying to make me fall in love with Arik? Me: (Crosses fingers behind back.) No. Scales: Oh, all right then. Me: Ultrafan X seems to think there's something going on between you and Arik. Scales: What? How dare he! I think I'll throw some chairs at him whenever he mentions it in his reviews! Me: Simmer down! Anyway, our fans loved the whole demon bit in the last chapter. Scales: Yeah, I loved it too. It was funny! Me: The Anonymous One wishes to know it T-Rexes are scavengers as well as predators, by the way. Scales: Well, some scientists believe the Rexes scavenged, some say they just preyed. Others say both. I think they did both, which is in accordance with the Predator's Code. Me: I see. What did you think of Nagus? Scales: He was ridiculous! I loved the whole Lord of the Rings reference. The "precious" thing was hilarious. Aside from that, he actually smelled better than most of the other things in the Middle Ages. Wonder why that is? Me: Actually, it's because he bathes in swamp water. The monsters leave him alone. Scales: Eww! Probably because he tastes bad. Me: No doubt. Anyway, we have just enough time to give you some gifts, and then we're done. Scales: What did I get? Me: Since you haven't had your dinner date with Arik yet, Ultrafan X sent you some chopsticks as silverware. Scales: How am I supposed to eat weasels with chopsticks? Me: I don't know. Also, since we put a ban on weasels as gifts, Maverick sent us a giant hamster built with alien technology. Scales: Ooh, is it Ultra Peepi? Me: Either that or Hamtaro, I'm not certain. Anyway, it's for dessert after you and Arik are done with the weasels. Scales: I think we'll be full after eating the weasels. Can we save the giant hamster for later? Me: Sure. Well, that's all the time we have for today! So long everybody! Scales: Reviews are appreciated. And we'd also love some gifts! Possibly something inedible, Arik and I will be stuffed for the next few chapters!
Sauron snickered as his flyers were led from the portal. He turned his head and shouted to his troops, who were having extreme fun burning down the town. "Hey, you lugs! I need some volunteers to take three Greatwings out to a swamp in the northwest to find the Ruby!" Several raptors and Massopondylus rushed over, each wanting to ride the great beasts. Sauron chose a few of those he deemed strongest for the job. "Okay, you bunch head for the swamp while the rest of us finish the destruction of this town and follow on foot! The Ruby is somewhere in the swamp, and I don't care what it takes, just find it! If you see anyone in the swamp, kill them! Good luck, all of you." The dinosaurs mounted the great winged beasts and took off, flying for the northwest. Sauron grinned and looked back at the others. "Well, what are you waiting for? Keep burning stuff!" As the soldiers eagerly went back to their task, Sauron took several troops and torches, lighting up the church in flames. The omnivores laughed, enjoying the carnage.
The crone Bristol cackled for no reason at all as she rowed the two heroes through the swamp. Scales and Arik were starting to get a little scared of this woman. It was possible she was deranged. She kept cackling incessantly as she rowed the boat. They went through a tunnel formed of low branches. Then they rowed past what looked like Bristol's house, but abandoned. They went through another tunnel, then passed by several old crates floating in the water for some reason or other. "Uh, Bristol, what are those crates doing in the water?" Scales asked. The old woman took a look at the crates. "Oh, those are empty crates that we dump in the swamp." "Why do you dump them in the swamp if they're empty?" Scales asked. "And who else lives here?" Arik asked. The woman grinned, freaking them out. "The crates are too weak to be of use for firewood once they're empty, so we just throw them away. Anyway, I'm the only one who lives here, aside from the goblin and Beanie!" Scales and Arik exchanged glances. "I'm sure I'll regret asking, but who is Beanie?" Bristol cackled. "Beanie lives in my head! He tells me to burn things! But since we live in a damp, wet swamp nothing burns so he's always miserable." She started her long cackling session again while Arik and Scales started hugging out of fear. After passing by the crates, they rowed past several tall poles sticking out of the water. Past the poles, Scales and Arik notices what looked like part of a bridge attached to a nearby tree. They didn't ask, not sure they wanted to know. They started weaving their way through more poles, and the lizards suddenly noticed there were people on the poles! These people were transparent and appeared to be holding fishing poles. The old lady noticed where the lizards were looking and cackled again. "Oh, don't mind them! Those are just the ghosts!" "Ghosts? What ghosts?" Scales asked fearfully. "Oh, the ghosts of people who fall in the water. There are some nasty things beneath the surface." Bristol said simply. Scales and Arik gulped. One of the ghosts looked down and slowly waved at Bristol. She waved back. "Hi Lancelot! See you on the way back, okay?" They kept going, moving out of the poles and fishing ghosts, out into a wider part of the swamp. Cliffs rose on either side, forming walls in a way. As Bristol kept rowing, there was suddenly a loud screech from above. Bristol looked up, as did they all. In unison, the three screamed. "A dragon!" shrieked Bristol. "A Greatwing!" Arik yelled. "A Pterodactyl!" Scales screamed. It was indeed a Pterodactyl, with a couple of raptors on its back. The flying reptile screeched and flapped its wings hard, flying in circles over them. The aerial lizard opened its long beak and spewed a huge energy ball at them. It hit Bristol, instantly knocking her into the water. She sank, leaving no trace. The Pterodactyl circled and prepared to fire again. "Scales, I'll steer us away, you try to fend that thing of!" Arik yelled, grabbing the pole. He started pushing against the bottom of the swamp frantically, moving the boat. As the Pterodactyl spat another energy ball, Scales threw one of her own. The two blasts impacted, exploding. The flyer spat another ball, which Scales quickly negated with one of her own. Arik steered the boat towards a large root extending from the water. As he got closer to it, something rammed the boat from underneath, causing a hole to appear in the bottom. The vessel started sinking. Arik and Scales quickly jumped to the root before they could go down with the boat. As the pterodactyl spat another blast, the two lizards quickly jumped to another boat they saw right next to the root. As Arik started pushing them away, Scales started firing energy balls at the prehistoric beast itself. The balls exploded on impact with the pterodactyl, causing it to screech and spew several more blasts. Arik frantically pushed the boat over to a bank near the cliff, getting off and running for an alcove in the cliff wall. Scales raced after him after futilely firing some more balls. Inside the alcove was a ladder, going higher up. Scales climbed after him. They reached the top of the ladder and ran through a short tunnel. They came out and were face-to-face with another pterodactyl. "Damn it all!" Arik yelled before running down a ledge to their right. The pterodactyl shrieked and started spitting energy balls. Arik and Scales saw a bridge leading across the water to the other cliff some distance below them. Arik jumped down while Scales hovered. The instant both of them were on the bridge, it started to collapse! As the pterodactyl continued to spew energy balls, Scales and Arik frantically ran across the collapsing bridge, jumping to another one going along the cliff wall when they reached the end. Unfortunately, this bridge started collapsing as well! Still under fire, they ran across the bridge and jumped to another one going back across the river, only to have this one start to collapse as well! This was getting tedious. They desperately rushed across the bridge, jumping across a gap and landing on another bridge going alongside the cliff wall. They stopped for a moment to catch their breath, but started running again as the pterodactyl continued spitting energy balls and the bridge was collapsing AGAIN. And to make matters worse, the dinos on the pterodactyl moved their mount ahead of the heroes, firing energy balls at sections of the bridge in front of them. Scales and Arik barely managed to leap the gaps, avoid the blasts, AND keep from falling into the deadly water below at the same time. But finally, they leaped off the end of the bridge and grabbed a ladder. They began climbing up it, running across a ledge to a tunnel in the cliff as the pterodactyl unleashed a few more blasts. The two stopped for a moment, panting. "Well, this is rough!" Scales said. "You don't need to tell me. Sauron's obviously serious about this Ruby. He doesn't want to lose it to us." Arik said. "Well, he's just going to have to get used to it! Come on, let's see where this tunnel leads." Said Scales, walking down the tunnel ahead, Arik trailing after her. The tunnel sloped down sharply, letting out on the other side of the cliff, near the waterline. Scales peered out. "The coast's clear. Come on." They came out of the tunnel and walked along the ledge before them. When the ledge stopped, they looked around for somewhere to go. Arik saw a boat waiting in the water just below them. "Scales, look! Another boat!" Scales frowned. "Why are there so many boats lying around in this swamp?" Arik shrugged. "I'm sure it has to do with that crazy old Bristol. She probably left these boats out as spares in case something bad happened to one of them." Scales thought that over. "Strangely rational for a woman with a man named Bernie in her head." Arik jumped in the boat. "Come on, let's move before another pterodactyl finds us!" Scales jumped after him. Arik took up the pole and started rowing out into the swampy river. As they rowed, some ghosts started to manifest. Scales frowned at the specters. "I don't like the looks of those ghosts." She muttered. The spirits wailed and started to fly towards them. Scales quickly started to fire off energy balls, dissipating the ghosts as they attacked. "Ya! Take this, deadhead!" she yelled. Arik watched her, bemused as she blasted the ghouls to the afterlife. The remaining ghosts turned and fled. "Ha, that's right! Run back to the netherworld you were spawned from, you transparent sissies!" "You're a very violent girl, aren't you?" Arik joked. Scales looked a little sad. "Being locked in a tiny capsule with no food, water, air or light for forty five years can do that to a person." She whispered. Arik blinked, taken aback. "S-sorry." He said. "It's okay." She whispered. "But hey, you're one to understand how I feel, right? You lose everything you ever cared about, you lash out at things that might take away whatever's left, you know?" She sighed. "Just forget about it, okay? Let's keep going." Arik silently nodded and kept rowing. In the awkward silence that followed, both of them were thinking about how they had both gone through horrible, traumatizing experiences and come out as harder individuals. In a way, they were kindred spirits. In a way, they were the same...they were snapped out of this line of thought when suddenly, a leak sprung and the boat started sinking. "We're going down!" Arik yelled. Scales saw a large root up ahead on the right. "Arik, jump to that root!" She leaped out of the boat and hovered to the root. Arik made the jump just before the boat went under, making it to the root. They looked around and saw the beginning of another bridge going up and along the cliffside. They jumped to it and were relieved when it didn't start falling apart, so started walking down it. Of course, just then a pterodactyl showed up and ruined everything. The scaled bird started spitting energy balls at the bridge, blasting sections of it to pieces in its attempt to kill the two reptiles. Scales and Arik quickly started running and jumping along the bridge as the pterodactyl kept blasting it apart, reaching a stable ledge. They saw another bridge extending to their left, going over the river at a downward slant. They started running down the bridge, once more trying to watch out for the volley of shots from the pterodactyl. As the bridge was finally blasted to pieces, they leaped to another bridge extending to their right along the cliff wall. As the pterodactyl continued to fire at them, they started jumping in time with the sound of the energy balls, avoiding a nasty explosion. They made it to the end of the bridge and jumped off, landing on a ledge leading into a cave. They ran into the cave. The pterodactyl pilots cursed angrily for missing their targets. Scales and Arik stopped once they were in the cave. "Well, I'm glad that's over." Arik panted. Scales nodded, then noticed something. "Arik, get down!" "What-" Scales shoved him to the ground, saving him from attack by a ghost. She quickly shot an energy ball at it, destroying the spook. Arik gaped, realizing how close to injury he could have been. "Th-thank you Scales!" Scales shrugged and helped the raptor up. "No biggie. Let's see where this place goes, okay?" They walked through the cave, coming out into a larger room. Before they could get a look at the place, three huge eyeballs dropped from the ceiling and started bouncing towards them! Scales and Arik popped the eyeballs with a few whacks from their tails. Once the eyeballs were goo on the floor, they could see their location. The cave was a little big, but not too large. In the back was a pair of torches, standing before a giant spider web. Sitting in front of the spider web was a strange creature. He had green, shiny skin. His limbs were long and so thin they looked like bones covered with skin. The creature wore what looked like blue trousers and an orange tuxedo, and had a tall purple top hat with yellow stars and moons on his head. Never mind the fact that these clothing items didn't actually exist in this time period. His hands ended in long fingers with extremely sharp claws. He had a large mouth with a grin that literally went from ear to ear. He had two yellow eyes, each slitted like a cat's. He grinned openly, showing several irregular and pointy teeth. "Ah, Nagus has visitors! Nagus hasn't had new visitors for a long time." After a tense moment, Arik spoke up. "Er, Mister Nagus, we hear you have something of great value. Could we please have it?" The goblin's grin did the impossible thing and actually got bigger. "Ah, you want Nagus' treasure! Sure, Nagus let you have it." Scales and Arik were more than a little surprised that he was giving it up so easily. "Really?" Scales asked hopefully. The goblin nodded. His grin began to look a little sinister. "Nagus let you have treasure...IF you can stay alive!" The goblin jumped up, flying through the air. He grabbed a startled Arik by his neck and easily lifted the raptor into the air. "If girl lizard can find Nagus without dying, Nagus give you treasure and boyfriend! If not, Nagus gets a double dinner! Mweeheeheeheeheeheeheehee!" The goblin flew at high speed toward the spider web, ripping through it and flying through a concealed tunnel at the back. "Arik!" Scales shouted. "Scales, help meeeeeeee!" Arik wailed back. Scales buckled down and raced after the laughing goblin. She shot down the tunnel, following the sound of the goblin's pathetic excuse for a maniacal laugh. She came out of the tunnel and gasped. She was now in a new cave, one that was incredibly freaky and more than a little scary. The surrounding rock of the cavern was blue-green and purple. The cavern floor was covered in a river of purplish-green water. Only inches beneath the water's surface, great blue vines covered in poisonous thorns could be seen filling up every inch of ground. Scales shivered as she heard unearthly screams echoing throughout the cave every few seconds. The goblin was nowhere in sight. Scales saw what appeared to be a giant spine extending before her. Wary, Scales walked across the giant spine. When she got to the end, she saw a floating vine. She grabbed it and started swinging, dropping to a ledge on the left wall. She jumped and hovered forward, landing on a ledge on the opposite wall. She looked ahead and saw several giant skulls bobbing in the water, forming a series of stepping stones up the river. Disgusted, Scales jumped from the ledge to the first skull. It immediately started sinking! Scales jumped to the next skull and the next after that, each sinking just as she landed. Not wanting to get anywhere near the thorns beneath her, Scales jumped from skull island to skull island until she saw an angled block sticking out of the water. She jumped and hovered to it before she could sink and jumped from there to another block. She jumped from that block to a ledge on the wall. She started walking down the ledge. Suddenly, a monster's arm erupted from a hole in the wall and started swiping at her! Shocked, Scales hit the arm with a Homing Kick. The monster shrieked from inside the wall and pulled its arm back. She kept going, reaching the end of the ledge. She looked around and saw a floating vine in the middle of the area. She hovered to the vine and grabbed it, swinging the vine to the opposite wall of the cave. She jumped from the vine and grabbed a large portion of the wall that seemed to be comprised completely of bones. The bones were glued together by some strong secretion. Not wanting to think about this too long, Scales shimmied along the wall of bones, dropping to a natural bridge extending over the river. Up ahead was a big pillar made completely out of glued bones. Getting even more disgusted, Scales hovered over to the column and grabbed some bones. The column shook and started to sink! Scales quickly climbed up the column as fast as she could, trying to avoid the water. She reached the top and jumped off, grabbing onto another floating vine and swinging onto the side of a second bone column. She quickly started climbing as this one sunk as well, then jumped from the top and hovered to a third bone column. As this one started to sink as well, Scales quickly climbed to the top and jumped off, hovering to a ledge at the end of the cave. There was a tunnel on the wall. She went through and walked down its length. As she did so, more monster arms tried to attack her, each getting a nasty kick. She reached the end of the tunnel and found herself on a ledge overlooking another room. A stream of water and thorns surrounded a tall platform. Scales hovered down to the platform, noticing as she did a familiar-looking glowing orange pyramid base. As she landed on the platform, two hideous monsters appeared! They were essentially balls with clawed, skeletal arms. The ball was their head, with a mouth full of jagged teeth and a single eye. The monsters croaked and started hurling fireballs at her. Scales quickly negated the fire blasts with a couple of energy balls, then grabbed one of the monsters by the wrists. She picked it up and started spinning around, letting go of the monster. The creature slammed into the back wall, its feeble bones cracking instantly. The beast fell, dead. The other monster started throwing fireballs again. Scales jumped over the flames and hit the monster with a Homing Kick. While it was stunned, she smacked the monster with a Tail Whip, knocking it off the edge of the platform, into the water. As both monsters died, a familiar-looking orange sphere dropped from the ceiling. Scales picked up the sphere and placed it on the pyramid base. It levitated into the air, revealing a triangular hole in the ground beneath it. Scales jumped into the hole and landed in another tunnel. She walked down the tunnel and entered a medium-sized room. At the back were two pyramid bases, one blue, one orange. Between them was a large round door, closed. Scurrying around the cave were a pair of giant caterpillars. The caterpillars squealed and scurried over towards Scales. She started lashing out at the bugs, reducing each body segment to dust until finally they died. Once the caterpillars were gone, Scales examined the door. It obviously wouldn't open until she found both matching spheres for the bases. She saw a ledge on the left wall with a tunnel entrance. She jumped to the ledge and went into the tunnel. It forked, leaving Scales a difficult choice of which way to go. After some deliberation, she went to the left. She came out in another large cavern with a floor covered in water and thorns. There were several ledges around the room, as well as spinning bridges on pillars. Scales looked down from her current ledge and saw a trail of skull islands. With no other option, she jumped down to the first island. As it started to sink, she quickly hovered to the next skull, and the next one after that. As each skull sank under her, she eventually reached the last skull. As she stepped on it, the skull rose out of the water, levitating to the level of the first spinning bridge. Scales was a little startled and almost fell off. Regaining her composure, she jumped to the bridge when one of the ends got close to her. She passed up the ledges the bridge passed by, since they were dead ends. Instead, she jumped and hovered to the second bridge, timing her jump and landing perfectly with the bridge rotations. Once on the bridge, she jumped to a ledge at the back of the room. This one had the blue sphere she was looking for. She hefted the sphere to her shoulder. It was too risky for her to hover with this thing, she could drop it. She looked at the bridge she had used and got an idea. When one of the bridge ends came around, she flung the sphere at the bridge, landing it on the end. When the next end came along, Scales jumped to it, then walked down the bridge to pick up the sphere. She didn't want to risk dropping the sphere in the water if she got the timing between the two bridge rotations wrong, so she threw it to a nearby ledge instead. She jumped to the ledge on the next revolution of the bridge and grabbed the sphere again. She threw it to the spinning bridge and jumped after it. She picked up the sphere once more and hurled it all the way to the cave entrance. She hovered after the sphere and picked it up, then walked back through the tunnel. Once she was back in front of the door, she placed the sphere on the blue pedestal, locking it into place. She then returned to the tunnel, taking the right fork this time. She was now in another cave with thorns and water. She looked around for any way to proceed. She noticed a floating vine nearby. She jumped to it and swung to a ledge on the wall. She walked onto a large floating skull. The skull started flying across the room, stopping at a ledge on the other side. Scales followed the ledge down the cavern wall on saw a floating vine positioned across from the end of the ledge. She hovered to the vine and swung to a small pillar. She jumped and hovered to another pillar, and walked on another floating skull. It flew down the cave passage, stopping at a pillar in a group with five others. Two giant caterpillars appeared and started attacking. She quickly killed the insects and jumped across the pillars to another floating skull. She hopped on the skull and it raised to a high ledge. On that ledge was the orange sphere she was seeking. She picked it up and was about to step back on the skull when she saw it had disappeared. She looked around and saw a large ledge nearby. She threw it to the ledge then hovered after it. She picked it up and walked to the end of the ledge. She threw it as hard as she could. Miraculously, it landed on the ledge she had started on! She jumped off the ledge and started hovering down. When she saw she wouldn't be able to make it to the ledge, she instead hovered over to the vine she had used earlier, grabbing it and using it to swing to the ledge. Once there, she picked it up and went back through the tunnel. She placed the sphere on its base. The door opened up, inviting Scales inside. She walked through and was in a small cave with a large green crystal formation in the middle of the room. There were no exits or clear ways to get out. Scales looked carefully at the crystal and saw that it seemed to be growing from a hole. She curled into a ball and started spinning, her battle blades popping out. She shot at the crystal with a spindash, shattering it and revealing a hole in the ground. She uncurled and jumped down the hole. She was now in a creepy tunnel. Up ahead, more green crystals blocked the way. Sticking out of the ground was a skull on a pole. Scales curled her lip in disgust and started her spindash. She smashed through the crystals, finding herself in a room with a tunnel entrance on the left side. Taking up most of the room was a pool full of stagnant green water. Scales was about to go through the tunnel when she heard a bubbling noise. She looked at the pool and saw bubbles rising from the surface. Then, one near-skeletal clawed hand rose from the pool, then another. The goblin rose from the water, his ever-present grin on his face. "So, girl lizard better than Nagus thought." He said. Scales frowned. "Okay, four questions. One, where's Arik? Two, where's your treasure? Three, what were you doing in that pool? And finally, why do you keep referring to yourself in third person?" Nagus actually frowned at her. "Why should Nagus answer girl's questions? Just because girl got this far doesn't mean Nagus has to do anything for her." Scales' eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about, creep? You promised that if I found you without dying, you'd give me Arik and your treasure." The goblin laughed his irritating mockery of a malevolent laugh. "Nagus doesn't care! You know, Nagus think you good enough to eat anyway!" His mouth opened wider than was humanly possible as the goblin lunged at Scales. Frightened, she jumped out of the way and ran for the tunnel entrance. She ran into the tunnel and fell down. She had accidentally walked off an incline and was now sliding on her back down a winding slope. She managed to pull herself to her feet with some leverage from her tail, allowing her to control her slide with her feet. She swerved around several green crystals in her path. She heard a roar from behind. She looked over her shoulder and saw Nagus the goblin flying after her, mouth wide open and revealing his nasty incisors. Scales crouched down to increase her speed, pulling away bit by bit from the hungry goblin. After a minute or so of sliding down the slope and avoiding crystals, Nagus pulled back, disappearing! Cheering herself, Scales passed between a pair of skulls on posts and came to the bottom of the slope, exiting into a really big cave on a large ledge. She was shocked to see Nagus was floating in the gap between her and the next ledge! "Wha-how did you get here before me?!" Scales asked incredulously. Nagus gave his irritating laugh again. "Nagus knows this cave like the back of Nagus' hand, girl! Nagus will kill ye now!" The goblin started spitting fireballs at Scales. She ran out of the way of the flames and hurled energy balls at Nagus. The balls hit the goblin, knocking him back a few feet in the air. He looked angry. Opening his mouth really wide, he spat out a huge skull at Scales! She reacted instinctively, hitting it with an energy ball right before it reached the edge of her ledge. The skull quivered and froze in midair. Getting an idea, Scales jumped on the skull. Nagus spat more skulls at her. She timed the projectiles and threw energy balls, striking one skull after another and freezing it in place, forming a bridge. She ran from skull to skull, firing at any new skulls to add to the bridge. Nagus flew back to the next ledge to stay away from Scales as she got closer, still spitting skulls. Using frequent energy balls, Scales froze all the skulls into the position she needed to complete the bridge across the thorny chasm. She ran across the last few skulls and made it to the ledge. Nagus quickly flew away from her, going over the great river of thorns. The goblin began spewing fireballs again. Scales dodged the fireballs and shot Nagus with some energy balls. Nagus rocked backwards as the balls exploded on his form, hovering over a pillar. He began spitting skulls again. Scales hurled energy balls at the skulls, freezing them. She hopped across the skulls as she froze them to form her bridge, getting closer and closer to the retreating goblin. When the skull bridge was close enough to the pillar, Scales jumped to it and hit Nagus with a Homing Kick. The goblin flew away and started throwing fireballs again. Scales dodged the flaming projectiles and threw a half dozen energy balls at Nagus, knocking the goblin back and forcing him to use his skulls. Scales quickly froze the projectiles once more, forming a bridge to the next column. Before Nagus could fly away again, Scales hit the goblin with another Homing Attack. The creature flew away and started spitting fire again. Scales dodged the flames and threw energy balls at the goblin. They obviously hurt, but Nagus kept spitting fireballs! Scales looked around and saw a floating vine nearby. She jumped and hovered to the vine, grabbing it and swinging out of the way of another fireball. She swung hard and jumped from the vine, hovering to the next column, which was made of bones, She grabbed the bones at the base of the column and started climbing up, relieved it wasn't sinking. She pulled herself to the top and was almost knocked off by a fireball. She threw an energy ball at Nagus, hitting him. The goblin squealed and flew far back, spitting more skulls at her. Scales hurled enough energy balls to freeze all the skulls in a neat line, forming a bridge. As Nagus retreated, Scales ran across the bridge and jumped to the next pillar. She was now at the bottom of a series of closely grouped pillars. The goblin hovered near the top of the pillars and started spitting fireballs at Scales. She dodged the flame blasts and jumped to the next pillar. She jumped to the next one, and the one after that, hopping from small pillar to small pillar in succession and getting closer to Nagus. When she reached the top pillar, she hit the goblin with a Homing Kick just before he could fly away. The monster squealed and floated away, towards another large pillar. He started spitting skulls, allowing Scales to build another bridge. Once she had frozen all the skulls in place and started running across, Nagus flew away again and began spitting fireballs as Scales stepped onto the pillar. She hit him with several energy balls, knocking the weird goblin all the way to the back of the cave, over a large ledge. Nagus started spitting skulls once more. As Scales waited for the skull to get closer, she was a little nervous. This gap was much bigger than the others, so it would take longer to form a bridge. When the first skull got close, she froze it and jumped on, then quickly froze the next one. She took the process one skull and step at a time, eventually reaching the ledge. She hit Nagus with a Homing Kick, knocking him into the wall. As she ran over, hoping to get in another blow, the goblin flew up again and raced for a tunnel in the back wall, next to a skull on a post. Scales chased after him, keeping up with the goblin as he flew down the twisting tunnel. Finally, the tunnel opened out into a large chamber. Scales stopped, gaping. The room was full of gold coins, heaped in piles fifty feet high. The goblin dropped to the top of the highest pile of gold and sat there, waiting. Scales blinked, recovering from the sight of all the gold, and glared at the goblin. "Where's Arik?" "He's right behind ye, lass." Said Nagus, pointing. Scales turned around in time to see Arik pull himself from a large pile of gold. "Arik!" Scales exclaimed, glomping the raptor. As he started choking, she said, "I was so worried about you! Did that slimy goblin hurt you in any way?" "Scales, you're hurting me!" Arik rasped. She quickly let go. "I'm happy to see you too. No, Nagus didn't hurt me, he just half-buried me in a pile of gold coins and made it impossible for me to get out unless you got here. Well done, I was worried you would succumb to the horrors of this place!" Scales smirked. "It'll take more than a cave of unspeakable terrors to take this lizard down! Now," she said, turning to Nagus. "I believe we have a treasure to talk about." The goblin grunted. "Ye beat Nagus fair and square, girl. Ye made it here almost completely unharmed. Ye may take the gold." "Well, that's all well and good, but the gold isn't what we're after." Said Arik. "Would you happen to have a large jewel that shows mystical visions if you look at it long enough?" Scales asked. Nagus scratched his hat. "Large jewel that shows..." He reached into his tuxedo and pulled out a large blue gemstone. "Is this what ye were wanting?" "Yes!" Arik and Scales said eagerly. The goblin clutched it tightly to his chest. "Well, ye can't have it!" "What? Why?" asked Scales incredulously. "Because it's MINE!" Nagus wailed. "Mine! My precioussssssss!" Arik rolled his eyes. "Oh god, don't tell me you're related to the Gollum!" Scales narrowed her eyes. "Give me the Ruby!" "Noooo! It's my preciousssssssss! My precious! Mine, mine, mine, mine! Ye can't have Nagus' preciousssssssssss!" the goblin hissed. Scales' eye started twitching. Arik backed away, knowing she was very close to going berserk. "Look mister, since we got to this time period I've been subjected to numerous foul smells, forced to sit right behind an old lady who's never bathed or washed her hair in her entire life and also had flatulence problems, got shot at several times by pterodactyls, nearly sank into swamp water with god-knows-what swimming in it, had to chase through this horrible thorn and monster infested cave to chase after you, nearly get eaten, and battle you in a long and tedious repetitious fight, all so I could get back Arik and the Ruby you happen to be holding right now. Will you please give me the jewel I deserve from going through all of this?" Nagus shook his head. "No. Ye can't have my precious." The poor, stupid, foolish goblin had just made the biggest mistake of his life. "OKAY, THAT'S IT! PREPARE TO FEEL PAIN BEYOND ANYTHING YOU'VE EVER FELT BEFORE!" Scales roared and rushed the pile of gold. Arik shut his eyes tightly, not wanting to see what Scales was doing to the crazy goblin. He was unable to block out the sounds, though, even with hands over both his ear spots. He winced as Nagus started screaming at a pitch high enough to break glass. The screams were fairly continuous, rising and falling as Scales did things to the goblin that made loud squelching noises. There were several snaps and the screaming reached an ear-piercing crescendo. Right when Arik felt like his eardrums were going to explode, the screaming stopped. Arik waited for a few moments, then called out, "Are you quite done?" "Yeah, you can look now." Said Scales. Arik opened his eyes and saw a gruesome sight. You know how in some cartoons strong guys wrap weaker things into pretzels? Well, Scales had actually managed to physically twist Nagus' body into the form of a pretzel. As you can imagine, it was incredibly painful for the goblin. Scales was standing nest to the pretzel goblin on top of the coin heap, holding the blue Chronos Ruby. "Well, what do you think?" Arik shivered. "Remind me to never, ever make you angry." "I will. Come on, let's get out of this age of filth and disease." Scales slid down the coin heap and started walking towards Arik, who came towards her as well. Nagus opened his mouth, eyes bulging. Astonishingly, he was able to talk despite his seriously torturous position. "N-n-nobody takes away Nagus' p-p- p-p-p-p-precioussssssssss! Y-y-y-y-y-you t-t-two w-w-will never leave th-th- this cave alive!" He started shrieking. The entire place started quaking. Rocks started to fall from the ceiling. Arik looked around fearfully. "The entire place is caving in! Scales, we've got to get out of here!" Just then, a huge rock broke from the ceiling and started falling for Arik. He saw it and gaped, too petrified to move. Scales tackled Arik, knocking into him just before the rock could hit. Time seemed to stop for a second. "CHAOS CONTROL!" She yelled. They warped away, the rock hitting the ground and breaking apart where they had been just a millisecond ago. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nagus screamed, just before the entire cavern collapsed, burying him alive.
One quick trip through the time stream later, Scales and Arik were back in the Cretaceous period, relieved they would only have to smell the sweet scents of the jungle for now. "Ah, this place is heavenly to my nose!" Scales said, sighing happily. Arik took a deep sniff of fresh air. "I'll never take smelling for granted again. For now on, I'll make sure to maintain proper hygiene. I don't want to end up like Bristol!" They laughed at that. Scales took a sip of purple juice. They were both eating dinner, and joking around. "That goblin didn't know what hit him! Geez, I was really angry wasn't I?" Arik nodded, chuckling. Then he paused, getting serious. "Scales, I want to thank you." "For what?" Scales asked after swallowing a hunk of meat. "For saving my life twice today. You know, I really couldn't have gone on this adventure at all if it weren't for you." He said. She smiled. "That's sweet. You're very welcome, Arik. I thought you've been pretty brave despite everything, though. I mean, you led the way to the cave when we were being attack by the pterodactyls! That was very courageous." "It was nothing." Said Arik, blushing a little. "Nothing? We would have died if you hadn't been as fast as you were! You know, I think if we raced, we would be on even footing." Scales insisted. "You really think so?" Arik asked, impressed. "I know so!" said Scales. Arik smiled, mollified. He looked out the window. "Oh, it's getting late. Perhaps we should retire and start our Ruby hunt anew in the morning?" "Okay." Said Scales. They both got up. As Arik went to the ladder, Scales suddenly said, "Arik?" "Yeah?" he said, almost on the first rung of the ladder. "Would you like to sleep in my room tonight? It must be lonely, being in your old bedroom with nobody else. I mean, you've only been using the same room for the last thirteen years, right?" Scales reasoned. Arik paused for thought. Scales did have a good point. It was lonely in his room. And perhaps he could get rid of some of his old fears by sleeping in his parents' room for once. But then again, he'd have to sleep in the same bed as Scales. Darius' words echoed through his head, about Scales being the right one. He was admittedly starting to like her, but didn't really want to sleep next to her just yet. "Maybe tomorrow." He said. "Oh." Said Scales, looking a little disappointed. Arik started up the ladder. Scales followed him up to the second floor. Both of them parted ways, waving goodbye and goodnight as they entered their rooms. They got ready for bed, and sleep quickly followed. They dreamed of each other.
Was this a good chapter? Please tell me! But until you do, here's the next Scales interview! Scales: Pi2, are you trying to make me fall in love with Arik? Me: (Crosses fingers behind back.) No. Scales: Oh, all right then. Me: Ultrafan X seems to think there's something going on between you and Arik. Scales: What? How dare he! I think I'll throw some chairs at him whenever he mentions it in his reviews! Me: Simmer down! Anyway, our fans loved the whole demon bit in the last chapter. Scales: Yeah, I loved it too. It was funny! Me: The Anonymous One wishes to know it T-Rexes are scavengers as well as predators, by the way. Scales: Well, some scientists believe the Rexes scavenged, some say they just preyed. Others say both. I think they did both, which is in accordance with the Predator's Code. Me: I see. What did you think of Nagus? Scales: He was ridiculous! I loved the whole Lord of the Rings reference. The "precious" thing was hilarious. Aside from that, he actually smelled better than most of the other things in the Middle Ages. Wonder why that is? Me: Actually, it's because he bathes in swamp water. The monsters leave him alone. Scales: Eww! Probably because he tastes bad. Me: No doubt. Anyway, we have just enough time to give you some gifts, and then we're done. Scales: What did I get? Me: Since you haven't had your dinner date with Arik yet, Ultrafan X sent you some chopsticks as silverware. Scales: How am I supposed to eat weasels with chopsticks? Me: I don't know. Also, since we put a ban on weasels as gifts, Maverick sent us a giant hamster built with alien technology. Scales: Ooh, is it Ultra Peepi? Me: Either that or Hamtaro, I'm not certain. Anyway, it's for dessert after you and Arik are done with the weasels. Scales: I think we'll be full after eating the weasels. Can we save the giant hamster for later? Me: Sure. Well, that's all the time we have for today! So long everybody! Scales: Reviews are appreciated. And we'd also love some gifts! Possibly something inedible, Arik and I will be stuffed for the next few chapters!