Praise the Lord, I finally finished chapter four! LOL!

A very deep apology towards my readers for the long wait. Not sure it anyone can tell or not, but I'm currently on a once-a-month update basis (and I even missed that deadline!). Once again, I apologize, but I'm sure everyone can understand considering it is the last quarter of school and life always gets hectic around now. I also get extremely lazy because of it, but I've made myself sit down to type this up! I'm feeling descriptive! Enjoy :-)

Ocecat- actually, the Prince tells Farah about his claustrophobia in the game when they first fall into the tomb (just before the bath coughsexcough scene).


Fate
Chapter Four: Phobias, Part Two

Farah and the Prince ran down the hall as fast as they could, the sounds of their own footsteps drowned out by the ever present sound of the sand creatures' disappearing and reappearing. The hall was lit with Rubble littered the hallway, tripping them up and slowing them down. 'We can't fight them! What can we do?' The Prince desperately tried to form a plan but could come up with nothing. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed flags lining the hallway, billowing from some sort of breeze, despite the lack of windows. As he ran on, paying more attention to his surroundings, he noticed gaps and cracks in the walls and it occurred to him where the rubble had come from.

"A crack," he said, smiling wistfully. 'A shame there are none at ground level.'

Farah looked at him. "What?" she asked between breaths.

He shook his head, "Nothing." When he looked forward again, he felt his stomach drop. A huge rock pile that towered above them at the height of two grown men blocked the hallway. "We'll have to climb over it," he said to Farah.

"Really? I was thinking we would just run straight through it," Farah replied. The Prince glanced at her to see her pulling out her bow.

"What are you doing?"

"Creating a distraction," she said. Farah pulled out an arrow from her quiver on her side, notched it, and let it fly. It flew up through the air and lodged itself into the wall near the ceiling.

"What are you-" the Prince began, but Farah cut him off.

"I know what I'm doing!" she said. The sand creatures appeared halfway down the hall and disappeared once more. Farah let fly another arrow, which ended up a few feet below the first one.

"Yes!" she cheered.

"What are you grinning about!" the Prince asked skeptically. Farah ignored him and loaded another arrow, firing once more, this one hitting the ceiling. Again, she took an arrow from her quiver.

"Don't waste your arrows!" the Prince commanded.

Farah obediently returned the newest arrow to her quiver.

"That's more like it," the Prince said haughtily. Farah glared at him and turned to start climbing.

"Need a boost?" he offered.

"I'm fine," she said. "And if I catch you looking up my skirt-" she let her warning hang and began climbing.

The Prince smirked, fully intending to ignore her, when a rumbling sound drew his attention. 'What the?' The Prince whirled around, searching for the source but all he saw was the sand creatures' rapid approach. It took a few moments before he noticed the large crack that had formed halfway across the ceiling to halfway down the wall. The middle fell first, with the rest crumbling after. The Prince was just able to catch sight of the sand creatures appearing before they were covered with rocks. Silence filled the hall as the Prince gaped at the sight. Farah brought him back to his senses. "That won't distract them for long, come on!" she called from the top before she began her descent down the other side.

"That's not possible," he called after her as he began his climb.

"Apparently, it is," Farah replied.

"How?"

"The walls were close to collapse anyway, I just gave them an extra boost," Farah said as her hand found it's way to her hip. The Prince fought down a smile and won, with the help of the sand creatures that appeared noisily below him. He whirled around to see the creatures behind him. Every one of them held a long spear that he estimated could reach his chest, if not higher, combined with their inhuman height. They looked all around them but up. One disappeared and reappeared a little further away and began pacing back and forth. The other four began pacing where they were. The Prince slowly got into a crouching position and found footholds to climb down with, never taking his eyes off the monsters. He took his time, testing the strength of placement before actually using it, but about halfway down his foot slipped, sending some loose rocks down.

The Prince froze, but knew it was too late. "Run!" he yelled again, leaping down even as he heard the sand creatures disappearing on the other side. They didn't get five feet before sand creatures appeared in front of them, forcing them to retreat to the rock pile. Farah pulled out her bow and fired at the nearest sand creature. Just as the arrow was about to strike, the monster's skin formed a hole through which the arrow harmlessly flew. Farah and the Prince gaped at the monster.

"That is not possible," Farah said, stepping back, pressing against the rocks.

"Apparently, it is!" the Prince said, unable to hide his sarcasm. Farah glared at him. She slung her bow onto her shoulder, turned around, and began climbing quickly. The Prince felt adrenaline pumping through his body as the creatures approached. He sheathed his sword and scaled the pile so quickly he almost swore he flew. At the top he looked around.

"We need to get higher," he said.

"Higher!" Farah said, looking down. "Surely they can't reach-" she jerked out of the way of an oncoming spear. Before any others could take a jab at her she crouched down on the opposite edge, out of the way of the spears. Apparently, the sand creatures were too stupid to realize this, as they continued to shove spears up along the rock pile, with some even trying to throw them. At those times the Prince and Farah were forced to duck as far down as possible. They would have retreated to the other side, but apparently the sand creatures were smarter than previously thought since one had teleported to the other side. Luckily, this one seemed to have broken or misplaced its spear, though that didn't make it any less dangerous on the ground. Still, they both knew that eventually a sand creature with a spear would transport to the other side, or the one there already would get smart and throw rubble at them.

Suddenly, something cold fell on the Prince's cheek. He wiped it off and looked at it. 'Where did that come from…'

"Look, up there!" Farah said, pointing above them to a large jagged hole just out of jumping reach. 'I bet I could reach it if I ran up the wall…'

"Can you reach it?" the Prince asked.

"Maybe," she said. She scooted towards the wall and waited for the spears to go down and sprung up. She winced as her hands caught the edge, some sharp rocks digging into her skin. She shuffled her hands over until she found a smoother part. She heard a clanging sound directly behind her and turning her head, saw the Prince had unsheathed his sword and parried a spear aimed straight for her. He pressed his back against the wall, sword still out. She was able to stand on her shoulders and pull herself up until all her weight was in her arms. Swinging her knees forward, she was able to get them up on the ledge. Again, she winced as sharp rocks cut into her bare flesh. This was just one more incentive to move over as fast as possible and she quickly shifted over to a smoother looking spot. Cracking sounds drew her attention down again, where the Prince slashed at the spears, breaking them. He sheathed his sword and ran up the wall, grabbing the ledge and pulling himself up.

"Why didn't you just do that earlier?" Farah asked.

"Do what?"

"Break their spears?"

"I didn't think it would work," he said. He looked at the sky and sighed. Thick, black clouds were rolling in fast over the kingdom. 'Great, rain. Just what we need.' He looked down over the edge. From there they could see much of the kingdom. Below them were what seemed to him to be cages. 'Animals, even better.' There were some ledges and cracks that he could discern. "I see some ledges that we can use to climb down with," the Prince said, taking his gaze from the ground to glance at Farah. "Ladies first," he said with a grand bow.

Farah hesitated, leaning over to find the ledges the Prince mentioned. She managed to catch sigh of the ledges, but then found herself staring straight down, as if mesmerized, at the ground. It wasn't really that high, only a story, but even at that height a fall was deadly. Farah felt lightheaded as she realized how easy it would be for her to slip. Various death scenarios ran threw her mind. She saw herself tripping, jumping to her death, the ground falling beneath her and numerous others. It felt as if her balance was shifting, as if she had become heavier and gravity was slowly pulling her down. Her hands shot out, grabbing whatever they could for her to keep balance. Strong arms wrapped around her and pulled her towards the Prince's chest. She looked at him, but her head quickly turned to look at the ground once more. She felt the Prince's breath as he whispered in her ear.

"It's ok, you're safe, you're safe," he continued whispering in her ear, but nothing could make her look away. She could hear every word clearly, but nothing sank in. He placed a hand on her face, gently pushing her face until she was staring into his eyes. She slowly released a breath she didn't realize she had been holding.

"It's all right, it's all right. His hand gently stroked her face. She tried to look down again, but his hand firmly stopped her.

"No," he said, firmly. She tried to look again anyway. This time he let her. He leaned towards the edge and she tensed up in his arms, digging her nails into his back. She snapped out of her trance long enough to shoot him a glare and he laughed. "You won't fall. I'm here. You're safe," he coaxed. "Look at the sky," she did. Thunder echoed in the sky and moments later lighting struck, lighting up the sky. A gentle wind blew, ruffling her hair and throwing strands in her face. "We need to get down before those clouds reach us. It's not that far. I will be here the whole time. I will not let you fall." 'I would feel safer if I had the Dagger…'

She relaxed her death hold around his chest and put some space between them, but didn't let go. The Prince looked down again, but this time he was the one to freeze.

"What is it?" Farah asked. She felt safe enough in the Prince's arms to know she wouldn't fall. Falling still scared her, but it did not have such a hold on her, for now. She looked down, searching for the source of his concern but all she saw was the palace walls. Then, off in the distance, she caught sight of more sand creatures atop the castle walls, dressed in foreign clothes. 'The invaders!' Still, they were far off and would be easy to avoid, not worth their concern.

"Father…" he whispered.


I'm afraid of heights and I decided that Farah was too since she refused to even try to climb at all, whether to stop the Prince from looking up her skirt or she just knew her limits (a haughty girl like her know her limits? HAH!) but hearing her whine 'I can't climb like that' without trying even at easy areas reminded me of how the Prince wouldn't even try to squeeze through cracks or under doors (which may have been because he couldn't fit… but I swear it looked like he could have fit under those doors!).