Ziggy's Corner: Okay this is chapter sixteen! Four more chapters and we'll be half way done with this story!

Murray could feel the sweat flow from his body as he leapt from one stone to the next, avoiding his opponent's deadly fists. He knew that he was no match for an all out boxing match with this bully, but he could still out smart him. The pink hippo wasn't as smart as Sly or especially Bentley, but he was smarter than Alexandr. The large, red rhino was nothing but muscle and muscle on top of muscle. All Murray had to do was dodge his fists and then attack when he got tired.

"You are lazy," Alexandr snapped. "You've been doing nothing but acting like a ballerina for the last forty minutes. Why don't you just stand still and fight me?"

"I don't have to throw punches to fight you," Murray said, quickly dodging another punch. The hippo dodged toward a large boulder and pressed his back against it, moving it from its resting place. It budged, and started to move, but Alexandr realized what he was doing, and leapt away just as it fell. "I can out smart you."

Alexandr laughed and leapt from the air toward the hippo, his fist tightening. "You can't stop me from getting that boy, Murray," he roared. "It's fate; he belongs to Charlie the Great!"

"Christian and his brother do not belong to anyone but their parent's," Murray snapped, blocking the punch, slamming his foot into the rhino's gut. It stunned Alexandr, but it didn't work for long. "I won't let you hurt that boy, or his brother," Murray growled. He slammed another foot into the rhino, and another, each time backing him up, but not stopping him completely.

"What a fool, a flabby, slow witted, idealistic slob of a fool, it's no wonder you friends abandoned you," Alexandr snarled, snapping his hood and goggles from his head. "No wonder they don't care about you enough that they almost left you in that orphanage."

"You don't know anything," Murray shouted. "The only reason Sly and Bentley thought about leaving me in the orphanage was because of that family that was interested in me. True if it wasn't for their car crash, I might never had really known what great friends Sly and Bentley were, and I might have known what a "normal" family was like. But the fact is, that they loved me enough that they wanted me to be happy, and away from all this danger." The two old mates were now clutched in hand to hand grip, testing the other's strength.

"Yeah, sad about that accident," Alexandr laughed. "Surprising how many people can't get control of their car when a certain someone cuts their breaks." He smiled, and looked deep into the eyes of his favorite victim.

"You," the hippo mumbled. Ice ran through his body and he shook his head. "You!" With every bit of might he could muster, Murray thrust forward, and caught Alexandr off balance. "You murderer! Why would you do that? Why!"

"Hey, from the looks of it, I did you a favor, just think how much fun you would have missed if you had been adopted," Alexandr groaned. "Of course Clockwerk's big bag of gold did help me make my mind up in that decision, but the truth of the matter is that you simply didn't belong to those people, and they were fools for thinking you did. They should have adopted someone who was bound to be a success instead."

"How do you know Clockwerk?" the hippo roared.

"Puh-lease, do you really think that Clockwerk knew about Sly and wouldn't keep an eye on him all those years? Who else do you think alerted the authorities when you three went on your little robbery sprees, or picked a pocket? Who do you think it was that brought your files to Interpol? If Clockwerk was to know what kind of potential his rival would have, he had to push all the necessary buttons." Alexandr shrugged. "So yeah, I sabotaged your little hopes of being adopted. How does that make you feel, you loser?"

Something in Murray snapped. He was always peaceful and gentle, unless a thug got in his way, and even then it was nothing like this. It wasn't even vengeance that was driving him now. "A success? Really, a success? Someone who works for not one, but two underhanded crook, not even one of his top cronies, and you call yourself a success?" He grit his teeth and heaved forward, startling Alexandr. Slowly he bent the rhino's fingers back, listening to bones snap. "You are a murderer, a bully, and a failure. I'm not the loser Alexandr, you are!" He kept the pressure on and could see fear begin to immerge from his foes eyes. "Do you know why? Because you are the one with no friends, with no one to care for you, because you would never let them!" He picked Alexandr up and slammed a fist into his chest, "That's for Sly!" A foot into his legs dropped him to the ground yet again, "That's for Bentley!" He clenched his hands together, to make a manmade mallet and swung it, "That's for those poor people who you massacred in your quest for gold!" He let the battered rhino fall to the ground, and preformed a thunder flop, sending flying into a mountain, and down to the ground again. "And that's for me!" Murray stomped toward the rhino and picked him up, "Light's out, Alexandr."

What he saw in those eyes made him drop the fiend yet again, and shudder. Alexandr's eyes were flaming red, and seemed almost hallow. His body swayed one way and then another, as if he was listening to some kind of music. But it was his voice that was most haunting. It was deep, as hallow as his eyes, and it echoed through the valley as if they were in a large, empty concert hall. "I've failed," it said. Alexandr dropped to the ground face first, and when Murray turned him over, he found the body of what looked like a teenage version of the rhino, shriveled and decaying.

Murray screeched, and felt bile race up his throat. He rushed from the body, got into the car, and drove off. It felt like he was driving forever, fleeing something so dark and evil that it made demons flee in its malevolence. His heart pounded, and then a little while later, he felt sleep overtake his body, and his head dropped on the wheel of the car.

S L Y

When Murray did finally wake up, he was sleeping on a cot, covered by what looked like either a tent, or a mud hut. It seemed like the very late afternoon, and as he shot up, he could see that around the cot was a circle of salt. "What's going on?"

"You are awake, I am very pleased," came a voice from behind him. The hippo spun in the direction of the voice, and he stared at an old Aborigine.

"Wait, you're the chief of the Tricoli tribe," Murray said trying to rise to his feet. His muscles ached, and he dropped onto his butt.

The old man smiled and nodded his head. "Yes," he said. "You can call me Eko," the Aborigine stood up and examined him. "The boy definitely has a gift, he could sense your distress, and told us exactly where to find you."

"The boy? Wait, you mean Christian?" Murray tore away from Eko and looked deep into his eyes.

"Yes, we have been training him for a couple of hours, and during his training he could feel your fear, and told us we had to go to you at once." He chuckled. "It's not every day you tell a 'chosen one' no." He looked the hippo over and took a step back. "You have been in the presence of a very great evil."

"I don't know about that," the hippo said. "I fought a former orphan I used to live with a little while ago, but then something happened, I don't quite remember what it was, and I don't think I want to."

"No you don't," Eko said. He turned and examined him yet again. "Believe me, you don't. But enough of that, you must go to the training field with the boy, and begin your own tests."

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute, back up! Training tests, look I'm grateful you took care of him, but …," Murray frowned and leaned forward. "Did you call Christian, a 'chosen one'?"

Eko smiled and crossed his arms. "Yes, one of two of them."

S L Y

He soon learned that the other chosen one was Gabriel, who was off on his own part of the test, to retrieve the Ruby. It sounded odd, but considering what he had just faced, what he could remember anyway, it wasn't the oddest thing in the world. But sitting here, in a tiny thong, that barely covered his tushie, this was the oddest thing.

"Why exactly am I being trained?" he asked.

Eko put a finger to his lips and shushed him. "Meditate, clear you mind and think of things that are of the purest in nature."

Murray frowned and looked at him as if he were drunk. How the heck am I supposed to clear my mind, and then have pure things in my mind? He shook his head, and looked at the little boy. He seemed peaceful, calm and serene.

How was he even supposed to do this anyway? He was too big to cross his legs the way that Eko wanted him too, and the thong was riding up between his butt cheeks. Great, I get a wedgie while smelling incense. I feel like a high school student that just got attacked by the whole football team, and the local church's choir corps.

"When you can feel the purity of your environment, then you can absorb it into your being, fill your soul with it, and use it to your advantage. The Ruby's life energy burns with that purity, and it calls all those who have it to it." Eko said, smiling at the hippo's discomfort. "Forget what you know Murray, let that go, and you will feel the power of the Ruby, its true power, not the false energy that Charlie has absorbed from it."

"So, it has two kinds of energy?" He slunk as Eko again put his finger to his lips, and looked straight ahead.

"Yes, a bright graceful energy, and a dark core, one that summoned the darkness in
Charlie's heart. It was how he managed to take it from us." He smiled again, "Yes I can tell what you are thinking, if Christian and his brother are the chosen ones, why put you through this? Well there are two reasons, one to purge the energy that the darkness you encountered flooded your body with, and two; Christian needs someone to look up to, a guide if you will. Who better than you, who he has spent the most time with between all the members of the Cooper Gang?"

So then I'm supposed to be his kind of mentor?

"Yes, that is correct," Eko said, clapping his hands. "You started when you explained your position of good and evil to the boy. It was fate that you would be chosen to guide him on his quest. Because the boys are twins, your influence also affects Gabriel, who feels his brother's spirit."

He asked them to stand up, and lead them to a very spiky area of his valley. "I ask you now to take the test of flight, you've passed the test of clarity just now, so this should be a little more challenging," he smiled yet again, "or maybe it won't."

"I'm sorry, but if hippo's were meant to fly, we wouldn't have been created so large," Murray said. Man could you imagine the panic of a flying hippo in need of a potty?

"He means we should use our clarity of thought, to pass this test. To see things before they happen," Christian said with a giggle.

"You mean, kind of like insight," the hippo said. The boy and Eko nodded. Wow, this mentoring stuff is kind of easy. He could hear Eko laugh and he squinted his eyes. The path looked almost impossible to pass, but there had to be a way. Turning to Christian he shrugged. "What do you think?"

The boy smiled. "I helped you with the clarity thing; this is kind of a test you need to help me with."

"Oh… great," he gulped. He looked at the field, half way expecting to see some kind of pink sparkle, that would lead him the right direction, but there was nothing. A few seconds later he blocked everything from his mind, and looked again. He could see their crushed bodies, their bodies flung into the air by flinging axes, their bodies being squashed by blocks, and then he realized the puzzle. He smiled. "Follow me," he told the boy.

Murray bent forward and dashed straight forward, completely forward. He had expected there to be some kind of booby trap, that there was a pattern that needed to be followed to avoid the deadly machinations. And in a way there was, but not like he expected.

Eko clapped his hands as they reached the other side and bowed. "Very well done, for as there is many shades of black and white, many paths of gray, the only way along the narrow, lonely path of justice and pure light is a simple straight path. You've done well."

Murray gasped and groaned, his lips spread out in a wide grin, and he had to blush as the boy at his side coughed and waved his hand back and forth.

"Tell that to his ingestion," Christian muttered.

"Sorry buddy," Murray muttered, still smiling. He looked over at Eko, and the old man was rolling with laughter.

"Very good, now as to your next exercise …," he began.

S L Y

At the end of the day, the two of them stood in front of Eko and his whole tribe. He nodded, not smiling, with a solemn look on his face. "Now we send you off, bring back our Ruby, and bring us peace to our land. And may Heaven protect you from the darkness that would swallow our world whole."

"Thank you Eko," Murray said. "We won't let you done."

"That's a promise," the boy said, standing next to Murray.

"We will keep this disk, as assurance that you do not, so that it may not fall into the hands of those who would do anyone harm," Eko said. "I have faith in both of you that you will succeed beyond any measure of doubt."

The two bowed, and turned to leave the camp. Unaware that they were being watched by a pair of very engrossed eyes. "So, there's more than one disk. How very interesting."

Who owns those pair of eyes? And what do they want with the disk? I guess you'll just have to keep reading! LOL unless you want to take a guess at who those eyes belong to. Some of you might actually get it right! Okay, on to chapter 17! Kool, we are only one more chapter away until the start of the big fight with Charlie (chapter 18). I hope everyone is having fun!