Chapter 3
"…Nu uh." I backed up and away from the ledge, "No way."
"You were the one who insisted we ally with each other!" the prince argued.
"I didn't think about this at the time, okay?! I completely forgot that I have a deathly fear of ridiculous heights!" we were trying to get back to the reception hall where Farah was waiting for us, but I'd completely forgotten all about that big huge room with the sand monsters waiting at the bottom. Yeah, real brilliant!
"It's only a small gap! You can easily jump across it!" the Prince insisted. "Look, it leads right out to a balcony!"
"What if I fall? Then what? I'll plummet to the bottom like a bat out of hell and smash into a pile of mush, bones and feathers at the bottom!" I exclaimed pointing downwards, "I don't know about you, buddy, but I'd much rather remain the way I am now!"
"Then what do you have wings for?"
"I told you, they don't work! I can't use them!" I let out an exasperated sigh, "Isn't there a way around this wreckage? Isn't there a hole in the wall or something? Because there is no way that I am about to leap to my death here!" the Prince leaned against the wall, his face in his hands, looking like he regretted letting me push him into an alliance with me.
"Alright, I'll show you!" I stood back as he got a good enough start and leapt the small distance between where I still was and the arch leading out to the balcony where we'd see those flying thingies with the hourglass. He, of course, landed safely on the other side. "You see? Easy!"
"Easy for you to say! You're a bloody monkey!" I cried, throwing my hands up.
"I am not a monkey!"
"It's a figure of speech, genius! You know how to climb and jump and do all that stuff! You've done it for years! I haven't! I couldn't climb my way out of a bag!" I stepped back. "So… how about I just… stay and… watch out for sand thingies while I wait for my wings to start working?" He leapt back over to where I was, and hoisted me up over his shoulder. "Hey! What—what are you doing?" I protested.
"If you must act like a baby, then I will treat you like one."
"Prince! No! No, no, no, no, no! Put me down!" but my cried fell on deaf ears as he once again leapt to the other side with me over his shoulder, then set me down.
"See? Was that so horrible?"
"Yes!" He rolled his eyes. "I don't like heights, alright?" He just turned and walked out to the balcony. I quickly followed.
It was there that the Prince spotted those to bird thingies carrying the hourglass up to the Tower of Dawn. He stared at them blankly for a second or two, not understanding the whole situation quite yet.
"The hourglass… What?" he murmured to himself.
"I think it's obvious at this point that someone is behind this whole thing, pulling strings," I observed.
"The Vizier," the Prince stated, "It must be the Vizier. He tricked me into opening the hourglass in the first place."
"I tried to tell you…" I grumbled, folding my arms. He just sighed.
"Let's just get back to the reception hall. Farah is waiting for me there." I nodded once and we started toward the other side of the balcony, and would've got there if the damn thing hadn't crumbled and broke all to bits right there! Damn… should've seen that coming…
"You've gotta be kidding me!" I exclaimed, throwing my arms up. "What idiot designed this place anyway? He needs to have his head looked at!" It didn't help in the least when the Prince just wall ran to the other side effortlessly. I glared at him. "You are not making this any easier for me, you know!" It was so not fair. The Prince of Persia games are definitely not the best choices to get dropped into if you have the acrobatic abilities of a can of beans and especially if you have a set of wings that don't work. I've read plenty of stories where a character gets a pair of wings and can't use them, and all they end up doing is getting in the way and slowing everyone down.
I looked for a way to get over the huge gap without having to risk falling and smashing into paint on the ground below. That was when an idea came to mind. Not sure how I thought of it, and it was risky, but something told me it just might be worth a shot.
"Prince, stay there a moment! I think I have an idea!" I called, and then hurried back inside. I stood at the edge of what probably used to be a walkway and looked down at the next floor. Immediately, my common sense kicked in and started screaming at me to not be an idiot, and I almost listened. I took an unconscious step back, and was just about to talk myself out of it, when my body seemed to move on its own for a moment and… I leapt.
I jumped off headfirst and immediately regretted this ingenious little idea of mine. I was certain that I was going to fall and fall and hit the ground and turn into a pile of jelly. But I didn't. Just when I opened my mouth to start shrieking along with that little voice in my head that was yelling, 'You moron! What the hell were you thinking?!', it was like something took hold of me and carried me forward towards the ledge I'd been aiming for. I landed haphazardly on the edge in what could've easily been a crash landing.
"Owwww…." I groaned, picking myself up. But once on my feet, I smiled when I realized that I had just glided down here. Not very well, but I'd glided! "Prince!" I yelled loudly. A moment later I heard hasty footsteps.
"Naomi? Where are you?" he called back.
"Below you! I think! Listen, go ahead and head down on your own! I'll meet you at the bottom!"
Since I was going down one floor at a time, I got there a bit faster than Princy, although, I couldn't help but feel a pinch of envy toward him for being able to do those impossible stunts of his. I ended up waiting for him and the corner platform just above ground level, staring at all the Sand creatures patrolling the area. This was going to be a problem, since I was weaponless, and my fighting ability equaled zero.
"Why did you stop?" the Prince asked me when he caught up. I pointed at one of the beasts.
"See that? That's a bit of a problem for my, since I don't have a weapon! And even if I did, I have no idea how to use it! So, that means that you're up, Princy-boy! Go get 'em!" He looked at me oddly for a moment, then shook his head, leapt to the broken pillar and slid to the ground floor.
I watched the melee closely. I couldn't continue to go through the game not knowing how to fight. I'd end up dead! So I watched the Prince's moves, memorized as much of his technique as I could. It would no doubt come in handy later on. I joined him when he finished off the last sand creature.
"You make it look so easy," I commented, awed by his awesome Prince-like, super kick-ass combat style.
"I have been doing it for many years. It comes almost as a second nature to me," he replied. I frowned.
"I couldn't fight my way out of a cardboard box…" I shook my head.
"All that aside, we have another problem."
"What?"
"There's no way out of here." I only had to think on this a few seconds before grinning mysteriously.
"Oh yes there is!" I said teasingly. He took another look around, and then stared at me, stumped.
"Where? I don't see any means of getting out of here." I looked pointedly at the wardrobe behind him with the broken column in front of it. He looked at it, not quite understanding. Still smiling, I started toward it.
"Just come here and help me, will you?" Shrugging, he followed me and together, we pushed the wardrobe out of the way, revealing a hidden passage.
"…How did you know this was here?" he questioned suspiciously.
"I know lots of stuff," I replied oh-so-mysteriously. "But in all seriousness, we'd better keep moving. I doubt Farah will wait around for us all day. Especially with hordes of Sand beasties everywhere." Without waiting for a response, I trudged through the passage. I'd gotten a bit better at gliding, so I didn't have much of a problem getting past the broken steps we came to. We both went through the door after stepping on the switch. Completely forgetting about the danger in that room, I started to cross the bridge, when the Prince suddenly gripped my arm and yanked me back.
"Watch it!" he shouted just as a bunch of rubble fell from the ceiling, destroying the small bridge and blocking the path. And to thing that could've been me under there…
"Thanks…"
"Don't mention it."
While the prince wall ran across, I climbed on top of the rubble that nearly killed me and glided across. The Prince and I moved the box on the other side across onto the floor switch and the door opened, revealing the one part of the game I probably hated the most.
"Oh thank God! I was afraid you were one of them!" The guard on the balcony above us shouted as we stood on the center of the large rotating platform that activated the palace's defenses.
"Well, rest easy, pal, we're as human as can be!" I shouted back. This guy was so annoying…
"Can you help me activate the Azad defense System?" he called down, "it will take all of us to do it!" I was tempted to correct him and say it only took two men to do it, but I decided to just shut up and play along with it, even though doing this would activate loads of traps… it would be the only way to open all the doors and get around and whatnot. "I'll reset the axels for you!" With that, the platform started moving and the axels started resetting. As they did this, the guard explained the whole deal to us. We had to navigate the grooves and pick up all the axels and line them up with their gears.
"Well, pick a lever," I told the Prince. Shrugging, we both grabbed levers. I was on the one that moved it up and down and the prince was on the other one that turned it.
I always hated this puzzle, especially the first time I played the game. I sat there, screwing around with the damn thing, yanking my hair out by the root, trying to figure it out. Eventually I did, and after a few more run-throughs of the game, I had it memorized, but I still hated the damn bloody thing! With the prince and I working as a team, we managed to get the axle's in place, though it took a little longer than I would've liked, especially that annoying guard yelling at us every ten seconds. At one point, I leaned over to the prince and whispered, "Yeah, and I don't see him down here helping, the lazy bastard." He chuckled and we continued on until we had it beat.
"That's it! I knew you could do it!" the guard yelled gleefully as the axles placed themselves in their proper gears. "Now, there's one last step! Do you see that platform? Throw your lever and I'll throw mine!"
"What manner of machine is this?" The prince questioned, obviously a bit uneasy about activating it.
"I told you, it's the palace's defense system! Stop wasting time! Throw your lever!"
"You heard the man, Prince," I encouraged. The two of us climbed the ladder to the platform, where the prince pulled the lever.
"Ha! Serves those accursed demons right!" the guard shouted. At this point, I was starting to wonder if this guy even knew what volume control was. "By God, they'll rue the day they ever dared attack the Palace of Azad!" I sighed, knowing what was coming. No sooner had he finished, he started screaming in pain as he changed from a man into a Sand Monster.
I, of course, stayed on the platform as the prince easily dispatched the two Sands Creatures, then jumped down to join him and together, we ascended the stairs.