Chapter 4
Don't ask me how the hell I managed to make it to the courtyard, because I have no freaking idea. I must either have a huge amount of luck on my side, or someone is watching over me. I'm thinking it's the first one, because Murphy's Law has always been in full effect when it came to my life.
"Not so hard once you get the hang of it, is it?" the Prince asked me as we successfully made it to the other side of a bunch of spiked pole and one of those revolving blades.
"Are you kidding me?" I exclaimed, "How many times have those things almost cut my wings off, eh? They may not work real well, but I like them there!" He just shook his head.
"Hey look," he pointed at the wall behind me.
"What?" I looked back. Sure enough, there was a hole in the wall there, leading to whatever it lead to. "Think it's worth checking out?"
"Yes." He walked toward it and climbed up onto the small bolder, taking notice of the spike traps beneath the hole. He wall ran to the small ledge and pulled himself up. "Here, climb onto that bolder and jump. I will grab you and pull you up." I started untrustingly at the spike traps.
"Are you sure about that?" I asked uneasily.
"Yes, now hurry."
"Ok, but if I fall onto that thing, it's on your head."
"Fair enough." I did as he instructed and climbed on to the bolder and jumped towards him as far as I could go. With some luck, he gripped my wrists and pulled me up. Me, being the clumsy ox that I am, tried to get my foot on the ledge, onto to slip forward, knock into the Prince and send both of us stumbling backwards and onto the ground below on top of one another. And, of course, by some cruel joke, I just had to land in an extremely embarrassing position between his legs.
My face turned beat red and I yelped and leapt as far away as I could, shouting, "I'm sorry!" the whole time. I couldn't even bring myself to look at him as he stood up.
"It's alright," he assured me, though I could here embarrassment, humor and exasperation in his voice.
The tunnel turned out to be another fountain. The two of us walked in an uncomfortable silence the whole way. I still couldn't bring myself to look at him. Why, why did I have to be such a klutzy idiot in front of him, the Prince of Persia? Why did this crap always have to happen to me? Ugh… maybe some water will make me feel better…
"Really, Naomi… it's fine…" the Prince said quietly after we reached the fountain. I only grunted. I couldn't even look at his face without turning as red as a lobster…
We both just sighed and took drinks from the fountain. It was pretty much the same as before, that same tingling feeling spreading from my chest to the rest of my body, only this time, it didn't focus around my shoulder blades. It spread to my wings and seemed to… seemed to bring them to life. Weird metaphor, I know, but that's the only way I can describe it. I could've sworn I felt them move just before everything went black again.
Suddenly, the Prince and I were standing outside again, feeling rejuvenated.
"Wow…" the Prince said under his breath, "I feel stronger than ever!" I playfully rolled my eyes at him, and glanced back at my wingies.
"Uh… prince? Is it just me, or are my wings a bit… bigger?" I turned by back toward him and pointed my thumb at them. He looked at them a moment.
"Actually, yes. They do seem to have grown… was it the water in that fountain?"
"Well, unless you can come up with something else, then I would think it's safe to assume that that fountain has a lot to do with it." I suddenly heard something make a swooshing sound behind me. It was soft, but I heard it. Expecting an enemy, I whirled around, but there was nothing. "What the…" I heard it again behind me, and turned again. No one was there but the Prince, who was obviously trying to stifle a grin.
"Do you hear that?" I heard it again and turned full circle. "What is that bloody noise?!"
"It's your wings," the Prince answered calmly. I looked at him stupidly for a moment, not quite understanding, but then I heard it again and turned my head around, seeing that it was my wings after all! My cheeks turned red in slight embarrassment and I faced the Prince again. "Oh… I knew that."
"I'm sure you did." I opened my mouth to retort, when something stupidly obvious hit my like a kick in the ass. My wings were moving! Did that mean I could use them now?
Decided to give them another test run, I focused on my upper back muscled and tried to will my wings into motion. It worked! They gently flapped back and forth, not very much, but they were moving! I grinned.
"Does this mean you can fly, now?" the prince asked, watching me. I shrugged.
"I don't know… but I'm not about to break my neck testing them in flight. Let's go find Farah first." He seemed to agree and once again, we set off.
When we found the second hallway trap switch, before the Prince could pull it, I stopped him.
"Hold on, I'm not real good at dodging traps and whatnot, and because of my wings, I'm a bigger target… maybe I should run up ahead and wait by the door for you," I suggested. I stopped to consider this, although I could tell he wasn't too enthused about having to dodge buzz saws alone.
"Well, I suppose you have a point. Go on then, but hurry. Yell at me when you're at the door so I can make my way there," he agreed. I smiled, and was tempted to jump forward and hug him, but I didn't… didn't want to go too far… we only just met a little while ago! Anyhoo, I did just that, and ran ahead. I had some trouble, because getting to the door involved climbing, which I was horrible at, and somehow, don't ask how, I got up there. My gliding ability also helped tremendously when it came to crossing those huge gaps.
"Alright, go ahead," I yelled loudly, and a moment later, the entire hall came to life. Several more moments later, the Prince joined me and we quickly ducked under the closing door.
We were back in the reception hall and Farah was there waiting for us, except she was standing at the rear of the room, loading and firing arrows like mad at the horde of Sand Monsters! And guess who was among them? Yep, the Good King Sharaman, transformed.
"Farah!" the Prince called, his eyes widening in surprise. The Indian Princess glanced quickly at him, but then returned her attention to the Sand King and his minions. "Stay here!" he ordered me and leapt over the edge of the balcony in a daring rescue. I didn't argue. Weaponless and powerless, I'd be cut into little sticky pieces by those guys in seconds! Instead, I watched from my perch as the Prince landed in front of Farah and drew his sword. "Farah! Get back!" It was then that the mighty Sand King let out a fierce growl that all but got the Prince's attention. "Father!" Yeah… someone got beat with the ugly stick…
The fight began. The Prince used every acrobatic trick in the book to dispatch the Sand creatures, and Farah laid back and shot at them with her arrows. Several times one of the monsters would set it's sights on her and the Prince, being the sucker for the babes he is, came to her rescue. All the while, I was standing up here like a dumb ass, wishing there was something, anything I could do to help, wishing I wasn't such a loser.
It wasn't long before the Prince's main focus turned to the Sand King. Once again, he used everything he knew against the monster, but nothing worked. Every blow the Prince sent toward the King was blocked or parried. I thought about how this battle was in the game. It was so annoying… but I knew the secret. …I knew the secret!
"Prince!" I shouted over the edge, "Let him attack you!"
"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" he hollered back. I sighed. Stubborn…
"Just do it! Dodge at the last minute! He'll be wide open for attack!" He threw a quick glance at me, eyes wide. "Trust me!" Only a second later, the King raised his big ass sword and swung it at the Prince. Deciding to take my advice, the Prince back flipped away at the last second and then quickly struck the king with his sword. "I told you!" I yelled.
"Oh stow it!" he yelled back at me. The battle raged on, Farah, for some reason, refused to fire on the Sand King, so it was up to the Prince to dispatch him. I was certain that the Prince had this battle in the bag… I was wrong. In the game, the battle was the same all the way through. That little tactic of mine worked until he was gone. But for some reason, it stopped working and the King started blocking not only the straight blows, but also the strikes the Prince sent his way when he was supposed to be open for attack. When I saw this, I was completely stumped. This was not in the game!
"Got any more bright ideas?!" The prince yelled at me at he dodged another swing. I shook my head.
"I don't know! I—" I'm not sure how the idea came to me, but it did. Without wasting another second, or even giving my common sense a chance to argue it, I planted my feet on the balcony railing and leapt as far as I could. My wings spread open and went into action, carrying me the necessary distance. Finally, just before I was there… "HEY STUPID!" The King only had a split second to look before my foot collided with his big ugly face and the momentum of my weight sent him reeling back and onto the floor. I landed roughly, stumbling back a bit before regaining my footing.
"How did you just do that…?" The Prince asked me.
"I have no idea!" I answered, my eyes wide, "but there's no time! Finish him!" Nodding quickly, dagger in hand, the Prince leapt the distance between him and the King and plunged the Dagger of Time into his back. Shrieking in defeat, the King turned to sand and was absorbed into the dagger. It was over. But there was no denying the pain I saw in the Prince's eyes when he did this. After all, even if it was a sand creature… it was still his father.
I just watched in silence as my companion tore his sleeve off where he had been wounded during the battle and quickly bandage it. There was a certain apathetic stare in his eyes that told me what had just happened hurt him emotionally, but being a man, he wasn't about to let it get the better of him, especially since Farah and I was the only ones around and we were girls. After all… he was a man, and supposed to be in charge.
Speaking of Farah, she quietly walked over to the Prince and placed her hand on his shoulder as a gesture of comfort and understanding.
"I'm sorry," she said firmly.
"Why? The Prince replied, his voice a little aggressive.
"I know what it is to lose a father," Farah explained. The Prince quickly stood up and looked the Princess straight in the eye.
"That was not my father," he declared, then hurned on his heel and took off running toward the Sand vortex at the front of the room.
"What are you doing?!" Farah cried when she saw where he was going, "Stop!" But her cries fell on deaf ears and the Prince ran straight into the vortex. Commence visions.
"Eh, don't worry about him… he's a little hard headed, but he's not completely stupid," I told Farah after the prince was in his trance-like state in the vortex. She turned and looked at me.
"And you are?" she crossed her arms.
"Naomi Fox. I've been with princy over there for a little while now…"
"You seem familiar… have we met before?" she asked, looking me up and down. I shrugged.
"I think I saw you in the hall when the sands were opened…"
"…You're the one who was tormenting that soldier!" she exclaimed. I stared at her for a moment, and then wilted slighly.
"Is that all you people are going to remember me for?" I grumbled.
"But you didn't have wings then. Can you fly?"
"I really don't know. I can glide somewhat, but I haven't tried flying full out." I stopped and looked back when I heard something heavy hit the ground behind me. I had to restrain myself from busting up laughing when I saw the Prince lying on the ground in front of the vortex. It had just kicked him out! Not only that, but the dagger hand fallen out of his possession and was on the ground a few feet from him. I saw Farah stare at it. "that dagger… it can reverse this whole mess… right?" as if I didn't know.
"It can," Farah answered and started toward it. She was only a little ways from it, however, when the Prince came back from his senses and spotted her. Acting fast, he leapt up and snatched it away before she could get it.
"So, this is the thanks I get for saving your life," he stated sarcastically, starting toward her. Farah backed up.
"You don't understand," she nearly pleaded, "I need that dagger to undo—"
"To undo what I have done," he cut her off. "Truly you must think I am a fool."
"Ok, now, let's play nice, children," I interrupted walking between them, "if we're gonna fix this mess, we should stop fighting with each other and work together." The Prince glared at me. "Don't give me that look, because you know I'm right!" Even if he wouldn't admit it. Farah sighed.
"You have every right to be cautious," she said in a softer voice, "but fight as bravely as you may, you cannot defeat this enemy! The Sands will spread! They will consume…" she put her hand on his shoulder, "everything!" She lowered her voice again. "I've heard it said that you are kind, as well as brave. Please believe me." The Prince seemed to consider this for a moment before responding.
"The hourglass is in the sultan's treasure vault, atop the Tower of Dawn," he explained. Both of us looked at him.
"How do you know that?" Farah inquired. He shrugged.
"I just know. But if we're all going together, I move pretty fast. You'd better keep up. Both of you."
"Oh, that's right, get down on the ladies! That's just real gentleman-like!" I argued. He chose to ignore me. Farah, however, was already running towards the large hole in that wall leading outside. The Prince and I quickly followed to keep up.