Chapter 12

"Look a crack!" Farah chirped as we exited the Observatory.

"Wait!" the Prince stopped her, "Let's see where this corridor goes." I smiled. I knew where it lead, alright. That is, after all the deadly traps. The prince walked to the corner, and to his surprise, traps sprung to life. He didn't even need to look twice to know that Farah had no chance of getting through this way. "Ok, you can take the crack." Farah, however, was several steps ahead of him and was already slipping her skinny frame into the crack. A moment later, she emerged at the balcony at the far end of the hall.

"I'm up here!" she called to us.

"Try pulling that lever!" the Prince called. She did, and it opened the gate at the other side. I gave my wings a good hard flap and lightly punched the Prince in the shoulder.

"Meet you there." I winked and easily flew right over the traps. Once we were both at the end of the hall, we turned the corner and stopped, seeing Farah at one end of a collapsed balcony.

"Do you think I can jump it?" she called to us.

"Well, normally, I wouldn't chance it, but since this is a special case, then what the hell!" I answered.

"Go ahead and try!" the Prince agreed, "What's the worst that can happen?"

"She falls and kills herself," I replied cheerfully. He just glared at me. "What? Only answering your question!" But Farah didn't fall and kill herself. She leapt through the air and landed safely on the other side.

"There you go!" the Prince said, sounding relieved. After that, we went through another hallway, and then we came to another one. Princy quickly pulled the switch there. "We'll meet you on the other side of that gate!" he called to Farah.

"Be careful!"

"You be careful!"

I simply flew to the other side. The Prince had some difficulty, considering that one false step and he would be cut clean in three pieces by those huge knives, but he got through. Once out, we found ourselves in another courtyard. There were more monsters there. The Prince, of course, quickly pulled out his sword and the dagger, and I started to take out my own, when something caught my eye. I quickly looked…

Black wings. Mike was here.

I felt that familiar wave or terror rise in my chest as I stared at him. I couldn't make out ever feature, since he was way up on a high rooftop, but I knew he was watching me, his arms folded, that taunting smirk of his on his face.

"Naomi!" the Prince suddenly shouted, snapping me back to reality. "Behind you!" I whipped around just in time to see the Prince ram into one of the sand creatures that had come up behind me, ready to take me out while I was distracted. I just stood there and blinked as he took the soldier down and absorbed his sand into the dagger. "Be more careful!" he barked at me. I would've said something right back to him, but I remembered Mike. I whirled around again, expecting him to still be there… he was gone.

I knew why he was there. He was giving me a message. He was telling me that he was there, watching me. He saw every move I made, and was waiting in silence for the right moment to get another crack at converting me. He wanted me to know. He wanted me to know exactly what he was doing to that I would feel vulnerable and start looking over my shoulder at every turn. He wanted me to know that he was waiting for me to take one wrong step so he could strike. He was trying to intimidate me. And by far, it was working.

The whole rest of the time, I felt exposed. With the knowledge that Mike was around, I couldn't help but be overly aware of my surroundings. With the adrenaline rush, though, the battle went smoothly, and while the prince started climbing to find a way to open the gate so Farah could get through, I made quick work of the birds that were perched there so he wouldn't have to deal with them.

"What are you doing?" Farah cried from her position behind the gate, after watching the Prince do a few jumps and whatnot.

"I don't know!" he answered her, trying to keep his balance on the beam he was standing on, "I'm making this up as I go!"

"Well, can you make it up a little faster? I'd like to get out of the open as soon as possible," I encouraged, trying to keep the nervous shake out of my voice. It figures it didn't work, because the Prince still heard it.

"Why? What's wrong?" he asked just before he leapt from the beam to the balcony.

"Eh… uh… nothing…" I tried, compulsively looking around again. He folded his arms and gave me an 'I-know-that-you're-lying-so-why-don't-you-just-shut-up-and-tell-me-the-truth-already' look.

"You're a horrible liar, Naomi. Do you realize that?" I swallowed the lump in my throat.

"Nothing… I just…" I came a bit closer to him. "Mike." He looked at me, then nodded in understanding.

"Very well." Yeah, so far, that guy had me scared shitless. The whole way, I was almost on top of the Prince, silently encouraging him to hurry up so I could get my butt inside and not feel like a canary at a cat adoption shelter.

The second the gate opened, I was in there faster than anyone could say 'Prince wears a dress.' I hunched against the wall and waited as patiently as I could for the others to catch up, and when they did, I was the first one to zip down the hall.

"What's gotten in to her?" I heard Farah asked.

"I don't know. I suppose she's just anxious to get there," the Prince answered. At that point, I almost turned back and hug tackled him. He was keeping it all a secret! And for me, nonetheless! The big lug… That definitely constituted a big ol' hug later on, or maybe even a kiss on the cheek. I'll just put that on my 'to-do' list right after 'figure out what the hell all this Angel business is' and 'stop old geezer from taking over the world.'

"Look! That's the bridge to the Tower of Dawn!" Farah exclaimed, pointing. The only problem was, to get there, fighting Sand creatures was involved.

"Yeah, but you see that?" I interrupted, pointing across the gap and the oblivious monsters. "These guys are everywhere anymore! Isn't there a faster way to get rid of them? Doesn't anyone have a machine gun around here?"

"A what?"

"Never mind," I sighed, "Let's go, Prince." The two of us jumped across the gap. Farah loaded her bow as we drew our swords. The battle was tougher this time around, mostly because we had very limited space to fight. I was getting better at fighting. Unlike my first battle, when all I did was run around, screaming, waving my weapon around like it was on fire. No, now I was actually facing the enemy, haphazardly dodging blows and landing some of my own. I still sucked, but I guess all that watching the Prince were paying off somewhat. That's something, at least.

After the battle, the three of us leapt the gaps in the bridge and headed for the close gate, which was opened just slightly by rubble. Farah slid under it easily.

"I'll see if I can find a way down!" she told us. Now was my chance. I nudged the Prince in the side.

"Hey, thanks," I said, keeping my voice low.

"For what?" he asked.

"Not telling Farah about… you know."

"Oh, that. I figured you would want to keep it quiet."

"Well, I think it was very considerate of you."

"You're welcome."

"I can't find a switch!" Farah shouted at us, "but there's another gate on the other side!" I groaned.

"Alright, stay there. We'll climb around," the prince answered. He leaped off the side of the bridge and grabbed hold of a bar there and swung up to the beam. From there, he shimmied around, walked out to the other beam and jumped to the other bridge. I just flew over.

"There's a staircase!" Farah pointed out when we were on solid ground, "I'll meet you two in the courtyard down below!" With that, she hurried to the stairs.

"Be careful on the stairs!" the Prince called after her. He looked at me. "Let's get going."

"Righto." Not in the mood to walk, I took to the air and started to fly across.

"Hey, wait!" the prince called after me, running across the bridge. He would've caught up to me and we would've continued on… except I'd completely forgotten where we were. We were already eighty percent of the way through the game.

The bridge started crumbling and broke right under the prince's feet. Unfortunately, he saw it too late. He started to turn and jumped in an attempt to grab the edge, but missed and started plummeting down into the prison.

"Prince!" I shrieked and dive-bombed in for the rescue. I was almost certain that I would miss and he'd fall, but by some miracle, my fingers gripped his wrist. "I've got you!" I yelled, my wings straining against the sudden addition of weight. It was hopeless. I could hardly keep myself in the air for very long… how in the world could I expect to stay in the air with him hanging onto me?

"The ledge!" he exclaimed, sounding panicked, "get to the ledge!" I struggled in the air, trying my hardest to move in any direction except down, but his weight was fast becoming overwhelming.

"I can't! You're too heavy!" I cried desperately, praying to whoever would listen for help.

"Try!"

"I can't hold you! The weight! It's too much!"

"Naomi!" I could feel myself slipping. My grip on his arm was tight, but my wings were already screaming for rest. With my last bit of energy, I flapped them as hard as I could towards the edge of the broken bridge. I didn't get far, though, and my energy quickly drained. I couldn't stand anymore. He was going to fall, regardless, and I could either let go and save myself, or try to save him to the very end of my strength. I only had a split second to decide… and I choose the latter.

Unable to hold up any longer, my wings give up the gun. We fell. Together, we plummeted down… down… down… then we hit ground. Somehow, the prince managed to stay conscious until that large rock slapped him on the back, but as for me, well, I blacked out almost immediately.

Kiri: Holy crap, peoples! You all aren't going to beleive what happened over the past two days!

Naomi: I'm tired! Can't we just go home now?

Kiri: No, we still haven't finished the last chapter yet!

Naomi: Whhhyyy?

Kiri: anyways, I'm almost completely done with this first part of the story. Al I need to do is fine tune them and finished the last battle and it's all done!

Prince: Then can we take a break?

Kiri: No.

Naomi: Aw come on, Kiri! We're all exhausted! You've worked us totally ragged! Give us a rest already!

Kiri: Ugh. Fine, if y'all are gonna whine about it...

Naomi: Thank you!

Kiri: Anyways, who wants to do the FAQ this time?

All: (prolonged groans)

Kiri: (rolls eyes) oh fine. I'll do it. lazy peepes...

Q: Ok, Mike is starting to become freaking scary.

A: I know. He's just being a jerk at this point, trying to scare the crap out of Naomi.

Naomi: And so far, IT'S WORKING!

Mike: aw, you know you love it.

Naomi: ...get away from me.

Q: Er... 'Prince wears a dress'?

Prince: I DO NOT!

A: ok, no, he doesn't, but that would be comedy GOLD if he did.

Naomi: ... not a bad idea... (eyes Prince)

Prince: DON'T YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!

Naomi: (snickering)

Q: Naomi and the Prince seem to be getting closer...

A: That doesn't tell anything! It could just be close friendship! Ha ha!

Naomi: I with you would just spil it... I'm tired of all the secrets.

Kiri: Well, I'm not! So there! Ha! But on another note... THANK YOU ALL FOR THE REVEIWS!!! I LOVE YOU GUYS! (cries)

Mike: Ugh... the crying... well, here's my note to them. MAKE SURE YOU ALL FREAKING REVIEW! IT TOOK US FOREVER TO SHUT HER UP THE LAST TIME! MY EARS ARE STILL RINGING FROM THAT!

Kiri: oh, it wasn't that bad...and don't be so mean... you'll scare them away...

Mike: Whatever.

Kiri: but I agree. Reviews make me happy and inspire me to write more! Even if they're just one line of 'update soon' it still makes me happy! so, until the next chappy!