Chapter 15
"Be careful!" the Prince warned as Farah ran ahead of us into the elevator that would take us to the top.
"Of what?" she called back, sounding confident, "Not everything is a trap, you know!" We cautiously followed her lead onto the platform. We were a little startled when it suddenly sealed itself shut and started moving. "That was easy."
"Too easy…" the Prince said, his teeth grinding together in worry and suspicion.
"While I agree with Farah that you do have a tendency to be a worry wart," I began, "I am getting some bad juju vibes here…" I drew my swords carefully and waited. I just knew something was waiting to happen… I was right.
Sand creatures appeared. Dozens of them. Enough to freak me out. Farah gasped loudly when they appeared.
"You know, not everything is a trap!" the Prince shouted mockingly as he tore his blade out.
"HOLY FREAKING CRAP!" I cried, "DO SOMETHING, DO SOMETHING!!" I had a hard time staying in flight during this battle, since the elevator was all the time moving up, so I had to keep moving up as well. It was very difficult to stay over their heads and swipe at them all mercilessly at the same time. The entire time, I was yelling things like "HOLY SHIT ON A BISKET!" or something along those lines.
Several minutes passed. They just kept coming. The elevator kept moving up. The Prince was looking a bit haggard by now, but was still up and kickin'. My wings got tired, so I had to ground myself for a while and watch my ass twice as carefully.
Another few minutes passed. They just kept on coming! I was able to fly again.
"Where are they coming from?!" Farah yelled, desperately firing arrow after arrow at the beasts.
"Prince, for the love of crap, DO SOMETHING!" I shrieked. He did something all right. He used his haste power. I didn't even see it. All I saw was a blur of white and pink as he zipped all over the place, taking down as many as he could. That little maneuver helped us a great deal.
A couple more minutes past. The battle seemed to be over. We were all really tired by now. We all breathed a HUGE sigh of relief as the Prince finished off the last one. I almost fell on the floor. I definitely got way more than my fair share of cuts and bruises in that battle. Silver blood dripped from my cuts and stained my clothes, but hell, right now, I hardly even knew they existed.
"I'M DEAD!" I shouted over-dramatically, as my muscles made me a thousand promises of pain to come. "I can't believe we're all still breathing after that!" the Prince healed at the fountain and the elevator finally stopped. He did a quick vertical run and leaped onto a lever that dropped the gates surrounding the elevator.
"Come on, Nay, let's go," the Prince said, smiling as he helped pull me off the floor.
"'Nay?'" I questioned, giving him a funny look.
"Just a knick name," he answered. I stared at him.
"...That's a stupid knick name. Can't you do any better?"
"Possibly, but I don't want to." I flashed him a glare and we hurried to join Farah on the smaller lift.
"The hourglass is nearby… I can feel it!" the Prince exclaimed as the lift took us up.
"Feel it? How?" Farah inquired, titling her head in puzzlment. He looked at her.
"I... can't explain it." At this point, I leaned over to farah and whispered, "I told you those vortexes were messing with his head…" She giggled at this. The Prince, however, rounded on her and folded his arms.
"I heard that!" I smiled back smugly.
"Yes, and what are you going to do about it, O Great One?" He didn't take his eyes off of me for a second, but I knew by the look in them what he was planning. He lunged forward in an attempt to grab me, but I jumped to the side before he could touch me. "HA! You missed me! Take that, you giver of crappy knick names!" He lunged again, but this time, caught me by the arm and, as I expected, tickled me. "GAH! UNFAIR! FOUL! CHEATER! GAH!" I squirmed and did everything in my power to get away from him, but he held tight. Poor Farah almost got knocked off because of our shenanigans, but lucky for us we reach the top level before anyone could fall off.
The Prince and I continued to wrestle one another, and Farah stood aside and watched for a moment before sighing and breaking us apart.
"Look, you two, I know you're having fun, but we really don't have time for this!" Princy and I slowly got to our feet, him still grinning and me still giggling. "The hourglass it just up there…" I think the Prince and I got the same idea in our heads, because we looked at one another and exchanged sly smiles before moving in towards the Indian Princess. "Wha... what are you doing?" she looked at us nervously and backed away. But we quickly conspired against her, tackled her and both of us started tickling her.
At first, she tried not to laugh and act serious, like she wasn't in the mood to put up with our childish notions, but after some eh, 'bribing' she came around and was laughing her head off by the time we were done with her.
"Was that too cruel, do you think?" I asked the Prince as we let her up. He shrugged. She slowly got to her feet, picking up the arrows that had fallen out of her quiver and glared at us.
"For goodness sake, you two!" she cried.
"What?" I asked innocently, my hands behind my back. She let out a frustrated groan and started up towards the hourglass. The Prince and I followed.
"There's no one here," the Prince announced as we came up the ramp.
"Huh… strange… I don't like it…" I answered.
"Now get on top of the hourglass!" Farah instructed, "Hurry!" I could've done so easily, had the Prince been trusting enough to give the dagger to me for about three seconds. But no, he went about climbing up there all on his own. As he was doing that, I couldn't help but feel a growing sense of impending doom in the air… like whomever was guarding this thing was waiting for us…
Finally, the Prince was on to top of the hourglass with the dagger in hand. I would say I felt relieved, but I didn't. I remembered this scene. The prince would have second thoughts, and hesitate long enough for the Vizier to crash the party.
"Good, now, take the dagger. Strike it into the center of the dome," Farah instructed him. I watched. He looked skeptically at the dome and started sliding the tip into the center, when suddenly he pulled it back.
"My father's army sacked your palace and captured you as a slave," he said, looking untrustingly at Farah.
"Prince!" I exclaimed.
"And you…" he glanced at me the same way, "you were also taken as a slave, yet you had nothing to do with any of this…" I fisted my hands and ground my teeth together in panic. "Both of you have every reason to hate me."
"What are you doing?!" Farah cried, looking as desperate as I was, "There's no time!"
"Prince! NO TALKY! STABITY! NOW!" I ordered, making a downward stabbing motion with my hands to emphasize my point.
"Now… you want me to trust you?" he continued. This was not good at all. He needed to stab that thing before the Vizier came.
"PRINCE, I AM AN ANGEL, DAMMIT! TRUST WHAT THE ANGEL SAYS! STABITY! DOME! HOURGLASS! REWIND! NOW! HURRY YOUR BUTT UP!" Too late.
The Vizier announced his unearthly presence with a blast of whirlwinds that knocked us all off our feet. Even I had to grab on to something to keep from flying backwards. The old geezer moved in of us.
"Give me the dagger," he growled, moving towards the fallen blade.
"The dagger!" Farah shouted desperately, clinging to the Prince's arm, "He must not get the dagger!" The Prince looked around for a moment before letting go of the column he was clinging to, still clutching Farah. The strong winds were enough to push him back, and with some luck, his hand found the daggers hilt and snatched it away from the vizier could get him grimy paws on it. Me, I tried to keep my grip on the pillar I had clung to, but the winds were just too powerful. I slipped, and just like the other two, I plummeted into the darkness.
Princy-boy landed smoothly on his feet and caught Farah in his arms before she hit the ground. I was able to give my wings several good flaps to cushion my fall and land safely on the ground. My companions looked at each other more a moment before Farah shoved her way out of his arms.
"A tomb," the Prince announced. Farah folded her arms. I knew she was about to chew him out, but I got there first. Was I mad? No, I wasn't mad. I was freaking furious.
"…Prince…" I began, trying to control my heavy breathing, trying my hardest to not completely lose my temper on him, "YOU GIVE ME ONE DAMN GOOD REASON WHY THE HELL I SHOULDN'T KILL YOU RIGHT HERE AND NOW!!!"
"You were there," Farah began, probably just as pissed as I was, "The dagger was in your hand! Why did you hesitate?!"
"You were right there!" I screamed, "RIGHT THERE! You could've fixed this whole mess! What the hell were you thinking?! You... IDIOT!!" Farah's eyes narrowed dangerously and she turned her back on him and folded her arms.
"You think you're cleverer that everybody," she continued, "But you're just like the rest of them. Those solders… all they can do it fight! Destroy!" The Prince slumped against the tomb, his face in his hands. He was definitely feeling guilty, and our anger wasn't helping him. I knew that this was how it was supposed to happen... I guess I'd been hoping too much that I could've changed things and ended this whole thing sooner.
"It was over... It was freaking over... I could've gone home and had lunch and..." At this point, I collapse over one of the tombs and groaned pathetically.
"Why did I trust you?" Farah added. But she was obviously a much more forgiving person than I was, since she softened her voice and knelt down to him. She gently lifted his chin to look him in the eye. "Why didn't you trust me?"
A sudden blackout took us all by surprise and I pulled myself off of the tomb I was half laying on. I felt better now… in fact, I felt bad. Bad about screaming at the Prince like I did… he was my friend, after all… and we had been through a great deal together…
I located where the two of them were sitting. Apparently, as an Angel, I could see much better in the dark. I quietly came over and sat with them and snuggled up to the Prince's side.
"I'm sorry…" I murmured, resting my cheek against his chest. "I didn't mean to yell at you…"
"And I didn't mean what I said," Farah added.
"No…" he muttered, "You're right. Both of you. All that's happened is my doing. I wanted honor and glory…" He inhaled shakily. "I brought this on us."
"You are brave and good," Farah insisted, "and if this tomb is to be ours, at least the dagger will be buried with us. And…" she hesitated, "we are all together."
"This has been one hell of an adventure, huh?" I mused. I suddenly noticed the Prince's accelerated breathing. So did Farah.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Nothing," he quickly lied.
"You're trembling!"
"I just don't like close spaces." Sure he didn't. He carefully pushed me off of him and stood up. "There must be some way out of here." I heard him start groping around. Farah and I automatically moved closer to each other to close the gap.
"When I was small," Farah began, "my mother taught me a secret word. She said that when I was afraid, all I had to do was speak that word and a magic door would open."
"Huh. Reminds me of my mom."
"I never told that to anyone," she finished.
"I can see why," the Prince retorted, "It's the most childish thing I've ever heard." He paused for a moment. "What was the word?"
"Kakolukiam."
"Kakolukiam…" I echoed, "Sounds like a beach resort."
"Kakolukiam," the Prince also repeated, trying out the new word for himself. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard a grinding noise behind me. Slender fingers firmly gripped my wrist and pulled me down into the now opened tomb. Farah…
Kiri: Another chappy in the bag! well, I'm sorry to say that I won't be able to update until midday now, with summer school and all... bah. But, let's cut the depressing crap and get to the FAQ!
Prince: I did it last time! I'm sick of doing it!
Mike: Meh. I'll do it.
Kiri: Ok, Mike does it.
Q: Why is Farah pulling Naomi into the magic place thingy?
A: Girls are like that. they prefer having another girl to talk to. Or at least, most girls do. so of course there would be a bit of a different bond between Farah and Naomi.
Q: Why didn't the Prince just stab the dome to begin with?!
A: Because he's an idiot who let his suspicions overpower his brain.
Prince: ...
Q: Sheesh! Naomi is scary when she's pissed!
Prince: You're telling me?!?!
Naomi: oh, I am not, you're just a big baby.
Q: so, er... Prince and Naomi seem to like to play around a lot...
A: yes, and it's becomming rather annoying. The longer they play around, the longer it takes them to do what they need to do.
Q: ...and why do you want them to finish so bad?
A: Heh. To convert Miss Goody-White-Wings over here. What else?
Naomi: HEY! YOU KEEP TEN FEET AWAY FROM ME AT ALL TIMES! YOU HEAR THAT YOU PERVERT?!
Mike: (sigh) Honestly... I have no desire at all to get involved romantically with you. I want to make you a renegade, but your being so stubborn...
Naomi: WITH GOOD REASON!
Kiri: ok, I'd better stop it here before this gets violent. Well, we're almost done, so keep the reviews comming and I'll keep on writting!