Chapter 81: Deal
Once they were high enough into the air, Sonny, Ali-Baba, and Shahra came across a group of flying sting-rays with entire buildings lodged on their backs.
"These are the Levitated Ruins," Shahra said. "Like the castle in Dinosaur Jungle, they are also the remains of ancient kingdom that existed long ago."
"So what are the creatures that are carrying those structures?" Sonny asked.
"They are Rukhs," Ali-Baba answered.
"What?" Sonny exclaimed. "I thought you said they were living bird fossils."
"Well, I didn't say they were birds," Ali-Baba responded sheepishly.
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After several minutes of searching, Sonny and Ali-Baba found a World Ring that was dark blue in color and then they eventually came to a balcony on one of the Rukhs with a large metal cage at the end of it. Inside stood a person who looked to be about Sonny's age with medium-length red hair underneath a white Keffiyeh adorned by a silver band with red jewels. He also wore silver braces on his wrists, a white vest-like shirt tied by a purple sash around his waist with matching white pants and curved red shoes with gold plating.
"Hey, Chuck," Sonny said as he and Ali-Baba approached the cage. "How'd you get here?"
"Who are you talking about?" the Chuck-lookalike snapped. "I am Sinbad, Sailor of the Seven Seas! Adventurer of Adventurers!"
"Whoa, take it easy, Sinbad," Ali-Baba said. "Sonny just mistook you for someone else."
"Ali-Baba?" the Chuck-lookalike who called himself Sinbad said with surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"Helping the blue-haired kid Sonny and his Genie friend find you," Ali-Baba replied as Shahra appeared out of Sonny's ring.
"Would you be willing to share your worldly wisdom with us, Great Adventurer?" Shahra said pleadingly.
Behind the cage, Sinbad blushed slightly. "Look, Miss, I'd like to but I'm kind of stuck in here."
Shahra and Ali-Baba examined Sinbad's cage and noticed four circular rings pulsating with green energy.
"This must be the work of Erazor Djinn," Shahra said after a pause. "If we can break the spell, then we can undo the lock!"
"I don't see why we have to help him when he could just tell us his worldly wisdom here," Sonny said folding his arms.
"If you help me, then I'll help you out," Sinbad replied.
Sonny raised an eyebrow. "Is that a deal?"
"You can take it or leave it," Sinbad said folding his arms.
"He's the only chance you've got at this point," Ali-Baba said.
"Fine," Sonny said as he sighed. "Come on, Shahra, let's find the key to this cage."
While Ali-Baba stayed with Sinbad, Sonny and Shahra searched the Levitated Ruins till they came across a large mirror with a lever-switch. After Sonny pulled the switch, the mirror rotated till it shone on the cage and broke one of the four green rings. Once they did this three more times, the door on Sinbad's cage broke allowing him to step out of the cage.
"Okay, so here's the situation," Sonny said once he and Shahra met up with Sinbad and Ali-Baba. "We're currently looking for these magic rings to stop an evil guy called Erazor Djinn, and he summoned this fire genie-thing to burn the rest of your world to ashes."
"Erazor Djinn?" Sinbad responded. "Does he happen to have purple skin and levitate a lot?"
"Yeah, that's him," Sonny answered.
"I thought so. He was leading the pirates who attacked my ship. Now did you try fighting this fire genie?"
"I was going to, but Shahra stopped me and sent us to Ali-Baba and then he told us you might know something."
Sinbad was silent for a few minutes and then he said, "Well, if this creature's made of fire then the obvious solution would be to douse it with water."
"Seriously? Just water?" Sonny said skeptically.
"If you have a better idea in mind, I would like to hear it," Sinbad replied sarcastically.
"You know for a so-called world-wide traveler, you're really not that smart."
"Oh, yeah, and what makes you think you know more than I do?"
As the two boys marched towards each other, Ali-Baba came between them.
"Hey, guys, stop it!" Ali-Baba said as he pushed Sonny and Sinbad away from each other. "This isn't going to help us stop Erazor Djinn."
"Ali-Baba's right," Shahra added. "We must concentrate on stopping Erazor Djinn, not fighting over our differences."
"Okay, then how do you propose finding enough water to douse a fire genie that's taller than a house?" Sonny asked Sinbad.
"I was getting to that," Sinbad growled as he pushed Ali-Baba aside. "Before I was taken by the Rukh, I had this mystical item called the Water Blue Ring which allowed me to control storms. Unfortunately, the pirates who attacked my ship took it from me after they locked me in the cage. If we could somehow get that ring back, we could use its power to summon enough water to put out the fire genie."
"Hmm," Sonny mused and then he held out his hand towards Sinbad. "Okay, you can count me and Shahra in."
As Sinbad took Sonny's hand, Shahra and Ali-Baba sighed with relief.
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Once they caught up to the pirates near a rocky cove, Sonny and Shahra cautiously approached the ship while Sinbad and Ali-Baba followed behind. Once onboard, Sonny noticed that all the crew members seemed to be gathering on the deck. Then before Sonny or the others could attack them, the crew members merged together into a single monstrosity that looked like a clam with crab-like feet, an ugly face, and four horns protruding from its head.
"That's Captain Bemoth!" Sinbad exclaimed. "One of the nastiest pirates of all!"
"He doesn't look so tough to me," Sonny said, and charged at the clam-like monster.
In response, Captain Bemoth teleported himself away from the ship via water and onto the rocky cove. Sonny promptly followed him, and when he managed to catch up Sonny grabbed one of the horns. After giving it several tugs, the horn broke off and Captain Bemoth howled in pain. But as soon as he recovered, Captain Bemoth took off.
"Those horns must be the source of his power," Sonny said to himself while dodging jets of water that came from Captain Bemoth's hands. "And I wouldn't be surprised if he has the Water Blue Ring."
So Sonny caught up to Captain Bemoth and tugged off the creature's other three horns with intervals of running in between. After the fourth horn, Captain Bemoth fainted and fell into the ocean along the cliff he and Sonny were running along. Sonny and Shahra looked down and to their amazement a light-blue ring with silver carvings floated up from the water and into Sonny's hands.
Unlike the previous World Rings, this one merely vibrated in Sonny's hands. "So this is the Water Blue Ring."
"It's obviously one of the seven World Rings," Shahra said. "We must get back to the castle in the Dinosaur Jungle swamp and defeat the Ifrit before it gets stronger."
"Right," Sonny responded and ran back to where Sinbad and Ali-Baba were waiting for him.
To be continued…