Sonic and the Secret Rings

IV. The Adventures of Sinbad

"Sonic!" Shahra called, grabbing my shoulder. "It is no use! Your life is tied to the flame. You cannot fight fire with fire!"

"Watch me!" I shouted, jumping and spinning onto the ifrit many more times before it swatted me away like I was a fly. Luckily, I landed on solid ground, Shahra helping me up.

"Shahra!" I shouted, pointing to the giant hand that was about to come down and squash us. "Lend me your power!"

Shahra stuck her hand up in the air and muttered, "Time Break!" and the two of us ran for the exit.

"See ya!" I yelled with a wave to the ifrit. "Shahra, get in the ring! I don't want you to get hurt out here, and I'm just going to speed through it!"

"But Sonic, you're-"

"Shahra, just do it!" I shouted, bursting away from the lava pit after Shahra disappeared. I didn't remember where all the turns were, so I had to slow down a few times, but most of the spirits were gone, so there wasn't much trouble. The only thing was-

"It's. So. HOT." I said, wiping sweat from my head for the tenth time. Shahra obeyed and stayed in the ring, and it wasn't like she would be able to make the place cool down. Otherwise, we could have beaten the Ifrit easily. 'Just use your freeze power, Shahra!'

Twists and turns made everything seem like a blur, and I just hoped that the Ifrit couldn't follow us. Then again, I was faster. And cooler!

As soon as I even saw the exit, it seemed to cool down a hundred degrees. I almost shivered, collapsing onto the cool rock as soon as I could. "Sonic...?" Shahra muttered.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, sitting up and smiling. "So where do we go next?"

"Well..." Shahra stared out into the water while she thought. "We need to find someone who would know what to do about the ifrit."

"Right," I said, thinking of where to go. We hadn't met too many people; Eggman and Tails. Both were smart in my time, but I didn't know if they would have the exact same traits that they had in the book. "All we need is a giant bucket of water."

"I think we will need a bit more than a bucket," Shahra smiled. "Perhaps Ali Baba will know something."

"Well," I shrugged, "we don't really have anywhere else to turn, so we might as well try that."

I stood and stretched, looking around with my hand over my eyes. The sun was beginning to go down, so it was at its most harsh. Still, it was nothing like the Ifrit. "Can we just go around the jungle?"

"Yes, I think so," Shahra said, also squinting into the distance. "It shouldn't take us long to get back to the Sand Oasis."

"Great, then let's get going!" I shouted, blasting off across the water.

For a while, it was just crossing along the water at a very fast speed. Shahra retreated to the ring, because she would have been in the splash zone. I didn't dare to slow down and risk extinguishing the little flame. We didn't know if it would kill me, but it's not like I was going to go for a swim anytime soon.

It wasn't long before I saw sand, which was a beautiful sight after so much water. I didn't miss a beat after reaching the desert - I just kept going and going.

"Do you remember where the town is, Shahra?" I asked.

"Turn to the right a little bit," Shahra said, not sounding too sure.

"Good thing the sun's still up," I chuckled.

"It's waning quickly," Shahra noted.

"Should leave us enough time to find the town, at least," I shrugged. "Hopefully Tails - er, whatever his name was - will know what to do."