In the distance, a jungle was starting to make the way harder and harder to see. Coming closer and closer, I didn't expect what I saw. "Well..." I whistled, "this wasn't one of the thousand somethings I was expecting to see in the Arabian Nights..."
It looked like we were in an entirely new land, stepping from a time machine. I looked behind me, and instead of the sandy desert we had just been in, a vast land of trees, weird plants, and dinosaurs covered the land. Yes, dinosaurs. "I'm not sure this is supposed to be in the Arabian Nights..." Shahra told me. "Perhaps this is a side effect that happened once the Erazor Djinn started wiping the pages away."
"I mean, don't get me wrong," I replied, "this is neat. But it is... weird."
As we started walking again, we realized just how many dinosaurs there were. There were all sorts of varieties; some had long necks, some had a stronger build, a few looked like the pterodactyl the Erazor Djinn had summoned, and a few looked like a mix of all of them. I looked carefully for anything that looked dangerous, but everything kept to itself.
The kinds of plants were astounding, too. The trees created shady canopies for the dinosaurs to eat. There were bushes that looked like mini palm trees, and trees that held all sorts of different fruit for the animals to eat. Vines seemed strewn across the ground everywhere, growing along with the various types of moss. I had never seen such huge, vivid flowers. Some of them were even taller than me!
I wasn't paying attention while we were walking, more looking at the various dinosaurs and plants, and nearly fell off a cliff. I was able to come to a stop before that happened, though, Shahra appearing next to me. She looked over the edge, then back at me. "There is quite a bit of water down there..."
"So, if the fall hadn't killed me, I would have drowned?" I asked.
"Probably."
More water appeared here and there, as I ran along the edge of the cliff, making me much more wary of my surroundings. The dinosaurs were still minding themselves, so there wasn't much to worry about them. The leaves from the mountainous trees made the sun bearable, making the sun sometimes disappear for long periods of time. The sky was cloudless, though, so there was no hiding under the shade of a fluffy, shaped cloud.
Most of the way wasn't as scary or treacherous as it looked. The major problem was that we had no idea where we were going, so we continued blindly into the trees, which only seemed to be getting thicker. At one point, it would all have to end, but it seemed like it was going on forever.
At one point, I came to a stop to rest. "You can come out now, Shahra," I told her.
"Wait..." she replied, not coming out to join me and sit.
A roar suddenly erupted through the jungle, making the trees bend along with it. It was as if Shahra had known it was coming. I sensed something behind me, my ears flattening and eyes widening. Its skin was tan, a huge horn on its snout. It was one of the only dinosaurs that stood on two legs. It sniffed a few times, and for a moment, I thought it would just go away if I stood still. After all, all the other dinosaurs didn't want to eat me.
"Sonic?" Shahra's voice sounded like it was shaking.
"Um, yes?" I replied, slowly walking away.
"Run!" she yelled, and within less of a second, I followed her orders, the dinosaur on my trail. I looked back constantly in order to gauge how fast I had to go. I was still tired from running through the jungle, so this dinosaur was a challenge.
"I thought they would all be friendly!" I told her.
"Don't pet this one!" she shouted, retreating to the ring.
"That's totally going down as joke number two!" I shouted with a laugh, running through the foliage as fast as I could without running into a tree or rock. I didn't think Shahra could drag me away from the dinosaur before it would eat me. The dinosaur wasn't gaining, but it was only barely falling behind. One wrong step and I would be a small snack for it.
"Shut up!" she shouted, flaring from the ring and throwing a rock at the dinosaur, quickly retreating to the ring.
The dinosaur barely seemed to notice it, stopping only for a moment. "That's the best you can do?" I asked, coming closer and closer to what looked like the end of the jungle. The cliff in front of me led to nothing for what seemed like miles below it. Then it turned into even more jungle, the trees thicker and less dinosaurs to eat me. I considered jumping off into the waterfall that fell into a pond below, but decided it was too risky. "Turn!" Shahra shouted, and I did what she said, jumping over another skinny river and grabbing the ledge.
"Does it ever give up?" I asked, wiping sweat from my forehead.
"Just keep going!" she shouted, her voice sounding desperate. I wondered what would happen to her if the dinosaur got to me.
"What do you think I'm doing?" I replied, tripping on a root. I looked back, the dinosaur still in pursuit. I scrambled up, continuing to run. "Can you figure out something before I run out of breath? Or do I have to wish for it?"
"To your right," she told me. "There's a cliff you can run up. It should be large enough that the dinosaur can't follow you."
"But no promises."
"Yes."
I sped even faster, trying to get to the wall. It seemed like ever since the dinosaur appeared, every other life form disappeared. Once I reached the wall, I paused, taking a deep breath. Then I ran up the wall, hoping I wouldn't trip up on a rock or something.
The wall was larger than I had thought, but by the time I had realized that, it was too late to go back. There was no waterfall crashing down this one, so that wasn't there to make me more nervous. "Almost there." Shahra told me, making me look down at how high I had gone. The dinosaur had come to the wall, nearly crashing into it.
"Whew!" I sighed, falling onto the back. "Let's do it again!" I joked. I didn't really want to. At least, for a little while. "I haven't been this winded in a long time."
"Sonic!" Shahra shouted, pointing to something in the sky.
"What now?" I asked, getting up. Another roar ran through the air, but this one sounded much more like a screech. I looked up in the air to see Dr. Eggman, or, King Shahryar, hanging from the mouth of the pterodactyl.
"Save me!" he screamed. At least it sounded like Eggman sounding desperate for my help. After a hopeful jump, I spun into a ball and tore King Shahryar from the mouth of the pterodactyl, letting the king fall to the ground.
After he wiped the dust from his pants, his face seemed to redden as he watched me reach the ground. "How dare you?" He asked. "I am the king! Must you be so rude?"
With the slightest smile on my face, I shrugged. "Sorry! My bad!"
"Your highness," Shahra asked, "where did that spirit go?"
"It was as I feared." King Shahryar's face looked grave and he pointed somewhere. "He's gone to that castle over there. It seems that more minions are being assembled there."
"There's a castle now?" I asked, looking towards his finger. Surely enough, across a small ocean, there was a big, glorious castle up ahead. It was certainly like turning the pages of a book. Everything changed quickly.
"It's a relic from an ancient kingdom..." Shahra explained. We both looked at it, and I couldn't help but marvel at it. I could only see the shadow, but it looked even larger than King Shahryar's castle. It had the same type of build, but even if it was only the shadow, I could tell that it was starting to fall apart.
"Let's go, Shahra," I told her, wanting to get the responsibility of King Shahryar off my back.
The jungle looked cool. I'll admit that.
But it was getting old, fast.
It took forever to get out of the foliage that shaded us from the sun. It felt like we were going so slowly and carefully it hurt. I complained constantly. It wasn't exactly fun. At one point, I fell through an old pitfall, a clump of vines keeping me from falling and breaking something. However, I turned and twisted so much, trying to escape, that I just ended up becoming a tangled mess and looking like a sea monster. Shahra had to help me get out of that mess.
Other than that, it was basically smooth sailing. It wasn't too far from the 'relic' Shahra was navigating us to, but the caution we had to take made it take longer. We had to sneak around a t-rex and climb down a steep cliff. Oh, and there were just about a billion evil spirits we had to defeat. We also had to find a few detours because of the streams; some were too thick and deep to get through. I was happy that Shahra decided not to make fun of me for not being able to swim.
There was something that made up for the long journey, however.
We were walking around because Shahra had told me not to run. Every time I tried to run, the ring would tighten on my finger, and I would have to stop and rub my hand. "Do you really have to be so careful?" I asked her.
"Sonic, this mission is incredibly important." She emerged from the ring, and her eyes were so pleading it was hard to disobey her.
"I know," I answered, "but there's nothing around. Look! We haven't even seen a sign of life besides trees since we ditched Egghead.
"Sonic, act like the world is at stake for once, please."
I took in a deep breath of air, looking around. "But that's no fun."
She only folded her arms and stared at me.
"Fine, fine," I sat up and straightened my quills. "Which way now?"
I couldn't get an answer out of Shahra. She was staring at something, barely blinking.
"Shahra, what is it?" I waved a hand in front of her face. "Are you okay?"
She only continued to stare, so I followed her gaze, going towards the bundle of grass she was looking at. "Sonic..."
"Would you look at that..." I muttered, stepping forward.
"It's another one of the World Rings." Shahra said, the two of us closing in on it.
This one was yellow, and looked just like the other one. Weird inscriptions were carved into it, and it was glowing. I grabbed it, feeling a shock travel through my body. "This power!" I shouted, gritting my teeth.
"This must be what has driven the spirits mad," Shahra commented. "I think. It is only recently that they've started behaving this way."
"Shahra..." I started, shifting my feet. "As a Genie of the Ring, can I ask you for a favor?"
She bowed as if I was a king, smiling as she did so. "O, Master, thy wish is my command."
"Do you think..." I took a deep breath. "That you could take this Judgement thing out of my chest for me?"
She sighed, closing her eyes and moving away slightly. "I am so sorry, Sonic. I cannot do that."
"Hey, Shahra, cheer up." I grabbed her arm to get her attention. "It's okay. Don't sweat it. I just thought it wouldn't hurt to ask. It would have been nice if it had worked, but... we can still do this."
"Yes," she said quietly, avoiding my gaze. I felt bad for even asking.
In order to get to the castle, I had to cross a really big bridge. With Shahra's approval, I ran across it, watching the building come closer and closer.
"Ooo!" I said once we were at the outside the building, suddenly raising my hand into the air. "I want to name this one!"
"What?" Shahra asked, appearing from the ring and looking at me as if I was crazy.
"I want to name it!" I told her. "I want to name it! Y'know, like, Sand Oasis, and we didn't name the jungle... but you named the Sand Oasis!"
"Sonic, it already-" Shahra started to explain.
"Please?" I asked, my hand still raised in the air. "It's got to start with evil... so evil something..."
"It seems to be a factory," Shahra told me. "I am not sure what it is supposed to produce, though..."
"Hmm... evil... evil... I've got it!" I continued, ignoring her. I pounded my fist into my hand. "Evil Foundry! You said it was a factory!"
"Can we be serious now?" Shahra's arms were folded, and she looked extremely annoyed.
"You were making jokes earlier," I reminded her. "What happened?"
"This place..." she scanned it over, putting her hand on the structure. The outside looked just as incredible as King Shahryar's castle had, but in a darker, more old way. It was massive and incredible - yet something like out of a story book. It looked like the gray, boring bricks on the outside were thick and would have been impossible to break into. "It is warm on the inside."
"Oh, man, I was expecting, 'this place holds some strange energy.'" I told her. "That's not as exciting."
"No, just feel the ground," Shahra told me blankly. I touched the ground with my hand, and it was rather warm.
"Let's just see what's on the inside," I said, walking up the steps to the entrance. It wasn't as grand an entrance as the King's; it was rather closed off. No magnificent door opened the way to the inside. The way inside was just a small, rectangular hole.
The inside stopped me in my tracks and left me at a loss for words. Shahra had been right; it was a factory. Tanks of some sort stood along walls, and bars hung along the giant ceiling. Inside some vents, fire was boiling. Windows let light in, but there weren't that many. Wallpaper was beginning to peel off the walls, as if the decor was just now realizing it wasn't a castle anymore. The mere size of the room had been what stopped me in my tracks. It seemed to go on for miles; I couldn't see the end of it. For as far as I could see, evil spirits had taken over the Evil Foundry, standing on top of boxes or just floating around lazily.
"Shahra," I called, looking around the room uneasily, "run something by me - how does a factory in the days of the book work?"
"Factories are rare in these days," Shahra said. "In fact, I am surprised this is a factory. This used to be an unused castle. An ancient relic. It used to be empty inside, not with lava flowing through it. And to answer your question, I am not entirely sure..."
"So someone's taken over the place?" I asked.
"That is something I don't know," Shahra confessed. "But with the spirits inside, I would not be surprised if the Erazor Djinn is involved."
"And you think there's lava inside?" I glanced at a spirit that seemed to be looking me in the eye. It sent a chill down my spine.
"Most likely," Shahra answered. "I wonder why the spirits have gathered here. Maybe..."
"Maybe there's a world ring!" I shouted, watching to make sure I hadn't disturbed the spirits.
"I was going to say or something even more dangerous," she finished. "Sonic, you need to be careful."
"Aw, you made me be cautious in the jungle," I hunched over, as if I was disappointed. Which I was. "Can I at least run?"
"I will be very disappointed if you fall into any lava," she seemed to be resisting a smile, making me smile.
"I'll do my best!" I said, holding out my hand for her to go into the ring. Once she had, I started to run, jumping onto the black and green spirit that had been staring at me. "That's for being a stalker!" I shouted, continuing on. I looked back, just to be completely sure.
I came to a spirit that was unfamiliar. It was like a golem that had been made out of the barrels that were crowded around the room. "Hi, ugly!" I said before jumping into him a few times. He fell over and didn't move. I waited a few seconds to make sure he wouldn't get up and follow me, then went on my way.
After going up some stairs, I nearly ran into a bunch of tanks. I didn't know what was in them, but I wasn't sure I wanted to find out. If it was gasoline, I could blow the whole place up with just one tank. I stayed far away from any containers I found.
Evil spirits were everywhere. There were some floating, some sitting around, some hiding, and some ready to charge at me. Every time they attempted something, they failed. They all seemed to do the same thing. Sometimes, the bigger ones were a little harder, but I found that bashing the tanks into them would do the trick. I wondered what the spirits used to be. Were they completely innocent, or did they have some sort of will? If the Erazor Djinn was commanding them against their will... the thought made me even more angry at him. Why did he want the rings, anyway? Still, it wasn't like I had a choice. At this point, I would die if I even thought about not collecting them.
For a long time, I seemed to be going in circles in the relic-factory-castle. Everything looked the same. There were the same rugs, same torches, and I swear, even the walls looked the same. They seemed to have the same cracks in the bricks. The paintings even looked similar. They seemed to be of royalty, women and men alike. I looked for King Shahryar on the wall, but he never showed up. Maybe it was just ancient kings. Or maybe he was a bad king.
"Shahra, this place is ginormous," I said. She didn't answer, which concerned me, but I left her alone for a bit. I still felt bad for asking her to take the arrow out. I should have known she wouldn't have been able to. The Erazor Djinn was far more powerful than her. Most beings in the universe, apparently. I just hoped I was more powerful than him.
Eventually, I noticed the floor going downhill. I was walking down a hill, wary of traps. There hadn't been many before, but if I had learned anything here, it was that something could sneak up on you in a second. If there were spirits and the sort, I would have gone full blast, but a hall full of nothing made me suspicious. It was a good thing I wasn't going at my top speed; a door suddenly came out and whacked me in the face.
"Sonic, are you okay?" Shahra asked. I swore I could hear a hint of laughter from her, and I rolled my eyes.
Rubbing my forehead, I told her, "Never better. It is hot in here, though."
"It certainly is," she replied. "It seems to be getting hotter as you go downhill."
"You aren't going to evaporate, are you, Shahra?" I asked, looking at the heat waves that were forming in the air.
"Ha-ha," she laughed dryly, the little red ball that was her bobbing up and down.
I sighed, then wiped the sweat off of my face. The flame didn't seem to make me invulnerable to the heat. "I have to agree with you," I said, walking down the hall even more carefully, "I hope I don't die in the lava, too, Shahra. This heat isn't fun."