"Great." I muttered, looking around at the desert. "We finally find some land, and it turns out to be full of sand. Just great."

"What's wrong with that?" Shahra asked, looking at me with concern. "This is the Arabian Nights, after all. This is Sand Oasis."

"I know, I know." I replied. "I was just hoping for something more... traction friendly. I don't suppose I can wish for all the sand to turn into dirt?"

"My apologies." she bowed her head a bit. "That is a bit too big for a Genie of the Ring."

"That's fine." I chuckled. "Everyone would probably freak out if the sand suddenly turned into something else, anyway. So, Sand Oasis, huh?"

Shahra suddenly retreated into the ring, and a small, glowing red sphere started floating next to me. "Yes. The temple King Shahryar resides in is a quite a few miles north, but the Erazor Djinn's spirits may have already..."

I started to run, kicking up dust behind me. "Don't worry, I'm on it!"

I saw immediately why she called it Sand Oasis. There were little pools of water every so often that I would have to find other ways to cross. Oh, and there was sand everywhere. There would be debris somewhere that The Erazor Djinn's spirits had knocked down from the havoc they had caused that I could use to cross. If that wasn't available, I jumped on the little black and red or green spirit's heads and crossed over, running across the sand again. Did I mention there was a lot of sand...?

It wasn't too dangerous out there. I mean, there were spirits and stuff trying to kill me, sure. Heck, there were even spikes! But the peacefulness of the whole area beat that out. It seemed to diminish the amount of monsters and make the whole run seem fun and refreshing. The only thing that made the whole thing scary was the water, which I occasionally had to run across. I already hated it, but would I just instantly die if I fell in?

"Hey, Shahra," I started, "if I fell into a pool of water, would the flame burn out?"

Her reply was a soft, gloomy sigh. "Your life is bound to the fire. You are one with the fire."

"So..." I said, "that's a yes?"

"I... I think so."

I took a deep breath, taking extra care to stay away from any puddles that were in the sand.

If I could have spent more time there, I would have. The buildings had cool little arcs on them, and the windows had intricate frames built around them. The buildings were painted vibrant colors, like light blues with some of the brick showing on them. There were a lot of palm trees, and small little plants growing in planters. It would have been so much nicer if it wasn't falling apart. It wasn't even as hot as I had expected. There were even a few grind rails around, as if the book had added them when I had appeared. It made it feel slightly homey.

"Sonic, there it is!" Shahra shouted, making me look up.

The palace came into view, and it was even more amazing than any of the buildings. It had three separate segments, and golden tops on each of them. The color of the building was just tan, but even from far away, you could tell it was huge. The doorway alone probably stood several yards into the air. There was no doubt a great and glorious king lived there.

I ran even faster once I saw it. I didn't want anything to happen to King Shahryar, especially since he was the main character of the story. I wasn't sure I wanted to know what would happen if he ceased to exist.

Once we got to the path that led to the entrance, I slowed down, and Shahra appeared next to me. Two huge wooden doors stood open, inviting us inside.

The inside walls were covered with stained glass windows, but other than that and more doors, some columns, and thriving pots of plants, the inside room was pretty bare. The throne must have been further in. "Where is he?" I asked Shahra. She shrugged in response. "In fact, where is anyone? Are we too late?"

Sharha and I both turned as we heard a noise from the wall furthest from us. "Huh?" Shahra gasped.

Suddenly, from a pot, appeared none other than Dr. Eggman wearing a turban. There was no way it was anyone else. "Dr. Eggman!" I shouted. "What are you doing here? I knew this was another one of your schemes!"

"What are you talking about?" Dr. Eggman replied. "I am Shahryar, king of this land!"

"Eggman, what are you up to this time?" I repeated, walking towards him.

Shahra appeared next to Dr. Eggman to defend him. "Sonic, wait! You are making a mistake. This is him, King Shahryar!"

I was kind of shocked. "You're kidding!"

"Such insolence!" King Shahryar yelled. "Guards! Seize this spiky blue thing at once!"

I paused, bracing for some sort of impact, but no one appeared to take me away. "Where are your men, Your Highness?" Shahra asked, returning to my side.

The king sighed. "That's right. When the evil spirits came, appearing out of nowhere, everyone turned and ran. I was stuck having to hide in that jar. Some lot they are!"

"When-" Shahra started to say something, but before she could finish, the largest bird I'd ever seen came and snatched up the king. The Erazor Djinn was riding on its back. The Eggman wannabe screamed as he was flown away from his palace. It was fitting.

"Well, well." I said, staring as the Erazor Djinn rode off. "Guess that means its time for some action."

Shahra quickly retreated back into the ring, and I started to follow the bird. It had a really big shadow, so it wouldn't be hard to lose it. It looked kind of... like a pterodactyl. It had the big, bat like wings and the egg shaped head.

After escaping the palace, I ran through the cities and across rivers again, trying not to cause more damage than the spirits had already caused and keep on the tail of the bird. There were barely any people around, so I didn't have to worry about them. Hopefully, they were safely inside, waiting for this terror to end.

But when I started walking through a city to take a break, I heard a cry in one of the streets of a city. I ran toward the sound, seeing two of the spirits harassing one of the townspeople. I immediately jumped on them, letting them disintegrate or whatever they did when they 'died'.

"Thank you!" the person said. I blinked when I stood up. "I thought I was done for."

I looked down at the flame for just a second. It still stood there, weaving in the wind. Maybe it was sapping my strength and I was seeing people differently. I scratched my head. "Tails? What are you doing here, too?"

He just looked confused. "... Tails? M-my name is Ali Baba."

'Ali Baba' looked just like Tails, only he was wearing a turban and the same kind of funky Arabian clothes with the same color scheme as everyone else. "Come on, Tails, I know it's you!" I replied.

Shahra suddenly came out of the ring, facing Ali Baba with a look of genuine kindness. "I'm very sorry. He seems to have mistaken you for someone else."

"Oh, it's okay." Tails replied. "I'm still very grateful that you saved my life! I might not be very strong, but I've got some tricks up my sleeve." he paused for just a moment. "If you ever need anything in return, it would be the least I could do in order to repay you."

"Thank you." Shahra replied, even though I had my mouth open to do so. She started to fly away, so I got the message that it was time to go. She was eager to save King Shahryar. "If anything comes up, we'll be sure to call you."

I started to jog away next to her, staring back at Ali Baba. Maybe I was just wrong about them. Either way, for some reason, I was off to save someone who looked just like Eggman.

"We lost the pterodactyl thing." I said to Shahra as I went inside an dark building while trying to follow the ancient bird. I looked like a castle from the outside, but on the inside, it looked very creepy and smelled moldy. Shahra's little red light and my flame helped light the way and there were candles on the wall every so often, but it was still hard to see in front of me.

"Usually," Shahra started, "it's hard to see things that are outside when you're inside..."

My head flipped towards the red ball next to me. "You totally just sassed me!" I shouted.

"I-I was just stating a fact," she replied.

I still had a huge smile on my face that I couldn't hide. "If you say so."

I started to walk through the building, keeping my eye out for anything suspicious. Knowing the Erazor Djinn and what great friends we were, anything could be around the next corner.

It was definitely spooky inside. The walls must have taken forever to build, but I couldn't tell what the purpose of the building was. I couldn't tell what color the bricks were; from the outside, they were yellowish, but on the inside, they matched the darkness. Even next to light they looked like they had a navy blue hue. It made me shiver thinking about color-changing bricks. Why did everything have to at least seem so magical?

Along with the creepiness of the walls and floor, everything that had happened so far was weird. I couldn't help but wonder where that pterodactyl had come from. Hopefully, it was just another spirit the Erazor Djinn had conjured up for the king.

"Hey, Shah-" a column of fire suddenly popped up next to me, causing me to recoil and fall backwards. In front of me, a whole new obstacle course popped up with fire, spikes, and giant ledges to leap over. "Woah!" I shouted out as the floor came out from under me. I grabbed the ledge in front of me just in time, getting onto it and rubbing the dust from my hands.

I started to run, skidding under some streams of fire, dodging spikes, and jumping over whatever I needed to. "Did the Erazor Djinn do this?" I asked Shahra as I ran across a wall to get over a chasm.

"I don't think these were here before..." she replied. I was just glad she was safe inside her little glowing bubble.

I nodded, continuing to run. At one point, I got distracted by some drawings on the wall, noticing some fire spewing overhead just in time to slide under it. "Pay attention!" Shahra scolded me.

"Sorry," I replied.

There were so many corners in the building that it made me dizzy. I had to slow down to keep the world from spinning. There were several close calls with the flames, but I was too fast for them. I would have just jumped out of a window, but when I took a quick peek outside, all I saw was water.

Eventually, the fire ceased, but then I had to contend with spinning balls of spikes. They were floating in the air along with several of the evil spirits that the Erazor Djinn seemed to be friends with. This probably wasn't something that was naturally in the book.

"I think we're getting close to the outside," Shahra told me. "From there, we'll have to find where the Erazor Djinn went."

I nodded, focusing on the obstacles in front of me. I ran up a set of stairs, narrowly missing another column of fire. I jumped up and had barely enough time to slide under another blast of fire. But there was no time to pause and collect my bearings. Plus, Shahra was right: I could see an entrance to the outside. After a few more jumps and another close slide across the ground, I could see the sun again.

After crossing a bridge over a large body of water, I came to a large area of sand. Besides a few sad-looking trees, all you could see was sand. I plopped down to the ground, resting for a minute. But it didn't last long.

"Sonic, look!" she called, the ground starting to rumble. I quickly stood and looked up at what seemed to be a whirlwind in the sand. I couldn't be that lucky, though. Something uglier than the Erazor Djinn came out of it. And that's not an easy thing to be. It was shaped like a scorpion, but had its eyes on some of its joints. It was purple and blue, and its legs were sharpened so finely that they could have stabbed through anything. Gross.

"Whoa!" I shouted, taking a bit of a step back. "I take it that's not something you see everyday."

"It must be a monster the Erazor Djinn summoned," Shahra explained.

I looked to Shahra. "Isn't there something you can do about it with your magic?"

Her face took on a gloomy look. "I'm so sorry, Sonic. My magic is no match for that of the Erazor Djinn."

I smiled, trying to cheer her up. She tried so hard to save this world that a single thing had the power to destroy. "Okay, then. Guess I'll have to do this the old fashioned way!" I paused for a moment, trying to see if she would perk up. But she stayed as she was. "And hey, don't look so glum, Shahra! I'll have you smiling by the end of all of this. And that's not an order from me as your master. That's a promise from me to you."

I held out my pinky finger towards her, and after she hesitated for a second, she wrapped her finger around mine. "Yes..." She said, trying to smile. "All right."

"All right, Shahra!" I said. "Let's do it!"

I turned to see the scorpion jump out of the pit and onto some sand. After a few seconds, Shahra went back into the ring and I started to run towards it, but it ran away from me. It was pretty fast at walking backwards.

The scorpion-thing tried to stab me multiple times with its sharpened legs, and I was too busy dodging it to figure out what I needed to do. "Sonic, the eye on its back is its weak spot!"

"Yeah," I scoffed, "but how do I get up there?"

"Use your homing attack!" she replied.

I assumed she meant to use it on the other eyes, so I waited for the scorpion to try and strike me with one of its legs. Then I jumped on two of its eyes, bashing the eye on its back.

"Yes!" she shouted. "Do it again!"

I waited again for the perfect moment, striking its eyes once it tried to stab me. Once I did, though, it turned around like it was running away. I almost shouted out with astonishment by the eye I saw on its back; its eyelids were covered in teeth, so it kind of looked like it was eating the eyeball. Oh, and the eyeball also came off the scorpion's body.

Once it did fly off, I was a bit too shocked to even move. "Sonic, what are you doing?" Shahra asked. Without replying, I hit the eye and it went back to its body. It did it again, trying to shoot purple shadows at me. I jumped over a row of them, hitting the eye again. "Will this ever end?" I asked, half to the scorpion and half to Shahra. "This is gross."

With the urge of never wanting to see this thing again, I jumped on its eye, then onto the one on its back. I jumped back as it seemed to glow with light then dissolve into a black shadow.

"Sorry," I said to the scorpion thing, "but you were in my way."

Once the shadows all disappeared, something started to glow. Shahra flew toward it, gasping as she noticed what it was. "Would you look at that!" 

I looked at the bright yellow ring. "This must be..."

"Yes," Shahra replied, "this must be one of the seven World Rings the Erazor Djinn spoke of."

Shahra reached down for it, but her hand seemed to go through the ring. "What?" she seemed stunned. "I can't pick it up!"

I hesitated for just a moment before reaching for it, and when I finally wrapped my hand around it, it felt almost like a bolt of lightning rushed down my arm. I cried out, grasping my arm with my other hand. Then it stopped. I stared at the ring, trying to figure out what had just happened.

"When darkness descends upon the Arabian Nights-" Shahra suddenly said, "-the legendary blue hedgehog from another world shall come."

"Me?" I asked. "Legendary? You're kidding, right?" There was something strange about what she was saying, though, like she was reciting something.

"When the seven rings that control the world are gathered," she continued, "the world between the worlds shall open. But the life of the collector of the rings shall be offered up in sacrifice as the key for that control. That is what is written in the newest chapter of the Arabian Nights."

"Wait a minute," I replied, the shock of the word 'sacrifice' settling in. "I'm supposed to be a sacrifice?"

"That I cannot say for sure." Shahra explained, "But I do believe that these World Rings hold some sort of mystery. And I think we need to collect them all to get to the bottom of this mystery." The ring suddenly disappeared from my hands, and I looked at Shahra. "I'll hold the ring for you," she said.

I looked at her with uncertainty, but saw my flame and thought about what the Erazor Djinn had said when I had first met him. I didn't know if I could give them to him. Who knew what power the rings actually held? Just holding it had felt overwhelming. "Well, considering I still have this arrow in my chest to worry about... I don't really have a choice but to collect these things, right?"

"I'm sorry," Shahra said quickly, "This is all my fault that this happened to you."

"Hey, don't worry about it." I told her, "Besides, don't you know how fast I am? Time may fly, but I'm still faster! Now, c'mon!"

I started to run, with Shahra following me outside of the ring. Hopefully, we could save the king and stop the destruction of the story before things got completely out of hand.