Back in 2012 I made a little Christmas present for Banmaixanh (whose wonderful work you can read here: u/3467880/Banmaixanh) she has permitted me to share her present with all of you and is even translating it into Vietnamese! Before you read I would like to point out that all the stories our crew comes across are actually vietnamese folktales, the only thing I did was alter them a little to fit into this frame.
The wind whispered across the waves, making them crest with white foam before tumbling down again. A little brook gargled merrily on its way downhill. A well accepted a wooden bucket into its depths, and returned it filled with clear, fresh water. Thuy Tinh, the god of water was looking for something…
The 18th Hung King had a daughter, she was his only child and very precious to him. She was said to be beautiful and kind- the king could not part with her for any man who he deemed unworthy. Thuy Tinh wanted to make the princess My Nuong his wife. There was just one little obstacle: the king and his daughter would not be able to recognise the drip-drop of falling rain as conversation; they wouldn't consider a wave lapping around ankles to be a lover's caress… No, he would need a human body to woo the princess with.
So all across his domain Thuy Tinh looked for the man who would please My Nuong's eye, who had more seawater than blood in his veins and whose spirit was large and strong enough to encompass Thuy Tinh without dying- he didn't want to present his princess with a zombie after all.
There- his eye fell on a handsome youth at the tiller of a small vessel sailing in the direction of the princess even now. That had to be a sign. It was the work of a moment to get the sailor into the water and when the man next opened his eyes, it was Thuy Tinh who looked out of them.
"Sinbad!" Doubar roared as he watched a huge wave envelop his younger brother and drag him off the deck.
Rongar, from high up on the mast didn't hesitate a moment but dove in after the captain even as Maeve, Firouz and Bryn came running up from the hold. Ever the consummate sailor Doubar had grabbed the tiller.
"Doubar! What happened? Where's Sinbad?" Maeve asked.
"Trim the sails! We've got to go back! Sinbad went overboard, Rongar jumped in after him!" Doubar hollered out order, almost capsizing the ship in his haste to go back to the spot where Sinbad and Rongar had gone overboard.
Maeve scrambled up into the mast to tie off the sails that Firouz and Bryn were pulling up as fast as they could. They needed to drop speed and fast.
"Dermott has found Rongar, he's circling over him now," Bryn said as loud as she could through gritted teeth as she pulled the ropes as quickly as she could.
But when they got there Rongar was still alone, shaking his head before diving under again.
"Well, where is he? He can't just have disappeared!" Doubar said angrily, trying to clamber over the railing himself but hindered by Firouz and Bryn who were holding on to him on either side.
"It has to be magic Doubar, the sea is as calm as I've ever seen it, there's no way Sinbad could've gone overboard in this if he wasn't helped along," Bryn explained.
"We'd best follow the current; maybe whatever took him has released him just as quickly…" Firouz said.
"We can't stop looking already!" Doubar said angrily shaking Firouz off only to be grabbed on again.
Rongar had come up for air again, Firouz just saw his eyes widen when another big splash upset the waters around him. Maeve had dove in from up in the mast as well. Quickly Rongar returned to the deep, if something happened to Maeve while she tried to rescue Sinbad, the captain would have all their heads.
It took an hour before Rongar had finally convinced Maeve to give up looking- and even then it was exhaustion more than reason that made her accept his help in clambering up the rope the others had thrown over the side.
Doubar sat with his head in his hands on deck, Bryn sat next to him, trying to support him but the man most resembled a rock onto himself.
"I've calculated a course based on top and bottom currents and their relative strengths. I believe following this course gives us the best chance of finding Sinbad," Firouz said, waving his papers full of calculations in the air.
"I need half sails and everyone who can stay on their feet up in the crow's nest to look out for him. Please tell Dermott to fly high and to keep his eyes peeled. He'll be able to see the captain before any of us," Firouz said, untying the tiller and taking it up himself.
Rongar dragged his tired limbs up the mast and untied the sails while the two sorceresses took the ropes on the deck to give Firouz the half-sail he'd asked for.
Doubar dejectly handed Maeve two blankets which she stuck into her belt before taking a hold of the rigging to take position in the crow's nest next to Rongar.
"Aren't you coming?" she asked Doubar when she noticed he wasn't following her up.
"Haven't been able to get up there in quite a while," he said, with real sorrow in his eyes.
"That's alright, there's no room for another person up there anyway besides, you're needed down here: you're captain until we get him back. Keep an eye on Bryn will you? She's gone to scry for him, make sure she doesn't over-exert herself," Maeve said.
"Only if you promise not to do so yourself lass," Doubar said.
Maeve just gave him a humourless wink as answer and dragged her exhausted body up to the crow's nest.
"Land ahoy!" Maeve called out about an hour before sunset. Rongar had nudged her and pointed it out, lacking a tongue he couldn't call out himself.
Firouz saw her pointing arm and adjusted course accordingly. Doubar had left off peering through Firouz's far-seeing instrument to make them all a hot dinner. He'd decided to keep sailing through the night and knew the dangers of stretching his crew out too thin. He took over the tiller from Firouz and sent the inventor up to the crow's nest with a dinner for Maeve and orders for Rongar to go right to sleep so he could be fresh for the night-shift. He rightly suspected that he couldn't get Maeve down from her perch with a crowbar until she literally fell asleep right where she was.
Bryn came up and the four of them had their bowls of stew right there at the tiller, pointedly not talking about the odds of someone in the water surviving that long without any sort of flotation device… and what if something magical had spirited him away? They might never see Sinbad again!
Slowly but surely a mountain appeared before them. "Look, down in the water," Firouz pointed out some round, bobbing objects.
Rongar got one of the boating hooks and managed to get one of the things onboard.
"It's a water melon!" Firouz exclaimed. "And look, there's writing on it."
Bryn took up the melon and traced the unfamiliar script. "It says 'An Tiem'," she said. "I think it's a name…"
"Is it a message?" Firouz asked her.
She nodded. "Yes, but it isn't a message meant for us. I think we should set it adrift again."
Doubar carelessly tossed the melon back overboard. "This is all well and good, but it isn't getting us nearer to my little brother. Rongar, Bryn, get some sleep, we'll need you to take the next shift and we need you fresh."
When the two had gone down below Doubar- still holding the tiller- turned to Firouz. "How's the lass holding up?"
"Remember how Sinbad was when she disappeared?" Firouz asked.
Doubar gave a terse nod.
"Well pretty much like that," Firouz said. "She seems to think we can find him by sheer determination."
"When we get him back I'm going to lock them in a cabin together. Life's too short to spend it holding your loved ones at arm's length," Doubar said.
"I'll design a magic-proof lock," Firouz said.
The sun seemed to set the sky on fire. In the bright orange the mountain they were approaching became one big black silhouette.
"Look, there. I think that's a woman on the mountain, overlooking the ocean… She could've seen something," Firouz pointed.
"What woman?" Doubar strained his eyes and searched the outline of the mountain.
"There, with a child in her arms," Firouz pointed clearly so Doubar could follow the line of his arm up the mountain.
"Seems we're not sailing through the night after all, go take soundings would you? I don't want to sail onto rocks and reefs under the waterline," Doubar told Firouz.
They made it safely to the foot of the mountain, then dropped anchor and lowered the longboat. Leaving Firouz alone on deck and Bryn and Rongar in their beds, Doubar and Maeve climbed the mountain.
"Are you sure it's not just a rock?" Maeve panted with the exertion of climbing the steep mountain.
"It had better not be," Doubar growled, concern for his brother overriding his sweet nature for a moment.
But as they came closer it looked more and more like a rock, still they kept on going, they had to know for sure.
As soon as they reached her Maeve put a hand on her, feeling the chilly, rough surface under her hand she bit back a sob.
"Have you seen my husband?" The rock was a rock no longer, but a woman with a young boy in her arms. "He's been gone such a long time now."
"Have you seen our captain? He disappeared just this afternoon," Maeve asked in return.
"I stand here every day and every night, waiting for my husband. I have not seen your captain," said the woman.
"And I haven't seen your husband," Maeve answered.
"What are you doing talking to that rock? Come on, we've got to get back to the Nomad," Doubar said, and when Maeve looked again the woman and child were nothing but a rock once more.
The king was very pleased with the two suitors who had deemed themselves worthy of his daughter. The first was Thuy Tinh the sea god and the other was Son Tinh the mountain god.
"Show me what you can do so I can decide which one of you is more worthy," he said.
Thuy Tinh stepped forward. "I am master of all the water and I rule all who live under the waves." He briefly stepped out of the body he inhabited, leaving it in a deep trance and unleashed his power. The seas rose, the rivers flooded their banks and well-water overflowed its confines.
"That is impressive indeed! And you Son Tinh, what can you do?" the king asked.
"I am master of all the heights and all creatures who live there," the mountain spirit said and unleashed his power. The mountains themselves rumbled and grew, the beaches withdrew from the water, rising above it and peaks and ridges formed themselves into impressive shapes.
"That is impressive indeed! If I had two daughters I would gladly take the both of you as my sons-in-law, however as it happens I only have one child. You are both worthy of her, so the first one who comes to me in the morning will have her for a wife," the king decided.
Maeve and Doubar had just made it back on-board when the sea started acting up. Out of nothing great swells lifted the Nomad up and tossed the ship back down again.
"Turn her into the storm!" Doubar shouted against the violent noises of the storm. "Or we're going to be smashed against the rock wall!"
But just moments before their doom seemed inevitable the sea returned to its previous calm state.
"There's something seriously wrong here," Maeve muttered.
"Let's get out of here," Doubar just said.
He hadn't spoken too soon because now the earth was shaking and moving. The mountain they were looking at rose up before their eyes, turning from an overgrown hill into a mountain worthy of the name.
"Yeah, let's get out of here," Firouz echoed, once it appeared the topography had settled once more.
The next morning, before first light, Bryn and Rongar sailed the Nomad into the harbour of a small village and woke the others. After a quick breakfast the crew decided they would ask around in the village, see if they knew what was going on.
The village seemed deserted; there wasn't a single human to be found.
"Maybe they fled to safety after last night's troubles," Firouz posited.
"Wait, I found someone," Bryn said, kneeling by a snail. "Do you know what's going on?"
"No," she snail sobbed. "My husband the worm disappeared during the big storm."
"No silly, I haven't disappeared!" A young man came out of one of the huts and picked up the snail. "I'm right here!"
"You're not my husband! My husband's a worm!" The snail shrieked.
"Last night during the storm my skin fell away and I was a man!" He happily told his wife.
"Will you stay with me? I would be so dreadfully alone if you left me…" the snail said, a tear forming in her eye.
"Of course I'll stay, you're my wife, aren't you?" The man said.
"Uhm, we're looking for our captain, have you seen any strangers come by here recently?" Bryn asked, she was very interested in the transformation the man had gone through, but right now she had other priorities.
"No, but you might ask our king, he's deciding on a husband for his daughter and many a man has come to ask for her hand. They might know something up there," the man answered.
"Thank you," Bryn said. "Can we get there by ship?"
"No, just by land. Follow this road and it should lead you right there," the former worm said.
Bryn relayed this information to the rest of the crew and they set out down the road.
As they got further away from the coast the air got thicker, it was hot and moist, almost like walking through soup. The verdant vegetation seemed to multiply with every step they took, until it congregated into a thickly grown jungle-like forest. They walked a well-worn path through the forest but still had to cut their way through some of the more obstinate vines until they came out the other side to another village where Doubar called a halt to get some rest and food.
Maeve felt the weight of Sinbad's disappearance heavily on her mind so she sat down on a rock, leaning her head against a tree that was grown over with some kind of plant.
She closed her eyes and drifted off. She dreamt that the rock and the tree had been twin brothers once and the plant wrapped around the tree had been its wife. Tragedy had befallen them: the wife mistook the brother for her husband one time and in shame the brother fled and his grief turned him into a stone. The husband went after his brother but was unable to find him, so in his grief he sat down onto the stone and turned into a tree. The wife was beside herself and she too stopped at that very spot and became the plant that would forever remain with her husband.
"Take some betel leaves and some areca nuts," the plant whispered to her. "Present them to the king as gifts for the wedding and you will find the one you love."
Very early in the morning Thuy Tinh returned to the palace, certain he would be the first one there. But what was that sound that greeted his ears? Was it wedding music? Had Son Tinh beat him to it? He rushed into the palace, straight through to the throne room and there he saw it: My Nuong had already married Son Tinh.
Enraged he threw off the burdensome body he'd been carrying around, flinging it against the wall violently. Now he was free to unleash his powers once more and he flung all the water around in a frenzied attack against the kingdom.
Son Tinh was not impressed, he simply raised the land once more, keeping it out of the reaches of the water.
The crew rushed on towards the castle, the show of rivers suddenly violently flooding and the land rising to get the water back under control served only to spur them on.
Just as the plant had promised her, when Maeve presented the betel leaves and areca nuts as gifts for the wedding they were admitted into the palace. They were brought before the king as welcome, foreign guests and invited to share in the festivities.
Rongar was the first to spot their captain, crumpled up like a ragdoll in the corner. He signalled to Firouz, who rushed to examine their captain. He shook his head, the captain was dead.
They explained what happened to the king and he gave them a stretcher to help them carry their friend and captain back to their ship to give him the sailor's funeral he deserved.
Ashen faced and bent low with grief the crew retraced their steps.
Night was falling when they reached the village of the stone, tree and plant so they called a halt.
They'd been silent for most of the way back but now, around the campfire Firouz spoke up:
"He was such a nice guy, accepted everyone with their quirks and all… I can't think of any captain with a more rag-tag crew, but Sinbad loved it," he said.
"He was my little brother-" Doubar said, and couldn't go on because of the tears that flooded down his face. Bryn put her arm around him, trying to give what comfort she could.
"One of the first things he did when we first met was rescue me… You can't repay someone for a thing like that…" she said.
Abruptly Maeve stood, straightening her skirt she said: "I'm going for a walk- alone. That means you too." She eyed Dermott, knowing he was worried about her and would follow her on silent wings if she wasn't wary.
"Do you think that's a good idea?" Firouz asked.
Maeve didn't answer him, she just faded into the darkness out of reach of the campfire.
She walked into the unfamiliar forest, unable to figure out how to handle her grief. She'd managed to keep her love at bay, why couldn't she do the same with this pain? But breathing was becoming harder because of the tears that had lodged in her throat until it felt like she had to cry or stop breathing altogether.
When the torrent broke, her legs couldn't hold her up anymore and she sank down to the ground, clawing with her hands in the dirt, searching for a way out of the pain.
When she felt a pair of eyes on her the pain abruptly turned to anger. She had told them not to follow her! But when she turned to face her stalker it was not a member of her crew.
"I am not going to be your dinner, so you'd better run along," Maeve growled, a fireball springing to life in her hand.
"Are you sure? I have two cubs in need of meat and you didn't seem very happy to be alive," the tiger answered, cocking her head.
"Would you be? The…" Maeve hesitated when the description she longed to give Sinbad popped into her head. "The man I love just died."
"I know how you feel… One day a man came by my nest and killed all my cubs with an axe," the tiger said.
"Oh, I'm so sorry for your loss!" Maeve said.
"Well, you're the first human to say that to me," the tiger said. "Follow me and I'll tell you a tale."
Maeve nodded and followed the tiger.
"When that man had killed my cubs I went to the magical Banyan tree, it is the tree of rebirth. I chewed a few of its leaves and resurrected my cubs. The man who had killed them saw me do it so he dug out the tree and took it with him. Well, this and that happened to the man, and now both he and the tree reside on the moon, he only drops one leaf a year back to earth. When dolphins find them in the water they use them to resurrect sailors… Well the long and short of it is that I have collected the leaves that had fallen on the ground before the man took the tree away and you can have one of them…" the tiger disappeared into her nest and came out with a leaf in her mouth and two cubs hanging off of her, trying to wrestle with her.
Maeve took the leaf gratefully, throwing her arms around the tiger in a hug. "Thank you so much! I cannot tell you how much this means."
"Yeah well, if you'll watch my cubs for a moment so I can go for a hunt without worrying, we'll call it even," the tiger said.
"Sure," Maeve agreed, though she burned to run back to the campsite she couldn't refuse the tiger her one request.
She played with the cubs for an hour or two and then the tiger reappeared. "Huh, so you kept your word. I've never seen that in a human either… Come, I'll lead you back to your friends."
Maeve had the distinct feeling that she had passed a test, one that if she'd failed it would've meant ending up as dinner anyway. She clutched the leaf tightly in her hand and once they reached the edge of the forest bent to thank the tiger once again, only to find the tiger had disappeared.
Back at camp everyone but Rongar was fast asleep. The moor stood guard just outside the ring of the campfire light. He silently nodded at her, relieved to see her back in one piece. Doubar was noticeably tossing and turning, even in sleep the grief was praying on his mind.
Quietly Maeve put the leaf into her mouth and squatted by Sinbad's stretcher. She peeled back the shroud that they'd wrapped him in and with a quick prayer that they tiger hadn't played a cruel trick on her she took the leaf from her mouth and placed it in Sinbad's.
A moment went by.
And another.
Maeve held her breath, listening for the quietest noise, watching for the merest movement.
There it was! It was a breath, it had to be! And another, deeper this time. Colour returned to his cheeks and then his eyes fluttered open.
"Where am I?" He asked, struggling to sit up, but too tightly wrapped in the shroud to move much.
With nimble fingers and tears streaming down her face Maeve helped him out. "You're alive," she said before succumbing to hysterical sobs.
Sinbad pulled her into his arms, bewildered but figuring he'd be told the story later, right now his first priority was the sobbing sorceress in his arms.
Rongar saw what had happened and quickly woke the others up.
"Little brother!" Doubar rushed at the hugging pair and swept them both into his own arms.
Sinbad felt the breath getting squeezed out of him but didn't think for a moment to protest against this outpouring of love he was on the receiving end of. He saw Bryn standing a few feet away, quietly crying, Rongar had a soothing arm around her and when he caught Sinbad's eye he just nodded with shining eyes. Firouz was fidgeting with a handkerchief, trying to pretend he wasn't crying himself.
"Well obviously something happened, anyone care to fill me in?" Sinbad eventually asked, when the hugging didn't seem to be letting up.
Firouz, happy to have something to do, stoked up the fire and everyone sat down around it. Sinbad was closely flanked by Doubar and Maeve who had apparently decided that in the foreseeable future they were not letting him out of their grasp.
They took turns telling the story to Sinbad, even the bits that the king had told them had happened. Doubar kept apologising to Sinbad for not being able to do more in his rescue but Sinbad shushed him. After all, there was nothing to apologise for.
Sinbad noted the exhaustion of his crew so when the story had been told he ordered them all back to bed. "I'll stand watch," he added.
"No, no, you just died, you need your rest," Doubar said, pausing because the words seemed odd even to his own ears. "Anyway, I'll stand watch, you go to sleep."
Sinbad was about to argue that he felt fine, but as he looked around the group he noticed they all had a determined look on their face. He was never going to win this one.
"Well… I guess tomorrow I'll go back to being the captain and giving the orders. For tonight guard duty's all yours big brother," Sinbad clapped him on the shoulder.
If he noticed that his crew all put down their bedding in a protective circle around him, Sinbad didn't tell them to stop…
The next morning they broke camp early and headed out. In no time they were through the forest and into the village of the snail and the worm.
"I see you've found your captain," the ex-worm greeted them.
"Yes, he was at the palace, just as you said," Bryn answered. "Has your wife gotten over the shock of your transformation yet?"
"Even better! Yesterday's storm startled her so much she popped right out of her skin," the man said, looking around for his wife.
A beautiful young woman came and took his arm.
"You're yesterday's snail?" Doubar asked, perplexed.
The woman nodded shyly.
"Any idea how this animal-to-human transmogrification took place?" Maeve asked, as she stretched out an arm for Dermott. He would probably want to hear this…
The woman just shook her head. The man answered: "We don't have a clue, just one moment we were one thing and the next another…"
"I'm glad it worked out so well for you," Bryn said, clasping the man's hand to shake it. "Good fortune to the both of you."
"And to you, friends," the man said.
Quickly the crew moved on, eager to get home to the Nomad again.
"I must say, this is a very extraordinary country. The amount of miraculous occurrences per square foot seems to indicate a richness of both soil and spirit," Firouz said. "Point of fact, the variance of the flora alone is an indicator of…"
While Firouz happily jabbered on about the land around them Sinbad tuned him out, preferring to reflect on how lucky he was to have this be his normal, everyday life. He looked at every member of his crew in turn. They'd completely worn themselves out trying to find him, showing their love for him with every step they took on the way to rescue him…
"There's a sight for sore eyes," Doubar sighed happily.
Not far offshore the Nomad lay at anchor; home on the gently lapping waves.
Maeve knocked and after getting an answer opened Sinbad's cabin-door.
"Can we talk?" She asked.
He sat up a little straighter. "Of course," he said.
She entered the cabin and closed the door behind her.
"Quick! She's inside!" Doubar hissed while he motioned frantically with his hand.
Firouz darted around Doubar and quickly fitted a lock to the captain's door.
"So how did you magic-proof it?" Doubar asked, once Firouz was done.
"Simple, I fitted it on the outside of the door," Firouz grinned. "So how long as we going to keep them in there?"
"Long enough," Doubar clapped his friend on the back. "Let's go get something to eat."
The end.
Sources used:
En Naha's tv-show The adventures of Sinbad
For the story within story format the Thousand-and-one night's books.
For the Vietnamese stories the following links: well I can't seem to put the links here, but if you want to know just message me and I will share them!