The temperature was beginning to drop onboard the providence, they probably had an hour or so more of daylight left. Rina had been helping cook prepare some vegetables ready for whatever concoction of dinner the oriental man had in mind for them tonight.
"I take it from here," he stated bestowing one of his toothy grins at her. She nodded, then placed the peeler down and pulled off the apron the man had insisted she wear. She hated it. It was made for someone one of the men's sizes, completely dwarfing her but it was Cooks galley thereby as he liked to remind them often, his rules.
She raised her arms and stretched them walking out into the lower deck area. Cook immediately shut the door after her making Rina roll her eyes. He was in experimental mode and wanted no one to see the rest of his concoction until the unveiling. Anwar's cabin door was wide open and she couldn't see him, there was no noise from Tigers cabin and no one in sight.
Oh so she thought as she wandered over to her bunk and pulled out a scarf to take on deck with her. It would get cooler soon.
"Hello Rina,"
She grabbed the first thing that came to hand a chest, whirling round to hit the assailant but found herself frozen. In front of her stood Kuji.
"I don't think you need that," the blond stated waving her hand. Rina's hand's dropped it then she felt her body relax. She could move again.
"What do you want?" Rina snarled. She didn't like the deity the first time they had encountered her and she certainly didn't like her sneaking up on her either.
The women had the gaul to laugh at her. "I thought I would just drop in and see how things were progressing. Do you have any food?" she suddenly asked.
Rina gritted her teeth as she watched the blond hunt through a bag by Gunnar's bunk and pull an apple out. The deity merely raised her eyebrows at her, smiled and then bit into it loudly.
"If you are a goddess why can you not conjure your own food?" Rina demanded.
"A very good question," she replied as cryptic as ever.
Rina groaned. "Oh is it that game again? I get 3 questions ... no wait two because I already asked one."
She shook her head. "No I don't play the same game twice. Where is Anwar?"
She found herself glaring at her. "What do you want with him? You told him he would never see you again."
"You don't like me much do you?" the deity stated.
"I have you figured out," Rina told her smugly. "Your not a god. Your a djin."
"Interesting," Kuji said taking another bite of her apple. "So you think I messed around last time we met just to cause trouble and not give Anwar the courage he needed to stay with you all."
"He was going to leave," Rina stopped short.
The blond nodded at her.
"Rina," Gunnar's head appeared at the top of the hatch. "How long is cook going to be?" the northman demanded.
She waited for him to notice their uninvited guest. Nothing happened. Gunnar just stared at her.
"Are you okay?"
She tipped her head to Kuji. Gunnar looked back at her blankly. "Rina"
"They can't see me,"
Rina glared at her.
"Rina," Gunnar said louder his patience starting to fade.
"What's going on?" Anwar's head appeared next to Gunnar's obviously having heard the norseman's voice get louder.
"Ah there he is," Kuji said. "So you going to tell him I'm here? You are the only one who can see or hear me."
Rina swallowed and shook her head. She certainly didn't want her messing with anyone else's head, especially Anwars not when they were on route to the land of the dead.
"I didn't think so," Kuji replied smugly.
"Rina?" Anwar was starting to look worried.
"I'm fine," she said dryly eyes not leaving Kuji's. "Just a headache. With the boat rocking . . ."
"It knocked your balance off?" Anwar finished.
Gunnar withdrew his head clearly deciding he was bored and had had enough of this conversation.
"I have something that can help with that," Anwar said climbing down and heading to his cabin.
"He hasn't changed has he?" Kuji said still not breaking eye contact. "Always willing to help. Reliable Anwar."
"What do you want?" Rina hissed quietly as she heard him rustling through things.
"Another very good question,"
Groaning Rina stepped back and sat on her bunk. She put her head in her hands.
"Is it really bad," Anwar appeared back in the room and before she knew it was knelt down in front of her.
"It's fine," Rina said as he pulled her wrists away and looked at her.
"Hold your hair back, this ointment will help," the young doctor said gently.
She swallowed as she did as she was told and he smeared something sweet smelling over her forehead. Rina drew in a sharp breath as her skin tingled under his touch.
"You know its a shame he can't see me again. I wouldn't mind him doing that to me," Kuji appeared to her right watching them.
Rina did her best to ignore her instead focusing on Anwar's face. His dark eyes were so deep and looking at her intensely . "Thank you," she stammered.
Anwar's cheeks start to flush pink and she felt hers starting to warm. When did this happen? She had always known he "felt" something for her but it had been kept at arms length. Anwar had never made a move and it had never been an issue. Now suddenly she didn't want to take her eyes off the man before her. It was so confusing.
"I guess things are progressing," Kuji stated with a smirk. "Just one more thing," she tosses something at the table in the middle of the hold. "This might be of some help. Make sure he gets it." And with that she was gone.
Rina jumped, knocking Anwar to one side and pushed forward searching for her again. She was definitely gone. She had to be a Djin making it so only she could see her.
Confused, Anwar stepped back and stood up. "Okay well . . . ." he says nervously. "If you need any more just . . ."
She turns back to him just as fast realising he's going and makes a grab for his sleeve. More confusion lines his face.
"You were going to leave us," she said dryly.
Anwar froze looking uncomfortable and confused now.
"When we went to that Island, found . .." Rina spat the name out. "Kuji. You were going to leave us."
"I never told you about that," he said quietly. "How do you . . ." he tailed off. She could see his mind was in overdrive.
"Something just clicked," she said feebly. So it was true. The idea of it hit her and it was horrifying.
"Well I didn't," Anwar seemed to find his composure.
She felt her inner bitch rise. Anger she was much more comfortable with. "But you were going to leave us," she spat.
"Rina," Anwar scratched his head and looked directly at her. "I didn't leave."
"With someone you knew five minutes. We had all been through so much and you would have dumped us ..."
"Rina," Anwar tried again reaching out and placing a hand on her shoulder. She shrugged him off.
"And if you had got away, and she hadn't been a Djin," she bellowed.
"God," Anwar corrected her.
"Djin, you would have left with a Djin Anwar. You would have run out on all of us. You would have run out on me," she pushed up past him and ran out of the hold.
"Rina ..." she heard him say after her but didn't look back nor it seems did he want to follow.
"So," Sinbad plonked himself down opposite Anwar by his map table and passing him a glass. The young doctor was pouring over the drawings Tiger had produced from what she had seen at the monastery. "Any progress?"
Anwar nodded then shuddered as he caught Rina's face on the upper deck. She was still mad at him it seemed. He picked up the offered drink and knocked back a long sip before coughing as the alcohol burnt his throat.
"Easy friend," Sinbad said amused.
"Cook and I worked out this was Sirens pass,"
Sinbad shuddered. Anwar nodded both of them remembering their encounter with Roisin. "But don't worry we don't have to go there. Because sussing that out meant we are on track for here," he pointed at Tigers rudimentary drawing of an island.
"And there is?" Sinbad asked.
"No idea," Anwar sat back and watched as his face fell. "But . . "
A smile started to creep back over his friends face.
"You can find it?" he asked tentatively.
Anwar nodded. "These are constellations. It took me awhile to recognise them in the pictograph form. Well Tigers pictographs," he smiled weakly. "But using that," he stabbed Sirens pass with his finger, "and them we are heading in the right direction to these pillars."
Sinbad was practically beaming now and to Anwar's surprised clinked glasses with him. They both took another sip.
Anwar coughed again. "Cooks new brew," Sinbad told him.
The doctor nodded scrunching his eyes up as the burn went for both his throat and nose this time. "Smooth," he finally managed to get out. Both friends laughed heartily.
"What do you think then?" Sinbad asked once they regained their composure. "Once we find that island?"
"Trouble," Rina stated sulkily walking past them not caring that she unsettled Anwar's table. Scrolls fell all around them and she breezed past as quickly as she appeared. Sinbad bent down to help him pick them up and leant forward.
"She's still not sold on this land of the dead idea then?" he asked.
Anwar sighed. "No she's mad at me." He decided sod it and took another sip of Cooks brew.
Sinbad started laughing at him.
"What," he demanded.
"Nothing its just . . "
"What?"
"You two have pretty much been in synch lately. We kept expecting you to finally announce you got it together,"
Anwar flushed. "So you know then, that I ... that I"
"That your head over heels for Rina. Come on Anwar the whole ship knows."
"Well she's not head over heels for me," he spat back suddenly. "She liked you from the beginning and she's just mad at me for figuring out something from weeks back. Something I didn't even do anyway."
"Okay she "did like me," Sinbad put a finger up lounging back. "Not any more. Trust me I would know and even if she did she likes you too . . . . . "
They looked at each other for a moment as Anwar processed that. "Not convinced on that one," he finally said sulkily. "Do you have any more of this?"
Sinbad cocked an eyebrow said nothing but reached down beside him pulling a bottle up. He refilled Anwar's and his glasses.
"Listen, my grandmother always told me that the madder they are at you the more they like you. If they get mad it means they care,"
Anwar considered his words.
"And . . . " Sinbad took another sip. Anwar followed suit. His throat was now acclimatising to the potent liquid.
"And ... well there's Tiger"
"You like her," Anwar said finding himself a lot happier with that turn of events.
"I actually think she's starting to warm up to me now," Sinbad told him with a smile.
Anwar thought about it. "Yes she has been less bounty hunter like since we set off to find the land of the dead."
"So," Sinbad asked. "Why's she mad at you anyway?"
Anwar's shoulders slumped. "I was really close to leaving the ship awhile ago."
Sinbad sat up straight but was nodding at him. "Around the time we found Kuji?" he asked.
Anwar nodded then froze wondering if he was going to get another load of abuse.
"I'm really glad you didn't,"
"Me too," Anwar agreed breathing out slowly. Of course it was just Rina who would flip so mentally. Then something dawned on him. Rina really didn't have a leg to stand on.
"You know she already left, so why is she mad at me over something she already did. And she stole from everyone," he muttered grumpily.
"Women," Sinbad stated simply.
"Sinbad, Anwar,"
Neither men moved. Both we passed out next to the map table surrounded by 3 bottles of something that smelled suspiciously like a cook concoction to her.
"Sinbad, Anwar," she spat louder. Tiger wandered on deck took one look at the boys and just laughed before sitting down.
"Helpful," Rina growled at her.
"Wake them up," Gunnar yelled from the Tiber. "I don't know what this barrier is. We can't seem to go through it."
"Anwar," Rina bellowed pushing him.
Tiger got up and followed suit shaking Sinbad who started to stir. "What's going on?" he muttered groggily.
"Your both hung over and we need the boy genius awake," Tiger told him.
"ANWAR," Rina all but screamed in his ear.
The doctor finally jumped, sitting up suddenly and knocking one of Cooks bottles over. It smashed loudly.
Sinbad rubbed his head and smirked as Anwar's eyes widened to accommodate the light. "Rina . . . what the . . ." he started to get out before the headache hit him full force.
"First real hangover," Sinbad stated proudly like a teenager reaching forward and clasping him on the shoulder.
"Don't do that," the doc said groggily trying to stand up. Rina was fast managing to get to him before he fell down again.
"You are both idiots," she told them pushing Anwar back down again. "Stay there."
"What's going on?" Sinbad finally said.
"We are on a journey to the land of the dead for you and now we . . . ." Gunnar started from behind then.
"You go and get Anwar drunk," Rina cut in stabbing the other man in the chest. "What were you thinking?"
Gunnar cocked an eyebrow and continued, "and now we have encountered a barrier."
"I got myself drunk thank you," Anwar said after a moment.
"Exactly," Sinbad agreed.
"It doesn't matter who got who drunk what matters is we are stuck," Gunnar stated starting to sound inpatient. Both men finally looked up and saw the sparkling red next to the ship.
Anwar stood up again, Rina stepped forward but he battered her away. "Leave off,"
She took a step back. She was angry at him. He wasn't supposed to be snapping at her.
He slowly walked over to the side of the deck and put his arms out waving them through the red. "It's not solid."
"Yes but no matter how far we going through it we don't go anywhere," Gunnar informed him.
"Can we go back the other way?" the doctor asked then winced pulling his hand to his head.
Rina snorted. Good he was suffering.
Gunnar looked puzzled for a moment. "I had not thought of that." He pulled the Tiber the other way and sure enough the red began to get further away from them.
"We need to work out what it is," Sinbad looked directly at Anwar. The further they got away from it they could see the barrier went a long way. "Can you take a look at the maps again?"
"Yeah," Anwar said slowly. "Just give me ... a few minutes." Rina watched as he went below deck.
"Don't," Sinbad told her.
"What?" she asked her anger starting to ebb away.
"Don't follow him and aggravate it. We need him to work that out. What if we are trapped,"
"You got him drunk, it's your fault," Rina hissed.
"You got mad at him," Sinbad told her. "Its your fault."
Rina flushed. "Look he was ..."
Sinbad stood up as Tiger handed him a glass of water. "I don't care. Just if you really have to follow him down there - sort it out."
Anwar threw some water on himself and flinched. What had he been thinking? He knew he wasn't good with Alcohol. Running his hands through his wet hair he wandered back to his cabin and reached for some fresh clothes groaning as his head continued to bang as he struggled into them. He sat down and closed his eyes trying to pull it together.
"Okay Sinbad's counting on you to suss this out and that's what your going to do even if you do feel like there's a tribe of water thieves dancing in your skull."
He opened his eyes again, shuck his head for a moment thinking he had seen someone walk into the galley out of the corner of his eye and then decided it was probably part and parcel of his hangover so started pulling scrolls out instead.
"Magic, folklore . . . " he threw several on his bed and groaned again as his head punished him. "Dam it where have I put you ..."
"On the back wall, you rearranged everything after the crazy professor and her egg,"
He turned to look at Rina. "Right." Of course she was right. She had helped him do it. They stood awkwardly staring at each other.
"So you come to yell at me some more?" he asked. "Because honestly my body is punishing me enough right now and I don't think I can cope with round two."
Rina held out her flask to him and a plate with some herbs on.
"I can take care of myself you know," he said. She gave him a look and he found himself taking them off her. Unscrewing her flask he took a long sip, hungry for water. She watched him and then indicated the herbs. His face fell in disbelief at the herbs. There was no scientific evidence at all that they did anything.
"Humour me," she said gently reading his mind and then climbing onto the bed behind him and reaching into the back wall storage. He forced his eyes upwards trying not to look at her legs and pert backside. She was on his bed. And going through his scrolls. If he didn't feel so wretched and well ... she wasn't mad at him and him mad at her, then this would be something wonderful.
"Thank you," he replied dryly. He took another sip and gamely stuffed some of the herbs in his mouth. They tasted awful. More water followed.
The ship suddenly lurched him falling back and she slid into him, scrolls crushing between them. Anwar swallowed hard. Now they were both in his bed. "I wasn't going to run out on you Rina," he said finally as they held each others gaze.
After what seemed the longest time she nodded but didn't push away. Neither moved.
It dawned on him that if Sinbad was right then this could be the moment. He could lean forward, try kiss her right here. And part of him really wanted too ... except they needed to talk about it. Sort it out. And his head hurt and Sinbad needed him to work something out.
"Why did you get so upset?" he dared ask.
"I . ... I ..." she started, "If ..." she tried again. "If you had left ..."
"Talk to me Rina," he tried again gently.
"ANWAR," Gunnar bellowed making them both jump. His head appeared looking down into the deck. For his credit the Norseman didn't say a word at their sudden closeness. He sat up reluctantly and Rina moved past him gathering the scrolls and moving towards the hanging table in the middle.
"It's everywhere now,"
"What?" the doctor asked following Rina out.
"The red, it is everywhere. Closing in on us," Gunnar informed him. The ship lurched again Rina loosing her balance and dropping scrolls all over the table.
"Okay we are coming," he assured him helping Rina up again, his skin tingling as he held her hand. Gunnar cocked his head and gave them a look this time.
Rina wasn't sure what was stranger. The red mist suddenly disappearing the moment they got the scrolls up the stairs or the storm suddenly starting. She had helped him cram the scrolls in his bag and sling it back down the lower deck and then they had to work as a team pulling ropes as Sinbad and Gunnar navigated them through those dam pillars. As Tiger said the gate way to the land of the dead.
There was no time to talk, they just had to do. She had gloves on but Anwar's hands got burned by the robes. Even that and a hang over did not phase him. They kept hold of those ropes until it felt like they were going to fly off the ship. Sinbad then ordered everyone to tie themselves to the ship.
Tiger was on one side of him and she the other. They clung to each other for dear life. Surviving that storm was the worst thing she had ever been in. Until they went into Limbo that is.
Everything in that horrible place thankfully seemed to happen so fast. Tiger became Tiger and Taryn. They had to rescue Sinbad from a monster. They found his brother, they found Taryns daughter. Then it looked like all hope was lost and they would die there. She was ready to go down fighting until Anwar ... Anwar saved the day. By finding a scroll, a flaming scroll in the middle of a library in the land of Limbo. It was so typical Anwar yet he found another way out of there.
They got back to the ship and Sinbad was a mess and then Anwar surprised her again. He gave their hero a pep talk.
Cook handed her a fish prepared loving at their return. She started eating it watching Anwar and Sinbad talk at the bow end of the ship.
"So you made it back then?"
Rina jumped again. Tiger gave her a funny look from across the deck. Kuji had appeared beside her.
"And gave him the scroll," she added staring hungrily at the fish.
Rina blinked rapidly. The scroll. What scroll.
"The one I left you," Kuji grinned.
Suddenly it dawned on her. They had picked up everything on that table. Kuji had left something there. A scroll.
"Anwar didn't find it in the library," Rina said quietly realisation dawning on her.
"Oh he did, it fell out his bag in the library in the midst of everything. He picked it up and found it in the library. He really did save the day. Just you made sure it was in his bag."
"To fall out and make him think he had found it," Rina finished.
"Still think I'm a Djin?" she asked.
"Why did you help us?" Rina asked.
"That wasn't the help actually. Its your lesson I came for this time. Are you going to eat that?"
Rina handed her the fish. "What's my lesson?"
"Your getting there," she said cryptically then yawned. "Time for me to go."
Rina blinked. The women disapeared and took her fish. Grinning despite herself she went back and grabbed a bowl. Cook had brought out some of his fresh gujon.
Anwar chose that moment to come back and made a grab for some food after her.