Rumina looked on at the Nomad approaching the shore. She smiled. They thought they had defeated her. They were wrong. She was back, back with a vengeance.
Bryn looked out on the looming shore while Dermott fidgeted on her arm. She was looking forward to a night in a nice warm bed and not rocking about on the ship at night. The weather had been acting really odd lately. It was approaching the warm season and there shouldn't be any storms.
Last night there had been a storm. Sinbad hated storms. Sinbad had always been cryptic remarks about storms, confused, Bryn would always turn to Doubar for an answers. Doubar would shed some light but never enough for the full story. She knew there had been someone named Maeve. That was it. She guessed maybe it was a drowning or something. Bryn knew when to keep out of people's business and this was one of those situations.
Rumina watched as the Nomad crew in the village. Of course that wretched crew didn't know it was her. To them all they would see was an old lady dressed in old rags. The crew seemed to be trying to find a tavern or an inn.
She scowled. She noticed the redheaded sorceress wasn't with them. So that old Dim-Dim hasn't returned her yet. She had been mad at the old sorcerer for thwarting her plans during her tempest and stealing the redhead away from her. If the old man only knew how much pain he causing Sinbad by keeping her away…She also noticed a brunette with them. She couldn't see who it was from a distance. It must have been a new crew member. Then she saw the hawk.
The hawk was circling around the area. Hopefully it wouldn't have been able to see her. The darn hawk always seemed to know when she was about. The hawk was getting noticeably close to the area where she was. The hawk screeched. It had seen her.
The crew was arriving at a tavern, looking for a good meal. Along the way Firouz had started up a conversation with Bryn about magic.
"…does it really just happen or do you have any control?" he asked, his eyes lightening up. Firouz seemed to thrive on knowledge.
"I have some control," Bryn said, "but not always."
"Does it trouble you much?"
"Not really, it actually-" Bryn was cut of by a screech from Dermott. The rest of crew noticed as well. On instinct, Bryn ran to him.
Dermott was swooping rather low, over the head of elderly woman just at the edge of the village. The woman waved her hands around trying to ward off the hawk.
"Dermott! Leave her alone!" she shouted. This was so unlike Dermott. The hawk would never attack anyone. She knew he was animal but he never seemed to be in touch with the wild behaviour of one. "Dermott, stop it now!" The bird let out a powerful shriek that made everyone block their ears.
Bryn raised her hand and a yellow beam of light erupted from her hand. The beam hit the bird. He let out another shriek and fell to the ground.
No! What have I done?! She ran to the hawk's side. "Dermott! Please, please do something!" she pleaded. She stroked him, hoping to get some sort of reaction from him. She turned around to the old woman. She felt instant anger towards her. It was because this old woman that she had hurt Dermott. What made it worse was the old woman had a triumphant smile on her wrinkled face.
The crew quickly came up behind her.
"Bryn…is Dermott…" trailed off Doubar.
"Is he breathing?" Firouz said as he came to Dermott's side. He did a quick examination and concluded, "He is breathing. Don't worry Bryn…"
"It's my fault, I shouldn't have done that. I didn't mean to…he was so loud," she said, tears rolling down her face. If he died because of her, she would always feel guilty.
The old woman let out a cackle. "I never thought I would find you two being companions!" She let out another shrill laugh.
"What-what are you talking about?"
"Dermott and little ol' Bryn. I thought you were both dead! And to see you hanging around him of all people, Bryn!"
"Who are you?" yelled Sinbad.
"Who do you think, you fool?!" Suddenly the old woman's body morphed into a curvaceous, dark haired woman. She looked vaguely familiar…
"Rumina," snarled Sinbad. "Long time, no see."
"Ohhhh…how sweet. You missed me, didn't you?"
"Hardly," replied Sinbad. "I was actually enjoying your absence."
"Well, I guess you are enjoying the absence of you beloved Celt?"
This made Sinbad face turn into a mask of anger. "Don't-"
"Your threats mean nothing to me! You took my father away!" she yelled. Rumina turned sharply to Bryn. "How did you survive?"
"Survive what?" Everything was passing in a blur for Bryn. Her major concern was for Dermott and to get him better, but this Rumina posed a threat to them all.
"You stupid fool! You are too much like-"
Sinbad, apparently frustrated by the lack of action against Rumina, tackled her to the ground. Rumina got one of her hands free and waved it, letting her magic throw him up in the air. He landed on the ground with a thud.
Rumina then stood up swiftly, looking a bit flustered though. She turned to Bryn. Bryn tried waving her hands to get some magic out of her. She waved them again. Nothing. Her magic never seemed to work when she most needed it. Rumina waved her hands and all the male members of the crew were flown back a couples of metres. Bryn gasped. This Rumina was powerful and in control of her powers. None of the men seemed to be moving. She was on her own and powerless.
She would have pulled her sword out, but the crew had left them on the ship. She ran. She didn't know what else to do. She was scared and usually she had crew member with her when faced with an enemy. She was alone.
She had no weapon and she couldn't use hand-to-hand combat because Rumina could easily kill her with a wave of her hand. She ran, hoping to get of range for Rumina to get a good aim on her with her magic. She felt a pang of guilt about leaving the others but she knew she couldn't help them at the moment.
She realized she was running to the port. She took a quick look behind her and saw something resembling a tornado behind her. Rumina was getting close. Next thing she knew she was on the pier running. Why had she run this way? The end of the pier was just water! She stopped at the edge of the pier, looking at the rough waves.
Rumina's tornado form transformed into her attractive self. "Well. Bryn, Bryn, Bryn. What are you doing with that crew?"
"I'm with them because they are my friends! How do you know me? You speak of me as if you do!" she retorted.
"You don't remember, do you? Nothing at all…"
"I remember nothing, so how do you know me?"
"Like this," Rumina said coolly. She raised her hand. Bryn didn't need to be Firouz to figure out that Rumina was going to use magic. Before Rumina could summon her magic, Bryn grabbed her arm and that was when the struggle started.
Bryn was trying to make Rumina unfocused so she couldn't use her magic. Rumina struggled hard and were stronger than Bryn had expected. The two of them trip and crashed into the swirling waves below them.
The current caught Bryn and she lost her grasp on Rumina. The angry water pulled her under and there was no brightness to direct her upwards. This water was deep. Very deep. All she could feel was the water's downward pull. Water was all around her feeling like a cage. She needed air. But it was too late and she let the blackness take over.