Earthquake

Ja'far was working late in the office. There was always too much work to do. This problem was partly caused by Ja'far because he refused to let others do his work for him, however, it was also partly caused by Sinbad because he hardly ever did his work.

The lazy king always found some way to escape from the work that Ja'far had told him to do. Later, Ja'far would usually find him out drinking with the other generals that had also skipped out on work. The usual suspects being Sharrkan, Masrur, Pisti, and Yamraiha. Ja'far did not even think Pisti was old enough to legally drink alcohol but there was no stopping her. Similarly, there seemed to be no stopping Sinbad when he escaped to go drink, which caused his adviser to have endless amounts of trouble getting Sin to actually work for a full day. So that meant Ja'far would work extra-long days to make up for the work his king was supposed to do.

Today was one of those days. The king slipped out of the office hours ago but Ja'far continued to work. The sky outside the office window was a brilliant mix of oranges and purples that signaled the day was almost over. Ja'far liked working when the sun set. He loved the beautiful colors the sky made at this time of day. It reminded him of Sin. The purples reminded him of his hair and the bright oranges and golds looked like Sin's mesmerizing eyes. Ja'far would often get lost staring out the window at the sunset, daydreaming about Sin.

"Ja'far? What are you staring at?"

Ja'far shook himself out of his daze to see Sinbad standing at the door to the office. He looked like he was scared to walk in the door in case it would lead to doing more work.

"Nothing, I'm not staring at anything. I'm just tired, that's all."

"Okay, I was going to see if you would like to join me and the others for dinner, but if you are too tired, you should probably get some rest instead. You shouldn't work so much Ja'far, it's not good for your health."

And whose fault is that, Ja'far wanted to yell back at him, but instead he just nodded. Sinbad finally left and Ja'far continued on with his work.

About an hour later, after the sun had completely set, Ja'far finally decided to call it a night. As he was storing away some unfinished documents, he felt the floor beneath him shake. It was just a slight tremor at first but it continued to grow in intensity.

"Sin!" Ja'far said. As fast as he could with the ground shaking, he ran off to find Sinbad. Ja'far hoped he was in a safe place. Although Sindria had never experienced one before in its short lifetime as a country, Ja'far knew from the histories of other countries that this was an earthquake. He knew that the tremors would most likely get much worse so he wanted to find the king and make sure he was safe.

He first checked the dining hall but he was not there. He checked the throne room, the great hall, and even the library but Sinbad was nowhere to be found. Even though he thought it was unlikely, Ja'far decided to check Sin's chambers in the Purple Leo tower in case Sinbad had decided to go to bed early. Ja'far jumped up the steps two at a time to get to where his room was. After this is over, I'm going to make sure Sin's room is put anywhere except the top floor, Ja'far thought to himself.

The ground was not trembling anymore but Ja'far was still worried about Sinbad. He had heard before that there would be foreshocks before the actual earthquake so he guessed that it was not over yet. As Ja'far reached the sixth floor of the tower, he felt it. He felt the force of the earthquake shake the whole building. He could hear rocks crumbling all around him but he continued to run up the staircase hoping to reach Sin. However, he could not make it in time. He was almost there when he felt the stairs beneath him fall away from the magnitude of the earthquake and he was falling with it. No! I have to reach Sin! Ja'far threw out one of his daggers to try and catch something that was still standing. He felt hopeful when he felt his dagger catch on something above him. He was able to hang in the air for a brief moment before some falling debris snagged his wire and it snapped. Then Ja'far continued to fall. No, this is it. I'm going to die. I just hope Sin is okay. If he is, I wouldn't mind dying as much. I promised him I would follow him until the end, well, I kept my promise. Goodbye Sin.

The last thing he felt was a sharp pain in his side and the air being knocked out of his lungs before he passed out.

The earthquake was over and Sinbad was trying to regain some peace amongst the citizens of Sindria.

"Remain calm. Everyone, please do not panic. It is all over now but it is still dangerous to be around large buildings. If you could all please go to the Central Market with your families. There you will be given blankets and food and water. My generals will see to it that you are taken care of and any injuries will be treated. Please remain calm and inform everyone that they need to go to the Central Market. Thank you."

Sinbad turned to his generals.

"Yamraiha, tend to the injured. Pisti, Spartos, and Hinahoho, gather food, water, blankets, torches, lamps, or anything to light up the marketplace, and medical supplies. Masrur, Sharrkon, and Drakon, search for any people that are trapped under debris or are too injured to move. Please take them back to the market if you find anyone. Ja'far, wait, where's Ja'far? Has anyone seen Ja'far?"

None of the generals had a clue where Ja'far was. The last one to see him was Sinbad when he asked Ja'far to eat with them, but that was hours ago. Sinbad grew extremely worried at the thought that Ja'far could still be in the palace. The place was in ruins. The architecture was not designed to handle an earthquake. Ja'far could be hurt, or worse, he could be, could be, no! He can't be. I have to go look for him. I'm sure I'll find him, and he'll be perfectly fine, yeah, he's Ja'far, he never gets hurt. . . Right?

Ja'far slowly opened his eyes as he regained consciousness. It was so dark that he could only see a few feet in front of him. What happened? Where am I? Why can't I move? Ja'far tried to get up but his legs were trapped under something and so was one of his arms. He could only manage to move his left arm freely. He was glad that was the hand that he had his one remaining dagger on. He was not sure how his dagger would be of much use in the situation he was in but it was reassuring to have it still.

He heard the sound of rocks falling next to him and it reminded him of how he got into the mess he was in: the earthquake. So that solved the question of what happened. And I must not be able to move because of all the debris and rocks. So now to the where am I question. I was in the Purple Leo tower when the earthquake hit so I guess I must be at the bottom of it. Well that answers all my questions. But I guess the next questions would be, how badly am I hurt? And how do I get out of here and find Sin?

Ja'far used his free hand to feel around him as much as he could reach. He felt some liquid on his scalp so he figured he must have hit his head pretty hard when he fell, maybe a concussion, but hopefully not. He tried to free his other arm but the piece of stone crushing it was too heavy to lift off with one hand. He sighed in defeat. He thought that if he could get both hands free, he could get the debris off his legs and get out of there, but without his right arm, that plan was not going to work out so well.

Ja'far tried to twist his upper body to look around him some more, but as soon as he did, he felt a stabbing pain to his left side. He cried out in pain. His left hand gripped his side and he felt his uniform soaked with blood. Raising his head up from the ground, he could see the cause of the agony. He had fallen on some sort of metal bar, probably a piece of hand-railing from the stairs. He tried to pull it out but it would not budge and it only caused him more pain. He let his head fall back against the ground again. He was gasping for breath as his mind panicked. I'm going to die! I didn't die from the fall so now I have to die like this? I don't want to die dammit! Okay calm down, calm down. You have to think, Ja'far. You have to think of a way to not die. So what is the most probably cause of death? Bleeding out, right? So think of a way to stop or slow the bleeding. Think, come on, think, Ja'far. Wait, I think I've got an idea. Do I still have it? Ja'far felt around his head. Yes! Ja'far found that he still had his keffiyeh that he could use to slow the bleeding at his side. The only problem was that it was stuck under him.

Oh no. This might be a problem. Ja'far knew that in order to get it out from under him, he would have to use all his strength to lift his upper body up. However, doing that would cause an immeasurable amount of pain and it could make the wound even worse. Ja'far weighed the pros and cons in his mind. I the end, he decided it would be worth the pain if he could delay his death for a while longer. He had to try.

Okay, on the count of three. Three . . . two . . . one . . . go!

"Aaagh," he screamed as he felt the metal rod shift and slide inside of him, tearing skin and flesh as he lifted his body up to free the keffiyeh under him.

Almost there. He bit his tongue to hold back the screams. Got it! He yanked the piece of fabric out from under him and he let his torso painfully fall back down to the ground. He help the green fabric to his side to hopefully delay the rate of blood leaking out from him. He still had no idea how to get out of his current situation but at least he felt like he was not going to die right away anymore. Now he just had to wait for someone to find him. Sin, where are you? I kinda need your help right about now.

Sinbad was running around everywhere, asking everyone if they had seen the white haired adviser. Most shook their head or shrugged their shoulders. No one had seen Ja'far. It was starting to scare Sinbad. He did not like not knowing if Ja'far was safe or not. He did not like not being able to keep him safe. As his king, no, as his best friend, Sin felt it was his responsibility to keep Ja'far safe and alive. Now if only he could find him.

"Lord Sinbad, I heard you were looking for Ja'far, there is another guard who has seen him," a guard said to Sinbad.

"Where? Can you take me to him?"

"Yes, follow me. He has a head injury being treated right now but he should be able to tell you what he saw."

"Thank you."

Sinbad followed the guard to where the other guard was being treated for a head wound by torchlight. He had bandages wrapped around his head but he looked like he was in decent shape otherwise.

"Lord Sinbad, are you okay?"

"Yes, I was not injured. I have been told that you have seen Ja'far. Is that correct?"

"Yes, I was stationed in Ja'far's office when the ground started shaking. When Ja'far felt it, he shouted, 'Sin' and rushed out the door. I tried to tell him to wait and that it wasn't safe but he was gone too fast. I'm sorry sir. I couldn't stop him from leaving."

"Thank you for telling me this. I am glad you are safe. Do not worry about Ja'far, I'm sure he will be just fine. And do not feel sorry that you could not stop him, he tends to not listen to anyone when he is focused on a task. You did your job well, I thank you for serving this country."

Sinbad patted him on the shoulder, grabbed a lantern, and quickly left to go search for Ja'far in the palace. Sinbad knew Ja'far must be in the ruins of the palace if he ran off to go look for him when the quake occurred. Sinbad just hoped Ja'far was alright.

Ja'far was fading in and out of consciousness. He had lost so much blood that he did not know how much longer he could hold on. His legs and arm had gone numb and his head was throbbing. He wondered if Sinbad was alive, and if he was looking for him. Ja'far hoped he was looking for him, and that the king found him before it was too late. Ja'far could feel himself losing his grasp on reality when he heard a voice. At first he did not know if he was imagining it or if it was real.

"Hello! Is anyone there? Help! Is anyone out there?" Someone yelled.

Ja'far realized that the voice was real.

"Who's there?" Ja'far weakly yelled back.

"Lord Ja'far? Is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me."

"You sound hurt, are you okay?"

"I'm perfectly fine. What about you, are you injured?"

"No, I just got knocked out from the fall and I'm pinned down but I'm okay."

"Can you get us out of here?"

"No. I'm sorry, I'm trapped as well. Is there anyone else trapped down here that you can see?"

"No, I don't think so. I was the only guard stationed in the tower at the time. None of the generals were in their chambers so there were no more guards on duty, besides me."

"So that means Sin was not in his chambers then. Thank the gods. I'm glad h-he's safe a-and s'okay." Ja'far could not keep his eyes open any longer. Once he heard that Sin was probably perfectly fine, he felt no need to stay conscience. He slurred his words until his vision completely faded to black.

"Lord Ja'far? What's wrong? Lord Ja'far! Help! Somebody please help! Lord Ja'far is hurt, somebody help us!"

Sinbad could faintly hear someone shouting while he was on the main floor of the palace. He was next to the Purple Leo tower, or what remained of it anyway. He thought he was imagining it, but then he heard it again. He heard Ja'far's name in the shouting. He ran closer to the fallen tower. He could hear the shouting more clearly now. Ja'far is hurt! Oh no. I have to get to him, and fast. Sinbad tried but could not get into the tower from the ground floor because the doorway was sealed by stone and debris. Sinbad could have easily destroyed the barrier but he did not want to risk it flying everywhere and hurting Ja'far inside. So, Sinbad ran to some of the staircases in the main palace building that were not turned into a pile of rubble. He kept climbing to try and find an opening to the tower. Finally, on the third floor of the palace, he saw there was still a small opening in the doorway to the tower. In the debris surrounding the arched doorway, there was something metallic and it was reflecting the light of his lantern. Because of curiosity, he dug through some rubble to uncover the object. It was one of Ja'far's beloved daggers. Sinbad had mixed feelings about seeing it there. He was happy to see it because it meant Ja'far must be nearby, however, since the wire was broken, it made the king worry about Ja'far's condition even more. Ja'far's wires were stronger than any normal wire, so if whatever snapped the wire had landed on Ja'far . . . no, Sinbad did not want to think about that. He needed to focus on finding his adviser as soon as possible.

"Help! We're down here!" Sinbad heard a voice cry out. Sinbad rushed to the opening in the wall and looked down to see complete blackness. Even his lantern's light did not reach the bottom of the pit that was created when the earthquake hit.

"Hello, who is down there? Is Ja'far there?"

"King Sinbad? Thank the heavens! Ja'far's down here too. I think he's hurt real bad, I can't get him to talk to me anymore, I think he's asleep," the guard shouted to Sin.

"I'll be right down there. Just hold on for one more minute please," Sinbad shouted back.

"Spirit of control and obedience, Focalor. Dwell in my body," Sinbad said to activate his djinn equip. He could use Focalor's power to float down to where Ja'far and the guard were. He quickly flew through the opening and down to ground level.

"Ja'far? Ja'far where are you?" Sinbad searched around with his lantern's light and finally found who he was looking for. Ja'far was unconscious, bloody, and covered in fallen debris. Sinbad stumbled over the piles of rock to reach his closest general.

"Ja'far, please wake up. It's me, Sin," he said as he brushed some dirt off of the sleeping man's face. He smiled when he saw Ja'far's eyes twitch and flicker open.

"Sin, you're here," Ja'far said. He smiled back too when he saw Sinbad's face above him.

"Yeah, I'm here. We need to get you out of here quickly."

"No, get the guard out first, he needs help just as much as I do."

"But Ja'far, you are in a much worse condition. Please, if we don't get you help soon you could-"

"Sin, just do it! Get him out of here right now," Ja'far used most of his remaining strength to yell at the king.

"Okay, okay, fine. Just hold on okay." Sinbad found the guard and helped free him from the rock pinning him down and carried him up to the third floor opening.

"Hey, can you walk alright?"

"Yeah, I can manage."

"Okay, can you do me a favor and find one Yamraiha for me. Bring her here right away. Tell her it's an emergency. Got that?"

"Yeah, I'll find her King Sinbad. I promise."

"Thank you."

The guard ran off on his mission and Sinbad returned to Ja'far.

"Ja'far?"

"I'm here. 'm not asleep, just restin' my eyes," Ja'far said weakly.

"Good, you have to stay awake, okay? I won't let you fall asleep on me. Let's get you free from all this mess."

" 'kay."

Sinbad carefully lifted the large pieces of stone off of Ja'far's delicate body. Soon, both Ja'far's arm and legs were free again. There were dark bruises, cuts, and scrapes where the stones had fallen on his limbs. The worst injury Ja'far had was on his side, where a metal railing had impaled him when he fell. Sinbad saw the fabric wrapped around the injury. He knew that without that, the blood loss would have killed his adviser long before Sin found him. He was grateful that he had made it to Ja'far in time to possibly save him. He knew Ja'far had survived worse than this, he was strong. Sinbad was confident he would get out of this alive.

"Ja'far."

"Yeah."

Ja'far felt Sin's arms under his knees and his back. He guessed what Sinbad was going to do, but he did not want him to.

"I'm going to lift you off of this thing, okay. You're going to have to be strong for just a little bit longer."
"No, wait, please!" Sinbad did not wait and Ja'far screamed hoarsely, his voice was already raw from the pain before. Sinbad flew back up to the opening while carrying Ja'far.

"See, that wasn't so bad," Sinbad said playfully.

" 'm goin' to hit you when this's all over."

He carefully set the injured man down on a clear patch of floor in the main palace building. Putting his hands on Ja'far's wounds, Sin used Magoi to heal him until Yamraiha got there.

"Sin, what are you doing? Stop it."

"I'm saving your life, don't complain about it."

"But if you use too much Magoi there are-"

"Side effects, I know, and I don't care. They don't bother me." Sinbad said they did not bother him, but Ja'far could see Sinbad was already exhausted. The more Ja'far was healed, the weaker Sinbad became.

"Stop it, Sinbad. I'll be fine, so stop right now," Ja'far said sternly when he saw a drop of blood slip out of Sin's mouth. Thankfully, Sinbad did not protest again. He took his hands off of his adviser and plopped down on the floor beside him.

"I'm just going to lay down for a bit if you don't mind. I need a nap." For once Ja'far actually did not mind Sin taking a nap. If it were a normal day, Ja'far would have probably yelled at him to get up and get back to work. If he still did not wake up, Ja'far would probably have sent some daggers flying his way and dragged him back to work. However, that day was not a normal day. After all the disasters that happened and the near death experiences, Ja'far was content to simply take a nap on the floor with his king. Now that he knew they were both going to be okay, his mind was finally at peace and he could fall asleep easily next to Sin.

Yamraiha would find them asleep, wrapped in each other's arms on the floor, just as the sun was peaking over the horizon, painting the sky many bright shades of orange, gold, pink, and purple.

The End

Note: I got this idea from a dream and I just had to write it down. I hope it turned out okay since I wrote this at around 3 am.

-Mizaya Z.