My sincere apologies -dear readers- for taking that long to update, i'm so sorry. Life had been little tough with me since then! with exams, and certain writing/inspiration block... so sorry. I hope this chapter would make it up to you, and you can really enjoy it :)

I have few things to mention before leaving you with the coming adventure:

- First of all, MY HUGE THANKS to every one who took a look to my simple work, and SPECIAL GREAT THANKS for the nicest readers ever who favorite, followed and of course reviewed the fiction, really guys that was so sweet from you and it means A LOT to me. Seriously you made my day, and by your words and actions you truly helped me through the block i faced.

So special thanks for KM Rune, TiaKisu, Anime Princess, MJDai, Lil Sweet Thing, WEKA, SamSoma Hak,

~.~.~

- ***I feel honored to say that the very first idea of this chapter invaded me while watching one of my top favorite fan-video of WildYennifer as this great vid really inspired credit for inspiration goes to the *In Search of Maeve- Beyond the invisible*

thus i'll recommend to watch the amazing vid to live in the real feeling of the adventure atmosphere i felt ;)

check on the link of the fan-video on my profile,

~.~.~

- Secondly, i'm so sorry the chapter this time is VERY LONG :/ i couldn't help it as it can't be divided. You will discover it while reading. But as far as i know this won't repeated again.

- Then, you'll find here many mistakes! i'm so sorry as it's not revised yet. Forgive me! But i'll try soon to edit it to the revised copy!

- Finally, Italics here doesn't mean the character's thoughts, as most of the chapter belongs to only one character. Thus the Italics here means either different character's quotes or something important for the continuation of the coming adventures.

~.~.~

Now, i hope you really enjoy this chap, and please don't forget to review as it'll be the fuel for my inspiration!

~Unwelcome Adventure~

On his way to his cabin, Sinbad found the galley totally empty as everyone was supposed to be sleeping by now; however he couldn't hear any snore coming from different cabins of the crew members. Oddly, the deep silence of the night was the dominant now on Nomad, only interrupted by sounds of the sails crushed by the hot air and the waves hitting Nomad; but he inferred that perhaps it was the heat that disturbed his crew's slumber. As he passed by the cabin shared by the young scientist and his silent mate he could see the candle light still radiating from the corner of the door frame. That meant that Firouz was working on new creation, he knew his friend was interested the last couple of days in improving one of his old inventions. If his mind wasn't tricking him it should be the one he gifted to Omar of Basra two years ago, that weird stuff that had something to do with generating wind! It was the same one they used to help the Ronin vanquishing Kata.

With a tired smile playing on his face Sinbad sighed as he opened his cabin door, realizing that even this unsupportable heat was inspiring the young inventor. Once he locked the door behind him carefully the smile and the funny thoughts evaporated from his mind right away, he was back now to re-live his nightmare again and suffer its torture as he did with each attempt to sleep. Well, he couldn't just call it a mere dream, at least for the real pain in his soul and heart he was feeling every time he tried to close his eyes and surrender to the slumber and that may endured even after his wake. The peculiar thing here was his complete loss of its very memory, not a single detail he could remember from it but some feelings. The odder was within every morning he reopened his eyes he found himself hardly taking his breath as if he had been in a marathon, fatigued as if he never slept the night before moreover as if he spent all of it running.

This nightmare made great success in forbidding his body from rest for almost a couple of weeks now, as since he got it for the first time he never knew a way to proper stupor nor felt a real blissful rest and his corpus was yelling every moment by then to get some tranquility.

And what worsen it his certitude that the whole matter was related somehow to … Maeve! ... His Maeve, damn it! How it hurts to just spell the name in his mind! His lost Celtic dream …

He couldn't put his hand on the link between his mysterious dream and his red-head sorceress but he was getting that weird feeling it was about her, that she was in danger and in need of his help. The thought it might be true just ignited his fear and made his pain intolerable being far from her and unable to rescue her, defend her from whatever hazard she might be in. Of course he had faith in his master's words that informed him she was safe with the old wizard, but he couldn't help his rushing horror emotions and impulsive panic at the mere thought of the probability of her being in risk. At that his feelings got control over his will and his mind surrendered to his emotions leaving behind any way of reasoning; he couldn't bear this thought, simply couldn't, even if it was unreal. And that was exactly what happened when Scratch had tricked him that he got her; although Sinbad was certain that she was with Dimdim and that it could be a trap created by the delusion demon to capture his soul, he endangered himself and his crew to kill any doubt that his sorceress might be in the goat-like demon's grip giving the priority to his emotions over his reasoning.

As he lied now on his bed, Sinbad closed his eyes with a sigh as he rubbed his face with both hands in attempt to expel the bitter memory that cost him the life of a dear new friend, the one whom he met only then but affected him deeply during their short meeting; the one who sacrificed herself willingly first to help him searching for his lost love and then to save his life and his crew. As he kept his eyes closed, his mind now rushed back to the thought of his nightmare to escape this bitterness. He was amazed why his feeling that Maeve needed his help never left him since the dream started its unwelcomed visits, even during his wake time. And why he got the deep feeling that he knew the way to help her and to reach her whilst in verity he didn't, at least not consciously.

Many question marks that he had no answers and kept him confused and he knew if he stayed in this situation any longer they would lead him to insanity. Actually that was the real reason for his urgent desire to see Caipra; hopefully the old woman might have some answers or at least some explanation to his bewilderment when he couldn't even confess the truth to any of his crew. How could he explain something that he already had no idea about and couldn't express it? And if he mentioned his feelings about Maeve nobody would believe him but they would return it to his yearning to her, and neither would they believe the dream virtual effects on him. Who would believe it? Firouz the physician who was always looking for scientific explanation for every incident around him, or Doubar who never believed in this Mumbo-Jumbo; even Rongar wouldn't have much different opinion in spite of believing him. All of them would agree on the cause being his overloading himself by his duties as captain as well as his silent solicitude to the lass that he didn't want to share with anyone.

The only one who could understand him closely and believe him was Bryn, but she still had no idea about the real nature of the feelings he kept for the Celtic sorceress. He never talked to her about Maeve, never … while she should be aware of it before he could share his secret with her. But truth to be said, he didn't really feel like talking openly with anyone about his true feelings towards Maeve nor sharing his current ones of missing her, not even with his brother so how about sharing them with Bryn? Not that he didn't trust the brunette or having faith in her judgment, he even felt at ease being with her. Something about this brunette made him feeling much easier, calmed him down and made him confide in her. A smile shadow danced on his lips "This amazing young witch!"

The point is he naturally never felt easy to admit his passion to anyone. May be a part of his pride prevented him from doing it by causing him to sense … some weakness. And he refused to appear weak, not him … after all, he is the Captain. That was why he pretended he didn't care about losing her while he was dying every day he opened his eyes just to realize his life without her. Every time he looked to the rails and not finding her leaning on it while pondering the convergence of the billow with the horizon, not studying one of her magic books on deck as the wind breeze tickled her flaming hair, not practicing new spells in the galley or her cabin causing weird phenomena around and inside Nomad, not sharing their meals on the same table in front of each other and both of them trying to hide their mutual glances, …

All at once some familiar voice interfered with his thoughts, he recognized it was Mala "Sometimes when we lose someone we love we pretend not to hurt, we pretend we're too tough to care, to eventually we forget we're pretending."

How much her words were so real, he couldn't say. The blue lady touched his soul and read his wounded heart. He couldn't tell why … why her advice now was pumping in his mind "Remember… heart, head and then the sword."

Weird …... very weird

Why exactly … he … rem…

o~o~O~o~o

Suddenly Sinbad realized he was holding the tiller! What happened? Why was he mind-absent in such circumstances? The dark night was sparkling with fulgurites and the thunder was fighting the waves sounds as they were bluntly crushing on the ship. The young captain made hard effort to open his eyes in the middle of the hoarse rain to see his crew. Unfortunately he couldn't recognize any of his crew as all he could see was shadows of a man or two. The storm was terrifying and the ship now was reeling as its body started to be shaky; he realized he had no hope to survive such unusual storm and violence that he never experienced before. The ship itself wouldn't make it out, actually no ship could. He tried to shout out for anyone who could hear him to get the sails bound in spite of being sure that nobody could hear him in this nature's stormy symphony … or perhaps there was nobody left onboard!

He quickly looked around him again to search those silhouettes he saw few moments ago, only to widen his eyes in horrible shock and disbelief. His mouth opened widely in true deep terror as his gaze fell on the incredible sight in front of him. Back there in the mad sea was the highest and the most enormous billow he even couldn't imagine, the ship was like a tiny dot if compared to it. It was like the whole ocean had decided all of a sudden to stand up and was preparing himself to jump back to where it belonged, devouring anything in his way and forming a giant watery wall that oddly reminded him of the invisible wall of the Vorgon, at least both were close in height!

Everything happened quickly before he got time to blink, and in the next second he was in depth of the ocean with the whole inverted ship that actually turned into pieces. And he only felt … so much things that his mind didn't have time to analyze, may be pain, may be coldness …. But the undeniable thing was … the absolute blackness.

He opened his eyes to get inside coarse rain drops making his blurred vision worse.

"Just perfect!" he cursed inwardly while he started to resist the unmerciful ache in his body to get up and have a look around. Finding himself on shore he noticed that it was morning as some faint light was trying to make its way in timidity through the dark clouds that covered completely the sky, without those light shadows the sailor would believe it was night. It seemed that the storm hadn't calm down yet as the rain was massively hard and both the thunder and the fulgurites didn't stop either. The tide was so high as well. Sinbad perceived it'd be safer if he headed deeper inside the island he was on its shore now. He glanced behind him to spot a forest not so far from him, he might find some shelter.

As he made his way to it running he tried to remember how he ended up in this sticky situation anyway; then the answer showed itself inside him … it's Maeve! He was in his way to save her, he knew she was in danger and needed his help. He also knew the way to reach her, it's true that he couldn't memorize the details but he just had to follow his instincts and he still had a chance to rescue her as he survived the ship crushing; however he couldn't figure out how this could have taken place.

As he arrived at the threshold of the wood borders, he leant on the nearest tree trunk trying to take his breath. It was the moment that his mind naturally realized how much his clothes were wet and he - afraid of catching some serious disease- felt the urgency to find some shelter that enabled him to get them dried. But also he had to hurry up as that peril confronting Maeve wouldn't wait for him to get rest. He couldn't explain how he was sensing her need for him, it was like her scent calling his name and it was only his heart who could hear this call! It was weird and indescribable but all he could get from it that he had to respond to the call immediately without any delay.

He gazed down to check on his clothes and how bad they were, if he could endure it temporarily till he could find her. And from the beginning of the adventure till this moment, only then he discovered strangely that he was wearing his old outfit! He starred in disbelief to his large blue trousers, vest and the wide white shirt as his hands chook his forehead only to find his tied red band keeping his short hair from annoying him and reaching his shaved face. It was then when he realized … it wasn't reality but … his nightmare!

Sinbad groaned in annoyance and hit the tree trunk with his fist. He had enough with that seriously, and couldn't bear it anymore. Raising his eyes upward in attempt to reach the sky view while he was praying to Allah to have mercy on him from this torment, his gaze caught the sight of an odd thing hanging between some of the highest branches of a nearby tree. His sense perceived it was a sign of something that he couldn't figure out; perhaps for some sort of native tribe. "Great ….. That is exactly what I need right now!" By his usual humor tone his mind wondered how many times he exactly cursed the situation he was in before; a shiver ran through his body as his wonder shifted to how many times he would. He shook his head to dismiss such thoughts, instead he should focus on this sign and the probable danger he might be in and how to escape it to reach Maeve in time.

Back to the sign, Sinbad really felt uneasy towards it, there was some darkness invading his senses whenever his gaze fell on it. However the sign was simple, dried branches arranged together forming an imperfect circle that framed what was like a bone-made fork shape with only two spines, the later extended outward to form two curved horns. What really Sinbad disliked about it was the blood that was covering most of the sign .… dry blood giving it unpleasant deep crimson red color!

Then all of sudden while he was losing his thoughts in this awful thing he startled by immense heinous sound of a war-bugle. He couldn't detect its source exactly but he expected from the ruffian tone how could be the ones who were blowing in it. Thus he unsheathed his sword spontaneously and looked around in readiness not knowing what direction he should take to hide from the natives as the horn seemed to be coming from everywhere.

Some green glitter then caught his eyes, coming from … his rainbow bracelet! So he directed all his attention to it as he figured out the simultaneous increasing urge of retaking his way to Maeve. As he was realizing the cause of this sparkle he noticed it changed its rhythm giving twinkles, and as he moved his hand with the shimmered bracelet those twinkles changed their intensity. "Yes!" the sailor stated in victory, now it was obvious; the bracelet would lead him to Maeve as when he was in the right way the glimmers kept intense but as he started to deviate from it they'd faint.

By this he started to take his road guided by his bracelet that was leading him deeper in the forest. He ran through the heavy rain, broken branches and the aired roots to catch his only chance to save his love as he felt there wasn't much time left. After a while he sensed the rain drops becoming more and more … dense, its sound was kind of … suppressed and the view in front of him took a red shadow! He stopped for a moment only to get a chill in his spine as he recognized the reason; the rain wasn't watery drops anymore, it was … bloody! Drops of blood were falling from sky onto land.

Now this became really intolerable, seriously he didn't like how this dream was progressing to. But no, he wouldn't let anything prevent him from rescuing his Celtic dream. Anything, even if it was raining stones he wouldn't. By this he began his way drawn by his heart not paying any attention to the obstacles he was meeting, huge trunk fallen on ground or these spiky little twigs that were cutting his skin, legs and arms. Ignoring the pain coming from his bleeding wounds and scratches, and his exhausted feet from his excessive running he started to feel the numbness slowly invading his legs; however he focused on his way and didn't slow down his pace. When all at once the whole storm and rain ceased and the sun light radiated everywhere making its way through the nested boughs.

He stopped abruptly in wonder to this unreasonable sudden change. The bleeding sky now was clearer and the sun rays became stronger. Sinbad sighed in discomfort as he saw the dry land under his feet. There was no sign of the storm as it never existed, the blood and water that had formed ponds now completely vanished and his clothes were totally dry as well. The young captain puffed raising his brows as his eyes were sparkling in fury scanning the surrounding, only to discover that the previous bloody ponds and mud were now replaced by a lot of scattered clothes. But he didn't feel easy at their sight, and then he realized they all were covered by blood patches everywhere. He winced "By the name of Allah!" he knew that it wasn't innocent and peaceful sunny scene as it looked like. His alert sense had just reached its maximum now; "It seems there was some massacre here" he thought. The sight was so nefarious but brushed him with some familiarity.

"Odd!" As answer struck him, Sinbad widened his eyes in horror while his gaze lied on a familiar striped shirt. At first the shock paralyzed his tongue but when he started to recover still having some big heart-break he was allowed to whisper "Doubar!"

Rushing to where the shirt was he picked it up and found that it wasn't free of the damage, it was torn and had a big macula of blood on it …. his brother's blood.

"No … this is unreal. It's only a nightmare, one big awful nightmare" he shouted then added in firmness "Doubar is alright, sound and safe. I know it." His voice lowered while his mind tried to overcome the roughness of his heavy heart beats and the dark shadow that grasped on his spirit. And as he expected his gaze caught Firouz' sac, Bryn's yellow dress and Rongar's leather shirt; all were torn and stained with blood.

Sinbad threw the fake shirt of Doubar in disgust resisting his emesis. In spite of knowing well it's all spurious he couldn't bear the thought of losing any of them, losing his family, it was horrible. The terrible sound of the bugle started again and startled him … again. But this time it was followed by a vibration that Sinbad recognized it was caused by troops…

Troops! "Arrgh, just perfect!" he surveyed the surrounding to find any escape from it as he swore under his breath… and further cursed these pernicious situations, one after the other. And there he noticed distant trees with aerial roots; he ran to them and grabbed one of these rope-like roots then climbed it until reaching a large branch at safe height.

At the same moment the savage troops appeared. Sinbad was surprised discovering that they were wild bears but they were kind of giant bears with … horns! The captain couldn't remember any bear with horns, they never possess horns. He didn't know why he remembered the Norsemen then, perhaps due to the horn thing; and the horny helmet Eyolf gave to … Maeve! He forgot about her, how could he?! And how was he supposed to reach her in time while he was hiding from those beasts. Time was really running out of his grip. He frowned as a special sight interrupted his wondering thoughts, a sight of the hugest bear among the whole troops. He was double the size of any of the others; moreover his helm carried the largest ramified and serpentine horns. The eruptive troops diverged instantly to form enough space for him while running and it wasn't hard for the captain to sense his importance and to realize he was their leader.

He waited until they had completely gone away so he could return down on land, but even before moving he felt the world was spinning around him. To his surprise he found the large bough he was leaning on moving by itself and progressively was increasing its speed. He hung on it with both his hands as it was too high to jump on land now. But the tree became crazy then and was moving with ferocity as it was waving and flagging him until finally he ended up being thrown on land. He groaned in pain as every muscle and bone in his body was screaming from the ache.

This was too much for him now, too much. Fortunately his ears caught the furious swish of the leaves and branches that didn't stop yet, as his mind warned him he jumped from the ground to glance upward only to find an angry and so alive tree shifting all her giant crumples now in real fierceness to crush him where he was standing. He asked himself what he did to upset it to that limit, but as the question popped in his head he made sure to run with all his speed to get out of its blow that could kill him instantly. As he was running away he heard the big stroke of the enormous mad tree to the ground in the exact area he was laying on seconds ago; and when he gained a good distance away from it he paused to take his breath.

In this moment he discovered that it wasn't the same forest he was in a while ago where the scenery had totally changed and was even more wondrous. Sinbad turned around to get better view of the surrounding; there was no blood, no torn clothes … no more odor of death. Instead of them there were … books!.. scattered everywhere on ground! As the wind played with books pages and turned them gently the sailor turned his gaze upwards to get the strangest sight ever.

The trees! They were holding books on and between their branches, all the trees. If his eyes weren't tricking him he would say it's a GREAT library where thousands of books were scattered on floor and others being hanging on trees. But it was a dream where anything was possible.

"A dream but not a dream" a thought that whispered in his mind, he agreed with it. Yeah, every time he woke up he felt that this undesirable adventure was real, that he really visited those odd lands and witnessed those weird events even though he wasn't remembering them. But every morning he suffered from tiredness and exhaustion from the running and jumping everywhere; even during the dream itself it felt so real, everything around him: the blood, the storm, the death odor …

He was wandering now calmly through the wood trying not to disturb any of the trees again, pacing between the books on the land when he felt suddenly thirsty. And as if his dream was reading his thoughts the side of his eyes glimpsed it from a distance. There at his right side a beautiful lake attracted his gaze as its shimmering crystalic water of unusual firouzi color was hugging the sun light in a breath taking view, producing some magnificent turquoise sparkles at the sites where the sun rays touched its surface. Sinbad gasped, it was the most beautiful sight he ever saw, aside –of course- of that of Maeve's red hair flying at the breeze's tickles of the sunset wind, giving her some red framed glow that perfectly melted with the light crimson radiance of the last sun rays farewell while touching it.

The captain headed to the lake in intention to admire its sight closer and to satisfy his thirst. He bent and reached the water by his right hand taking a nip of it then bent further to drink, but as his lips touched his palm and before reaching the water to drink, the liquid in his hand transformed into … stone!

Surprised he got back and starred to it. It was a little turquoise gemstone that was carved forming a special yet random engraving, but he observed one of the many carving there was taking an S shape with further wavy borders that ended up forming a wavy incomplete circle surrounding it.

Sinbad stared back to the lake only to find the whole water had vanished and was replaced by thousands no, millions of those turquoise gemstones. All of sudden the stone in his hand came alive and jumped back to the lake. Sinbad raise his eyebrow "It seems that everything is coming to life here. Great, so your new plan now is to kill me by thirst!" he exclaimed as in fact he had no idea to whom exactly he was addressing his blame.

He sighed as he started to straight up when suddenly something hit him in his face causing him to tumble on his back to the ground. A flash of déjà vu struck his mind as he recalled his first encounter with Maeve, when Dermot attacked him leading him to lose his balance falling down on his back and as he looked up he got her first adorable sight… Sinbad shook his head trying to focus on what hit him now; if he wasn't mistaken his eyes caught some wind stream carrying … leaves! It didn't seem to be so strong to hit him like that! He glanced behind while regaining his posture then his eyes caught a silhouette standing not so far from him. It was a lady-shape figure … actually formed from the same leaves and wind that just had stuck him! His brows rose as he pondered the creature in front of him, the strange greenish blue leaves were arranged perfectly to form the figure essence supported by the wind.

"Hey, my name is Sinbad" he declared hoping that this creature was intending no harm to him as her first action was attacking him. The lady figure responded only by shaking her head in salutation then she raised her whole left arm to point into some direction. Relief overwhelming him, at least there was no more danger, or violence. "Ok, you want me to go there with you. Well, good spirit of tree I'm afraid I've something to do, I mean someone really needs my help…" his bracelet shinning then interrupted him as its glitter indicating the same direction shown by the silhouette. "Okay, … or we may see your problem first.."

Sinbad headed to where the strange tree spirit told him and was followed by her in form of a gentle spiral breeze of air carrying the leaves. The spirit stopped at certain tree, one that Sinbad found very special. The tree was enormous and twitched like wrapped on itself; moreover its leaves were in same shape of those flying with the wind, but all were dark blue in color.

All but only one, Sinbad noticed it in spite of being single and hidden within the big tree but its light firouzi color wasn't dark as the others. The young captain deduced that it was the same tree whose spirit was calling him but he had no clue of the kind of help she needed. In response to his query, the leaves carried by the wind joined the others on the tree changing theirs color to darker then the wind touched the tree gently causing some other leaves to fall down on ground. Sinbad tracked them by his gaze discovering a lot of dried dead leaves lying on ground around the tree, they were black in tint. Then again his eyes caught some glint within those black leaves. He bent to see what was it and for his surprise it was a golden ring … a very FAMILIAR ring decorated by a skull!

"Rumina!" his eyes widen now in realization "Rumina attacked Maeve! I swear by Allah's name if she harmed her in anyway, I'll kill her." His grip tightened on the ring in determination as he frowned and stood up getting ready for further clues that might lead him to his Celtic dream, his blue eyes reflecting anger and fury.

Then without any preliminaries the ground started to shake vigorously again so that he tried hard to keep his balance as the ring dropped from his hand. Eventually he lost it when he oddly felt the ground under his feet not solid anymore but becoming wavy, soft and like … WATER!

Sinbad sensed in shock that he was dragged by the sea that was surrounding him now from everywhere and replace the weird forest scene. He was drowning as the waves were too fierce to fight back his own strength, taking him downwards where he found the stream dragging him deeper into some unknown trend. He tried harder to resist the sea power and swim against it but with no result, lastly he surrendered to the stream feeling something inside him was pushing him to do so. While his lungs were screaming for air, his heart was burning from the urgent sentiment to rescue Maeve that rose considerably now. And when he was about to lose his consciousness a large wave pushed him up to the surface and threw him on shore.

After a while as he stayed still on ground not moving from pain, regaining his consciousness now he opened his eyes with effort just in right time to find out that he wasn't on sand and everywhere was strangely green; no trees but there was green walls that started to move towards him from his both sides to crush him. He jumped up and ran as fast as he could, it needed no magic to realize that the sea behind him had vanished again. He was running with all his remained effort –not only to save himself but to save his love as well- in a challenge against the approaching green walls while deep inside he somehow sensed it was the same way to reach Maeve. It was odd as his instincts told him so yet he felt being dragged to it as well.

Finally he discovered an end to the crushing walls as they were coming now dangerously close to him, thus he doubled his speed so that the numbness started to invade his legs progressively in warning. Fortunately as he reached the boundary he gathered all his last effort to make one final big jump to cut the remaining distance just in time as the two opposite walls met together and completely crushed whatever was between them.

Again Sinbad was forced to lie down as he collapsed on ground taking his breath and resting his ached legs and body. He sighed in wonder how he just made it in time and was saved from such a close trap. The sailor looked around to check if there was any other trap waiting for him but he found only peace. After allowing his body to get his rest he focused now to discover the reason of the tranquility he felt.

There, he was lying in a valley … actually if he was in better mood he would describe it as the biggest and the most magnificent orchard … like a piece of heaven! A real meadow with bright and vivid colors everywhere and amazing scent that saturated his soul. It took him a while to catch the origin of all this beauty … FLOWERS! There were flowers everywhere, at every sight; flowers of every kind, color and odor.

It was right, just like a real paradise! Their charming nectar was filling his breaths and caused him to refresh, and as joy filled his spirit now he decided to continue his way to his aim. So he leant with both hands on the ground to get up to just notice a large carving on the mud, in fact it was a large …. FOOTPRINT! And obviously it was neither of human nor of a simple beast, mostly it was of a … big monster.

Sinbad gulped, his gaze scanned the surrounding as he got up quickly and unsheathed his sword again. He started to walk carefully now with his bracelet guiding his way in vigilance, he didn't want to be startled by a sudden attack. But he found nothing, no monster no beast, all he spotted was more beautiful flowers by every step and at every sight.

Actually he began to doubt his eyes, was it really a footprint belonging to monster? May be he was hallucinating from the exhaustion he was suffering and the effort he made during this … awful dream. How could a monster been kept in such a wonderful paradise or living among such beauty and delicateness? This wasn't making any sense. By this he lost most of his wariness while enjoying this charm.

He was wandering for a long time by now when his bracelet increased its brightness suddenly stopping him. He raised his eyes expecting to find Maeve finally or at least some magical gate that might lead to the realm she was in. but his gaze had fallen on the greatest beauty ever. His eyes widen as he gasped, this couldn't be real … it's just impossible; how much beauty … he couldn't tell. There, in front of him lied the most magnificent sight …. A black rose! A real black rose that was full blooming, brightening shone there on top of the hill. Her sight just caused passionate feeling of grace and pleasure. "Could that be real?!" he wondered.

As a voice whispered inside his heart telling him he had to get her in order to save Maeve, he couldn't figure out what possible relation linked the two beauties but he just responded to it having faith in his bracelet power that enhanced him too. Surrendering to his own desire to touch her as well he advanced towards her carefully, fearing she could be an illusion too. He noticed beside her a decorated bed but he didn't care, he kept approaching her while his mind was whispering to him "She must be the queen here and all the rest of flowers are her maidservants."

When he reached her finally he stayed still silently, starring to her charm and hesitating from touching her. When eventually he took decision to try, only a trial to sense her delicate shinny black petals that were luring him, he then realized the growing shadow covering him from behind his back and his ears caught a terrifying groan that gave a shiver to his spine, it was too close, too high.

He was turning around to face him as he glanced to his hand carrying his sword only to be shocked that his scimitar had disappeared. Sinbad starred in horror then raised his gaze to the monster but didn't even have time for his mind to work, or to discover what the monster was like, as in the next second the monster –with another awful groan- attacked him … and … got him ….

o~o~O~o~o

Sinbad's eyes burst open as he was breathing hardly only to meet darkness everywhere. Was he dead?!

The monster's scream still echoed in his ears, but now it was mixed somehow with … a knock … hard knock.

"Captain Sinbad, come on captain wake up."

Sinbad realized the voice was too familiar … By name of Allah; he woke up from his nightmare! And this was Amin's voice calling him. He then glanced around him, it was his cabin and he was lying down on his back drowning in sweat on his bed. He sighed and closed his eyes once more to overcome the shock trying to relax.

"Thanks Allah." his mind whispered.

"Captain, are you there? Are you ok?"

Sinbad remembered that Amin was still at the door waiting for an answer. "A … Aye" he coughed as his voice still husky trying to be normal, "Aye Amin, what do you want?"

"Captain, it's Rongar who sent me to wake you up. He said that is your wish. Are you ok captain? Do you …"

"It's ok Amin, I'm fine" the young blue eyed sailor interrupted him, "Thanks, I'm awaken now. You can go."

"… Aye captain, if you want anything I'm here."

"Thanks Amin." Sinbad whispered as he listened to his young crew member's steps walking away.

Now as his full consciousness and composure had been restored, he let his body to absolute relaxation from such effort he seemed that he did. This nightmare again … arrrgh! When will it cease from invading him?

And again he wasn't remembering any of its details, but just witnessed its impact on his body … this terrible exhaustion. Yet he still knew it was somehow related to Maeve and that she was in some trouble needing his help. But also he realized that he was so lucky that Amin woke him up in that exact moment, as it seemed he was facing … a kind of deadly fate … he shivered at this thought.

Yes he was sure he witnessed his death in the last moments of his dream. A terrible death, but again he couldn't recall how this had happened and actually he absolutely had no intention to remember.