Before leaving you with the new chapter, i want to welcome my awesome readers :)
Special thanks for OiseauLune -Moon Bird, nonni88 (i hope you guys will enjoy the update), and for my lovely reviewers: TiaKisu, Anime Princess, MJDai;
and welcome loney, Michodell & Misha. :)
Can't tell you how you all brighten my day and made me smile,
Now, if you excuse me i left a little note in the tail of this chapter, hope you don't forget to take a look, and i'm uploading another longer but VERY IMPORTANT one instead of the next chapter as Author' Note ,, so please take a look on the latter which will be uploaded as chapter 4,, And i'm seriously interested in your feedback about this note.
~Troubled Morning~
Sinbad winced once he stepped on deck from the sudden exposure to the strong sun rays. He cursed himself inwardly that he didn't expect how strong it would be especially when coming out from dark galley. He instantly covered his forehead with his hand in a way to hide his eyes, moving towards the tiller while he let the door to self shut.
Rongar looked up when he heard the door closure, and smiled warmly at the sight of his captain.
"Morning, Rongar." Sinbad relieved as he gave his back to the sun.
The moor nodded with a smile.
"Long shift, huh? Do you want to take some rest?"
Rongar shook his head closing his eyes to say no, then he made some signs with his right hand while his left still holding the tiller steadily.
Sinbad raised his eyebrows "Oh yeah, I forgot. Your shift is partially at night and is completed in the morning. But I still can relieve you for a while, my friend."
Rongar shook his head again and put his right hand on his chest while smiling. It was his way to express his gratitude.
"Well, as you like. Anyway, you sent Amin to wake me up, thank you" Sinbad smiled in appreciation "And you have no idea how it was the right time" he added in his mind.
At this moment, Firouz approached his friends smiling "Morning guys, it's very hot today. Oh Sinbad, by the way it's only a couple of hours to reach Basra."
"Great, our timing is just perfect this time." Sinbad smiled
"You mean in delivering the cargo? Aye, indeed. The weather helped us a lot this time; it's too hot but still we have this hot wind filling the sails enough to have smooth sailing. I think we were lucky."
"Agree with you." replied the captain as he nodded his head.
"By the way captain, what exactly is your plan after delivering this cargo? I mean what will we do next?"
Sinbad opened his mouth to reply just to be interrupted by the answer. "Don't start it Firouz. Don't ask him that." They turned around to only meet an obviously annoyed Doubar and a warmly smiling Bryn with Dermott perching on her left arm as usual.
"Good morning guys." Bryn's smile enlarged friendly.
After they replied her Firouz couldn't keep his curiosity "What did you mean Doubar?"
"Our captain is seriously thinking about leaving Basra once we deliver our current cargo, just to get another one from… SAMARKAND back to Basra."
Sinbad rolled his eyes, while Dermott left Bryn's arm to stretch his wings in the sky. Bryn just followed him with her eyes.
"Samarkand! Really Sinbad, are we going there? That is….. AMAZING. I wanted to visit it long time ago; it was my dream since I was a kid. Fantastic!"
"Firouz!" Doubar stared at him in disbelief, while both Sinbad and Rongar exchanged the gazes; and a ghost of smile appeared in Rongar's eyes while raising his eyebrow, which made Sinbad fought his own smile from showing up.
"No Doubar, you don't understand. Samarkand is well known by its great and special architecture arts, it's one of the most remarkable architecture centers in the world,,, there you'll find the Registan, one of the most relevant examples of the Arabian architecture. It consists of three separate buildings: Madrasa of Ulugh Beg, Sher-Dor Madrasah that is called Lions Gate, and Tilya-Kori Madrasah as well as Shah-i-Zinda necropolis and more,,, not to mention that it's considered one of the amazing hubs for scholarly study as well, that's why I wanted to visit it in the first place but never had a chance,, also Samarkand is well known by carpet trading. Point of fact its name is derived from the Old Persian asmara that means stone... or rock, and Sogdian kand meaning town. And after Alexander the Great conquered it the Greeks named it Maracanda, as …"
"Firouz, Stop! I have no intention to know anything about Samarkand history or its geography, nor am I interested in your dreams."
The scientist shook his head in disbelief and sighed,, but soon enough he regained excitation as he directed his attention to his captain again: "But Sinbad, that means that we'll take the Silk Road, I guess."
"I think so." Sinbad nodded
"Perfect, the Silk Road is in fact a trade route made by a network linking many trade routes across the world, and links China to the Western trade world. So many traders used it and still use it like the Indian, the Sogdian traders, as well as the Arabian and Persian traders. It still is an essential effective factor in the development of different civilizations like China, India, Persia, Arabia and others, because it wasn't only the goods that had been traded but also knowledge, sciences and philosophy, and also sometimes diseases like Black Death. Point of fact it's got its name from the famous profitable Chinese silk trade along it and …"
"FIROUZ, enough NOW." Doubar shouted. This time neither Sinbad nor Rongar could keep it anymore, they simply burst in laughter. Sinbad looked to Bryn only to be surprised by her faint smile. That was unusual, he expected her to share their laugh as she did usually but she didn't this time. She seemed to be worried… or thoughtful.
"Is it only me who is complaining here? We are too exhausted from the travel from Halab to here. We need at least some rest before making such a long journey."
"Well, I agree with you Doubar. No one can deny this journey being so exhausting, we all are tired and need some rest. But in the same time you can't blame me for it. Look at yourself big brother, you look very tired yet you wake up so early after a long night shift. Why didn't you let your body get some rest?"
"Oh, now are you blaming me little brother? Well, I couldn't get any sleep in this horrible weather. I nearly got the feeling that I was boiling last night, my blood almost popped out of my veins. Now how am I supposed to sleep? So don't anyone dare and blame me."
"Well, I can blame you Doubar." Firouz started only to get a killing stare from the first mate, so he quickly added "I mean if you only give yourself a chance to try my relaxation tub for only fifteen minutes before going to bed, then you could have slept very well."
"Now, you stop babbling about your weird inventions, Firouz. I'm really not in the mood for hearing about any of them, ESPECIALLY NOW. And don't BLAME ME; after all you aren't the one who spent the whole night holding the tiller."
"Ok, come on guys, take it easy." Sinbad intervened quickly as he realized where this conversation is seriously heading now; his brother seemed to be seriously out of mood this morning. This only proved how bad his night was, but obviously Firouz wouldn't understand it when you start to blame him. "I know this hot weather has really bad effect on all of us, but it's only an hour and we'll reach the port. Then you will be able to get the kind of relaxation you seek for, once we head to the tavern…"
"Or may Omar will offer us the hospitality, at least to spend the night at his palace." added Doubar hopefully.
"Don't raise your hopes Doubar, we still don't know if he is already there." As he replied Sinbad looked at Bryn who seemed not even listening to any of their conversation. "It looks like it is not only Doubar who is not in the mood this morning." He thought. "Bryn, what is it? Are you ok?"
"Huh?! Oh… yeah, sure. Err … nothing."
"No, really. There is something bothering you, what is it?"
"Oh, no. Now don't start it again, Bryn."
Bryn frowned a little as she tried to focus more on this discussion. She looked questioningly at Doubar "What do you mean?"
"I mean, you know these 'bad-feeling-about-this-place' and 'feeling-evil-presence' things. Please Bryn, I just want to enjoy being on land for once without any trouble."
Bryn smiled absently "Don't worry Doubar; it's none of those two."
Sinbad felt her uneasiness now and doubted that she wanted to talk in front of everyone. "Well, why don't you guys get back to work?" he said "Firouz, Doubar go check on the cargo and get the ship ready for entering the port. Rongar if your shift is over, go and get some rest before reaching Basra. I'll need you there. Don't worry I'll take the tiller."
"Aye, aye captain."
Once everyone went to their duties, Sinbad talked to Bryn in lower voice now "Bryn wait, let's talk."
"Talk about what?"
"I want to tell you we'll pay a visit to an old friend of ours in Basra. In fact I want you –especially you- to meet her; however you still don't know her till now."
"Why? Why me? And who is she?"
"She is an old wise woman, a sorceress with great knowledge. Her name is Caipra and she is Dim-Dim's wife."
"That means she is very trustful." Bryn smiled "Well, sure I'm so interested to meet her. She may tell me how I can control my powers." She added hopefully.
"That wasn't the only reason I was thinking about. Actually I thought lately why we won't try to ask her if she can help you restore your memory, of course if you don't mind."
"Oh, can she do that?! Of course, how can I mind Sinbad; that sounds great indeed."
"You don't seem to be happy as your words show it."
"No, I'm really excited about this. It's just… I don't want to be very hopeful, let's ask her first if she can do it."
"Sure." He replied quietly, then added in a caring tone "But is that all? Bryn you're not even listening to our talk. I know you very well now, and I know when you're worried. Now tell me what is it?"
She sighed "It's weird."
"Try me." He smiled to her in encouragement.
"Well, in that case… it's just … well, it's hard to explain it but I feel like something bad had happened, ... Or will happen. I'm not sure."
"So Doubar was right." Sinbad tried to tease her.
"No, it's not like that" Bryn tried to focus "It's nothing bad about Basra or the people there. I mean nothing will happen to all of them at least, I think it's only one person." She waited for a while before completing "Like someone is in trouble and needs help."
At that moment Sinbad blinked as his face turned stern and pale.
"Anyway, it is a faint feeling. I can't detect its source exactly." Bryn added without noticing Sinbad's sudden change. "May be it's just me. You said it yourself; hot weather affected all of us badly." She waited for a moment then turned her gaze to the sky, her eyes searching in obvious worry "Or may be it's just Dermott."
The young captain restored his mood when caught her last comment. He gulped and asked in frown "What about him?"
"Err, nothing really important. But I just don't like it when he leaves us and reaches to a place before us like that."
"You mean he precedes us to Basra? Why?"
"Seriously I don't know the real reason behind this, he never tells me. But it's his habit; every time we come to Basra he precedes us there." She looked around nervously.
Sinbad thought about it. "You never told me about that before."
"You didn't ask, besides Basra is a familiar city to us and safe place as well. I mean crowded and people there are familiar too. Even if sometimes they don't look so friendly –like the last time- but that was occasional and still there is no danger for him."
"If so, why are you worried about him?" Sinbad smiled mischievously "Bryn, are you jealous?" he asked in a fake innocence.
"What! Jealous?! Me? Are you kidding Sinbad? Why would I ever be like that? Of course not." She shrugged her shoulders looking to the other side.
A familiarly wave hit the captain for a second, but he drew it aside as he focused on his friend now.
"Well, I didn't mean real jealousy. But look at yourself, I mean you don't want him to go anywhere without you being with him."
"And why don't you call it 'being protective'?"
"Because you already know just like me that he is not an ordinary hawk. He's unusually smart and will never get himself into trouble. In fact he never did but once…" he added the last words in whisper as he remembered when Rumina's guards caught Dermott while he was searching for him after Maeve's request.
Bryn who didn't notice all of his words just sighed and replied in absent voice "Aye ….unusual."
His friend words and her tone brought him back to reality just to realize her mind-absent state. Sinbad bent towards her a little so that his face became closer to her as his eyes stared directly and deeply into her eyes while his gaze showed so much teasing and a mischievous smile was playing on his face.
"Hey, what? Stop it, ok? You know that we both –Dermott and I- share this bond since I started to take care of him. We became very, VERY close friends."
When Sinbad raised his eyebrow while restoring back his position, she sighed adding "Ok, I admit it; I love him so much that I can't now imagine my life without him. You know what I mean, right?"
At that Sinbad just smiled warmly "Aye, I know. Don't worry, he is a big birdie you know; and won't get himself into any trouble."
"I hope so, I hope so." She replied as she started to walk away to find anything to do that may keep her busy from worrying about Dermott, leaving her captain alone with his own thoughts.
Notes,
Hey guys :) I know i'm awfully away and didn't updated sooner as i promised. But life was tough with me since then,,, after my final exams come the critical events in my country that still there till now, as you all know the problems in Egypt, i couldn't focus on anything,. So i'm so sorry and i hope you excuse me.
The next chapter is almost ready so i'm updating within 2 weeks isA, may be sooner ;)
~.~.~
For my dear reviewers whom i can't reach through DL,
loney,thanks for your lovely feedback, it affected me very much.. i'm so happy to know you liked the fiction that much :) thanks again,
Michodell,when i saw that you reviewed, i didn't believe it :) i'm thrilled you find it interesting, though it didn't reach the point i told you about. Oh adding actions through the dialogue... believe me that's have been my worry, i wanted to do this exactly but ... i guess i'm not that skillful yet :/ Though as you said being a fanfic makes its characters familiar to the fans/readers thus i don't need being much descriptive about them or the reader'd get bored as he know them already! i'm sorry i never give you a feedback about the characters before you read the prologue :( but i didn't really thought you'll take a look at my simple work, thanks so much my friend and your words are honor to me,
Misha, yeah that was *some* dream, huh? :) it's really important for the adventure though, and Sinbad suffered a lot... i wasn't kind to him, i guess :D anyway, all those signs have significance for sure but i'm afraid we have to be more patient :/ thanks so much for your feedback :)
