by SpelCastrMax
AUTHOR'S NOTE: MANY THANKS TO THOSE WHO REVIEWED! (sorry it's taken me sooooo long to update) Space-Case 7029, ads, LostMarbles, Maggybeth, & Lai-Ku. The feedback has been great! Thank you again!
CHAPTER FOUR: THE CAPTAIN AND THE KID
The crew of the Nomad replenished their supplies on the ship. Before boarding, the little eight year old Maeve ran back into the "home" of Baroff.
"Hey? We have to catch the tide," Sinbad yelled at her as she crawled under the old bar in the burnt out tavern.
"Are you always so bossy?" her muffled voice asked from under the counter. She opened a cupboard and pushed the contents out. "Baroff didn't want me to see this stuff. I think we should take it with us."
Sinbad leaned down. Laying in the dust was a heap of white cloth and brown leather. He lifted it up and realized in a moment that it was Maeve's, the adult Maeve's, dress.
When he lifted it up and beat some of the grime from it, the child realized what it was. "Whose clothes do you think those were?"
The captain didn't say anything to her and kept his silence until they cast off. He took the tiller and tried to reason everything in his head. It was now oblivious that Dim-Dim's appearance to him after Maeve fell overboard had been a trick. But what was Rumina's plan, if it really was her doing? She and Maeve did always hate one another, but he rarely saw the witch attack Maeve specifically before.
The captain's thoughts were interrupted by the giggling of a child and the constant chanting of "You're it!" He stared up to see Doubar, Firouz, Rongar, and Bryn all chasing the little red head around the deck.
Rolling his eyes in annoyance, Sinbad yelled, "Hey! When you're done playing I'm sure there's some work to do someplace."
The little girl scowled at him as the crew members sobered up, realizing how silly they had been. "What's his problem?" Maeve asked quietly.
Bryn heard her and replied, "Broken heart, I think." Maeve stared up at the woman questioningly and Bryn added, "Don't ask. It's complicated."
The child shrugged her shoulder with a relieved sigh. "Well, at least that means that it isn't what I thought."
It was Bryn's turn to stare. "What did you think?"
The eight year old bluntly said, "That he didn't like me."
Doubar overheard her words. He gave Bryn a knowing look and the two began to laugh. "What?" Maeve whined, "What did I say?"
Bryn shook her head. "C'mon Maeve. Maybe you can help me below deck." The little girl nodded and followed Bryn down the hatch.
Sinbad leaned on the tiller to glance upward, unaware that he was being talked about. Firouz approached him with a theory. "You know, Sinbad. Maybe I was right with what I said before about curing amnesia with familiar surroundings. Why else would Baroff have hid Maeve's things from her?"
"But she didn't even recognize them," Sinbad pointed out.
Firouz nodded. He was quiet for a second before asking his next question. "Sinbad, what are we going to do if we can't turn her back? What if we can't find Rumina or if Rumina wasn't even the woman Maeve saw?"
Sinbad stared straight ahead, but with the strength of a captain, he responded with, "Then we'll find her someplace where she can start a new life."
Firouz's head jerked towards the captain. "Sinbad?"
"A ship is no place for a child. She has a chance at a new life without whatever it was that made her so sad before," Sinbad explained, then added with a smile, "Besides, it was bad enough arguing with the grown Maeve all the time. I don't think I could handle loosing fights to an eight year old." For a moment the confidence on the Captain's face waned. "At least we found her," he concluded.
Below deck, Maeve and Bryn were bonding as they cleaned off the hammock in the cabin beside Bryn's. "Why is this cabin empty? There's things here. Who owns all this?" the child questioned as she sneezed from the dust.
"The cabin belongs to someone who had to leave," Bryn explained, "And I think Sinbad always knew that…the person who used to sleep here would come back someday."
"Will that person mind me sleeping here?"
"Trust me. It'll be fine."
The little girl picked up the thin blanket and flung it about to dust it off. "Bryn? Was it you?"
"What? What are you talking about?" Bryn took the other side of the blanket and tugged a little on it, "Let's air this out on deck."
She lead Maeve up the stairs as the child innocently asked, "Was it you who broke Captain Sinbad's heart?"
Bryn choked a little on a surprised gasp. "Uh.." she laughed, "No. There was once a time when I wanted to be...in that role, but...I don't know. Something just changed in me, especially over the last couple of months. I think I grew up a little bit." She slyly looked at the child, "Why? Do you have a crush on him?"
"Eww! Gross!" the eight year old protested, "He's so bossy and I can tell that he's dying to pick on me and...What's that word for when someone thinks they're the greatest of anybody?"
"Arrogant."
"Yeah. He's that." The little girl blushed a bit and concentrated on shaking the blanket. Bryn tried not to laugh.
Meanwhile, Doubar went and took over at the tiller. Sinbad welcomed the break. "I wonder how long it will take us to reach Rumina's neck of the woods from here?" Doubar wondered aloud.
Firouz stared upward at the sails. "We really aren't very far from there. If the winds keeps up and as long as we don't run into any of our usual problems I'd say it could take about a week. Until then, might I suggest trying to jog Maeve's memory. It would help if we knew more about what Baroff did to make her young."
Both Doubar and Firouz stared at Sinbad for a moment for threw his arms in the air. "What!"
"Well, you were the closest to Maeve," Doubar pointed out.
"No I wasn't. I didn't know anything more about her than any of you did," the captain insisted.
"Of course you didn't," Firouz said, "Nobody said you did."
"Right," Sinbad nodded.
Doubar mimicked the nod and added, "We didn't say that, Sinbad."
"Good," Sinbad told them.
"We never figured you were really paying attention to any details about Maeve, anyway," Doubar said.
Sinbad crossed his arms across his chest. "You'd be right."
Then, Firouz asked in a voice that kept up with the rest of the conversation, "And Maeve's favorite color was..."
Without thinking about it, Sinbad answered, "Violet." He paused, realizing what he had done. His crew members laughed. Dropping his arms to his sides in defeat he muttered, "Fine! I'll go talk to her."
The sun was setting on the horizon and the child was curling up in a corner of the deck away from the nameless ship hands who paid her no mind. The captain found her there, but was not the first to speak.
"You said I was a member of your crew," Maeve said, "But no one really seems to know me. What exactly did I do on this ship?"
"Caused trouble mostly," Sinbad replied.
"What kind of trouble?"
Sinbad thought for a moment, debating whether or not to tell her any of her past. He decided to pick examples that wouldn't betray her real age. "Well, you split the mast in half. You caused sudden weather changes. One time you and Doubar were singing and it distracted me so much that we crashed."
"How was that my fault? It sounds like you were the one who wasn't paying attention."
Sinbad's jaw dropped to protest, but he stopped himself and changed the subject. "What's your earliest memory?"
"Waking up," she replied, "I was in Baroff's stable, that was where he kept Niku and there was an empty cup in my hand. Baroff, the dog, was standing over me. He called me Maeve and asked why I was gaping at him. That was when I think he realized that I didn't know him."
"What happened then?"
"He ordered me to get up and clean inside. When I kept staring at him, he said I was a half-wit, so I spit on him."
"Do you remember anything about the woman with the dark hair?"
Maeve shook her head and stood up. "Why? Do you think she was the one who took my memory away?"
"Maybe." Sinbad reached out to pat her on the head, but thought better of it. "Maybe you ought to hit the hay. Good night." He began to walk away when suddenly he felt a bit of rope hit him in the back of the head. "Ouch!" Spinning around he saw Maeve resting her arm. "What was that for?"
"You kissed the woman with the black hair!" the child accused.
"Well...yes...but...Hey! You remembered something!" Excitedly, Sinbad grinned and started to walk back towards Maeve.
However, the child's memory was apparently not finished, because she held a glazed look before picking up another object and thrusting it at him. "More than once! That's just gross! Kissing is bad enough, but kissing evil people…eww!"
Sinbad's joy turned to an irritated sigh. "Why is it that of all the kisses your mind could have dug up, that one came first?"
"Huh?" was her response before her eyes wandered to the sky behind his head. The little girl jumped up and pointed to something, shouting, "Captain Sinbad! What is that?"
Spinning around with his sword unsheathed, Sinbad saw a massive cloud forming in the sky. There was no wind or darkness or any other signs of storm, only the single cloud that constantly grew larger the closer it came to the Nomad.
"Doubar!" Sinbad pointed to the mysterious shape in the sky after he had his brother's attention.
Firouz lifted his magnascope to his eye and let out an awed explanation. He had never seen weather behave so strangely before except by magic.
"Maeve, get below deck," Sinbad hurriedly ordered as he ran to warn the rest of the men.
The little girl started to protest, "But I could h..."
The captain snapped over his shoulder, "NOW!"
Reluctantly, the girl pulled on Bryn's leather glove and held out her hand to Dermott. With the hawk weighing down her arm, Maeve slipped down the stairs just as the cloud covered the sky directly over the Nomad.
It wasn't long before rain and claps of thunder began to shake the ship. The sky and sea beyond remained calm, but the storm prevented the ship from escaping the shadow of the cloud. The rain poured down in heavy sheets, growing colder every second until it formed into hail. The crew protested in pain as the clumps of ice beat upon them and tapped against the wood of the ship. Doubar thought he could hear one of the sails tearing, but he did not want to look up into the hail in order to check.
Bryn ducked close to a mast and shouted, "What are we going to do?"
Firouz mimicked her pose, trying to protect himself from the hail by staying close to a side of the ship. "The only thing we can do is hope that a strong wind comes so we can outrun it!"
It was Doubar's turn to speak up, "Do you think Maeve could..."
Sinbad watched the ship's movement. It rocked violently. Men were grasping at ropes and each other to keep from flying overboard. He cut into his brother's sentence, "She's staying below deck! We can ride this out!"
"Sinbad, the cloud is following us," Bryn pointed out, "There's no way we can ride anywhere unless we have a little help."
The captain at last nodded. Bryn crawled across the deck, afraid that if she stood up she would be lost in the sea. Below deck, Maeve was sitting at the base of the stairs attempting to keep the cargo from sliding around and crushing her. Bryn rushed through an explanation of the cloud and what they needed the child to try and do.
A couple of minutes later, the two reappeared on deck. Maeve raised both arms over her head and began to chant. At first, a warm breeze cut through the storm, then the breeze grew into a steady wind and finally a strong current found its way to the Nomad's sails. The ship gained speed. The cloud sluggishly followed, keeping the ship cradled on the harsh waves it created.
"Not working!" Sinbad criticized from the opposite end of the ship.
"You wanna try this!" the little girl screamed at him over the winds. She dropped her arms to rest for a second, panting as if in pain. The cloud caught up to the ship and the hail came down on them again.
Maeve screamed, but she stood her ground. Raising her arms once more, she continued the spell. The wind reappeared, but moved from a different direction. Instead of giving the Nomad speed, the strong air moved the cloud. It wasn't until the storm creating cloud was easy to outrun that the child's hands fell limply to her sides.
The crew cheered and they regained their balance. The ship continued to rock a little from the waves the storm had left behind. Maeve felt weak and dizzy from her use of power. She leaned on the side of the ship and held her head. In another second, she fell over the edge and into the sea.
More to come very soon...