Doubar, Firouz and Rongar sat themselves down by the small campfire where Bryn was cooking lunch. They had just hauled two huge water casks from the ship, delivering them to Sinbad and Maeve to scour them clean and fill them again.
"Did you see Maeve and Sinbad last night?" Bryn asked, as she doled out equal portions among the four of them. "They went to the fountain together."
"Really?" Firouz drawled, trying to decide if he was going to play along with the game Maeve and Sinbad explained to them the other night or if he was going to blow the whistle on them.
"They're pretending not to be together by asking us for help to get them together," Bryn explained. "And we fell for it too, until last night. Last night was definitely not in the script!"
"Wait, really?" Firouz asked, now really intrigued. "I suppose it is easier to hide a lie in a half-truth, but what do they gain from this? Except for giving you two the opportunity to plot their romance of course."
"We have no idea how their twisted little brains work, they probably just needed an excuse to spend so much time together… And you have to give it to Sinbad, he would do anything to see his big brother happy," Bryn said.
"Even become happy himself," Doubar nodded. "Which is not to say we should not toy with them, having this new information."
"What do you suggest?" Rongar signed.
"I don't know, it has to be something good…" Bryn said. "Any ideas?"
"How about we tell Maeve that we saw Sinbad slink off with a woman last night? She won't be able to admit it was her without giving up the game, so she'll have to pretend to be mad at Sinbad, and if we make sure we accompany them so they're never alone… well then Sinbad won't have a clue why she's angry with him!" Firouz said, with a wicked smile on his face.
"Sounds like a plan! Bryn, you tell Maeve you saw Sinbad last night, Firouz, Rongar, we'll take turns making sure Sinbad is never alone. This should be fun!" Doubar said.
"I don't know… I don't want them to get really hurt…" Bryn said, not a pro-schemer just yet.
"Come on, if Sinbad got hurt every time Maeve got mad at him for some to him incomprehensible reason he wouldn't have a heart left," Firouz said.
"Good point… He really doesn't get women at all," Bryn said, then started making doe-eyes at Doubar. "Unlike his big brother."
"Right, I think this is our cue to leave. Come on Rongar, I think there are a few more casks that need to be brought down from the ship," Firouz said, getting up and giving Rongar a hand-up as well.
Doubar and Bryn didn't even see them go, too wrapped up doing their lovey-dovey thing.
The huge casks lay on their sides on the sandy beach, Maeve was just getting some more hot water when she noticed Sinbad was busy working on the bottom of the keg… The whole of his upper body had disappeared into the cask, only his delectable, leather-clad butt stuck out and Maeve remembered a certain ass-slapping incident that she needed to get him back for…