Disclaimer: I do not own Sinbad, though would you mind contracting me for a collab Dreamworks?
Chapter One
There was a muffled shriek straining through the stillness of the dead of night. No one was coming, and no one was aware that at the very back corner of a 7Eleven store, a young woman of twenty-one years was carelessly murdered for the $17.35 that was left in her wallet after a long shift at the counter. She was nobody worth mentioning in her world. A poor, defenseless, and average nobody that just happened to work a shift at the wrong time.
She worked hard for that $17.35. A university student dropout though she was, she was smart enough to know that she needed money, and fast, to pay her way out of the mess her brother – stupidly – got himself into. Her older brother, who went out drinking and partying every weekend with his newly engaged fiancé, was, at best, a pushover and a people pleaser. Consequently, he got himself involved in many unnecessary, headache-inducing trouble. His need to please applied to everyone, except, unfortunately, his nobody sister.
She was the one he could push all his ignorant mistakes on and deal with, and none around them would be the wiser for it. It was a tiring existence for her. She had dreams and desires to be a somebody, to be a city developer. She wanted to design buildings and highways, and develop trading routes and get the economy of her developed city spark to life. She wanted to better her own little world so she wouldn't have to deal with her brother and his manipulative and vile fiancé any longer.
Unfortunately, life is pain, and she ended up dead on a Thursday night with zero dollars to her name. Such a sad existence this was to the eyes of a certain being.
The Goddess of Concord held such pity for this human woman who could have had everything, and yet, had nothing. All because of the careless whims of Eris, the Goddess of Discord. She was moved by such a poor human that she decided to change the young woman's life forever.
Before the soul of the young woman could travel to the God of Life and Death, the Goddess of Concord plucked the human soul away from her cold body and whisked her away to the goddess's own world. The world of the Legend of the Seven Seas.
It was there that the young woman, who believed herself dead, found herself to be very much alive. Alive in a stranger's body in an even stranger world.
"Where am I?" the voice of a young girl weakly echoed throughout a chamber room.
"Adira!" An old womanly voice cried out. The name struck a chord throughout the young girl's body, as if acknowledging and rejecting it at the same time.
"Who?" the girl asked.
The elderly woman sobbed out and threw herself at the side of the bed her young mistress had woken up from. She had globs of tears pouring down her wrinkly, puffed up face.
"Oh, my little girl! I am so sorry! I am so, so sorry!" The old woman cried.
The girl was very much lost and confused. But seeing this old woman cry her heart out made her even more so.
"There, there," the girl patted awkwardly. "Why are you sorry? What's there to be sorry for?"
The old woman heaved a great sob with even more tears streaming down her face. She started blubbering out words that sounded wet and messy and completely incomprehensible.
"Wait, wait," the girl stopped the old woman. "Please, for my sake, don't cry any more. It's very hard to make sense of things when I can't understand what you're saying," she said gently but firmly.
The old woman sniffed, nodded, and took a hankie out of the folds of her dress and attempted to dry her pouring face. It took a few moments for her to pull herself together.
"Are you alright now?" the girl asked.
The old woman nodded, wiping the last of her tears away. "Yes, my girl, I am. I am so sorry. I was just so happy that you are alive and awake! When you had gone with your-your," the old woman started to choke and tear up again.
"Now, now. No more tears,"' the girl said quickly. "My what?"
The woman swiped away another tear that escaped from the corner of her wrinkled eyes and nodded. "My apologies, my sweet. Your father and mother, they," she swallowed hard, "they did not make it during the fall."
The girl blinked, and was silent. Then, she slowly nodded. "I see."
"I am so sorry, Adira. When we found the carriage, it was already too late. They did not survive the fall. Only you did. And I thank Harmonia every day and every night since then that you are here with us now!" the old woman cried.
There was a pregnant pause before the young girl addressed the old woman. "Madame." The old woman lifted her face from her hankie with tears shining through her eyes. "I am going to have to ask you several questions and I need you to not speak of this to anyone else."
The old woman nodded with a sniff, her eyes wide. "Anything, dearie. Anything. And please, call me Nadine! None of that 'madame' nonsense! I practically raised you!"
"Miss Nadine, then." The girl took a deep breath. "I believe I am not who you think I am."
And before old, sweet Nadine could protest, the girl, Adira, held up her hand shakily to stop the old woman. "Please, Miss Nadine, let me talk."
With wide eyes and a careful nod from old Nadine, Adira tentatively began her questions.
"Where am I?"
"Why you're in your home, my girl."
"No. What country are we in right now?"
There was a hesitant pause from Nadine. "We are in the land of Thrace."
"Thrace? I've never heard of that country," Adira murmured to herself. "Tell me more about this . . . Thrace."
"Thrace is the land where abundant jewels and precious stones flow deeply through its veins. And it is only our beloved Thrace that produces such magnificent gems, the likes of which the world has never seen and will never find anywhere else."
"Jewels and precious stones? I suppose we are a well-off country, then?"
"Very much so, my dear! Your father, Harmonia rests his soul, was a good man. A good and smart man. He built the company that was responsible for our country's current wealth. Why, you could almost say he single-handedly raised Thrace to become the shining jewel that it is today!"
"My father?" Adira asked.
"Yes, my girl, your father! He was the-" Suspicious fear gripped old Nadine's heart. "Adira, why are you asking such odd questions? It's as if you had no clue about the Hiram legacy . . ." Nadine's voice died as she saw the unchanging, careful, and serious expression on her young mistress' face. A look of utter panic struck Nadine. "No! It cannot be!"
"Miss Nadine," Adira said firmly. "I am not who you think I am."
"But-But I do not understand!" Nadine cried. Her whole body began to tremble.
"I . . . I do not have any memories of this place. Let alone who I am or any knowledge of my family." It was as if something cracked a shattering split in the air. A heart-breaking wail shook the chamber walls. Nadine's body crumpled into itself slowly and painfully. The night went on carrying the haunted cries of a bitter woman. "I am sorry," Adira whispered solemnly.
Her words fell on deaf ears, as poor, old, sad Nadine mourned over the second tragic death of the great Hiram family.
A/N: This is actually the very first fanfiction I started writing. Please let me know what you all think! Read, review, or PM me if you'd like! Hopefully, I will be posting every week or so for the next chapter. :)