" Ali Baba, you will go with Zarqa on her journey."
" What?!" Both of them chorused, eyes bulging out. Jaber merely stared at him, dumbfounded.
" As you heard, you two are heading together to the lost city of gold." This made them sound their complaints even louder. Jaber for once was ready to clobber the other man hard on the head at the mere suggestion.
" Not happening! This girl is headed to her death! And I need to get back to my mother!" Ali Baba argued.
" And I'm not putting anyone in danger. I can travel on my own." Zarqa added.
" Hold on! You don't really intend to send two kids to the lost city of gold!" Jaber exclaimed in horror.
" Wait up guys." Sindbad leaned back to avoid having his head bit off by Jaber. It took a few attempts to get them to quiet and let him continue. " Zarqa, no matter what I do, you're not going back on your decision?" His look transfixed the girl, but much to Jaber and Ali Baba's surprise, she withheld its weight.
" Even if you tie me up and lock me, I will claw my way to it." That earned a smirk from Sindbad.
" Are you that determined to die?! Don't count me in! I would never! You said it was a deadly place!" Ali Baba protested.
" It is a deadly place!" Jaber affirmed.
" It was before I knew what Zarqa was truly after." That earned him quizzical looks from all directions. " As I said, it's deadly but not inescapable. For a fact, Jaber and I are still here."
" That's because-"
" Because we were the same as Zarqa, Jaber. She is not after the gold."
The man chewed on the inside of his mouth. " Still-"
" Still it's dangerous, I know. That's why I'm sending Ali Baba with her. Someone as swift and nimble as him will be able to protect her."
" I said I don't need him."
" Don't interfere Zarqa. You don't know what you're dealing with. He's going with you whether you want it or not." The girl huffed angrily at that.
" Don't decide on your own! I said no!" The boy shouted his disagreement, not caring about the cold look the other man was giving. " That's it! I'm out of here!"
But as he made an attempt to stand up, a blade was pointed at his throat. No one had seen Sindbad pulling out his sword, it was all in a blink. His voice bore a hint of threat as he spoke. " Sit still, I'm not done talking yet."
The boy let out a deep breath and his muscles relaxed as he settled back. Sindbad was satisfied and lowered his sword. " Well, you see, Ali Baba, I'm afraid you're in no place to refuse. You've stolen from us and you need to bear the consequences. That's the law of the desert."
" I would rather have my hands cut."
" And live off your life like that? Even for me, that sounds too cruel."
" At least I'm guaranteed to live. If you think it is not that dangerous, why don't you accompany her yourself? A great swordsman like you would have no problem since he made it back from there alive already." The boy scoffed.
Sindbad heaved a sigh at that. " I would have done so, but, we can't go back there. We were marked."
" Huh?" The kids quirked their eyebrows in unison. " Marked?"
" If you were there once, you can't go back. It's the kind of place that could be visited once in a lifetime." Jaber rubbed his forehead as he tried to wrap his mind around what was Sindbad planning.
" Why?"
" We don't know ourselves." Sindbad shook his head. " Jaber and I tried time and again, but we could not make it back in there. That's why it has to be you."
" You can't oblige me. I said I'm not going."
Sindbad closed his eyes as if trying to prop the corners of his mind for an answer. " You're right, I can't." He stood up, walked over to the boy, and knelt down so he was looking into his eyes directly. Ali Baba reared back, befuddled.
" W-What?"
" I can make a deal with you." His voice was so serious that it made the kid frown.
" A deal?"
" You need your mother healed, but the current situation doesn't allow for it, right?" Ali Baba's eyes narrowed. " Then I shall see to it that she is properly treated and looked after. But in return, I need you to look after Zarqa."
Ali Baba looked over to the girl and then back to the man. " There is no guarantee you will keep your promise."
" He will," both Zarqa and Jaber spoke simultaneously.
" Sindbad is not a liar. If he says he will do something then he will see it done," Zarqa said defiantly as though that was some kind of insult to the man.
" You have my word, Ali Baba." The kid looked down, debating it inwardly.
" Still-"
It was then that Zarqa's bowl fell off her hands to the ground, prompting everyone to look back at her. She had her eyes held wide, looking far beyond anything and everything, far beyond that moment. Her hands shook and her face glistened with pouring sweat.
" Zarqa!"
" Is she having some sort of fit?!" Jaber leaped over to her to check on her. However, not even a moment later, Zarqa managed to push the fussing man away from her.
" Water…" Was all she mumbled, and Jaber was right back with a water pouch. The girl gulped its content before taking deep breaths to calm herself. It was then that Sindbad found the opportunity to ask.
" Was it a vision?"
"No… maybe… I don't know…" She looked up, confused and puzzled. " It was strange, like seeing two futures at the same time, like if it was changing… like if it was…" Her glance drifted over to Ali Baba who was taken aback by all that happened so suddenly. " … unsettled."
Her eyes brightened like a kid who just found a new toy. She bounced up and made for the boy, placing both hands on his shoulders. " It's you! You're the answer!"
" Huh?! What are you talking about?"
" The answer?" Sindbad too was curious.
" You remember what I told you, right, Sindbad!? That Al-yamama will perish!"
" Wait! Perish?!" Ali Baba was horrified. " I thought we dealt with the danger of the outlaws!"
" How can I forget! It's because you kept insisting you needed to find a solution that I accepted to bring you along." He folded his arms, impatiently waiting for her to make sense of herself.
" It turns out I fail, that's why I see Al-yamama destroyed!"
Now both Jaber and Sindbad were horrified. " Hold the horses! What do you mean it turns out you fail?"
" It's as you hear. Since departing, the future I see hasn't changed once. It's the same dead town over and over again. Which means my journeying on my own won't save anyone. But…" Her eyes fell again on a puzzled and worried Ali Baba. " The moment you considered it, Ali Baba, the future became unsettled. Al-yamama could be saved!"
" Enough!" Ali Baba bolted onto his feet and cried out in fury. " Enough of you all! I don't get it! He is trying to convince me to go to a dangerous unknown city, claiming that he would help my mother out if I did! And then there is you, telling me that accepting would save Al-yamama! This is… It's just too much to deal with! I can't!" And he stormed past all of them before a blade could be put to his throat again.
Sindbad and the others watched him as he settled behind a carriage far from them. " That was very overwhelming if you ask me," Jaber piped. " The kid is right though, it's his choice. If he doesn't want to go, no matter what you two say…"
" I know…" Sindbad groaned as he ran his hand through his hair. " To be honest I didn't want to resort to bribing him with a deal, but I had no other option."
" Well, you're a merchant at heart, trying to make deals with others is kind of your thing." Zarqa pointed.
" Still… your vision made it worse. Now we know Zarqa has to have him by her side for her to succeed. But…"
" He will go," she spoke with such certainty that Sindbad and Jaber gave her questioning looks. " The future is still unsettled. If he had made up his mind already, it would have gone back to the gruesome end I've seen before. But it didn't."
" Still, that's not-"
" It's enough." Zarqa cut Jaber before he even could relay his point. " The future can't be affected by halfhearted decisions." …
━━━━━━━༺ *** ༻━━━━━━━
All movements ceased not long after he left them. Tired of a day of work, everyone laid down to sleep. Only Ali Baba had his eyes wide open as he watched the sky and its constellation silently, the racket in his head unheard by anyone but him.
There was a lot to make sense of, plenty to get, and even more to give. One minute, his life was so little for his mother's, and he was almost set on accepting Sindbad's deal.
Another, his mother's concern seemed heavier as he imagined her standing at the door of her house, patiently waiting for her son to turn up for a year, two, ten, twenty… wasting her life waiting for a son who won't make it back. And it pained him.
Sometimes he would try to think that Zarqa's prophecy would happen and the town would be destroyed along with everything and everyone. But that made him wonder if he could make it in time and take his mother away before that happened.
It was too much, shifting left or right, sitting or lying on the ground, eyes closed or open, there was no escape from all those thoughts and possibilities.
Before he knew it, Morjana dropped from her spot on Jaber's carriage and joined him on the ground, nestling by his head and getting ready to sleep. Ali Baba gently stroked her black-as-night feathers in an attempt to draw comfort from them. " What should I do, Morjana?"
The crow didn't answer, merely twisting her head away and sleeping peacefully. " Thanks for your wise advice." The boy scoffed.
He closed his eyes and tried to follow his crow's heed, yet his mother's face peered at him from the darkness, begging him to save her, begging him to come back to her. But she was far from his reach, drifting back into nothingness whenever he tried to get closer, leaving him all alone, trudging blindly in the dark.
" Ali Baba!" A disembodied voice called him. As he looked back, two hands appeared from nowhere and grasped his neck, pressing tight on his windpipe. A face with disheveled hair and beard phased out of the darkness, eyes completely white and teeth clenched in fury. " You worthless coward! Why was it you?!"
" I'm sorry!"
Ali Baba jolted awake, gasping for air and clenching at his throat trying to remove an unseen weight pressed to it. It felt dry as if he had just walked through a sandstorm.
Dawn was already breaking by the time he had woken up. Ali Baba stared blindly at the fading stars before a movement by his side got his attention. Morjana had poked her head in Ali Baba's bag and was tugging at something. Not before long, her head peaked out, and so did the hilt of a certain dagger that she had been hauling in her beak.
With half-lidded eyes, Ali Baba leaned towards her and took the weapon from her, staring at it absentmindedly…
━━━━━━━༺ *** ༻━━━━━━━
The caravan's members were up from an early hour and wandering about, each tending to their business.
Zarqa made it a point of preparing their breakfast since she had joined them, seeing how all of them, save for Jaber, sucked when it came to cooking. Even when asked to boil an egg, they somehow managed to turn it into a catastrophe. And since Sindbad almost burned his own carriage while attempting to cook her a decent breakfast on her first day under his care, she prohibited him from going near the fire ever again.
Apparently, Jaber used to take care of all of their meals in addition to his duties as a healer and trader. Wanting to relieve him a bit, she insisted on taking care of breakfast for him while she was intruding.
That morning, the smell of tea and freshly made bread permeated their small camp.
" I'm going to miss this smell." Zarqa looked up from her work as Sindbad joined her by the fire. " You seriously should consider staying with us and help with the meals."
" I would really appreciate the extra hands." Jaber turned up with his own plate. " Plus, your tea is very good."
Trying to hide her blush, Zarqa embarked on serving them quietly. As she handed him his plate and tea, the concern in Sindbad's face was palpable. " What's the matter?"
" Are you sure he will go?"
It's not that she herself was sure of his choice, but she was met with an undeniable fact, that his decision was pivotal for the fate of their town, even if he didn't want to admit it.
" Sindbad… Zarqa…" They both looked back at the boy who came round Sindbad's carriage, Morjana settling on his shoulder.
After a night of feverish thinking and lack of sleep, his eyes were half closed and deep bags were etched underneath. He held tightly onto his own dagger like if it kept his mind at peace. It seemed as though he would drop down any second or catch on the weakest breeze. However, the look he gave was of someone who came to accept his duty, his calling, his fate.
" Have you taken your time to think it over?" Sindbad asked, tone filled with concern. He too had time to ponder over it himself during the night, and he felt a tad of guilt at trying to force him into such a journey. After all, he was still a kid, and even with Sindbad's proposal, the stakes were too high.
Ali Baba's face went stoic, as if he was trying to squeeze words out of his throat. His white knuckles didn't go unnoticed by either Sindbad or Zarqa. Even when he spoke, he made a point of not looking into their eyes. "... Is Al-yamama's fate really lying in my hand?"
" Have I ever lied before?" Zarqa's retort was short and calm, yet felt heavy for the boy. He knew the answer to it too well. He swallowed before looking at Sindbad, and despite how tired they looked, his eyes were sharp.
" You will keep your word." It wasn't a question, nor was it a request. It was a blatant order. Sindbad found himself smirking at the boy's boldness, he got to admire his guts.
" I promised. A man's word is binding."
Ali Baba's tensed grip loosened slightly of the dagger's sheath. " Then I'm up holding my end as well…" His brown eyes met Zarqa's sapphire ones and it seemed to him as though time stopped for a while. Unable to escape, unable to refuse, he had but one choice…
Coward…
To make his way through.
" I am accompanying you."...