" Danger," Nasser informed solemnly.
" Well enough. Salah! Keep an eye on the North!"
" Aye captain!" The scrawny man pulled out a small bronze telescope and scanned over the Northern horizon.
For a moment there, all he could see were the waves, the clouds, and the herds of birds. But then something else was caught on the telescope.
A flag.
A black one.
" Damnit!" All colored drained from Salah's face as he peeked down at the deck. " Captain! Pirates are closing on us!"
" Pirates!?" Sindbad looked from Salah to Rashad with wide eyes.
" Damnit, this is going to get ugly," Rashad clucked his tongue as he rubbed his head. " How many there are?"
Salah leaned over the edge of the crow nest once more with the telescope held in his hand. " Three!"
Rashad cracked his neck as he focused his eyes on the ships he could not quite see yet. " Not impossible. All hands on board! Grab your weapons and be ready to confront them!"
All the members of the crew gave a united cry as they scattered around to fetch their weapons. A couple of them came out from a storage room with what Sindbad could easily identify as a large cannon.
His mouth fell at that.
" When out in the sea, there are no rules," Rashad told him when he spotted his befuddled look and ruffled his hair. " One could simply kill someone and drop them into the depths of the ocean, and none would be the wiser. So, taking whatever measures we can is required to survive. The rules that bound those living on the land don't mean a thing to us."
He whirled the boy around so he was facing the trap door to the lower deck. " You go and hide."
" Huh!" Sindbad struggled to fight against Rashad's strength, who threatened to shove him right through the hole. " Wait a minute! You don't mean that I should run away!"
" Well, as a matter of fact, that would have been a better option, but there is no running away when in the sea. That's why you're going to hide," Rashad instructed calmly.
" Don't look down at me! I can fight!"
Rashad bore a small smile at that and turned Sindbad around so he was looking at him. " I don't doubt your strength, Sindbad. I literally saw you thrash three thieves in the market unarmed. Why do you think I took you in?"
Sindbad's eyes lit with that compliment, but barely for a moment, for he found himself falling through the air and towards the lower deck.
He hit the hard ground and complained inwardly as he sat sprawled on the wooden floor.
Rashad stood up, his smirk plastered to his face. " But you're a kid. And I won't want a kid getting involved in this. Be still, it will be over in a blink."
With a wink of his own, he snapped the trap door shut.
Sindbad was seething with anger as he bolted to his feet and climbed up to the door, banging at it and shouting at Rashad to let him out.
Rashad merely smiled broadly, dusting his hands, as he ignored the banging and shouting coming from the door behind him.
" So," he stood beside a member of his crew, hand resting casually over the hilt of the scimitar. " How long do we have?"
" Not long. Barely enough to prep the two cannons," Reported the sailor.
" Long enough for me. Which one is their main ship?" Rashad shouted up at the sky this time.
" The one to the right!" Responded Salah.
" There is where their leader is bound to be. You can leave him to me." Rashad wore a large smirk as he set his burning eyes on his target, his foot stomping the edge of the ship as he kneeled forward. " No one dares to target my dear Mawj and escape their punishment!"...
✶⊶⊷⊶⊷❍ ☽ ❍⊶⊷⊶⊷✶
Sindbad groaned vexedly as he dropped back to the floor and looked around the lower deck. A movement from behind took him by surprise before a hand clamped over his mouth and another grabbed his shoulder tightly, pulling him back.
Sindbad looked back with wide eyes at his assailant. The off glance of Nasser served to calm him down, only marginally.
Nasser pulled his hands away and held a finger to his mouth, hissing at the child. " You're going to give us away!"
" You're going to hide?!" The boy cried out in utter bewilderment.
" What else could I do, boy?" The man shrugged. " I do foresee the future, but have no strength to fend against a sword."
" What assistance are you even on this ship?!" Sindbad threw his hands up in exasperation.
" I see the future." The man settled behind the ladder and pulled out his odd-shaped pieces again.
Sindbad gritted his teeth and spun around in his spot. That was no time to argue with the senile old man.
He quickly took in his surroundings, devising his next step.
Sindbad didn't join Mawj's crew to sweep their floor and hide behind them.
He wanted freedom.
He wanted to see the real world as it was, not a filtered version of it.
He wanted to witness the real struggle between humans.
He grew tired of being shielded and protected by others.
He wanted to act.
As such, the boy quickly formulated a plan in mind and moved along to execute it.
The trap door was bolted shut, that much he made sure of. So there was no way up through it.
It didn't mean there weren't other possible ways.
Sindbad embarked on untying some of the hammocks there, putting their ropes together to form a longer one.
The boy then climbed one of the posts and struggled to pull off a hook they were using to hang the oil lamp on it. He tugged at it at first, but seeing it didn't work, he resorted to hanging off it.
It took a considerable amount of both thrashing and cursing for it to come off.
He made a note to himself to apologize and pay for the damage he caused.
Tying one end of the rope to the hook, Sindbad hauled the whole thing over his shoulder and went to rummage through the bags left by the other crew members.
His continuous running back and forth caught Nasser's attention and he turned back, looking at him through the gap between the rungs of the ladder. " What are you planning at? Stealing?"
" If I'm, you're doing a poor job stopping me," Sindbad commented before he pulled out a short blade from Salah's bag. " I'm going out to join the fight."
Nasser considered him for a moment and then looked up at the roof over their heads. For a while now, there had been lots of squeaking from the wooding planks and various loud thuds. Unmistakably, the fight had already started overhead.
If they stood still for a moment and the sounds of the waves abated for a while, they could hear muffled shouts and curses.
" You'll die," Nasser stated without looking at him.
Sindbad couldn't hold back a snort as he glanced over at the old man. " Is this your prophecy for me?"
" I'm warning you, kid," Nasser grumbled. " This is unlike the fighting games you might have been playing around with other kids. Those are real blades, not wooden sticks, they kill when they hit."
" I know that," Sindbad fastened the short blade to his belt. " 'Those who take the battlefield lightly are always the first to die', my teacher's words."...