As the sailors hurriedly scanned the deck, they found no sign of the child.
What they had failed to notice was that, when they broke into arguments about whether or not to throw him off, and while Rashad was trying to quiet the old man, the last lurch of the ship had sent a couple of barrels trundling down his way.
While he was able to avoid the first, he failed to see the second in its shadow, which rammed into his gut and threw him overboard.
The cold water attacked him almost immediately as though starving to be fed.
The shout that was at the edge of his throat was swallowed down by the sound of the turbulent waves.
The air exited his lungs in a rather hurried way upon impact, leaving him gulping for it when he needed it most.
No matter how hard he fought and thrashed, the waves rendered it futile. It dragged him time and again, just as he was about to crest the surface.
His chest ached, his limbs grew heavier, not even listening to him anymore, and his head became clouded.
Not before long, he was waving his arms helplessly against the waves before they were completely immobile and they floated weightlessly within the water.
His body sank underneath the turbulent surface as all fighting seeped away from it.
Sindbad's eyelids dropped heavily as he watched the large hull of Mawj, illuminated by the lightning, drifting away with the current.
It was strange, how chaotic the currents were above him, and yet, the further he sank, the more peaceful it felt.
Peaceful. Dark. Quiet. Cold.
Ah… this must be the end for me… He thought as he kept his slowly closing eyes on the fading shadow of the ship. I didn't even get to go that far… I didn't get to see much…
Bubbles floated up before him.
That must have been his last breath.
He thought as he leaned back, his body feeling limb and uncooperative.
As he tilted his head to the side, he glimpsed a large shadow deeper beneath him. Probably something that was waiting for him to die to feast on him.
Seeing its size, it was unlikely that he would be considered a feast.
He finally closed his eyes, ready to accept his fate.
In the end, luck had truly given up on him.
So that's how it feels… to give away your soul and life… Did you feel it too?... Mom… Dad…
As his life flashed on before him, a picture was summoned from the depth of his mind…
Hindbad…
Of a young boy with tousled brown hair and grey eyes…
✶⊶⊷⊶⊷❍ ☽ ❍⊶⊷⊶⊷✶
Sindbad.
It was cold.
Sindbad!
It was quiet.
Sindbad!
It was wet.
" SINDBAD!" A hand thrust into the water, disturbing the peaceful surface and tugging at his.
The child climbed up, led by the other hand, and coughed out before hugging himself as he shivered. " It was cold!" He sneezed.
" Are you alright?" The kid beside him asked worriedly, tears already welling up in his eyes.
" I'm fine. I'm fine. That fountain was nothing deep." Sindbad assured the other boy with a pat on his shoulder before he sneezed again.
" There! Catch him!"
" Crap!" Sindbad held onto the other child's wrist and began tugging him behind as they resumed their run among the crowd.
" Get back here! You little thieves!" A man was pushing other people out of his way while brandishing a thick stick overhead threateningly.
As if by seeing that stick any child would obey him.
Sindbad turned over his shoulder and shouted at him. " We're not thieves! We simply took what we owe you!"
" You little!" The crowd moved away, allowing the man to advance on them.
Sindbad almost cursed as he pulled his friend to a side alley. The man rounded and followed after them, but he was too late to react to what was waiting for him.
A bundle of logs and sticks came dropping from a wagon stopped there and rolled on the ground, making him trip over them.
" Hey! Sindbad!" The wagon's owner cried after the children as he rushed out of his house, startled by the commotion.
" I'm sorry uncle! I promise I will make it up to you later!" Sindbad cried without looking back, he and the other child continuing to run head.
The man gave a tired sigh as he rubbed the back of his head and looked down at the merchant who was struggling to his feet. " And you?"
The merchant frowned as he looked at where the two children had disappeared from his sight. " Those kids had stolen a bag of the sweets I was selling!" He complained to the other man who scowled at him.
" Sindbad and Hindbad? Those two might be maniacs but they're no thieves!" He said as if he was accusing him of theft himself.
" I'm not lying! You saw the bag in his hand, right?" The man rubbed his beard at that.
" I certainly did… still, I refuse to believe those two would resort to stealing, no matter how much they carved those sweets."
" You-"
" That's enough." A figure appeared at the end of the alleyway behind them, cloaked from head to toe in red. Following after him was a man with short black hair and green eyes clad in all-black clothes. " How much were those sweets?"
The merchant looked back at the cloaked man and blinked. " 2 Dinars, why are you asking?"
The man pulled out a small draw-string bag and dropped it at the merchant's feet. " Those are 10 Dinars, take them and leave the kids alone."
The merchant took the bag and counted its contents before nodding in approval. He stowed it away and looked at the cloaked man. " I will leave them be this time, but kids need to be punished for doing something wrong."
" And what about adults?" A golden eye peeked from beneath the hood and transfixed the merchant as though its glare was an arrow. " Should they also be punished for doing something wrong?"
" Wh… What are you implying?" The merchant sweated.
" For example…" The man walked up to him. " If a merchant was driving his carriage at a high speed and caused a child to fall and drop his 2 Dinars down the gutter with no apology, shouldn't he be punished as well?"
" It's just 2 Dinars!" The merchant shouted. " You would punish me over it?"
" Precisely." The man's golden eyes trailed over to him. " It's only 2 Dinars, so why should we punish a kid over it?"
The merchant gritted his teeth and stormed off and back to the main street.
The hooded man watched over him momentarily before directing his attention to the other man standing there, gathering his logs and twigs. " And you?"
" I'm fine. There was no harm done." He looked up with a small smile. " Glad it actually saved them from a beating. I will scold them a bit later on and make them clean up my horse's stable."
The golden eyes squinted at the man. " You know those two kids?"
" Sindbad and Hindbad? Yeah, they don't live far from here. Why?"
The man with the red cloak dropped his hood and the one facing him dropped his jaw and all the logs he was gathering. " Could you maybe tell us more?"...