Late night shift

[alex]

Bryn had to laugh at this one. “Inconsiderate captain? Grumpy now and then? Of course I don’t take it personally. You have your ups and downs just like everybody else. But generally you are a good man.” She put her hand on his shoulder. “You do great things. Don’t forget that. You should be proud of yourself. Be positive. Great things will come to you.” She lowered her hand off his shoulder and returned to gaze at the sea. She crossed her arms. “You have a bright future, Sinbad.” She paused a moment before she spoke again in a calm, low voice. “And you are the last person I would think as inconsiderate.”

[Sinbad]

Sinbad looked at her from the corners of his eyes while she turned towards the sea, a slight smirk forming on his face, but not one of mockery, more of appreciation and slight self criticism. She sounded honest and clearly saw him as a better man than he probably saw himself. "Thank you." he said. "Not just for that."

[alex]

Bryn looked at him. She smiled, but raised her eyebrows sort-of amused. "Your welcome. And what do you mean by "Not just for that?"

[Sinbad]

The smirk vanished. "Yes." Sinbad replied. "Also for being a friend." He could only guess what had been going on in Bryn´s mind earlier, as well as he had only some vague ideas about her having taken up quite some courage to adress a matter none in the crew had dared to adress for a year.

[alex]

Bryn's smile widened. "Glad to be your friend." She turned back to the sea and felt like resting her head on Sinbad, but decided against it. She did not want to ruin their friendship. Especially she knew Sinbad felt strongly for Maeve and did not want to give him the impression that she was fighting over him. She had no right to feel jealous about Maeve. She did not even know her. And she kind of wanted to get to know the great sorceress. Therefore, she wanted to be Maeve's friend. Jealously would only ruin this. From the few things she heard, Maeve seemed to have quite a temper. She decided not to upset her when she returned. Bryn knew she would return. She had to. She was under Dimdim's protection and would come back when the time was right. Unless, she felt nothing for the crew but that seemed very unlikely. After all, Dermott was here, and like Sinbad said, he is Maeve's hawk. She stared out into the vast blue expanse that lay ahead of them. "Tomorrow will be another day. Who knows what the day would bring us."

[Dermott]

From the top of the mainmast where he was observing the scene, Bryn’s thoughts reached Dermott. It was not the first time that she felt curious about Maeve, and the hawk perfectly understand that it shouldn’t have been easy to deal with something that the whole crew were aware of, but her.

His sister has always been secretive about their past and personal business. He wasn’t sure she would have been happy for his decision to befriend one of the two witches who destroyed their home village. But of one thing he was convinced. Maeve would have liked deeply Bryn for how she had became right now. He was also certain of the sorceress’ goodness. She wasn’t the fury he remembers from long ago anymore. And she deserved to be trusted. Besides, the captain was opening up too, there was no longer the need to kept Bryn in the dark about this subject.


The bird gently touched her mind saying “Don’t worry, I’m sure she would adore you. I think you two will get along very well once you’ll have the chance to meet”.


Then he tried to recall his sister’s image from his memories. He could still see her, sitting on the parapet of the ship, and watching the never-ending emerald sea. The auburn hair messed up by the wind, the white skin and the brown eyes. He lingered on the picture for a while, his heart aching for a preoccupation which never left him one single day, then made it flow into the other sorceress mind, letting her see, for the first time, how Maeve looked like.

[Sinbad]

Funny, Sinbad though, how they were talking between the lines, still beating around the topic Bryn was so eager to adress and he was so eager to avoid. Indirectly it was clear though, so he interpreted her words as an encouragement not to give up. He shrugged inwardly. He didn´t know if it was a good idea to follow that encouragement. Hoping meant disappointment, he had painfully been through that a few days ago. Not hoping... well, it wasn´t an option either. He couldn´t come to a solution, therefore he broke off the thought.

"Yes." he said instead. "we never know and that´s what makes life so exciting."
He looked up towards the sails and saw Dermott perched on top of the main mast.

[alex]

Bryn was collecting what Dermott was showing her. She had been startled by the sudden voice in her head but knew almost instantly that it was Dermott. She had looked up at the hawk who had decided to send her a memory of Maeve. Bryn could see why the captain had fallen in love with her. After all, who wouldn’t? She was beautiful, like an angel. But however, she seemed a little sad, just gazing into the sea from the railing. Bryn could not help but feel a little sorry for her. Bryn could not imagine why such a beautiful lady would feel sad. Of course, it was just a thought.

The image suddenly vanished with Sinbad’s words. Bryn sprang out of her trance. She looked up at Sinbad. “Oh, sorry. What did you say?"

[Sinbad]

Sinbad scowled slightly, not because he was irritated but because he had not expected something like that. "Nothing important." he said. "just that this is what makes things exciting." He narrowed his eyes a bit, having noticed her temporary confusion. "Bryn are you all right?" he asked.

[alex]

Her face softened, and she stared at Sinbad for a moment. A smile carved on her face, knowing that Sinbad cared about her. "Oh. I'm fine. Thank you, for asking. Featherbrain was just sharing a mental image with me."

[Sinbad]

He nodded shortly, not thinking into a direction that could have made him guess what their mental exchange was about. Instead the talk about shared visions reminded him of earlier the day. "More visions about danger ahead?" he therefore asked.

[alex]

"Nope," she responded nonchalantly. She had returned her gaze again to the sea. "Just an image of Maeve. I now can see why you fell in love with her." She chuckled at the thought. But that chuckle soon vanished as she thought that she might have struck a raw nerve in Sinbad. She looked up at him with passionate eyes. "Oh, sorry. I did not mean that. I..."

[Sinbad]

He didn´t know what struck him most. The fact that Bryn had seen an image of her which gave him the feeling something was piercing his heart, or what she had just said. In fact, Sinbad had noticed the second only in passing. His memory of her couldn´t probably have been anywhere more vivid than it was, still he would have given a lot to see her in his mind that clearly only once. He would not have admitted that, just as he would not admit anything as bluntly as what she had just stated. He was aware that she withdrew her statement at once, still he could not make up his mind about how to react right now. Walking away and avoiding all this was the best he could think of, but he couldn´t leave the tiller. Therefore, at a loss of what to say he just said nothing at all for the moment, just nodded to show he had considered her apology, not a nod to admit anything. He had never liked being confronted about things so directly and a younger, more careless captain might have retored with a snort and a laugh. However, even though he had come a long way already, his mind and spirit were not yet completely back at that point.

[alex]

Bryn stopped speaking when she saw Sinbad's nod. She could tell that he understood, and therefore there was no reason to go on. She turned her head away, looked down at the ground, and blushed. She thought about leaving Sinbad, so he could remain in peace. She was well aware that the subject haunted him. But then she thought. He had given her acceptance of her blunt remark. "I know this is hard for you." She turned her head back at him, staring into those sea-blue eyes. "But you can't keep letting the past haunt you," she whispered.

[Sinbad]

He returned her gaze, unblinking and had not yet come to a conclusion about how to react. He would not yell at her even though part of him felt like it. After all, she just wanted to help and meant no harm. Still, he was feeling increasingly uneasy.

"I´m fine, Bryn. Don´t worry for me." he said after he had kept her gaze for a moment, knowing full well that this reaction was maybe neither what she wanted to hear nor did it pay credit to the caring tone in her voice. But today it was like this old would was ripped open over and over again and this, for him, was the point where he wanted to state his point. His voice was not unfriendly, but it clearly bore some determination.