Some changes hurt a bit

[Sinbad]

((Taking place after "Tiller duty" and after the chat with Sean on deck))

It wasn´t far till Basra now. Earlier, on deck, he had seen seabirds circle the skies which was always a sure sign that land was approaching. That and the fact that the Nomad had made good speed during the night and the captain knew that they would be able to see the ports of Basra very soon.

The fresh morning air had chased away part of his dizziness resulting from a sleepless night and he decided that it was best to stay up. He knew that if he had allowed himself to lie down for a nap, he would have slept for hours and he wanted to avoid the embarassment of someone having to knock against his cabin door loud enough for the dead to hear - because he knew nothing more subtle would wake him if he allowed himself to fall asleep. Therefore, he settled for a bowl with cold water that served as some sort of a poor replacement for a proper bath, took off his shirt and washed, enjoying how the cool water added to the envigorating effect the air had had already.

A small, roundish mirror, dull with age and blurry, hung over the bowl of water on the cabin´s side and he gave his image a critical look, halfway glad that the mirror was too blind to give him the full glory of his tired self. He traced his face with a hand, feeling stubble.

Maybe it was tiredness, maybe it was out of a whim, but in this moment the captain of the Nomad decided he did not like this look any more. His hair had grown far longer than he had used to carry it as a younger man, but there was hardly anything he could do about that right now, but the stubble he could deal with. He found the sharp shaving knife, sprayed another gush of cold water into his face and, trying to orientate himself in the blurry mirror, started to shave.

It took a whole while and once his hand strayed, whether from tiredness or because the Nomad had hit an unexpectedly big wave he could not tell, and he hissed through his teeth when he felt a drop of blood on his chin. He wiped it away and continued until his face was smooth and he placed the knife aside checking himself in the mirror once more, noticing he still looked more run down than he liked himself to look, but liking his looks better for some reason. Grabbing for his shirt, he wiped his face with it.

[firouz]

Firouz slept happily dreaming about his inventions. He imagined that someday he will be recognized throughout the world for his inventions for healing the wounded, increasing defenses, and curing the ill. The options were endless. He smiled. In his dream he drew up a visualization of the fireball that he had created. But then he noticed something he hadn't thought about before. Where have I seen that before? In what looked to be a mirror, he saw an image. 'Maeve,' he thought. Suddenly she started to vanish. 'Maeve, don't go!' With that he woke up.

"Oh, just a dream." He sat in his bed for a while and thought about the meaning of the dream. Maeve had been gone for a year, but she was safe under Master Dim-Dim's protection. She would come back once she had mastered her powers. Firouz thought some more, scratching his hair with his hand. "Maybe I should get something to eat."

As he left his cabin, he noticed the light coming from Sinbad's cabin. It was still early in the morning. Curious what the captain was doing up at this hour, he decided to knock.

[Sinbad]

Sinbad had just wiped his face when he heard somebody knock. Even though he had lit one of the oil lamps in the cabin, there was enough light from outside now to let the room emerge from the twilight a bit, but he had not really paid attention to any footfall outside other else he might have noticed the visitor was Firouz.

He put on the shirt he was still holding in his hand and once more wiped a little blood off his chin. "Come in" he called out.

[firouz]

Hearing Sinbad, Firouz entered. "Sinbad, I had a dream. The...." Firouz did not expect this. He was sort-of speechless.

[Sinbad]

As his friend stopped in mid-sentence, Sinbad raised an eyebrow, walking over to the chest that was standing at the other end of the cabin, looking for a belt that was on it. "What?" he asked, turning his head.

[firouz]

Firouz blinked and broke his stare at Sinbad. "Sinbad, you shaved!"

[Sinbad]

SInbad was torn between an irritated look and the desire to just chuckle, mildly amused. "I was getting tired of the stubble." he said while fixing his belt. It was more than that and somehow, deep inside him, he knew, but right now he either didn´t care or didn´t realise. Or maybe both.

[firouz]

Firouz snapped out of it, still half shocked. He glanced at the floor before returning to look at Sinbad. "Oh! Well, anyway, I had a dream and ..." Looked at him, realizing that maybe he shouldn't have come to Sinbad.

[Sinbad]

Sinbad scowled a bit. He could clearly tell that his friend had been taken aback by the whole scene but there was something that made him appear even more bubble than usual. "And?" he chuckled when the inventor interrupted himself. "What´s up with you, Firouz?"

[firouz]

Firouz looked at the captain and bit his tongue. He glanced again at the floor before returning his gaze to Sinbad. "Nothing Sinbad. I just...realized that my exploding stick demonstration reminded me of ... Maeve."

[Sinbad]

Sinbad´s frown deepened a bit and he somehow managed to mask his upcoming irritation and the strange feeling in his throat by looking for his sabre to attach it to the belt he was already wearing. "Oh." he said, the question of how that dream he had mentioned was related to that on the tip of his tongue. He didn´t ask that however. He didn´t feel like going deeper into the matter to a point where Firouz would say things that hurt to be heard.

"Well..." he clearned his throat. "It´s both fire and all that I guess." His words meant to express that there was nothing unusual for something to remind one of something else, but those words were not true. What maybe confused Firouz right now was something he had been suffering from for a year now: Almost everything reminding him of her, almost everywhere. One of the reasons he had changed had been that that meant there were less things that could remind him of her - because it hurt.

[firouz]

Firouz was kind-of taken aback. It seemed that Sinbad was trying to avoid the subject. Well, after thinking about it, the subject probably hurt Sinbad. After all, Sinbad had not mentioned her in the past year. "Sorry. I should have not mentioned her."

[Sinbad]

This short apology told him a lot and it made him slightly angry at himself. It was something that had come to his mind the evening before already, namely that - apart from Bryn who for some reason seemed to have been no longer able to keep the silence and had given in to her curiosity instead - no one of the entire crew had mentioned Maeve´s name for the last year. Not because they didn´t care, but because they didn´t dare. Because of him.
He wasn´t sure why he didn´t like that fact but he was becoming just as uneasy about it as about the prospect of his friends keeping up with what they had started a few hours before - that caring, we-all-know-how-you feel attitude, where the red headed sorceress would be mentioned or hinted at every few minutes.
He didn´t like admitting it, but this kind of behaviour was probably his own fault. Great captain and friend you are, Sinbad, he scolded himself inwardly.

He had stopped in his tracks, but then his limbs relaxed again. "It´s all right." he said. "don´t apologize." It was more than he would have endured until now, but it also set limits.

[firouz]

Firouz looked up at him and nodded. But then he thought he would try to change the mood. After all he was in Sinbad's cabin standing in front of him. It would be odd for him to leave Sinbad. So he introduce a new subject. "Sinbad, why are you up so early? We are sailing into Basra not long from now, and we don't need a sleepy captain." He half chuckled, trying to lighten up the atmosphere.

[Sinbad]

Sinbad smirked at that. "I´ve overcome being tired." he said, indirectly and involutarily hinting at the fact that he had not slept during the night (and of course he didn´t mention that he had not slept too well in the nights before that). "don´t worry for me." He walked past Firouz towards the other end of the cabin to look for a map he had left there somewhere, patting the other man´s shoulder when he walked past him.