Magi: The Adventure to the Southeast [REMASTERED]

✩6. Welcome to Qadar!

"This Sinbad and the Sinbad from the books... are you sure you two just happen to share a name? Just that?"

When Shafa asked that to Sinbad, all that Ja'far could do in his seat was helplessly watching her. 'It's over; we've been caught red-handed,' he thought as a small bead of sweat rolled down his cheek. 'I should've known we can't fool a magician easily... and to make it worse, Sin just had to deliberately tell her his real name like that... what to do?'

Ja'far glanced over his master whose facial expression didn't change even in the slightest. Upon seeing his face, Ja'far suddenly realized he shouldn't be the one panicking right now, and immediately stopped caring. Closing his eyes and slightly leaning back, he ultimately thought, 'He started this, so he should be the one cleaning up his own mess.'

Opening one of his eyes, Ja'far looked at Sinbad from the corner of his eye and saw Sinbad's calm smile. It's obvious to him what that smile meant. 'I see. He's gonna admit he is Sinbad from the books and try to strike a deal with her, huh? I guess Sin is really a trader at heart.'

But before Sinbad could do exactly as Ja'far thought, the girl before them let out a thin sigh and slowly shook her head. "This is pointless... I'm really sorry, both of you. My brother has always been the easygoing type, but I simply cannot act humble like him. Especially in a wild desert like this, where no one can be trusted."

Sinbad and Ja'far listened to her attentively, watching as the girl frowned. "And I've decided to trust you, too..."

"Don't be hard on yourself, Shafa," Sinbad finally said with a reassuring smile. "It's not your fault for not trusting us. In fact, you're exactly right about not easily trusting someone in a desert."

Ja'far nodded in agreement. "And to be fair, we are still not completely trusting you, too..."

With a tired smile, Shafa gazed upon the men's grin and apologetic smile. "Does that mean you won't be sleeping with us tonight?"

"Cut us some slack, will you?" Sinbad nervously pleaded alongside Ja'far as Shafa chuckled.

***

"Hmm..." Sinbad slowly opened his eyes. He noticed he was leaning against the caravan with his arms crossed, and soon realized he had fallen asleep. In front of him were the siblings and to his left was Ja'far, still fast asleep. He looked at the sky above him and could see the dark sky had gradually turned orange.

Sinbad yawned, then looked at his right. There, he found a pair of large yellow eyes were staring wide-eyedly at him.

"Whoaaah!!" He shouted in surprise as he reflexively crawled behind. "...A bird?!" He exclaimed upon realizing that the thing that was looking at him was actually an average sized black bird. The bird opened its beak and squawked loudly in return.

"Huh?! What was that?!" Ja'far jolted up from his position and quickly readied his wire darts.

Hearing the loud commotion, Ardhi and Shafa also woke up from their sleep. "What's wrong, Sin?" Ardhi asked, rubbing his eyes.

"That... A bird..." Sinbad quickly turned to Ardhi while pointing his finger at his right.

Ardhi blinked. "What bird, Sin?"

"This bird!" Sinbad exclaimed as he looked at his right again. He was expecting to see the bird there, but he saw nothing. "...there was this spooky bird here just now! Believe me!"

Shafa rubbed her sleepy eyes. She looked at Sinbad with half-opened eyes and saw him, but without clothes. She rubbed her eyes again, but the horrendous view she witnessed stayed the same. Her eyes widened in shock and quickly she held up her wand. Her eyes turned darkly cold as she pointed her wand at Sinbad.