Crimson Threads ♡Sinbad X Oc♡

Chapter one: Ocean maiden

"Hello, my name is Ja'far. And I'm also a merchant. I'd be thrilled to have you buy our stock to dislay in your shop." The boy smiles sweetly before his face blows up with anger. "Like hell I'd ever say stuff like that you old hag!" The woman sitting opposite him narrows her eyes and responds in a gentle voice, "Hag you say..?" A hand bears down toward the boy, "Rurumu, chop!" The woman strikes the boy on his head. "Now Ja'far. How many times must I say this? When addressing a lady older than yourself, you must always use the terms miss or m'lady. We are a part of Sinbads fleet now, and we must not do anything to disgrace our masters name. Thus, we must always be polite since our words and actions have a direct effect on the perception people have of us and our master." The woman explains firmly as Ja'far looks at the other young boy sitting next to him.

"Rurumu really is something else, isn't she, Hinahoho?" A young man with a scar over his nose remarks. "Leave it to my wife to sort those two out!" Hinahoho laughs heartily as Rurumu scolds the boys. "Hey Vittel, why don't we go help ourselves to the celebratory wine from the cargo?" Hinahoho asks with an inviting smile, nudging Vittel with his elbow. "I'd rather not risk Rurumus wrath." Vittel responds cautiously. Both men turn their attention to Rurumu, who has since moved on from scolding the young Ja'far and Sinbad about etiquette to scolding them about their lack of academic knowledge. "Well then, time to get back to work." Hinahoho says hurriedly.

"I can't. Please, no more." Sinbad pleads as he falls on his back, exhausted from studying. "How are you guys feeling?" Hinahoho asks teasingly, his large physique towering over Sinbad and Ja'far. "Like my brain got fried." Ja'far responds over dramatising his exhaustion. "Lunch is ready! Everyone please come and eat." Rurumu says cheerfully as she places a variety of dishes in front of Ja'far and Sinbad. "Now boys, let's work on your table manners." Taking a knife and fork in their hands, the two boys stare down at the food. 'If we make one sound... we get the chop..' they think in unison.

As Ja'far takes a bite of the meat on his fork ,he notices something adrift in the water. "Hey, what's that?" He points toward the open ocean with his fork as he turns to Sinbad. Realising too late what he had done, Rurumu's hand decends apon him. "Don't speak with food in your mouth, Ja'far. It's ill mannered." Looking out over the ocean in the direction Ja'far pointed, Sinbad sees a silhouette floating in the water. He is startled when a hand weakly rises from the water, with shackles around the wrists of the person dragging them down deeper into the water below, before completely dissappearing. "Hinahoho!" Sinbad turns to his friend. Noting Sinbads' urgency, Hinahoho dives into the water to save the drowning person. As he gets closer to the figure, he realised that it's a young girl. She looks to be around Sinbads age, if not slightly older. Grabbing hold of her motionless body, he notices that her legs are also bound by chains and that she has shackles around her neck as well. 'A slave..' Hinahoho realises as he swims back toward the ship.

As Hinahoho pulls the girl out of the icy ocean water and onto the ship, she starts to cough up alarming amounts of water before fainting once again.
Sinbad takes note of her clothes and the rest of the chains and shackles around the girls' thin limbs. Her clothes were ragged and in tatters, as if she were beaten before being thrown into the ocean.

A frown creeps over his face as he bends down to try and remove the metal bindings. Realising that the chains are quite sturdy, Sinbad takes out a golden necklace, invoking the power of Valefor, his second djin, to freeze and shatter the shackles and chains. As he carefully removes the last shackle on the girl's neck, his hand grazes her frigid skin, causing his eyes to widen at the sheer coldness of it. "We need to get her dry and warmed up as soon as possible. She's deathly cold, I fear she might die." Sinbad says, the concern evident in his voice.

                              ~~~~~

"Voices?.. no way, I'm certain I fell overboard...And why am I so warm? My body doesn't feel cold, nor am I in excruciating pain.. Oh...I see.. I must have died out in the ocean, and this must be the afterlife.. Compared to the cold darkness of the ocean, this soft light really is comforting."

The girl grimaces before slowly opening her eyes, groaning at the slight ache in her limbs. Hearing this, the two figures in the room turn toward her. "She's finally awake! Thank goodness!" The voice of a child exclaims. "You're not in any pain, are you? Are you hungry?" The girl turns to look at him, his bright emerald eyes full of concern. His hair was a pale ivory white that matched his clothes. "Now Ja'far, she just woke up. She's probably a little disoriented." A woman with a kind demeanour says before turning toward the girl. The woman was very tall with well-defined muscles. Her stature was quite imposing. "How are you feeling, dear?" She asks gently. Despite the way she looked, her gentle manner set the girl at ease. Tears well up in the girl's half open eyes as she takes an unsteady breath. These people made her feel safe for the first time in a while. "I'm just a little hungry." She says, wiping the tears from her eyes with her hands.

The girl looks down at the food that Rurumu placed in front of her and slowly begins to eat. "What's your name?" The girl looks at Ja'far through her dishevelled hair, noting that the boy has freckles under his eyes and across his nose. It gave him an even more youthful appearance. "Oh, uhmm.. It's Yunalesca." The girl stammers, scooping another spoonful of food. "That's a really pretty name, it's nice to meet you, I'm Ja'far and this is Rurumu." The boy introduces himself and the woman next to him. Rurumu smiles as a greeting to Yunalesca. "The rest of the crew are outside steering the ship. We brought you inside the hull since you passed out on the deck after being pulled from the sea, and we've been taking care of you for the past few days. Oh, on the topic, I have to check if your fever is still high." Ja'far says absentmindedly as he reaches his hand out toward Yunalesca's forehead.

Surprised by the boy's sudden movement, Yunalesca jerks back. The rapid motion of her head caused her hair to move away from her eyes, fully exposing her thin face. "Oh! I'm really sorry I didn't mean to startle you!" Ja'far says hurriedly, meeting Yunalesca's gaze. His own eyes widen, astonished by the beauty of her eyes. They were almost like his but were a much deeper and richer green, mixed with the golden hues of autumn. Enthralled by her eyes, Ja'far struggles to find any words. "No, no! I'm sorry! I shouldn't have moved away like that when you were only trying to help!" Yunalesca raises her hands in protest, hoping that she didn't offend the boy.

"What's the commotion about? Has she woken up yet?" A voice asks from the edge of the room. "Ohh, Sinbad. Yes, she just woke up a few minutes ago." Jafar responds to the voice. Looking toward the source of the voice, Yunalesca sees the silhouette of a young man standing in the open doorway. A sword was secured at his side. The light from outside flooded around him, making it difficult to see his face. "That's great! I was starting to get worried." The man chuckled relieved. As his silhouette starts to move closer, the memory of a man envelopes Yunalesca's mind, causing fear to seize control of her.

And just as the boy steps closer to her, reaching his hand out toward her, she scrambled backwards. Shielding her head with her arms, She let out a guttural shriek.