Week 5 Story: Sindbad

 I was a party animal. My family was rich and I was living my best life off of my inheritance. All the ladies, all the booze, anything you could imagine and life couldn't get much better. I was living everyone's dream until one terrible day when my whole life would change forever. 

It was a Tuesday morning, I remember it like it was yesterday, and I woke up with a massive hangover. I roll out of bed, check my safe, and realize I only have a fraction of the money that I started out with. This was not a good sign and something had to change. I did not know what to do because I had never had to work before. I had a moment where I freaked out but eventually I came up with a plan. I was going to sell everything and join a group of merchants that trade by sea. This could be fun right? Constant adventure by sea, who knows what this new life could bring!

First Voyage

Me and the crew set sail for the East Indies. This was a routine trip and we were hoping to make some good trades and sales at the markets there. Unfortunately, an unexpected detour would soon change the course of our entire trip. 

A huge storm formed while we were at sea. A storm so big and so powerful that I am blessed to have even been able to survive. The waves were thirty to forty feet tall and to top it all off, there was some incredibly dangerous sea life that was surrounding our boat throughout the storm. Me and my crew struggle for hours but finally, our boat gets slammed into what looked like an island. Unfortunately for us, the "island" was actually a massive sea demon and it was not happy with us. The sea demon whipped its body around, grabbed our boat with its mouth, and threw us way up into the air. Very few of us survived the initial bite on the boat and even fewer survived the fall back into the water. Shortly after this, I passed out and luckily floated to a nearby island.

At the new island, a man stumbled upon my body and woke me up. He explained that there were a few people that inhabited the island and brought me to them for some food and water. I stayed on the island for a few weeks as we built a small boat so I could attempt to make it back home. Eventually, the boat was ready, I had fully recovered, and I decided to set sail back home. 

The journey back home was an interesting ride.

Was it fun? No.

Was it easy? No.

How long did it take? Way too long.

Did I run into any problems? Oh yes but that is a story for another time. 

(Ocean Storm: Nela Radomirovic)

Bibliography: "First Voyage" Andrew Lang. Arabian Nights Entertainments. Sindbad

Author's Note: I chose to rewrite this story but add some different twists and a little more background information to make Sindbad more personable and relatable. I loved writing about young party animal Sindbad but also liked the original plot where he recognizes his immaturity and changes his ways. I decided to keep the same theme of the ocean sailor and merchant because there is a lot of fun things you can come up with for a voyage story. In the original, there was a storm but it was not as bad of a storm as I wanted so in my version I made it worse. In the original, the "island" was actually a whale but I wanted to make it more scary so I made it a sea demon. I made the sea demon attack the boat in order to provide some further explanation on the lives of the crew. I went ahead and killed off some the crew for dramatic effect and to provide closure for the reader in knowing what actually happened. Lastly, I ended the story with a cliffhanger as Sindbad attempts to make his way back home.