With
both the excitement and the terror that had been included in
Hindbad’s past two dreams, he couldn’t wait to hear about another one
of Sindbad’s stories so that he could go home and dream about it.
As the day was winding down and Hindbad was
getting into bed, he said a prayer and thanked God for everything that
he had done for him. As he slowly went into a deep sleep, his
dream began. This time was different though, there wasn’t a crew
involved in this dream. It was only Hindbad and Sindbad sailing
alone. As they were sailing along, enjoying the fresh breeze of
the ocean wind, Sindbad spotted an island in the distance.
Neither
them had ever seen this island before, so they thought it would be fun
to go check it out and see what it had in store for them. Little
did they know a showdown with the face of death was rapidly approaching.
They
pulled their ship up to shore and quickly started exploring the
island. It was a beautiful island. There were hundreds of
fresh
fruit trees and tall palm trees that provided a perfect shade from the
hot sun. As Hindbad and Sindbad were walking along, Hindbad
spotted a river that ran through the island. It looked like it
was a rather long river and the current was running at a pretty high
pace. So they decided to get a couple of canoes from the boat and
ride down the river to speed up their exploration of the island.
As
they got about a mile or two downstream Sindbad spotted a very old man
along the banks of the river. This man was all alone; he had long
white hair and a long white beard. He seemed to be pretty old,
because he was moving slow and his back was hunched over like he had
hurt it. Hindbad decided to yell at him and try to get his
attention. The old man turned around and waved them on to come
greet him. As Hindbad and Sindbad both got over to the old man,
they both shook his hand and started up a conversation. The old
man was very nice. He asked them if they needed any help in
direction, or if they needed any food. He really gave off the
impression that he wanted to help them in any way in order to make sure
that their
stay on his island was a good one. Right when the word food was
spoken, Hindbad immediately took the old man up on it. So all
three of the men started to head back to the old man’s cottage for some
food that he had prepared just in case of a situation like this.
The
old man was leading the duo back to his cottage, when he suddenly
tripped on a vine. Hindbad and Sindbad were there to help him up,
but he said he had hurt his ankle and needed to rest it for a
while.
He told both Hindbad and Sindbad to wait patiently and he would be back
and ready to walk in a few minutes. As Hindbad and Sindbad were
waiting, just looking around admiring the countryside, the old man came
running out of nowhere and jumped on Hindbad. There was no time
to think that this wasn’t serious. As the old man had his legs in
a
deadlock grip around Hindbad’s neck, he was also trying to stab Sindbad
with a long limb and a sharp blade attached to the end of it. The
wrestling went on for minutes between the three men. Hindbad’s
face felt like he ran into a tree branch and the old man was letting
loose anytime
soon. It was obvious that the old man’s intentions were to kill
both Hindbad and Sindbad. As the old man and Hindbad were
staggering around, fighting one another, Sindbad leaped up from behind
the old man, and ripped him down off the shoulders of Hindbad and down
onto the muddy ground. The old man was unconscious. He
wasn’t even breathing. Both Hindbad and Sindbad thought he was
dead. Hindbad got on top of the old man to check his pulse and
see if he was still breathing, and as he touched the middle of the old
man’s neck, the old man opened his eyes and in a violent way stabbed
Hindbad in the heart with a sharp blade on a limb that was his
weapon.
Hindbad woke up from this
dream. He checked his heart to see if he was stabbed, but he was
fine. He was breathing heavily and sweating uncontrollably in
his bed. After a few minutes he calmed down, and realized that
his dreams just kept getting better and better. But there was one
common denominator among all three of his dreams: it was death.
Author’s Note: For my
third story I decided to retell Sindbad’s
Fifth Voyage. It is the story where he sails by himself to an
island where he encounters an old man. This old man clings onto
Sindbad’s shoulders and tries to strangle him to death.
Eventually Sindbad gets the old man off of his shoulders and gets away
from him. Sindbad sees some locals on the island and tells them
about what happened they said that nobody has ever gotten away from
the strangle grip of the old man and that Sindbad was very lucky to be
alive. Obviously my story was a little different. I added
Hindbad to the story and they both sailed together. Once they got
to the island and spotted the old man, it was Hindbad who was being
choked, not Sindbad. My fighting was a little bit more in detail
than what the actual story included. I had Sindbad eventually
save his friend Hindbad from the old man. To end the dream I
thought I would add a little bit of drama and have Hindbad check the
old man’s pulse. As he was checking his pulse, the old man would
open his eyes and stab Hindbad in the heart, then Hindbad would wake up
from the dream. I didn’t include an encounter with the locals of
the island.
Cover
Page
Introduction
Dream
One: Crocodile
Dream
Two: Bees
Bibliography: Story:
Voyages of Sindbad
Author: Andrew Lang
Year
Published: 1898
Website: Fifth
Voyage
Image
Information: Old
Man at Sea