The Tales of Aarav Delfino

On a rainy night near the Port of Basrah a weary old man limped down the street into a tavern. He walked into the tavern that was full of clicking tankards, loud music, and the usual chatter of a hundred drunk men and women. As he walked in, it was evident he did not fit into this young crowd. He took a seat next to a scrawny fellow who couldn’t be older than a fourth of his age. The fellow was dressed in a thawb that reeked of fish and the salt from the sea. The young man was sipping on his newly poured arak when the old man finally spoke.

“Ah, I can tell that you belong to the sea, my friend. When do you set sail next?”

“Tomorrow. I just got back from my first trip but I need the money. My wife just gave birth to my beautiful daughter.”

“Well, a working man is the best kind of man. To get your mind off of leaving your daughter, I’ll tell you a story. Have you ever heard of Aarav Delfino and his voyages across the Indian Ocean?” The old man replied with a certain level of eagerness in his voice.

“No, sir, I have not. Would you care to enlighten me? I could really use something to get my mind off of setting sail tomorrow.”

The old man cleared his throat and told the story of the great Aarav Delfino…

When Aarav was about your age, he began an epic journey to Jakarta to trade cloths and pieces of art from his hometown. Now Aarav was quite the barterer and had already taken many of these trips before. He always came back home with a pocketful of sequins and this trip should be no different. However, he couldn’t have been any more wrong.

He set sail on his beautiful ship with a dozen hands that would reap only a small fraction of his spoils. The crew was sailing the sea just off the coast of Sri Lanka when a horrible storm rolled in. The clouds were as dark as a moonless night, only to be lit up by the sharp lightning strikes up above. As the wind swirled, the ship began to sink. Aarav, being the most agile of the crew, jumped off the ship first just in time before the sea engulfed the ship and all of his crew.

Aarav swam for what seemed like forever when he finally reached the shore of a lush island that he had not seen before. He quickly dried off his clothes and put down his large sword. From pure exhaustion he collapsed into an area that was full of fallen palm fronds. He closed his eyes and slept through the night.

As the morning sun rolled over the horizon, Aarav opened his eyes. His vision slowly cleared when in front of him he saw a gigantic egg. From tales of other sailors, he knew exactly what he had come across. It belonged to the 20-foot-long snake called a moccra. These moccras were extremely aggressive and protective when anyone or thing got near their young. Aarav needed to come up with a plan immediately or he would have to fight off this magnificent serpent. If he fought, he would not win.

He was always quick on his feet, so he developed a plan immediately. What he would do was carefully break into the gigantic egg and hide where the young serpent was residing. He would put the egg shell back together and wait for the mother moccra to return.

Portrayal of the moccra

Aarav was waiting in this warm, damp egg when he heard a slow hiss getting closer and closer. He peeked through the cracked egg and saw the giant black and yellow moccra slithering to its young. The moccra curled up next to the egg for it did not know Aarav was hiding there. As the hissing slowed and the moccra fell asleep, Aarav began to act. Jumping out of the egg, he swung his sword into the neck of the mother. A large squeal followed the attack and then complete silence. Aarav had defeated this beast with ease.

The first thing he did was cut off the fangs of this snake for he knew they would easily sell for a thousand sequins each. He then went into survival mode and cleaned the serpent of her meat. He developed a meal plan to survive for however long it took until he found help. What he did not know was that no one was looking for him. He was all by himself.

To be continued...

Author’s Note: I read the Seven Voyages of Sinbad and developed my story on this topic. I wanted to incorporate the storytelling aspect of the original story. Therefore, I made the old man be the storyteller. I think this places a crucial part in allowing the reader to connect with the narrator. In addition, it allows the reader to decide for themselves whether the stories are real, exaggerated, or simply made up.One of the things that I enjoyed when reading these tales were Sinbad’s intelligence and his business-first mind. Therefore, I let Aarav possess both of these traits in order to be successful in his long journey home after his ship was wrecked. In addition, I wanted to include an epic journey where Aarav would face a giant creature. In the original Sinbad, he ran into a giant bird called a roc. This animal shows up multiple times throughout the original story. I did not want to use the same animal as the original so I developed a new animal called a moccra (snake). I plan to include more voyages of his in upcoming stories. After defeating the animals and other obstacles, Sinbad usually makes it back home with ease. In my story, I wanted to make it to where he does not get home as quickly. Therefore, he will have to overcome a multitude of obstacles in order to make it back home safely. 

The Arabian Nights' Entertainments. Written by Andrew Lang and Illustrated by H.J. Ford. 1898.