***

Days surprisingly went by fast. 

I had been busy. 

Though there were only two things in my itinerary, I never expected cleaning and cooking to be much worse than cramming an entire book to my head in one night like my college days. I actually much preferred cramming a hundred book in a day over this impossibly mountain-high tasks.

First of all, this laboratory was an absolute mess. It was like a magnitude ten earthquake threw everything into a mixer and just dumped its contents as is. The result was a horribly assembled space of scattered unidentified objects. One week of tearfully sorting was still far from enough to call anywhere clean. More annoyingly, it wasn't helping when someone suddenly comes and mess everything all over again just to find one freaking page of paper. I still remember his reply why he didn't just ask me where it was...

"Oh, I forgot you were still here." He carefreely laughed his mess off then went back to whatever he was doing...

A**hole! 

Anyway, cleaning was not only frustrating, it was also very dangerous. A good example was when I saw a puddle. With a reasonably sound mind of a custodian, I took my make-shift leather mop to wipe the wet floor. Unexpectedly, the leather briefly bubbled then somehow transmuted to a puff of smoke. 

Voila, my mop vaporized! 

My eyes could only stare at the magical event in front of me. The smoke slowly rose to my hands, and numbly disintegrated my skin. I jumped back in fright as blood began to bead out of exposed flesh. I kept my distance from the puddle, but I was curious what it was. So, I watched as the condensed grey smoke took its time going up, to the blue crystal right above it. I waited for a hole in the ceiling to open up, but nothing happened. With a dismissive sigh of a ruined day, I turned around.

Then splash.

I heard a sound similar to a raindrop. I looked back at the puddle that was still rippling from that tiny disturbance. I waited again and observed the crystal-puddle relationship, more patiently this time, until one clear drop dripped from the crystal and fell directly to the puddle and nothing visible happened. Whatever that meant, foreboding curiosity made me toss what remained of my mop, the wooden stick, back at the puddle. As I dreaded, it also puffed to smoke. 

What does leather, skin, and wood have that crystals in the ceiling don't? The first three were all organic material. I shivered as a speculation came to mind. The dirty-looking puddle might just be an acid specifically created to corrode life. Yet, it was carelessly mixed among harmless unsanitary puddles I had been cleaning off in the recent days. When I asked Wuen, he said those were placed intentionally to ward off outsiders. More disturbing was why he didn't even warn me. My first few drink from this dome came from those kind of puddles...

This should had been obvious as a high school student, but carelessly touching anything in a laboratory was a big don't. This was most especially true when that lab belongs to someone as crazy as the one I knew. Unfortunately, that common sense was not enough caution in this rag tag football-stadium-sized laboratory, where, apparently, the simplest things were in contest in which was the most dangerous. Therefore, these kind of events had repeatedly occurred one after another in alarmingly short intervals. I could list my complains forever. 

There were incidents when my hand almost got eaten off by a mimic disguised as a book, or that time when built-up dust was actually a highly flammable material similar to gun powder. Like a match striking against a rough exterior to make fire, my dried palm broom swept the flammable dust and sparked an explosion. I did survive, but it was scary as hell to be blown away surrounded by glaring bright flames while skin, flesh, bones melt upon impact. 

On the bright side, it all happened too fast to feel pain. I also learned another feature of my stupidly sturdy race of golden eyed people. Fatal injuries would regenerate as fast as being injured itself. Of course, there were limits. Regenerating from melted form like that consumes too much energy. My satiety dramatically decreased right after, something very dangerous if you were a jinn. With hunger on tow, my judgement tremendously blurred. It took great mental fortitude to not suddenly rage and become a blood seeker. In conclusion, fast healing required both energy and sanity, so I would never rely on it except as a last resort.

Aside from cleaning, my itinerary also included cooking.

My second task sounded very ordinary, but, again, that was unless you were in better place than an underground cavity. Either because Wuen was too lazy to actually gather some, or the lab itself was too contaminated for food storage, there was absolutely nothing edible inside, much less to cook. With that, it left me searching outside the dome. His orders never said I could not go out. 

Fishing, hunting, gathering. They were gruelling tasks for someone who had no experience, no coach, and no weapons. I had to wrack my brain for survival strategies from previous life until I had migraines since, beside what was on books and movies, I had no idea what to do.

I experimentally started with fishing.

Spear fishing sounded so cool in books, but real life had always been about crushing fantasies. With the sun high in the skies, I dove down the cerulean sea. Greeted with extravagant corals and rainbow school of fishes. It lifted my spirits to witness such marvellous sight. However, there was a slight problem. There were only Nemo-sized fish around, definitely not big enough to satisfy a kid's stomach, much less a monster's. I swam on and on, but, everywhere, cute little fishes swam with naivety of the world. It felt so embarrassing holding my shabby-looking spear in this backdrop of underwater beauty. I felt like a try-hard mean villain bent to terrorize unsuspecting village A. 

My stomach grumbled and interrupted my thoughts. I swam further, deeper into the waters, away from pretty corals, until sunlight barely lit my way. 

My head started to ring. The curse of slavery began to demand my master's order to be accomplished, which was: cooking him a meal. I automatically swore under my breath ...and stupidly released my scant oxygen away. With no choice but to breath, I swam up, towards the hazy bright spot above. I was resigned to go killing spree at village A. 

Fortunately, a promising dinner came.

A blurred shadow steadily grew as it headed my way. I smiled, and enticingly swam my way to the surface. A crude and slow swim that delishly resembled a prey in panic as it scrambled to safety. The shadow soon cleared to a long sleek fish, quite similar to an enlarged sword fish, just misplace its piercing snout on a vertically flat forehead, projecting an intimidating long horn instead.

It arrived faster than expected, before I had a fill of oxygen. It speedily assaulted, so fast, I couldn't even respond as it rammed its horn to pierce my abdomen. Blood immediately oozed out. The fish didn't stop its momentum. Using the force from its initial speed, I was helplessly dragged towards the pitch black seafloor, leaving a trail of red ribbon that tainted the clear blue sea.

I forgot my spear, somewhere along the line, as my silent screams interlaced with the slave curse and together amplified my suffering.

With everything going wrong and death creeping too close, my senses snapped to predatorial state. My body rejected my brain and moved without compassion. The fish sensed something went wrong and began to slow our descent. Too late, my hands mercilessly took its eyes and dug a handful of its brain. I could only watch in horror as I fed myself with eye balls and brain matter.

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After completely devouring its head, flesh and bone alike, the beast inside me began to falter with satisfied belly. I jumped at the chance and retaliated with a mental tug. It let go. 

The beast inside subsided underneath my consciousness, laying low, waiting for an opportunity to strike back in my mishaps. I could feel it silently observing me with uncharacteristic patience. I was reminded, the most dangerous predators attack only when the condition was ripe.

I further drowned any lingering feral hunger by taking another bite of raw flesh spiced with salty sea ...or perhaps just my tears. I was scared. 

Of myself.

For the millionth time, I was being stupid. I knew I was strong, monstrously so, but refused to acknowledge the danger this power came with. I got carried away by arrogance. No. I was running away from reality. I didn't really believe I would go insane from hunger, those were just for movies, like these slavery stuffs, these magic stuffs, and those reincarnation things. Someday, it'll be fine. All will be fine. I'll be just fine. Everything naturally goes that way. Like every dream.

But it won't easily be fine. Because this wasn't a dream. Not a fairy tale either, just reality.

The screech in my head was agonizingly real. The tingle in my gaping stomach was painfully real. The taste of salt and rust that bit my tongue was disgustingly real. 

These truths were not pleasant, but they were what I had. Whether I like it or not, if I want to live, then I should bear with them and move on. I can't keep being set-backed by pessimistic thoughts forever. Instead, I should think positively. I was still young, with unbelievably high rate of survival, and my brain contained information from another world. These were my cards. In more than one sense, those were cheats to find a bright future. I just need to play them right, then I would get what I wanted. A happy life.

Finalizing these straightforward thoughts, my mind became clearer, like the dark clouds had finally moved away. By all means, no problems were solved, but it was infinitely better than floating with the wind, aimless and groundless.

I was still afraid of myself, of what was out of my control. Nonetheless, I still wanted to live a life more satisfying than my last. This time I wouldn't regret anything even if I die tomorrow, for I did my best with everything I had today.

That night, I simply roasted the remains of the unicorn tuna and gave it to my dear master. The dish was a crunchy tail fin with random fillet of guts on the side. There were no complaints as he ate it heartily... more like, he didn't really spare a thought about what he ate and concentrated to whatever he was experimenting. Seeing that, I happily gave him my scraps from then onward.

---

Following day, I avoided the sea and climbed the cliff instead. Using the vines that crawled from top to bottom as my ladder, getting to the top was relatively easy. My lanky build also helped. I wouldn't even dare putting my weight on those fragile vines if not for my five year old body.

What topped the cliff was a dense forest. Though the greens were redundant, I could tell this wasn't the same forest we used to escape the Orphanage. It just didn't give off a sense of recognition. Another jinn perk was an invaluable sense of time and direction. Even though I basically lived in a cave, I could tell when the sun rise or fall without any visible change in my surrounding. Deep sea diving won't impair my stickler sense of north either. I had a built in GPS and clock in my head, quite convenient for wandering about.

I would never get lost, though the thought of bolting did cross my mind. However, my orders mentioned cleaning and cooking everyday. That meant I had to go back, one way or another, and do some chores, for now. Instead of just blatantly running away, I explored this possible escape route. 

Unlike the deep sea that only have gurgling sound and endless blue, this forest was brimming with so much life, it overwhelmed my senses. 

Various shades of leaves jumping from mossy green to neon or even black depending on the will of the wind against the filtered light given way by the tree top. Rich bark of chapped trunks patterned uniquely, yet gave a sense of unity among the impulsively growing shrubs that parasite each other. The browns were like the only straight lines in a world of green curls. 

In the distance, an orchestra of natural sounds were in a concert. Running water conducted over random tweets, squawks, or shrieks of birds, into erratic rhythm. At first they were just a mundane sound of a forest, but moments of being exposed to it told me otherwise. The fact that it wasn't systematic made it precious. It was different. It was refreshingly different. That the beauty was there, had always been, and it was up to me to recognize it. Music had never been about ancient scores of accomplished artists, it was about immersion and appreciation. I gratefully bath in this free rhythm.

A single breath, again, stopped me in my tracks. Smell brought by morning dew threw images in my head. The crisp air of an after storm, the damped earth after it rains, the decaying wood and leaves during autumn, the Chrysanthemums of my grandmother's garden, the green grass from freshly mowed lawn, and many more images kept me standstill.

I always lived by plan, time, and purpose. A mechanical life that scoffs at the unscheduled. Even my last moments, I was too busy thinking of what to do next. I never really cared to look at my right, until my death became inevitable. 

Perhaps, this life was a golden chance? To live as someone new, and correspondingly lead a life I never even considered because of inconvenience? Would that make my life more satisfying? 

Most likely, yes.

I smiled again, brighter than I had in a really long while. I simply felt happy.

---

After months of unexpected self-discovery, trial and error, learning, and understanding, one sentence suddenly woke me up from my tranquil journey to enlightenment.

"Little Vee, do you want to go to a trip?" Wuen asked with mischief in his eyes.

"A trip? What for?" I asked. In my one year stay here, there was one thing I had to grudgingly learn, my master would absolutely not do anything without more than one objective. 

"You know, it gets stuffy staying at one place for too long, no?" He said, already taking out his staff and preparing for a spell.

Slowly, I backed off. Though the act would not necessarily help if this guy had set his mind, getting even a step more distance would at least help me prepare my mental state. "What exactly are we going to do?" I asked and bought time.

"Well, you see. My funds are running low~" He stretched the his last word with tear-jerking smirk, definitely tears for my future.

I froze right then. 

"So, help your master become rich again!" He declared and subsequently casted the teleportation spell.

I felt something click in my head. The slave curse had recognized an order. There was no escape.

Probably, my priority should really be to get away from this guy, shouldn't it?

***

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