The smoke cleared to reveal a very irritated-looking Djinn hovering less than an inch above the ground. Small, rapidly closing wounds decorated his body from where Sinbad and I had landed hits against his wolf and Basilisk forms. On the other side of the Djinn, Sinbad’s machete vanished into his inventory, and the Merchant crawled around on the ground until Sinbad stood between him and the Djinn. Slowly, he rose from his cowardly position, still hiding behind the shorter Sinbad. Ani trotted beside him, free to approach now that the barrier was gone. He dropped a mouse in front of the Merchant as if to say, “I caught this for you, you weakling.”
The Merchant yelped, terrified. My cat’s tail flicked, and he picked the mouse up, taking the Merchant’s actions as a game he was determined to win.
The Djinn glowered at me in a manufactured sort of way, his dead cobalt eyes narrowing to near slits. “YOU HAVE DEFEATED ME. YOU MAY SPEAK.”
“I have a story for you.”
His body lowered until his ramrod-straight toes were only a few centimeters off the ground. It made little difference–he still towered above me. “VERY WELL.”
Excitement and lingering adrenaline flowed through my veins, leaping beneath my skin. We were still within the confines of the game script; however, that was about to change. I kept my eyes trained on him as I began to tell him the same story I’d told the Storyteller, abridging my adventures and focusing on the transformative effects my travels had on me, as Djinn were fascinated by transformations.
As I spoke, life began to spark behind the Djinn’s eyes, and he began to appear actually interested in my story, lowering to the ground to stare at me with intent, unblinking eyes as the slight breeze from the ocean on the other side of the trees combed through his topknot and jingled the coins sewn onto his clothes.
Having heard my story twice now, Sinbad dusted himself off and spent time reassuring the Merchant, who finally found the courage to step up to Sinbad’s side as I wrapped up the story with my adventure in the training area. Ani curled up on the log, giving the poor man some peace as I kept the Storyteller’s role in this unspoken, unsure of how the powerful Djinn would react.
“YOU’VE COMPLETED MUCH CHANGE IN SUCH A SHORT TIME. I’D FORGOTTEN HOW QUICKLY HUMANS CAN CHANGE.” He rotated to face the Merchant, whose trembling form ducked behind Sinbad. Sinbad reached an arm out to the side as if to protect the Merchant from the Djinn’s angry gaze. “YOU MAY LIVE, FOR NOW, SO THAT YOU MAY HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO CHANGE YOUR WAYS.”
The Merchant dropped to his knees in gratefulness, pressing his forehead to the ground and rubbing his palms together. “Oh, Great One, thank you, thank–”
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“BE WARNED. IF I EVER CATCH YOU STEALING FROM THE FOREST AGAIN, YOU WILL NOT LIVE TO HAVE A THIRD CHANCE.”
The Merchant continued his tirade, using his knees and palms now to creep slowly back, stopping when his heels pressed into the log. Amusement crossed the Djinn’s face briefly as the Merchant jumped up, sprinting between the cover of the trees. “FOOLISH MORTAL.”
Sinbad pressed his heels together and bowed formally at the Djinn. “Thank you for sparing him and granting him time to say goodbye. His wife was distraught but would have been far more so if her husband had never returned.”
“IF I HAD WANTED HIM DEAD, HE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN GRANTED THE TIME TO SAY GOODBYE.”
I mimicked Sinbad’s elaborate bow, focusing my eyes on the ground. The Djinn floated closer. “I’VE HEARD RETELLINGS OF THE SAME THREE TALES FOR AGES NOW. THIS WAS THE FIRST NEW TALE OF TRANSFORMATION IN AGES NOW. TAKE THIS GIFT FROM ME AS THANKS.”
He snapped his fingers, and a blue box simultaneously appeared before my eyes.
[The Djinn is grateful for your tale.]
[Ability: Transformation Lvl1 Acquired]
[Target an enemy or ally to transform them into a dog!]
[Level up this ability to see what else it can do!]
I sunk deeper into the bow. “Thank you.” The Djinn disappeared in a tornado of black smoke.
Sinbad and I lifted our heads simultaneously, meeting each other’s eyes. He grinned first, the wild, energetic grin of someone who’d just escaped death. I could feel my face changing to match him. It shouldn’t have felt so good for someone like me, but the battle had been exhilarating in the comparatively low stakes. No one had died, and we’d escaped relatively unscathed, though my chest tingled, reminding me that we hadn’t escaped entirely unscathed. I’d always focused my competitive spirit on mental competitions, but I was slowly realizing the physical competitions I’d looked down on for so long could be enjoyable, too. Perhaps it was the remnants of some long-buried primal instinct.
Regardless, the feeling completely overshadowed the pain in me. It was vastly different from the physical distress I’d felt building up to this point, the beatdowns I’d received in training, or the scraping by on the skin of my teeth in the last two worlds. This meant something.
That didn’t mean I enjoyed the pain, however. I pressed gently on my ribs, searching for any breakages and taking a few deep breaths. I breathed smoothly and felt nothing too concerning.
I switched to the doctor class and cast a quick recovery over Sinbad and me, speeding up the healing of our wounds, as they didn’t appear too severe.
Sinbad clasped me on the shoulder, and I gathered my sleepy cat into my arms as we passed, draping him like a child over my shoulder as I used my free hand to take another look at the ability I’d gained as we passed through the players. As we walked, I felt the strong urge to test the magic and caught myself eying Sinbad’s clean-cut profile.
Certainly, I wouldn’t appreciate the spell being cast on myself in the same manner I hated using the abilities. Someone searching for adventure, like Sinbad, however…