Shards & Fragments: Short Stories - 1. Chapter 1: Mlik. Hadiqa

Mlik. Hadiqa

The sight was grizly, the creature's eyes were white, surrounded by dark burned wrinkle skin that should no longer stick to the bones with how it sagged. The testament that it had lived through centuries, and yellow tattered robe covered its elongated skeletal body. Horror incarnate. Bones, sinew, organs for all to see.

The slender beauty was craddling it, hugging, sobbing for it. Some of its flesh did stick to him, there was no smell. Elton knew its normal, its magic. Its just what the creature is. A djinn. There is no fault in who they are.

He could hear the creature hisses as it stare at him, their language millennia old, the language of desert sand, the language when Sahara was a forest,

"You pray to God for usss human? You pray to the God that loved you humans more than us. You, who are made from clay, elevated in your position, promised the heaven...you pray for a djinn? Your kind condemned...us. You would pray for us? Begged your God for me?" The syllable dragged, he swore in the slithering voice a strange thin note was evident.

It had looked at him, its eyes burned but it seems almost...adoring, hope. Why?...

"Of course I would." Between the messy sobbing he continued, "I would."

"I would." He whispered, "Why wouldn't I? Weren't you His as well?." A statement. A fact, uttered between his human sobbing.

A soul that burns, lips that spoke with truth, something change in the air. Watching, like the vast yawning universe had turn its attention to him. Something had dawn on everyone who witness it, an important moment from a mere speck of dust within a desert. A human had made its presence ripple through time. Unforgettable and etched among the Fates and greater beings.

Acknowledged.

Beloved.

It went down in what could only be kneeling, despite his attempt to stop it

"Oh King. King. The only human who weeped for us." Reverence in the creature's quiet raspy voice. Respect and honor, given freely instead of raped and robbed.

"This is why you are our King and beloved. You will always remain so." Its milky white eyes hold the male's crying hazel ones, ringed with cerulean blue and wet with tears.

Such beautiful eyes, a beautiful vessel. The creature thought. He could have choose to be beautiful, to chase wealth and be lost in it, to be vain, unforgiving of the pain others caused him. It was within his rights.

'Oh...oh Instead you choose nothing, to see your free will and choice unlike others. Ah the burden you carry.' It thought, something had moved it's unbeating dead hearts again.

'Beautiful.' It thought. Like the night sky it had seen when it first wake tens of thousands of years ago, 'Oh how bright, how bright'

This one This one, This one is the one who command us, who moved us, beloved, cherished, eayni...iy Amari,

It could almost hear the rest of its brethren, in the Ireland Bog, the forest, the water, the desert, the metropolis whispering in its ears. It could almost hear the worship they gave this human.

This sole human.

Oh yes this sole human have earned their trust.

The creature shifted, to sit, took the man's hand and pressed its lips on his pale skin and trembling hands,

'Its crying. Its genuine.' It thought, the body stressed from emotions. For a mere race that had been condemned for centuries, this one human have mercy and kindness for them.

"Oh King. Oh King." Was the only thing it could say, "Worthy. More than worthy." It wept as it slipped a ring on the man's finger. Pure transparent rainbow stone, framed with bronze.

It was the same ring that was stolen from him. It was stolen but here it was. Returned back.

"Worthy." It said, as it laid its charred skin on the man's slender hand that glows underneath the moonlight. It look content, almost like a pet except it is anything but harmless. It laid its cheek on Elton's hand and ring, reverently to the point of worship, almost.