Ifrits nd Genies

A retelling of Aladdin. In a version of Egypt where all marriages are arranged, Raef and Omneya marry for love and are persecuted. They need to find a lamp with a genie and make a wish for safety.

Ifrits and Genies

Raef: My name is Raef. My wife, Omneya, and I were having fun together practicing martial arts. We both had black belts and we wanted to stay just as good. We were smiling and complimenting each other. We had sparred many times. Each of us knew which moves the other one used most.

Then, we had to clean the house. We divided the chores by half and each of us took a half. I used magic to clean the living room because that was easier. I pointed at the detergent and the wipes, magic came out of my hand and made them clean without me having to touch them. Omneya told me she used magic to do some of her chores too.

Omneya and I lived in Cairo. Everyone in Egypt had magic and we used it for anything in everyday life or life-threatening situations. We could cast spells by pointing at things. Most people weren’t powerful because it took a lot of regular practice. Some people studied magic and became as powerful as they could be and were called witches and wizards. Omneya’s Mom was one of those people. She had studied magic for most of her life. She still practiced and read about it to stay just as good. She wanted to be the best she could be with magic.

Lots of ifrits and genies lived here. Ifrits were a part of human society. They had homes in cemeteries but worked like humans. They had their own king and queen. They were made of smoke and fire that has been turned into a body. They were the size of humans and could shape shift. They had horns, claws, sharp teeth and pointy ears. They looked like dragons and wore clothes. They could cast spells and control fire.

There were two types of genies. One of them lived in Egypt. They lived in the houses of humans as companions and friends.

All three species got along, but some ifrits were nasty. All of the species had the same lifespan.

Omneya and I were always reading. We were both happy to find someone who reads because many of our friends weren’t into it. We read a lot of the same books and shared our opinions. Omneya loved to read as much as she could about a lot of topics. She talked about them to her parents, mostly her Mom.

Before I met Omneya, I felt suppressed because I had no one to share these stories with. Luckily, when I met Farah the genie, she was into stories. Farah loved listening to me read stories for her, which I did a lot.

Both Omneya and I had genies living with us before we got married. They moved into our apartment too. Omneya had Hani and I had Farah. It took Farah a while to get used to other people. She didn’t talk much to Omneya when she was first getting to know her, but she was nice to her. She wasn’t always confident, but she learned before Omneya and I got married. She wasn’t into action and didn’t have the confidence to defend herself. She changed as she got older because she was less vulnerable. She was inspired by some of the stories I read to her. She loved fiction and loved it whenever I read stories to her.

This type of genie could also shape shift, so she would listen in a different form every time; dog, cat, bird or human. The original form for genies is a dog. Farah looked up to fictional characters no matter what species they were. She gave me what I needed because I wanted to tell stories.

Hani was always suspicious of people when he first met them. He warmed up to them after a while. It had taken a while for him to befriend Omneya. He got used to her and trusted her. She wanted to be his friend. He wanted companionship as much as she did. He liked to hang out with her and play games with her in human form. Hani liked to provoke other genies into playing with him. He used to provoke Farah. He stopped when he realized it bothered her. After a while, they started to play for fun.

Omneya and I went to the same university. One time, when we were twenty, I saw Omneya observing ifrits. I recognized her from school and talked to her.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I love learning about mythological creatures.”

“Why?”

“I find them fascinating,” she said, beaming. “And I like to learn about their cultures because they have interesting histories. A lot of what they do is connected to the cultures of Arabs of all species.”

“Do you observe them a lot?”

“Yes, but some are hard to see, so I read about them.”

“Like what?”

“Ghouls.”

“Don’t ghouls live in the desert?” I asked.

“Yes, and they can shape shift into humans.”

“Why do they do that?”

“They trick, then kill and eat humans.”

“Yikes!” I said with a shiver.

“Yes, but they can be killed with one spell, but there’s a trick.”

“What?”

“They have to be killed on the first blow because the second one would heal them.”

“You’re learning martial arts, do you think you can handle them?” I said in a friendly challenge.

“Not yet, but I will learn more. Will you?”

“Yes.”

Her happiness and excitement made me happy. I loved her passion.

“What do you major in?” Omneya asked.

“Astronomy.”

“Why do you like space?”

“Because I think it would be fascinating to study what’s beyond Earth, even if we could never go there.”

“Isn’t it hard to learn about space?”

“Space is big and mysterious and I’m not going to back off from the challenge of studying it.”

“What have you learned so far?”

“Mercury takes eighty-eight days to orbit around the sun.”

“Cool.”

“And the length of its day is fifty-nine Earth days. I’m also studying the chemistry of the planets.”

“I’m a little envious,” Omneya told me.

“Why?”

“Because I could never understand science like you.”

“So?”

“I wish I could.”

“What’s your major?”

“I want to get a degree in Arabic writing.”

“I don’t understand writing.”

I was trying to make her feel better and when she laughed it made me think it worked. I told her about some of the stuff I learned. She smiled at my intelligence. We told each other we had genies and talked about them. Because Omneya was so passionate and optimistic and I admired that she understood writing, there was a spark inside me every time I talked to her after that. We learned and practiced martial arts together.

Omneya: I came home from work. I had a degree in Arabic writing, but my regular job was being a teacher. I wanted to be a good teacher. The reason I was always trying to learn was because I was trying to be fulfilled. Raef became an astronomer after he got his degree.

The genies weren’t in the house, they were hanging out somewhere else. Hani must have provoked Farah into playing with him. Sometimes they played by transforming into dogs and played the way dogs did.

When I found Raef, I smiled and walked toward him with open arms. He smiled as we embraced and kissed. Then we sat down and played with our dog, Banafseg. Her name meant the flower violet. I had adopted her from the shelter because I felt sorry for her. Banafseg was wagging her tail the whole time. We kept throwing toys for her to chase and catch. When she was first adopted, it took her a while to feel safe that she wasn’t going back to the shelter. She’d been timid. Now, she was confident and always asking for affection. She always followed us around the house because she loved us. She hated being left alone whenever we left the house.

Raef and I ate and talked about our day. Banafseg went crazy when she saw us eat tomatoes and kept asking for them throughout the entire meal by standing on her hind legs and patting our arms with her paws. We gave her a little. Raef wanted to explore as much of the universe as he could. He observed it through his telescope at work and at home. I told him about some of the creatures I observed the day before. I was constantly observing them or talking to them or talking to humans about them. I told Raef facts about them. I talked about a book I wanted to write. I wanted to write many books about mythological creatures. Raef wanted to discover as much as possible and write articles about space in magazines.

As we were eating, someone broke down the door!

What the hell!

Banafseg ran out of the room.

Raef and I went to the front door and saw two men we didn’t know.

We backed away.

They attacked us with magic.

Humans in Egypt didn’t have guns because we had magic.

Raef and I screamed and got out of the way.

From the way the men were dressed, I guessed they worked for the president and his wife.

I felt better with Raef there. He always told me he felt better whenever I was with him in a stressful situation. The ones we had to deal with up until that point had been domestic or personal.

One man targeted Raef and the other one targeted me.

The man tried to punch me.

I blocked his arm.

I kicked him.

He tried to grab me.

My mind went numb.

I got out of the way.

I saw Raef fighting the other guard.

I was scared he might get hurt or killed.

Raef and I knew which kicks and punches the other one was going to use. We knew when to defend ourselves and when to allow the other one to do it.

I kicked the guard.

He tried to cast a spell on me.

He shot magic at me from his hand.

I blocked his magic with my own.

When magic came out of my hand, it collided with his and his magic disappeared.

Every time I defended myself, I was a little relieved.

But I was still terrified for Raef and myself.

I hoped we could keep defending ourselves.

Raef kicked the other guard.

The guard I was fighting tried to cast a spell on me again, one that would have killed me.

My heart stopped.

I got out of the way.

Raef followed me because we wanted to fight as a team because we tackled all problems as a team.

I tried to cast a spell on the guard to take away his magic.

He blocked my magic.

The other guard attacked Raef.

I backed away, knowing Raef was going to kick him.

I knew Raef was a good fighter, but I was still worried.

The second guard tried to cast another spell on me.

I had goosebumps.

I blocked his magic.

He kicked me.

I stumbled.

My heart jumped with fear.

Raef kicked the first guard.

The guard I was fighting tried to kick me.

I flipped him.

We kept fighting. We knew when one of us backed away, we were expecting the other one to use the moves we usually used. We understood each other. Each of us understood how the other one fought. We had sparred with other people before so we knew how to spar together. We knew how to understand each other without words because we had established what our body language meant.

The guard tried to kick me again.

I blocked his kick with my leg.

We kept going.

Eventually, when the guards couldn’t beat us, they retreated.

Raef and I hugged, then lowered ourselves to the ground. I felt better with Raef’s love. I wanted to do what I could to make him feel better.

Banafseg walked into the room, shaking. We held her. We told her she was a good girl and everything was okay. She kept licking us because she was worried about us. It took us a while to reassure her.

I was horrified and numb. I looked at Raef’s face and he seemed disturbed. We held each other for a minute.

The genies arrived in human form. We told them what happened. They transformed into dogs and cuddled with us. Hani asked us to tell them the whole story. We did, then we called Mom and she came over and healed us because she knew more about magic than we did. People who were powerful and experts at magic were called witches and wizards. My Mom, Aida, was one of them. When she came, she looked worried. She healed us, then she held us. She asked what happened and we told her. I always felt safe with Mom whenever something went wrong.

We realized we had to leave because the president and his wife would attack us again. We went to stay with Mom. We brought the genies and Banafseg with us.

“Why were we attacked?” I asked Mom.

Raef: Aida did research until she found the wizard who used to work for the president and his wife. She talked to him, then came home.

“The wizard shared a prophecy with the president and his wife when he used to work for them,” Aida told us.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“About thirty years ago, he saw something in the future.”

“What?” Omneya asked.

“He thought they would be good to their people or he wouldn’t have told them. He explained that the teamwork of true love would kill them.”

The president and his wife married for love. They were arrogant and they thought they were the best couple in the world. They had nothing but each other. They didn’t care about anything else. They thought if they were in love, nothing else should matter. They said that in many interviews.

“The president and his wife enforced arranged marriages to avoid the prophecy,” Aida said.

Omneya and I felt bad for anyone who had an arranged marriage. We had to hide the fact that we got married for love or we would get killed. Aida didn’t like the law and she was happy for us. She was supportive but scared.

The joke was on the president and his wife because a lot of couples fell in love after they got married. Some found companionship. The ones who couldn’t make it work, simply got a divorce, like Omneya’s parents.

Omneya lived with Aida when she was a kid, but she saw her Dad three times a week. They both provided for her equally. Omneya and Aida hung out together when they talked in the living room while watching TV or when they practiced magic together.

Aida was a successful doctor and she wanted to help people with her job and donated food every Ramadan. She told Omneya stories about medical school. Omneya told her stories about the college we went to. Aida didn’t know martial arts because she wasn’t into sports. Aida used to be too serious when she was younger. When Omneya was a teenager and she was able to connect to her on a more grown-up level, she became more fun.

The president and his wife were in love, but the president’s wife didn’t care about anything but her husband. It was why she never did anything for her people. The president and his wife knew they were hurting the people with arranged marriages but they didn’t care. They didn’t care about hurting other people to protect themselves. They didn’t care about the problems of their people.

The president’s wife hated other women because she got jealous whenever they were around her husband.

The president never did anything good either. He needed to be more powerful than his people and to make us know our place. He got violent every time a man talked to his wife. He only showed her affection. The only feeling he showed anyone else was anger.

Every once in a while, he would be cruel to the people of Egypt and no one knew why. I had a theory that the guy had problems and he took them out on his people. He liked to control others to be powerful.

“Are you saying they think we are the ones who will destroy them?” Omneya asked Aida.

“They must have found out you married for love,” Aida said.

“How?”

“They have another wizard working for them since the last one quit.”

“Other couples are in love.”

“Yeah, but the president and his wife don’t know that.”

We knew the president’s wife was the one planning how to kill us. Getting married out of love was a rebellious act. We couldn’t invite anyone to our wedding because we had to keep our love a secret. Aida was always worried someone would find out. We made sure the ceremony was a secret, but she was still worried.

After what the president and his wife did, the first wizard who used to work for them quit.

We were worried. We looked at each other.

“We still don’t know what will happen,” I said. “And we can fight. Maybe we’ll be okay.”

“We’ll do our best and we’re great together,” Omneya said.

We were both scared but we found comfort because we were together. We wanted to help each other.

Omneya said there was a spark inside her too because of my intelligence, just like there was one inside me because of her passion. It was why we hung out as friends when we were getting to know each other. We practiced martial arts regularly. We participated in charities together. I loved how Omneya was always trying to help people. Every time I said I wanted to as well, she would stroke my hair. She felt bad for the less fortunate and donated money to a lot of causes. She wished there was some way to take away everyone’s pain. I also wanted to help people and donated money to animal shelters. Our compassion was one of the reasons we fell in love. We always worked together on these projects and had an equal number of ideas.

Omneya was always excited about the things she liked and in this case she was excited about helping people.

We observed mythological creatures together. We talked about astronomy and the books we read. After two years, we fell in love. We understood each other because of our compassion and how we wanted to do big things with our careers.

I was worried about the president and his wife coming after us again. I held Omneya’s hand. There was no law that said couples who got married had to stay together, but all marriages should be arranged.

Hani turned into a dog and rubbed his head against Omneya’s. She scratched his head.

“You handled the last attack,” he said. “I’m sure we can handle the situation.”

He turned into a lion cub and ran toward Farah. He waved his paw at her. She turned into a lion cub too and they started playing.

Banafseg was sitting next to Aida as she ate and her eyes didn’t leave the tomatoes. Aida gave her a slice.

Omneya: Once, I told Raef that I wanted to compete in a writing contest at school when I was fifteen.

“What happened?” he’d asked.

“Some bullies sabotaged my chances.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I was so sad. I was crying when I told Mom.”

“I would feel bad if someone sabotaged my chances with astronomy.”

“I felt empty.”

“I’m sure your Mom made you feel better.”

“She did.”

Every time I was upset, Mom would talk to me and hold me and she took all the bad feelings away.

“But those feelings didn’t go away completely,” I continued. “I’m still a little sad and empty whenever I think about it.”

“Why can’t you let it go?”

“Because I want to write something great. I want to publish it. I want to get as close as possible to writers like J.K. Rowling and Tolkien.”

“What can I do?”

I snuggled up against him.

“Nothing,” I said. “I won’t be able to get rid of these feelings completely until I write my first book.”

“That’s why you’re always doing research on mythological creatures.”

“It’s one of the reasons. The other one is I love them and I want to learn as much as possible about the world.”

“You’ve learned so much from observing mythological creatures, I’m sure you have a lot of material.”

“Yes, but I’m still going to learn as much as possible. For myself and because I want to write other books.”

I also wanted to learn a lot about a lot of topics because knowledge made me feel fulfilled.

Raef and I were friends for two years. We got to know each other and fell in love. Then we started dating.

We stayed with Mom for a few days and tried to figure out what to do. Mom was always fussing over us and asking us what we needed. She made sure we ate as much as we needed. Every time one of us was upset, she was there and cheered us up.

Farah stuck to Raef all the time. Hani told Mom stories of all the times he played with other genies. Sometimes he challenged them out of the blue.

“Didn’t that upset them?” Mom asked.

“Yes, but I still wanted to play.”

“Hani.”

“I know I shouldn’t push it when they’re not interested, which is why I don’t anymore.”

The genies had lunch with us in human form. Then, Hani played games with me and Mom. Farah listened to stories Raef read to her.

Then, four ifrits attacked by breaking through a window!

We all screamed.

We backed away.

The ifrits looked like dragons. They had horns and claws, but they never attacked with them because they were too civilized. They used magic and fire instead.

The ifrits shot fire at Raef and me from their hands.

We dodged a few times.

We tried using magic.

It didn’t work.

The ifrits flapped their wings and flew out of the way to the corners of the room.

Then, they approached us again.

The genies fought two ifrits by firing magic at them in wolf form.

Each side fired magic at the other.

They had to dodge each other’s magic.

Mom fought the other two ifrits.

Raef and I tried fighting them.

The ifrits shot fire at Mom.

She used her magic to put it out.

Banafseg was in the other room and she was too scared to come into this one.

The genies and the ifrits kept casting spells on each other.

The ifrits used fire.

Sometimes the genies dodged and sometimes they got hurt.

My heart hurt every time, but I was relieved they were alive.

Every object that was in the way got hit by magic and was broken or destroyed.

The ifrits had been sent by the president and his wife.

Raef and I kept trying to attack them.

We kept canceling the ifrits’ magic.

The other two ifrits kept attacking Mom.

She fought back.

The ifrits shot fire at the genies.

The genies used magic to put it out.

My pulse was quick and I knew Raef’s was too.

Both sides kept attacking each other for a few more minutes.

The genies used magic to disempower the ifrits.

This time, the magic hit the ifrits’ bodies.

Then, the genies killed them with magic.

Mom fought the other two ifrits.

She cast a spell that killed one.

The other one kept attacking us.

We kept dodging his magic or canceling it.

I was terrified.

Raef and I kept pulling each other out of the way.

Mom killed the other ifrit.

Raef and I had tried, but we didn’t know the spell that could do that.

Mom hugged me and Raef. Mom was worried about all four of us. She healed us and made sure we were okay.

Banafseg came into the room.

My heart was pounding. Raef looked as terrified as I felt. We put our arms around each other. It would take a while before we felt better. Each of us was relieved that the other one was okay. We looked at each other. Then, Raef tightened his arms around me and I put my head on his shoulder.

After a minute, I held Banafseg. She was shaking and kept licking our mouths to get affection so we would tell her everything was okay. We stroked her head and back and talked to her in a sweet voice.

We alternated between each other and the genies who had turned into dogs and we held them. We told them we were proud of them. Farah thought a lot about the stories Raef told her and wanted to be as great as the heroes. Raef picked her up and told her she was a hero.

“What spell was that?” I asked Mom.

Mom told us about the spell.

Later, Mom used magic to fix all of the objects that were broken or destroyed in the fight.

Raef and I talked. We were both scared because the president and his wife would keep coming after us. We practiced the spell that could kill so we could use it whenever we were attacked. Whenever one of us did something wrong, the other one would correct it. It took a while to get it right.

We talked to each other about the attack. We needed to talk to process it. I trusted Raef to give me everything I needed. It was important to me to take away every ounce of pain he felt. We looked at each other. We were both scared. Raef smiled to cheer me up. I smiled back. When we were done talking about the attack, we changed the subject to our friends. Raef preferred to hang out alone or in small groups. I was always going to parties with my friends. We wanted to discuss a cheerful topic because it was important to each of us to make the other one happy.

Raef: I played a board game with Aida. Omneya played them with her all the time before we got married. She played with her sometimes when we came to visit.

Farah and Hani had a pretend duel. They were inspired by the attack. They cast spells in gorilla form. Then changed to birds, then bats. They cast spells that wouldn’t hurt each other.

Banafseg was sitting on my lap. Then, Omneya and I took her for a walk and the genies came with us. Banafseg was wagging her tail. She kept jumping and sniffing people and trees. She always did that on walks.

Somebody who hated dogs insulted us when we walked by. Banafseg barked at him to defend us. We took her and walked away. Hani cursed the man for a few seconds. Farah let it go when someone insulted us on the street because it was not a big deal. She defended herself and us when we were in danger.

When we got home, we talked to Aida and realized there was a lamp in the desert that contained a genie. A different kind of genie from Farah and Hani. The genies in lamps could grant wishes.

“We need to find that genie,” Hani said.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because he can grant wishes that could protect you.”

“Can’t we find one in the city?” Omneya asked.

“Does anybody know of a genie in the city” he asked skeptically.

“If we could find a Roc, it could take us deep into the desert quickly enough to find the lamp before the president and his wife do.”

“What is a Roc?” Aida asked.

“It’s a bird that’s so big it could carry elephants.”

“Do we need a Roc?” I asked.

“They are strong, can talk and live in the desert.”
“And you think they can find the lamp.”

“Because they live in the desert, they know everything about it. It’s like how we know a lot about Cairo because we live here. And they could help us get to the cave faster. Farah and Hani can’t take us in Roc form because they aren’t actually Rocs so they don’t know everything about the desert or where the lamp is.”

Omneya knew about Rocs and if we traveled deep enough into the desert, it wouldn’t be too hard for us to find one.

“We should go tomorrow,” Farah said.

“Why?” Hani asked.

“Because there’s a chance the president and his wife know about the genie and will find him and use his wishes.”
“What if they don’t know?”

“They have a wizard who can use a crystal ball, remember?”
We started planning on how we were going to get to the desert. We decided to take a car to find the Roc and then ask him to take us from there. We packed all the things we were going to need. All five of us reminded each other of things we forgot. Once we were done, Aida checked that Omneya and I had everything we needed.

I remembered the first time I met Aida. I’d known Omneya for two years by that point. We were friends because we hung out all the time. We shared our interests and there was a spark in each of us because we liked each other. We had been dating for a month. Omneya told her parents we were dating and they were both happy and supportive, especially Aida. I told my grandparents and they reacted the same way.

Omneya brought me over for lunch one day. As soon as Aida saw me she hugged me. She was nice to me, fussed over me throughout lunch and asked me what I wanted. She asked me about myself. This almost made me cry because I wasn’t used to getting this treatment from my parents anymore.

I took Banafseg to my grandparents so they could take care of her for a few days.

“What’s going on?” Grandpa asked.

“I need you to take care of Banafseg.”

“Why?”

“Because the president and his wife are trying to kill us.”

“Oh, my God!”

“We have an idea,” I continued.

“How could you beat them?”

“We are going to find a genie and make a wish to protect us,” I explained.

“How long will that take?”

“A few days.”

“Have they attacked you yet?”

“Yes, but we handled them.”

“Of course, you did.”

“You’re not surprised?”

“No. We raised you to be a great man.”

“I had something to do with that,” I said, grinning.

“Yes.”

When I told my grandparents what happened, they were worried. I told Omneya I assured them we had a plan. Banafseg was happy to see them just like she was always happy to see Omneya’s parents or our friends. She kept wagging her tail and licking their mouths. They played with her.

Omneya: The Roc was in the desert. We took Mom’s car and traveled to him.

I felt better because Raef was with me. After we had gotten to know each other better when we were still friends, I told Raef I wanted to write books. I tried to tell him how books were written because I was getting a degree in Arabic. He didn’t really understand the process. He told me about the science of the planets but I didn’t understand all of it. He helped me. I always felt bad about the writing contest that was sabotaged and it made me try hard. If I couldn’t publish books, I would feel empty. I would never be able to publish enough books because that was my passion.

After hours of helping each other, I was relieved that someone understood what I wanted and was there for me.

I pulled Raef into my arms and kissed him. I felt his love when he kissed me back. The kiss took a few minutes. My heart pounded. We both realized we were in love. That was when we started dating.

After driving for a few hours, we found the Roc. We got out of the car. We were scared because he was so big, he could have easily and unintentionally hurt us. He was taller than any building I’d ever seen. He was even bigger than an airplane. We were reluctant to get close, but we had to talk to him. Farah stuck to Raef as he and I approached the Roc. Hani came with us. Farah must have remembered that she wanted to be like the heroes in the stories so she came too.

The Roc noticed us. When he realized we were walking toward him, he asked,

“Can I help you?”

We introduced ourselves.

“We need your help,” Hani said, bluntly.

“If that’s okay,” I said.

“We need you to take us to the cave with the lamp and the genie,” Hani continued.

“Why?”

“Because the president of Egypt and his wife are trying to kill us,” Raef explained.

“We fought off the people and the creatures working with them,” Hani said.

“But if we can make a wish, we can make them stop attacking us or sending people after us,” Mom said.

Farah didn’t say anything, not because she wasn’t brave, but she was always quiet.

All of the creatures in Egypt knew that the president and his wife were terrible to their people so the Roc agreed to take us.

Hani hesitated.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I don’t feel safe.”

“Trusting a huge bird we’re not familiar with is reckless,” I agreed. “But we need him.”

“What if something goes wrong?”

“You’re with me.”

He looked at me and seemed less suspicious.

Farah scratched Raef’s leg in dog form.

“You always feel safe with me,” he told her.

We hugged our genies.

We all got on the Roc’s back and he flew.

Raef: It took a few days. We rested multiple times a day. The genies would sometimes play together as dogs, cheetah cubs or monkeys. Or they would sit on our laps while we were all reading books.

I felt better because Omneya was with me. I remembered when I told her about my parents a while after we started dating. This was hard for me because I felt guilty.

“Until I was nine, my parents didn’t raise me to take responsibility for anything,” I began. “My maternal grandparents noticed this. They took me to raise me themselves. I used to hate work and I would spend most of my time playing with my friends.”

“That changed when you went to live with your grandparents?” Omneya asked.

“Yes, but the way my parents raised me, I didn’t work for school and I didn’t care when I failed a year.”

Omneya held my hand. I knew what she meant to say. It was bad that I didn’t care at the time, but she knew I wasn’t like that anymore and didn’t judge me.

“But, over time, my grandparents taught me to be responsible and that it was necessary to work,” I continued. “Now, I love my job. I still spend time with my friends. My job is hard and what I want to accomplish is hard. I want to learn as much as possible about the planets. I also want to write articles in magazines about space.”

I looked through my telescope every day at work and at home. I did my best at work. I loved it and I loved learning about space. I was constantly telling my grandparents about it.

“When I was living with my parents, I used to yell at them a lot. They didn’t teach me how to behave. They didn’t raise me right so that was what I was like. My grandparents taught me better over time. I feel guilty about that.”

“None of us start out as great as we are when we’re older. My writing was terrible compared to what it is now.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying you’ve evolved.”

“I don’t have much contact with my parents anymore.”

“Why not?”

“Because of the way they raised me, I don’t want to see them. They don’t want to see me.”

Omneya stroked my hair.

“They’re not great,” I said. “So it’s not the same as most people not seeing their parents.”

“You’re a better person now. Do you get along with your grandparents?”

“Yeah. We hang out all the time. We take a trip every year. We share one meal every day.”

Omneya and I talked to each other about our families.

Whenever I had a problem, I knew how to deal with it or I asked someone for help. I knew some people didn’t and I suspected the president was one of them.

“Why?” Omneya asked.

“Because if you don’t deal with your problems correctly, you react badly.”

“Like how the president is always cruel to us?”

“He always seems like he’s lashing out about something.”

“Do you think he has problems with his wife?”

“I suspected that. I heard rumors that they have a hard time seeing eye to eye on anything. They love each other, but they can’t work together. They fight when they disagree, which happens a lot.”

Omneya and I fought sometimes, but we compromised or convinced each other to come up with something that worked for both of us.

My grandparents handled their fights the same way.

Omneya, Aida, the Roc, the genies and I sat together and told each other stories. Omneya and I made each other laugh more than once. Omneya and Hani were the ones who didn’t mind talking to a group. They were confident. Farah shared a few stories. I knew she must have gone through everything she said in her head first to get it right so she wouldn’t embarrass herself.

One day, we were taking a break from flying. The Roc went to find food. We saw two strange people walk toward us. I wondered how people got so deep in the desert. They were alone and there was no oasis.

“Something is wrong,” I said.

This led Omneya to realize they were ghouls.

Ghouls could shape shift to distract people so they could kill and eat them.

My heart went cold.

I told the genies and Aida to take a step back.

Omneya kicked one of the ghouls.

I punched the other one.

We knew the ghouls were going to kill us so this was self defense. I remembered that Omneya once told me they had to be killed on the first blow because the second one would heal them.

The genies transformed into bears and attacked the ghouls.

The ghouls transformed back into monsters with claws, fangs and four legs.

They injured the genies with their claws.

Then, the ghouls attacked us.

Everyone was moving so fast that Aida couldn’t help.

The ghouls dodged our magic.

Sometimes we would attack, but then we would get scared that we couldn’t kill them right away, so we stopped ourselves.

We thought they would be easier to kill, if they were in human form, so we cast a spell that turned them back into humans and we made sure they couldn’t change their form.

The ghouls seemed horrified when they looked at themselves.

Then, they got angry and each of them attacked one of us.

They still wanted to eat us.

Omneya kicked the ghoul who attacked her.

I flipped mine.

Omneya tried to kick the ghoul.

It pushed her leg away.

I tried to punch my ghoul.

It punched me.

We both stumbled.

I was breathing heavily.

Omneya tried to kick her ghoul.

It got out of the way.

I kicked my ghoul.

Omneya punched hers.

I focused on the ghoul I was fighting, but I kept checking on Omneya every few seconds.

The ghoul I was fighting punched me.

Omneya tried to kill one of the ghouls with the spell Aida taught us.

The ghoul got out of the way.

I tried to punch the ghoul I was fighting.

It got out of the way.

My heart sank.

Omneya kicked the ghoul she was fighting.

I kicked the ghoul I was fighting.

The ghoul kicked Omneya.

She stumbled.

My heart jumped, but I was relieved she was okay.

A ghoul punched me.

Omneya tried to cast a spell on the ghoul she was fighting.

It got out of the way.

I tried to kick one of the ghouls.

It dodged.

I was getting desperate.

Omneya and I cast the spell at the same time.

It hit the ghouls and killed them!

They were harder to beat than anything we fought before because we needed to plan it right. We had to be careful to kill them with the first blow.

I hugged Omneya.

I was scared. Omneya assured me I was okay. I was also scared because Omneya could have been killed. I was relieved she was okay. I kissed her to assure her she was safe.

Aida ran toward us and hugged us at the same time. She looked scared. We didn’t need healing. We needed a few minutes to calm down. Her hug made us both feel better that she was fussing over us. She wasn’t falling apart. She said she was proud of us. That gave us another person to rely on.

The genies came as cats and we hugged them. We healed them, then they sat on our laps and cuddled.

The Roc came back.

“What happened?” he asked.

We told him.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said.

We sat down for a while. Omneya and I held each other. That made us feel better. Then, we all flew to the cave.

Omneya: While we were resting the next day, the genies sat in our laps in hamster form for a second and we held them. Then, Hani turned into a dog, ran past Farah and scratched her. He didn’t hurt her; he was just teasing her. She got off Raef’s lap and ran after Hani in dog form. They grabbed each other and started rolling around. They were biting each other. At home, they liked to play with Banafseg like that and so did she. It wasn’t an attack, but how they played. They didn’t injure each other.

“They keep finding us,” I told Raef.

“I know,” he said. “I don’t feel safe either.”

“I want to scream.”

We took a few minutes to feel bad.

“We will find the lamp and we’ll be safe,” Raef said.

“We’re together and we have the genies, Mom and the Roc.”

Since we were resting, we decided to talk about our careers. I told Raef more facts about mythological creatures after I observed them. I was excited and I was jumping a little. Raef smiled at me. Then, he told me things he learned about other planets in the last few days before we started traveling to the lamp. I admired his intelligence.

Mom joined us and told us stories about her job as a doctor.

Then, we spent some time reading.

Farah wanted to cuddle next to Raef and take a break. Hani thought that would be boring so he turned into a falcon and flew for a while.

An hour later, we saw two black things with wings fly toward us.

I swallowed as we stood up to face them.

We noticed they were ifrits before they landed on the sand in front of us.

We were alert.

But once the ifrits were there, they couldn’t attack.

We all expected them to and we were scared.

Farah turned into a leopard to defend herself and Raef.

Hani turned into a panther to defend himself and me.

The ifrits stood there and looked confused.

They didn’t seem to understand why they couldn’t attack.

I understood.

Raef and I used magic to make them fly back to Cairo. We didn’t attack them because we shouldn’t fight people who couldn’t fight us.

“Why couldn’t they attack us?” Raef asked.

“An act of compassion can make an ifrit incapable of attacking,” I explained.

“You mean, when we took care of the genies yesterday?”

“Yes.”

“But we took care of each other before and we still got attacked.”

“That’s because these attacks were several days apart; not just one day.”

The genies turned into humans and hugged us.

The next day, we flew more. After a few hours, the Roc found the cave.

Raef: I remembered all the times Omneya wrote something and asked me to read it. For the most part, I loved her writing and she was right about the fact that she had improved. But there were a few times when I made suggestions on how she could improve her writing. That always upset Omneya and she would leave the room.

“I’m not criticizing you,” I said. “And you did some things right. You can improve on the stuff I said.”

“It’s depressing,” she said.

“It shouldn’t be.”

“How would you feel if someone told you you’re not the best astronomer?”

“I wouldn’t be happy, but I think you’re taking it too hard.”

She improved when she listened to my advice and advice she got from other people and applied what she had learned in college. Later, she told me that she understood that neither I nor Aida insulted her whenever we said she did something wrong.

“I’ve been working on that but I don’t know how to make a lot of progress,” Omneya said.

“You should remember that we love you,” I said. “And no one writes perfectly. And you do a lot of things right.”

“I’ll try to remember not to take it too hard.”

After that, she made an effort.

Once we got to the cave, we all climbed off the Roc’s back. The cave was too small for the Roc to enter with us. It was deep. We would have to look for a long time until we found the lamp. There were five of us, so we were sure every part of the cave was looked at. It was cooler inside the cave. We couldn’t find anything for the first few minutes. Hani was talking. Farah listened and said some things, but for the most part, she was quiet. Aida, Omneya and I weren’t in the mood to talk because we were stressed out from needing to find the lamp. We kept going deeper.

Then, we were attacked by ifrits in the cave!

We backed away.

I had goosebumps.

Since these ifrits were evil, they didn’t care who they hurt. They lived in the desert, but they weren’t associated with the ifrits that lived in the cities.

Omneya and I stood next to each other when two ifrits attacked us.

Hani and Farah fought two other ifrits.

Aida fought one too.

The ifrits started to cast a spell on Omneya and me.

We canceled their spell.

Hani turned into a tiger, Farah turned into a cheetah, and they bit the ifrits.

The ifrits screamed and it took them a while to shake off the genies.

Omneya and I tried to cast a spell on the ifrits.

They dodged.

The ifrit Aida was fighting tried to curse her.

Aida canceled its magic.

Omneya and I kept attacking the ifrits we were fighting.

The ifrits either dodged our magic or canceled it.

One of them used magic and injured Omneya.

She screamed.

I gasped.

Aida and the genies looked at Omneya.

She cast a spell on the ifrit and injured it.

The ifrit I was fighting injured me.

I screamed.

Everybody looked worried.

Omneya and I cast spells to injure the ifrits.

The genies disempowered the ifrits they were fighting with a spell.

These ifrits retreated.

Aida, Omneya and I killed the ones we were fighting.

Omneya: Raef and I threw ourselves in each other’s arms. We needed that comfort. My heart pounded. We squeezed each other out of fear. Mom healed us, then squeezed us both for a second. The genies turned into cats and rubbed themselves against our legs. We petted them.

The cave had traps that kept people from reaching the lamp. We went through a tunnel that was a dead end.

We saw a giant scorpion!

We screamed.

We ran away.

It tried to kill us with its tail several times.

We got out of the way.

Mom stood in front of it.

She cast a spell that killed it.

We were all breathing heavily.

We went through another tunnel.

It was another dead end that led to a giant scorpion.

I shrunk it.

We ran away before it had a chance to poison us.

Since it was small, we got away from it.

We walked through another tunnel for two minutes.

It led to a chamber with another scorpion.

Raef cast a spell that made it not poisonous.

We found another way and kept going for another few minutes.

We ran into another scorpion.

Mom knocked me away and killed the scorpion with magic from her hands.

We walked through another tunnel and reached an empty chamber. Raef and I went first, but when we got into it, there was powder that was thrown in our faces because it was flying through the air in the entire chamber.

The others noticed the powder and didn’t walk into the chamber. Raef and I spluttered and coughed and rubbed our eyes.

“Is it poisonous?” Farah asked.

“This is like the curse of the Ancient Egyptians that says people who are affected by it are going to die,” I explained.

Raef: We kept going. Omneya and I were holding hands. We kept an eye out for whatever was going to kill us. We were scared. We felt better to have each other there.

Part of the cave collapsed.

I pulled Omneya out of the way.

We walked for another minute.

The cave collapsed again.

Omneya pulled me out of the way.

The cave kept collapsing.

We pulled each other out of the way each time.

After the fourth time, we hugged for a second. The cave never collapsed on top of the others.

We found another chamber.

There was a lamp!

I gasped!

Omneya’s jaw dropped.

I was relieved.

We walked toward it when we heard someone behind us. We turned and saw the president and his wife.

My heart sank.

The president and his wife found out about the genie and came here too, but I was sure they hadn’t caught up with us until this moment. They were going to kill us because they knew the teamwork of true love would kill them. The wife must have been the one who came up with this plan.

Omneya and I would have used the lamp and made a wish, but the president and his wife would have reached us before we reached the lamp. They would have stopped us from making a wish.

Another problem was that we had to make sure the president and his wife didn’t reach the lamp and make a wish because they could wish to kill us.

We would have to fight them before we got to the lamp.

Omneya: The president and his wife had brought genies like Farah and Hani. These genies fought Mom and our genies.

The president and his wife attacked us.

My pulse was quick again.

Raef and I had each other’s backs.

They didn’t.

Raef and I knew which moves the other one would use.

Each of us backed away to give the other one room.

We understood each other.

We had sparred before so we knew how to work as a team.

This gave us reassurance.

The president and his wife kept getting in each other’s way.

They couldn’t help each other.

Raef and I were scared.

We screamed whenever we got hit.

Each of us wanted to protect the other.

We had helped each other improve in fighting because we had practiced together for years.

The president and his wife clearly never shared anything other than love.

They couldn’t synchronize.

Raef and I knew when to have each other’s backs.

Each of us knew when to let the other one attack.

We knew when to attack at the same time.

We had perfected that over time.

We knew to cover each other when we needed it.

We trusted each other.

The president and his wife knew how to fight individually.

They still managed to injure us.

We kept fighting.

We were more successful.

The fight lasted for ten minutes.

We had to block their way to the lamp, which made the fight even more stressful.

They tried to get past us several times, but we would always catch up with them and block their ways again.

The president and his wife were dangerous.

They could kill us.

They tried to kill us with spells many times.

We would stop them with a kick or a punch.

We could handle them because we practiced individually and because we knew how to work together.

After a while, we were tired and injured more than once.

“I think we should cast the spell that would kill them,” Raef whispered to me.

I already had the same idea.

We pointed our hands at them and shot our magic.

It hit them.

WE KILLED THEM WITH THE SPELL!

Their bodies dropped.

I gasped.

Raef was breathing heavily.

My mind was numb.

Raef and I put our arms around each other in horror. The cruel leaders of Egypt were dead and everyone was free. But we needed a few minutes after what happened.

Raef: Once Omneya and I left the cave, we weren’t cursed anymore. We’d all taken half an hour to get past the battle and leave the cave. By then, our fear and horror were subsiding. Aida healed all of us.

“What’s going on?” the Roc asked.

We told him.

Omneya and I rubbed the lamp. A different type of genie appeared. We all introduced ourselves.

“Someone captured me when they found the lamp a long time ago,” the genie said. “I’m glad I’m free.”

Omneya and I felt bad that he was captured but we were relieved he was free. He was going to live in another country. He was going to hide his lamp so no one would capture him again. He knew how to hide his lamp. His type of genies didn’t live in Egypt. They lived in other countries with humans. They all hid their lamps so no one would capture them, but people sometimes stumbled upon the lamps anyway. The genie was going there because he would be with others like him.

We all went home. My grandparents were happy to see me and they hugged me. Banafseg kept jumping around and wagging her tail. She wanted to lick our faces to show love. She wanted us to show her love. She kept jumping on every body part she saw. Omneya put her on her lap and played with her.

My grandparents brought out food. Banafseg really wanted to have some tomatoes. She kept jumping and standing on her hind legs to get them.

I usually felt better whenever I told my grandparents about my experiences. While we told my grandparents what happened, Banafseg and the genies played in dog form.

We told the authorities what happened. Because it was self defense and the president and his wife had attacked us more than once, we weren’t arrested. Everyone knew they were bad at their job and didn’t care about their people. Killing the ifrits who attacked us at Aida’s house was self defense too and the authorities finally came and took their bodies.

Omneya had a theory that the reason the wife was so clingy with her husband during interviews and public appearances was because she had nothing else. All they shared was love, which was why they couldn’t work as a team.

There were elections for a new president. Before Omneya and I left the desert, we knew that someone else would need to be elected so we wished for the best person for the job to be chosen when the elections happened. The wish was granted. The genie was not the one who decided who that was, but his magic made sure that the elections would be in favor of that person. A new president and his wife would spend the rest of their lives fixing Egypt. They did a great deal. There were no more arranged marriages and they were nice to their people. They helped us whenever we needed something.

Omneya and I continued to help people and animals. We read a lot of books and talked about them. I read stories to Farah. I learned as much as I could about astronomy and I wrote articles about it. I always told Omneya what I discovered.

Omneya published her first book about mythological creatures. She was so happy and relieved she threw herself in my arms then started kissing me. She was working on publishing more books.

“Do you feel better?” I asked.

“Yes. This is a lot better than a writing contest.”

Omneya continued to study mythological creatures and write about them. I was the first person she told whenever she discovered something.

Each of us was happy the other one fulfilled their dream. Omneya’s dreams were important to me and my dreams were important to her.