[challenge] Djinni

[Malone]

That's right it's GO TIME. If I win, you give my brother his eye back. If I lose, then I cry and hopefully you feel bad.

Traditional challenge rules, 1000 words or less, etc. Extensions as needed.
Djinni goes first.

Malone is a yearling at 14.3HH.
Hybrid (Mostly Arabian and Friesian, think warmblood with light feathering)
Traits: Wings, Glowing tattoos, Immortality, Mind reading

I hope you're happy fighting a literal baby. You monster.

[Malone]

P.S. this takes place in the meadow beause Starsin can't see him fighting in Loess

[Djinni]

The genie arrives as an absolute unit of a warhorse. Easily twenty hands, thick with muscle, a trio of jagged golden horns emerging from a dusty pink forehead. Wings not entirely dissimilar to those of the little yearling sprout from both shoulders and the center of the torso, but rather than scaley tips each digit of the four wings ends in a knife-sharp point. The points are gold, of course, because the genie does like to match.

Crossing the grasslands of the Meadow, the green-eyed trickster manages to keep her composure, but it is a near thing. She walks slowly forward until she is above ten yards from Malone, and then she teleports a few feet yard ahead of him. As she does, she shifts back to her natural form, one that is not much larger than the yearling and barely more imposing.

"What about a trade instead?" She asks. "I give your brother back an eye -"(she'll give him Felicitey's, she thinks, just for the fun of it. "- in exchange for something from you." She is quiet, watching the boy who'd not been quite right for what she'd wanted from her quest.

"What is his sight worth to you?" Djinni inquires with a smile, kneading the ground on taloned feet that had a moment ago been half-moon hooves. "Better make it something interesting unless you want your brother to only be able to see half your funeral."

@[Malone]

[Malone]

Up to this point in his life, Malone has believed that girls have something called cooties and they are to be avoided unless absolutely necessary. His mom is an exception, of course, because she tells him stories and kisses him each morning. When the genie arrives to the meadow, he is surprised to see she is no longer the small and seemingly normal rose gold woman that she was before. Now she is carved from marble slabs and honed into a weapon of destruction. She is all sharp and terrifying, all muscle and prepared to crush him like a bug.

Annnd now he’s in love.

Malone can feel his heart hammer against his ribs as he freezes in place, wide-eyed and smiling like an idiot when she suddenly appears closer to him. He should be afraid but when she transforms into her true self he can’t help himself. He edges closer with his chin tucked bashfully to his chest. She smells like buttercups and autumn nights, mystery and mischief all tangled into one. The stars of his coat seem to shine a little brighter when he lifts his head to meet her gaze. A trade?

He shyly paws at the ground with his forehoof while he thinks. What is Meraxes’s sight worth? Those black and gold eyes watch her talons knead the dirt so easily between her claws and a shiver runs up his spine. What is it like to be so strong?

“Making Meraxes happy means the world to me. I’d give anything for him and I know he’d do the same for me,” he explains in timid mumbles as he glances up at her face once more. “I’ll give you my heart. I’ll know no romantic love so long as it’s yours.”

Shimmering with gold and stars like some greedy god’s treasure, he continues to shuffle his hooves as he waits for her decision. In truth, the naïve boy just wants the genie to keep it close to her own. The muscle continues to flutter against his chest wildly as he swallows hard. Malone forces himself to look up and meet her stare one last time, feigning courage despite his trembling knees.

“Do we have a deal?”

@[Djinni]

[Djinni]

Djinni smiles indulgently at the starry-eyed Malone. She is not unaccustomed to such reactions from others, and is as delighted by them as she has ever been. The winged boy is young yet, but his promise of his heart is not given lightly. This, too, pleases Djinni.

“You have a deal,” she tells him with a beatific smile. Though the gesture is more symbolic than purposeful, she reaches out and touches Malone’s starry chest. She wishes him a reminder of the heart he has given, and a perfect ring of rose gold appears among the constellations. When she pulls back, she wishes an eye returned to Meraxes. For a moment it will show the distant boy a sight he would not recognize, a brief glimpse into the field where Felicitey stands. It is Felicitey’s eye, after all, and it is a bright and lovely shade of amber rather than the icey blue one she had taken from Meraxes.

“If you regret this trade in the future,” she begins, and her gentle smile suggests that after the pause she might tell him how to reverse it, “I might be persuaded to give it back. You won’t like the price though, I can promise you that.” And then she disappears. She lingers for a moment in a timeline where Malone has his heart back and Djinni has his darling firstborn child, and then returns to her own time far from the rolling Meadow. There are too many futures, Djinni reminds herself, best to not count her chicks before they hatch.

@[Malone]