I am Jinn

Awakening

     Pain is an essential part of life. Without pain, one wouldn't know what bliss is. Without pain, one would not appreciate serenity. When you live life, there eventually is a point in life where you experience indescribable pain. At that time, it may seem to be the worst pain imaginable. Usually you move one and grow from that experience, encountering more pain along your lifeline. This causes your old trials and tribulations to seem insignificant, but occasionally that original pain is unforgettable. I also felt a great pain. It was the worst moment of my life and it was courtesy of the eldest brother. 

     I was burned alive and then things went black. I believed I had died. I believed that death would have been better than the sensation of a thousands suns burning inside me, tearing at the very fibers of my being. I was content with meeting my Creator, even begging for the honor. Instead, I awoke to a bright light. The light illuminated the musty cave I lay in, surrounded by stones. Where was the light coming from and why was it so beautiful and serene? I tried moving and felt my body ache. Looking around in a disoriented state, I tried to process my setting. I was surrounded by boulders and stones, some even lay on top of me, their weight should have been crushing me, yet I was fine. 

     I had to find the light, the light that was bringing me back to me senses. With a grunt, I managed to force the boulders to roll off of my chest and sides. Why did my body feel as if it were a poorly oiled machine? I rolled off the mound of stones and fell to the cold, arid, dirt beneath me. I coughed, not because the dust irritated me but because of the way my body ached. The light. I had to reach the light. I had to reach the light to know where I was. Using what little strength I had left, I crawled towards the entrance. This was my only hope towards sanity. I had to find the light. I looked towards the entrance, and reached out for the boulder that blocked my way, only to be astonished by what I saw.

     It was me. I was the light. I let out a ragged breath and reached up to my own face. My hands were bright, golden even. What had happened? Why did my very being change? I had been doused, so why was I alive, let alone golden? I needed to stand up. I needed to regain my energy. I needed to figure out if I was alive or dead. If this was the afterlife, I would have to face my Creator. That thought in itself frightened me. I had been begging to meet Him, yet the thought of being so close to meeting Him, terrified me. With another shaky breath, I groaned and forced myself to stand up. 

     The first thing I noticed was that I was completely naked. Why was I naked? I looked around my surroundings and noticed that everything was covered in layers of ash, as if something had burned the cave to nothing but ash. Of course something had. I had been burning and someone had put me in here, sealing the cave's entrance with a boulder. They had laid out a pyre of rocks and seemed to have poured boulders and rocks over me, as if to extinguish my flame. Was I burning so bright and so horrifyingly that those around me took pity and tried putting me out? 

     "Then what happened?" I whispered to myself and tried piecing together what may have happened after I had been doused. 

     Naturally, my clothes had burned to nothingness most likely from the dousing chemicals, which in turn explained why I was naked, but that must mean I was alive. I needed to get out of the cave. That was priority one. With that, I headed towards the mouth of the cave and looked at the makeshift barrier keeping me in. I needed a lever or a fulcrum of some sort to wedge beneath the mammoth stone barrier to lift it up and away. I placed my hand on the solid slab and took a step back in surprise as my hand shifted. 

     My body shifted by itself, as if sensing the need to squeeze past the rock. I was shape-shifting, squeezing through the open crevices between the boulder and the entrance. Before I was given any time to dwell on this new ability, my eyes widened once again in astonishment. I was at the base of Mt. Olympus, but something was different, wrong. There was what seemed to be centuries of overgrowth over the boulder that had been covering the cave's entrance. Trees towered over me that didn't exist before I was doused. It took hundreds of years from trees to become the majestic beings that towered above me, yet here they were.

     How many centuries had passed? How was it possible for me to not die after what I had been subjected to? Before I could ponder my situation any more, I sensed someone behind me. If I had fine hair on the back of my neck like humans do, they would have stood up. There was something strangely overpowering about the creature behind me. I could sense him, but my body wouldn't move. I tried adjusting my field of vision and felt my very soul tremble. He was neither man nor jinn which meant only one thing. He was one of the Creator's workers, the creatures of light. He said nothing, but moved about behind me. I could feel my inner light, my heart if you will, racing. In a split second, I felt his presence disappear and quickly turned around, only to catch a glimpse of numerous wings. 

     Before me lay a set of clothes, pristine in appearance. It seemed as if they had been left behind by the creature of light, leaving me dumbfounded. I had been saved by my Creator, but for what reason? There was a rumor amongst the jinn that once in a millennia, a jinni would "awaken" and transform into a pure fire. A pure golden fire. He was called an Enlightened jinni and would bring about change in corrupt jinn societies. I had "awakened," my ability being shape-shifting, and I had encountered an angel. What did the Creator have in store for me? 

     With these questions in mind, I dressed and set forth to find answers. Making my way out of the heavily canopied area, I came upon a small human village. Humans and so close to Olympus? How had the ventured so close and had the jinn of my village vacated the area? As I thought about my current setting, I could feel my body changing. My flame licked at my arms, wrapped around my torso, and finally shifted into a new form. I glanced at my hands once more and marveled at the pink flesh that clung to me. I was human. I had shape-shifted into a human. How did this ability work? Did I shift into whatever I needed to survive or was my subconscious mind guiding me? I did not have time to dwell on these questions. I needed answers to my setting and the quickest way would be to ask the humans. With that in mind, I marched towards the human village.  

     The first thing that I noticed was that it seemed as if the entire village had congregated in the center of the cluster of huts. Children ran between the legs of their older counterparts and women with infants, had looks of worry on their faces. Something was troubling the village, I realized and made my way towards the large group of people. There was a man standing on a small stage in the center. He had the appearance of a sturdy, muscular human but I knew better. He was a jinni, posing as a man, much like myself. 

     "Hercules, intervene with your father!" An old man begged while grasping the jinni's human legs. 

     "I cannot do anything for you. Any of you. You must suffer the wrath of the gods. You could have averted this disaster. All you had to do was offer your daughter to him," Hercules scoffed.

     The pitiful old man glanced at the young woman standing beside him. He had tears in his eyes and shakily grasped the girl's wrist before whispering, 

     "I am sorry, my child. You must offer yourself for the good of our people." 

     "Will you kill me for a god that has never shown himself to us?!" The woman cried out in disbelief. "He cannot control the droughts! He lies!"

     Hercules snarled at the woman, hitting her in the chest with a fist before whispering, 

     "You dare insult my FATHER?!"

     The woman toppled over a bench and came crashing down close to my feet. She was unconscious. Many people huddled around, blocking Hercules from my view while I examined the fragile creature in front of me. The jinni had strength and shape-shifting as his abilities. The strength he used was super human. He had broken nearly all laws of the jinn, yet there he stood, uncontested. 

     "Do not touch her again," I called out softly. 

     Hercules bared his teeth as he got wind of my words. He bellowed in anger, 

     "Who DARE defy ME, a son of the gods?!"

     I bared my teeth and pushed through the crowd. If it was a fight he wished, it was a fight he would receive and from one of his own, not those of clay.

     "I do. Fight fire with fire, child. If you are the son of the gods, then perhaps I am no different," I called out once I was in his field of vision. 

     His color paled. It seemed as if he had realized that he no longer was the only jinni in the village. I would not let an innocent suffer, especially by the hands of my own kind. I was forsaken by my own, it was time I protected those that had no other and with that I approached Hercules.