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Fantasy BOUND

Dover

bad joke dispensary
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1 on 1 thread for Ranguva and Dover.​
 
"Stop thief!" A fierce shout rang through the air as a ragged teen raced through the marketplace. Ran kept his focus straight ahead, not daring to look back at what was sure to be a burly, muscled man brandishing a hefty knife. Just like always. A surge of panic swept through his slim body as the pursuer swung the blade towards his exposed back. Increasing his pace, Ran made it into the main bulk of the crowd, swerving among merchants and traders until the yell of the shopkeeper became part of the loud murmur that was the main voice of the market. Even though he had escaped his pursuer, Ran kept low and did his best to blend in with the other visitors in order to keep the gaze of the guards off himself. By the time the man and his guards had shoved their way past the crowd, Ran had disappeared. Far away, Ran heard the cursing bellow of the man and smirked.

It was high past noon when Ran finally made it to his destination. A long dark alleyway, crawling with rats, desert beetles, and the occasional drunken guard. He slipped past a slumped man, wrinkling his nose at the sharp, sour scent of alcohol. "Geez, who is the Pharaoh hiring these days," Ran muttered as he went on his way. Climbing over a few walls, he made it over to a small hideout. He would never have tried to slip past the guards in the main entrance of the marketplace. Compared to the one he had just past, those guards were trained, ruthless bodyguards.

The hideout was small, dusty and cramped. However, it was the only place that Ran could truly call home. He quickly checked the perimeter before draping a rough cloth over the entrance to conceal it and removing a small rock from the surrounding wall to let some light in. He reached into his shirt and removed the bag that held his stolen goods. Usually, Ran only stole food and fallen trinkets that happened to be in the custody of careless stall owners. However, today he had stolen a treasure. Nestled between a few pieces of flatbread and a dried fish, a beautiful diamond ring glimmered brightly in the weak light. Gently pulling it out, Ran admired the shine and purity of the diamond. He did not know why he had felt so drawn in the marketplace. When he did steal trinkets, he went for the commonplace bead necklaces or the metal headbands that were popular among the lower classes that he could easily steal and sell. This ring had cost him a half day of running from the persistent shopkeeper and his guards. However, he was aware of how much he could probably sell this ring for on the black market. Diamonds were even rarer than ruby or jet in the desert which made this a high demand. Ran daydreamed of the quantity of bread, fish, or even meat that he could buy with the profits as he stroked the ring between his calloused fingers and slipped it on.
 
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Yelling again. Amir’s master was always yelling about something, and he’d learned to tune the bastard out. It was always the same thing anyways. ‘I told you to clean this’ and ‘You’re supposed to listen to me, djinn’ and ‘Are you ignoring me?’ This man was a complete and utter waste of Amir’s talent, and he refused to be bullied around by such an inconsiderate, idiotic--

Amir watched as the man grabbed his ring and hurled it straight out the window. With a yelp, Amir jumped to his feet and looked out the window to see his ring plummeting from the ramparts of the Pharaoh’s palace. It fell, and fell, and fell, and suddenly Amir felt himself being ripping toward it. His body vanished from where it was.

***​

There was movement. That’s all he knew while his consciousness was trapped inside the ring. There was movement to some place he didn’t know and time passing in an amount he was unsure of. Then suddenly crisp, wonderful clarity, and he burst back into existence with a sigh of relief. Though, only a momentary sigh of relief as he found himself in some small, cramped place. This wasn’t the palace at all.

Amir swung around and came face to face with a young man. “Eh? You’re new.” He glanced down to the young man’s hand and saw the ring around his finger. “Ah. My ring. Well, your ring now. Sort of. Still mine, but you can keep it for now.” Amir sat himself down on the ground and frowned at the young man. This was just his luck. Tossed from the window by nobility and now he belonged to some… he really didn’t know who this was. “And you are?” Amir raised an eyebrow.
 
Ran eyes widened as an ethereal form burst out of the ring and reformed into a tall, bejeweled man. His mouth gaped open and he almost gave a shout of surprise before remembering the guards that usually passed by this wall. "Wha-wha-what?" Ran stammered as he scrambled as far as he could into a cramped corner. Confusion and panic made his body tremble as he fearfully surveyed the man. A guard? No, he would have heard them coming. The shopkeeper? No, that man had been a burly, wild monster while this mysterious person looked more indifferent and lightly muscled.

Taking deep breaths, Ran tried to slow down his breathing. His eyes flickered to a small knife that lay next to his foot and his fingers began to inch towards the blade. "Who are you?" Ran said, his words growing a bit bolder as his hand grew closer to the weapon. "How did you get here?"
 
Amir was used to this by now. All the stammering, confusion, and terrified behaviour from humans was quite common place to him.

He raised his arms over his head, stretched, and the loose, metallic bangles around his wrists clattered noisily together. Best just to wait the panic out. He found that humans didn’t listen much when they were panicking.

He yawned and failed to notice the man’s hand creeping towards a knife.

“Name’s Amir. And I got here because you brought me here. You have my ring, you see.” The conversation bored him and Amir occupied himself by surveying his surroundings. What an awful place. And he’d been in some truly awful places before! Probably worse than this, but after living in the palace, even if it had been for a relatively short amount of time, he wasn’t used to such conditions any longer.

“Now, I’ve answered two of your questions. At the very least, you could tell me who you are and where I am.” Amir tilted his chin up self-importantly. “You’re being very rude.”
 
With a swift movement, Ran grasped the knife and pushed off against the wall. The force of his frantic push sent his lithe body flying across the small space and onto Amir, knocking him over. Ran straddled his chest and grasped one of Amir's many necklaces, bringing his face close to his own. He pressed the rusty knife against his throat. "I don't have to answer you! Were you sent by that damn shopkeeper? What do you mean I brought you here?" Ran snarled ferociously. His hand trembled in a mix of fear and determination. He had never killed before, but if it meant keeping himself safe, he was going to have to try.
 
His question was not answered. Instead, the tattered looking little human whipped out a knife from the gods’ only knew where and tackled him. And Amir was so surprised that he flopped over from the attack with no resistance. “Oof!”

The nerve! Who did this human think he was? The indignity! The human had no right to grab Amir’s necklaces and threaten him with some rusty knife. Even that was insulting. Amir had been threatened with much more impressive weapons.

With his eyes narrowing at the human, Amir snapped his fingers, and his body vanished in a split second of bright light. He reappeared a moment later, in another flash of light, just behind the human. “Have you ever been stabbed before? Because I have and it hurts. At least you humans will eventually pass out and die from your wounds. I just have to live with it until it goes away.” He healed fast than humans, but the point remained. Getting stabbed was unpleasant.

Amir got to his feet and dusted off his threadbare, baggy pants. This place was just filthy. He missed the nice, clean pillows in the palace. “If you listened for a moment instead of waving your little knife around, you might get some answers.” Huffing, Amir fretted with his necklaces, which been all twisted up in the scuffle. “I have no idea who this shopkeeper person you mentioned is. And I told you, I’m here because you have my ring. Now, will you at least tell me where I am? Am I still in Egypt?”
 
Ran slumped fast first onto the floor, clasping nothing but empty air as Amir materialized behind him. For a few seconds, only shock registered in his brain, but quickly turned to another fresh surge of panic. He jumped to his feet and held the knife steady in front of him. He grasped it with both hands to keep the point from trembling off target and to show this.. this "sorcerer" his fearlessness.

His ears rang as a whirl of thoughts swept through his head. How? What is happening? With that sort of power, he could kill him before he tried to stab him again. Only the last question registered in Ran's mind. He shook his head a little to clear the confusion from himself. "Y-Yes. This is Egypt. I've answered you, now you answer me! Who-What in Ra are you?" Ran kept his back to the wall, afraid that Amir would teleport behind him and incapacitate him. No chances should be taken with the unfamiliar.
 
Still being in Egypt was something of a relief. “Thank the gods,” Amir exhaled. He’d woken up too many times in completely unfamiliar places. But how long had it been? Not so long that people weren’t worshiping Ra any more.

Amir grumbled nonsensically at the human. He did not appreciate that knife still held out at him. “Is it not obvious? Or have people forgotten about djinn entirely here?” With an exasperated sigh, Amir stopping pointless fussing with his necklaces and focused on them instead. The beaded strings rearranged themselves as if being maneuvered by invisible, ghostly fingertips, and they sat neatly once again.

“I suppose you want the explanation. You humans always do. I’m so tired of giving it, but very well. I’m a djinn, and that lovely ring you put on is what brought me here. Congratulations. You’re my new master.” Amir made an overly dramatic bow. “Are you understanding now? Please do not make me explain it again.”
 
"Djinn?" Ran repeated in surprise, the knife lowered a fraction as he mulled the thought over in his mind. He had never heard of djinns outside of the legends that the city's storyteller had spoke of. Confusion replaced the fear in his mind. "Master... because of a ring?....AH!" Ran's head snapped down and he stared in wonder at the glowing ring on his finger. This precious bauble had summoned this man? He, Ran, the rat, the thief of the city, had control over the mighty djinn of legends?

Ran stared at Amir in skeptical wonder. Other than the impressive array of jewelry that he wore, he did not look like much of the powerful, magical beings that he had heard of. He looked back and forth from the bored expression to the threadbare clothing and to the ruffled hair of the so-called djinn. Ran thought for a second before putting up a guarded expression. "So, you're saying you won't hurt me. Because I'm your master?"
 
The knife was lowered only a fraction and Amir glared at the tip of the blade. If he wasn’t bound to the damn ring and had his full power, he would have made it burn up in the human’s hands. And he didn’t like how the human was looking at him. Like he was being judged instead of the other way around.

“If I wanted to hurt you, don’t you think I would have done that when you pressed the knife to my throat?” Amir took a few steps closer to the human but kept out of range of the knife. “Think of it like a contract. You keep my ring safe, and in turn, I’ll hang around and grant you a few reasonable wishes every now and then. You’re my master, but I’m not a dog, and granting wishes is exhausting business.”

Amir looked the human up and down. It was odd. Usually he found his way into the handles of nobility, not peasants. But then again, he’d also never been tossed out a window before. “There’s a few rules. I can’t create sustenance, I cannot alter the free will of any living being, and I cannot create or destroy life. So don’t even bother asking me to bring someone back from the dead. You know what happens when people do that? Ghouls. Ghouls happen. And then they break into graves and eat corpses.”

Amir waggled a finger at the human as a warning. “Other than that, I’m yours until someone else puts on the ring.”
 
Ran thought that over. It was true that the djinn could have used his powers to take advantage of the situation. Keeping the knife in one hand, he looked closely at the sparkling gem. Granted, he had only a few gems in his life, but even he could tell that the ring had a sort of aura to it. It would be easy to trust him. After all, if what Amir said was true, all Ran would have to do would be to threaten the ring.

Ran put the knife slowly down to his side. "So, other than those few rules, I can wish for anything?" He thought for a second before looking intently at Amir. "Prove it, do something djinn-like. I've heard of magicians who can teleport and move things out of will, but if you are a djinn, you should be able to surpass that." Ran tapped the ring with the point of the knife. "Nothing that would harm me though."
 
Amir turned his glare from the knife to the human. How many more times was he going to be insulted today? It wasn’t like him to get angry. He rarely got more than annoyed. But after everything he’d been through today… Well, no, he probably hadn’t been chucked out a window today, but still! He’d had a hard time and now this mortal was demanding tricks of him!

“I am not here to preform tricks for you—“

Amir stopped abruptly when the tip of the knife touched his ring and he flinched. He felt his blood run cold and had to force himself to swallow a lump in his throat. Sometimes he forgot the hold the humans had on him. He’d been lucky when his ring was thrown. It must have landed in the bushes instead of being dashed upon the rocks. He’d not been quite so afraid then. The threat of the knife seemed more real.

“Fine. Tricks. Just try to remember that yes, while you can wish for anything, I have physical limitations beyond the rules I mentioned. I can only do so much.”

Amir raised a hand, snapped his fingers, and an unnatural wind swept through the human’s small shelter. It whipped up the dust and dirt in the area, and all of it collected in a single pile on the floor. He snapped again and the pile vanished. “See? My last master liked things clean. Not your thing? You could use something to brighten up your little hovel.”

Another snap and a marvelous multicoloured rug curled out on the floor. Another snap. Heaps of fine golden and purple pillows materialized out of nothing and landed on a heap on the rug. Snap. A bright, glowing blue light appeared in the air between him and the human. It exploded harmlessly into tiny dazzling fireworks and then the sparks floated to the ground. Snap, snap. The human’s bag lifted off the ground and Amir drifted it over to himself.

He snapped a final time and all the fine things he created disappeared. He grabbed the bag as it fell to the ground and peered inside it. Flatbread and fish. Amir grabbed a piece of the flatbread and took a bite without asking if he could have it. “Do I at least get to know your name?”
 
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Ran gazed in wonder, and almost delight, as gorgeous colors and wonderful fineries appeared and flashed before his eyes. Frozen by all the magical marvels, he looked back at Amir before stashing the knife into the hem of his pants. As Amir's creations disappeared, Ran watched as Amir started chewing on his stolen flatbread. He strode over and snatched it back, taking out the dried fish for his own repast before answering cautiously. "It's Ran." He immediately regretted telling him. He had heard that magical beings were able to take control of a person with only their name. Could Amir do that? Ran chewed reflectively on a strip of fish flesh. "So, you would do anything for me? As long as within your limits?"
 
The bread was snatched out of his hand. “Hey!” Amir protested. “I still feel hunger, you know. And who knows how long I’ve been cooped up in that ring. It could have been years!” He felt he deserved at least a bit of food.

“Ran,” he repeated. “Weird name.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and watched the huma- Ran. “I suppose. What is it that you want?” Amir dreaded the answer.
 
Ran felt a bit of sympathy. He knew from experience what a life cooped up was like. He took out another piece of flatbread and tossed the bag and the rest of its contents over to Amir to go through. "Weirder than Amir?" He smirked and took a deep breath. "Well then, all powerful djinn Amir, for my first wish..." Ran thought for a moment before his eyes lit up, "I wish for a decent pallet to sleep on." He waited expectantly, staring at Amir.
 
Though it surprised him when the bag was tossed over, Amir still easily caught it and dug through it to find another piece of bread. “I’ll have you know that Amir is a very common name where I’m from.” Maybe Ran wasn’t evil, like Amir thought his last master was. At the very least, Ran seemed smarter and less boring than that bastard.

He found another piece of bread, but hesitated while Ran began to make his wish. Don’t be money, don’t be money, don’t be money.

Amir blinked owlishly. “A pallet? Honest? That’s what you want?” A fevered smile tugged up the corners of his lips, and before he could stop himself, Amir let out a near hysterical laugh. He couldn’t remember the last time someone’s first wish had been something other than wealth. “A pallet. Gladly. Happily.” He felt almost giddy.

Amir stuck the bread in his mouth, holding it between his teeth as he considering the corner of Ran’s small abode. His mind immediately went to the extravagant beds he’d seen in the palace, but one of those wouldn’t fit in this little room. “Hn.” Amir snapped his fingers. A bare, but well constructed wooden pallet appeared in the corner of the room. Snap, snap, snap. A mattress filled with soft palm leaves and reeds appeared atop the pallet. It was quickly followed by a blanket made from Egyptian cotton and two goose down pillows.

Amir removed the bread from his mouth. “There. How’s that?”
 
Ran jumped in surprise as Amir burst out laughing. He wondered if his request had been too unreasonable for the djinn. Perhaps Amir's disheveled appearance signified a low-powered djinn? It was possible. Anyway, the thought made him feel a little safer around Amir. Ran snapped out of his thoughts as Amir snapped his fingers. Amazement once again filled his face as a simple pallet decorated with a cotton blanket and pillows appeared before him.

Ran touched the pallet, wondering if it was real. Touching the soft palm leaves and stroking the down pillows, he gave a small gasp of wonder. His stubborn mind finally began to open up to the fact that Amir was an actual djinn. And in his service too! Almost reluctant to muss up the well-made pallet, he neatly folded back the thin blanket and slid in. Immediately, a wash of contentment covered Ran's body and his mind fell into a happy stupor. Ran quickly sat up wondering if Amir had put on some mind trick to lower his guard. Seeing Amir's questioning look and the relaxed way that he was chewing on the flatbread made Ran realize that this wasn't the case. He slowly slid back down into the cool folds of the pallet's blanket. "Wonderful," he murmured, his eyes closed as he began to drift off into a restful sleep. It was then that Ran realized that the stupor was not a spell, but rather a feeling that he had not felt in ages: relaxation.
 
His new master was very strange. Or maybe Ran was just less awful that Amir’s previous masters? Amir remembered one in particular, a queen from a land far from this one, that had made him create bricks of gold until he passed out. Creating minerals was always exhausting work, but gold always took a higher toll on him. But gold was usually all anyone ever wanted. Except for this strange little human. This Ran. Who only wanted a bed and then collapsed into sleep almost immediately.

Amir stood awkwardly in the center of the room. That was strange too. Most of the time, the demands kept coming. Amir didn’t know what to do with himself. He ate the bread as he paced the room for a bit, and then eventually created a thick rug and a simple pillow so he could rest as well, and gradually drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

***​

A band of light crossing over his eye caused Amir to wake. He stretched out and yawned his grogginess away. It was nice to sleep again. Instead of just being stuck in that perpetual limbo that was his ring. But then there was that new master problem, and Amir still didn’t know what to make of Ran. Amir glanced over at the sleeping human.

Quietly, he got to his hands and knees and crept over to Ran. Maybe Ran was crazy. That could explain it. Why else wouldn’t a human wish for wealth immediately? Carefully, Amir reached a hand out and poked Ran in the center of the forehead. “I’m bored,” he announced.
 
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Soft, everything was soft. Ran dreamed of the exploding lights that Amir had made yesterday. It was comfortable and he had no intention of waking up from this wonderful dream for a while. Through his mind, Ran floated.... and floated.... and floated......

Suddenly, he heard a voice and felt an unfamiliar touch on his forehead. Instantly, from years of restless, guarded nights, Ran's eyes snapped open. Furious at being jerked from one of the best dreams that he had in his life and scared at the unidentified danger, Ran did what he always did to strange things. He pounced on the figure. Eyes blurred from sleep and muscles weak from exhaustion, Ran did his best to restrain the thrasing figure.
 
In addition to being strange, Amir’s new master was a very jumpy individual. So he shouldn’t have been quite as taken by surprise as he was when Ran tackled him, and once again, they fell in a flailing heap on the floor. His reaction was also much of the same as last time, and Amir vanished to reappear a few feet in front of Ran.

He scowled. “Why do you keep doing that?” He scrambled to his feet just in case Ran got any ideas about attacking him again. “All I did was poke your forehead. Are you going to get this jumpy every time I happen to make contact with you? Because I have news for you. You’re already in constant contact with me by wearing my ring.” Amir pointed at it for emphasis.
 
As the figure vanished from under him, Ran was left tangled in the soft cotton blanket. Oh, of course. The mystical vanishing trick of Amir. Calming himself down, he sat up and pulled the blanket off his head and lay it in a rumpled heap on the pallet. Hiding a slight look of embarrassment on his face, he glared at Amir.

"Well, I apologize for being so jumpy," Ran said sarcastically, "I'm not exactly on friendly terms with anyone in this city. You could've been a guard or that shopkeeper from yesterday." He rubbed his forehead where a tingle of feeling remained from Amir's poke. "Why did you wake me up?" Ran mumbled grumpily, his thoughts heading back to the dream of lights and comfort.
 
An expression of confusion crossed over Amir’s face after Ran gave his explanation. What did a guard or a shopkeeper have to do with anything?

“I was bored,” Amir explained and felt that was reason enough. He sat back on the rug he’d created for himself last night and crossed his legs. “And I have questions. It’s very disorientating to change masters. I don’t have a clue how much time has passed since my last.” Absently, Amir picked at the fibers of the rug as he thought. “Where did you find my ring?”
 
Ran sighed and sat back down on the pallet. By this time of day, he was usually out scouting the marketplace for any bumbling work hands or inattentive shopkeepers who would never miss a piece or two of their edible wares. Well, maybe Amir could help him "find" some food later. In the meantime, he did owe him a few answers since he had been the one to steal Amir. He studied the confusion on Amir's face as he stretched out a foot and rubbed the thick threads of the rug with a toe. "Well, I can solve two mysteries for you. One, I stole your ring in the marketplace from some jewelry shopkeeper's stall. Two, that's why I'm so jumpy because people are after me from stealing their wares. Ran answered Amir in a straightforward manner.
 
“You stole me?”

Amir didn’t know which one was worse: that’d his ring had been nabbed by a common thief or that he’d been on display in a marketplace. “From a marketplace. I was being sold in a marketplace! Like some common thing,” Amir huffed. How much more indignity was he going to suffer? He got back up to his feet and paced about in agitation. The bracelets on his arms shifted from the movement and made small, metallic clanging sounds.

“I can handle being sold,” Amir continued to grumble, “It wouldn’t be the first time, but in some common jeweler’s store is just insulting.” Anyone with half a mind could have seen that his ring was clearly superior to the common garbage that could be found in local marketplaces. Amir’s hands clenched and unclenched repeatedly.

Then there was the bigger problem. That explanation gave him no indication of what had happened to him. Frustrated, Amir kicked at the rug and one of the edges flipped over on top of itself.

“It’s fitting, I suppose. I was tossed out the window like trash, probably picked up like trash, and then sold with the rest of the trash,” he complained and then directed a frown at Ran. “You’re a thief, then?” That explained the dingy little home Ran had set himself up in, at least.
 

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