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Peter scrubbed the floor, a bit angrily. Why why oh why did they even make him do it, they had jinn that could do these chores around the palace. Why were they forced to do all the work. Damn magicians and their arrogance.

He dipped the mop into the bucket and continued spreading it around. From down the hall he heard the creak of the door hinge. He had not had everything kept off yet, uh oh. Peter held his hand out, no matter who this was.

"Ah, wait! It is not fully dried off yet, master!" He said.

"I see, concerned for the safety of others... that's good." A voice from the other side of the door spoke.

Peter stood up straight as he saw who it was. He had hoped it was one of the other indentured servants like him, or at least one of the guards. Instead, it was someone else entirely - Shaitan, the personal Jinni of the King. Peter gulped as the creature leaned in to see how much of it was wet.

"I suppose you will not mind if I take a closer look now, do you?" Shaitan spoke with a purr. The feline looking figure took several steps in, making sure his furry tail did not brush along the ground.

Peter grabbed his mop as the anthropomorphic cat stepped in. They had Jinn all over the palace, he half expected the cat to simply knock over as much as he could and end up making Peter's life more miserable than it was. It was bad enough that these creatures had such power with their fingertips, now were they coming here to torture him with it?

He watched the cat looking creature step in. Shaitan then stepped in front of Peter. The jinni looked him up and down, that same grin on his face, those green eyes seemed to look past him all the time.

"How long have you been indentured?" Shaitan asked.

"T-Three years." Peter responded.

"Only three years. Well then. Today is your lucky day."

"I-It is?" Peter asked.

"Yes. You've been here three years. Now then, come with me."

Peter gulped.

"I said come with me. You've not given up or escaped. I'd say your debt is paid enough." Shaitan reached out and grabbed Peter's hand.

The mop clattered to the ground as Peter lost his grip on it. The jinni practically yanked him away. Peter simply followed as soon as he felt some sharp points upon his flesh. Shaitan led him down the hallway carved out of stone.

"Now then," Shaitan said as he led Peter down more hallways, specifically towards the wing of the Arcane, "You're still indentured, but let's just say it's a good thing you referred to me as 'master'." He gave Peter a very toothy smile.

"Wh-What do you mean?"

"You've been chosen to work alongside me." Shaitan brought his free hands to what seemed like a stone wall.

The jinni simply brought his hand up to it, and then Peter felt himself being yanked towards the wall Instead of colliding with brick and mortar, Peter seemed to almost go through it. The world went dark. He couldn't hear anything.

He felt himself almost floating. Like he was lying down on the padded slabs. Was this a dream? Peter couldn't even feel himself drawing breath. Yet he was not suffocating. All he could smell was... sand. The earth that was beneath his feet. He tried to move, yet nothing happened. He was still warm.

Then, he sat up, coughing and gasping for air. Peter gulped down as much as he could. It was as if he had just been held underground, and had not breathed in hours. Or longer. He couldn't tell just what it was. After he had finally finished recuperating from the sudden shock, he glanced up.

Shaitan simply stood above him, arms crossed on his broad chest. He did not look very happy at all.

"Well, are you done yet?" Shaitan asked, "Humans are never useful for elemental travel... it always harms you."

"Y-You what?"

"Now begins your education," Shaitan smiled, "What's the difference between you humans and us Jinn?"

"Well... for one... you have those horns, you're a cat, that other Jinn I see is a large creature with rough skin and-"

"Besides physical differences," Shaitan almost growled at him. "Some of us even resemble humans. What are you made up of?"

"Elements...?" Peter recalled a bit of lore he had known.

"Good. When we were created by the maker, we are only one element. You were made up of all four, which is one reason why you reacted so poorly when I dragged you here. As I am an Earth Jinni..." Shaitan continued, giving one of his predatory grins. "I can travel through earth and stone easily."

"S-so why are you telling me this?" Peter asked.

Shaitan snapped his fingers and Peter felt something cold around his wrists and ankles. He tried to bring his hand up but it felt rather heavy. Putting more effort into it, Peter brought his arm into view. A manacle. He tried to pull it off but it seemed firmly gripped.

"You might want to be a bit careful, soon to be former human. Because I shaped this little ritual chamber with magnetite. And that is iron. So it should become stronger in right about... now."

Peter's arm felt heavier and heavier. His other arm fell right to the ground. He tried to resist the pull but it was like fighting against a rope. Peter's arm was pulled right to the ground. He was in an awkward kneeling pose on almost all fours.

"Now then, this is so you don't squirm around."

Shaitan reached out and pushed Peter around. He seemed to move him with no effort, despite the invisible force that was pulling and binding the human to the floor by his manacles and shackles. Peter tried to resist but Shaitan and the magnetic force were stronger.

He was moved to his back, arms and legs practically being pushed into a spread eagle position. The feline paced around him. Peter could still move his neck. He tried to follow him, but then something caught his eye. It seemed as if circles were drawn on the floor. And he was within them. One was drawn around his hand. He looked up and spotted another around his other hand. He could only assume there were also circles around his ankles.

"Neat isn't it?" Shaitan all but purred, "All four of your appendages reflect the elements in balance within you. This is one reason this ritual is hard to do with invalids and amputees. Not likely to survive the process."

"What process? What are you doing to me?" Peter demanded.

Shaitan gave a predatory grin. But it seemed... different than the usual grin he had been wearing. This looked like the grin of a child who had just played a brilliant prank and played everyone for fools. Peter gulped, as agita welled within his body. He could feel a wave of sweat traveling down his body. Whatever Shaitan had planned, it didn't seem very good at all.

"Why, I am liberating you from your humanity. You have been selected to become part of something much greater. And that something is, Jinnkind."

"What? You are going to turn me into a Jinni?!?" Peter almost gasped.

"Of course. We got the short end by the creator. Humans enslave our kind. They also have no rules except what they themselves choose. If others were bound by them, wouldn't that be nice?"

Shaitan continued his sales pitch to Peter, he walked closer to the bound human, around him. Shaitan stood practically over him. Peter was afraid the jinni would do something horrible, but what he did was just look down. His green eyes seemed almost to pierce Peter like daggers.

"Where we would be seen as equals. Humans think because they know our rules and can bind us easily, that they are the true masters of reality Wouldn't that be nice? Where because of your birth, you aren't destined for a life of servitude, where your debts are not inherited like yours were, and where you never have to live in a debtor's prison? Where your body is not for sale?"

"A-and if I say no? How do I know you will not simply have me obeying one of the King's magicians?" Peter asked, resisting the urge to do something to that upside down face gazing at him.

"Well... I am against enslavement. Those Jinn obeying the King's magicians?" Shaitan stood back up, removing his face from Peter's view. "A temporary setback. That is one other nice thing. How fair is it for someone who lives so short like you rule over the ones who live much longer?"

Peter heard Shaitan's claws tapping the ground around him.

"We know what works. We know what doesn't. We do not think in terms of days or months. We will be there living amongst the effects of your choices, along with your grandchildren. You, who would worry about whether or not your next meal would even be there. The game I play, and one I have invited you to join me in, takes place over years. Longer. If you decline my offer... Well... I have ways of changing your mind."

"You lie. Jinn cannot affect the free will of others."

"That is indeed correct. You know the rules..." Shaitan stepped into Peter's field of vision. "we cannot take the life of another sapient creature. We cannot take the wills of others, like making you fall in love. And we cannot bring back the dead. Human or Jinn."

Shaitan walked around to Peter's head, and placed his paw like hand over his nose and mouth. Peter smelled nothing but earth. As sudden as Shaitan placed his hand there, he pulled it away. He then unsheathed one of his vicious looking claws, and held it to Peter's throat. Closer and closer still, he even felt the tip almost sticking into his skin, but the claw retreated, as did his paw.

"See?" Shaitan loomed over Peter's face again. "I had two ample opportunities to kill you, but I did not. It was not just that I did not. I could not. If you were a Jinni like me, I could not either. And if you knew what happened, it was a pain in my head. A compulsion that kept me from striking. I can still hurt you. But I cannot kill."

"And you cannot affect the will. Yet you are trying to make me agree."

Shaitan beamed.

"Oh flummery. Who is your master?"

"I am. I am my own master. The King is an ally. Not my master. My own heart? Only I know where it is. That is what makes me a wild jinni as some call it." Shaitan spoke.

"And... what else will you do?" Peter glared.

"Well if you refuse and you want to remain bound by your humanity... well... You know what they say. The mind is a plaything of the body. You know how the Magicians make us 'execute'? You could become a pig and within a few weeks, you will have nary a human thought. I am quite against that unless it is needed. I could always simply keep you as Earth...perhaps experiencing being a part of an element will make you more open."

Peter gulped.

"You have quite an advantage here, my friend. You can choose which element you will become. Which to strip away."

"I have no choice I assume."

"Which shall it be? Earth? Wind? Fire? Water?"

"What about Heart?" Peter asked.

"Everyone has that, stop being facetious. If you won't take this seriously I might just let you stew here for awhile."

"...Fire?" Peter spoke.

"There were no wrong answers." Shaitan stood up, then walked out of his sight. "Wait here for a bit, will you?"

Not that Peter could move anyway. All he could really do was stare at the ceiling. The ceiling was just nothing but rocks and patterns and - wait a minute. He could see what looked to be some kind of a pattern on the ceiling. He took a closer look at it. His eyes were able to make out a circle carved onto the ceiling. Then he spotted more and more lines.

Why did he not see this before? Perhaps it was because his eyes had time to adjust to the light now. Or maybe he was distracted by seeing Shaitan constantly darting around his vision. He could see what looked like a wider circle. Four others on sides of it, almost forming a square within the circle. But then he noticed something else. It seemed almost as if there were other symbols within these smaller circles. Peter thought he recognised them.

Before he could try to make out what else was there, Shaitan seemed to appear from thin air again. This time, the Jinni was carrying a few things. He couldn't identify what they were. Wait a minute, were these components like what he saw the King's magicians using? Shaitan placed what seemed to be a large bucket around Peter's left foot, stopping right at the manacle. Another bucket was placed right around his right foot.

No matter how hard Peter tried to slide whatever these were away from him, he just could not seem to do it. Whatever force had kept his arms and legs bound to the ground had seemed to keep them just as bound too. All he could do was touch the end of the bucket. Were these buckets made out of metal? With a small clack, Peter noticed that a similar one was placed right on his right hand.

"If all goes well, you will no longer have your components of Earth, Wind, and Water within you," Shaitan said, giving Peter another smile.

The Jinni stepped away from the bound human. Peter clenched both his hands. He could still move them, but could not seem to pull his right hand out of its metallic prison. Just what was this Jinni doing to him?

What happened next caused a massive blur. He saw the pattern above him glowing, as well as more lights all around him. He was able to see that three of those circles above him seemed to be glowing, but the symbols seemed to have changed as well. A drop. A Crag of some kind. And what looked to be several lines moving in a spiral pattern. The last one did not light at all, it was on his left hand.

Then it started. Peter felt his hand seem to light on fire. Yet it did not actually ignite. He felt all of his breath seem to leave his body with one gasp. His brain screamed for air, but despite all of this he did not die. He felt himself seemingly pulled further and further into the ground, and then something seemed to pull him away from the ground. But he was still bound. Peter tried to scream but no sound escaped.

Peter glanced down at his chest as his own hairs seemed to catch fire. His skin seemed to be changing colour, it started to turn a bright colour. He felt his own ears being pulled, as more and more of his body was compacted and squeezed, as if an invisible potter had been sculpting his body.

"Yes, YES!!" Shaitan all but roared.

And that was the last that Peter had heard as he blacked out. His eyes rolled into his head.

~ ~ ~

Peter couldn't quite see just what it was, he was able to feel his body changing. Hundreds of pokers being poked into his body. And yet when they were poked into his body, they didn't hurt. They seemed to shield him from his heat. All except his forearms and thighs. His feet seemed to explode in length.

His smaller toes atrophied before simply vanishing altogether. Peter's remaining toes were pulled apart, as they all lengthened. They spread out like the feet of a bird of some kind. A third toe poked from the back of his feet, where the ball used to be. His arches and feet had grown. The skin hardened massively.

His fingernails seemed to burst, as he could feel the skin around his hand harden. Just what was he becoming?! Something behind him poking into his rear felt almost compressed. Then, the changes hit his face. He could no longer feel his lips, or his nose. He tried to squint his nose, yet he was paralysed. All that happened was just a smacking noise, his primal fear frozen in place.

His face felt amazingly hot. Hot... His entire body was hot... He was on fire. Yet he did not burn! His head was burning as well. Yet he could not feel his skin blistering. The next thing that happened was a strange growth on his head. Oh no.... And then, finally, he felt something on his chest. Something light....

~ ~ ~

Peter's eyes jerked open. He felt himself no longer bound to the floor. Something was poking his rear. And yet something hard was in front of his face. He could see a pointed thing in his face, as well as something.... Wait. That thing on his chest. Where was it?

Peter let loose a gasp that sounded almost... different as soon as he tilted his neck up. There was nothing on his chest - nothing except for a bunch of brown and green feathers. This had to have been an illusion of some kind - but when he touched his chest, he just stared at his hands. They were a dark yellow almost brown, covered in hard skin, all his fingers tipped in claws. They moved when he tried to manipulate his hands, and when he touched the feathers, he felt the rough feathers.

Peter shook his head, only he felt something at the top of his head and just below where his chin used to shake. Did he grow a beard? Wait, why was it where his chin used to be? The transformed human stood up, gasping as he felt a tugging sensation at his rear. Peter rolled over onto his front and let his tail feathers properly spread. He breathed a sigh of relief, bringing his body closer to the ground... and then he felt something fleshy below his neck.

Peter finally got to his knees, which seemed almost higher-up than before. Wait a minute. The heck happened? These brown feathers went all the way down his body, no longer seeing anything between his legs. He didn't see a-

Peter then gasped as he felt his face. A beak. A long vicious looking beak. His hands touched over two fleshy protrusions from where his neck used to be. Nerves went through these... he could feel his own fingers covered in rough skins against it. Cock. Oh no... There it was on his head. He didn't have hair anymore. He had a comb!

Peter climbed onto his feet, not even minding about four toes, including a backwards-facing toe. Where was Shaitan?! He had to do... something! He turned him into a chicken!

"Shaitan, what did you do?!" Peter tried to say

To his surprise, he spoke. His beak opened and closed, but he did not have any lips with which to make any sound. It sounded almost like it was coming from inside his throat. His voice sounded... different. He half expected to be making clucking and cawing noises, yet... his voice... sounded familiar. His own.

"Shaitan?! Why am I...?"

From the darkness, Peter saw what looked to be a pair of green eyes, followed by that wide grin. The characteristic of Shaitan. An anger welled in Peter's body. He felt his comb and wattle heat up, as Peter grasped fire between his hands. He felt a ball in his hands... from where, he did not care. He tossed it at the reflection.

As the fire traveled towards the face, Peter found that there was indeed Shaitan standing there, cloaked in shadow. The fire extinguished as soon as he made out just what it was Shaitan was holding. His lantern! The feline took several steps closer to Peter, holding the teardrop-shaped lantern between his hands. The brilliant patterns that would produce shadows like the canopy of a forest when the lantern was lit, as if it was sculpted out of copper.

"You might have noticed," Shaitan begun, "That I am holding your lantern."

"Give that back!" Peter all but growled, "What did you do to me?! You turned me into some kind of a CHICKEN!"

"I didn't turn you into that," Shaitan said, "That's just your true form. You can always change yourself into whatever you want. Just as I can myself. I prefer not to do it myself... unless I need to."

Shaitan held out the lantern. One of his paw-like hands supported the lantern, the other held the chain. Peter wasted no time in grabbing his lantern. As soon as he touched it, he felt... complete. Not so much knowing where his lantern was, but knowing that it was safe. Safe with him.

"All Jinn as you know have something like that. Perhaps you have seen lamps, rings, bottles, necklaces, even things such as jars or even machinery," Shaitan explained.

"And..." Peter looked towards it, holding it against his feathery chest. "...This... is mine?"

"Correct," Shaitan told him, "You would want to keep that safe. If a human takes it, you'll be forced to do whatever they say. I'm letting you have it. Does that not make me better than a mere human?"

Peter just glanced towards the lantern, then to Shaitan.

"...I am... like you now?"

"Correct. I'm sure you already feel better, being a Jinni. Now you're no longer Indentured. You're improved. I removed your Earth, Water, and Wind from you."

Peter just stared.

"Were I not... a... Cock of some kind... I would not believe you. You turned me into a Jinni?! What use do you gain from this?"

"An Ally," Shaitan said, "Perhaps you would like to take a closer look at yourself, before you meet your new racial brothers and sisters. And to demonstrate something."

Shaitan snapped his fingers as some of the stone wall nearby seemed to grind down into sand, falling onto the floor in a pile.

"...Wait, do you want me to make a mirror?" Peter asked, "Because if I do in that shape, I won't be able to make any decent shape."

"...You're right..." Shaitan said, "Just take a look over yourself, alright?"

Peter took a look over his shoulder now. Tailfeathers... they were his. Green, just like some of the feathers around his shoulders and arms. He looked down, flexing his four-toed talons of feet. He even reached over his impressive comb and wattle. They felt... warm. He thought about the own flame that he was made out of, and they seemed to heat up.

Fire... As he thought of fire, he could think of so much of it. How it burned, warmed, fed, but also nurtured. For a brief moment, Peter felt himself awash in a world of flames. As if it were an ocean, the waves of fire washed over him, yet he did not burn like he was a mere chicken. He was more than a chicken. He was a Jinni.

"Ahem?"

Peter's eyes opened up.

"I was... lost in thought. I thought of the fire. Everything. It was all within me..."

"That's just part of being a Jinni," Shaitan explained.

Peter took a look over the cat now. Wow... Peter got taller. He almost stood eye level with Shaitan now, that cat had to be at least seven feet tall, or a bit more than. Peter must have stood about... almost as high. He estimated maybe about six feet ten. Boy was he a big cock now.

"So what's keeping me from just killing you for all you did?" Peter asked. He would have smiled if his beak allowed it.

"You're now bound to the same rules as we are," Shaitan said with a sing-songy tone of voice, "You cannot kill me. Just as I cannot kill you. Try it."

Peter felt a sharp pang in his head as he even tried to think about it. He grasped his head with his free hand, practically flattening his comb.

"It hurts, doesn't it? If you were a human you could have thought all you could. That's how the Creator wanted us to be. Now you shall understand why we should be free," Shaitan said, "Come with me."

"I... don't have a choice."

"You do. Just keep in mind you can easily be imprisoned by one of the King's 'Magicians'."

Peter followed as Shaitan turned around. Some part of him wanted to figure out what his life would be like now that he was a Jinni. But another wanted to learn if this Jinni really was good... or if he was lucky. But one thing went through his mind.

...Why would he ever want to change back?