The Djinn and The Vartija: Stalemate

Emrri

We entered the backyard, and I quickly led Muritage to the old tree-house. It had been built by a former owner of the house; probably for their children. I climbed up first, ignoring the pain in my left arm. After entering the small tree-house, I sat next to the first aid kit I kept up here. As I pulled out supplies to clean my arm, Muritage climbed in.

He wasn't happy, but neither was I. On a normal hunt, I bound the critter, then sent it off to wherever it came from. I never kept them around after binding.

But I couldn't send Muritage away. Not until I reclaimed what he stole.

Whatever that actually was.

I felt something missing, a gaping abyss in my heart.

After binding my arm, I stared at the djinn. He was lounged against the wall of the tree-house to avoid hitting his head on the low ceiling. Even with legs bent, his feet still pressed against the far wall. I smiled at his obvious discomfort.

"Now then, how about we skip the niceties and get to the part where you give me back what you stole?"

Muritage smirked, "Now why would I want to do that?"

I tapped my fingers against the floor, a slight frown forming as I pondered the djinn.

"Uh, because I asked nicely?"

He crossed his arms and tapped my leg with his foot. "Your inattention allowed me to retain some freedom. Could you possibly be so dim as to imagine I would relinquish it?"

He laughed, tilting his head to look at me. I sighed and shook my head.

"Shouldn't you be leaping to fulfill my every whim?" I asked. The charred journal that had taught me about vartija abilities had a few paragraphs about how a tamed critter would obey commands given to them.

Muritage held out his hand. The air above it rippled for a moment, then transformed into a dagger. As he balanced the blade, a smile formed.

"If I were a lesser being, then that might have been the case. But you are an untrained whelp. It was a fluke that you had enough raw ability to allure and subdue a djinn." He flicked his wrist. The dagger went thunk into the wood beside me. "If I had been any other member of my kind, you would have died without having laid eyes on me."

I frowned as I pulled out the dagger. "If that's true, why didn't you kill me then? Or at the cliff? You've had plenty of chances."

Muritage snapped his fingers. As the dagger disappeared, he studied the wall. "I was curious. You are the first vartija I have seen alive. The possibility that you would lead me to an infestation was an opportunity I could not afford to ignore."

I wonder if curiosity was his only reason. At least now I can officially put the djinn on my "avoid at all costs" list.

I smiled with a cheerfulness I did not currently feel. "Well, I suppose we are at a stalemate. You won't give me what I want. I won't send you off to wherever until I get back what is mine." Then I gasped and snapped my fingers. "And according to my book and your little knife trick, you can't harm the vartija who tamed you!"

Muritage released a feral growl as he transformed into a jackal and lunged at my throat. I waited for his jaws to close. I could see him struggling against whatever binding my abilities had created.

"I may not know everything about being a vartija, but this was one of the things I made certain to learn." I told him, patting the tip of his nose. Muritage recoiled from my touch; changing back to his human form in the process.

"Yet you leave your aura exposed, a rare delicacy to all who can sense it." He wrinkled his nose in disgust.

I smiled sheepishly and bow my head. "So it can be turned off? That's good to know! My book lost any pages detailing that ability."

Muritage groaned and bowed his head. "Your ignorance will be the death of us both."

I frowned as he bowed his head. "What do you mean by that?"

The djinn looked at me with skeptical eyes. "Because you have bound us, our lives are intertwined. If one dies, so does the other. That is the reason I cannot harm you."