Karmic payback - Part 3

Alex stood before Sami in his lamp in her genie clothes. "Nice place you got here Sami; a bit bare, though.

"Thank you." Sami said. "Please have a seat. Tea?" He pointed towards his sofa.

"You're welcome and thank you," said Alex with a smile, as she sat on a the sofa.
Sami blinked and a tea kettle as well as two cups appeared. He poured in some tea and passed it to Alex. Alex smiled as she took a sip of her tea. "So, you are a free genie?" Sami asked. "What have you learned to do with your magic, yet?"
"Well," said Alex, "I can choose to grant a wish or not but I can only use my full power with a wish."

Sami nodded. "Most typical for an inexperienced genie." Sami emptied his cup. "What did you try to do for yourself? Creating something?"

"I spruced up my lamp a bit and changed my clothes." Alex said.

"Inside your lamp this is not difficult. And changing clothes is a basic exercise for genies. But how well are you doing with transformations?" Sami asked.
"Quite good, actually. I transformed a girl named Amy into a parrot once and changed her back. And one time, two little girls gave me this really cute look. I couldn't say no to them and well, I transformed myself, them and several others into animal human hybrids," said Alex with a bit of a chuckle.

"I suppose they were all wishes?" Sami asked. Alex simply nodded.
"Alright. Then it's not very surprising you managed to do the transformations." Sami continued. "Now try a transformation without a wish." He passed the empty tea cup.

"Well, okay," said Alex, "let's see," she looked at the empty teacup and concentrated on it changing. As Alex's eyes were closed, Sami watched as the cup started to change shape and shortly, went from a tea cup to a vase.

"Very nice." Sami said. "Was it difficult?"

"A bit, I just changed one thing about it; seems like the easy way to go, to be honest," says Alex.
"Yeah. The form was still natural to the cup." Sami explains. "You see, some changes are easier to do than others. If you transform an object into another object, it is easier to change to a more familiar shape for the transformed object, like a cup to a vase, or clay cup to a metal cup. The art is to sense what is the familiar shape. Even living beings have familiar shapes. And they are not always obvious." Sami says. "Here, try this," Sami blinks and a mouse appears in his hand. "Try to find what would be a familiar form."

Alex takes the mouse and closes her eyes as she tries to find a familiar form. First, she thought about a guinea pig, but then, Alex felt a form that seemed more - well - natural. Alex let her magic flow and soon, she was holding a pigeon.

"Impressive. You have a talent to feel the familiar form." Sami said.

"Thank you" said Alex as she petted the pigeon, "still, it feels weird, changing animals like this."

"Guess how it will be when you are transforming a human being? If you find a familiar form for a human, it's much easier to transform them.”

"Hmm," says Alex, "you know, I seemed change people into animals that felt right for them."

"Normally, genies need a lot of practice. Do you mean you can easily feel the right form for a human to transform into?"

"Well," says Alex, "It's not easy but one thing that helps is I think of a person's personality, like I turned this mean woman named Rita into an badger. Women and badgers are known for their tempers.”

"I guess it pays that you were human, once" Sami says. "You are more familiar with human personalities. Genies usually have more problems there."

"It seems so," said Alex.

"Still, you need a lots of practice. Since you are a free genie, you can use your magic for yourself. Best you seek a few humans to practice on." Sami proposed.

"I'll see what I can do." Alex said reluctantly. She didn't entirely like the prospect of transforming humans just for fun. Alex decided to change the topic. "So, you've been a genie all your life?"

"Yes. I'm more than 4000 years old."

"Whoa," says Alex, "you're older than the United States."

"You mean that little state on the coast of North America? It gained its independence from Britain a few years before I was locked inside my lamp. The last thing I heard was that they beat the British in another war in 1812.”

"Wow. That's so long ago." says Alex. "Shall I tell you what had happened since?"

"That would be nice. I have to catch up with 190 years, you know." Sami said.

"Alright. Let's begin with Napoleon..." Alex began her history lesson.


A few hours later, Alex was out of Sami's lamp. Martha had told her that Grace and Max were still at the Christmas Market. So, Alex had blinked herself into warm winter clothes and left the hotel to seek Grace and Max. On her way through the snowy streets, Alex saw a movement. A black cat was stumping through the snow. "Hello, sweety!" Alex said, and caressed the cat. The cat answered with a contented "Meow!" Alex enjoyed playing with the cat for a while until the cat left. Alex walked on, when she suddenly heard the cat behind her again. Alex turned and saw something that angered her: a business woman had just left a cab while she talked on her mobile phone. The cat came nearer, hoping to get some more strokes. But the woman was annoyed by the animal and gave it a kick with her heels. In terror, the cat leaped away. Seeing the cat being tormented like that, Alex's anger broke loose. She concentrated on the business woman and blinked.
The woman disappeared into the heap of her empty clothes.
Curiously, the cat investigated the heap of clothes. There was a movement under the clothes and eventually, a small, mouse-like rodent crawled out of the heap. The cat crouched down, waiting for the right moment to strike.

Suddenly, Alex bowed down and lifted the newly-made chinchilla. "Don't worry, little one! You might not have been nice to the cat, but you will love being my pet." Alex slid the chinchilla into her pocket. Then she hurried to find Grace and Max.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Part 1: [link]
Part 2: [link]

Part 4: [link]
Part 5: [link]
Part 6: [link]
Part 7: [link]
Part 8: [link]

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