Choices, Choices… II
e, not for a while to the west.’
The genie’s smile doesn’t falter. “Snow is for those that live the most comfortably in the tundras and the frozen landscapes - big or small, they are at home in the ice. Stone, similarly, is in relation to mountains and caves, Master. Many creatures do their best in these settings, like bats or species that prefer higher altitudes to lower. And dust, well, that is for the desert creatures, the ones that thrive in dirt and sand thanks to their genetic evolutions.”
‘Oh… I see. So sort of like their respective biomes,’ you muse.
“Precisely,” the genie says.
‘Does that mean, when you say ground, that it’s… ground as in… underground, I take it? Sort of like moles or lizards or whatever lives in burrows?’
“Yes, Master,” the genie replies. “Creatures that prefer to live beneath the earth in some capacity, to me, are their own separate realm, and thus, you can consider it a realm of potential to choose from.”
‘And I take it wood is…’ You dither a bit. ‘Wouldn’t birds be considered wood, if they make nests in trees?’
The genie shakes his head. “Wood in essence is those that live in trees but cannot fly, Master. Or that is how I think of it. Do keep in mind that how I, a djinn, see these realms is not how it is in nature, nor do I expect you to latch onto these as if they were your best choice. Think how you wish - I merely want to offer another perspective is all.”
‘I see,’ you say, and you do understand. ‘What are the other two?’
The genie folds his arms and nods. “Dark realm is not some nightmarish thing despite its sound - no, when I speak of this, I refer to nocturnal creatures, those who flourish when the sun has set.” He winks. “And the small realm is for insectoids, to creatures that are small in size, and view everything as much, much larger than they are to your human eyes.”
‘Now I understand…’ you reply. ‘I don’t think I would’ve considered these as ways to, I guess, separate the different animals. But I sort of get why you might do that. Thank you, genie, for the advice.’
And thus, the genie falls silent, and you begin to ponder what creature you desire to become next. You have many, many choices, you know this, and you also know you could realistically return to being a human being if you wanted.
The genie’s rules are simple enough to follow - if you use this power three times a day, you will continue to have it in the next day, and so on. That, you feel, is easy enough because six hours out of every day really isn’t that big of a deal. Plus, the genie made it clear to you that you can pick and choose when you want to turn into something over the course of that day, too, so that helps.
You mull this over, and, you decide for sure that you aren’t really interested in becoming an insect. You’ve never been the biggest fan of bugs, to be honest, and you feel that being so small, you’d be a little helpless to deal with animals around that eat bugs - or humans that happen to dislike bugs and might desire to smash you flat.
And since you are not near a body of water, you don’t desire to turn into a sea creature - not yet, at least, although you consider this for the future one. The same goes for anything that lives in the snow or in deserts - neither of those are anywhere close to you, and you’ve no interest wracking your head for that sort of being, at least not in the current moment.
‘It isn’t close to nighttime yet,’ you muse.
That meant no nocturnal animals, lest he have a hard time moving or seeing. And though the wood realm was an interesting way to consider it, you admit you don’t see it as a separate entity from the land realm, so, you let this one slip away from you for now.
Thus, you have three choices you can actually see yourself taking: a land creature, a creature that lives underground, or, returning to being a human.
Choices…
Written by Hollowpages on 11 July 2020