Expanding.

A hand calloused and fine, with a slivery crested ring adorned a finger.

It expanded over a set of keys, gliding along them smoothly, making click, click noises as they made contact with it.

They met various letters spelling out a name, 'ZYCA'.

The owner sniffled a yawn, a hand goes up but the face is blurry.

****

Zyca shot up from when she laid; she had fallen asleep and had the dream again. The beautiful hands she always saw in her dreams, typing her name on something which resembled nothing she'd ever seen before and just like any other dream' she couldn't tell the owner of the hands nor why it always spelt out her name.

Her head was throbbing, and she fell back down on the bed and the dream receded like it always did.

Life at the Asters was really different; she didn't have to work till she panted, she neither did the laundry nor clean the house, instead, she ate till her fill (Mrs. Aster fussed over how skinny she looked and fed her more than she could eat), played with Colt and fed Martha who she became fond of. She had gotten to know, Martha had broken some of the rules like she thought and Mrs. Aster was to conduct testing's on how she could be brought back to normal; how nice she was – it was her job. She was a tester and so was Mr. Aster.

"Captivating!" she exclaimed when she got wind of what they did for a living.

Zyca knew she'd over stayed her welcome and it was time to get her father home when a message ball arrived one morning, baring news of their need to awaken her little sister.

"I bring to news to Mr. and Mrs. Aster," Zyca heard from where she hid. "You both are summoned to the awakening of Allet, the second daughter of Naxeremis for she shall be probed," the voice spoke with authority. "By tomorrow morn, you shall report to the headquarters to begin," he tipped his hat. "I bid you a lovely day."

After a few minutes of silence, Zyca walked into the kitchen pretending she hadn't noticed this, the grave news.

A pin drop could be heard from the silence, being the only sound heard were the sounds of her footsteps.

"Darling I-"

"I'll go," she spoke out scanning with her eyes, the genie's in the room. "I'll bring my father home."

Clearance snorted from when he sat, taking a huge sip from his liquid meal. What was wrong with that boy? She was now positive the boy hated her.

****

Colt and his mother were planning on planting baby seeds in their little garden up front, and Mrs. Aster wore the same clothes as the first time she met her in; her color-coded tongs. There were mouthy flowers and they did indeed have mouths that smacked together when she touched them. The little shrine was barricaded with invisible walls similar to the one's that surrounded theirs, and practically every genies house.

"The bleeding crystal, red as blood, icy as steam – two of them and very powerful too," Mrs. Aster said, tugging on a flower who had her finger in its mouth. "Thank goodness you all don't have teeth's," she grumbled.

"One here and the other in the human world - And if your father gets a hold of it, he will take full control of everything in our world." Colt added, trying to clip an overgrown leaf – which he was failing at because the flower kept avoiding his sharp scissors.

"You must stop him from getting his hands on it – FINALLY!" exclaimed Mrs. Aster, reaping her finger away.

"What you're telling me is to stop my father from getting his hands on the crystal or I should crystal." Zyca avoided an old branch, leaping out of its way.

"Both. The crystal must be kept in a safe place."

"Here in genie realm," Colt completed.

Zyca said nothing again in relation to the dreadful adventure ahead. She felt a bit indebted to the Green's all over the land and now without doubt, they will be treated worse than before. What she thought of, although scary was confirmed when she heard the syllabic words from Colt's mother's lips.

"The greens are going to suffer for his actions."

****

Colt had woken her early the next morning with a tap on her shoulder. Zyca stood with a lamp in her hands, golden and smooth on all its sides, a crested sign of a genie with the lamp in its hand of the same color rested on one of its sides.

"She will take you to the end," Mrs. Aster told the thing that stood beside her. It was weird, seeing two Mrs. Aster's in the same room but she could understand that messengers took the form of their masters.

"I'll miss you," the air from Colt's lips trickled her ear, as they hugged outside the home she would dearly.

"I'll miss you too Colt," she repeated what he said. "I'll be back before you know it."

"I hope so. Then we could play hide and seek."

"Are you ready Zyca?" The two Mrs. Aster approached them. "Remember to take to heart all the rules." How could she forget! A single mistake would turn her to the thing before she or anyone could blink. The first human she saw would be her master; three wishes is what she grants of her master and a day longer after the third wish is granted is bye to her free life.

Zyca wondered who she would meet, a man or a woman? What did the world have in store for her?

"I think I should go with her." Colt said worriedly. "She can't do this on her own."

"And you think you can help? Don't let your dad hear this and I'm sure she'll be alright."

"What if something happens to her? How will we explain to her Master?" The thing said.

"I doubt they would mind," replied Colt.

Zyca shoved him a little on his shoulder, a tiny ting trickled her side; the pain was still there but mild. Colt had given her a healing balm as he called it for her to massage with and funny it worked as soon as the cold jelly touched her skin.

"Once you find any of them, ring us on this." Zyca collects a flexible band from. "Call us too if you encounter any troubles – and I'm sure the human world has many of those."

"Most definitely."

"Be quick. We've got to get going," called Mr. Aster, striding into the room with Clearance closely behind. Clearance really did take after his father; Rude.

"Just a minute," she replied. "Are you ready?" she asked her again. This time she nodded in response, she was ready or so she wanted to believe. "You will be sent exactly where the crystal is believed to be seen and obviously your father will be there."

Before the count of three, she and the thing were sucked into a kind of darkness, pure black and very dark.

"Be safe," Colt's voice echoed in the void.

Zyca held the lamp tightly to her chest as she felt herself spinning very quickly, rotating like a pin wheel, to a turn, and to another, which a loud sound resonated; it wasn't like white wash though but its piercings were all the same – deafening. Suddenly, she felt her body pulled down by gravity, her legs struggling in the air to catch any form of surface to land on. And just like that, she felt herself floating into emptiness; a bright light shone up ahead, she felt nauseated.

"This is the end?" she heard the thing speak. "Oh, you just have to pass through that light and the human world is what you see."

"Thank you." Zyca started for the opening but the words, the thing said stopped her in her track or rather float.

"Oh, pray you do come back," the thing said nervously. "Oh, what a dangerous – oh bad, bad. A dreadful adventure you're about to take."

"What do you mean?" It seemed the thing only spoke rubbish every time they meet; and a dreadful look always crossed its features.

"Oh, I wish – oh no don't bother by it," it bit its nails, its eyes darting quickly between her and the opening.

"Go on tell me," she inquired. "What do you want me to know?"

"Oh no I don't want to be punish-," the thing stopped mid-sentence. "Oh, forget I said anything – now shuu, shuu, it's time to leave." Its lips spread into a grin as it shook its head getting rid of whatever thought it had.

Zyca found herself wanting to know what the thing blabbed about. Well never had it given her the full gist of what it wanted to say, not then in her room nor now as they floated. Maybe that was the way it was.

"Oh, you should get going now." Zyca agreed, it was time she got going.

It scared her as she got closer and closer to the beaming light - taking a deep breath she was ready to dive in.

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