In between the coarse sand-cliffs, deep in the Al Jawf desert was located the Sechrett family cottage. Or what they claimed to be a cottage. Admittedly it looked more like a stable, with its white walls that formed a perfect rectangle and the infinite rows of windows. A small stone fence surrounded it and thus implied there was a yard behind the tall building. For one thing the house was the least to say unsophisticated but as the sun illuminated its white walls it really stood out in the middle of nowhere. Frankly, Philippa couldn't believe that someone as boastful as the Sechretts would accept to live in this humble residence. Little did she know that after the tragedy with King Scorpio the Sechrett line had taken the downfall.
The minute they faced the house the look on Sechrazat's face darkened. She'd spent the whole journey sitting on the roof with Philippa after she'd forced Groanin to turn up the radio when "Nights in White Satin" came on. Groanin cursed in secret and turned it up but soon they drove too deep in the desert and the signal was lost. It was Sechrazat's turn to curse in secret -that was her favourite song.
By the time they'd reached the front 'yard', if this half-ruined fence could ever be called a yard, Groanin had already started to mumble about how he'd love a cold shower and his baby food. Aizit, who had not taken his eyes off Philippa for a single moment during the trip, finally took some time off staring at her to tease the poor butler. But when Philippa narrowed her eyes at him he instantly bit his tongue. No literally, he bit his tongue. He flinched in pain, forcing a gasp out of John who'd been slightly leaning on his side the whole time. Philippa chuckled in secret while Sechrazat cursed him in Arabic. The boy shrunk in his corner.
The thing with the whole tongue-incident was that Aizit's wound didn't look like it was closing any time soon, at least without medical help. And Sechrazat knew there was a herbalist in the house that could at least seize the pain but she had not intended on stopping here. Frankly, she didn't want them in that house.
"I can see your residence has plenty of rooms." Nimrod commenting. "I don't think I could have booked a better hotel."
Sechrazat growled something at him and jumped off the jeep. "Uhm, I think you should stay here for a bit. I have to...make some arrangements first, ok?" she asked but before anyone could respond she'd turned around and made her way to the door.
"This lady can be very rude at times, I say very rude!" Groanin muttered to himself. Nimrod nodded slightly.
On the back of the jeep Aizit was grieving as if he'd die. He'd stuck his bleeding tongue out and was sobbing slightly. John looked oh-so-concerned about him while Philippa couldn't get the thought he was overreacting on purpose out of her head. She hated that boy, always wanted to be the center of everything.
Sechrazat's new mission was to enter the house in stealth mode. But she failed just upon touching the door knob. To her misfortune one of her sisters was just coming out. The woman looked nothing like the djinn opposite her. She was much taller and very black. She also had coal-black eyes and very long hair that was caught in a perfect side-ponytail -not a single hair stuck out.
"I can't believe! Sechrazat!" she exclaimed in horrible English and swooped the djinn up in two long arms. Sechrazat fidgeted a little.
"He...Hi, Nigromanta, nice to...uh...nice to see you too...you're...squeezing..." she said, almost choking under her sister's grip. The woman placed her down.
"Yes! I'm sorry! Girls! Sechrazat!" she yelled into the house. Sechrazat had just held a finger up ready to beg her for silence but Nigromanta had not noticed and would not care even if she had. The next moment yells and cries were heard from thirteen different female voices. There was a noise as if horses were galloping down a hill alltogether. Sechrazat swallowed hard but she didn't have the time to react as Nigromanta pushed her inside the house and all of her sisters surrounded her.
The thing was that, apart from a couple that were twins, no two sisters of hers looked alike. They all had different skin colours -ranging from very dark to light brown- different eyes, hair, height, voices, attitudes, postures... The one thing they all had in common was they were all descendants of Goliath Sechrett and all of them were mundanes. Yes, not a single djinn sister. And despite that Sechrazat had never felt special in her household. It was quite the opposite actually.
They put her in the middle of a circle and started bombarding her with questions.
"Your hair grew so long!"
"Did you grow taller?"
"What happened to the wristlets I bought you?"
"You should really try a blue-black dye with that eye-color!"
"What do they feed you in England, you look famished!"
"So what about that pyramid you were after?"
"Are you seeing someone?"
"Let me cook something for you!"
"Wanna see my new flower collection?"
All that fuss alarmed the rest of team that decided it was best to check on her. Nimrod went in first in an attempt to make sure it was safe enough for the rest of them -he was the only mature djinn there after all. What he saw upon pushing the door that no one had bothered to close open was astounding. No one noticed him at first up until a short girl that looked about the age of sixteen pointed at him and yelled.
"Oh look a man!"
Fourteen heads turned to look at him and that included Sechrazat's dazzled glare. Nimrod swallowed hard.
"Uhm...hello?" he said. The girl cupped her mouth. Many cheekily glares were exchanged and Nimrod clearly heard one of the girls whispering "Oh my, he's British!"
Soon they had circled him leaving behind a panicked Sechrazat.
"Nice hair..."
"Wew, do you smoke?"
"Guh, you know I could really give you a decent manicure..."
"Have you more bad habits?"
"You know, red is sooo out of fashion right now..."
"Try blue next time...it should bring out your eyes."
"Talk to us, please, I loooove your accent."
"Asli! The man is not here for you, you know!"
"So what, you're Sechrazat's boyfriend? Sechrazat! Why haven't you told us?"
The fuss was suddenly interrupted by Sechrazat shouting "God no!" and throwing her hands up. Upon seeing that the sisters slowly hushed. Nimrod had turned pale as a hankerchief except for his cheeks -those were firetruck red as his shirt. "All of you! In the kitchen! Now!" she gestured at the kitchen violently and the sisters all wore different faces as they obeyed. Some looked guilty, others offended and that young girl hadn't taken her eyes off Nimrod the whole time.
Sechrazat ran a hand through her hair, moving some stray strands out of her face and glanced at Nimrod.
"I...sorry." she muttered. He glared at her with something that wasn't exactly puzzlement. But to her relief he didn't look frustrated. "Uh..." was all she had to breathe before she turned away and rushed to the kitchen, closing the door behind her. There was some yelling and Nimrod could swear he heard somebody crying then after twenty whole minutes Sechrazat came back out looking all flushed and frustrated. She opened her mouth to say something but her throat had been so tired out that she could barely speak.
"Tell them to come." she addressed Nimrod, who in the meantime had taken a seat in the house's huge and most comfortable couch.
When John and Phil entered the house they, too, felt their jaws drop open. Sechrazat was fidgeting behind the crowd of sisters that were all about to circle the twins now. They both felt intimidated, actually John felt a little scared too.
"You accept children on your teams, too?" a short woman with very curly hair asked. From her accent one could tell she was Spanish.
"Uh..." Sechrazat hurried to explain, "They're not children! They're...they're midgets." she slightly lowered her voice as if she didn't want to offend the twins. The woman, whose name was Manella raised a thick brow.
"Hey! We're not-" John begun but was interrupted by a violent shove of Philippa's elbow in his stomach. "Yes we totally are midgets" he breathed, slightly folding in two from the pain.
"Oh really?" Manella doubted.
"Manella! You are rude!" Nigromanta exclaimed, grabbing her sister's arm and pulling her back. "Very sorry. We make up with dinner?" she asked in her poor English. John noticed how big and white her teeth were and how her whole neck was covered in jewelery. It was clear that this woman originated from southern Africa.
"I would love some dinner actually." Nimrod spoke for the first time after a long silence. Sechrazat was a bit relieved to hear he had not swallowed his tongue yet.
"Good. Lumina cooks." Nigromanta explained pointing at a sister that had been standing behind the others as if trying to hide and instantly blushed when she got pointed at.
"Uh..." Lumina looked much older than most of the women around. She had an average height and her skin was the colour of milk chocolate. Her curved nose betrayed her Indian origin and she had big brown eyes that were always illuminated by some dark blue eyeshadow. Contrary to most of her sisters she was very timid. "Well..."
"There's no need to go in trouble. Just tell us where the nearest market is and I will purchase some food, I say the finest baby food I can find." it was Mr Groanin who had just entered the house. Lumina glanced at him. He glanced back at her but once she noticed she looked away. At that moment Harry Groanin had to admit he really saw something very charming in the eyes of that woman. Lumina stepped back, trying to conceal herself among her sisters. Mr Groanin was left staring starstruck at her.
Sechrazat would have never accepted to stay for the night if it hadn't been for Nigromanta insisting on dinner and refusing to let her see their grandmother until she accepted. She got Asli, a young sister of hers that was a herbalist, to tend to Aizit's tongue and had them all seated at the spacious living room. Finally she left the others alone and followed her sister upstairs at Grandmother's bedroom.
The girls may have been a bit rude at first but soon they lost their interest in the guests. Most of them were actually very polite and offered them refreshing beverages and snacks. Mr Groanin was constantly throwing glances at the kitchen, where Lumina had set to prepare their dinner. Asli, whose skin had the colour of ivory and her hair were long and falling free on her shoulders, was carefully trying to help Aizit's wound seal. She reassured him it was nothing fatal or irreversable but he felt horrible for having made a fool of himself in front of Philippa. John surprisingly found himself a new friend. On a chair opposite him sat a skinny girl with a very long ponytail. She was too busy playing on a Nitendo DS to notice him but he definitely took his time checking her out. Her skin was just one tone lighter than Sechrazat's, she had small eyes of light blue colour and her hair was dyed a pastel pink colour. She was dressed in all black and that included the shiny black gloss on her thin lips. Finally she noticed him staring and looked up.
"Have you any problem?" she spoke in much better English than most of her sisters.
"Uh...no. No, I..." John trumbled.
"Good." she raised a brow at him then returned to her game. However later on, when Philippa left his side to take a book from the huge bookcase in the room, the girl moved right next to him on the couch. "The name's Tori." she said, giving him a hand. John took it and shook it lightly.
"I'm John."
"Nice name. Pitty you're a midget." she winked at him. John prepared to say he wasn't a midget when the fresh memory of Phil's elbow in his stomach stopped him. "You ever heard of Yu-Gi-Oh?" John had heard of Yu Gi Oh but he was no fan of anime or any cartoon of that sort. She pushed the Nitendo in his lap. "If you beat that level, I'll give you a whole deck of Yu-Gi-Oh cards." John blinked. He didn't care about the cards but he had nothing better to do than sit and wait for the moment. So he took the Nitendo and started to play with her watching him over his own shoulder.
Meanwhile upstairs Sechrazat was pushing the door to Grandmother's bedroom open only to find time had indeed ravaged her homeplace. And that included the old woman who had shrunk on the bed. From a distance her face looked like a giant raisin. Of course Sechrazat knew she was over 300 years old and that was very old for a djinn. She walked in the room and softly shut the door behind her.
"Grandmother?" she breathed, choking back tears. "Grandmother it's me, Sechrazat." she softly sat on the bed beside the old woman and took her skeletal hand in hers. There was a pause of silence that broke with Grandmother's hoarse voice.
"My child..." the woman breathed. From he tremour in her voice Sechrazat could tell breathing was a painful process. "Sen buradasın..." (You're here) Grandmothers mother language was Turkish. The younger djinn assumed she could not remember the little English she knew at the moment. She was fine with that though. Turkish had been easy for her to learn as a child and she could still speak -of course not as fluently as she used to.
"Susmak..." (Hush) Sechrazat whispered. The woman didn't open her eyes.
"Tehlike bekliyor...Kardeşin bize karşı isyan etti..." (Danger awaits, Your brother has turned against us)
"Ahmed!?"
"Evet." (Yes)
"Bu imkânsız!" (That's impossible!)
"Hiçbir şey imkansız değildir!" the old woman tensed, "Kalbi karanlık bir güç tarafından esir almıştır..." (Nothing is impossible. His heart has been enslaved by a dark force.)
"Eyshan?"
Grandmother did not respond.
"Nana? Nana?!" Sechrazat breathed, nudging the old woman softly. She could not tell if Grandmother had fallen asleep or was...uh, she didn't even want to think about that. Nigromanta, who had been watching the whole conversation without Sechrazat's knowledge appeared behind the door.
"She does sometimes." she spoke softly. "Let her rest."
The djinn gasped when she first became alarmed to her sister's presence. She realized now why Grandmother had chosen to speak in her mother-language. Thankfully Nigromanta knew nothing of Turkish. There was no way she could've understood the conversation. She sighed in relief. Sechrazat nodded and pursed her lips to keep them from shaking. She kissed Grandmother's hand and got off the bed. Her sister was awaiting her with a warm hug but the djinn wanted none of that. She just walked past Nigromanta and headed to the stairway.
Wow what was that! And why did this come out so huge!?
Anyway, we're still on the bridge to the good stuff. But it'll come. Soon... If you spot any mistakes on the Turkish please let me know. I had to use google for those and as we all know Google Translate is not the most trustworthy site in the world. -.-''
Hope you enjoyed your reading, R&R!
-Name
