Wishes | ✔️

I.

Time. 

How much time had passed since I went to the surface? Since I left the confines of this area? To actually feel and breathe in the fresh air?

I laid on my bed and stared at the golden ceiling.

The walls were covered with an array of musty old drapes depicting medieval fight scenes from a bygone era that I still remember from my last summoning. A small ball of light illuminated the large room.

"Louis, how much do you think the outside world has changed?" I sighed wistfully to my large green dragon. He's the only thing I had as a companion and he had heard me ask the same question a million times in our thousands of years together. I've always had Louis, he's been here with me since I was only small. He was my family and best friend.

I sat up and lightly placed my head on the side of the lamp.

I was created inside this lamp and contained for who knows how long. I was created by the universe a millennia ago, with a purpose to grant wishes to the helpless, to serve and protect others. Throughout the centuries, I have just done that. I have saved many lives, protected villages and healed the sick or wounded.

But there were also times where my magic was used for power, greed controlling man's thirst for power. I have caused wars, harmed, and killed many. I lived with this guilt, the blood on my hands served as a purpose to fight, to always protect the innocent.

But I can't do that if I was stuck here.

I had no idea how old I was at this point in my lifetime. I didn't know what year or day was. Inside the lamp, night and day were one and the same. You don't notice days, weeks or even years passing when you're stuck in a lamp all your life.

Louis huffed and cuddled back into my sheets. Lazy reptile. He better not burn my sheets. The lamp will smell like smoke for a week. At least that's what it felt like. There was a time when I used to count the days until I met my next master, but after a while, it did not seem worth keeping track.

I laid next to him, contemplating as I caressed his scales. It always seems to go back to time.

It's been a long time since I've been out. I wanted to see the outside world again. I loved exploring the outside of my lamp. I could explore and see the new advancements in that era. The world looks different each time. It's fascinating to see.

Last time I was free from my confinement, people were just starting to use a new weaponry...guns I believed they were called. I didn't necessarily know what they did, but I knew they could cause casualties. Have they advanced since then? Are guns still being used today?

Groaning at my curious thoughts, I bang my fist against the cool metal in frustration.

Louis and I were becoming restless - well more myself than him. We just wanted to be free. But of course, that's never going to happen without a new master to rub my lamp. We tried to escape once, after that we refused to try again.