Reign of Smoke / حكم الدخان

Prologue

Gulf Peninsula 680 BC

The almighty smoke writhed and twisted in the air, swallowing the sun in its putrid mouth and blackening the sky with its thrashing tentacles. It cast an inky darkness upon the world that lasted for  28 days, the entire length of the great battle. 

The smoke billowed and spewed out death and disease. In its final moments, it would rob the world of all it could; all that was good. It ripped babies away from their mother's breasts, it poisoned and blackened the seas and the rivers, and whipped the desert sands into a frenzy, choking anyone who dared to go near it. Its magick was thick and suffocating and churned the air like an angry whirlwind. It grew and expanded and brought with it the crimson clouds and their blood rains. It bled its final curse onto the crops and the fields and the cattle below, decimating them all, and all who dared to defy it. It poisoned the air with the acrid smell of rotting flesh, and blinded people with raging acid mists.

It stretched and curled and took on the faces of a hundred different demons; winged beasts who's fangs dripped with the scorching lavas of hell. Beasts with the heads of dogs but the bodies of snakes. Horned dragons and devils that danced with the fire. 

But still, the battle raged on- from thin, sickle moon, to one so full and plump that it might fall from the sky. Finally, the smoke started growing weaker.  

This time, the magick of man was stronger. It drew its strength from the angels and the magi who had all come together for this one moment, with one purpose in mind; to defeat their greatest enemy. To reclaim the now broken earth that had been taken from them and polluted by sin and evil.

The smoke grew smaller. Its tentacles retreated and its crimson shades dulled and muted. Thinner and gray now, it screamed in ten thousand different voices and recoiled. But soon, it rose again. It took its final stand against man at the hole in the wall. It simmered and seethed and turned to fire that burned so hot, it melted the stones and scorched the bones of men who came too close to it. It lashed out with a million tongues made of razor blades and sank its talons into the earth below.   It held out like this for 3 days, before it finally succumbed to its opponent.

Robbed of all its power, the great smoke was reduced to nothing more than a barely visible wisp that could be blown around in the most gentle breeze. Finally, it retreated. It sank and slithered through the hole in the wall, forced back into the world of the unseen that lay beyond it.  It wailed at its defeat, with a sound so loud and piercing that it shook the mountains and agitated the seas.   Quickly, the stones were piled on; thick and heavy and tight and sealed together with the strongest magic known to man. A magick that would need to hold out until the end of time.

The great battle was finally over. And the wall that would imprison and hold the *Djinn back, keep them separated from man and the world they craved so badly, was completed.

The reign of smoke that had lasted for thousands of years, was finally over...

...for now. 

*Genie

***Hey guys, this is my first attempt at writing anything in this genre. Please let me know what you think? Comment below and let me know! 

JOX