saw the bottle, barnacles and all, shatter to bits. He watched a puff of black smoke swirl up from the shards of glass and shell. Smoke?—yes, a dark cloud of the stuff; and now, as he watched, it shaped itself into a man-shaped, man-high pillar of smoke.
Danny fell back, felt warm sand cushion his fall, and stared at the broad-shouldered, thick-armed figure emerging from the smoke. A moment later, a powerfully muscled man stood before Danny, naked but for turban and loin-cloth.
“You aren’t—you didn’t—who are you?” Danny asked.
The last of the smoke condensed onto the big man, who now stood in sharp focus in the California sun. “I am he of the bottle, the djinn Kaliaz, released at last from durance in yonder glass prison.”
“A—a din? A jinny—a djinn? With wishes and stuff?”
“Were I grateful, yes,” said Kaliaz. “However, when considering thy tardiness—”
“Tardiness?” Danny swallowed hard and ran his tongue over his irregular teeth.
“Know, O condemnŠd one, that had thou released me from that spell-sealed prison of glass in the first thousand years of my captivity, I would have granted thrice three wishes and served thee, hand and foot, for all the days of your life.”
“A thousand—”
“But thou—but you released me not. Then, being still not incapable of gratitude, in spite of thy—of your neglect—”
“I wasn’t even thought of that far back!” Danny yelped.
“So, in spite of that neglect, had you released me during the next five hundred years, I would have granted three wishes and served you for not a moment more. But still you ignored my plight. And came you not, even in the two hundred fifty years after that, when the reward was but a quart of rubies. So now—”
Danny tried to keep from squeaking as he said, “You—you mean, just because I didn’t let you go when I wasn’t even born yet—and you and your stupid bottle were at the bottom of the ocean, I don’t get any reward?”
“Even less than that, for a mighty oath have I taken, that whosoever ends my captivity after neglecting to do so for these past millennia, so shall he—now you—serve me all the days of his—that is, your—life.”
“You ungrateful—”
“Stop interrupting, O slave. Capable of gratitude am I, but after such a delay, gratitude is unbefitting.” The djinn put his left hand to his loincloth and tore it off. “As I was saying, you shall now serve me and tend to my lusts, ever so often as my shaft stiffens.” With his right, he took off his turban, releasing a shoulder-length cascade of curly, jet-black hair.
Danny slowly licked his irregular teeth as he stared up at the djinn’s massive organs: impressively big balls, even in comparison to the djinn’s splendid physique, and a long, long shaft that stiffened as Danny watched. He stood up, feeling his knees quiver, looked from Kaliaz’s rising virility to the djinn’s handsome, snub-nosed face.
“So; now I begin.” Powerful arms reached for Danny; strong hands grasped his shirt and trousers. The youth felt a jerk; suddenly he stood naked in the ocean breeze, his clothes in a heap off to one side. Dark eyes studied Danny’s body, and Kaliaz’s nose wrinkled in an expression of distaste.
Danny dropped to his knees, felt them dig into warm sand as he steadied himself with both hands on Kaliaz’s thighs. With his right hand, Danny reached up and cupped Kaliaz’s balls, felt them stir in their sack; with his left, he gripped the djinn’s shaft. Danny opened his mouth, engulfed the now-rigid shaft, and began sucking.
“Ah, resigned to your fate you are—are you—whichever way it is said.”
Danny heard a gasp, felt the djinn flinch.
“But—perhaps I was too precipitate in blaming you for your tardiness—a bit of mercy, perhaps—not so hard!—your teeth—enough!”
Danny felt big hands seize his head. He sucked harder, tightened his grip on the djinn’s shaft; but Kaliaz’s great muscles were too strong for the youth; and Danny lay on his back again, looking up at the djinn.
“That’s not fair!” Danny squealed, then tried to lower his voice as he said, “I know my rights. You said—you sweared—I mean, you swored—you swore an oath and now you won’t let me t-take care of your s-shaft like you said I could.” He winced as he heard his voice go shrill again.
The naked, hard-cocked djinn winced too. “There is that. Would you rather trick me back into the bottle so we can start this—this arrangement all over again—no, you demolished that cursŠd bottle too thoroughly for even me to repair. Perhaps you would accept a measure of gratitude instead of—”
“Fuck gratitude,” Danny growled, and he got up on his knees again. “You said I had to service your mmmmmm—” He closed his mouth on the warm, hard prong again; but as he began to suck…
…Kaliaz pushed Danny off again. “Oath or no oath, I shall not let you skin me alive because your teeth are all jagged,” the djinn growled.
Danny felt a moment of panic as strong hands gripped his jaws and melted into and through skin and bone and teeth. Then wonder took him as that interpenetrating touch reshaped the curve of his jaws, shifted teeth into alignment, so that, for the first time in his life, Danny’s tongue found a smooth, even line of hardness in each jaw. He tried to speak, but his mouth was still filled with Kaliaz’s hands.
“What are you trying to say?” asked the djinn, withdrawing his hands for a moment.
“There’s a couple missing—on the left, and—urgle!” Danny said as Kaliaz reached into Danny’s teeth again.
“Now that I have started, perhaps some alteration of your jaw—these cheek bones just so—there—the ears, just a little flatter—that’s it.”
Kaliaz’s fingers moved down into Danny’s neck; Danny coughed, gagged, then sneezed. “What are you doing—oh.” He suddenly realized his voice had dropped an octave from its former pitch.
“That is better. Before, your voice…”
“Yeah—it was pretty bad. But—uh—what if somebody sees us—naked like this?” Danny—still on his knees—looked around nervously, and saw that a swirl of fog walled him and Kaliaz from the rest of the beach.
“No one shall wander through the mist I have wrapped around us.” The djinn frowned down at Danny. “Your face and voice are fine now, but the rest…” He shook his head. “One is better served—and serviced—when the server is more pleasant to one’s eyes.”
“It isn’t my fault that—hey!” said Danny, as Kaliaz pushed the youth onto his back again and knelt beside him on the sand. “You—you’re going to do—more to—to me?” Danny felt the djinn’s hands reshape and broaden Danny’s chest and shoulders.
“I have this tendency—this habit,” said the naked djinn, as his fingers sculpted lean, hard muscle onto Danny’s chest, “to completely consummate—that is—” He paused, took a breath. “I like to finish what I start. This, you must understand, is strictly to enhance my pleasure—I mean, it’s so I can enjoy the visual
