been dancing with him, and when he had been flirting with Donna, he had really been flirting with old Karny, and when he had kissed her…

Baloo felt like throwing up.

“If Louie or the guys ever hear of this,” he said. “I think I might just take my folks example, and move to India. Or maybe join the priesthood?”

“Personally, I think you’d find the priesthood too dull and lifeless,” an Arabic sounding voice said, making Baloo jump. “And from what I’ve heard, that doesn’t sound like your choice of lifestyle. And as for moving to India, tis a lovely place to visit, but don’t consider moving there unless you’re into strong spices, ultra-hot weather, and are willing to give up on cow-meat?”

Baloo swung his head from side to side, but saw no one around. “Err, thanks for the advice,” he said unsurely. “But… where are you?”

“By your left foot, about two centimetres,” the voice replied.

Baloo blinked, but looked down. He still saw nothing, except for an old musky looking bottle that looked as if it hadn’t had a good clean in over a thousand years. 

“That’s right,” the voice continued. “The old bottle. Be a pal and pick it up, would you?”

Baloo looked around him, but still saw no one. “This some kind of new pirate trick to get me to crack?”

“Oh no,” the voice assured him. “I promise you that at the moment I have no ties to them, for my former master has made it clear that he no longer desires my services.”

Baloo didn’t know what to make of it, but he picked the bottle up, as he was told. It was old, and had a sort of Arabic style to it, but nothing special.

“Many thanks, kind sir,” the voice said. It seemed to be coming right from out of the bottle itself? “Now, if you would just give the bottle a bit of a tiny rub, then we could meet and talk face to face.”

Baloo raised his eyebrows a little, but seeing as he had nowhere to go at the moment, considering he couldn’t find his way out, he did as he was instructed and rubbed the bottle.

The second he did, the bottle jumped out of his hands and seemed to cough and splutter, and a thick gold smoke rose out of it, swirling around the room before taking shape and forming into…some sort of a man?

The Genie cracked his knuckles. ‘Many praises to Allah and to Hadji, king of all genies!” he praised, and looked to Baloo. “And of course, my eternal thanks to you, kind sir. My servitude to mister Don Karnage up to now has been most… stressful, to say the least.”

Baloo blinked his eyes at the remarkable sight. The man had no legs???

“What are… “ Baloo began.

“I am a Genie,” the Genie quickly explained. “My name is Abdul Muhammad Shiraz Rajid Majid Ali Harvinder Aaryan Absi Ghulam Maher Rafi Zamil, Junior. Genie Number 708, Level B… But you can call me Abby.”

Baloo stared at him. “Err, ooo-kay… Abby?”

The Genie bowed. “Many thanks. It is nice to hear someone call me by my name, and not just by simply ‘Genie’.” He snorted at the word ‘Genie’. “Anyone would think that was all us Genie’s names, particularly that pirate captain.”

“Whoa, whoa,” Baloo raised his hands. “Karnage knows about you?”

“Of course,” the Genie floated down to Baloo. “He was the one who originally woke and released me from my bottle. As the custom demands, I must remain in servitude to him until my bottle is past onto a new master. Thankfully, that day has now come, and none too soon I might add.” The Genie bowed again before Baloo. “I am at your service, my master! For whomever holds my bottle in their hand, their every wish is henceforth my command!”

“Slow down,” Baloo said hurriedly, and then rushed over to the open door, closing it before anyone past by and saw them. “Okay, you’re a Genie. I get that. I’ve seen enough crazy things in this world to believe in a weird thing or two. What I don’t get, is if Karnage has had you this whole time, then why didn’t he just get you to simply wish up all the treasure he could handle? Why did he go after me and some cheap sweets he thought were jewels?”

The Genie shrugged. “I am only a level B Genie, master.”

“Level B?” Baloo asked wondering.

“Level B Genies can grant as many wishes as your heart desires,” the Genie explained. “Unfortunately, the wishes don’t last. For when the last ray of sunset comes and goes, after you have made your wish, the wish dies and all its magic with it. And everything goes back to the way it was before.”

“Ah,” Baloo said, understanding. “That explains why Karnage isn’t living it up high in the provenances then.”

“Indeed, master.”

“So how long you been with him then?”

“Oh, too long it seems,” the Genie said, swooning in mid-air. “Almost a week. Never is he satisfied with my work, despite all the tireless magic I put in.”

“What’s he been having you do, if he’s not conjuring up treasure?” Baloo queried.

“He believed you to be in possession of some jewels,” the Genie replied. “Since I couldn’t steal them, or find out anything about them, my former master decided to try and find out for himself where they were. So he made a number of wishes to go spy on you.”

“They weren’t jewels,” Baloo told him. “Those emeralds that Karny was after, they were nothing more than some new sweets I’m delivering tomorrow. Nothing valuable about them at all, unless you have a sweet-tooth.”

“Ahh, that explains it then,” Abby’s face brightened. “Oh my, this is such a relief. I thought that my magic had been failing, that maybe I was going through a mid-millennium crisis, but now… “

“Whoa, whoa, slow down,” Baloo shushed him. “What you talking about?”

Abby explained. “Karnage’s first wish for me was that I would transport him to what we thought at the time were gemstones. But the spell would not work. I didn’t know why until now, but if what you say is true, and the gems are indeed no more than mere sweets, then that explains it… When I originally cast the spell, to send Karnage to the emeralds, I was looking for precious gemstones, not sweets. Since these gemstones of yours do not exist, then obviously I could not transport anyone to them. For not even a Genie can transport someone to something that doesn’t exist.”

“Oh… well,” Baloo looked at him blankly. “Good for you, I guess.”

Suddenly, Baloo remembered what Abby had been saying. “Wait! You said Karnage has been spying on me for the past week, in disguise?” Baloo asked, worried about who else Karnage might have been posing as this week…

Lord, if he had been that cute blonde bear-girl at the Mall yesterday, he was going to kill himself…

“What else has he been disguising himself as?” Baloo asked nervously.

“Well, his first wish was to become invisible, to investigate your home and surroundings, but that didn’t go too well,” the Genie began. “Then he wished to remain visible, but to remain inconspicuous, unnoticeable, so I turned him into a chair. Unfortunately, it was a chair that you used frequently, so he was obviously not too thrilled about that… “

Baloo suddenly stopped listening for a moment, as all this was starting to sound familiar.

“Hold it for one second, cloud-guy,” Baloo told him. “Let me guess his other wishes… My guess is he wanted to someone who would be close to me, so he could find out all about those supposed emeralds. So he wished to be a… a baby?”

The Genie raised his eyebrows at him. “Why yes. However did you know?”

Baloo sighed, mildly in relief. “I’ve sort of been having some crazy dreams this week. At least I thought they were. Tell me, did any of his wishes also result in maybe turning the world’s whole population into me?”

The Genie nodded, astounded at Baloo’s memory. “But… however did you know, master? No one, aside from whomever made the wish, and I of course, should have any memory of the day’s events, when the wish takes place. You shouldn’t be able to remember any of it.”

Baloo shrugged. “Beats me. I just thought they were the result of having too much ice cream before bedtime.”

The Genie thought for a moment. “Wait one moment,” he suddenly said. “Master, have you ever be exposed to anything of the supernatural variety?”

Baloo gave a short snort of laughter. “You mean besides this?” he said, and thought. “Well, actually now that you mention it… Yeah, I have on a few occasions. I’ve met up and battled with ghosts,