I'd be quite flattered to be honest! I'm glad you enjoyed it so much.

Thank you :)

haha, those onion do be doing the rounds :P

I'm glad you liked it :)

Really good story, I love the whole concept.

Ha ha, I hadn't thought of it like that. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Lucan went to speak and found the words sticking in his throat. "...I...I want..." Images of him being a bard flashed before him. Crowds cheering as he played his lute, people tossing coins and girls calling his name. He smiled for a moment and then remember his father. He felt the mark on his face with his hand. He sighed and went to make a wish. He had barely opened his mouth when the Genie spoke.

"...NO. WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO ASK FOR IS NOT YOUR WISH. YOU HAVE NOT COME ALL THIS WAY TO MAKE THE WISH OF ANOTHER. NOW TELL ME....WHAT...IS YOUR WISH....?"

Lucan tried to talk but nothing came out. He thought about what he wanted, what he really wanted. The dream of being a bard soon fell from his mind, his thoughts soon turned to his drunken father.

"...AH...NOW WE GET CLOSER...YOU WISH TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR FATHER...FOR HE IS THE CAUSE OF YOUR PAIN...WITHOUT HIS HARSH WORDS YOU COULD FIND COMFORT...WITHOUT HIS HEAVY HAND YOU COULD FIND PEACE...WITHOUT HIS VILE YOU COULD BECOME A TRUELY GREAT BARD.....WHAT YOU WISH....IS TO DEAL WITH HIM..."

A mixture of emotions swelled up inside Lucan. "You...you have no ri....how....I....." He sagged.

"...Yeah...Yeah I do. That's what I want." It was true. Lucan had hated how his father was, he was nice once back when Lucan's mother was still alive, but that was many years ago. Now...now he was something else. Something Lucan hated.

"...TELL ME...TELL ME YOU WISH...TELL ME HOW YOU WANT TO RIGHT THIS WRONG...DO YOU WISH FOR YOUR FATHER TO SUFFER?....TO FEEL THE WRATH OF DEMONS FOR HIS SINS?....OR PERHAPS YOU WISH FOR STRENGH?....STRENGH TO FINALLY DELIVER ONTO HIM THAT WHICH HE DELIVERED ONTO YOU....?"

Anger bubbled inside Lucan. He could hurt his father, the same way he hurt him, or worse! He felt the mark on his face with his fingers and thought good it would be to deal it back, tenfold! He could. He could do it...all he had to do was wish it and...."No." Said Lucan.

"...NO?"

"Yes, he has hurt me...but that does not mean I want to hurt him back. There was a time, long ago, when he was kind and had love in his heart. When mother died....the pain was too much for him. It still is, all these years later. I hate what he has done, but I do not hate him...I feel sorry for him. I just wish there was something that could help him find happiness again, something to help make him the person I once knew him as.....I...." There was a pause and Lucan froze. He realised what it was he said, the exact words he had just spoken. He looked towards the Genie who merely stared into the distance.

"WAIT, WAIT...NO I DIDN'T MEAN TO...."

"....NEXT...." Echoed the Genie.

As the doors to the side exit opened, Lucan felt his body sag, He had come all this way and blew it. He walked towards the exit and turned to look at the genie. For a slight moment, Lucan could have sworn that the Genie looked directly at him...that it's eyes seemed to shimmer a little more so.

"...Hurry up, I ain't go all day!" Bellowed the armed guard holding the door open. Lucan snapped back and mumbled an apology. He looked back to the Genie who was again staring into the distance.

The journey home was long. Though not long enough for Lucan. He would take the boredom of another cart ride over the dread of entering his home empty handed. He sighed and braced himself. What he wasn't expecting to find when he entered was a middle aged woman preparing food.

"Oh! Hello there love. Would I be right in guessing your Lucan?" She asked with a surprised yet friendly expression.

"...Ye...yes...and who are you....?" Asked Lucan.

She smiled. "Oh, where are my manners? I'm Margaret. I met your father a couple of weeks ago and, well, he seems such a nice man." She continued to chop vegetables.

"Mind you, he had a bit of an attitude on him when we met, but I soon put a stop to that!" she laughed as she chopped a carrot with a large, sharpe, knife.

"...Who are you talking to Margaret? Oh!" Lucan's father walked into the kitchen. He looked sober for the first time in a long time.

There was a long pause. It was broken by Margaret. "...Well? Are you going to welcome your son home after his long journey?" It sounded like a question, but really it was an order given with a warm smile.

"It's good to see you Lucan. Did you make your wish?"

"I..." Lucan was cut off. "Of course he made his wish, otherwise he wouldn't have come home. Now what were we talking about before....?" This was directly at Lucan's father.

"..Ah. yeah. Lucan...." He began. "I....I would like to introduce you to Margaret. She...she means a lot to me. If...if it's ok with you, I'd like for all of us to have dinner together tonight...."

"No drinks." Stated Margaret.

"...No drinks." Repeated Lucan's father. "...and...and maybe after we have eaten. Would you...is it alright you play the lute for us?"

Lucan blinked a couple of times. "...You...you want me to play?"

"Yeah. I know...I know I've been a bit.....but I really...." He trailed off for second, then looked at Margaret's smile. "...your actually really good, son. I'd actually like to hear you play."

Lucan felt a mixture of emotions. In the end he agreed.

That night all three eat dinner together and enjoyed the music Lucan played on his flute.

Lucan was in his room, getting dressed for the journey. Part of him could not believe the day had finally come when he could make the trip himself. When he could make "The Journey to the Genie.".

It would be a long, long trip to the Capital from the small town where he lived. He had never even been outside the town before. He had heard about the Capital though, oh yes. He had heard about how big it is...the mage towers there that reached up into the sky...the people, so many people that you could walk down the same street daily and always meet someone new.

Lucan packed clothing, dried food, a map of the route to the capital from his town...a small amount of coins he managed to hide from his father....lastly, Lucan packed his lute. Playing it had always made him feel better when life could too much. There were times when he thought about just running away and becoming a bard. It was always just a thought though. Lucan could never bring himself to actually do it. He was good at playing. He tended to practice when his father had passed out from drinking, he learned from a young age not to play it when his father was still awake. Now though... now the dream of him becoming a care free bard could become true. He only had to make it to the capital and make his wish. Then...then it might just happen.

Fully packed, and freshly dressed, Lucan felt ready. Almost ready. He put his hood up over his head, hiding his face. Hiding the recent mark on the side of his face. Oh to be a bard, to be free to go from place to place and just play music. Lucan centred himself and went to leave, when he was stopped by a voice.

"...Making the Journey are ya....?" The voice came from another room. It was cold and hardened.

Lucan Hesitated. "...I am, father. Yes."

"...and what are you going to wish for....?"

The young bard wannabe sighed. "...For....great riches upon this house, father."

There was a drunken, low pitched, grunt of approval. With that, Lucan left. He left the house he had grown up in, and when he got on the back of a slow moving, mull pulled cart, he gradually left the town. He left the only world he had ever known.

Over the next few weeks, Lucan rode many carts from town to town, all of which were pulled by mulls. These were neither quick, nor were in any way interesting. He soon learned that once you have seen one field slowly pass you by, you have seen them all. Still, this gave him time to practice his Lute, and to his surprise often delighted other passengers on the cart enough they would sometimes tip him. Though mostly in vegetables as many of the locals them had little coin on them.

Many cart rides later and Lucan was fast asleep. This wasn't an issue until he started snoring, louder and louder. It didn't take long for another cart rider to get annoyed and harshly nudge him. This snapped him back to reality. He was about to voice his annoyance at being so rudely awoke, when he noticed the Capital in front of him...or rather a very small section of the Capital, that looked extremely large. Lucan got off the cart, paying the driver with a large amount of vegetables that he was given at the last town. He barely blinked as he drank in the sight before him. The huge walls, the sheer amount of people, the huge spiralling towers. Then there was the hill. Right in the middle of the capital, visible...even from where he stood, was the Grand Hall of The Genie. "...wow...." The word slipped out of him.

"You! Boy! Here for the Journey to Genie are you?" The voice came from a heavily armed guard who was appeared next to Lucan. He said it knowing full well what the answer was going to be.

"...Oh..err..yes..I..."

"Straight through the gate on the left there! There's a red brick path on the streets, follow it until you find a bunch of people queuing! NOW HURRY UP!"

Lucan wanted to ask a few questions, but the guard had already walked off and was half way through saying the same lines of dialogue to another traveller. Lucan then noticed the sheer amount of guards saying the same thing to tons more people who were arriving at the capital. With so many people, the queue to the Hall of Genie could take a while if Lucan wasn't quick. He darted in through the gates and quickly spotted the red brick path.

"Ok, that was easy, maybe this won't be so bad." He thought to himself. He followed the path around one street and soon found himself at the back of a queue of people. Lucan knew that there were many people who came to see the Genie, but the fact the Hall was still so clearly far away...after all, he was only one street deep into the Capital...and the Hall was in the very centre!

...The sun set on the Capital...and hours later...it rose again. Lucan slowly stood up and stretched. He was tired. He hadn't slept, not really, just rested. He wished he could sleep though. If he were to sleep he would loose his position in the queue. Resting meant he was still awake, to some degree at least. Nobody tried cutting in front of him while he did so. The "Journey to the Genie" was taken very seriously, and armed guards patrolled the queue to make sure everything was in order. Lucan yawned and looked around him. The Hall of the Genie was so close now, it was only a matter of hours before he was in. That was little to do to pass the time. He tried talking to the person in front and behind him, but was quickly and rudely told to mind his own business. He spent part of his time watching the people of the Capital go about their day, and the other part studying the other members of the great queue. There seemed to be people of all walks of life hoping to have their wish granted by the Genie. Lucan had time to ponder them all. There were poor men, rich men... old and young. There were those who were clearly in love, and those who seemed spurned by a lover. There were groups in the queue who talked freely about how they wanted to change the world, some of the ideas sounded good, others sounded quite scary.

Another day had almost passed but now...now Lucan had made inside the Hall of the Genie. Or at least the entrance of it anyway. There was still a large queue to the doors of the hall itself, outside which stood two armed guards who would open the door for the next person.

"....NEXT....!" Came a voice from behind the doors. The armed guards opened the doors, allowing the next person to enter, before closing them again. The voice from behind the door seemed to echo, though Lucan could have sworn that he never actually heard an echo. Time passed and he found himself stood right in front of the doors. He looked towards one of the guards and gave a nervous half smile. The guard ignored him and stared forward into nothingness.

"...NEXT....!" Came the voice. The doors opened and Lucan slowly stepped into the Hall of the Genie. The doors closed behind him. Lucan's jaw dropped at two things. One was the sheer scale of the Hall. Not only was it tall, but it was long. It somehow seemed even bigger instead than it did from the outside, the pillars that held up the ceiling were numerous and thick. The second thing about the Hall, was the Genie itself, a giant which sat cross legged at the far back of the hall. Even in such a enormous space the Genie seemed cramped, such was it's grand scale that it's head was pressed against the ceiling and it's arms trapped within the walls. Though it had the shape of a human, it's skin looked like light shining through water. Transparent yet bright and shimmering. It's eyes were large and pupil-less. It did not look at Lucan, but rather stared blindly and unblinkingly into a fixed point somewhere in the distance behind him.

"....LUCAN WALKER....WHAT IS YOUR WISH....?"

...Continued below