“So are we going to work on this project or not, Shiloh?”

“I vote you do all the work and I supervise.”

“That’s not how this works and you know it.”

“But can it though?”

“Shiloh!”

“Fine, fine, I’ll help. What exactly do we need to do again?”

“Collect specific items that would best represent our heritage and explain their significance.”

I sighed loudly and scratched my head. Despite Shiloh’s somewhat odd heritage, he had it easy. We all traced our genealogy earlier this year in Global Studies class, and, as we all expected, he was just a half breed mix of Saudi and Sioux Native American. An odd mix, yes, but nothing we didn’t already know. Mine weren’t unexpected either, but much more complex. Pretty much, take the continent of Europe, then place that in a pot, sprinkle in some Peruvian and Cherokee, and that’s where I come from. I had asked my teacher to let me lighten my load on the countries a bit, but he had been adamant. I had to get a relic from every country to symbolize my heritage. Fun. Shiloh and I had agreed to meet and pick out his relics first, since we had to do less on his side of the project, then we’d tackle mine. Thus, we were currently preparing to enter Shiloh’s attic in search of his ancestral relics.

Shiloh led me down the short hall outside his room. He pulled a stepping stool from nearby and climbed on it. I had to keep myself from laughing, since he always made fun of my height, yet he couldn’t even reach the pull cord for the attic without a boost himself. Shiloh yanked down the attic cord and down came a ladder for us to climb. Shiloh tested it first before climbing up. I followed close behind. It was warm and cluttered in the attic, not unlike my own. It was also very dusty. I sneezed and rubbed my nose.

“I think I know exactly what I want to do for my Saudi heritage. It’s this way.” Shiloh began to climb through the mess. I had trouble not stumbling and almost fell a couple of times, but I managed to somewhat follow Shiloh through the clutter. I stepped over one box, but when I went to lift up my other foot, I found it was caught on a nail. I lost my balance and collapsed into a pile of nearby boxes, causing a mini-avalanche on top of me. I heard Shiloh call my name but I couldn’t respond due to the large amount of dust that had entrapped me. I began to push my way through the boxes when I felt something hit my shoulder. I glanced over and saw a lone blue dreamcatcher. It was obviously Native American in design, perfect for Shiloh’s Native American side. I finally burst through the top of the pile and coughed up a decade’s worth of dust. Shiloh helped me out of the pile and brushed me off.

“Hey, are you okay? That was quite the avalanche,” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I responded in a hoarse voice. “But I might need some water to clear all the dust I breathed in.” Shiloh nodded and turned to head back downstairs when I caught him by the shoulder. “Oh, I found something for your Native American heritage.” I showed him the dreamcatcher and his eyes widened. “It’s just a bit dusty but I can fix that.” I blew on the dreamcatcher right as Shiloh yelled,

“Wait, no, Sloane! Don’t do-” A bright flash of light suddenly blinded me. I closed my eyes in pain and when I opened them again, we were most definitely not in Shiloh’s attic anymore, or Kansas if I had to guess. I was like ninety-nine percent sure neither Kansas, South Carolina, or Shiloh’s attic had long flowing deserts in them.

“What the? What did I just do?”

“We’re inside my lamp,” a familiar voice said with exasperation. I turned around and saw Shiloh, except it wasn’t Shiloh. Shiloh’s face remained relatively the same except for now he had what I recognized to be the Native American symbol of the gila monster, representing dreams, on his right cheek. His usually long black hair was even longer now. It was pulled back into a higher ponytail with three golden bangles and reached down to about his waist. He was also wearing a thin golden head piece with a red jewel hanging over his forehead. His skin was the same dark Saudi brown it always was, but he had all sorts of black lines traced up and down his arms. He had another golden bangle on his left bicep as well. Shiloh was shirtless but was wearing baggy white pants with golden slippers. Oh, and also, he was floating in the air. It took me a minute to realize what this meant.

“You’re a genie!”

“Give the woman a prize, she figured out I’m half genie,” Shiloh replied sarcastically. He snapped his fingers and three pairs of hands appeared in the air clapping. I could tell Shiloh wasn’t exactly in a good mood with me. “Sloane, next time I tell you not to do something, why don’t you not do it? This is a family secret, you know. Now I have to grant you wishes. Ugh.” Shiloh huffed and his legs turned into the classic blue genie tail. He floated over to me and rolled his eyes. “All right, what do you want?”

“Mm… nothing at the moment. Really I’m more curious about all of this than anything else.” Shiloh raised his eyebrows but said nothing, indicating for me to continue. “So, first I should probably address the elephant in the room, I don’t recall touching a lamp, so… how did we get here exactly?” Shiloh sighed and waved his hand in the air. In front of me, an image shimmered into existence. I recognized it immediately. It was the blue dreamcatcher I had found when Shiloh’s attic avalanched me.

“See, all genie, half or otherwise, are required to be bound to something when they are born. If not, our spirits can become restless or even destructive, and our powers can overwhelm us. It’s not a pretty picture but it has happened more times than I’d like to admit. We can be bound to anything that is consider a mystical item, but it has to be connected to our families in some way, shape, or form. It can’t be just some random item, it has to be linked to us somehow. Thus, when I was born, I was linked to a dreamcatcher, since those are important items in Native American history.” Shiloh sighed and shrugged. “They’re always dusty, so any time you clean off the dust, you summon or enter the genie’s lamp.” The dreamcatcher image disappeared and Shiloh gave me an irritated look. “Anything else?”

“Does Patty know?” This seemed to catch Shiloh off guard. The half-genie glanced down and I noticed a sadness in his eyes. Shiloh shook his head and let out a loud, wanting sigh.

“No, I wish he did. But I can’t just up front and tell him. The rules forbid it. I can only be revealed in my true form to my masters or previous masters. If I intentionally show myself to someone else, I’ll lose all my powers and my parents will be forced to disown me. Or at least, my dad will, and my mom isn’t going to leave him just for me. I mean… well you know.” I nodded slightly. Shiloh’s dad liked him more than his mom, that much was always apparent. Shiloh’s mom always favored his sisters.

“So he’s never even seen the dreamcatcher?” Shiloh shook his head then smirked and I prepared for the evil joke about to be said.

“No, but I wish he’d rub my lamp someday,” Shiloh answered, wiggling his eyebrows. I groaned loudly and shook my head.

“Shiloh, I swear, even as a genie, your jokes still suck.” Shiloh merely chuckled as an idea occurred to me. “Hey, can’t I just wish you could tell him?” Shiloh thought it over then shook his head.

“No, you can wish for him to find my dreamcatcher, but other than that you can’t do much in the helping him find out department.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Shiloh froze for a second before realizing we were actually doing this.

“W-Wait! Sloane, are you sure? This might freak Patty out a little bit and I don’t-” I leveled a glare at him then said,

“I wish you wouldn’t try to protest my plan!” Shiloh let out a loud groan then snapped his fingers. He erupted in pink smoke and shrugged.

“Congrats, you’ve wasted your first wish.”

“Well, good, because that was just a warm up. Here comes my second wish.”

***

“Why did you guys say you needed me again?”

Shiloh, Patty, and I all walked through the local Hobby Lobby store, currently searching for stuff for my side of the heritage project. In addition, Shiloh’s infamous dreamcatcher was hidden in the store, but my wish made it to where only the three of us could see it. We just had to make it look natural to have Patty get it and blow it off.

“I’ve got so many countries for my side of the project do you seriously think I’ll get it done in time with Shiloh as my partner?” Patty nodded and smirked.

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

“Hey!” Patty and I laughed as Shiloh fumed. We turned down a nearby aisle full of feathers, string, and dreamcatchers. My eyes immediately flew to the blue dreamcatcher that was Shiloh’s lamp. Shiloh’s head twisted a little; he was casting a glance at it too.

“Oh, Shiloh, this would be a good thing for my Cherokee heritage. Patty, why don’t you pick out a dreamcatcher?” Patty shrugged a little.

“What do you want?”

“Hm… maybe a blue one with some really nice feathers.” Patty walked down the aisle and picked up one dreamcatcher.

“How is this one?”

“Mm… no it’s too light of a blue. Go for more of a royal blue.” It took Patty four more times to get the right dreamcatcher.

“Are you sure, Sloane? It's so dusty. Ugh. Hang on, let me blow it off.”

Patty blew hard on the dreamcatcher and the world around us erupted in a bright light. I found myself back in Shiloh’s genie desert. I looked back at Patty. The poor Hispanic boy seemed to be having a slight panic attack. His head snapped back and forth, observing the vast landscape around them.

“Where the heck? What did I do?”

“Blew on the dreamcatcher,” I answered. Patty looked over at me. His eyes nearly popped out of his head and I didn't need to know what was going on. “Shiloh’s behind me, isn't he?”

“That's Shiloh?” Patty asked in a squeak of a voice.

“Yeah, that's Shiloh,” I heard Shiloh say. He floated around me and lowered himself in front of Patty.

It didn't take much of an explanation. Patty had to calm down first but once that happened he seemed pretty understanding. Shiloh even let us in on a little known genie secret, we get more than three wishes. It reminded me that technically I had one more wish. I knew exactly what I wanted.

“Shiloh? Can I ask for one more wish?” Shiloh looked over at me and shrugged.

“Sure, why not?”

“I wish we were finished with this project already.”