Ḥamād looked at his current body carefully, touching several parts to determine the muscle mass of the body.
"It was very weak." He sighted deeply. "But it was okay, though. All I need to do is work out, and this body would be in the good shape in no time."
"Don't waste wehlāl like that, young man. You got some other potential."
Suddenly, another feminine sound heard. It wasn't from Ḥuwayda. This one sounds old. Like Gāber to be precise, plus good attitude and wisdom.
Before Ḥamād had time to look for the source of the voice, Ḥuwayda had already shouted very excitedly. The graceful impression that Ḥamād felt earlier changed. She sounded like a child now. An innocent child who was spoiled by her mother.
In a good way.
"Umma!" She turn around, jump excitedly to her mother, and hug her tightly.
And there she was, and old lady as beautiful as Ḥuwayda, walked from some corner of the room, approached the three people who were sitting on the floor. She wore the same exact type of attire like Ḥuwayda, clear blue-sky color, with some touch of elegant jewelry here and there.
She hug Ḥuwayda tightly.
"Yā ḥelwa! My sweet heart! You're grown up so much since last time umma was home."
She then released his embrace, looked at Ḥuwayda with a very calm smile, then stroked the djinn girl's head with her left hand, while Ḥuwayda kissed her right hand.
After some times, Ḥuwayda began to pull her hand towards Gāber and Ḥamād. Saw that, Ḥamād stand and bowed to her paying his respect to the elder. Meanwhile, Gāber sit still in his position.
The cold facial expression that Gāber had been showing all this time, disappeared instantly. Replaced by a smile that held millions of longings. Accompanied by a very romantic sentence.
"You're finally home, ayyatuhā naṣībi men el donyā."
It's very sweet that Ḥamād couldn't believe it came from the same exact person that bad mouth him from the beginning.
'You're finally home, o my part of this world.'
The woman knelt down in front of Gāber, then kissed his hand, while Gāber stroked the woman's head gently.
"Ya gawwāzi, Rabbenā ijazni argi' bas bi riḍāk we nour 'aynak¹." The wife said softly.
This scenery is so heartwarming for Ḥamād. A beloved wife who just came back from journey, welcomed very warmly by her children and husband. It's remind him of his gone parents and little sisters.
And there he is, standing as a stranger that could be ruining the atmosphere, and turn it to some awkward situations.
Very slowly, he began to take small steps away to moved to another room. However, Gāber called out to him, his voice slightly raised.
"Why are you going?! Pay respect to my beloved wive!"
Awkwardly, Ḥamād turn him self to them, and did the exact same thing the woman did for her husband to her. Respectfully.
The difference is, he hasn't say anything while kissed her hand. Instead, he said some lip service after that.
"Ahlan yā Umm Ḥuwayda, ezzay eḥwālak²?"
"Ana 'āsh³, o human. May God bless you." She replied.
And after that, Gāber introduced them both. Telling both parties about a simple background of each other. It turned out that Ḥuwayda's mother's name was Shadia, who wandered outside to fullfil some prophecies.
He didn't explain the prophecies, leaving his wife to explain them herself in the future if she wished.
Shadia turned her gaze to her daughter and husband. "I'm gonna tell both of you about my journey later. For now, this human in front of us need to know the truth about his current body."
Ḥamād's eyes wide open.
Turned out the puzzles appearing it self.
"He had transfered to a human body. That's all." Gāber said.
"Not any particular human body, habībi⁴. It's a shayṫān's body."
While hearing this revelation, Ḥamād's breath hitched; his fingers dug into his knees. He knew about shayṫān, it even appeared in his world's traditions.
It said that shayṫān was an evil djinns and humans who whispers every humans to do sins. He had a bad feeling about this.
Hold up. This is not my original world. It could be any other meanings behind this. Not literally like shayṫān in my original world.
Right?
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Shadia. Can you elaborate, please?"
"Don't tell me you had your shayṫān version in your world, brat." Gāber asked in disbelief.
"Correct. But the shayṫān in my world was an evil entities that tempt people to commit sins. How about shayṫān's version of this world?" Ḥamād turned his gaze to the three of them.
The three of them exchanged glances, their expressions looking slightly concerned.
"It's not that different here, child." Shadia's gaze anchored to Ḥamād's eyes, sending a comfort. "In this world, shayṫān is a human who makes a pact with a djinn, or vice versa. They did this to got each other's traits.
"Of course, there's a lot of bad shayaṫīn⁵ out there, who did all the dirty stuff like murdering, attempted human to sins, so on, and so on.
"But, there was a good shayaṫīn too. They protect humans from any unseen dangers they weren't aware of."
Ḥamād's feeling got mixed up. He was glad that the connotation of shayṫān in this world wasn't that bad entirely. But in the other hands, he couldn't erase his own connotation about shayṫān as an evil entities.
"But it doesn't make any sense, habibti⁶. I can't sense any traces of astral energies in this idiotic syabaṫa's body." Gāber's both hand felw in the air, enhancing his disbelief expression.
"Me neither." Ḥuwayda added.
"It was because both of you doesn't had enough experiences with shayṫān before. Throughout my journey, I encountered any kind of shayṫān, in any kind of their conditions." Shadia's gazed got back to Ḥamād.
"This current body of Ḥamād had died before. His astral energies got suck dry. That was why both of you couldn't recognize his identity as shayṫān. And that was also the cause of his death. A shayṫān, both version djinns and humans, would died simply because they had not enough astral energies in their body."
Well, that's make sense now. That was why I couldn't find any wound that killed this body.
Wait.
"Sorry. Was that the reason why I woke up in this body while there's wehlāl happened?"
The three of them, they couldn't hide their shock expression. Eyes wide open, mouth opened slightly, all of them.
"That's made sense. Anyway, let's hope that you weren't a part of those evil shayaṫīn. To this exact day, I couldn't forgive them." Gāber muttered. A slight rage could be felt by Ḥamād.
"Let's hope the best, shall we? But one thing, we couldn't conclude anything yet, child." With her voice, Shadia tried to calm him down, even though she herself couldn't really.
She sighted deeply.
Those exact event happened in the past, she couldn't forget it. Her family's first encounter with evil shayṫān turned out to be her every-night's nightmare.
It was the sole reason why she wandered around the world for years, trying her best to fullfil the prophecies about "The Unseen" world. To make it better.
"I guess we could do sukūn together, now." Ḥuwayda said to crack the awkwardness that suddenly happened. As she stand, her parents followed her.
"Seems like a good idea, ḥelwa."
"Came up with us, brat. We gonna teach you the way to prevent you got another astral energies depletion."
They went to the rooftop in silence. The only thing heard was their heavy footsteps. In his mind, from the context of conversation, and why suddenly went to rooftop, Ḥamād knew what sukūn is. And he wasn't really sure.
"Now sit, child."
Ḥamād did that. He faced forward, gazing at the vast desert around him. An endless sands.
"You gonna teach me how to absorb energies from wehlāl, right?"
"Correct." Shadia sat behind him, touching his back with her palms.
"Are you sure this is safe for me?"
"More than safe, child. In fact, if you didn't learn this technic, you could die from the same situation in the future." She closed her eyes. "Are you ready?"
Ḥamād turned his gaze to Gāber and Ḥuwayda. They were already seated, eyes closed, their lips moved slowly, as if they were chanting something.
He swallowed his saliva hardly. "I'm ready."
"Now close your eyes. If you feel something strange flowing in your body, just follow it, feel it. That's my astral energies."
Ḥamād noded his head.
Right after that, like what Shadia said, he felt something flowing through his vain. Like flowing blood, yet distinctly palpable.
"Focus on that energies. It would guide you to familiarize with any other astral energies flowing around."
It felt warm. A warming sensation flowing like blood within, circulated in his heart, then distributed through every part of his body.
"To felt the astral energies around, your skin should familiarize with it too. Now, imagine you made a cut on your palm, big enough to made you bleed."
In Ḥamād's mind, an imaginary knife appeared and cut his palm. Even though it was only in his mind, he could feel the sensation of pain, which made him wince a little.
At that exact moment, Huwayda and her mother exclaimed in surprise, while Gāber cursing.
"Robbi yastur!⁷"
What was happening?
Behind his eyelids, a vision unfolded; thick, tar-like blood oozing from his palm, reeking of decay. His stomach lurched.
"Is that something wrong, Mrs. Shadia?" Ḥamād's voice trembled with unease.
"Zendi'⁸!" Without warning, Gāber's hands clamped around Ḥamād's throat like an iron shackles, strangled him, and lifted the man's body high.
"You were an evil shayṫān! Die here you ungrateful bastard!"
***
Notes:
(¹) Ya gawwāzi, Rabbenā ijazni argi' bas bi riḍāk we nour 'aynak.
(Translation: o my husband, our God allow me to get home only 'cause your will and light of your eyes).
(²) Ahlan yā Umm Ḥuwayda, ezzay eḥwālak?
(Translation: welcome, o Ḥuwayda's mother. How are you?).
(³) Anā 'āsh.
(Translation: I'm alive. It's kind of similar with "All good!").
(⁴) Habībi: My love. It used by a woman to address his beloved husband.
(⁵) shayaṫīn: Plural from of shayṫān.
(⁶) habibti: My love. It used by a man to address his beloved wife.
(⁷) rabbi yastur!: May God protect us.
(⁸) Zendi'!: infidel! (A form of insult).
***