Genie looked around nervously at the strange world she found herself in. It wasn't a cave of wonders, but was a very old place. Marble walls and columns rose multiple stories into the air. It reminded Genie of a place she had seen before, somehow. Maybe it was a place she had been before she was imprisoned -- an inkling of a memory that existed just beyond her present knowledge. Then she noticed a placard nearby, one with a picture of her lamp on it. "Authentic Arabian Oil Lamp, Made Circa 750."
"They put me in a museum!?" Genie exclaimed. That partially mortified her, being shown off for so long as an exhibit. But it also shocked her. How had that happened without anyone ever freeing her? Was there some other component that decided who could be a Genie's Master?
"Uh, I guess so? No one's been in this place since The Volcano erupted." The boy said. He looked adolescent and a bit scrawny. His clothes were tattered but rugged and dark hair was unkempt. He had tanned skin and dark eyes. He also carried a rucksack already partly filled with loot from the museum.
"Volcano? What volcano?"
"The big one in the middle of America. It buried the entire continent in a foot of ash. I guess you were already sealed up by then, though." He looked at Genie in a strange way. A strange way that Genie wasn't used to and made her cross her arms across her chest, deemphasizing her breasts and shapely body.
"Thank you, o Great Master, for answering my questions and for releasing me from my lamp. I shall reward you with five wishes of whatever your heart desires, be they in my bounds to grant."
The boy smiled. "Uh, not just yet. I'd rather get to know you first." That made Genie's sultry eyes light up with surprise. "My name's Aladdin, by the way." He held out his hand. It surprised Genie, and so, too, did the name, though she couldn't figure out why . . .
