Jared whimpered and whined as he ran the length of his lead, trying in vain to find a spot in the yard that would allow him to peer into the upper floor window of his brother's room. He needed to know if Kev was buying the fake Jared's act. No matter where he positioned himself, he couldn't manage to peek into the room. Perhaps as a human on two legs he could have managed it, but on all fours the angle was all wrong for that sort of spying.
He figured he could rely on his acute hearing, but perhaps the impostor forestalled him. Music, albeit at a medium volume, began to sound from the upstairs room. It was enough to mask the conversation and confound Jared's attempt at eavesdropping on the conversation. He took heart in the fact he had heard Kev tell the impostor he had discovered something interesting. Perhaps it was information that could help Jared regain his human body.
Thwarted in his attempts to ascertain what was going on inside the house between Kev and the impostor, Jared trotted over to the doghouse for a rest. When his paws left the grass for the paw-trodden circle of dirt in front of the wooden doghouse, he got an idea. He couldn't talk to Kev, but perhaps he could write out a message in the dirt.
He spent at least five minutes searching for a stick or twig that he could hold in his teeth and use to scratch a message in the dirt. Excited at finding a suitable stick, he botched the first attempt at forming the letter "H" in the dirt and had to use his front paws to smooth the dirt and make it a suitable surface for writing out his second attempt. He figured he should keep his message simple and decided to write "Help! I am Jared. The other Jared is a fake."
Despite the simplicity of the message, it was still a lot of words to write in the dirt with a simple stick held in his jaws. He kept at it until he had successfully formed a plea for Kevin's help in the dirt. He surveyed his handiwork feeling proud of himself.
The feeling evaporated, unfortunately, when he heard a derisive cackle as the intimidating form of the deity known as Wepwawet manifested itself in the dirt circle in front of the doghouse.
"I had to come see with my own eyes," the being informed him in a voice drenched with sarcasm and arrogance. "I must admit, you surprised me with how fast you managed to get yourself back into canine form."
A creepy tingling in his brain made the transformed teenager shudder despite his warm coat of shaggy fur on a warm autumn day.
Wepwawet shuffled his feet, or rather a pair of what seemed like cloven hooves, in the dirt in front of the doghouse, methodically erasing all of Jared's painstaking work. "I am sorry, but I can't have you communicating to your brother. He may have saved you once, but that feat will not repeat itself."
Jared found the spine to growl menacingly at the entity, but Wepwawet laughed that creepy laughter and responded in a loud, firm voice of authority that made Jared cringe and whimper in the being's presence. "That's better," the entity said. "I will teach you to show the proper respect."
Jared realized he couldn't defy Wepwawet, the one being who controlled whether the teenager would ultimately walk on two legs or four.
"Please, I don't want to be a dog," the teenager pled his case.
The cruel entity laughed again, and the sound swarmed like biting gnats into Jared's ears and brain. "This is not my magic," it revealed. "You and your dog, of your own free will, agreed to this exchange. I'll admit, I question the animal's intelligence in seeking such an existence, but why quibble over whats' done."
"You mean..." Jared yelped in surprise. "My own dog... my own dog tricked me?"
"Isn't that the most delightful part of this entire situation?" Wepwawet asked rhetorically, although Jared replied just the same.
"He can do that?" Jared barked.
The sound of laughter sizzling like ice crystals landing on an electric hot plate burst into Jared's mind. "Apparently," said Wepwawet. "Sadly, all you have to do to regain your body is trick him into making another exchange with you."
"It is?" Jared grasped at the straw offered by the infuriating deity.
"Yes, but I wouldn't count on it," it answered. "That animal has shown exceptional talents thus far."
"Then why are you here?" Jared whimpered. "Why did you destroy the message I made in the dirt?"
Wepwawet produced an exaggerated sigh. "Because I am not nice," it said before vanishing in a flurry of sparkles that left a smell like ash and cilantro.
At the edge of his tether, Jared tossed back his canine head and howled.