The walk had barely gotten underway when Jared began to voice exasperation with Shaggy's insistence on stopping to sniff every fire hydrant, mailbox or shrub along their path.
"Get a move on, boy," the teenager complained, distracted by nagging concerns about the strange Wepwawet entity. "Why do you have to take so long?"
Shaggy sat and lazily lifted a hind leg to try to scratch behind an ear. It wasn't easy for the ungainly sheepdog and, in his determination, the dog lost his balance and toppled onto a grassy lawn adjacent to the sidewalk.
Jared laughed. "You're a weird dog, Shaggy."
Shaggy shook himself off, looked at Jared, and barked. "You are a strange human."
Jared froze, looked around and then stared at Shaggy. "Did you just speak?"
Arf! Master Kevin had taught him that response to the command "speak."
Jared exhaled in relief. For a moment there he thought that Shaggy had spoken to him.
"Do you mean communicate?"
The words popped into Jared's thoughts and he went pale.
"Are you not well?"
Paying closer attention, Jared realized he wasn't actually hearing words. Instead the words just appeared in his thoughts. He wondered if it was Shaggy.
"Of course it is me."
"But you're a dog," Jared whispered out loud, not taking his eyes off the sheepdog in front of him.
"So were you," Shaggy said. "I think that might explain it."
"Explain what?"
"Master Kevin did something to separate us, but we are still connected," the sheepdog reasoned in thought-to-thought contact with the shocked teenager.
Shaggy began a loping stride along the paved walk. Jared let himself be pulled along by the leash he held in his hand and waited when Shaggy stopped next to his favorite hydrant, sniffing to determine what other neighborhood dogs had been recent visitors.
"Well, do you think you could pee already so we could get home?" Jared asked with a note of impatience.
Shaggy appeared to study him with intent eyes from behind a thin curtain of fur. "I believe I would make a better human than you," the dog said. "I believe Master Kevin made a mistake when he made me the dog and you the human."
Jared felt his heart begin to race. "Well, that's too bad," he said hotly.
"Don't you miss it?" Shaggy asked.
"No," Jared said, but it felt like a lie.
"Are you sure? You could be free of all those pressures."
"What pressures?"
"Meeting the pressure of your parents to get good grades, devote time to extra-curricular activities, prepare for admission exams, get into a good college and...."
"Everyone in my senior class is dealing with that," Jared interrupted.
Shaggy wagged his tale in a friendly, sympathetic gesture. "New pressures will come along to replace those. Get a job. Pay your own bills. Find a mate. Start a family."
"Shut up," Jared snapped.
Shaggy resisted. Despite the changes he had felt thanks to Master Kevin's manipulation of the amulet, the sheepdog still found it difficult to disobey an outright command from a human. Difficult, but not impossible.
"You know I'm right."
Jared decided they should start for home. He needed to discuss this development with his brother. Perhaps it was some sort of trick from the entity in his dream.
"I could prove it to you."
Jared didn't want to listen, much less respond, but a tiny, nagging voice wouldn't let it rest. "How?" Jared whispered.
"Close your eyes. Listen to me."
Jared shut out the world around him behind his eyelids. He felt the sensation of floating.
"Are you relaxed?"
A whimpering noise responded, which caused Jared's eyes to open in shock. Everything from the green trees and grass, the blue sky, and the yellow hydrant had been flattened into a dull monochromatic gray.
"Relax," Shaggy said in actual words. "Just let it all go."
A tide of information surged into Jared's brain after one sniff of the hydrant. He felt a hind leg lift almost automatically as he began urinating on the hydrant.
"That's it," Shaggy continued to speak in soft, reassuring whispers. "Let it go."
As he peed on the fire hydrant next to the sidewalk, Jared felt like Shaggy had delivered on his promise. All the doubts, insecurities and pressures seemed to fade in importance. He had a nice, long pee on his favorite hydrant and the world adjusted itself.
Shaggy stretched and tested his motor skills. "Piece of cake," he said aloud.
He enjoyed the appeal of the bright colors. "Let's head home, boy," he said to the new dog that took up a complacent loping stride for the walk back to home.