With Mitzi's alluring and overpowering scent still clogging his nostrils and swamping his thoughts, it was a wonder that Jared picked up the faint but telltale citrusy scent of sliced limes, like the ones his father enjoyed with a gin and tonic, combined with the acrid odor of melting asphalt on a hot summer afternoon.
Mitzi tried to gravitate her furry body again, as if tempting Jared to mount her again. Hadn't she had enough? He kept trying to resist, but her exertions caused him to whimper and whine as his knot remained swollen inside her.
"Don't mind me," came the disembodied voice that nevertheless oozed with superiority.
Jared wanted the ground to swallow him up. Mitzi had gone back to sniffing at a dandelion as the being walked around her on its cloven hooves and stood in front of her sheepdog partner.
"Well done," Wepwawet congratulated. "There's nothing quite as efficient as speeding along the process as the embrace of those animalistic urges."
"Please, fix this," Jared pleaded with a couple of short barks.
The barks brought both renewed interest from Mitzi and that nails-on-chalkboard laughter from the Egyptian super-being.
Mitzi kept turning and twisting, to her locked partner's discomfort. "She's quite insatiable it seems," it remarked.
"No...no..." Jared whimpered, but his body acted of its own accord in regaining a mounted position on the still very willing Mitzi.
"Oh my," the malevolency observed. "Are you sure you want to do that? What is this colorful human phrase? Ah, yes. To fuck your brains out."
In answer, Jared felt himself hammer away again. His tongue lolled out of his mouth as he alternated between panting and low growls. Pressure tightened around his knot again and Jared growled.
"Good dog," Wepwawet said. "I see that you didn't need to ask any of those delicate questions."
Jared didn't like the mean thing and devoted most of his spare thoughts to wishing it would go away.
"That's so rude," it said, peeking into his thoughts. "One day, I may go away and not come back."
Jared felt like he had been hammering forever. Even his hormone-amplified stamina weakened as he exhausted himself hoping for a repeat of the mind-numbing orgasm. His whimpering ascended in a sudden crescendo as he came for a second time.
He slid off the chow and wanted nothing more to sprawl on the ground and rest, but the intact knot and the distracting thing standing and watching him prevented it.
"Well, if that bitch hasn't been impregnated, it won't be for lack of effort on your part," Wepwawet observed dryly.
"Go away," Jared barked irritably as a new worry (puppies) popped into his head.
"Here I was about to reward you for your impressive performance," the being affected wounded feelings. "Perhaps grant you that one wish you've been hoping I might offer you."
The faintly glowing eyes locked onto the sheepdog's rather vacuous eyes. "Perhaps you did overdo it," it said. "Letting that last glimmer of your stubborn humanity gush out in a blaze of glory."
Jared struggled with words. He wanted a drink of water, but when he tried to walk toward Mitzi's water dish he got no cooperation from his tied partner.
"Help," Jared barked.
"Help you?" Wepwawet prompted like a patient parent works with a child. "How? What do you want?"
Jared stared longingly at the stainless steel dish of water just out of his reach.
"Perhaps you want back your feeble human intellect and that stubborn refusal to acknowledge when you're beaten?"
Jared whimpered as he panted from his exhaustion. He felt the knot subsiding, but when he tugged he remained tied with Mitzi.
Wepwawet snapped two skeletal fingers together. "I know! I could make you a human again! Would you like that?"
Jared spared a brief glance toward the space of lawn where Wepwawet stood waiting. "If that's what you want, simply ask and it shall be granted!"
Jared reacted with mild interest when the thought "human" popped into his brain.
"I'm human," he barked.
"Well, not for much longer," Wepwawet countered.
Jared whined and pulled apart from Mitzi with an unexpected ease.
The irritating fingers snapped in front of his snout. "What will it be?" Wepwawet asked. "What do you think I am? A mind reader?"
The aggravating thing stood between Jared and the water dish. "Go away," he barked.
"Are you sure?" Wepwawet asked as the sheepdog walked around him and lowered its shaggy head over the dish. With noisy lapping, the dog drank the water.
As he drank and refreshed himself, a little of his human self returned. He replayed snippets of recent conversation...
Jared lifted his head and bounded back toward Wepwawet, who had turned with mild curiosity toward Mitzi, who ignored him to chase after a beetle in the grass.
"Yes, yes," Jared responded, his tongue out of his mouth as he panted an eager answer to Wepwawet's earlier offer. "Make human again."
To his eternal discredit, Wepwawet lowered his jackal-like features to let his ancient eyes stare into Jared's eager ones so he could register the disappointment when he announced that his offer had been time-sensitive. There it was! The instant when Jared knew that a greater power had toyed with him the entire time. Wepwawet never tired of it.
Jared tried to repeat himself in case he had been misunderstood. "Please. Don't want to be dog."
"Don't get discouraged," Wepwawet offered. "I'm sure you'll improve."
The cruel being vanished, leaving behind a swirl of particles with the smell of lime and burnt tar.
"No," Jared whimpered. He felt so tired. Keeping even the most basic thoughts in his head seemed like such a chore.
Mrs. Thomason found him sprawled in the shade when she stepped outside to offer the two dogs a biscuit. Mitzi took the treat and went on her merry way. Jared felt too tired and defeated to even lift his head.
"Isn't that just like a man," Mrs. Thomason remarked. "Falls asleep right after sex."