"I know who you are," the impostor said as he sized up the interaction between Wepwawet and the sheepdog.
"Good for you," the deity countered.
"What do you want?"
Wepwawet smiled. "I have grown attached to this one," he said, waving an arm in the air over the sheepdog. "It's always fun watching them struggle to the bitter end."
"You're not here to change us back?" The impostor sounded immensely relieved.
"I haven't yet decided."
The impostor meant to say more, but at that time Kevin and his sidekick emerged from the house. Charlie wielded a lit candle while Kevin held a sheet of paper in one hand as he began to recite some arcane words.
"You dare!" Wepwawet drew himself up in a fierce temper and tried to quail the two human children with a fearsome display. The candle's wick sputtered, but then renewed and burned brighter.
"You're the one responsible for turning Jared into a dog," Kevin accused. "Now, I order you to turn him back."
"You?" Wepwawet presented a picture of barely restrained rage. "Order me?"
Kevin revealed his next surprise, opening his fist and flinging a handful of salt in the surprised deity's direction.
"I did my homework," Kevin boasted.
The impostor slid closer to the sheepdog, which chose that particular moment to snap in irritation at a pesky fly.
"You are messing with powers beyond your comprehension," the being warned.
"I'm not going back!" The impostor shouted and interjected himself into the mix. "His teachers all tell me they are delighted by my precent improvement. He didn't diligently pursue his studies."
Jared's sensitive nose caught the scent of the scorched oil and rosemary needles.
"Oh, very well," the entity said. "It was becoming tiresome anyway."
The deity raised its arms and the sheepdog and impostor froze, each held by an invisible hand in a bubble of glowing light. Among all the onlookers, a ball of blue light and another of red light arose from the glowing bubbles that held the dog and the impostor. With a flick of his hand, Wepwawet reversed the two orbs of light.
Kevin ran toward the sheepdog. "Jared! Jared, are you still in there?"
The dog scratched at a flea.
"No, I'm back!" The body of his older brother embraced the younger one. "You did it! Thank you!"
"Wow, that was easy," Charlie remarked.
The two brothers and Charlie faced the being.
"Go back to wherever you came from," Kevin said.
"I'm going," Wepwawet said. He raised a hand over his head, but then lowered it. "I do have one question, if I may."
"Be careful," Kevin's brother warned. "He's tricky."
"What is it?" Kevin asked.
The minor Egyptian deity and major nuisance walked onto the lanai. He placed a hand on the green stem growing from the rounded hull of an orange pumpkin that Kevin's mother had placed on the outdoor table to add some fall color to the exterior of the house. "What is this?"
"It's a pumpkin," Kevin answered somewhat incredulously.
"Pump-Kin?" Wepwawet said. "What purpose does it serve?"
"It's a pumpkin. We carve them into Jack-o'-lanterns at Halloween."
"You can eat the seeds," Charlie added. "They're great roasted."
"Why?" Kevin narrowed his eyes as he studied the strange being.
"Curiosity, no more," the entity said. "So, these pump-kins. They are sacrificial?"
"No, they're just produce that we make into decorations," Kevin said.
"Such unusual customs," it said. "I bid you farewell." Wepwawet vanished in a cloud of sulfurous smoke overladen with the hint of crushed rosemary needles.
"That was the most awesome thing," Charlie said. "Don't you think I made a good sidekick, too?"
"Yes," Kevin agreed, but he walked over to the lanai and stared at the pumpkin.
"Jared," Kevin called out.
His brother turned toward him. "What is it?"
"You feel normal?" Kevin asked. "It's not like Wepwawet is going to double-cross us and make you a dog again?"
"I feel fantastic," Kevin's brother declared.
Satisfied with the answer, Kevin and his friend returned to the house.
His brother lingered on the lanai. He picked up the pumpkin from the table. As he held the gourd in his hands, Wepwawet's shimmering form returned.
"Ahh, you have deduced my charade," the deity realized.
The impostor, still very much present in Jared's body, smiled.
"I can hear him," the impostor said.
"Indeed!" Wepwawet lowered his face closer to the pumpkin in the impostor's hands.
The impostor laughed. "He doesn't seem pleased, does he?"
For Jared, words meant nothing. Without ears, he could not hear them. He could still pick up the thoughts between Wepwawet and the impostor.
"Let me out!" Jared screamed, over and over. "Kevin! Help me! They tricked you!"
"But it is secure?" Wepwawet asked.
"Very," the impostor confirmed.
Without a mouth, Jared's screams went unvoiced.
The impostor lowered the pumpkin onto the grass.
"He does have some very foul language," Wepwawet remarked as he listened to Jared's futile attempts to make his curses audible.
As they looked down at the pumpkin, Shaggy wandered over to them.
A moment later, Jared felt a warm stream of liquid on the exterior of his orange hull. Although he lacked eyes, he still saw the world through a strange orange cloud. What he saw now was a huge sheepdog lifting a leg and urinating on him. Wepwawet, noticing, laughed loudly and, still laughing, disappeared again.
The impostor looked at the sheepdog as it finally finished peeing on the pumpkin. "Good boy, Shaggy," the impostor said. "Very good boy!"
Jared screamed.