"Ah, Jeffy, there you are?" said the grungy bearded old man in the long grey robe as his withered hands touch
Jeff on his head and face.
"Huh? What? Where are my clothes?" Jeff asked suddenly discovering he is naked and lying in a grimy alley.
"Ah, my boy, you must have quite a hangover to have forgotten our bargain. In exchange for me taking you on
as an apprentice, you're my seeing-eye weredog," the wizard explained.
"Were-wooof!" Jeff said as at his master's touch, he begins to transform from human into weredog.
"What's a Chronivac?" the wizard asked suddenly, "Something has changed. The world has changed. What is was
not meant to be," he murmured. "Come, Jeffy, let's get back to my tower, I have much research to do this
night."
Jeff sniffed and stared at his shaggy haired limbs and paws. He saw his wagging tail and tried to catch it
going around in circle 3 times. His body was completely covered in scraggly fur. The scents of the city were
overwhelming him as his canine snout began sorting the myriad of scents he was now experiencing. He looked up
at the old man, and instantly felt great loyalty to him. This was his master. He had to protect and to guide
the master. There was no question of Jeff's purpose in life now.
The wizard tugged at his beard. He didn't like the implications of what his second sight was showing him.
His entire world and reality seemed to be a temporal construct and artificial pocket universe created by a
soulless machine in the real world where Jeff had come from. It made no sense, but the wizard knew with
certainty that it was true. He wanted to protect his world to make it real. The Chronivac had time limits.
The universe might cease when the time expired or if the Chronivac were damaged. He had to get into the real
world-whatever that was- and protect his reality. He looked at Jeff uncertainly, he had all his memories of
his young apprentice weredog, but he knew them now to be false. What was life supposed to have been like for
the lad. Was this the best of all possible worlds or the worst? What could one blind old third rate wizard do
under these circumstances? If he had been of a different temperament, the wizard might have gone on about his
business as if his premonition were meaningless. But he wasn't of that temperament, he needed to know. He
owed it to his apprentice who was obviously oblivious as to his former existence.
Jeff stopped to chew a flea on his buttock.
"Why are you stopping boy?" the Wizard asked.
The sound of clattering hoof beats crashing down the street explained his halt in progress. The king's guard
raced over the cobblestones with a black and gold royal coach following close behind.
Suddenly, the carriage stopped, and the driver cantered backwards until the carriage rolled back to where the
blind wizard was standing with his dog. The black velvet drape opened and an arrogant dark young man leaned
out the window.
"Why aren't you bowing? Don't you know that you are to uncover your head and bow when you see the royal
carriage?" growled the youth.
"Sir? Uh, I am afraid, I am afflicted and do not see anything. I heard hooves and my dog and waited while
they passed, but I saw nothing. Perhaps, your majesty should instruct his horseman to announce your
presence?" the old wizard said.
The dog pulled fervently on his cloak trying to get the man to bend over.
The young man was somewhat flustered and flattered. He was not the king, and had never been called majesty
before. He was only a grand duke, the king's nephew. Still the old geezer should be bowing to him, and in
spite of his words he was standing upright.
"Blind you say?" the youth remarked in a somewhat mollified tone. He glanced at the captain of the guard who
had ridden back to investigate the problem as to why the royal coach he was escorting had stopped.
"Your Ducal Serene Highness, is there a problem?"
"Yes, this old blind fool did not bow when he saw my carriage go by," the Grand Duke complained.
"Blind saw?" the captain asked confused by the statement, then he caught himself. "Hey, you old man, you
should get down on one knee and bow you're head. You have the good fortune to be addressed by his Serene
Highness Grand Duke Robespierre."
"I fear my old bones don't move as well as they once did," the old wizard said nodding his head in a nominal
bow as a butler might do to a household guest.
The Grand Duke burst into laughter, "I get it. The old fool doesn't believe that you are a guardsman or I am
the Grand Duke. He thinks some ruffians on the street are taking advantage of him pretending to be a royal
personage. Haha, oh, if only you knew the truth, old man. Perhaps a night in the stockade will convince him,
captain."
The captain of the guard snatched up the old man and tossed him across his saddle. Jeff barked madly. The
horses galloped away and the carriage resumed its progress with Jeff the weredog yapping as he pursued the
carriage up the winding mountain to the king's abode, and the stockade by the gate.