HalfWorlder #Wattys2017

Chapter 22-I walk the dog

"She's beautiful, capable and fierce," I said out loud so the gray wolf would hear me. I stood watching her run away. "Everything I never knew I wanted."

Wep huffed back at me in agreement.

"No hard feelings Wep." It was funny talking to a dog. "But I'm not giving up without a fight."

The wolf held my gaze with his intelligent eyes, snorted at me, and put his nose back to the ground. But then he stopped. He dug his nose in again huffing in whatever scent he just caught, and whined and tugged at his leash.

"Hey guys. Wep's got something."

Alexandra came back, kneeling down to scratch between his ears. "What'd you find?"

He nuzzled into her hand.

Wep stole a glance my way.

Only I caught its meaning. He wasn't giving up either.

He sniffed at the ground once more and yowled, then bolted toward the seashore, stopping to nose the ground as he went.

"Whoa! Slow up there, Wep!"

But he dragged me toward the waterfront anyway where a looming stone fort sat guard on the edge of the Mediterranean.

Wep turned his doggy head back toward me, and it morphed into a human one. It happened just long enough for him to say, "Something's not right. It doesn't smell right," and his head changed again to the wolf. I was glad we were running so hard my brain didn't have time to process it, because Wep's human-headed dog body totally freaked me out.

"Hurry!" I yelled back. "Something's wrong."

The others sprinted to catch up, running slightly faster than humans are capable until we reached the stone archway that led into the fort. It was abandoned which was odd considering how much chaos was happening a hundred feet from here. The silence was unnerving, in fact. My Aunt Vera would have said it was so quiet you could hear crickets, but I thought it too cold for that anyway. Amisi shivered hard and wrapped her arms around herself, but not from the cold. Ryan's eyes narrowed cautiously and went to stand next to her. Even Alexandra took a step backward. Something wasn't right.

Wep morphed back into a man then – all the way this time – completing the transition on one knee. I saw a dark-eyed man scramble away from nearby shadows. If he saw Wep change, he wasn't interested in sticking around for more.

Wep stretched up toward the structure, pointing as he stood to his full height. "She's there." He pointed at the highest parapet. "She's keeping the rioters away with her powers."

Someone threw an exploding bottle off a side street, maybe the dark-eyed man again, but the fire hurler wouldn't approach any closer.

Wep stroked the stubble growing on his chin. "Do you not feel it? This place feels cursed. No true Egyptian would set foot here."

I felt it. And it was creeping me out worse than Wep's human wolf-head combo. I held my breath and tried to swallow back the fear that wound round my neck like a snake cinching tight. "Well, it's a good thing I'm not an Egyptian, then," I blustered.

"I'm not sure I am either," Wep returned. "So, I guess we both have to push through." He swallowed visibly.

"Whether she's cursed this place or not, Seshat's wigging me out with her voodoo vibes." Amisi's black hair bounced and her head swiveled, just waiting for something to jump out at her. Her silver eyeliner sparkled in the moonlight. "Let's get this over with."

The dread was like thick water that had to be plowed through, but we pushed through it together until we came out into a courtyard where the crushing pressure dissolved as we broke into the open grounds.