by Paul Edwards
There she was about ten feet in front of me facing me, front limbs lying flat, her haunch in the air. Her eyes were jerking back and forth furiously as she watched me, she gnawed the papyrus cautiously ready to grab it and bolt away if I got to close.
I stood stock still as I carefully flipped the squares on my bracelet.
"Easy girl... no need to get excited."
Ammit clamped her jaws on the papyrus and froze, her fierce eyes staring right at me, she would bolt any second.
I flipped the last square on my bracelet and activated my spell.
She leaped up and whirled around in the opposite direction, only to run into me. She yelped in surprise backing up and dropping the papyrus.
I was behind her too, actually I was in five different places at the same time forming a circle around her. The spell had been a difficult one to write, it still had some bugs in it that I had yet to work out, the most debilitating one was that I now had five different points of view now. My poor brain interpreted it all as a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes.
I tried to stare confidently at what I assumed was Ammit, a vibrating black cube thing with ten eyes. It reminded me of a painting by a famed artist of this era.
"Could he have been sorcerer?"
I lunged with my hand, and seized her collar... or I would have if my four other hands hadn't gotten in the way.
Ammit was yelping frantically, terrified she bolted right into me, I dispelled the magic then grabbed blindly with both hands hoping to catch her.
I had her hind leg, she turned and looked at me, she lunged at my hand with her head, her teeth bared a fierce snarl coming from her mouth.
"Ha... you can't fool me," I said as I grabbed her collar with my other hand.
Ammit was all bark, I had never seen her bite anyone. I actually think she was a pacifist, if dogs thought about such things.
Ammit struggled for a few seconds then slumped in defeat, I conjured up a leash and clipped it onto her collar.
She stared at me an angry expression on her face.
"That's not fair... I don't see you wearing a leash," I could almost hear her say.
I picked up the papyrus then led her back to my desk, I tied the leash firmly to one of the drawer handles.
Ammit started to whine, I gave her a piece of beef jerky and her squeaky toy. The jerky was gone in seconds, then she angrily started gnawing the toy, making as much noise as possible.
