Commissioned by Tofubread
After turning into a
jackal with one-seventh of Anubis's powers, Daniel got some magic training with Glorfindel the five-tailed kitsune mage. And while training, they discovered Daniel could summon a golden scale at will, an item that allows him to use more magical abilities. But with six more Ankhs, each with a piece of Anubis, Daniel wondered if he should retrieve them.
#
Here is another fun story that my dear friend asked me to write. It's one that I enjoy writing a lot.
I hope you all enjoy this story!
The art in the thumbnail is by MintChip!
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/38298561/#
Within a dark forest, Daniel the anthro Anubis jackal walked down a dirt path, his steps muffled by his sandals. He held up his golden Ankh, its shining light showing a way ahead as he turned from side to side. His fur, as black as the Nile river’s soil, ruffled along with the bits of gold fur on him. The gold fur part was set in familiar Egyptian patterns, with the Eye of Horus symbols around his eyes and the Ankh symbol on his chest, and they both glittered. He glanced around, his left ear folded back as he frowned, still showing the gold inners. Meanwhile, the forest darkened all around him.
He closed his red eyes as he held his Ankh a foot away from his pointy muzzle and channeled his magic through it. The golden light glowed brighter, and the surrounding area became viewable as some trees dissolved. For the moment, the illusion broke. He opened his eyes before rushing into a clearing, and the trees reformed behind. He sighed before he searched all around, with only one other figure before him.
He stood before Daniel, his back to him with his green fur fluttering with the breeze, holding onto his staff with his left hand-paw. He kept his head low, with some of his golden hair-fur covering his eyes, and his five tails remained still. Daniel approached, his tail still as well before he paused. He felt suspicion growing within, with one of his golden eyebrows rising. He tapped his Ankh with his golden claws, and a golden sphere formed in front of him. He grunted as he tossed it at the other to test his misgiving.
The golden sphere phased through the green anthro kitsune.
Daniel grunted, and a flash of green came to the side. He lifted his Ankh, and a magical golden shield formed around him. The green bolt impacted it, cracking the safeguard before it exploded, knocking him onto his back. He grunted, rubbing his leather kilt and Egyptian wide collar with golden linings, and got up.
“Very good,” Glorfindel the five-tail kitsune said, approaching from the forest’s shadows as the fake disappeared. “But not good enough.”
Daniel brushed back his hair-fur, black with thin golden highlights, and pointed his Ankh at him. Golden bolts formed in a circle around it, and he blasted them at Glorfindel. But he twitched his staff, wooden with a brown and black yin-yang symbol on its head, and a magical green shield formed in front of him. The bolts slid off, zooming off behind him before exploding.
“Come on,” Glorfindel said, lifting his right hand-paw, the fur black down to his elbow and the other. “Remember, don’t just throw a lot of magic at me. Instead, control it effectively.”
“Easy for you to say,” Daniel said, flicking one of his ears. “I don’t feel like I’m progressing by holding back.”
“When your magic limit is as low as mine, you learn how to control and make the most of what you got,” Glorfindel said, his mysterious blue eyes shining as his dark red shirt waved loosely on him. “It’s easy to use too much magic, and it takes time to recharge.” He snapped his right hand-paw, with a fireball forming above it. “But through effectively channeling magic, you’ll produce just as good or even better results with less magic powering it up.”
He tossed the fireball at Daniel, who raised his Ankh. A golden shield formed around him, and he grunted. Fireball slammed against the safeguard, piercing through before exploding and knocking him back. He crashed against a tree before falling to his knees, heaving in and out. Soon, he stumbled back up, his feet-paws, digitigrade much like Glorfindel’s own, unsteady.
“Try to focus,” Glorfindel said as Daniel grunted, rubbing his neck. “Then you’ll understand.”
Daniel nodded and, holding his Ankh with both hands-paws tight, he closed his eyes. He inhaled slowly, his toned chest and abs expanding and retracting with each breath, and a golden aura formed around his arms and head. He opened his eyes and gasped. His vision changed with lines, dots, and squares hovering around him. It’s almost as though he was viewing a video game’s interface or maybe an art program option.
“I-I see something,” Daniel said, and the objects turned transparent. “It’s fading, but it was some kind of lines and cubes.”
“What you saw,” Glorfindel said as he grinned with pride, “is the blueprint of reality.”
“Huh?” Daniel tilted his head.
“Magic, by its nature, warps reality to the user’s desires. There are always preferences depending on the user and what kind of magic they used.” Glorfindel glanced at his staff. “But the end result is the same. Seeing the blueprint of reality, which is different for each person, allows them to see how they can best edit reality. Unfortunately, many magic users are ignorant of this second view, instead throwing magic around no matter how wasteful it is.”
“And you didn’t tell me this until now?” Daniel folded his ears back.
Glorfindel shrugged. “Sometimes, it’s best to find out yourself, especially with what preferences you like. Besides,” he rubbed the back of his hair-fur, “it’s hard to describe since it’s been instinct since I have magic, with few reaching this level of control.
“Regardless, now that you know,” he slammed his staff against the ground, a magical green shield forming in front of him, “try breaking through my shield now.”
Daniel inhaled and focused his magic, the golden aura becoming thicker as the blueprints became visible. Then, as he pointed his Ankh at Glorfindel, he interacted with the lines and dots, and a golden pike formed. A meter appeared, and after filling it up, he fired the pike toward Glorfindel. It impacted the shield, with it bending before exploding, knocking Glorfindel back a couple of feet.
“Much better.” Glorfindel steadied himself and grinned.
Daniel panted, sweat forming on his brow and dripping onto his collar, and a cube formed in his mind to the right. It held a weight scale icon on its sides, with waves emitting from it as though it was calling for him. The text formed above it, saying ‘
Storage,’ and he reached for it. It glowed as soon as he touched it, and he gasped with Glorfindel flattening one of his ears to the side.
The golden light took form, becoming a golden scale that Daniel gripped, with various markings on the base, ending with sapphires. At the top held the Ankh symbol, with wings stretching out. On each bowl, with silver chains holding them up, had mists with one white and the other black.
Daniel flattened his ears back, lifting it up so it’s leveled with his eyes. “What is this?”
Glorfindel rubbed his chin. “If I were to wager a guess, that is the scale Anubis wields to weigh souls brought to him. Though it’s strange since the myths said that he weighed them against a feather.”
“These are for weighing souls?” Daniel gulped, rubbing against Ankh’s tear-shaped loop.
“Maybe. After all, you are Anubis or at least one-seventh of him.” Glorfindel gazed at it with curiosity. “Try it.”
Daniel hesitated before he nodded, pointing it at a tree. The lines and dots were more visible with it, but text appeared saying, ‘
No soul detected,’ and he tilted his head. He channeled his magic through it, and a white sphere soared out. It impacted the tree, dissipating it without it reforming.
Daniel blinked, sucking up his lips, as Glorfindel tilted his head. “Intriguing.” They waited a few seconds, but the tree remained dissipated. “From the look of it, the scale has some illusion capabilities, even canceling out my own. Though I doubt that’s the limit.” He winked at Daniel. “Try using it on me.”
“You?” Daniel took a step back. “A-are you sure? I might seriously hurt you.”
“It won’t be much of a concern. Trust me.” Glorfindel spread his arms out. “Besides, it’s best to test out what it’s capable of in a controlled environment rather than a battle.”
Daniel hesitated again before pointing it at Glorfindel. The scales remained even before they tilted a bit to the dark side. Options appeared before him as though it was an RPG interface. He skimmed over them before picking ‘
Mild Illusion,’ and a dark wave emitted from it, impacting Glorfindel. He glanced at his staff, raising one of his eyebrows.
“Huh. It’s turning into flesh-eating scrabs.”
“What?!” Daniel widened his eyes, flinching. “I’m sorry! I’ll—”
But Glorfindel raised a hand-paw at him. “No need. Let it play out.” Daniel gulped as Glorfindel chuckled. “Fascinating. I can see them chewing me down to my bones, with a couple crawling down my throat.” His staff glowed green, and he grinned at Daniel. “We kitsune always know when we’re under an illusion, so it wasn’t as effective. And it didn’t take much to dispel it.”
“Are-are you sure you’ll be alright.”
“Of course!” Glorfindel winked at him. “Besides, it was a light-level illusion, though impressive nonetheless. Though, given your expression, that wasn’t all you could do.”
“Um.” Daniel glanced at the scale, still pointing at him. “It gives options like, ‘Remove luck,’ ‘Blindness,’ and ‘Fire,’ none of them good options for some reason.”
“It might be because it finds me just bad enough.” Glorfindel approached while rubbing one of his ears. “I wonder what it sensed that caused me to be judged that way.” He shrugged. “I’m sure you can, with training, open up more options. But, because we had practiced for five hours already, we should take a break. Besides, you must be hungry.” Daniel nodded, and Glorfindel bowed to him. “Good.”
Glorfindel lifted his staff up, with glowing green light emitted from it, and the forest dissolved all around them. Reality reformed into an empty warehouse with a few large crates littered around, and a yellow light shone down. Daniel rubbed his kilt as Glorfindel turned around, kicking over an inch of dust.
“Maybe, as a practice, you can try to use magic to clean this place.” Glorfindel stuffed his free hand-paw into the pocket of his black pants. “It’ll make the owners happy and be good practice. Now, excuse me.”
Daniel nodded to him, and Glorfindel walked out of view, chuckling. He turned to his Ankh and golden scale, remembering how his life flipped over last week. Before, he was an everyday human working in a museum, gazing wonderfully at the Ankh while resisting its pull. But now, he turned into an anthro black jackal thanks to it, one-seventh of Anubis to boot with all the powers that imply and more, and training with the one he thought was stealing the Ankh.
“I wonder how my old coworkers are doing?” Daniel asked himself, remembering that he had placed a sudden leave of absence for at least two weeks without any explanation with Glorfindel’s help. He also helped create a duplicate Ankh for the museum, which Daniel felt somewhat guilty over even if it belonged to him. “I hope they aren’t asking too many questions.”
Daniel hummed for a few seconds before pressing both Ankh and scale against his chest, and the two dissolved, entering the Ankh symbol. He felt both artifacts within, almost like a warm glow, as an interface appeared for a few seconds showing both under storage. He smiled before approaching one of the crates and picking up his smartphone. Curiosity formed within, and he turned it on and unlocked it, searching Glorfindel’s name online.
He raised his eyebrows at the results when he heard footsteps and turned to the source. Glorfindel walked toward him, looking human with red and white shoes, though Daniel still saw his proper form for a couple of seconds. He held a grin, holding his staff and a necklace with a black jackal in one hand.
“I’m back. And I’m here with a gift.” Glorfindel handed Daniel the necklace, who flipped it over. “What do you think?”
“This looks cool,” Daniel said as he wore it around his neck over the collar. “Any reason for this?”
“Simple, really.” Glorfindel waved his staff, and a circular mirror formed between them, with Daniel gasping at the reflection. On it was himself with the necklace, but a human with the clothes he had during that night. He glanced at his arms and legs, but they still held black fur with gold rings above his ankles and gold and leather bracelets that dominated much of his forearms. “That necklace generates an illusion, making you look human instead of your true form. It took me a while since turning you back into a human is beyond my abilities. I’m afraid that you’ll have to do it yourself if you want to turn human.”
“And I can’t do that yet.” Daniel glanced away.
“But you don’t have to go hiding for now!” Glorfindel slapped Daniel’s shoulder while laughing. “You could go back to work and even eat with me now!”
Daniel nodded with a smile, wagging his tail, and the two walked out of the warehouse.
# # #
The two walked into a fast-food burger place, crowded with only a couple of tables free. So the two made their order and rushed to a free table before anyone else could claim it. Daniel held his smartphone out, reading a LOTR wiki page, and he felt nervous. He kept his tail still, glancing around as though the necklace might fail and expose him as a demigod to everyone. But no one has given him a second look so far.
Glorfindel laughed, leaning back against the plastic seat. “It’s holding so far. In fact, I bet that by the time its magic wears out, you’ll be well-versed in magic casting enough that you won’t need it anymore. In fact, you have the magic capacity more than I do.” A hint of bitterness came to his voice, and he shook his head. “Never mind that.”
“Um, sure.” Daniel stared at the smartphone, raising one of his eyebrows. “Er, Glorfindel?”
“Yes?” Glorfindel tilted his head to the side.
“I was looking up your name, and I found something.” He handed the smartphone to Glorfindel, whose shining eyes contradicted his resigned expression. “Glorfindel is a name of an Elf from Tolkien’s Middle-earth work.” Daniel held his hands-paws together as Glorfindel scrolled up and down the page. “I haven’t read his books nor seen any of the movies, so I didn’t realize until now. Is there a reason for it? For example, did your parents name you that?”
Glorfindel remained silent for several seconds before he sighed and handed the smartphone back. “Not exactly. The truth is that ‘Glorfindel’ isn’t my real name.” Daniel raised both eyebrows up, and he continued. “You remember what I told you? That I was also a human until I encountered a relic like you? Though in my case, it was a kitsune statue.” Daniel nodded. “When it blessed me, turning me into a kitsune mage, I cast away my old name and changed it to Glorfindel. It’s somewhat fitting since, in the books, it means ‘golden-haired.’”
“Huh.” Daniel glanced at the smartphone, where a fan artwork of the Elf Glorfindel showed, his long golden hair flowing. “So, is there a reason why you’re calling yourself that? I mean, I know that some old tales regarding magic said that knowing someone’s true name grants power over them. In fact, in Egyptian mythology, it’s said that if our name isn’t inscribed in your tomb, your ka and ba, which is basically your life force and mind, will get lost trying to return to your body.”
“No, nothing light that. I just decided my old name wasn’t cool enough for a kitsune mage.” He turned from side to side and, suddenly, got up and leaned over to Daniel. He whispered to his ear, and he sat back down. “That was my name when I was human.”
Daniel blinked, his ears folding to the sides. “That’s a plain one.”
“I know, right? It’s unfitting for a kitsune mage.” He shrugged. “Of course, I wasn’t the only one that did that practice back in my world. Four others did the same, though Glaurung,” there was unusual venom in his voice, “gave two of them their names from Tolkien’s work. Three, if you count the one who lived for eons, though I’m still baffled by his choice for him. I mean, it’s not like he’s a crafter!”
“Who?”
But Glorfindel shook his head. “Never mind that. It’s just a silly quirk that caught on to my embarrassment.”
At that moment, the serving desk called out their number, and Glorfindel got up while huffing. Daniel stared at him for a few seconds before turning back to his smartphone and closing that tab. It then displayed the browser tabs, each one a museum having an Ankh on display. His stomach tightened as though he sensed their radiant power through the internet, and he clenched the phone. Glorfindel stepped back, carrying two trays, and Daniel turned to screen off before setting it aside.
The two then silently eat their hamburgers, chewing through the juicy meat with fresh toppings. Daniel resisted the urge to wag, happy to have them fresh, before finishing it up and reaching for the fries. Each one was fresh with just the right amount of salt, which he smiled at. By the time he got to the soda, drinking it through a straw, Glorfindel had tapped on the table while holding an onion fry.
“I know this may not be the best time, but have you thought about retrieving the other six Ankhs?” Glorfindel asked, and Daniel paused, setting down his drink. “It’s been a week since you became Anubis, even if it’s just a seventh of him. I wondered if you desire the other six or to remain as you are.”
“I-I don’t know.” Daniel looked over his hands-paws, his golden claws shining. “I have thought about it enough to make some sort of plan to look for him, but I’m not sure if I should.”
Glorfindel raised his left eyebrow. “Oh?”
“Here’s the thing.” Daniel glanced at the window, seeing a ghost reflection of his old human self. “Suppose I took all seven essences of Anubis. What will happen to me? What will I become? I mean, I know that I’ll become Anubis in full, but what will that mean for me?”
“Interesting and surprising,” Glorfindel said, leaning forward while setting his elbows on the table. “Go on.”
“If I fully become Anubis, will I lose myself? I mean, I’m still adjusting to having thick fur instead of skin, and I still find it awkward how much I need to wash. But I’m still me. But if I become a god, then what? Will it warp me until I lose, for lack of a better term, my humanity? And even if I’m still the same, will I become a judge holding people for their success and failure? Will I become a tyrant, saying that my words are law because I’m a god? If that’s what power does to me, I don’t want anything to do with that.”
“Those are profound philosophical questions that you have.” Glorfindel gazed at him as though seeing him for the first time.
“What do you think?” Daniel asked as he rubbed the back of his head, feeling the silky hair-fur.
Glorfindel hummed for a few seconds and opened his mouth—
The glass doors swung open with a crash, and everyone turned with two yelping in surprise. Two men strolled in, wearing thick clothes and ski masks covering much of their bodies. Their fingers lay upon their handguns’ triggers, gripping them tight. A bunch of customers and a couple of workers screamed out, one rushing to the second door. But one of the thieves fired upon the floor three times, and everyone froze.
“Nobody moves!” One of the thieves pointed his pistol at the customer who lunged toward the other door. The customer walked back, his hands up. “Now, we don’t want any trouble here. We want a nice, clean robbery here. Any suckers who attempt to escape or attack, we’ll shoot you.”
“To anyone who has their phones,” the other said, pointing at Daniel and Glorfindel’s table. “Drop them and don’t touch them. If you do, we’ll blast your brains out!”
“If any of the fuzz came, we’ll kill any of you losers at random,” the first added as he pointed his handgun at the two teenage girls. They paled, frozen with their phones out until life returned to them, and they dropped them. “And here’s the fun part. Depending on how many come, we’ll shoot you all equally. One cop, one hostage. Two cops, two hostages. And so on.”
“So don’t be a dummy who has to be a hero, and you’ll get to live,” the second one said before he fired at the floor. “Deal?”
Several whimpered, but none said or did anything. The two waited, pointing their guns at the paling customers and workers as they marched through the lobby. One of the thieves smacked the fleeing customer against the face before returning to the cashier’s desk.
“Good!”
“OK, missy,” one of the robbers said, pointing at the employee with a manager tag. “First thing first. Take me to where you store your money. My partner,” he tapped against the cashier register, “will relieve you of the money here. And no funny games. Got it?”
The manager nodded while holding up her hands, and she led him to the back. He kept his pistol pointing at her back, snarling, as his partner went to the registers. He pulled out a burlap sack and waved at the employees until one approached. He popped open one of the registers with a ring and handed the money over, sweating with the gun pointed at him. The customer who attempted to flee and got slapped for his trouble inched toward the exit. But the second thief pointed his gun at him, and he crept back.
“Next time you attempt that, your head will get pumped with bullets!”
Glorfindel glanced at the thief, having an interested look while tapping on the table. Daniel meanwhile stared at the same thief with disgust, his ears folded to the sides. He cracked his knuckles before placing one of his hands-paws underneath the table. He focused his magic until the storage appeared and picked the scale icon. A golden scale materialized between his fingers a second later, and he furrowed his muzzle. When he pointed the scale at the thief, it weighed heavy on the dark side with more options.
“No sudden movements!” The robber screamed when the employee stumbled while opening the second register. “Or else you’ll meet your maker!”
Daniel deepened his glare as he picked ‘
Nightmare Illusion’ and cast it on the thief’s hand. Its magical waves were invisible to the naked eye, though Glorfindel glanced at him while hiding a smirk. The thief waved his gun at the employee, his finger on the trigger, but he paused. He turned to the pistol, whitening in fear, and took several steps back.
“What?! No! Get off me!” He dropped both pistol and sack as the hostages stared at him, the lobby heating in fiery wrath. “No!
No!” His shrieking became high and panicky as he flailed his arms, reaching for something intangible. “Someone! Help! It’s rolling up my arm!”
“What’s going on here?!” The other thief rushed in, what little of his face shown red. His partner smacked against his arm, even slamming it against a counter. “Are you seriously tripping!? I warned you not to take any drugs before doing this!”
“H-help!” The first one pulled off his ski mask, his red hair flaming bright as his eyes rolled up. “My-my gun turned into a snake a-and it’s choking me!”
“You are a useless idiot!” The second one picked up his dropped sack and gun before turning around and pointing with both guns. “You guys can keep him! I’m getting out of here!”
He rushed to the door, but Daniel pointed his scale at him, which weighed just as heavy on the dark side. The options appeared, and he cast ‘
Nightmare Illusion’ on him, targeting his hands. The thief paused, and he stared at both guns with horror. He screamed high, dropping both handguns with a clammer. Within seconds, he scratched and smacked all over his arms.
“No!
Get off me, you freaks!” He ripped his clothes off in a panicked frenzy, shrieking higher. Little was on him as he gashed on his skin, with bruises and cuts all over and his black hair wild. “They’re eating my skin!”
Both squealed until their eyes rolled back, and they collapsed on the floor. Silence hovered through the fast-food place, enough that one could hear sizzling hamburgers from the other side. Daniel sighed, the golden scale disappearing into his storage as he collapsed on his seat, sweat on his brow. Glorfindel smiled with pride before winking at him, and every customer and worker pulled out their phones.
# # #
Two minutes later, the police came with sirens blaring out. The two thieves were lifted onto stretchers, with hand-cuffs around their wrists, as drug tests were being taken. Meanwhile, others took statements from the witnesses and looked at the camera recording. They soon concluded that, given the trace amount of drugs in their system, they fell into a drug frenzy. Finally, with their investigation completed, they rolled the thieves out.
Daniel and Glorfindel were questioned little, confusing Daniel since they were in a prime spot for witnessing it all. But when he looked at Glorfindel, who winked with a light sparkle on his fingertip, he realized and winked back. And as soon as the police left, they slinked away, though Daniel regretted not finishing his drink.
“You did well,” Glorfindel said, patting him on the back. “So, did you deliberately affect their weapons? Or was it a coincidence?”
“I-I honestly don’t know.” Daniel rubbed the back of his head as he blushed. “I want to say that I did, at least instinctively. I wanted it to curse their hands at least since I figured they wouldn’t want to handle their guns like that.”
“Hmm.” Glorfindel rubbed his chin. “That may be something that we can practice with. After all, we can’t rely on luck all the time, can we? And besides, I bet there are unique ways to curse them with more training.”
“What do you mean?” Daniel asked, flattening one of his ears.
“Think of it like this.” Glorfindel waved his hand before them. “You could ‘curse’ them with a euphoric sense, distracting them just enough to land a blow. That will be clever.” He winked at Daniel. “Besides, you haven’t tested what you can do on the other end.”
“Oh. Right.” Daniel nodded.
The two walked past a supermarket, with its window radiating coolness. But after they passed the doors, Glorfindel paused with a thoughtful expression. He turned to the window as Daniel also stopped, folding his ears to the side. He remained silent as he stared at their ghost-like reflections, both humans.
“I’ve been thinking about what you said earlier. About godhood and power, and whether that can change you or not.” Glorfindel brushed aside of strand of his hair. “And it’s complex to answer because it’s not as clean-cut as we usually think it to be.
“One saying goes that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Some will even claim that it’s a given that those who should wield power are those who don’t want it. But is that always the case? Some of the best leaders are those with high ambitions, and some of the worst have little to none. That isn’t to say that power doesn’t erode a person’s morality because it can and does, but it’s more than that.
“Perhaps power itself reveals a person’s character, and what they do with it is what they always wanted to do in the first place. That is nearer to the truth, but I don’t think it’s completely true. Time does change a person, after all. Besides, it doesn’t account for the fact that they might be doing it out of pragmaticism rather than a true desire. Even so, it may work as a test of character since it shows what you wanted to if you have the power to do it.”
Daniel flopped his ears forward. “I don’t think I can pass such a test.”
“Nonsense!” Glorfindel patted Daniel on the shoulder. “Have you forgotten what you did during that attempted robbery? You could’ve done nothing. Heck, you could’ve helped them.”
Daniel flinched. “But you were there with me. If I did help them, you could’ve stopped me.”
“Was that what you were thinking of when you interfered?” Glorfindel waited, with Daniel hesitating until he shook his head. “You see? You have power and didn’t think about using it yourself.” He gazed more, plunging into the ghost reflection. “But if you still doubt yourself, know this. There are plenty of deep questions we all ask ourselves. Questions like: Who are we; What do we want; Why are we here; and, What are we living for. Finding those questions will help us look deeper into ourselves.” He turned to Daniel. “And if you know who you are first, you’ll find out what you truly want without destroying yourself.”
“I kind of get what you mean, given that I’m still adjusting to this.” Daniel reached for the ghost reflection and touched the glass. “Still, thank you.”
At once, the reflection morphed, with him flinching for a second. The human on the glass disappeared, replaced with an anthro black jackal much like him but not quite. This one towered over at least doubled his size, with more defined muscles all over his body. The thing that most struck him was how tall the other was. And when the reflection smiled, it was wide, full of pride and joy.
Daniel blinked, the jackal reflection disappearing and replaced with his human one.
Glorfindel leaned against him. “Is there anything wrong?”
“Nothing. Nothing is wrong.” Daniel shook his head, and his expression became resolute as he pulled out his smartphone. “Perhaps I’ll find the other six Ankhs once I’m finished training. Not to take their power,” he added when Glorfindel flinched. “Not yet. Only to make sure they don’t fall into the wrong hands. After all, I doubt all potentials will be good, yes?”
Glorfindel gazed at him, his eyebrows up while rubbing his chin before he laughed. “That sounds like a plan to me! But come.” He slapped Daniel on his back. “We should get back and train.”
“Sure. One thing.” Daniel shifted his red eyes from side to side, walking along with Glorfindel. “Perhaps ‘Daniel’ isn’t the right name for me. Not to say it’s as bad or plain as yours.” He winked at Glorfindel, who blushed. “But it can be better, especially if I take all of Anubis’s power.
“However, I don’t want to be called ‘Anubis’ either. After all, the original one might be completely different than me, and I want to be distinct from him.” He turned on his smartphone and unlocked it, opening the page to Anubis’ wiki article. “So, could you call me Inpu from now on?”
“Inpu?” Glorfindel chuckled for a few seconds before patting him on the shoulder. “If that’s what you want to be known, sure.”
And, with that and his tail wagging behind him, Inpu and Glorfindel walked toward the warehouse for more training. Part of him felt nervous about his new identity, quest, and what to do afterward. But he felt one thing for sure, the one lucky thing he knew he had.
He’s lucky to have such a good friend and mentor as Glorfindel.
