In Love with a Jackal

7.

I had expected to fall on the cold hard marble flooring of the university foyer but instead my landing was soft and warm.

"Oof!"

Atleast that was until Anubis's full weight landed on top of me, crushing my lungs. I pounded on his back with my only free arm, trying to get him off of me so I could breath.

To my lungs delight, He got up on his elbows quite quickly and relieved me of most of his weight. As he struggled to get up, he somehow still managed to glare down at me. The bright sun created a halo around his head and for a second I thought I was looking at an angel. I was strangely mesmerized.

But then I saw the expression on his face.

He was unhappy.

I'd say he almost looked disgusted even, like he'd just eaten a five week old lasagna or something.

After getting getting back up on his feet again, Anubis immediately turned away from me and the next thing I heard were gagging noises.

"Ugh, ew, MORTAL!"

I didn't know if I should be more offended by that reaction or angry that he'd kissed me without my consent.

Or just both.

Now decisively angrily-offended, I tried to get up myself, but the ground beneath my feet slid away.

Because it wasn't ground, it was sand.

And apart from the blue sky above, everything else here was sand too. Completely knocked out of my socks, I came to realize we were somehow in a desert; big golden sand dunes stretching as far as the eye could see.

By the time I recovered from my amazement, Anubis had recovered from his disgust.

"Get up and come." he suddenly barked at me before trudging ahead in a random direction, his footsteps barely leaving an indentation in the sand.

I scrambled up and ran after him. I didn't know when I had become this meek; letting myself be ordered around by a guy who had essentially just assaulted me and then even had the audacity to be disgusted about it.

But after a whole five seconds of deliberation, I figured right now was not the time to work through that issue. There was some otherworldly stuff going on right now, and sure as hell, I was not going to start a fight with the guy doing it.

He came to an abrupt stop and I nearly bumped into him. At first I didn't see what had made him stop but then once again I watched something ripple into existence right in front of my eyes.

It was a wooden door, with no frame or hinges, that just stood in the middle of the desert. Without a second thought, Anubis grabbed it by the handle and to my surprise it actually opened.

"After you." he said, pointing towards the opening where all I saw was still good ol' desert.

It was unlike me to follow orders and I hesitated for a moment, but my sheer curiosity beat my sense of danger and I stepped through. In the blink of an eye, the scene in front of me changed and whatever I was about to say just vacated my brain. I was suddenly somewhere completely different.

Standing on a large sandstone terrace, I was looking out over a huge river surrounded by tall grass and palm trees. The river was teeming with sail boats; their white sails a stark contrast against the orange and red light of an early sunset. On the sandbank below me, crocodiles were sunning themselves in the last few warm rays of the day and an egret stalked through the shallow waters beside them.
Even though it was evening, the air still felt hot and thick in my lungs. It almost felt hard to breathe.