Divine Interruption

As she drifted between consciousness and a morphine-induced sleep, Arsinoë heard voices and footsteps approaching outside the curtain.

“How could you bet it?” A woman sounded indignant. “Now she escaped and it’s all your fault.”

“It was all I had left, and I was certain I would win,” a man said defensively.

The woman sighed. “Were you at least trying to win something worthwhile?”

“I bet them the pendant in exchange for the first thing to greet them when they arrived home. They lived alone and didn’t have any pets,” the man said sheepishly.

The lights in the hallway were bright and projected the speaker’s silhouettes through the curtain as they paused in front of it, each parking a cart they were pushing.

What looked like a woman’s body had a head like a lioness and what looked like a man’s body had a head with pricked dog ears and a droopy snout.

That can’t be right…can it?

Now Arsinoë was wide awake.