Bastet watched Pebble do joyful laps around the dungeon entrance, his mouth hanging open in what could only be called pure, delighted idiocy while workers flattened themselves against scaffolding to survive the happiness.
"Jealous of that?" The queen scoffed.
Then she reached over, pressed the button, and bent close. "Pebble. Walk like humans."
Pebble froze mid-lap.
His front legs lifted off the ground, and the armored body rose. And rose. And kept rising until the building-sized guardian stood on his hind legs, towering over the compound like a skyscraper with six bewildered eyes and no idea what to do with his front paws.
A worker screamed. Three others ran.
Bastet giggled. "Okay." She watched Pebble take one enormous wobbling step forward, front paws dangling while his tail counterbalanced desperately. "It's pretty fun."
