9 -- The start of Jitzmitthra

Next morning I was up early with the Beginning of Jitzmitthra, the days that didn’t exist officially in the calendar. I loved it because it seemed as if the whole city went bugfikken crazy just for my birthday. I knew it really wasn’t true but I still loved everyone being naughty and unconventional. I could count all of Jitzmitthra my birthday because they were all the same. Diem 0. Today was Relinquishment of Conventional Decorum.

This morning I slid out of bed before any of my servants could stop me and ran into the bathing room totally naked. “Hey!” My nurse managed to take a deep breath and speak to me the way she normally wouldn’t though not as badly as tomorrow when everything would be completely upside down.

“Don’t you be runnin’ around like that, M… Minis!” I giggled and jumped into the Lesser Bath and made a huge splash but ran up the step and did it again. I was careful not to splash her.

“Oh, Dearest Nurse! Could I beg you, please please please would you help me get myself clean?”

She sighed and walked over as if it were the last thing on her mind but this year she scooped up a floor brush. “I’ll make sure you’re clean, Minis!” I made my eyes white all the way around and scrambled back out of her reach… soaping myself.

It was so funny having her treat me like that. They didn’t dare do such things in my father’s sight even in Jitz. "You behave, now, or I'll take this brush to your skinny white behind!"

Father didn’t like the festival much and except for once or twice he’d stay in his rooms and ignore the uproar in the city as if it weren’t happening. The only time he ever came out of privacy during it was for my birthday dinner tomorrow morning and for the Restoration of Decorum Festival at the end of the Diems. And this year there wouldn’t be only Five Diems… but it was an Addition Year. There would be Six! And this year I would have a friend who… oh… he probably didn’t know about Jitzmitthra! I’d have to show him all about it!

“I’m all right, I’ll wash myself. Honest!” She stood on the edge of the pool, tapping her foot, letting me wash myself.

“Good enough. If you need help, I’ll be around somewhere.” She set the brush down and left me alone. She’d have brought my breakfast and left it in my dining room as if someone had forgotten it there. But today it would only be cold things… things that could be set out with a minimum of work. A glass of plain milk. A bowl of fruit that would have been cut up and mixed during normal days. A plain piece of bread.

I never understood it but Jitzmitthra meals always tasted better even when they were completely simple. I didn’t have to struggle to get it down. I took off my own robe and dropped it on the bed. I’d be wearing it for the next few days so I wanted to remember where it was.

My rooms were empty. It was very quiet inside with no servants in evidence at all and I went to look for my costume. It had been laid out the night before. I couldn’t help it… I jumped up and down when I saw it and giggled. It was a spotted loincloth and spotted wraps for my arms and calves but the best part was the headpiece. The floppy doggy ears were on expensive springs so they bounced and flapped at the slightest motion, the puppy nose glistened over my own nose and the long satin tongue was attached to the jaw-piece so it bobbed to my own mouth’s movement.

I pulled it on and tugged my hair through the supports at the back and it settled comfortably as though it were part of me. I looked in the mirror and laughed and laughed and jumped up and down before I put the loincloth on, just to make my penis bounce like the tongue. It looked so funny I did it again.

It was so blasphemous -- a dog costume for the Heir of the whole Empire -- it was perfect for Jitz. It was like I was wearing a little bit of the worst curse an Arkan could say…’Dog-mother of the Ten’, as if there was a female dog who could have birthed the Gods!

My giggle was a little nervous so I put the loincloth on and the wraps… really tubes and wiggled the bouncy, curly tail on the back of the loincloth. The sponge in the bowl was perfect for me to dab spots on my skin and the tail was heavy enough to swing when I moved my hips and flexible enough to slap the outsides of my legs if I really wiggled. The artist that made it was wonderful. I’d have to hire him again.

The collar was gemmed and had gold dangles and charms all around it and the matching silk leash was an Imperial blue. I wrapped that around my waist for later.

I ran outside and found the floor sweepers playing dice on the floor rather than sweeping it. I barked at them and one picked up his broom and waved it at me. “Shoo! Shoo, puppy! Don’t frighten the cats! Shoo!”

He swatted me on the behind and I barked at them both again and giggled… before running down to the laefetas, the moveable room that would take me downstairs without having to go down any stairs at all. The one in the Marble Palace was manned whether it was a holy day or not.

I panted and barked and ran in circles right in front of the Steel Gate, the Mahid guards lounging. One of them finished a peach and hurled the pit at me, stinging me on the behind. It was almost too much and I stopped barking and stood up. “Wait, dog. There’s a couple of guys who need to walk you,” he drawled. I sat down, with my knees spread, crouched like a pup on the step. Some Mahid liked Jitzmitthra more than they let on, I thought. Until my guards strolled out I sat and panted and watched the city throw off its usual constraints.

Someone had filled the fountains in front of the Marble Palace with soap and the bubbles blew in mountains across the paving of the Presentation Square. People in every colour of the rainbow and type of costume played in the foam taller than they were.

A older woman who had chosen not to change out of her night clothes and gloves danced along the raised granite edge of the fountain, her silver/gold hair uncovered and unbound flowing down to her feet.

Four men tossed a wine skin back and forth between them. Whoever caught the skin would raise it and pour a stream of wine into his own mouth or that of passers-by before sealing it up and tossing it to the next. They were, for some reason, dressed as frogs.

“Hey, brat.” It was Boras, looking uncomfortable slouching, the casual tone a strain in his mouth. I replied by barking at him. The city was going mad as usual… somewhere behind a manor’s walls I heard a woman laughing and laughing, open and free.

A man stood on top of his own gate dressed in only a loincloth and his hair, playing the feda, the music wild and wailing instead of staid and proper as was usual for the instrument. There was a bit of pink lace… a glove… caught on the end of his bow.

I sat down for a while in front of his gate and howled until he threw a candy at me. I jumped up like a puppy aiming to snatch it out of the air, but even in Jitzmitthra I couldn’t eat just anything and Boras, lightning fast, snapped out and seized it before I could. “Bad dog,” he said mildly. I growled at him and headed down to the Mezem.