Selby Shattered by Duncan Ball

castle. Akradswinning for eight minutes. Princess Fairhair leads counter-attack. She and ten warriors survive. Credit roll. Wrap.’
    Selby watched the final battle scene with his heart pounding in his chest. Jigsaw slumped forward, his chin resting on the seat in front of him.
    As the credits began to roll, Selby couldn’t stop himself. He clapped and cheered wildly.
    ‘Wonderful!’ he cried without thinking.
    The boy-wizard film-maker turned in his seat.
    ‘Who’s there? What did you say?’
    Selby sat silently, trying to look as innocent as a dog who had just yelled out in plain English could have looked.
    ‘Hey! You’re a dog!’ Jigsaw exclaimed. ‘Or am I just imagining you? Come here, boy. Come on. Here doggy doggy.’
    ‘I’d better do what he says,’ Selby thought as he trotted down the aisle and climbed up on the seat next to Jigsaw.
    ‘Are you real?’ Jigsaw asked, rubbing his eyes. ‘You
look
real.’
    Silence.
    Jigsaw gave Selby a pat.
    ‘And you
feel
real,’ he said, ‘so you must be real. But tell me you didn’t say
wonderful.
‘
    More silence.
    ‘Wonderful,’ Jigsaw said, staring into Selby’s eyes.
    Selby opened his mouth.
    ‘W-w-w-,’ he started. And then he said,
‘Woof
!
    ‘Yeah, I was hearing things,’ Jigsaw said, leaning over and reading Selby’s tag. ‘Selby,’ he said. ‘Good name. If I were a dog, I’d like to be called Selby.’
    Jigsaw’s mobile started ringing but he didn’t answer it.
    ‘That’ll be Harry and his film critics. I’m not going to answer it and I’m not going to upload the film to them. Sorry guys, but it’s rubbish.’
    ‘No, it’s not,’ Selby thought. ‘It’s great!’
    ‘Boring boring boring,’ Jigsaw mumbled. ‘It’s the same old thing.
Dragon Mist Enigma, Legions of the Fire King, Snow Dream Castle,
and now thisone,
Myth Chaser.
They’re all the same. I’ve made the same film four times.’
    ‘I could see twenty of them and not be bored,’ Selby thought.
    ‘They always want you to do the same thing over and over again. I want to break out. I want to do something different for a change.’
    ‘What does it take to make this guy happy?’ Selby wondered. ‘He’s made some great films! He’s famous!’
    ‘Do you know what would make me happy?’ Jigsaw said to Selby as if Selby could understand what he was saying (which he could). ‘I’d be happy if I could make a happy movie with lots of singing and dancing in it.’
    Jigsaw’s mobile kept ringing.
    ‘Oh, be quiet,’ he said to it. ‘Tell the movie reviewers to go home because they’re not going to see this film. I’m going to delete the whole thing right now. And then (yawn) I’m going to (yawn) get some sleep.’
    Selby watched in horror as Jigsaw’s finger headed for the DELETE button.
    ‘He doesn’t know what he’s doing!’ Selby screamed in his brain.
    ‘Don’t do it!’ Selby blurted out. ‘You’ll be sorry you did!’
    But the last thing Jigsaw did before slumping back in his chair and falling into a deep sleep was to press the DELETE button. Soon he was dreaming of his film career; of this, his last movie; and thinking about the very furry DELETE button that he’d just pressed. A furry DELETE button with claws on it.
    ‘Thank goodness,’ Selby thought as he lifted the man’s finger from the back of his paw. ‘I saved the film. Now to send it. Let’s see now …’
    Selby searched the keyboard of the laptop and found a button that said UPLOAD and was just about to press it.
    ‘Now hang on a tick,’ he thought. ‘What am I doing? I mean, I loved the film but Jigsaw didn’t like it and it’s
his
film. Who am I to send it? But, if I don’t send it right now, it’ll never get shown in theatres. And maybe he didn’t like it because he was just too tired. If I delete it, he might wake up and wish he still had it.’
    Selby rested his paw on the keyboard again. He looked at the boy-genius film-maker and shook his head.
    ‘Oh, Jigsaw,’ he