ORIGIN - Big Brother

Grishia was on an Adventure.

And that meant, as per her mother's careful instructions, she was within sight and hearing of the den. Omen was somewhere up above, keeping an eye on her; only one, because that's all the bird had. But Grishia didn't see her mother, now. She was plodding around among the bones, poking them here and there, a little bored.

The staff she carried--with its sickle of moonstone, and its bones and antlers and ribbons and teeth--was way too big for her. Its opalized ash glinted in the light, but she kept stumbling with it, almost falling, and accidentally dropping it or bumping on the rock. The stone in her chest, too, felt heavy. She didn't know that's what was there; she just knew there was a weight inside her that was way too big for her size. Maybe she'd grow into it, but for now she was pausing now and then to catch her breath.

The upright, sooty colored cub poked a bone with her foot, and squinted at it. Her other bone golem hadn't woken up when she did, this morning. She'd made it, then slept, and it hadn't woken up. Her mom had said it needed more rest, but Grishia--bored--pointed at another skeleton she'd sort of, mostly assembled. It was missing pieces. But it looked like it'd maybe been a squirrel, and she cried tiny orders at it, squinting with focus as she pointed a black claw. "C'mon, bones!" she told them. "We're going on adventure."

Nothing happened, and the child stood there for a moment, expression wrinkled in focus with one hand extended out. Then she sighed--a big huff--and plopped down on her rump, staring at the bones and wondering where she'd gone wrong.

@Kerberos

-- And we could live for a thousand years !

αριστερά . κέντρο . δεξιά

Kerberos hadn't been far. He knew that there were kids on the way, new puppies and whelps and cubs or whatever the heck hyenas had! It didn't really matter what they were, because the only thing that did matter was that they were getting more family.

The Bonebound was getting life injected straight into its veins, and Kerberos felt it on the wind. The air of Canis did not seem as dry as it usually was, instead little weeds had begun to sprout here and there among the bones, and the fungus that grew around Giggle's den was particularly thriving in the electric buzz through the cave.

It was a time of change. And how wondrous it was for it to be good change, for once.

Kerberos spotted her a mile away, just about, on his lopping trip home with a headless cave deer carried by a single set of his three jaws by the hind quarters. Tail thrashing wildly through the air, he bound across the bone field toward the shape of the little hyena-upright-walker.

Thump, thump, thump. Rattle went the bones as the earth shook at his approach, hasty and excited, and only when he was nearly too close to stop in time did he put on the breaks, throwing his back legs forward and digging his front claws into the ground, skidding to a very dramatic stop before the little girl.

"Hello sister!" The decapitated deer dropped unceremoniously at his side: "Are you hungry?" And the excited woofs continued: "Do you want to play?" INTRODUCTIONS!! "I am Kerberos!"

Hopefully it wasn't too much for the young one. His snoots craned down, eagerly sniffing at her. He would lick her to death given half the chance, but for now he waited, barely contained in his excitement, for her response.

@Grishia

Grishia's mother had warned her that some of the Bonebound could be... intimidating.

However, she'd also warned her that there were some unsavory creatures in the world: creatures who might harm her. And she hadn't exactly laid out a set of mugshots to show her which was which.

So when the gigantic, three-headed beast came BARRELLING toward her with paw-thumps hard enough to feel through the rock and a carcass clenched in one set of jaws (the other two sets of teeth alarmingly free to bite), Grishia panicked.

She scrambled backward, squeaked, SQUEALED, and fell; from there she tried to scramble away. It was only when Omen started cackling, and yelled something along the lines of 'KER-BOS!' that the gnoll cub turned back, blinking.

That's when Kerberos skidded to a halt. She stared up, on her butt, staff clattering to the rock beside here. Her eyes were wide. At least she hadn't peed herself.

When he lowered his heads and began to talk, her lips quivered and it looked for a moment like she might cry. Then she did cry, but the leaking tears and not sobbing sort, simultaneously nodding as her face crumpled just a little. A hand reached up to try and blindly pat for a nose and she spoke weakly, struggling to keep her three-day-old dignity: "P... puppy?"

Grishia was shaking a little, and her voice sounded a little broken, but... she'd get over it, probably.

@Kerberos

-- And we could live for a thousand years !

αριστερά . κέντρο . δεξιά

If Kerberos noticed that his little sister was frightened of him, he showed no sign of it. (Flinching away at his approach was a common and very natural response! The falling over was a fresh-hatch thing to do. This all was very normal.) Instead, he waited patiently for her to blink wet tears and reach up toward him, mumbling a very coherent answer to his bunch of over-eager questions.

"Yes, puppy! I'm a puppy!" Kerberos answered, craning down his scarred, central head to push his cold, wet nose into her finger tips with a gentle nudge. This was very good. She was so smart! Of course, she had been borne of Giggle, rather than just adopted, so of course she would be clever.

"I'm Kerberos, Giggle is my mother. That makes you my sister!" His other heads rattled off as the middle head solemnly accepted the touch of the little gnoll child, "I'm your BIG BROTHER! Are you hungry? I brought food!"

And while the head that had been carrying the meat gestured with its snout toward the deer carcass, the last of the remaining heads-- the one who had declared her sister-- could no longer hold itself back.

Shoving itself forward, the floppy eared, orange-tinted nose shoved past the central head, jaw parted, and began to give very large, slobbery, wet kisses of huge dog tongue all over Grishia's face. Which, he noted, was salty with tears. That would not do. He would clean her up!

@Grishia

The sound of Omen laughing (cackling?) behind her played backdrop to the sound of Grishia's own panting breaths. She took a minute to get ahold of herself, blinking at the giant snout pressed to her face--but it was hard to stay scared even of a giant when he went full-on puppy mode, licking at her tears. Despite herself, she laughed, a child's giggle, paw-hands pushing ineffectively at Kerberos's absolutely massive jowls, or at least the ones attached to the friendly orange-nosed face.

"Wait-" she managed to squeak, finally. She needed room, needed to take a breath!

Her mind, even as a kid's, was struggling to catch up. He was... Kerberos. He brought food, and maybe play. He was a big brother? She looked up at him, blinking, and tried to see the similarity to Giggle but couldn't find any. But she was only a couple days old, so she didn't really know how it worked, and abandoned the attempt.

"Kerberos. Big Brother," she breathed, squinting.

She... liked the idea. She had her immediate siblings, but a giant, bouncy brother was--great? Yeah. Great, she decided. They could play! And food-... "I'm... Grishia. Hi." She smiled up, almost shyly, and wiped her own face of slobber before starting toward the deer--then remembered her staff. She waddled back toddler-mode, hoisted it clumsily, and then made her way toward the food. "We can play?" she half-agreed, half-asked, with a glance up at Kerberos--a glance that was still wary, but quickly warming and hopeful, too. "What, um. Games?" A pause, as she struggled to find her words. "What games do you play?" she enunciated carefully.

@Kerberos