ORIGIN - Harbinger

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The black bird was far from home. These weren't the thick, deep mists of Cetus, where the Hallowed Caller was often shrouded in a cloak of night. This was a dim, dry place, ominously filled with bones. Wings spread, beat in a flurry, and with a haunting series of cawing calls, the bird began to weave its way through the cave.

It had often done so, hunting food or a puddle to drink from, but now it had a new purpose.

Kerberos. White dog. Many heads, large. Find him. Or Aza'zel. Big bird. Reddish and black. Bones. Dog, little thin, colors...

Vague thoughts. Vague ideas, images in its head, the drifting names like songs through its mind. The bird called again, flitting to the place she had showed it. The pile of bones, the ledge high above. It landed there, in Giggle's old fortune-telling spot, and it looked down upon the pile.

She could see it--from her place in the darkness. Her bones, still there, musty with the dust of months. Empty. Dark.

Call to them.

The black bird, its single red eye staring down over Canis, began to call out. Its bonded spirit was urging it to, and it was pleased to do so, adding unearthly trills and a haunting, echoing note to the names. "Kerrrr-BEROS! Aaaaaaza'zeeeeeel. Bones, Bones, Bones!" it cried out, shrill. It flipped the names around, it added to them, it mixed them up, so that at times they were not recognizable as names at all. "AZA--BRRRRROS! Kerrrrrzazazazzel..."

The incessant racket, which might be irritating were it not called out as if by a choir of lingering spirits, echoed through Canis.

The only question was, would anyone respond?

________________

ROLL THE BONES

All I believe is it a dream

that comes crashing down on me

All that I hope, is it just
smoke and mirrors?

δεξιά . κέντρο . αριστερά

Kerberos' face had healed... Poorly, but well enough, since the revenge of Carcino for the sins that raced down his spine. The canine still had countless other problems, namely Maji Walezi's hunt for justice and Ashtoreth's painful absence-- and all of these things had finally outweighed the pup's desire to find his mother. It had been cycles, painful, endless days, since he had found head or tail of the hyena, and Bones wasn't much better off. His family was fractured, but the canine found purpose in protecting what remained.

Cure, Cancer, Aza'zel, Amaria-- and the leech of a feline in his fur. Bound to his Bones, forever more, never straying lest he cause the death of more innocents. It was a simple life, doing what was asked of him, guarding the door, focusing on his purpose instead of his longing. The boy never forgot his mother, though, just put it away so it couldn't haunt him.

A voice called out for him and he rose from his rest, eyes not even open before he was loping down the pathway towards a den he hadn't sniffed about in in at least a cycle. Kerberos blinked with bleary eyes as he found himself in Giggle's old home, completely overrun with fungi and dust. Though his middle face was still recovering, kept low against his chest, the peripheral heads stared in confusion at a black bird. Was that what had called him? Just what was it, anyway?

Kerberos slowly remembered the bird that had helped him find the monster that had taken his mother and given them back only a memory. He hadn't seen head or tail of the tiny creature since, and at the familiar, unusual site his snaking tail began to swish back and forth. He was hopeful that this thing was on their side, on his side, a friend... Anything would be better than a pet to the many eyed cat that tormented him those many nights ago.

"Have you more luck than me," he asked, "little guide from the darkness?"

The bird tilted its head, peering down with one bright, crimson-hued eye at the dog below. The image blurred in its mind but swam with memory nonetheless--this was the image its soul-bonded had showed it not long ago.

"CAW! CAW! AZBEROS! ZEL! ZEL!"

This blurring of the words she'd given it was raucously proud, and the Caller fluffed its feathers, hopping back and forth on Giggle's ledge.

It let out a long and haunting call, and at the end, this call shifted, changing into the chilling, chattering echo of Giggle's cackle. It was another noise the bird had picked up, one it had added to its eerie repertoire.

I recognize him. My son. He wants to play a game. It has to be stopped. He'll kill me. I stopped him. Dead? Dead. Am I dead?

Confused thoughts ran through the hyena's shattered mind as she watched Kerberos through the blurred image granted by the Caller's single eye, and their tenuous link. She didn't question this--didn't question the magic. She didn't have the self-awareness to. But she did have the awareness to call to the bird, to summon it back to her.

Bring him with you.

She wasn't sure where to. It did not occur to her that she was in a floating void, that Kerberos would be dragged into the blackness too.

The Hallowed Caller felt the tug, the pull of Giggle's mind, and it leapt from her ledge, soaring down to the ground in a long glide and a few beats of black wings. It looked back to Kerberos--the dog would follow, or so the mind-linked seemed to be claiming. Or--asking? It wasn't sure. All it knew was that it waited, cawing loudly at Kerberos, before turning and leading the way with hops and short flights over toward a distant, overgrown section of the West Wall of Canis.

Tiny feet sent large bones clattering as the bird's weight shifted, and it turned, making sure Kerberos was following.

"Kerrrr... Caaww! Keraww!"

________________

ROLL THE BONES

@Kerberos

All I believe is it a dream

that comes crashing down on me

All that I hope, is it just
smoke and mirrors?

δεξιά . κέντρο . αριστερά

The bird croaked at him and he perked, attention snapping sharply to the avian even more than before. Even Kerberos' damaged center head rose from its hiding spot and stared with one remaining eye at the crow, fur puffing up as the bird took flight and cawed at him more urgently. The dog followed quickly-- there was no hesitation. If it was a trap, then the trapper was foolish. Kerberos could kill. He would kill. He knew how now.

And he wasn't afraid of hurting anyone if it meant saving Giggle.

The canine ended up at a wall and frowned as he turned his heads to the bird. This wasn't his mother-- she wasn't in Canis, was she? She must have been outside-- they would have to take the tunnel. He whined at the bird, unsure of what he was supposed to do, where he was supposed to go. He wanted his mother back.

@Giggle sorry for this poop post

Dog was following. The bird cawed, pleased, feeling the heartrate of its bonded picking up speed. Excited. Hopeful. Terrified.

It regarded Kerberos with that single crimson eye, glittering in the dim cave light, then turned and flapped its wings. It soared the last few yards to the place it knew the hyena to be.

She had never responded to it; she had never moved, only lay there, silent and still. But she breathed, and was warm enough that the bird had often lay beside her, nesting in her fur. Until the day her mind, her magic, had made contact with it.

The bird hopped up onto a low, flat rock that was moist with the damp of the cave. Its black feathers fluffed as it sat staring at Kerberos, starkly silhouetted against the tan stone. Behind it, a thick mess of fungus grew in a strange and twisted garden, nestled deep in a crack between the boulders that led into the wall of the cave itself.

The bird let out a cackle--starting low, trilling to high notes, like a mad witch's hideous laughter.

There. There! I can see you!

Giggle could sense the bond getting stronger--but how was that possible? She wasn't in the physical world. She was lost in this void. Yet somehow, they felt... closer.

She remembered Kerberos in only a fragmented way. Her mind had visions--memories that played out brokenly--of the young Kerberos attacking her, snarling heads snapping and tearing. She had memories of the older one, somehow wiser and gentler, and they overlapped with the rest. She wasn't sure if he was dangerous, or not--but somehow, she was glad he was here.

And as if to confirm this, she found that she was worried at his wounded middle head, which she could see in a vague and blurry way through her link with the one-eyed Hallowed caller.

The bird felt the joy, and trilled with it, an eerie series of whistling, screaming sounds echoing out of its little black beak like winds ripping through the higher eaves of the cave. It then turned, hopping into the fungus, vanishing into the black of the crevice in the wall.

Kerberos would be left facing a flat, abandoned-looking and dimly-lit section of the cave, a black yawning hole far too small for him to fit into ahead. A rancid odor pervaded, like feces and rot, urine and vomit; perhaps it was only the tangled mess of rotting fungal material all around, in hues of orange and brown and dirty cream.

Inside the black hole, however, a black shape turned to face him--its single red eye shining, unblinking.

And in that silence, just inside the hole--clogged by the garden of mushrooms--something could be heard breathing.

________________

ROLL THE BONES

@Kerberos

All I believe is it a dream

that comes crashing down on me

All that I hope, is it just
smoke and mirrors?

δεξιά . κέντρο . αριστερά

Kerberos blinked as the bird screamed at him, a familiar echo of a laugh hitting his ears. He could feel misery soaking into his fur, knowing that was how his mother had laughed. There was nothing here, though. Nothing but... But fungus. Slowly the canine seemed to realize that there was more here than he had thought-- his mother's mother was probably a shroom of some sort, considering how they lingered about her constantly. His ears pricked and he focused, trying to understand.

The bird hopped away, sweeping into a crevice he hadn't noticed among the mess. The dog let out a yelp and surged forward, his frame barely fitting into the black crack in the wall. He groaned, ignoring the stench as he struggled into the darkness, trying to summon some light of his own. His shoulders caught and he found he could only fit his crowded snouts into the crack, his tail curling up between his legs.

His faces glowed, his noses and eyes turning into torches. His middle head groaned, the pain from the heat searing under his skin unbearable on top of his own wounds. His right head licked at the center's muzzle, but the left head stared ahead, his body shaking as he saw the fungus shift and groan. There was something alive under there.

"... Mother?" He woofed the single word, overwhelmed by the sensation of helplessness.

@Giggle

Kerberos's head--or, heads--thrust into the crevice, blocking out all light. A moment later a new firelight filled the little area, shining eerily over the thick forest of mushrooms in the narrow space. Laying in it, like a body covered in flowers, was the hyena.

At first, it wasn't obvious. Her fur was visible, its tawny red matted with mushroom growth, but she blended in very well with the rest of the dusty sanguine fungus. It was the soft rise and fall of her bony chest that would first be visible, and the fact that the Caller was quietly nestled into her darker mane.

It would be obvious to those who knew fungus that Giggle was more than simply lying there--she hadn't been somehow kept alive for months by mere nothing. No, she was practically attached to the fungal bed--spore and stalks threaded from her legs into the rock, perhaps feeding nutrition directly into her. Even so, she was dangerously thin: a rangy, bony creature, half her previous weight and near total starvation.

To grab and drag or lift her out would be frighteningly easy.

I can see him. I can see him--I don't know how. He's lit like fire. Fire, like he was, but was he? Blood on the rocks, moving. In his shape. I'm here, Kerberos. I'm here.

________________

ROLL THE BONES

@Kerberos

All I believe is it a dream

that comes crashing down on me

All that I hope, is it just
smoke and mirrors?

δεξιά . κέντρο . αριστερά

The cerberos stood, trembling in a tempest of his own emotions, the glow of his body flooding the fungi ridden cavern. His pale eyes stared at the remains of his mother, barely certain she was even alive. For a great, long moment, the canine waited with baited breath for her voice to reach him, to comfort him, to laugh like he remembered.

The red eye watched the massive canine as he swam in helplessness, afraid to so much as touch her lest the shrooms let off a deadly spore that would take her life. Her body was entwined with them, and he had no idea how he was supposed to remove her without destroying the only thing that kept her breathing. The dog whined, a three pitched whimper that whispered through the shadowed den.

Giggle did not answer him. He could see her ribs protruding under her matted fur, where the mushrooms hadn't grown, and he was compelled to race off-- find food, find water, keep her alive. She wasn't even concious though, and the dog couldn't reach her...

His middle head stretched forward, his body straining with the effort. Blood broke out along a scab on his cheek, dripping down on to the hyena's hide. His teeth bared, he breathed in her scent-- musty carrion, like death itself. Tears traced down his fur and mingled with the wounds, but the pain was nothing compared to the empty ache inside of his chest.

He reached just a bit more, getting his teeth to grab ahold of her coat. The taste was sharp, pungent-- he knew it well and it made him want to recoil in disgust-- but he forced himself anyway. He hauled backwards, swallowing his fears. If this killed her, then it would be a merciful death-- he couldn't allow himself that guilt.

Giggle came dragging out after him, and he wrapped himself around her quickly, massive paws holding her close as he snuffled over her, checking for wounds. He hoped he had pulled the fungus from their roots along the cavern floor, not from her veins, but if he found blood he was quick to clean, to lick away and danger of infection. The canine did not care how deadly the spores might be, this was his mother. He had to save her. He had to.

Kerberos did the only thing he knew how to do. His magic abandoned him, leaving him with only his body heat, and he licked at her face, whining softly, wordlessly, hopeful and desperate. He had found her, but he was so deathly afraid he was too late.

@Giggle

The Hallowed Caller fluffed its feathers and hopped out of the hole past Kerberos as he leaned in, letting out a short squawk of alarm.

Through its eye, it watched as he leaned in, as he seemed to eat the hyena it was bound to. It felt mild grief at this.

Is he killing me. Am I dead? Everything is dark, except him, he is light, it's dark but I can see him. Why is he light--I am moving. I am moving? But I am in the void. Madness. Madness. The bird's mind, perhaps it is moving-...

But it wasn't madness, she suddenly realized. She wasn't in the void--not any longer. Had she ever been...? Had it been only her mind, trapped there?

The moment she felt her body move, felt Kerberos drag her, she felt something in her mind snap as if opened. Everything fading to a bright, piercing white as she was pulled into the orb-light outside, and she felt a deep and stirring relief.

Dark eyes opened, staring unseeing into this light, made brighter as her lids were raised.

Sensation flooded back, overpowering, as the fungus was pulled away: weakness, aches, a gnawing agony in her empty gut. A pulsing pounding pain in her head, and pain in her ears, and eyes, and nose, for all the input they were suddenly receiving.

It was as if she'd been merely gone for so long, and now again existed, turned back on and flooded with sights, sounds and odors.

Her body quaked; it trembled as Kerberos enveloped her, a merciful shadow falling over her gaze to block out the orbs. She'd never felt so helpless; her single skyward eye could see the giant three-headed dog lean down, could see his one ruined face.

She remembered him attacking her, remembered thinking he'd get her, someday. She remembered him as her loving son, and her would-be murderer, and as the massive jaws lowered toward her, terror filled her--made all the worse by the fact that she couldn't move.

When he simply began to lick her face--whining softly--the relief that filled her sent her already-weakened body limp and trembling, the terror flooding away.

He has me. Not dying. Not biting. I am safe. I am safe. He is my son. Safe...

Giggle closed her eyes, and for an instant she saw the scene through the eyes of the silent Caller: the massive white bear-like dog, the bony hyena limp in his embrace, twitching and shivering.

She let out a soft cry, and half-turned her head weakly to burrow it into Kerberos's fur. She was unable to move, otherwise, simply helpless.

The hyena wanted to speak--but she could not. The weakness was too much; her jaw could barely move.

She did her best, instead, to call on what little magic she had left--to ask the fungus, all around, the stuff that ate from the bones and fed and grew, to feed her, as well. But she was weak; the bones were old. Instead, she pushed her mind to the bird, trembling.

The Hallowed Caller fluffed itself again, ruffling black feathers, and blinked its single crimson eye Kerberos's way.

"Th-thank RAWKdog. Kerrrrbthank. You thank. CAW! CAWCAW!"

It wasn't the best way of getting it across, but it was the best that Giggle could do. With a sigh she slumped further, limp but shivering in Kerberos's enveloping warmth.

________________

ROLL THE BONES

@Kerberos

All I believe is it a dream

that comes crashing down on me

All that I hope, is it just
smoke and mirrors?

δεξιά . κέντρο . αριστερά

His mother made a noise, weak, and her body shook-- but she was alive, so alive, breathing-- he could feel her breathing, against his paws, his breath stirring with hers. Part of him wanted to give her space, let her have fresh air, but the rest of him was fiercely determined to keep her close, keep her safe, as though something would come from the darkness and snatch her away again.

A single head pivoted away from Giggle, turning to stare out at the dust and bones of their home beyond. His pink gaze searched across the seemingly still and quiet boneyard for his kin. His cropped ears pinned flat against his skull and he raised a muzzle to a howling call.

"Bones, hunt, come, mother, hurry," he breathed the message into the notes, the rest of his body continuing to make sure that his mother was alive. His central head was a mess of scars and scabs, tears and pinpricks of blood, and it was lost in licking Giggle, keeping her conscious and there. She couldn't die, he didn't want to lose her again. His last head, however, was racing down the things that he could do to help. He was afraid to move her-- the dog wasn't exactly a doctor but he knew she wasn't well-- but he knew she needed food and water, quickly.

His magic could do some things. He knew there was water in the air, even though Canis was dry as hell. It formed clouds sometimes, in other parts of the caves, and rained-- so maybe, if he tried hard enough, he could pull it out like he could push and manipulate other things. He remembered grasping for water cycles ago, when Hasira had nearly killed him with a single spell. He focused, pulling, forcing the water vapor in the air to come together, to come to him.

Within moments, a fine mist lay over him and Giggle. A single ear twitched on his head and he focused more, wetness forming in his fur and most importantly on Giggle's muzzle. It wasn't a lot, but he took all the water from the air he could.

"Giggle, mother, look... Water... Drink, get as much as you can," he spoke softly to her, keeping his focus up. There wasn't a lot of water-- he wanted more, but there simply wasn't enough in the air. He drenched her muzzle and hoped she could lap it up, but as long as he focused the water couldn't evaporate. Giggle would survive this.

@Giggle @Bones

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