ORIGIN

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The waterfall area was lovely, but apparently completely empty for whatever reason. He had found absolutely no one (though there were signs and smells of many different creatures, including that weird big eared runt) so after getting his fill of water from a pond and rolling a massive hole in the fields of moss (leaving many strange tuffs of white fur) he decided it was time to go back home before he got too lost. He was starting to get hungry, after all. The air here was cold, and he really didn't want to go back into the uncomfortable, claustrophobic tunnel he had gone through just that... morning?

Regardless, he was now quite worried about slipping. He dug his claws into the ice and tried to make the air warm once more like he had before. His poor tail definitely did not want to freeze off! So as he summoned his magic, he heard something strange accompanying that constant plop, plop, plop of water dripping. It sounded more like... The crunching of bones.

The puppy stopped, holding very still as he tried to figure out just what that noise was. Unfortunately, he didn't know the large streaks of cracks that came up underneath him until the thin ice snapped and the pup fell in through the ice into the freezing water... except, for some reason, it didn't seem that cold.

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Kerberos had fallen into something strange. It wasn't cold like the icy rivers of Polaris (how was he to know that his heat up worked on water when it failed him every time before?) and for a moment, it simply felt like he was floating. The current was slow here, and for a great long moment he just... was. Silently watching the blurry world around him.

Then the weirdest thing came before him and he blinked, a great dark shape came up before him and wiggled around a bit. The thing finally spoke and snapped him out of his horrible paralysis, one mouth opening to speak and only managing a gasp as wet filled his throat.

Water. He was in water. He was going to drown! The other two heads snarled with tightly closed mouths and he began to kick at the water, his massive paws churning the dark waters like massive oars, propelling him up towards the surface.

He hit ice before he hit air. He bonked against the cold and heard a horrible crack, and his blood ran cold. He flailed, scratching, scrambling at the ice. He was trapped. Who was that dark thing? He had to get out, he had to. He couldn't drown! Giggle said he... He was going to...

Suddenly, water was expelled from him, creating a bubble of thin, thin air just long enough for him to gulp down a couple of desperate gasps. The ice held firm-- it must have been thick where he had come up-- but his lungs were full of air once more and, though the water crashed in around him once more, he wouldn't drown immediately. That didn't stop him from panicking, of course, whimpering and flailing, clawing at the stubborn, thick layer of ice.

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Kerberos found that he didn't need to breathe for quite a long time, but he was still incredibly afraid. Even if he could keep pushing the water away and gasp at the air that filtered through the ice, he wouldn't be able to keep it up forever. His tail felt chilled to the bone, curled tightly around one of his thin, narrow hind legs. He could hear the dolphin's voice clear through the water, as if his language was made for water... well, of course it was. He had no idea things lived in the water like this. All he knew was he had to get out! His claws sank into the ice above him, kicking and heaving at the ceiling of thick coldness that trapped him here.

Eeya had gone off and returned, the strange grey thing so fast in the water. He didn't understand how he moved like a torpedo, quick and agile, but he felt a sting of a new emotion he didn't know he was capable of feeling. It was like anger, but sharper, like a needle digging into his chest, right deep down to his heart. It didn't make him want to hurt the other gembound, but instead it made him want to strive to do better, to become better than the grey, slippery water monster.

The dolphin made a shiver-cold noise at him, and told him it would be cold but there was an escape. Already starting to freeze in the depths-- although the water wasn't too cold, his tail was not yet comfortable in chilled waters-- he churned his paws towards the moving water. The currents more than his vision told him where to go, following the path that Eeya had carved with his slick blubbery body. It faded quickly, but he could see the light pouring in from the hole, and he forced his way towards it, kicking and churning his large, water-ready paws through the depths.

The light was warm, inviting. He burst free from the water, his claws hitting the surface of ice, scrambling to escape the depths. The air was warm, comforting, and ran down through his spine to his tail, warming him from the inside. He was alive, somehow, he had done it. With a howl of pride, the massive puppy pulled his body through breaking ice until it became thick enough to hold his weight as he hauled himself out. The ice cracked under his big, fluffy body, but he had found the wall of the tunnel, and here the ice held firm, perhaps even held by a rocky floor, somewhere. With a huff, he turned and pushed his noses into the water.

"Hewoooohuuoo?" He called out into the water, his breath bubbling up water around his whiskers, his fur puffing up as it dried in the focused patch of hot air from the puppy's magic.

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The words came through the water, again, sharp and clear. Where as his words were muffled, bubbly messes, the sea creature's words rang in his ears and lingered. What did all of that mean, he found himself wondering, bothered by the turn of events. He pulled his heads out of the water and shook his fur as dry as he could. Hadn't the weird water thing spoke in real words before? Unless... Was that it's name? One of those weird, complicated noises? He couldn't mimic it if he tried.

Feeling a bit bewildered, he laid down on the ice and stuck his head into the cold water once more. "Kerbbb!" He bubble-barked, his words muddy in the liquid. "Brrb!" He tried, really hard, to make his words sound as clear and as good as Eeya's-- but his voice wasn't made for it. "Ouhs?!" No-- his strong lungs may have been made for holding breath, but his wind pipes were made for singing songs that carried through miles of open air, not for deep, dark water tunnels.

He pulled back out of the water and gulped down a few more precious breaths, and then, perhaps a bit bravely, he slipped back into the water. As he willingly entered the cold depths, they felt less frightening this time. He batted his eyes, looking through the blurry world, trying to understand more about all of this. It was so new, so different... Yeah, he would definitely have to listen and learn and speak here....

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Kerberos listened to the dolphin, trying to adjust his eyes to the dark light. Just when he started to make sense of the water and the blur of black blubber that was Eeya-- a bright light appeared, flooding the water with golden hues. He could finally make out everything, after blinking a bit more, and noticed that oddly the water creature was upside down. How did it swim like that?

He went to open his mouth and found water, so he clamped his jaws shut and instead nodded vigorously. He was ready to play or whatever, it seemed fun? He glanced up at the orb and found he had to close his eyes-- but he kicked up and pawed at the light, trying to hit it towards the dolphin.