The white tip of Howlite's tail swished, wagging, at Brother's excited, approving noises. Yes! She was going to get such a good grade in friend. Her head turned to watch him barrel into another rock, and cleave it straight in half.

"Waow," she said. Because what the fuck else do you say when you witness that kind of display?

No doubt, Brother had lost his final braincell from that. She bounded over, pawsteps light and quiet, when he collapsed. She gave his forehead a sniff before a glowing, neon pink tongue lolled out and began rasping at the dusty bump. Like that would salvage any of his liquefied brains.

Lick, lick. "Can you do magic?" Lick, lick, lick. "I break mine with magic." Lick, lick.

@Brother

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WELCOME, [UNIDENTIFIED USER] !
> load file:THREADNAME.txt
Accessing document . . .

Brother let out a long-suffering sigh as its boo-boos were tended to, like a dog slumped on the sofa, sighing when it truly had no worries in the world.

Magic? No. It didn't have magic. It could just do cool things because it was big and strong like that. Its slitted pupils shifted to gaze up at Howlite-thing. It supposed she didn't have a sore head, though. But it didn't need magic! The pain was how it knew it was doing things HARD and STRONGLY. Yes!

Did it have another trick it could show her? One to prove it was HARD and STRONG? Oh! It knew one, it wasn't very strong but it was good for hunting...

...It focused really hard on Howlite-thing and how it could show her that it was also strong.

At its neck, one of its boiled-egg-looking markings began to shift and take on new colours. Blobs of colour shifted and moved as new colours bubbled to the surface. Pink, brown, white all slowly blobbed up through the blues and yellows. Then slowly shifted into place.

A childish rendition of Howlite's smile. An alarmingly clown ham-esque portrait of the friend it had thought so hard about while performing the spell, smiling back up at its twin.

Save file ? ( Y / N )

Not for nothing, but Howlite wasn't really certain what to make of what she assumed was her own visage looking back at her. It wasn't like she'd ever seen it, after all-- but it looked a bit like her fur, and a bit like Bauxite's face, but pink. "Waow," she repeated, because there wasn't much else you really could say when your first glance at your own face was one of clown ham.

It wasn't... making rocks split, or making them swirl around, but it sure was something.

"I want to learn to do lots of magic," she told Brother, and was half-not expecting him to really respond to her. "Overseer Tectus said there's not many in the Task Force that's versed in magic." And she really wanted to impress Tectus.

"She said there's twelve elements," the hybrid went on. "I'm not sure which one changing your skin is, though."

Hell, she couldn't remember most of them. Earth, water, fire, light... and that was about it.

@Brother

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WELCOME, [UNIDENTIFIED USER] !
> load file:THREADNAME.txt
Accessing document . . .

Brother stared blankly at Howlite, the praise seemingly going into one ear, through that empty skull, and straight out the other. Elements? Magic? What was she talking about? He could just simply, do that. It wasn't magic, it was him.

Perhaps she needed magic to do her bone tricks, was she upset that she needed magic to move it? Is that why she needed more to impress this Seeing Over? It was a lot to think about, which he would not be doing. And thus, ideas of magic were promptly scoured from his head.

"Task Force?" Brother grunted, it was the tilt of his head that framed the blunt words as a question opposed to his tone. He was good at force. Force crushed rocks and bones. He was very good at that. So the idea there was a task for this, it was down right intriguing. Certainly enough for Brother to voice, which said a lot considering the spinosaurus seemed to operate on a strict 'no more than two words a week' policy.

The beast shook out his hide and as his concentration slipped elsewhere, so did clownham Howlite. Gone from his hide once more.

Save file ? ( Y / N )

@Howlite-T-One

Howlite nodded, the flaps of her gums quivering excitedly. "The Task Force! I'm Howlite-T-One of the Task Force. I think the T stands for Tectus. She's cool." A beat. "I don't really know what we're Task Forcing, though. Tectus says I have to learn magic first." (She didn't really, but Howlite had considered this priority number one). "So, I'm going to find teachers."

A pause. She didn't know where she was going, and she was uncertain if it would be a good thing to share with Brother. For now, she kept it to herself.

She skipped herself back to another rock, funneling her magic into sheer force that split it clean in half down the middle. Pouncing on it, just to prove dominance, her white paws batted at the rings of browns and whites and greys against the smooth edge. ""Maybe you should come meet Tectus," she said more absent-mindedly. "Tectus says she's good at using muscle. She can show you more muscle stuff."

@Brother

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WELCOME, [UNIDENTIFIED USER] !
> load file:THREADNAME.txt
Accessing document . . .

Brother churred as Howlite talked on. Magic, task force, using muscle? He was good at using muscle too. He watched Howlite pounce on her stone. Then, moved to mirror her actions. Pouncing on a pile of bones, striking them to send them all skittering in all directions. Relishing the destruction and surge of adrenaline.

It put him in such a delightful mood that he decided he could spare Howlite a few more words. "Who teaches?"

He didn't know much about teachers; was it not enough to watch others? The life around them and learn from that? Did this magic require more than to see and do? Brother puffed; this was all such a headache, so he simply chose not to think about it any further and just keep his ears out for Howlite-thing's answer.

Save file ? ( Y / N )

@Howlite-T-One

Howlite shrugged. "The masters. Chaos Forge. I've never meet any of them," she said. She was getting tired, now, so she sat back on her haunches and licked at her pawpad, flourescent tongue lolling out from under her mask-tooth. "They're for magic, though. I guess Tectus would be for strong muscle-stuff."

"Unless you also wanted to do magic?" Howlite asked. She wasn't sure what kind of magic turning your skin into clown-ham was, but she supposed if she was going to be the best at magic, she'd have to learn that, too.

@Brother

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WELCOME, [UNIDENTIFIED USER] !
> load file:THREADNAME.txt
Accessing document . . .

...Magic? Muscle stuff? That didn't seem right. He could simply do the things he did. It wasn't an outside influence; he was just THE ULTIMATE HUNTER. It was all him. Not magic. He was just this good.

Perhaps others needed to be taught, needed to be shown how to do things, or needed the crutch of magic to hold on to. But NOT him. He could just do these things. "Already know thing." Brother snorted derisively.

Then, with a deep focus, Brother scowled before his skin began to change colour in a wave. Starting from the tip of his snout, scales folded over, as if 'turning over' onto this new colour, until it reached his tail tip. Brother stood before Howlite, an ivory-yellow, matching the colours of the bone caves around them. Ah, yes, that was more like it. Now the Howlite-thing would see he was simply This Good.

"I help. I follow." Brother announced, less of an offer and more of a demand. Ready to paddle after Howlite whether that was to settle for a nap or move on to another place.

Save file ? ( Y / N )

(an exit if you want it, mwah)

@Howlite-T-One