The kitten was taken aback at exactly how much she saw. She hadn't expected there to be so much and even then she only saw bits and pieces. The whole roaring dragon, a giant serpent, and two dog-things, one that looked like Black Dog! And darkness, unending darkness, thick and cruel and the kitten, unfortunately, did not see the face of the savior.

But she knew she would not mind the darkness. It had been quite dark for a while, after all. And she was certain that she'd be able to see fine. Of course she would!

She stepped back, not really sure what to say. She opened her mouth to ask but the words were lost. She tilted her head, tried to say something else and then just mumbled for a moment before she blurted out, "How old are you?!" It completely escaped her that this was, perhaps a very rude question. But it was something she wanted to know, even if she couldn't truly understand the scale of Black Dog's age. She was, after all, less then a day old.

@Black

He did not think of it as a rude question, and indeed he tilted his head, quizzically considering.

"I do not know," he confessed at last. "I have been alive for many cycles." He pause, to think; he must seem quite old to the kitten. Yet there were those so much older than he, or so he thought.

"There were some who have been awake, I think, for a very long time. But they were alone. I have seen them, long ago--the ice-bird, and the dragon, and the betrayer Nemean, and others, too. But then many of us awoke, near the same time. Many of those have died; but many have come since."

Idly, he tried again to call upon the strange magic with its secret shape. But once again, nothing happened. Though-... suddenly he could feel an intense pain beginning to swell behind his eyes.

________________

@Wilder

The kitten watched him with wide eyes, trying to think about how long many cycles was. How long just one cycles was. She closed her eyes, thinking about it. She hadn't been awake very long. She hadn't been not dead for very long. Her tail softly curled against herself and she settled herself down.

"Hey Black Dog. If you've been alive for so many cycles, you must have a lot of stories to tell! Can you tell me a story?" She had no idea what life was like. She had not idea what it was like to live. She wanted to know. But she didn't want to just walk up to him and see through magic, she wanted to hear it.

@Black

The black dog considered, deeply.

A story. ...His head was hurting, now, considerably--intense--and it felt to him as though even where his paws touched the ground, ached. Every breeze that brushed past stung at his skin through the fur, and the movement of his tongue in his mouth hurt. He presumed it was the magic, and it made him, despite his normal fearlessness, a little afraid. But a quick check showed nothing physically wrong with him, and the pain did not seem to get worse after reaching this peak. He kept track of it, with one part of his mind, but the other part turned to the kitten.

...A story, then. He cleared his throat, in a rumble, wondering what he could tell. There was the First Story--the story of the First Thing that had Ever Happened to him. He decided at once that this was a Good Story, for it had a Moral to it, and a Moral was a good thing to teach a new hatchling.

Peering down at her--and again trying to summon up his magicka, but this time for the purposes of embellishment, he began.

"Once, long ago, when I was freshly-hatched, there came a buzzing throughout the caves. The lights had gone dim, and there were many who thought perhaps the buzzing could help." He wasn't even sure this was right; Black's memory was sketchy on the best of days, a half-remembered haze of impressions behind a veil of images, scents and sounds. But telling a child a good story, he knew, was just as important. "The buzzing led through this cave, and that, and through a tunnel of ice, to a great black lake, in a great black cave, all thick with mist. There the Gembound--those are creatures like you and I, awake, alive, with stones and thoughts--they gathered there, at the edge of the black water. " The Dog found, with a sort of mild and distant surprise, that he was good at this--or rather, that he enjoyed it, and was falling easily into the telling of the tale. His words flowed more easily, now, his thoughts more clear. It was as if the framework of an entertaining yarn lent clarity for him.

"There they waited, and then, in the quiet, in the darkness, and the mist, the black water stirred." He shifted, eyes now excited, from one forepaw to the other--hardly noticing the pain, though that, now, was fading. His magic now took form: the darkness that lingered around them, the shadows that were cast by the glow of the Spire across the rock, seemed to come alive. The shadows of Gembound--of a dog, and a cat, and a fisher-creature, of a young lion, and a bird, and many others--lingering along the pool of a shadow-lake. And the shadows themselves, in the illusionary water, stirred.

"Suddenly," he continued in his rumble, slow for the suspense, "the water parted, and a great serpent slid forth. It was vast--longer than the Spire; taller than the caves--and it crashed down, circling them, swallowing one whole!" The shadows played over one another, the lake birthing a vast, long serpentine shadow that indeed seemed to crash down on the others, coiling around them. The figures were small, comparatively--each perhaps the size of the kitten's paw--but as a whole, the shadowy play was quite convincing.

"But the Gembound began to fight back," the Black Dog continued, sombre.

________________

@Wilder

The kitten listened very intently, eyes wide with awe at this incredible tale. She turned her eyes to watch the shadows as they moved and danced to show her the story. She reached forward and delicately dabbed at Black's paw, wanting to also see it in his memory. If she managed to touch him, perhaps she would see it as well. But she liked the way he told it and how the shadows told it as well.

She gasped, pulling her claws in, which unsheathed instinctively and her eyes widened even more. "He ate one? Like how I just swallowed that banana?! She looked down at the abandoned peel and tried to imagine herself as that banana and her a giant serpent. It was pretty hard to imagine, though, and not a very pleasant thing to think about.

She wanted to ask so many questions but she knew there was more to the story so she simply slid her claws back in and tucked her paws under her chest so she could continue to listen.

@Black

When the kitten pulled away, he simply extended his paw a bit further out, understanding what it was that she was doing, perhaps, and willing to share the memory. Should she catch a glimpse, she might well see Aquarian lurching from the Heart of Cetus, the scattering Gembound at the shore. The heron that he gulped down whole--the lion cub stranded out in the shallows, bawling for help.

And Black, merely a puppy, standing firm at the shoreline--casting shadows over the lake's surface.

"Yes," he confirmed in his rumble, but added--"but he did not chew him. This is important to remember, for it is important to the story." This solemn amendment to the tale added, he went on. His shadows faded, after a moment, and he did his best to renew them as he spoke.

"The big serpent cried out, his voice a screech, demanding the Betrayer, but the Gembound did not know who that was. He asked what was happening, and he fought us, and we fought back--but we were far too small. There was magic, flashing here and there--there were those who bit at his thick hide, but could not pierce it. But then I saw something: i saw that he was a creature, crying out, angry perhaps but he was not killing us as he could have. He seemed, perhaps, confused. And so I called out back, and I told the others to cease; and I spoke to him."

Black shifted back on his haunches, a bit, though his paw remained extended. The pain, at least, was now wholly gone, its prior presence nearly forgotten. "He asked what we were! I looked at all of us, and I saw that we were all young, and so I said--we are children. And the others, they spoke to him too; and slowly, he calmed."

The shadows almost flickered out, and Black had to focus to bring them back again. Now the Aquarian-shadow was coiled firmly around the Gembound-shadows, but its great snout was opening and closing as it "spoke" to them all. And the Gembound-shadows earnestly spoke back, leaning forward, or back, and gesturing far more fancifully than they had truly done.

"He was still very loud, but he spit, and the bird he had swallowed came back, alive. And then he spoke further. He has said that so long as those in that cave bring him food, he will guard them; and sometimes, when we have questions, he answers them for us. His name," Black continued, "is Aquarian--and he is still very loud. He told us of one important thing: the buzzing that had led us all there was a creature--small, and pink, and flying--called Nemean."

The shadows parted, this time forming a shape not of themselves but of the light they left untouched: a four-winged, long-tailed thing that flapped about on the stone between cat and dog. "She is the Betrayer; and it was she who was the enemy, and not this serpent, for she led the Gembound to him, hoping he would become afraid, and angry, and swallow them all. And there is a lesson in this. For had we, too, fought in fear and anger, and not spoken; perhaps he would have eaten us. But it is good to listen and to think, and to speak with reason, and logic--for by this were our lives saved."

He fell silent, wrinkled face staring with bated breath at the kitten. ...Had she liked the story? He found himself just a little concerned.

________________

@Wilder

The kitten was staring at Black with wide eyes, drinking in every word. She stared at the shadows and tried to think about how big the serpent was. Taller then the cave and longer then the Spire. The Spire...the Spi̴r̴e̵...

She stood and turned to stare at the crackling, glowing crystal and her eyes flickered and dulled. She tried to imagine how big the serpent was. He must have been massive. Huge. Because the Spire was huge and the Spire was magic and the Spire the Spire the Spire the S̵p̶i̷r̸e̵.

H̶e̴ ̵m̴u̵s̶t̴ ̸h̸a̸v̸e̶ ̵b̵e̶e̴n̵ ̷v̶e̵r̷y̵ ̶b̷i̵g̶.̷" Of course, it was an obvious statement - Black had already described how big. As she stared at the Spire she saw it change. It twisted into a giant serpent and roared out into the caves. She flattened her ears against her head, scared she'd go deaf, but continued to watch. It raged and it screamed and it roared but then it calmed and stared at her. Its head came down just before her and let out a low growl. Logic and reason, he said before promptly disappearing and turning right back into the Spire.

"L̵o̵g̸i̴c̷ ̸a̵n̵d̵ ̷r̸e̶a̸s̴o̸n̸.̵" she repeated right back. She turned back to Black, her eyes bright again. "That was such an awesome story! You must have been really scared!"

She jumped up towards Black Dog until she was right in his face and pranced around with excitement. "I want to have an adventure like that! I want a big serpent to attack and to use logic and reason to save people! I want to meat the Betrayer too and Aquarian! Will you take me to them? Can I meet them?!"

@Black

"Nemean, the Betrayer, is a dangerous creature. Many times has it come, and tried to end us, or toyed with us as games, and often we do not know why. It is pink," he added, without emotion, as if this were somehow logically relevant to her evil-ness. "Aquarian still lies within the swamp. Perhaps we can go to him, but it is a long journey. I can carry you there, if you wish it." He knew he'd need an offering, of some kind, but he could find one; but was summoning the great serpent merely for the cat's amusement enough..?

He could, perhaps, as him a question--something about Senka or Vathrahi, of how to aid them, or their source or their master--any of those things. It did not matter what, so long as it did not find his summons flippant in nature.

Idly, testingly, he cast his magic forth--wondering in an absent manner at that unknown shape of it, again, the one that he had learned from Nemean's orb. Perhaps it was as dangerous as she, and should not be attempted--but he wished to know. It would not kill him--he was overly certain of this, despite the pain that it had caused him.

And what of the cat's voice? It had changed, again--somewhat garbled, yet she appeared... well enough. Still spritely, if somewhat entranced. He hesitated, and then chose not to mention it. It was undoubtedly the lingering effects of the Spire, and he did not wish to bother her with it--she was too young, too young to either understand or to remain calm in the face of the knowledge that she might be damaged. And he knew there was little she could do, regardless--best to simply wait and see.

________________

@Wilder

Despite knowing that this 'Nemean' was probably dangerous, Wilder couldn't help but want to know more. She couldn't help but want to meet them too. It was just a surging interest in the back of her head to know things. To know everything. And to see everything. It wasn't something she could explain. Plus, if it was pink, then that's something they had connected! She had pink eyes!

"The swamp? You mean that misty place with the black lake? How far is it?" She looked in the opposite direction of the Spire. The distance was so far she couldn't even see it. Was it farther then the edge of the room? Or even farther? "How big is the world? Have you been all over it?"

But then something occured to her and her ears went flat against her head. There was a bit of fear there as she remembered the shadowy figure of Aquarian devouring the other shadow. "Will he eat me?" she squeaked, whiskers twitching nervously.

@Black

"Aquarian will not eat you. But he wishes food, or gifts, brought to him. Treasures. It is very far," he added, standing beside the cat, waiting to see if she wished to go there, or not.

"The world is very large. I do not know if there is more beyond the caves, but the caves are already very large. One can be lost in them. Should you find yourself alone you must use your nose, and eyes, and ears; and smell, and watch, and listen for danger, and for food."

He paused, thinking; what else was there? "If your magic is cast upon the stone and the world, you shall learn more as you live. Perhaps, should you live long enough, you will learn more than I know." He had certainly been lax in his use of hindsight on the world around him; it wouldn't be too hard to catch up.

________________

@Wilder