i'm ready to start the conquest of spaces

δεξιά . κέντρο . αριστερά

The oversized canine had returned to Canis, fully intending to tell his mother what had happened-- what he had done-- and the rest of the Bonebound. It had taken him cycles to process what he had done, to calm down, to find some semblance of normalcy among the chaos in his rattled mind. Heads that normally were on the same page had argued day in and day out over what to do, and finally, Κέντρο... The center head had pushed himself onward. Kerberos was one beast, truly, but when the conflict of self had become so great, of course he had argued amongst himself.

He needed to admit his mistakes. He needed to grow stronger. He needed to return home, to speak to his mother and brother and everyone else, and become a Good Boy again. It might not be easy... But it was the right thing to do. He could not run and hide, he knew this in his heart.

... Unfortunately, the massive hound found himself distracted by a strange hole in the wall that bled warm wind. A new tunnel, a new entrance to Canis. He had no idea what it was (as it had revealed in his absence), but something about it set the fur on the back of his scruff to a vicious prickle. He puffed up even more than usual, keeping his heads low as he sniffed through the Tunnel.

What was this? There were so many new, weird smells... He had to investigate-- and immediately, he forgot that he had something else he was supposed to be doing.

"Hello?" He woofed, low and suspicious. His ears pricked as he listened for any echoes, the kind of sounds he was used to in the original tunnel into Canis. "Anyone?" His ears set back, as he crouched low and swished his scaled tail slowly against the dusty floor, letting the wind currents carry smells to his multicolored noses. Tentatively, he let out a long, morose howl, keeping his heads low and his eyes sharp.

"Helloooooooooooo?"

for some language

Imp had been practicing with his ears.

One thing he had never really realized--not until he'd been struck blind (had my fucking eyes torn out!, he corrected himself), was that Tal'at had given him a greater gift than Imp had ever realized.

Sound was a lot more... delicate, a lot more detailed and intricate, than he'd ever really realized, before. He'd never had a reason to pay all that much attention--and undoubtedly he'd never truly have a bat's ability to fully navigate this way. But with the absolute stubbornness that drove him, he was sitting, squat gargoyle in the heat, focusing deeply on sound.

Highly-sensitive ears began to twitch this way and that, picking up the sound of a mouse skittering somewhere near the Hydra entrance, and the whisper of sand, the rush of wind closer to Canis. Were those... footfalls, paws, he heard coming closer, from Canis-? A voice? And--

A DEAFENING FUCKING HOWL.

"AHHHHHHHHH," Imp screamed, in response, the large ears flicking back, clawed forelimbs scrabbling at them as if to claw the sound away.

"DO YOU THINK THAT'S FUNNY!?" he cried, turning blind eyes toward the sound, but there was agony in his voice. It didn't hurt as much as the tail that lay broken behind him, or the still-scabbing ruins beneath his eyelids, but it was still loud, damn it! Immediately suspicious, he waddle-turned to fully face it.

Whatever "it" was.

"Who ARE you?! And why do you sound so SAD?!" Imp demanded. Or was he just imagining that-?

@Kerberos

i'm ready to start the conquest of spaces

δεξιά . κέντρο . αριστερά

Kerberos froze, ears pricked, as some small (compared to the mammoth of a dog) hybrid started screeching curses at him from further down the tunnel that he hadn't seen; it's tannish color had blended in with the stone. He blinked, cautiously trotting closer to the creature to get a better look at it. "oh," He lowered his voice to a tiny woof, peering down at the mangled creature that smelled of dried, festering wounds. The bat-like, sand colored creature looked like a literal eyesore, and just staring at him made the cerberos whimper.

He reached forward a paw, tentatively toward Imp's nose. "I'm right here," he murmured in his tiny voice, doing his best not to sound too big for the creature that was clearly in pain. He didn't want to hurt the stranger, but instinctively he tried to warm up the air around them to try and bring the hybrid some comfort.

"I am--KerBerOs," He offered in his small voice, "This tunnel is new... It's strange, and..." That was less pressing, now that he was face to face with an injured gembound. "What happened to you? Did someone attack you?" He inched forward cautiously, trying to figure out exactly what to do. He wasn't a healer, but surely there was someone that could help. He wanted to howl for help, but, well... Loud noises seemed to hurt him too.

@Imp

The sound of approaching paws was somehow gentle--yet Imp could hear that the size of the thing was massive. He pressed down against the sand, hating how exposed he felt. He'd never been afraid, really, of what he could see--even the vulture Matriarch hadn't frightened him all that much. He'd seen a challenge. But lying blind--in a permanent forever-darkness--with the sound of something massive coming closer... it was a fear Imp had never known before.

He felt his throat go dry as the thing drew close, something so large that its body heat alone (so Imp assumed) made the air around him grow warmer. He swallowed as it spoke, tilting its head up to innaccurately peer at Kerberos, his ears swivelling to listen.

It was large, yes-... and there were, somehow-... multiple voices..? Imp hesitated, confused at this, and then spoke a little more quietly, his tone more subdued now. The stranger seemed friendly, at least; and he could tell, given its size, that he was lucky in that.

Not that he could fight a quillmouse as he was.

"-Hey. I'm Imp. You sound, uhh. -Different?" -Wait, no, that wasn't right. "I mean, like there's-... different ones of you?" He shook his head, briefly, as if to shrug off this strange thought, and then 'looked' off down the tunnel. His snout lifted, the warm winds of Hydra roiling past, bringing the scents of sand and salt. "The tunnel? Yeah, it's--new. It goes to Hydra, uhh--you know what that is?"

Imp laid his head lower, again, as if resting. Had he not been blind, he'd have been looking to the cerberos, making attentive, conversational eye contact--but he had no more eyes to contact. So he just sort of lay there 'staring' off at the wall as he continued. "They asked a bunch of us to go in, on a trial. Some died--two, I think. The rest got rewarded, I guess, knocked into our stones. I came out with this tail, but--yeah, I got attacked. One of the masters--that bitch Nemean, and this overseer named Vargas. They broke my tail and used it to pull my eyes out, 'cause I was drawin' pictures of Nemean and they had penises all over and she didn't like 'em even though they were PRETTIER than she was-..." Imp paused, having worked himself up into anger again, and took a deep breath. Once he'd calmed himself, a little, he went on. "...Anyway, Hydra's dangerous. But you sound--uh, big?"

The hybrid turned slightly toward Kerberos, again, curious. "I wish I could see what you look like," he added, and was surprised at just how sad he was.

@Kerberos

i'm ready to start the conquest of spaces

δεξιά . κέντρο . αριστερά

Kerberos nodded as the injured creature suggested to him that he sounded like there was different ones of him. Yep, he had three whole heads. He even shook each one when Imp went on to ask him if he knew what Hydra was. It did not especially occur to him that without eyes, Imp was unable to see him nodding and shaking his head until a few seconds later, but by that point, the sand-colored, painful looking thing was rambling on.

So, the dog did what was appropriate to do when someone was telling you lots of important stuff. He sat his rump down, craning his heads in close, and pricked his ears. He'd speak once Imp was done... And boy, did his story sound just awful. Kerberos's fur prickled uneasily, and he glanced at himself like one might side-eye their companions when hearing something fishy.

Finally, Imp wished aloud, and Kerberos's tail thumped against the ground as he sat up a bit straighter. "Oh!" The center head woofed, before he hushed himself, "Shhhhhh!" Clearing his throat, he reached his nose down to where he could sniff at Imp's scabby, unfortunately ugly face. "You could feel my face and paws, maybe, and get a better idea, Imp? I am a big, big white dog with three heads. Each head is a little different, but this one--" He snorted, blowing some warm air into Imp's face, "-- was attacked pretty badly, by an upset cat once, so it's covered in scars... Kind of like yours is. Though... I have my eyes. I'm sorry those bad gembounds hurt you."

"I have a tail, too," one of his other heads chipped in, "It's red and orange and creamy colored in lots of stripes, and scaly like a snake." He reached a paw forward carefully, nudging a few of his toes toward Imp's face. "And I have big paws with big black claws, and my fur is really thick and shaggy, see? Err-- Or, feel. My back paws are smaller than my front ones-- oh!" He turned his paw over, showing off the smooth mookaite gemstone that took up most of his pawpad. "And my gem is on my paw, and it's yellow and red."

The dog wriggled down on to his belly, hoping that Imp would be encouraged by the explanation and try to wriggle up on to him like the younger gembounds used to. He wouldn't hurt Imp, for sure. The poor dragonbat had been through enough already. "Thanks for telling me about the Hydra and what happened. The Hydra is at the other end of the tunnel, right? Do you know if the gembounds in Canis know?" He hoped they did. If they didn't, he would have to tell them as soon as possible. Something that dangerous was not good at all, especially if it meant there were bad gembounds taking other's eyes just for drawing.

Bones! He thought, his head jerking up. Bones liked to draw. That meant he might be in danger, too. "Could you tell me what Vargas and Nemean look like?" He whispered, all six ears laying back on his three big, doofy heads. A whine had already started on one head and it seemed contagious as the middle head began as well, leaving only the head that had just spoke staring quite seriously at Imp for his reply.

@Imp

Imp fell quiet, fuming, unaware of just how much he'd rambled. When Kerberos offered for him to, well, grope him kinda, Imp hesitated. He imagined a mental image of himself, just slapping his wing-limbs all over someone's face.

...Actually, that was kinda hilarious.

He waddled over, and lifted his clawed wings, carefully feeling for Kerberos's heads. He felt cautiously over snouts and fur, over thick legs like tree trunks and claws like eagles' talons. The more he learned of Kerberos's shape, the more the fur at the collar around his neck stood on end, a little. This thing was huge, and a monster of a predator.

Imp, in a vaguely wistful way, wished he was that big. He coulda killed Vargas, then. "Nemean's tiny tits, you are huge," he said at last, with a tone of admiration. He felt the stone, briefly, and then sat back, again 'looking' toward Kerberos at ever-so-slightly the wrong angle. "Why've you got three heads? And a scaly tail-?" At the memory that the dog apparently had a scaled snake-tail, he felt for that, too; he was surprised at both how pliably smooth and tough it felt. "It sounds like it's pretty colors." This was said in a matter-of-fact way, Imp's budding-artist mind critically picturing the combination of colors and finding that they must be quite pleasing.

Shame he'd never see them, but self-pity wasn't gonna help him now, and he didn't dwell on it too long.

"Hydra's down the hot end, yeah," he explained, sitting back yet again. "And if you mean the Bonebound, yeah, I think so. They lost a guy in there. I heard them arguing about going in. But I don't think they know about Nemean and shit. Uhh, Vargas, he was part of the trials. They've probably seen him but don't know he's a total prick."

...Imp's mouth had grown a little fouller in the past few days, and his expression, especially eyeless, a little darker. "Nemean's this tiny shitbag sprite. You can go along the walls and see pictures of her. She's pink and gold like a little fairy. Wears a bowtie. Just, uhh--look at all the pictures, or at least a bunch and you'll get an idea, at least. They're not. Um. Anatomically-accurate."

Nemean did not, in fact, have penises sprouting from all over her body at random.

"Vargas is--huge? Your size, bigger?" He hadn't felt Kerberos's entire body, so he couldn't quite be sure. "Real stupid pinky-purple color, long and lanky like, long thin tail. He's got a whole bunch of eyes all over his face, like, greenish-yellow ones. And spikes all over. Like, way too many spikes. Nobody needs that many spikes. It's stupid."

Imp sounded sullen about this. Possibly, he wanted spikes.

He stewed, for a moment, in his memories--and then remembered something. "Listen, they said they'd send out spies to ask me what happened, and make sure I tell their version: that I was a bad boy and rightfully punished and everyone's gotta obey them and all that crap. So be careful who you tell. Not for my sake--they may as well have killed me--but 'cause if they hear this story goin' around I have a feeling whoever's tellin' it might have a pretty reduced lifespan, you know?"

It was, for Imp, a speech of genius intricacy. He immediately ruined the effect.

"So-... were you hatched with three heads, or?"

@Kerberos

i'm ready to start the conquest of spaces

δεξιά . κέντρο . αριστερά

As weird as it was, Kerberos loved being crawled all over and patted down by the weird bad who had a very bad mouth. To him, it seemed like there were lots of Gembounds with filthy mouths who still had big hearts, and maybe it was because they had so many emotions that they had to use really bad words.

"I dunno," he woofed quietly about the three-head and tail deal. That's just how it was, wasn't it?

The big dog was really warming up to this weird, unfortunately blinded lizard-bat. His tail wagged a little at the mention of the Bonebound, and he interrupted a little, "Yeah! That's my family!" All of the heads woofed at once, maybe a touch too loud for the sensitive eared Imp. His tail stopped wagging the moment he realized what the gembound had implied: that one of the Bonebound had died. His heads lowered, and he peered toward the far end of the tunnel that he couldn't quite see through all of the twists and turns.

He did his best to commit to memory the descriptions of Nemean and Vargas. If he saw them near his home, maybe he should try and chase them off. Then again, he didn't want to cause more trouble for the Bonebound. He would have to be careful, and clever, and he wasn't really good at that. Maybe he should talk to someone smarter about it, and get together a plan...

"I won't tell," he promised, "except maybe Giggle, or Bones-- Bones likes to draw, like you, so I don't want him getting hurt." That seemed like a good compromise. He definitely didn't want Imp getting in more trouble. Kerberos didn't quite understand that he could get hurt for spreading bad words about the Master and Overseer... That was a bit over his big, doofy heads.

As for whether he was hatched with three heads or not, the cerberos grinned from ear, to ear, to ear, to ear with all three big mugs. "Well, yeah! They didn't just pop up one day. I was born like this! Except all the scars, I got those from... Tusslin'." With his mortal enemy he hadn't seen in forever, to the gembounds who had raised him, to punishments he absolutely had deserved. "... Buuut I was a lot smaller. I think I was about your size when I hatched."

Kerberos paused. Then, he had a brilliant idea, and again he started to raise his voices with excitement and a wiggle of his butt. "If you wanted to come with me, I bet the Bonebound will protect you." It was a great idea! Definitely couldn't go wrong. "Especially if I explain what happened. We wouldn't let a blind gembound suffer and starve." The middle head reached down to lick Imp on the top of his head. "Besides, maybe someone could heal your tail. I can carry you!" They definitely couldn't bring back his eyes though, at least, he didn't expect that they could. But maybe someone could teach him magical ways to see? They'd figure something out.

@Imp

Imp hesitated.

This was a lot of decision-making to make really fast. Previously, he'd have acted on a cheerful whim and damn the consequences, but right now there was a lot to consider. Going to the Bonebound was very likely to put them in very real danger. And his first impulse at the mention of another artist had been to suggest, in a very self-pitying, martyrish sort of way, that Kerberos find his glowing chalks and make a gift of them to this, 'Bones.' But should Nemean spot someone drawing with the same chalks that'd been used to make questionable Nemean art, it might put him in danger, too.

Imp paused, realizing his own thoughts. He'd never really cared about others' safety before, not as a priority and not in any intensive sort of way, and truth be told, the few he'd tried to be nice two had (in two out of three cases) immediately stabbed him in the back.

Figuratively speaking. The other one stabbed me in the eyes. And--wasn't he bitter about it all? Why was he bothering to worry about others' safety-? He examined his own mind for a long moment (easier to do, somehow, in total darkness; less distraction, he thought). To his surprise, he realized there wasn't a lot of bitterness there. Anger, yes--but it was directed at the right recipients.

He took a deep breath.

"Okay so yeah, warn the other draw-er. In fact, I got these magic glowing chalks somewhere--they're in a little bag, inside a box, by the carvings-wall. You'll see my gemstone near that, shattered." His chalks had been abandoned by the Overseer, last he'd seen--quite literally one of the last things he'd seen. "If you want, go find them. Give them to this Bones guy. They're magic, they shouldn't go to waste. But warn him about getting that stuff seen because if they do see it, well, the stuff I drew that got me in trouble got drawn with those."

He hoped that made sense.

"If you wanna take me to these Bonebound you can? But I don't think it's a good idea for them to like, take me in. It'll put 'em in danger, too," he explained. "But uhh... I can tell them what happened, if you want, and-... Do they have water?"

It was one of the harder points about being blind, he'd found. Thank the caves he had the ability to summon up bananas at will; he liked fruit as a rule, food-wise, and it provided moisture. But Canis wasn't exactly known for broad lakes and rushing rivers, so finding water by sound alone had proven rather difficult. He'd been near death by the time he'd finally found some, last time. "I'd appreciate the help, anyway," he added. "Do I just, uhh. ...Get up on there?" It was reluctantly-asked. The proud part of him wanted to follow on his own, but he knew the big dog-thing was likely much faster on the ground than he was even sighted, let alone now that he was blind.

He just hoped it wasn't about to be yet another betrayal.

Carefully he wing-walked closer, again, and gave a tentative attempt to clamber onto Kerberos' back.

@Kerberos

i'm ready to start the conquest of spaces

δεξιά . κέντρο . αριστερά

Kerberos listened intently to Imp as he described where the glowing chalks were, ears twisting and pricking as his heads mulled over where exactly they would be. He remembered the ancient drawings on the walls of Canis, and with a confident set of nods (which, he kept forgetting Imp couldn't see), he made a mental note to fetch those for Bones.

"Bones will love that," he agreed with a slappy wag of his heavy tail upon the floor. "Thank you." He wanted to lick Imp right upon his scaly head, but he kept thinking better of it... Mostly because he was worried his slobber would get into the dragon-bat's eyeholes.

The big dog considered the concerns of bringing danger back home. He didn't want to endanger his family, but he also knew that leaving a Gembound to suffer and die was not good either. What the 'Masters' were doing was against what was good for the whole Caves-- they had already killed as many Gembound as Kerberos had, if not more, a thought that made his center head whine.

"We have water!" Another head woofed with a touch of excitement. "My family will help you," he insisted softly, "even if it's just for a little while. You don't have to stay if you're worried about us." He wriggled down on to his soft tummy, stretching his wide paws forward and lowering his heads down.

"Just climb on up," he insisted, reaching forward a nose to help guide Imp up on to his big shoulders. "And," the middle head finally seemed to shake the worry from its thoughts, "maybe I can get you to Pisces or somewhere else where there's more water, after you explain everything." He just didn't want to leave Imp in the lurch.

Once Imp was settled among the thick ruff fur of his shoulders and necks, he clambered up on to his feet. He had the urge to shake out his fur but he resisted the temptation that would almost certainly send Imp flying off into a nearby wall. He instead let his tail wag slowly behind him, and giving one last set of glances toward the ominous heat that rolled from further down the tunnel, he turned his back on the Hydra and started to head back home.

@Imp ; Kerb exit!

"Thank shit you got water," Imp breathed, in relief. And then, with an almost sheepish tone (Imp was neither accustomed to, nor comfortable with, relying on the charity of others): "And, uh. Thanks, to you too."

He settled in, wing-claws and hind legs gripping the thick woolly fur beneath him, and as Kerberos began to lumber forward, he realized abruptly just how fucking big he was. He had to be one of the biggest Gembound Imp had ever se-... well, not seen but... encountered. The big fellow's demeanor seemed so friendly, though, so helpful, that Imp didn't really find that he was frightened of him. Then again, Imp was so damn tired he was finding it hard to feel anything at all, just now; the exhaustion, nestled in Kerberos's warmth, was slipping up to drag him rapidly down. Blood loss didn't do great things, he was noticing, for energy levels, and neither did pain.

Imp forced his thoughts back on track. After a moment, he grunted.

"I'm from Cetus, originally. Maybe when you're done you could, uh, point me the right way. Not take me all the way there--that's pretty far--but just point me. I'll find it," he added, with a certainty he did not feel.

He wanted to complain to Dad, if nothing else; Dragon had always wanted to know about the Masters and the caves, and this seemed like a pretty important topic. But first: Kerberos's friends, the Bonebound. Making it just through Canis was going to be rough enough.

One step at a time, thought Imp, and closed his eyes for a quick little nap.

exit Imp