canis was... well, it wasn't quiet, not right now atleast.

the violent rattling of a baby gembound slamming against the walls of its chrysalis.. was kinda loud.

eventually, the beautiful chunk of obsidian shattered violently to the floor, chunks and fluid flying all over as the baby vulture fell out with a rage. it was alive! and people should know! what people? no idea

so... he did what anybody would do

he screamed

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh no, a baby was crying! And it was up to... Uhhh... Well, Kerberos was on the case! Heavy paws shook the earth as the massive hell hound raced through the fields of bone to where the shattered chrysalis lay. Immediately he found the familiar plummage of a baby bearded vulture (seriously, Canis only produced one kind of bird?) and he fell on to his belly, sliding across the dirt toward the baby.

"No no no shhhh. It's alright, little one... I'm a friend! Are you hurt? Are you hungry?" Three heads all gently coo at the little one, nose sniffling at slick feathers. A gentle whining fills his chest. "Do you just wanna tell? I can howl too! Awoooo!" He didn't raise his voice too much, only giving the quietest howl to accompany the screaming baby. After all, he didn't want to scare the little one more.

And it was a bit hard not to be a big, scary beast when you were just a tiny hatchling.

the hatchling looked up at the big dog friend as gasped. a friend! a person! no, 3 persons! persons? people? was it one with 3 heads? he didnt know, but he made plenty of happy noises!

he didn't understand some of the words but he understood the howling, and tried to do it back, with little success, but he tried. "WEEEEEWOOO" he called out, happily shaking his feathers around, bumping his beak gently into kerberos's nose. "pspepedpdpd" he sputtered. he didn't know how to talk but he did know how to make loads of fun noise.

@kerberos

Kerberos's three heads craned closer as the baby began to make happier screamy nosies, trying to mimic the howling. The little hatchling booped its beak into the hellhound's nose-- or, one of them-- and sputtered in a way that made the heavy, snake-scale tail behind his mammoth body thump, thump, thump with delight.

"Wuffwuuff-uuf," he joins in the silly noise making competition, one mouth opening just enough to sneak a blep of a tongue out to gently lick the baby bearded vulture's fur the wrong way, trying to clean it of the goo from hatching. His other two heads were perfectly capable of continuing to talk, so one went, "wooo--oo- oof oof wuff! rrrruff!" While the other, continued to babble in soft, gentle words.

"I'm Kerberos, little one. You look like an old friend of mine, and lots of friends I have now. We have lots of tasty bones, and rats, too-- if you're hungry, I can get you some food. You'll fit right in, if you want to stay with me. I bet Giggle would love you, she's great with babies."

Wait, if this was a new hatchling, didn't that mean they should do a bone-telling life-ceremony thingie? Oh, oh, oh! He wondered if Giggle was around. He could try to do a bone-thing himself, but he wasn't very good at it. He'd probably read only good things to make sure the baby had a good life, but that was definitely cheating, right?

@Ozzie

the baby vulture happily barked along, doing its best to imitate the noises. this new friend was great! fellow noise maker!

he looked up at the big dog and nodded rapidly, squawking loudly in approval of this decision, mimicking the words as best he could. "staay! stay! bone bone!" he cooed

@Kerberos

Yes, yes, yes! Very good, very good. Kerberos's tail continued to thump happily, and he reached out a paw to gently tuck around Ozzie as he gave the baby bird one more good lick and a big nuzzle from all three muzzles. "Yeah! Bone, bone, bone! You got it, kiddo!" This was super exciting, and now...

... Now, he knew he had to go find Giggle. With a huff, he wriggled down on to the ground, and gingerly scooped Ozzie up with his central nose. With the baby vulture settled nicely on his muzzle, he delicately shuffled himself to his feet, keeping his head low just in case Ozzie fell off. He had his two other heads help the baby bird keep balance, and if the bird wanted to try and wobble up to the top of his head (or even his shoulders, beyond!) he'd help the baby along.

Tail raising like a flag, he crawl-walked his way toward Giggle's den. Excitement made his whole body wiggle with the swishing of his high-held tail, and as he got closer, one head peeled up to the sky. "Moooooom! Giiiiggle! Mom!! Mom!" He couldn't hide the pure energy from his tone.

"I need the bones!" Oh, "And you!! Please! Mooom? Are you there?" Hopefully she wasn't too far (though, really, she wasn't usually far at all.)

@Ozzie @Giggle

he squeaked, happily babbling as he sat happily on kerb's muzzle.

he decided to be helpful and call out aswell. "BOONE! mom! mome mom! bone!" he called out

@Giggle

The loud voices and bird-yelling had her head coming up at once. "Here, I'm here," she called down in her rough voice.

The baby aza'zel lammergeier on Kerberos' snout (or, well, one of the snouts), as he lumbered into view, had her eyes widening. Another one-? I haven't seen one in-... Is it one of his? she thought, her heart rate spiking up a notch. She loped down to meet them, offering nuzzles to each of Kerberos' heads and a short nudge to the baby. "Kerberos, it's good to see you! And-... Who's this?" she asked, surprise evident in her tone.

She stepped back with eyes locked on the child, wondering.

rain stock: D Sharon Pruitt wiki commons; hyena Benjamin Hollis on flickr

@Kerberos

Kerberos immediately honed in on the brown-spotted shape that was his, err, "mother", tromping up to meet her half-way. As soon as Giggle was in range, all three heads dipped down further to accept the welcoming nuzzles, one snout even going so far as to give her a good wash behind the ear with a slobbery tongue. "Hi mom!" He greeted, tail thwumping into the ground beneath as he threw himself into polite, sitting position, slouching his heads down so Giggle could get a good look at the baby.

"This! This is a baby!" Which... Yes, it was, good job Kerberos. "They just hatched, they don't know a lot of words, but they want to stay and have bones," he explained eagerly, his three heads slightly talking over one another in a rush to get the information out.

"Since they just hatched, Aure told me-- he said there's this ceremony, for new life? For Bonebound? I don't know if they'll stay, but look at them, mom! They're just like..." Aza'zel. The dead king. "They're just like a Bonebound, right? And since they hatched here, we can do a bone reading for them, can't we? Pleaaase?" He was, apparently, all too eager to do so, his paws shuffling under his wriggling, restless butt.

And then another thought occurred to him, and this thought was almost more important than all that other stuff. "They can go Aw-WEEEOoowooo," he announced, poking his nose at the fluffy, baby down of the lammergeier's side. "Almost as good as big words." Kerberos, clearly, was star-struck by the new child... But could anyone blame him, really?

@Ozzie

ozzie happily bounced in place as the two seemed to talk, sputtering happily as giggle gave him a light nudge.

he kinda seemed to follow along with the conversation, mimicking a few things every now and then as if it was helping. "baby! stay! bones!" he squawked "bone? bone bone! please?"

he got excited again when kerberos started howling, doing it again "awEEEEwooooooooooooooooWOOOO" he happily called out, shaking his entire body in somewhat of a happy dance

@Giggle