;; a training thread for magic, kerberos is less likely to eat (or try to) someone in this thread

Don't you ever tame your demons

But always keep 'em on a leash

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The grand doors to the tunnel lead Kerberos back out into the room of dazzling white. He had found it dull before-- there were no good smells here, nothing to feed his hunger like Canis had. He had mostly ignored it, but now that he was back in it, his heavy paws stopped, staring up at the fake starlight above. Like hundreds of tiny teeth.

His body took him to the cliffs, where he flopped down and overlooked the long dead city of Orion, the words of Giggle wriggling around in his head. He had to get more teeth... Listen, Speak, Learn. It was a bit overwhelming for the pup's mind, but he knew he had to start somewhere-- with his magic. If he could not interact with others yet for fear of eat or be eaten, then he would have to learn how to defend himself.

... Kerberos snorted. The heads had not discussed anything with one another, but they seemed to know what the other was mostly thinking by which way they went. Since he had stopped here, overlooking the domain of the white glistening world, clearly he was not going to hunt around for someone else. Which left only...

"One?" The far head woofed, his clipped ears twitching. Orange nose sniffed at the others while the middle head nodded.

"Two." Two sets of pink eyes looked to orange nose, who seemed about to sneeze. The heads growled at their body mate, who pawed at his nose.

A violent sneeze erupted from the floppy eared, orange one. The others huffed and growled and snorted until he spoke, "Start over! Okay? Start over-- One."

"Two!" Irritation rang clear in the voice of the head with clipped ears and bright, scarlet nose. He wasn't sure exactly what he was doing-- not pushing, this time, for there was nothing to push... But he would try to do something.

"Now!"

And suddenly, the puppy shifted to the side, a strange mirror of heads where he had once been. The puppy leaped to his paws, bristling, and began to bark violently at the image of himself, spooked out of his fur, maybe literally. The image flickered and faded almost immediately-- but the heads shared a look.

Just what the heck was that? "Again!" He barked, half howled, to himself.

Don't you ever tame your demons

But always keep 'em on a leash

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"One!" Middle head barked, this time putting his focus in it for real. Whatever it was, whoever it was, he had created it, hadn't he?

The other heads seemed just as enthusiastic and curious. "Two," came the gentle woof, closing his eyes.

"Now!" Howled the last head, and his body hopped to the side, eyes flashing open to see what he had created this time.

Again, the big white beast appeared in his place, its red eyes focusing on its master with the same bright curiousity he held himself. Kerberos' tail wagged, a slight growl coming from his throats. He didn't know if he should attack it or be friends with it. He had no idea what it was, or how he had done it.

"Who are you?" He demanded, stepping closer to the image, but like last time, it simply flickered away once more. "No!"

"Why run away? Come back!" He snarled in frustration, scratching at the earth, looking around wildly. It didn't last nearly long enough to ask it anything at all!

Don't you ever tame your demons

But always keep 'em on a leash

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"This time, stay still. Just listen, like Giggle said," suggested the middle head, sitting down quietly. The other heads looked to him and nodded shortly, each taking a deep breath.

"One--" "Not yet!" Snapped the red nose, hackles bristling. He coughed and huffed and took about three more breathes before settling down, lifting the paw with his gemstone imbedded.

The heads looked down at the pawpad, red and yellow and brilliant. "Look. See?" Asked the red nosed head, tail twitching. The others nodded.

"Look and count," middle head agreed, taking one last inhale. "One."

"Two."

"Now," he breathed out, his gem glowing a deep maroon as he summoned his magic once more... And he waited. Nothing happened. Frustration bubbled in the puppy, letting out a low whine as he flopped down. Had he broken it?

"What am I doing wrong?" He asked, putting the gem paw over his muzzle.

As the three-headed dog flopped down and whined, a shadow began to unfurl from the bottom of a nearby cliff. The darkness slowly shifted into the form of an animal, legs clinging to the underside of the rock while its long, membranous wings stretched out and fluttered slightly. Then its front paws released the rock, and the creature hung from only its hind legs, reaching downwards. Finally, the creature released the rock entirely and plunged down, only for its wings to suddenly catch it and hoist it back into the air. With a few heavy flaps of its large wings, the beast rose through the air and swiveled its head. Its jaws opened, producing a high-pitched chattering - unheard to the cerberus. With sonar, it detected the presence of the other Gembound and faced it. There was something strange about it.

Batcat folded his limbs against his body and soared over towards the cliff, first flying high above Kerberos. He chattered still, using sonar to identify the Gembound, learning more about it as he circled the three-headed canine. Then, he dove down and landed on the rocks a few good meters away from the Gembound. Large wings reached out on either side of him, making him appear far larger than he actually was. Consisting mostly of inky black, he took on a rather frightening appearance. Batcat kept his distance, revealing rows of needle-like teeth as he continued to silently chatter, pointing his nose at Kerberos in examination.

Don't you ever tame your demons

But always keep 'em on a leash

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Kerberos, at first, didn't notice the shadowy winged beast-- he wouldn't notice it until it landed on the rocks and caught the attention of the frustrated puppy. His heads lifted, tilting, the size of the creature startling him at first. Those wings were huge! His eyes widened and he cautiously stood back up, unsure what to do in this situation.

With its wings spread so wide, however, it looked rather huge. Kerberos couldn't help but think that if this thing wanted to eat him, it could. The thought made him shiver and he shared a few nervous glances with himself. "Is dangerous?" "What do I do?" "Listen, speak, learn." He muttered to himself, coming to a conclusion. This was the perfect situation to learn from something else. Especially since it didn't look particularly eatable. Maybe it wouldn't try to eat him immediately-- most gembound seemed against eating others for whatever reason.

"Hey?" He woofed, carefully, wondering if the creature was even real. It didn't have eyes-- was this something he had made? That didn't make much sense. "Kerberos!" He offered, heads tilting. How did one explain that he didn't want to play or rather get eaten or eat this thing. Could it even talk? Where was its eyes? He remembered Giggle's comments about teeth-- err, friends, family. Pack.

"Careful, try again," pink nose woofed, prodding his nose into the middle head's sharp, tall ears He snorted and before they even began to count, the magic bubbled up through his veins and poof-- suddenly there were two of the white cerberus. A diversion! His tail wagged. Safety in numbers and now he had twice as many teeth, sort of.

The shadowy creature kept tilting his head from one side to the other, twitching his ears as he attempted to absorb as much information about the large, white three-headed dog as he could. The cerberus began to mutter to himself, causing Batcat to quickly hop forward in curiosity. But then the dog spoke out loud, to him - and Batcat raised his head, then cocked it to the side. "H-EY." He mimicked, his voice unsteady and rather bird-like in his attempt to repeat the strange sound that the three-headed dog had made. "KER-BER-OS." Batcat chattered, amused. Then one of the heads said something quietly, and suddenly, there were two white three-headed dogs. Six heads.

Batcat jumped back, the fur on his back standing on end and his long, feline tail puffing out. Lips drew back to reveal rows of bat-like needle teeth, and Batcat hissed, startled by the sudden appearance of another creature. His long, leathery wings expanded out to his sides, another attempt to make himself look larger in the face of now two possible threats. For now, Batcat held his ground.

Don't you ever tame your demons

But always keep 'em on a leash

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The beast could... sort of speak. It seemed as though it was mocking him, yet as he grew more teeth in the form of an energy-image of himself, the cat seemed completely startled. The great white cerberus grinned, accidentally baring his teeth in reply to the puffy batcat. He was entirely proud of himself, sitting down as his mirror stood, waiting for more input from its creator.

"Many teeth. Don't attack," the puppy woofed, sounding quite chuffed with himself. His tail wagged slowly behind him as he watched batcat, wondering what the creature wanted. "Listen, speak, learn," the middle head commented calmly, ears twitching.

"Kerberos. Who're you?" He went on to ask. "What's your name?" His right head, the one with floppy ears and strangely orange tinted nose, glanced towards the copy of himself, and carefully, quietly, tried to get the other beast to move.

"Sit," he woofed softly. The clone obeyed the command, though it acted more on magic than by verbal instruction, and continued to stare at its target.

Batcat watched as the first white three-headed dog seated himself, but the second one remained standing, evidenced by the ultrasonic pattern Batcat detected as he quietly chattered into the air. Whether or not the creatures were hostile was yet to be determined, until he noticed the one creature was wagging his tail and started speaking things to the other. Batcat didn't move, though the temptation to tilt his head in curiosity was overwhelming, he was still on the defensive. He really couldn't let himself relax until the cerberus spoke again, repeating his name and asking for Batcat's, then instructed the mimic beside him to sit. Now that both of them were sitting, Batcat eased his tense muscles and swayed his tail behind him, tilting his head. Large ears rotated in their direction to fully absorb everything that he could. Some part of him intrinsically knew what the three-headed dog had asked, and somehow, Batcat had found an answer.

"KER-BER-OS. KER-BER-OS!" The creature chattered delightedly, patting its paws on the ground while its wings fluttered beside it. Then, it tried to mimic something else that the three-headed dog had done. Batcat fell still, his tail thumping on the ground, and his leathery wings fell limp into the dirt beside him. His body seemed to hunch over and the creature looked like he was putting all his focus into... something. His jaws cracked wide open, then suddenly... a second lower jaw began to emerge, pulling away as it formed from rapidly multiplying cells. The same process carried through the entire underside of the creature. Slowly but surely, it appeared that a whole new body was forming from Batcat, accompanied by the sound of slick flesh and creaking bones. It looked painful, and it was; even Batcat hadn't anticipated just how painful it would be, as suggested by the whines and squeals that escaped his maw as he seemed to multiply before Kerberos' very eyes.

Suddenly, a second set of membranous wings unfolded from beneath the creature's midsection. Glossy with newly developed flesh, the wings began to stretch out, then gripped the earth on either side of the secondary body that formed beneath Batcat. Secondary limbs budded off of Batcat's legs, reaching out, grasping at the air, and then stabilizing themselves on the earth, too. Finally, the torso dropped off of Batcat. The neck was still attached, the head taking the longest to form; it was bent at a horrific angle while Batcat's primary body struggled on top of the secondary body, wings fluttering. Jaws snapped and pulled away, and its face pulled out of the underside of Batcat's skull, until finally a complete form had been made. The secondary body fell limp as Batcat finally severed the connection, beating wings lifting him above the thing that he had created.

Batcat chattered still and suddenly took off. Disoriented, he flew into nearby walls, latching onto the rock and launching him in another direction until he had regained his composure. Then, the creature soared off into the darkness, leaving behind the slimy neonate. The secondary body lay limp and unmoving in front of Kerberos; while the entire affair was horrifying and strange, what may have been the strangest thing of all was that this new creature lacked the gleaming green stone Batcat had embedded in his chest.

Don't you ever tame your demons

But always keep 'em on a leash

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Kerberos did as Giggle had instructed. He had spoke, and now he listened. The batcat chattered his name over and over, apparently completely incoherent. The dog snorted, but kept wiggling his tail. Did the black, leathery thing have something to tell him, something to show him? He relaxed as the other creature thwapped his tail up and down against the stone. It seemed to be capable of body language, if not words. The dog panted happily, three orange splotched tongues flopping out of his white jaws.

It was about then that Batcat seemed to focus on something. Perhaps magic, perhaps his actual name. The puppy tilted his head and listened, watching, trying to figure out what the batcat wanted. Then the strange things seemed to happen and he didn't know what to do. It was like batcat was growing something, or falling apart, or... How did it do what it was doing?

His ears fell back against his skulls as the cat whined and squealed and cracked, its body shuttering and splintering. Although he didn't know what to say, he couldn't help but whimper. The energy copy of himself disappeared, flickering out of existance, as he lost his concentration and slowly inched back away from the convulsing beast. One head began to howl, a cry for help perhaps, while another whimpered, paw over his muzzle, trying to hide from the horrifying scene. The last head, however, watched. He sniffed, and huffed, and his body wriggled, trying to make sense of the horrifying scene--

And then it was over. The batcat took off abruptly, jetting off into the blackness, and the puppy dropped down on to his belly and slowly returned his focus to the secondary creature. What was it? How had the black monster made another of himself? It seemed... Bizzare. Was it a gift, for him? Was it even alive?

Kerberos crept forward on his belly, crawling towards the lump of black. "Hello"?" He woofed. "Kerberos?" He asked, the name being the one thing the batcat had responded to. Was it possible another thing had the same name as him? He shook his heads and focused.

The thing reminded him of how he was after escaping the river, and out of instinct, he tried to warm the air, trying to revive the creature. "What is it?" He wondered, sniffing closer and closer. The puppy got as close as he had to, and tried to reach out to lick at the strange, black thing.

After Batcat had fluttered off into the distant dark of the cave, its replica was left laying limp in the dusty cave debris. Its black fur was slicked back and its wings splayed lifelessly at its sides. The creature appeared to be dead, or at the very least lifeless. It failed to respond to Kerberos' probing, the words uttered were lost in the silent and still air. Only once the three headed beast attempted to warm the air did the creature seemingly come to life. It felt the air heat up - or rather, the shimmer of magic that began to heat up the surrounding atmosphere. The muscles in its legs began to twitch, a heart inside kickstarted into thumping rapidly in its chest.

As Kerberos drew near enough to prod the creature, it suddenly jerked back. Its lips curled back in a silent reveal of long needle teeth, similar to Batcat, but this beast seemed... Different. Scared, and malevolent. The creature suddenly folded its legs in and wings stretching outward. The tips of its wings held clawed fingers that splayed out from its leathery fringes, then gripped the ground. With great effort, the monster pulled itself up in a standing position, its frail and new body shaking under its own weight. The snarl persisted on its face. It swung its head towards Kerberos, a violent and low growl bubbling up from its throat.