Spaghetti worms and silent tears Finished

"If they were eating something gross, then it would taste gross. They've been eating spaghetti sauce."
He was pretty happy that eris had tried eating the worm. It made him feel a bit more helpful, like he was giving things. He looked at eris' squinted face and laughed silently to himself.
"For being alive, you deserve it."
He was extremely grateful to eris for being alive. For being here, and being his friend. Many times in the swamp Kaegen had considered just letting himself be found. Letting himself die. It had been part of his life to say no to those thoughts and keep going. He couldn't imagine it being any different for eris, and felt that she should have recognition for making it this far, as well as having payment for being so kind, and generally a good friend. He wasn't entirely sure if he was doing a good job at being a friend back, but giving the knife was certainly a step forward. He knew that friends did that. Or at least he was reasonably sure friends did that. Well, actually it was a shot in the dark. But a good one. Who didn't like knives? They saved your life, made your life more comfortable. He couldn't imagine life without the knife he kept on him, without the knives he kept on him.
"Honestly, thank you for not dying. For being my friend."
His smile grew wider, and he looked at the girl.
"Do you want a pet?"

For being alive? Eris frowned slightly, almost invisible. She supposed she would have to take the knife now, as Kaegen was just being his odd, but thoughtful self. Eris held the sheath in her hands for a second longer, than carefully slipped the sheath into the pocket of her robes, reaching her hand into her pocket to make sure that it was still in the sheath before turning fully to Kaegen. "Thank you so much." She said, with a twinge of awkwardness in her voice. It wasn't everday a new friend offered you a knife, and also were knives allowed at school? Maybe they were. Afterall, wands were basically small weapons of mass destruction. If they let 11 year olds have killing sticks, what was the problem with a small knife, in a homemade sheath.

Eris patted her robes, "I'm glad I'm your friend too. And uh, I'm also glad I'm not dead." Eris announce, with a smile, as she tried not to giggle. It was an absurd thing to say out loud, that one was glad they weren't dead. At least in the 11 year old girl's mind. Of course she wasn't dead! She wasn't going to die for a long, long time.

When Kaegen asked if she wanted a pet, Eris couldn't help but grin wickedly. Of course she wanted a pet. Hopefully one was cool as Vortigern, and not a spaghetti worm. Either way she would be grateful, but that was a lot to be gifted from one person. What would she have to give to Kaegen in return? Eris didn't really have anything on her. Perhaps she could just give him money, or some of the candy from the Hogwarts Express that miraculously hadn't expired or ran out yet. "I would really like a pet." Eris said, still thinking of ways to gift Kaegen in return.

Kaegen smiled even wider, he had the perfect pet. He had been given a pair of them for his birthday, and they had multiplied since then. Taking out a little box, he quickly reached inside and pulled out a frog looking creature. Sort of a mix between a frog and a monkey, with a red pustule on it's forehead.
It was pretty small, and didn't look fully grown.
"You can name her, if you want. She's a clabbert. The red thingy will glow if there's danger afoot."
It was a pretty common pet, nothing special, but wizards kept them all the time. Or at least that's what grandfather had told him. It seemed to him that the likely hood of her being killed by a monkey frog was rather low. In fact, it would keep her out of danger. To top off all of those reasons, they multiplied like rabbits. Honestly he had too many to keep under his robe, and they liked trees and room. Maybe he should just let them play around the dorm?
No one would mind a bunch of monkey frogs, would they? No, probably not. Actually, the great hall may just be a better place!

Eris had been expecting some monstrosity, but when she saw the green monkey frog thing, she cooed in delight. Its skin was mottled green like the colour of wet grass or Sytherin robes , and it has short horns like a satyr from the greek myths Eris had loved as a child. What made the clabbot so lovely was a wide grinning mouth full of razor sharp teeth and a what to be a ruby on it's forehead. Eris grinned, waiting for the little creature to make a move. Carefully, remembering that magical creatures had a mind of their own, and weren't pets to be played with carelessly like one might treat a dog, Eris put a hand on the Clabbert's green webbed claw.

Was it dangerous? "Er hello?" She said gruffly, staring at the small monkey creature. The creature grinned back, exposing it's mouth of razor sharp teeth to the girl, once again. Eris cooed in delight at the creature's strangeness, slowly letting the creature crawl up her exposed arm to perch on her shoulder blade. It looked like a creature out of a story book of her past, and Kaegen had said that it would alert her to danger. Eris looked at Kaegen. "How'd you get a clabbert?" She asked, deeming it rude to call the money thing an 'it' when it seemed to be quite smart. What should Eris name it. Thinking of heroes from her books, as the clabbert crawled up on top of the small girl's head, and than back onto her arms, Eris was stumped for ideas. "She's amazing. Thank you." Eris said, beaming at Kaegen as the tiny thing perched in her red-hair.

"My grandfather gave me two. It was supposed to help me survive."
The clabberts had, indeed helped him. A young boy can only be so quiet, can only notice so much. It was nice to have warning signs in you pocket to see if you should be aware of something.
"Just don't make her mad, and she wont bite you."
All of his worries had flown out the window. Eris seemed to really like her new pet, and he solved the problem on where to put the little ones. In fact, a lot of joy had flooded in, he felt like singing with joy, but upon closer thought, decided that maybe that wouldn't really be appreciated by Eris, or the clabbert she was trying to name.
He looked over at the little thing. "You can even train them to attack people, although she wouldn't do much"
That was an idea, maybe other students should have clabberts? They could cut peep holes in their hats and keep them there! If everyone had one of these things, the injury rate would drop! Assuming the injury rate was high in the first place. I mean, he had hurt a couple people already, maybe he had his own chart? It would be cool if he affected the numbers at all.

Kaegen's grandfather must of been a strange man if he gave his grandson clabberts for a gift. Then again, maybe that was why Kaegen was so odd. He had to learn from somebody. Eris carefully plucked the clabbert from her hair and studied it, grinning down at the little thing. "How about Lady? Is that a nice name?" Eris asked quietly, staring at the clabbert. The clabbert seemed to shake it's head no, gnashing it's tiny razor sharp teeth. "Maybe not." Eris announced, frowning as she started to think of names for the little green thing she held in her hands.

"How about Ikhi?" Eris asked, thinking about the name of a fictional character. The clabbert looked at Eris, and smiled. Exposing her razor sharp teeth to Eris. The girl smiled back at her new pet. "Ikhi it is." Eris turned back to Kaegen. "It would be great to train her to bite people, and hopefully I don't make her mad." Eris said as an afterthought, petting the back of the recently named Ikhi's head. "Kaegen, how many pets do you have exactly?" Eris asked, frowning. Ikhi made a little noise as the girl pet her, than continued to climb up Eris's arm, and up to her head. She than sat back down ontop of the girl's head, with a little satisfied purr-like noise.

How many pets? Oh, man...
"I'm not sure, one of these days I should probably count."
Kaegen looked down at himself. He had so many, how did she expect him to count all of them? He fed them all, the feasts had plenty of extra. And the creatures that needed some kind of special food were also taken care of. I mean, they multiplied constantly. Some died off, etc.
If he ever let all of his pets run rampant, hogwarts would probably turn into a mini-swamp in days. It would probably be utter chaos. And as the likely hood of anyone wanting utter chaos was probably minimal, Kaegen tried to keep a lid on as many cages as possible. Sure, sometimes he let one or two slip open, sure every time that happened some disaster ensued, but at least it was kept to a manageable minimum.
"Did you have any pets back at home?"
He forgot if she grew up muggle or not, but it didn't matter either way. The muggles had plenty of cool creatures too, according to grandfather. Kaegen was never all that sure which creatures would count as magical and which creatures would count as non-magical.
But honestly, it didn't really matter.

"You should count someday." Eris said, half--heartedly, as she tried to look up at little Ikha, who was now climbing all over the girl's body. "it wouldn't be good if one went missing and you didn't know." She grinned, imagining all the chaos that would be unleashed if one of Kaegen's pets went missing. It would be even more fun if all of them went missing, but that was just a fantasy. Of course, Eris would be safe because of her new danger alerting pet. It wasn't good for a prefect to be thinking about chaos, but oh well. That was typical Eris.

"Yes, I had a pet at home. He was a dog named Rufus." Eris laughed. Rufus wasn't nearly as cool as any wizarding pets. He was just a fat old bulldog, that ate anything. "His magical power was to eat anything." She shared out-loud, smiling at the memory of her old dog. Her new pet was much cooler, and much better named than Rufus. "I like Ikha more though. Thank you so much." She repeated the same words again, knowing that no amount of thanks would ever make them equal. She would have to pay Kaegen back with a super cool gift someday.

Kaegen looked at the little creature Eris had just named. It seemed to already think of eris as it's tree.
But he had never even heard of such a powerful magical creature.
"It could eat anything? Rocks? Mud? Poison? Vortigern?"
Nothing could eat vortigern, right? I mean, he had never actually researched that theory. But if something turned you into foul-smelling smoke when you touched it, you normally didn't eat it. But maybe a dragon? What was a dragon's stomach made out of? This was certainly something that Kaegen didn't think he would ever hear. A creature that powerful, kept as a pet by this girl? Kaegen's respect instantly tripled. Did someone train her?
He was reasonably certain that she just said that she liked ikha more so that he wouldn't feel bad about it. How could Ikha compare to a dog that could eat literally anything? Did magic count as something? Did light? Did darkness? The potential for world-destruction that rufos held was jaw-dropping. How many dogs like that were running around? What was it even called? Void-dogs? Black-hole-dogs? Armagedogs? He smiled at that last one. That name was actually decently clever. Which meant it probably wasn't the right one. Magical creatures rarely had really cool pun names.

"I mean yeah. He'd eat everything, but I don't think it would agree with his stomach." Eris shrugged. She didn't think Rufus would enjoy the taste of Vortigern, but she had a feeling her dog would try to eat the poor salamander anyways. Rufus had been known to eat shoes, books, hair, and basically anything that came in his way. Eris shook her head, not understanding the look of awe of Kaegen's face. "I mean, you can get a dog anywhere." She said, shrugging. Rufus wasn't exactly special, although he did have the appetite of a goat. Speaking of which..

"If you think dogs are dangerous, imagine goats. They eat everything. Literally everything. Clothes, brooms, everything." Eris had never seen a goat in person, but she knew that they ate everything. According to her sister Belladona, a girl told her a story that once a girl had been pushed over by a goat, and when she couldn't get up the goat ate her pants. Of course, the story had been on tv. That was the only way Belladona could of seen it, as she was the better of the two sisters and wouldn't leave the house and disobey their mother's rules.

As much as Eris would of loved to talk with Kaegen all day, it was time for her prefect duties. The clock in the small hall had just chimed, and there were footsteps coming out of the great hall. Most likely students headed off to bed. Now Eris had to make sure they were in bed. "Thank you so much for the bed." Eris said, with a smile in Kaegen's general direction. "I have to go do prefect duties, and you have to go to bed." She said, with an attempt at a mock bossy voice.

With that, Eris ran into the great hall, looking back once to wave at her friend, and tuck her new pet into her robe pocket, along with the new sheathed knife.