ORIGIN - Greedy Eyes And Hearts

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There's a quirk of Rayet's eyebrows - not quite a full eyeroll, but there's a hint of it having its doubts. Either way, it dissappears quickly enough, and it goes back to its meal.

"mmemmie fimmish," it murmurs with its mouth full, in response to Vastator's irritation. My food. I eat. It doesn't protest any more aloud, but it does seem to be trying to get its fill quickly.

If Vastator waited for a minute (or maybe three) Wolf-Rayet would finally finish, blood smeared over it. It doesn't exactly seem to care, though, looking back up. "Somewhere else? Where?" it asks, not sure what the dragon wants to see.

image credit: oskenund

@Vastator

Vastator tipped his head back, letting out an overly dramatic sigh.

He found he liked the sound of it, and the feel of its superior arrogance, so he did it again. SIGH. But soon enough he found himself scanning Canis, eyeing the backdrop of bones and dripping cave, while Wolf-Rayet scarfed the rest of its little meal.

He found he had no answer to the question. They'd come all the way here, though, so...

"What else is in this cave?" he asked, though it sounded more like a demand.

@Wolf-Rayet

Mismatched eyes look up at Vastator, as it thinks about where to go. "There's bones. And icky white stuff. And more bones," it offers. There's not much it can think off, other than the bones. And the fungus.

"There are bone buildings? We could go to those?" It had never gone there before, only seen them from afar - but Vastator would be good company.

image credit: oskenund

@Vastator

He stared.

"That," he growled haughtily, "sounds like a lot of bones." How boring! But he had no better ideas, and limited experience of what else lay within the caves, so he looked away. He gave a loud, long-suffering sigh.

"Very well," he said, at last, as if deigning to go with Wolf-Rayet; "Take me to these bone-buildings."

He was still a little hungry, but right now, he didn't feel like putting forth the effort required to hunt anything more.

@Wolf-Rayet

"That's because it is a lot of bones," it adds unhelpfully. "Bone buildings it is then!" Within a moment it's turning on its heels, heading off in the direction it hopes is the right one.

Please be the right way, Rayet worries, because it would look very silly if it led Vastator the wrong way. "Maybe someone will be in the bone buildings. Who knows."

image credit: oskenund

@Vastator

Vastator sneered at the answer. It didn't even warrant a response. But that next part got his full attention. "Inside the buildings-? Do creatures live in there?" he asked. It was part disbelief but also part concern. Anything that lived in houses made of bones couldn't be friendly. Not that he was afraid; but would they have to fight? Should he be prepared..?

Beyond that was the growing question that had been looming all along, one that Vastator just hadn't thought to ask. "These bones. Where have they come from? Why are there so many? ...And who decided to make buildings from them?" he asked.

Admittedly several questions in one, but perhaps the culpeo would know. Probably not, given that it seemed as new here as he was, but Vastator was a demanding sort, regardless.

Demanding, and now curious, too.

@Wolf-Rayet

"I don't know. Didn't linger long," it explains, strutting off. It normally avoided this cave in general, since the ucky fungus was icky. It still feels horrible unter its paws.

Though Vastator's constant questions are getting tiring very fast. It briefly looks over its shoulder at him, giving one of those "this is way above my pay grade" looks. As far as Rayet was aware, there had always been bones, from and into perpetuity. "They're old bones. OLD bones. Bones that could be your great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather. Maybe. Probably not. Who knows."

image credit: oskenund

@Vastator

Vastator caught the look. He wasn't quite a socially graceful creature, but he managed to decipher this glance. Part of him wanted to take offense, part of him didn't care; probably the culpeo was just as confused as he was. It wasn't, he didn't think, that it was annoyed with him.

If it was he'd have thrown a fit about it, of course, since such wretched little things existed to serve. Or something. (He hadn't quite worked all this out yet.)

Vastator paused and picked up a bone, studying it with what Wolf-Rayet had said in mind. "That old-? One wonders what killed them all. When, and why." He was not normally a thoughtful creature, but death on this massive scale piqued his interest. Irony, that one of his ancestors--unbeknownst to him--had been the dealer of much of this very death.

He kept on following, though twinned boredom and new interest in these bones had declined his fascination with the buildings up ahead. He was already craning his neck to peer, to see if anyone did live in them, but his mind was half behind on what looked like an old massacre.

Or maybe just a disposal site, he reasoned. It didn't even have to be regular Gembound. Maybe just dead animals that roamed this place, dumped here after being mostly eaten?

"I wonder if there's anyone who knows," he mused aloud.

@Wolf-Rayet

"Mhmn" it murmurs as an affirmative. It only knew so much, but the dust coating the bones, the way they shattered and were hollow... they were old bones. "All at once, or over the ages? They are keeping secrets."

We're almost there, it thinks, eyes looking up towards taller and taller piles. They reach up, until they finally form structures. Castles. Keeps. "Maybe someone is old enough. Old enough to know. Old as dust." It's last comment is a joking remark, added to otherwise reasonable pondering. It turns back, to look at Vastator, and gestures towards the open gatehouse before them.

image credit: oskenund

@Vastator

Vastator followed, glancing up and about with interest and consternation both. Interest, because the history of this place might teach him something useful. Consternation, because how dare this place be interesting, impressive, imposing, and not belong to him? Hrmph.

He had to squeeze through the gap the culpeo led him to. "How did you find this place?" he rumbled. A more suspicious or experienced creature might have suspected being led into a trap or the like, but Vastator assumed Wolf-Rayet was his servant in this and nothing more.

His passage through the narrow space accidentally knocked a few bones rattling loose and he turned sharply, startled. It was strange, how still the quiet that seemed to descend afterward.

Vastator picked his way up a little slope, bones rolling and cracking underfoot, then stuck his head into a little structure, into what might have served as a sort of doorway. "Nothing," he reported, drawing back out a moment later. "Dust. As you say." Another: likewise empty. But he did notice the glint of occasional (if likewise dusty) gemstones, and he mused aloud here, too: "Some still have stones. Can't you make children out of those?" It was an idle musing--a general 'you' not quite directed to Wolf-Rayet.

@Wolf-Rayet

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