ORIGIN

Within Leo there existed a stretch of jungle laid bare to the cave lights overhead. Its current state was far from natural as could be inferred from the ruin surrounding the area—wood splinters, broken branches, and uneven jagged tree stumps littered the outskirts, doubtlessly the work of a local catastrophe instead of a cavewide storm. No creatures, large or small, frolicked or dwelled within this bared patch of land, and the reason was clear to any whose eyes settled upon the centerpiece dominating it. All were warded away by the gigantic skeleton collapsed in the grasses. An unsettling Oil-slicked monument draped in moss, malevolence radiated from its empty stare. This extended, too, to the black flowers sprouting around the bones, almost as if the beast's essence had leeched into and corrupted the surrounding soil.

Past generations of wildlife might have remembered this menace, a poor reproduction of a much more formidable monster. Now the present Lessers likely only avoided here purely based on instinct and the danger promised by their senses.

However, that didn't mean its former life had been entirely forgotten. Evidence of acknowledgement resided at the jawbone of the giant. A heart, likely a deer's judging by size, was set there. Fresh but decaying fast, dark spots were spreading over and softening the tough tissue. In addition to the mosses already decorating it, a morbid sort of garland was wrapped around some of the skeleton's individual ribs: intestines, steam visibly rising from them in the light. This place was hallowed ground for someone, and here were their offerings, an awful sight and smell for sensitive stomachs.

Discordant buzzing rang throughout the clearing, its source nearby but unseen for the moment. Perhaps the devotee responsible for the carnage on display?

The persistent background noise saturating the clearing and its immediate surroundings, once an eternal grating presence, now began to fluctuate. Pitch and volume rose and fell to varying levels. If one paid careful attention, an irritating aspect of this change in soundtrack could be detected: every time a pattern emerged in the buzzes, a series of sounds quite unlike the previous disrupted the beginning of a proper melody. It was as if the noisemaker responsible for this couldn't quite grasp the concept of a song, failing each and every time they tried to produce one.

And try, indeed, was the important word here. Enthusiastically too if the shudder of the remaining trees looming behind the great skeleton was any indication. Between their trunks, most of what could be glimpsed of the perpetrator from the ground were spindly dangling limbs that ended in bloodied sickle claws. Anybody who dared to crane their head further back to find their origin point would likely find nothing more than the jungle canopy. Whatever gaps in the leaves would've let light filter through instead were entirely dark, a creature's gargantuan mass blocking the path.

The trees shook and swayed until, with the final chorusing snap of multiple breaking apart, the aforementioned being barged its way into the open space. No longer muffled by layers of foliage, the buzzing bombarding the area ramped in intensity. An awful stench, reminiscent of the rotting pieces of carcass already decorating the worship spot, also seeped inside. What had been a probable nuisance before abruptly morphed into an absolute assault on the senses that took significant willpower and a hardy constitution to withstand. And matters were only made worse when the shrieking began.

This awfulness did not emit from the expected source, the mandibles of the insect-like monster bearing down on the clearing. No, those were preoccupied with the red kooru corpse they clamped down on, the Lesser's head barely remaining attached to its neck by a fleshy thread. The emanations came from the many mouths housed in the monster's writhing tentacled tail tip, all expressing the same sentiments at a frequency fit to shatter glass. Hopefully this wasn't terrible enough to rupture eardrums after only a brief exposure.

"Frrrrieeend!" it called out. As Karambit's head swiveled about, using limited vision to seek out the deceased being it paid tribute to, its entire body twisted with the motion. Blood droplets showered the clearing's edge, courtesy of the dead kooru's wounds. "Havvvve a new gift forrr youuu! Maybe it'll make you feel betterrr, and we can havvvve funnnn again!"

A hopeless endeavor, it knew, just as its efforts with its dear sibling continued to be. Nevertheless nothing would make it suffer more than to not bother trying at all and give up on hearing either of its cherished ones' sweet voices.

Aerys' presence was a bright spot to the myriad heat-sensitive eyes Karambit possessed, more distinctive than the fading signatures of the various organs left cooling around this apparent friend's skeleton. Though more so a fly than a moth, the spark attracted its attention, and a confused hum greeted the sight.

"Not frrrrieend frrrrieeend..." it mused. "Otherrr frrrriend? Helloooo?"

Its tail swished as it spun to better assess the visitor, the teeth embedded within grey flesh gnashing in eager anticipation.

Leathery wings whirred while Karambit hovered in place, an unintentionally foreboding figure settled above this garden of death it tended to. Mutation having robbed it of the ability to admire fine details and colors, the stranger tentatively deemed "other friend" could be perceived as nothing more than a glowing silhouette against a mostly darker, cooler background. As she began a slow retreat, gleaming button eyes followed the movement. Imagination struggled to fill in the blank quadrupedal shape with distinguishing marks. Failure due to fading memories of a life with ordinary vision led to the monster instead focusing on the tremulous voice that rose to it from the jungle floor.

"Krrrmmm," came the characteristic drone of Karambit's mental gears turning at a glacial pace. While its heart soared at the returned greeting, confusion ran rampant as to why this new friend offered an apology. Antennae tingled, and strained thoughts pulsed an unseen wave of magic toward the wolf. However, far too weak to reflect an imprint of simple emotions back, it dissipated long before managing to touch the mind it was directed at.

Without a helping hand to guide understanding of a normal Gembound, experience and common sense was all Karambit could rely on to navigate the current social conundrum. If it had an audience, no doubt they would've been weeping in horrified anticipation of the inevitable disaster to come. After all, when was this qiant insect's sense ever common or, for that matter, reasonable?

"Sorrrry," it echoed back, the word resonating throughout its moist flesh. "Why sorrry? Anotherrr frrriend meanzzz morrre frrriends to help firrzt frrriend."

As a convenient reminder, the kooru corpse carried in mandibles dangled its nearly separated head directly in front of the set of eyes staring out from Karambit's thorax. Seizing on that delightful image, claws lifted and, in a single smooth motion, they completed the decapitation and flicked the unattached skull in Aerys' general direction. Hopefully its aim was poor, otherwise a new first would've been accomplished for the monster: assault with a random body part.

"Here! Can help make frrrriend prreetty! Can zzzzee if they look good betterrr than meee."

At what it considered playful antics, an awful sound reminiscent of shattering glass, nails on a chalkboard, and metal raking against metal emanated from the hovering mass of meat. To anyone else, their ears would've only registered this as a concentrated blast of disharmony. This, though, was Karambit's laughter, one variety out of the many horrendous mixtures its versatile yet nauseating anatomy could produce. Living in an entirely different reality from Aerys where its idea of sunshine and rainbows were blood showers and viscera ribbons, it remained ignorant to her blatant fear, construing her stutter as the hesitance of an inexperienced stylist. The ever supportive decision was made to lead by example; maybe then she'd develop a good taste for curating fashion from decaying corpses.

"Yezzz, preeeetty!" it echoed encouragingly. "Take the rrrrred insidezzz and make warmmm outsidezzzz. Let me show!"

The now fully decapitated kooru still firmly situated in mandibles meant that its voice continued to chorus from the countless mouths wedged among tentacles, leaving the insect's head eerily silent despite vocal enthusiasm. An elegant flourish of a set of sickle claws, gleaming sharp and dripping scarlet, began the impromptu presentation. They swept in front of the carried carcass to showcase its lifeless limbs and pelt riddled with bite and stab marks. Then on the return sweep up the body, a clean slice ran from its anus to the top of its blood-dribbling neck wound. Another series of cuts created flaps, and these were peeled back to reveal putrefying organs nestled in their exposed cavities. The intestines in particular threatened to fall out due to so much as a minor jostle. Karambit gleefully hooked the larger of the two on a claw and started tugging away.

"Zzzeeeee! Headzzz are the zzzame. Juzzt with, krmmmm, grrrraaay too! Not only rrred."