ORIGIN

The gore-and-fungus-matted hyena was still grumbling, irritated by Aza'zel's gust of wind, and didn't move perhaps quite as fast as she could have when he tumbled into the puddle.

"Well at least you're warning me this time," she growled, stalking past him to get a look at the room.

Her thoughts ran back to tunnel K. The voices had remained with her, the patterns that she could see beyond what was visible to the eye. She thought perhaps that she was more like the blind bat, Tal'at, than she had realized--the bones weren't what was teaching her. They were merely the instrument used to write out the truth.

And the speaker was all around. The fungus, ubiquitous. It had whispered disturbing facts about the truth behind the unnatural chill she'd felt in the single tunnel leading from Canis. Truths about a magical barrier. A last hope. Based on the vague whispers, Giggle imagined a clump of survivors, a hoard, a desperate attempt to live, apart. She just wasn't sure if the enemy had been locked inside Canis--or without.

And that led her to wonder about the other caves that they had passed through. If Canis had been some sort of last-ditch ark-turned-graveyard, the survivors of some previous era slowly wasting away in their safe haven, which had become, in truth, a prison, then what was the rest?

Aza'zel wondered what she made of the caves, but though she had taken in the throne of Orion and its star-studded quartz ceiling, what she'd truly looked at was beyond. She'd seen resilience, a spiritual seat, a place bright with growth--though whether that growth had been crops, or wisdom, she could not say. Only that once, the place had been filled with optimism, or so she thought.

Now, this.

Physically, her dark eyes flicked over a waterfall, over ponds and rolling, mossy hillocks. But her mind saw something else, and it wasn't nearly as clear-cut as the chilled tunnel had been. In Pisces, the soothsayer saw a thing that had not become what it had been meant for--a place of cycles and growth, ebbing and flowing but remaining, in essence, the same.

What this meant, in practical terms, she wasn't sure.

Giggle knew that, should she seek long enough, should she gather enough of the pieces, then the overall puzzle's picture might become clear and reveal many truths of the caves. For now, though, she carefully catalogued her observations and set them aside, focusing her attention (with a sharp inhale and a straightening of her posture) on the task at hand.

She'd been about to ask Aza'zel exactly who lived here when she realized that he was waving his wing at the empty cave. For a moment she stared, and then in a wry, deliberately saccharine voice, spoke as she stalked past him.

"Oh, please, Your Majesty... allow me," she crooned.

Before Aza'zel could protest, the hyena inhaled deeply, and let out a ringing, eerie hyena's cackle that rang and echoed throughout Pisces.

"AHAHAHAAHAHEHEHAHAhahaha--AHAHAhahaha hahahaha!"

Satisfied, she glanced smugly back to the Bone King. Granted, he could emit magical screeches that could shatter eardrums--and maybe that was the point of her cackle. Just a little payback.

"Hopefully, someone will have heard," she said primly.

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Roll the bones.

Giggle listened politely and quietly as the two spoke, her eyes locked on the lioness. She remembered her. She'd given the stinking cat a reading, wisdom from the bones--not a gift from her, though, but the fungus itself, so she could hardly claim to hold something over Makyna's head. Still, the cat had been somewhat rude back, her jabs pointed but subtle.

The hyena made a show, after Makyna's offer, of looking down and peering over her coat. She then looked back up, blinking dark eyes.

We're here because we need their help. I probably shouldn't do it. ...I can't resist.

"How kind of you to offer your water for someone so filthy, Songcat! You know, I have shit in my fur, and three-week old blood, and fresh blood. Some intestines from a mouse, three different fungal species growing on my coat," Giggle said, letting out a soft laugh and standing and moving sidelong up toward Makyna--perhaps just a smidge too close--to peer toward the pools. "So you have no idea how much a bath would be absolutely lovely, thank you. I think I will."

She took a few steps toward the water, glancing back briefly. "Bone King, I won't be long. Could you ask her about their leader, or Baratheon? See if they know what we don't? I for one would be willing to pay any way I can for such knowledge. There's every chance those insane creatures will try to wipe out our young ones--and we still don't know why," she added smoothly, before beginning to saunter toward Pisces' crystal clear pools.

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Roll the bones.

Giggle snorted into loud and good-natured laughter for a moment, pacing back around to sit by Aza'zel's side--and slightly behind him.

"I'm just fucking with you, Songcat," she chortled hoarsely, and she seemed genuinely amused and relaxed, for once. "It's fungal cultivation, and I'm not going to ruin it with your water--or get it all in your drinking supply. We'll take any help you can give."

A thing that belonged to Merrymen, though? Did they have anything like that?

Giggle glanced to Aza'zel, awaiting his response.

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Roll the bones.

The bear was first alerted to the arrival of the Bonebound when a familiar hyena cackle rang out through the cave, causing all of his fur to stand on end. He'd been busy fishing - as he often was these days, confined either to the caves due to his responsibilities with the upcoming wedding, or the fresh injuries he had sustained while fighting the dragon. His wounds weren't bad enough to keep him cavebound for long - there were just a few spots on his back that had been badly burned, but Leon was a creature of fire - burns didn't keep him down for very long. Still, he'd been advised to stay in Pisces while he healed, and he had preparations anyways.

In any case, he was within range when the hyena cackle broke out; his gaze had instantly flickered up to where his and Makyna's den was carved into the wall. From afar, he could barely just see her form slip out of the entrance and move towards the sound. Leon dropped the task at hand and followed the noise as well. Makyna had beat him to it, as was made obvious when he arrived to see the lioness standing before said hyena and a large, red bird - Aza'zel. Curious, Leon quickened his pace, overhearing a strained exchange between Giggle and Makyna before Aza'zel had started explaining why they were here. A war - a war?! Now? His brows furrowed slightly as he reached Makyna's side, listening as she rattled off all the things she could do to help them.

"What are they thinking?" He grunted, cutting into the conversation. "There's no time for a war. There's a huge dragon in Polaris setting everything on fire, and - what did you even do?" The bear demanded, wanting to know the context of this apparent war before he'd agree to help. He liked Aza'zel, and if he had choose a group to give his alliance to it would be the Bonebound, but he really needed to know what was going on before that.

Giggle sat on her haunches, quietly listening to the others speak for a time. She nodded a greeting to Leon, eyeing over the bear and his shaggy coat, his scars, his jutting stone. When Aza'zel looked at her, she in turn looked back at the lion and the bear--and like Makyna, she was now all-business.

"I have never even left Canis, and I imagine most of the Bonebound aren't particularly prone to provoking others, so I couldn't tell you, either, why there's to be a war. Baratheon--do you know him? Kind-hearted, but loses his shit at the scent of blood, becomes a raging, violent maniac? We are trying to think of how to prevent something horrible, here, but we don't know why they want to attack us to begin with. It's hardly like they've expressed an interest in using our cave, or bones. And those bones, when I asked for an answer, told us to come to allies--allies of us, perhaps, and of water--to find an answer. If you are capable of Seeing, or if you know anything that we don't--anything at all--we would be grateful. But if you offer to help us in other ways, to offer medical aid or to shelter our young, they may target you too," she added, finishing her speech with a deep and throaty tone of warning. "Don't offer such aid without considering the danger it might put you in--and we won't accept it without acknowledging that you've done so," Giggle added, glancing solemnly to Aza'zel.

And it was true enough; a war target, if given outside aid, well. The Merrymen might target Pisces, then, as well. Cut off supplies, maybe ambush Maji Walezi solely to kill off Bonebound.

The hyena had an uncharacteristically sombre demeanor as she looked at the strangers. She had come here to ask for information, not direct aid--she had asked Aza'zel to do as much, at least, and accompanied him. But what if the aid they offered were what the bones had warned her against?

They'd spoken of a sacrifice, a deal, a negotiation, that would backfire, or end very badly. The last thing she wanted to do--smelly lion or no--was to put yet another group in danger. Yet maybe strength in numbers might deter the Merrymen from attacking to begin with; it was hard to say.

Even the best Seers, she knew, had their limits--and so now she looked to Makyna, hoping that another Seer, one Giggle's own bones had apparently directed her to, could See where, and what, Giggle herself could not.

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Roll the bones.