ORIGIN

The wild dog paused, looking back. He seemed genuinely alarmed; as if Giggle had offended him. Though, once she began laughing, the stupidly large ears on top of the dog's head pricked up and he grinned lopsidedly. "I thought you would have liked to wake up to food!" he barked as he limped near the hyena.

The dog licked Giggle's shoulder briefly, placing the femur by his paws. Bones began to watch the bones closely with a tilted head, silent for a few moments before he turned back to Giggle, quizzically. "Have you rolled around in them before?" he got back up and pawed at the edge of the pile carefully, considerately, before he plodded inside - leaving his previously acquired bone next to Giggle.

He didn't exactly 'roll,' perhaps afraid to touch the mushrooms his 'mother' had told him to avoid. Instead he just sort of stood there up to his belly in the pile, with an almost comical expression of utmost concentration. Soon after, he went oddly motionless in the bone pile, eyes only half-open and ears pinned flat against the back of his head.

Only barely did he jerk during the time he spent in there, and although it was only about a maximum of twelve seconds, time slowed down, dragging along for the dog while he lay in the bone pile.

As magic takes hold, Bones is witness to a bizarre series of sensations; not quite a scene, as there is nothing to truly witness, but he is lent an awareness of one precious, important moment.

The bone is set in place where it ought to be. A bed of muscle holds it in place, growing taut as the limb is flexed. The fibrous tissue is warm and wet, surrounded by fluids that the creature as a whole is unaware of; yet as the creature come to life, takes that first fleeting breath and fills its blood with oxygen, there is a sudden shift in things. Life fills the creature, through the tissue and deep in to the bones; a rush of fluids seeps through the connective membrane in this fleeting instant -

The sensations fade from Bones then, as the spell peters out.

Bones was completely silent while he lay in the bone pile, as stagnant as a pool of filthy water. For a moment, the african wild dog didn't even seem to be breathing. Abruptly, the wild dog's eyes snapped open and he began barking in alarm.

Half limping and half running out of the bone pile he headed back towards the hyena, wide-eyed. "What was that? Is that what you see when you talk to them?" Bones just seemed to immediately assume that Giggle knew what he was talking about, limping and hobbling anxiously. "It was scary. Gross. What was that? Is it normal? Is it bad?"

The dog whined a little as she sat down, paws kneading against the ground as if he were making bread. The pup's ears didn't lift once, flat against his head and his tail limp on the ground. He waited with eyes wider than saucers for his 'mother's' reply. He wasn't particularly disgusted by what he'd seen - or even particularly scared. Rather he was worried, or what omen this vision would bring and what it meant.

Why hadn't she said anything about this before, if Giggle knew everything there was to know about the bones?

Giggle looked from the pile to Bones with some surprise.

Did he--... see? Did he truly see?

Her heartbeat quickened a bit, and she peered at him sharply, blinking. When she finally found her voice, she was very careful to keep it measured and calm. She didn't want to frighten him.

"...Well that depends; what exactly did you see? I see many things, depending, so I am not sure exactly what the bones chose to show you."

He was doing something odd with his front legs, pressing the stone in an almost cat-like fashion, and Giggle paced over and nuzzled him between the ears.

"It's nothing to be frightened of, nonetheless--even if it's frightening. Does that make sense?" she added gently.

Giggle glanced over to the bone pit, wondering exactly what had happened. When she looked, she saw patterns in the bones, her minded guided by the fungus--but Bones had had his eyes closed. Had the mycelia somehow spoken to his mind directly? What had happened?

She looked back to her 'son,' waiting with veiled concern for his explanation.

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Roll the bones.

The dog pretended not to see the look of shock on his mother's face as he turned to look at the bone pile with a soft whine. "No," he murmured before he looked back to the hyena sitting next to him.

"I felt something weird-- it was... it was soft, wet and.. and kinda warm. And then it was.. it was moving," Bones didn't sound like he was entirely 'there,' eyes wide and paws still kneading nervously against the ground. His voice was soft, distant and mumbly. He scooted somewhat closer to Giggle, as if afraid anyone else was around to hear. "I think it was alive. It wasn't a mushroom. The bone. It was alive for a minute."

He realised, then and there, that to Giggle he must sound completely insane - but what else could he have seen- or rather, felt? The dog twisted his head to the bone pile, briefly, wide-eyed, before he scuttled behind his mother, whimpering under his breath quietly.

Had Giggle seen it before? Was it something they often shared? He wasn't sure, but he sure did hope so, and in an abrupt silence he waited for his mother's comforting words- if they ever even came at all.

"Speech"

Giggle stared at Bones for a moment, thinking. She knew he was frightened, and that he seemed even more frightened than before despite her efforts to calm him.

"Stay here," she ordered abruptly, calm and matter-of-fact. Off she trotted.

A moment later she returned with half a rat in her mouth--the back half. She pinned it with one large, heavy paw and then tore into it with her teeth, pinching flesh and fur with incisors to pull it away, careful to keep her thicker canine teeth away from it all. Then she stepped back, turning the rat with her paw so that her son could see it.

The femur was exposed, still nestled in its pool of blood and nest of muscle--cold, though, since this wasn't at all a fresh kill. Still, the point was there.

"You've killed your share of rats, so I suppose you know that all bones were alive once. If you had to think of it, were you inside a living being? Were you being the bone?" She sounded curious, and truth be told she was. She wasn't really worried, now, but she did wonder exactly what he'd seen, and more importantly, why. The fungus tended to guide one and give them important visions, not random flashes of sight and feeling.

Either this set of bone and muscle that he'd "been" was special, or his magic was something else entirely.

Perhaps both.

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Roll the bones.

And then he was alone.

Even though she'd only be gone for a moment, a feeling of dread bubbled in Bones' belly, slowly rising up his gullet and into his throat-- no, no. He was wrong - that was the burn of stomach acid at the back of his throat. Swallowing, the dog looked around.

Giggle wasn't gone for long, of course, but Bones didn't dare move. She had a rat in her jaws - and seconds later it was torn open, turned for him to see the inside. He recalled that, no matter how many times he seen it, he was surprised by how white the bone was in recently dead creatures; even though this one seemed partially rotted already.

Slowly his oversized ears lifted to listen to his mother's words and after a moment or so of consideration, he nodded. "I think that's what a bone would feel like if a bone could feel things."

He paused and stared at the rat for a moment longer, sighing quietly as he slouched down to his stomach, lying down with his head on his forearms. "..I don't think I liked it." There was a soft sigh that came out through his nose before he half-closed his eyes quietly, barely glancing at his mother's feet from the almost-shut eyelids.

Giggle sighed softly through her nose, nuzzling Bones's head again.

"The bones show us odd things, and usually they're for good reason. It's possible your magic is entirely different from mine. Maybe it isn't the bones talking, or even the fungus, but something else altogether. I've seen worse, but you have to remember it's not... Well, I can't say it's not real. But it can't hurt you," Giggle said firmly.

But could it? What if his magic lashes out at him...? Damn, it can't be helped, and it's best not to frighten the pup.

"Just visions, yes? If you don't want to pursue them, you don't have to. If you do--I suggest you rest first. It can take a lot out of you, energy-wise."

With that, the hyena flopped down right beside Bones, washing his head and ears with her tongue, clearly expecting him to simply go right to sleep beside her bone pit.

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Roll the bones.

Bones only grumbled in reply, barely audible. He was exhausted now. As the african wild dog shut his eyes he listened carefully to his mother's words. He couldn't think of a single reason why the bones showing him what it was like to be alive, as a bone, would be helpful for any reason.

But the important thing Giggle seemed to have to say was that they couldn't hurt him and for a moment he almost believed it - in fact he wanted to, but he was wholly convinced that, one day, if he kept this up, the bones would hurt him for prying too deep. The painted dog shivered.

He closed his eyes as he felt his mother's tongue on his head and curled up a little closer to her with a sigh, slowly drifting off into an inevitable spiral of nightmares involving the spire and strange figures looming over him.

Giggle lay behind him, quiet. Unbeknownst to Bones, she was wondering much the same thing: why would the fungus show him a bone, living in flesh?

Before she could think about it too much, a possible answer had already glanced over her mind. She looked back, craning her neck to peer over his broken bones, his crippled back, and legs. Her brow knitted.

Could it be speaking of his injuries? Perhaps his bones need attention. Are they healing wrong...?

She glanced at her son, again, but he already seemed to be drifting off to sleep, and she wanted to let him rest. She pondered, shifting back to peer at her bone pile, deep in thought.

They were quiet, for once. She closed her eyes, inhaling deeply, reaching out to them with a mother's quiet, dignified pleading--could Bones be healed?

The bones did not speak; they only whispered. Images of sacrifice, and of triumph, of a journey. With a sigh, Giggle lowered her head to her black paws. She'd wait until Bones was fast asleep--and then she'd go to Bevy. It hurt her just a little to admit that it was the bird's Life magic she'd need--but if it would help her son, she wouldn't hesitate.

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ROLL THE BONES