ORIGIN

The large spotted hyena was making her way up from her den, somewhat lost in thought. She had much to do--much to do, even if it was mostly tasks of her own design.

Her coat was thick, as it always was, with fungal growth and gore; she was pondering the most recent few strains of mushroom that she'd managed to finally cultivate.

...need to be very careful with the flesh-eating one. Where can I safely grow that? With all the youngsters around here, and so many of them hungry, I'll have to find a safe place. Maybe I can let it loose on the rat colony? ...But no, that's too cruel, and anyway it would just wipe them out, and then I'd have no food. None of us would. Hmph.

With a soft sigh of concentration, she made her way up to the edges of her bone pile. This was in actuality a broad, shallow pit filled with alien bones, some still with gems embedded. Her focus, though, was on the brown conical mushrooms that sprouted all along the edges, in a ring, around it. She stalked along, touching them with her nose here and there, checking on their growth.

A gentle surge of magic, an encouragement of growth, and a few shed their spores and began to spread. She had to keep them going, multiple generations at once, had to keep cultivating them. These were the defenses she kept up; she'd been attacked more than once, and it was good to be prepared. As she worked, she noticed little else.

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Roll the bones.

@Ambrus

ambrus was tired of not being able to perfectly execute his spells the moment he wanted to. he supposed that would take practice, but he had little patience for such. he was back in canis, his home, where azazel had met him for the first time as he sprouted from his chrysalis. no matter how far he traveled with mom and brother vicktor, he always seemed to travel back to canis to mentally regroup here in the silence of his bonebound home. he hobbled along, limbs not made for long walks upon the ground hopping about, taloned ends scraping into the rock floor and causing little noises to reverberate about the canis room. flightless wings fluttered about, as cream and brown feathers were glacially transforming into the adolescent bald eagle aesthetics. azurite lenses darted about in their sockets, as soon the sight of an odd creature came into view, and performed some type of magic the eaglet had never seen before. he ceased movement to observe this, then hopped quickly up behind the larger creature to ask,
"oh my! what kind of magic is that? mine shocks you,"
the little eagle began to chuckle and chirp, shaking his head lightly as he both kept his distance from her creation but kept close to her rear flank. he looked up at her, oddly comfortable with the older critter who's anatomy was rather..strange to say the least. ambrus was terrible at judging books by their covers, and he was judging this bizarre beast very hard. but for now, he'd keep them silent. for she wasn't the easily molded wolf pup, she was something larger who could in fact snap the bird's neck should he press too much. the little bird's foolish arrogance was a beacon at times, but right now, he was exercising his vigilance to extend his life span just that much more. he was proud.

@giggle

Giggle leapt a foot into the air as a sudden voice came from behind her, spinning and scrambling to face the threat.

Which... turned out to not be a threat. Bristling and blinking, she listened--she hadn't heard the bird's clicking approach due to her absorption in her magic, and she cursed herself as she realized how vulnerable she had been.

I'm lucky it wasn't that fucking peryton again, or whatever the hell he called himself.

Her bristling fur lowered and she relaxed, slowly lowering herself to sit before the stranger. She gave a soft chortle of amusement, then spoke, tilting her head to look the bird over--his dark plumage, his razor-sharp talons. Pretty.

"I don't think you need magic to shock people, bird-pup; I think you just about scared me out of my skin. This magic is fungus. Mushrooms. It can do a lot of things, but--who are you?"

The hyena blinked large, dark eyes at the eagle, then decided it might be best to set the example. "My name is Giggle, and this is my bone pit," she explained, hoping he'd know enough to respond in kind.

Many of the Gembounds who came to her didn't yet know their names, or where they would live, but many did. Was this one of Aza'zel's many fledglings, perhaps? He seemed to collect them--unless maybe he was breeding with the bones. She'd joked about it before, but there were so many birds, all with sharp claws and pointed beaks. Maybe... Maybe he was? Maybe Aza'zel was breathing life back into all the gems that sat in the old bones?

Giggle squinted at Ambrus, trying to hide her thought process of "is this eagle a hybridized bastard of the Bone King and his bones." It would hardly be polite to ask.

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Roll the bones.

@Ambrus

he couldn't help but give a small chuckle at her reaction, and as she spoke he nodded in return.
"i guess you're right,"
he spoke in regards to her claim he'd not need but electricity to shock others.
"my name is ambrus. mushroom magic?"
he peered around her to observe what she called her bone pit.
"do i get a bone pit too?"
he asked curiously, his head twisting to the side as he looked up at giggle.

he wondered if she knew of azazel, and knew that she was in bonebound territory. but if she had her own bone pit..surely she did, right? ambrus couldn't be certain, so he'd ask - without remorse and without second thoughts on being impolite.
"are you part of the bonebound?"
he straightened his posture to reflect pride.
"because if you didn't know, giggle, you're in the bonebound home."
his eyes closed now, acting as though regal and as if prince to azazel's throne. one could pretend, right?

@giggle

Giggle stared, for a long moment, her mind briefly frozen in bemusement at the pompous eaglet's sudden declaration. Then she burst into a peal of raucous, sharp cackles. It was brief, and when she stopped she was grinning at Ambrus, shoulders still shaking with amusement.

"Is it now, little bird-pup. I wouldn't have known; I'm only the Bone King's humble oracle. Bones know he doesn't tell me near enough as he should. For example, how he keeps spewing out bird-pup after bird-pup. And no, if you want a bone pit, go find your own; this one's mine," she added, still laughing.

"That said, it's hardly like we have a shortage of 'em, huh?" With another mischievous (or was that malicious? It might be hard to tell which glint lay in her dark eyes) glance at the eagle, she turned and looked pointedly around, gaze passing over the bone fortresses and piles that lay all around the cave.

At length, her gaze returned to the bird. "I'm sure Aza'zel will be happy with you protecting his territory," she said at last, trying (and only partly succeeding) in looking more serious. The corners of her mouth twitched in rogue smiles, and she did her best to suppress them; Ambrus was, after all, doing only what any good follower of his king might do.

"So. Tell me about this... shock magic." She abruptly changed topic, turning to sit and peer at Ambrus again, curious--and perhaps a little more polite.

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Roll the bones.

@Ambrus

the larger creature spoke, and ambrus eyed her before he couldn't help but laugh at his own accusation - which was entirely weightless. he chirped the chortle before he composed himself again and listened to the rest of the beast's words.
"good, now i won't have to kill you!"
he cawed half jokingly at the beast, fully prepared to take on any intruders. he'd have no problem tormenting anther as he did the wolf pup.

"no no, i wouldn't want your bone pile. i would much rather have my own, yes."
he observed with a scrutinizing eye the mountain she'd claimed as her own. he only gave it another glance before looking back to the beast who's cackles were relentless, and he was unsure if he should feel insulted or amused along with her.
she asked about his magic, and he was happy to display it so he braced himself, summoned his magic, and turned his attention on a stray rock so that she wouldn't feel the brunt of his shocking spell. he gave her one last look,
"okay brace yourself."
he said, as he attempting to charge the rock with static. a few sparks of electricity jumped from his body to the rock, his feather standing on end as the charge dissipated. he looked back to her, turning to face her once again.
"see? it shocks."
he smiled proudly.

@giggle

Giggle tilted her head, watching the sparks fly, the eagle's half-joking threat quickly forgotten (though it had, admittedly, amused her; he had a sense of humor, at least, unlike half the others that came here).

She glanced up, curious.

"Does it hurt? Does it cause you pain, and can it injure those you target it with?" Even wracking her brain, she couldn't remember anyone else she'd known who had used electricity as their power, their magic. She could see that Ambrus's feathers stood on end, as if charged, and wondered at the potential of such things.

Quickly, she shook the thoughts away. It was only polite to show him her own magic; so she quickly glanced around, then planted a paw down near her mushrooms. Their caps were a dull brown, their stems translucent white. "My magic is to grow fungus," she explained, glancing up at Ambrus. It would be nice to have an example, though the fungus didn't always comply, but she did cast out her magic, trying to touch the mycelia all around, to encourage it to grow and spread.

She looked back to Ambrus as she spoke, the fungus rippling up from the earth around her and spreading like a tiny brown forest into her pile, the mushrooms popping up and sprouting, growing, quick and visible to the naked eye.

"Some of the fungus makes you hallucinate; some will eat away at flesh until nothing but bone is left. And others will eat the flesh and bones of the dead, and show me what they have seen," she explained, while the fruits of her labor rippled and spread behind her.

She'd be lying if she had claimed that the success of her magic didn't please her, but she managed to keep her face neutral. Her magic was supposed to do this, after all, and "not failing" was hardly a reason to celebrate. And anyway, she didn't want to distract the eagle too much--she was still curious about his own magic, after all.

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Roll the bones.

@Ambrus

the eaglet's flightless wings fluttered and he hopped backward as the beast displayed her own, strange magic. he watched in awe as it grew, and listened as she explained it. he looked back at her with wide, gleeful eyes.
"wow! that's pretty cool. very weird,"
his voice trailed a bit, as he inched a bit closer, looking about before he responded to her previous inquiries.
"it feels a little weird to me, maybe a little numbing. sometimes i do feel it all the way, like when it's successful and i'm not exactly concentrating. but other times, i hardly feel the sparks at all. i know it zaps whatever it is i turn it on, i've used it in a spar just a few days ago."
he explained, as he looked at the larger creature with a wicked grin upon his beak. he wanted to show her more of his magic, so he found another rock, and placed it with his taloned limb just so, and about a foot away from him. he then summoned his magic yet again, pulling energy from his azurite gemstone as he attempted to charge the rock with an electrical current. not long after he'd summoned the charge spell, small sparks jumped from his body to the rock, before a faint line of electricity could be seen from the eagle to the rock. this was short lived, the line of light encasing the rock's outer shell before dissipating, as well as he released the spell. but even as he recovered, the rock seemed to maintain a faint charge. he heaved a sigh, as if he'd been holding his breath the entire time, and looked upon the creature.
"that's the other spell i know, it charges things. so if you touch that rock while the electricity is still going, you'll get zapped!"
he exclaimed happily.

@giggle

Giggle pondered this, eyeing Ambrus. She realized at once the value his magic could have, if it were improved upon, or rather, expanded on.

"It sounds useful. Keep working at it, eh?" she rasped, chuckling afterward. "It'd be nice to leave a nasty little trap in wait if another group comes after us."

She didn't say it, but she was thinking of the Merrymen. She was wondering what they'd do if they charged into the tunnel toward Canis only to get shocked to death on the rock below.

Giggle eyed the charged stone, debating placing a paw on it, to test the charge--to see what it felt like. But she thought better of it. She wasn't sure what it'd do, but intuitively she assumed it could be rather harmful.

Hm. Anyway...

She looked up again, eyeing Ambrus.

"So, do you live here, in Canis? How'd you meet Aza'zel?" she asked, eyeing Ambrus curiously.

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Roll the bones.

@Ambrus

he fluttered his temporarily useless wings, proud of his execution.
"yes, i practice a lot. i love my magic!"
he exclaimed happily. giggle then asked him where he lived, and how azazel found him, and he suddenly thought of clover and vicktor.
"well, when i hatched, azazel had found me. he invited me into the bonebound, so i assumed canis was my home. i do come here a lot, but not soon after a creature of light found me. she took care of me, gave me a wonderful gift, and showed me so many things in life i'd never thought i could ever see. she even introduced me to another baby - he has the same magic i do! his name is vicktor, and mom's name is clover. but they don't live here. and they aren't part of the bonebound."
he spoke solemnly, as if saddened that they weren't part of azazel's group. he wasn't even sure if they could be, or would want to be. but the little bird was torn, so he was sure he'd never have to choose between the lot of them. he enjoyed the bonebound, loved his canis home. but he also truly loved his mom and brother - and so, because the little eaglet was already as stubborn as an ox, he declared inwardly he'd never have to choose. whether that's true or not.

@giggle