ORIGIN

Liora was getting to know every inch of this cave, at least, this one room that her family lived in, and she had come to find that the bone piles were her most favored feature of it. Much like her ruddy coloured father, with his powerful beak and feathery legs and massive wings, the girl liked to play among the bones. She enjoyed picking them up in her gemstone beak and crunching them in half. A lot of them were old and dusty - hell, a good majority of them seemed to crumble into dust when she touched them, but that was fine. Some of them were fresher, some fresh enough that when she picked them up and cracked them open, they still had the stale remnants of marrow lodged deep inside. That was a rare occurrence, however, considering the majority of the bones and how truly old they all were.

One new trick she had learned from her big father was picking up bones, carrying them into the air, and dropping them. It wasn't hard to shatter the older ones, and the bigger bones seemed to break easier than smaller ones. It was a concept she was coming to learn very well: the bigger they are, the harder they fall, the more they break. So at this very moment, the hybrid was playing a game of how many bones can I break until I get bored? Starting off from the pile of bones, Liora rustled around the fortress, using one taloned foot to dig around. She shuffled through them, toxic white eyes pouring over the treasures as she kicked away anything small and undesirable. Once she found a big chunk of calcified remains, the bird lowered her head and gripped its knobby end with her beak, wriggling it free. It came loose after a few sharp tugs, causing the bones around it to collapse inward. Liora crowed her delight and hoisted the bone up high, hobbling around to face the great expanse of the cave. Extending her wings, she took to the air.

She still didn't know how to hold the reigns on her magic - it often got the better of her, and most of the time she didn't even realize when she cast it. It was the wind lifting beneath her wings and a surge of speed that pushed her through the air, and for once, she flew gracefully as though she wasn't an awkward gangly baby birb. She wheeled around the bone fortresses, looking for a prime spot to deposit the bone - when the floor suddenly opened up into a clearing, Liora circled it a few more times, flapping higher into the air before letting the bone go. As soon as she released it, Liora dipped to the side and watched the bone crash into the ground, shattering into a few dusty grey shards. The sound and the sight pleased her enough to draw a cheerful chitter from her throat, then she turned to make her way back to her bone pile in search of another.

Liora had nearly left the scene until a raucous craw had echoed out, startling her nearly out of her damn feathers. The girl snapped her gaze back to where she had dropped the bone and realized that the open space hadn't been, well, as open as she thought. Wheeling back around, she realized very quickly that a dark shadow had taken to the air and was now furiously flapping in an attempt to catch up to her. Liora sailed around in another circle, gaze locked on her father with an amused grin spread upon her beak. "Would a tiny bone break daddy's back? Krakrak!" She called back, making her way back towards the bone pile. Granted she was exaggerating a little - the bone was actually pretty big, but she wondered if it really would have harmed her father if it landed on him. Probably not. They both had the same flair for theatrics and exaggeration.

Making her way back to the bone pile, Liora landed with a loud crash, sending a spray of bones as she did. She cocked her head back up to her father, waiting for him to join her. "Find me a good bone! Let's drop it on people's heads!" She chortled.

Her father continued to exaggerate the probability of his death had she actually dropped the bone on his head, prompting her to really think about it. Sure, she'd considered it when he brought it up, but she just shrugged it off. Now he sounded pretty insistent that it could have killed him. Her morbid curiosity wondered deeply if it was true - she had half a mind to try it out sometime and see what would happen if she did drop a huge bone on him. But she wouldn't, because if he actually ended up getting hurt, Liora knew that everyone would be mad at her. And she'd probably feel some guilt too. A little. For the most part, through, accidentally hurting or even killing Krakarak would probably sour her chances of becoming the King of the Bonebound in the future. And besides, though Liora lacked understanding of the permanence of death, she knew from Mau's recent demise that it wasn't a very good thing.

Once she landed in the bone pile and cocked her head up, twisting it to look at her father, she parted her beak in a wide smile as he quickly warmed up to the idea of dropping bones on peoples heads. She chortled loudly and ruffled her feathers, tromping around in the bones in search of a good one. Before long, Krakarak had found one and promptly delivered it to her, piquing Liora's interest. As soon as he suggested dropping it on Kerberos' head, the girl's eyes lit up. Bright, white predatory eyes looked simply aglow with amusement. Yes, she adored this idea very much. Kerberos, from her perspective, was pretty dangerous. She didn't really consider him a friend, even though she'd seen him be pretty protective over Ashtoreth. To her, though, three heads meant three sets of teeth - and she didn't want to risk getting gobbled up.

If they were flying though... Liora's gaze twinkled with mischief. "Yes! Drop on Kerberos' heads! Krakaw! Which one? Which one?" The bird crowed, hopping around her father. Her excitement mounted; she leaned forward and clipped her beak on the bone, trying to extract it from her father's clutches first so that she could fly it over to Kerberos.

She nabbed the bone with ease, though it wasn't that hard after her father had taken to the air. With the bigger bone in her beak, she stepped back and hopped on the bone pile, spreading the calcified remains beneath her weight while her wings fanned out excitedly at her sides. So it was that they would drop the bones on all three of his heads, and Krakarak had relinquished the big bone to her while he would take the smaller ones. Her eyes lit up, her beak cracked open wide in a crowish grin. The bone in her beak tumbled to the pile, but she was quick to grab it with her foot again, now hopping mostly on one leg. "ALLA DEM! ALLA DEM!" She mimicked after her father and chortled, jumping up and hovering with a few beats of her own heavy wings.

Enamored with their plan, Liora dutifully followed her father. She soared after him with the thick bone clutched in her talons, wings spread in a powerful berth at her sides. One beat, two, pushing her through the great bone cave until she had spied the white cerberus. She gave no second thought to whatever he was doing; keeping high enough out of reach, Liora cawed her amusement in hopes of garnering his attention. If he looked up, maybe she could peg him right in the snout!

Post-Roll Edit:
Her shadow rippled swiftly over him and she released the bone from her grasp, lobbing it at the hellhound. It hit its target, colliding with a THWACK square on the forehead of the dog's middle skull. She cackled loudly and veered away, rising to the ceiling where she would hopefully avoid his wrath.

She heard the three-headed canine suddenly wake and ask who was there, but the air was quickly overwhelmed with the sound of her father's loud, crowing derisive laughter. She pitched to the side and circled back around to see him, laughing alongside him. But she hadn't intended to stick around - now that they'd deposited their bones on the cerberus' head (or thereabouts), they had to retreat back to the bone piles. "KRAKAW! BONES FOR THE BONE DOG!" She sang, fluttering above her father then turning and soaring away again, making her return to the bone pile.