ORIGIN - Serpents and Bones

Hunger drove it. Instinct. The need for more. The drive to find and kill and eat. It was all just a part of how a snake worked. Oddly enough, this place was a good spot for such a sight as a pale snake. The light colored earth and scattered bones were like the perfect home, particularly because of the other creatures that were small and edible. There was a trail here, similar to her own.

The Scorpion Queen followed the flicker of her tongue, keen eyes forever opened to the world. Movement from afar captured her focus and she began to crawl toward it. Pause. Tongue flick. It was a rat snake; perfection, as it was destined to be a preferred meal. It was as young as she was, but smaller. It slid after it's own prey, following a mouse into a massive pit of bones. Perfection. Perfection.

Stealthily, she crept forward, vibrations indicating the rat snake's success in capturing it's prey. Perfect timing. Perfection. She crawled between settled bones, eyes finding the back end of the occupied black snake. Closer, closer. She moved in, not too fast, steadily, carefully. When her tongue was almost able to flick across the back of her victim, she struck out, fangs stretching forward from her mouth.

This one was destined to fight back, immediately vomiting up what little of it's prey it had swallowed. It turned and latched back onto the white scales, drawing only a hint of blood before it's body weakened drastically. Even with it's mouth of curved teeth clinging, she began to devour. Tail first, of course, she walked her jaws along it's body. As it took it's final breaths, it's weakened bite fell apart and it's head rolled over, exposing a pale belly of it's own.

Perfection.

Egahi paused at the neck, taking a deep breath before swallowing down the final inches of the lesser snake. When it was down her throat, she stretched her mouth open, fangs wiggling as her jaw flexed awkwardly. Once, twice more she stretched before every joint was in it's proper place again. Tongue tested the air. Her head lifted and she crawled to the top layer of bones, only a portion of her upper body finding a place to rest while the remaining parts of her stayed hidden in the matching death.

Perfection.

OOC: No request for fortune, although not denied.
Words: 390
@Giggle

Mother-sister, I see something strange.

The impression was not through words, not exactly--just the sensation of faint confusion, of attention at something new. Giggle's senses perked, threading through the delicate link to her familiar, until she could see it: a white bone, far below, wriggling and consuming a darker one. The image was blurry, indistinct; it was viewed from far above, and through a single crimson eye, rendering it somewhat disorienting. Still, a moving bone...?

I see it, Omen, sister-bird. What does it mean?

The bird's faint confusion continued to touch her. It is no vision. It is real. The sense of insistence, of tension, translated into words.

The spotted hyena pushed herself up, padding down to where the Hallowed Caller perched. She looked up, gazing at the bird on its perch on the stone; then down, to the strange white bone that lay half-concealed in other bones.

A fact struck her immediately, and without thinking, without her sanity placing any sort of filter over her thoughts and words, she blurted it. In a masculine, hoarse voice, she spoke, and with the rough sense of indignation, of accusation.

"You're not a bone," she stated, dark eyes narrowed--as if this was the white creature's fault.

Was it a deceiver? Or merely something-like-a-bone, come to life...?

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ROLL THE BONES

@Egahi

Something approached. It wasn't massive, but it was there, creeping closer. Before too long, the vision of it came to view, followed by the creature's tone of accusation. Egahi lifted her head from the bone is had been resting on, tongue reaching out the catch the smells of the canine-beast that now stood nearby. Very new, very... dirty. Not dead, nor dying, but not in perfect health. What it was, Egahi didn't understand yet, but perhaps in time, she would.

Slowly, the serpent lifted herself up, a third of her body held her so she could be a little more... level, to the new company. "Bone, I am not. Egahi, I am," she spoke in silk, flicking her tongue when finished. It was as natural for her as blinking might be for any mammal. "What... are you?"

Egahi slide her body forward a bit, coiling it together. The movement caused some of the bones to shift, the hallow rap against each other like randomized music. The lump at her belly clenched at the digesting meal, black eyes watching Giggle with a small hint of suspicion about intent and safety.

----

"Speech."
Thoughts.

OOC: out of character
Tag: @Giggle

Giggle watched the snake with vague interest.

For a moment her urge was to lift it in her jaws, and deposit it quickly in the pile of bones. But it was already there, already a bone, a not-bone, a thing-like-a-bone, and so she shook herself and huffed.

"Giggle. Hyena. Bonecaster. Fortune-teller. Fungus-reader. You're like a bone, a bone, a wriggly-bone, a moving-bone, but you ate another one, didn't you? I saw it, bird saw it, I saw it through him. Do you bite? You have pretty colors," she added, moving her dark eyes over its slender pearlescent form.

If she'd known what pearls were--but she didn't. She knew only that it was white, and shiny, glossy in a way that reflected all the dim and fiery colors of Canis beautifully. It had a pink sheen, and the urge to lick it, to taste it, was no longer held back by any idea that it might be inappropriate. It was not even a consideration. But perhaps luckily for her, given the snake's venom, she forgot the impulse almost as quickly, her head following one of the glimmering reflections up to a light-orb.

"What is an, Egahi?"

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ROLL THE BONES

@Egahi

The words flew from the other's mouth and she was barely able to keep up with all the vibrating of the voice. In the end, though, she understood it all and her emotionless face seemed to actually contemplate something for a moment. Do I bite? Well, of course. However, it depends. She lowered herself down a couple inches, flick flick.

"I bite... when... necessary. Food. Protection." She stared up at Giggle, wishing she could smile or something. "Thank you... you are... also... pretty."

Egahi looked up and around, trying to stop the aforementioned bird. She spotted it on a perch above, then flickered her useful tongue at it. Slowly, her gaze dropped back to Giggle, the question inquired amusing her. "Egahi is... my name. Egahi is... a... King Cobra."

——————

"Speech."
Thoughts.

OOC: out of character
Tag: @Giggle

Giggle listened, large rounded ears pricking forward.

Pretty? No. I'm not pretty. Or am I? What is pretty? Bones are pretty. This thing--this she this cobra--she is pretty.

Before the thought could grip her much more, it had slid away, slippery. Her mind lost it, and she was left with empty blankness, the beautiful pearl-white snake laying before her. She lay down before it, a couple feet away, thick black muzzle laid on large paws. What would it do? She waited to see. To see what it was about, what it would do.

What if it does something?

This thought, spiked with fear, sent her leaping and scurrying back, bone-thin body trembling briefly. Panic rose in her, threatening to overwhelm, and immediately she felt a loud, soothing presence in her mind.

It's okay, sister-mother. Be calm. Not words--but thoughts. Reassurance. She paused, one paw dangling midair, and instead of fleeing the snake, she eyed it again. She had a brief, disorienting sense of looking at Egahi from two angles at once--her own, and the higher perch of Omen.

For a long, awkward moment, she found herself wondering what the hell the snake had even said, a minute ago--her mind was too fleeting, too frantic.

Egahi is a king cobra.

"Kingcobra. I have not met a Kingcobra. I like you. I think. Unless you bite me. Then I will eat you," she tried, halfheartedly curling a lip in a meagre snarl. It was a threat born of fear, a fear she'd never really held before, and suddenly her old warmer nature shoved forward, shouldering her fear aside to speak with more clarity.

"I'm sorry. I--... Something bad happened and I'm not thinking straight anymore. Wavy thinking. Like snakes," she added, and found herself satisfied with this explanation.

After a moment's thought, she added a piece of advice. "Don't let the black eat you. It's very dark and empty and you can't die, and it's terrifying." Ears pricked up once more, and the ragged hyena found herself quietly sitting to face the white snake, again.

It's white. It ate dark. It is a bone, come to life. And just like that, the broken-minded hyena had ascribed sacred qualities to the cobra. With a gaze almost approaching awe, she slid back down to lay before Egahi, head once more on her paws--awaiting her words.

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ROLL THE BONES

@Egahi