ORIGIN

'Too many questions!’ the hyena snapped at her, and Flicker sat down in shock, her rump simply falling to the floor. She listened, open-mouthed, as Giggle muttered about… the other dark, where nothing was alive, and bones, and how she read them. Something about the way she spoke was hypnotizing. Terrifying, but hypnotizing all the same. And suddenly Flicker felt bad for asking her personal questions. She had to learn to keep that shit to herself. Even for one as young as this pup, she could tell that something awful had happened to Giggle, yet she was trying to talk to her about it. What if Giggle asked her to talk about that time with the goose, and how the bird had made her cry and made her feel worthless? She wouldn’t like Giggle for that. So maybe she just needed to shut up now and not ask anymore questions.

“S-sorry,” she stammered, unsure of how to make this situation better now that she’d riled the hyena up so much. “I didn’t mean… I shouldn’t have asked.” Her ears fell flat along her head and she looked down at her paws. She didn’t feel bad enough to cry or anything, but she definitely felt like she’d crossed a line. “Do you… want me to go? I could understand if you didn’t want to talk anymore.” There. Maybe her apology would be good enough…

Giggle huffed, flopping her rump bonelessly down to sit beside her bone pile.

She was used to others asking for readings, from the bones--to see their futures; and that she did without question. But merely to talk..? She had not done that in many cycles.

She wasn't sure she still knew how.

For a moment, the hyena wracked her brain for what could possibly be deemed polite conversation. It seemed, to her, an overarcing concern that the lights were off--the dark, for her, eclipsed all other topics. She thought, and thought, and tried, and focused.

"Were you," she began, slowly and needing to think over each word--"hatched out among the bones? Do you come from here, from this place; or do you come from somewhere else, beyond?"

Her voice was deep, but her tone, hesitant. She was trying to be polite, friendly. She was not aiming to chase the stranger off, not exactly; but she couldn't bear its prying, biting questions. A conversation, though-... that, she supposed, she could try.

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ROLL THE BONES

Giggle had sat down too, Flicker noticed, which… at least that meant the hyena wasn’t so upset as to become hostile. There was an awkwardly long silence in which the coyote pup wondered if she should just get up and leave. But then… Giggle asked her some questions. Flicker raised her head fully, eyebrows arching in surprise. “O-oh,” she said, because, honestly, she was just so surprised that the hyena had decided to talk to her. “Um, I come from somewhere that’s not like this place at all, but I don’t think it’s too far away. It has… white specks on the ceiling, but they’re hard to see cos it’s dark. And… lots of old stone structures. But I got bored there cos there weren’t that many Gembounds around, so I came here to see if anything was different.” She looked around for a moment, wondering if that had been a good enough answer. “Where—

She’d been about to ask where Giggle came from, but obviously, she already knew. She came from… some creepy place that she didn’t like to talk about. Flicker didn’t know, of course, that Giggle hadn’t always been in the “other dark.” She cleared her throat, hoping Giggle hadn’t caught the beginning of that question. She didn’t want to set the hyena off again. “Sooo… who’s the bird?” she asked, by way of distraction.

Giggle turned, listening. She knew the place--knew the cave; it wasn't too far from here. She'd been there, once--what was it for? Helping Bonebound with something, she thought? Going to Pisces to help... To help with something there.

She huffed quietly.

"I remember. I have seen the sparkles above. The bird is an ally. The bird is an Omen. She is my sister and my daughter and she came to me in the dark place, and she is in my mind, and I in hers."

"And I in hers," the Hallowed Caller mimicked near-perfectly. It bobbed its head up and down, then turned, leaping into the bone pile with a flutter of wings and picking about for any insects that had strayed within.

"And why do you come here, thing-from-the-outside? Why do you travel? What do you seek?"

Giggle turned to watch her--curious, if distantly so, mind drifting along half-elsewhere.

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ROLL THE BONES

The coyote did not answer further, and Giggle was not sure what to make of this. She was not, however, bothered for very long; the creature didn't want her bones read, after all.

With a short and quiet cackle, the hyena turned and stalked off into the darkness, rattling the bones beneath her feet as she went.

The Hallowed Caller flew above her.

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ROLL THE BONES