ORIGIN

The spotted hyena had slept the hours away--snoring rather loudly--at the base of a rock wall. The light didn't quite reach the particular patch of stone she had chosen, and that's why she had chosen it; she was finding it rather hard to rest in the pools of shifting, flickering light that the strange hanging orbs offered.

She'd noticed that the cave had been feeling warmer, too, since her hatching. The cool dark was a pleasant relief, and she'd slept well.

Now, with a stretch and a fang-baring yawn, the hyena woke.

Refreshed. Good. Much magic practice.

Actually, it would be best to get right back on it--the faster she practiced, the faster she'd learn, and the stronger she would get. Giggle stood, turning and yawning again, splaying out oversized paws to stretch her legs--and then paused, blinking blearily at the wall.

There were patterns, there, over where the light caressed the rock. Flowing patterns, but regular--not natural. Carved?

Giggle moved closer at once, peering up at the carvings--and then she began to slowly walk backwards staring upward with dawning awe at the wall against which she'd slept.

The whole wall-... It's covered.

She couldn't make out specifics, but it was clear that the carvings were meant to be scenes of some kind, and that they were vast and seemed interlinking, or at least close to it. But they were worn, mysterious.

The young hyena moved quickly forward again, and leaned up, placing one paw lightly against the rock, just at the junction of light and shadow. Curious, she extended her senses. She could grow fungus--she was linked to it, to the rot, the decay. She sensed the interlinking, twisting energies between herself and it--and she wondered, now, if she might see what it saw.

She wasn't thinking of this in words, precisely--just a vague notion that there was likely fungal growth all around, and that maybe it might know what these drawings were. Maybe there was life, or rot, or something hot or cold or who-knew-what, in the lines of these strange carvings.

Giggle felt her mind and senses slip into all of the nearby mycelial growth, though she couldn't pinpoint any of it to direct it. Instead, she just projected herself into all of it, falling into a blank-eyed trance as she tried to use this connection to learn more about what lay before her.

________________

Roll the bones.

Layers upon layers of mycelial activity will activate in Giggle's mind's eye. They interweave across the surface of the carvings, thriving in the once darkness, thriving for many an ancient year. These fungi are incredibly old, but that is likely the only thing Giggle will be able to derive from the carved wall.

Giggle lifted one paw, touching its warm pads to the wall for a time as she tried to feel and see from the fungi's perspective. But she could grasp nothing--nothing other than that it was all very old, very ancient, older than she could even comprehend. How?

Giggle slowly folded her hindquarters beneath her to sit, thinking. She had not thought that the dark-death-growth lived so very long.

She would ask the bones, later, what it all meant, but for now... Perhaps she could find someone with stronger magic to come and investigate with her. Or maybe someone else would happen along. For now, she simply sat and thought, regarding the strange carved markings on the wall with burning curiosity.

"I will learn you," she said quietly. Poorly-phrased, but then, she was young. And she meant it quite literally: she would learn the wall, eventually, learn what it meant, what its secret, hidden meanings were. She eyed the markings over, trying her best to memorize them, pondering over what it all meant.

________________

Roll the bones.

Giggle paced down to one of the nearby puddles of stagnant water that was beginning to pool in the divots of Canis's stone floor. Here she lapped, large round ears rotating as she listened about.

She glanced down into the water, and stopped, letting the ripples settle; and here, backlit by the strange hanging light-orbs, she eyed her own reflection.

So this is what I look like.

She tilted her head this way and that, then brought up a paw to gently poke at the water-mirror. It rippled again, breaking the image, but she'd seen herself, now, for the first time--predatory, dark-eyed, scruffy and ungainly, matted here and there with mud.

She liked it.

The spotted hyena turned, picking her way down the path of stone to a pile of bones and rocks nearer the wall, once more. She sniffed at the ancient fungus, and thought to herself. What might it be good for? She immediately turned tail and trotted off up the slope.

She gathered up a bone, one with rotted gore still clinging rankly to the off-white, and dropped it--turning it with one paw--so it was propped against the carving's fungus. If she could learn this fungus, incorporate it into her magic, perhaps she could use it? And it was ancient, so it might well be powerful.

Huffing through her cheeks, she focused, trying to draw the ancient growth down and over the bone, to see if it fed from flesh--and if it would have any other effect at all.

An instant after the attempt, she had stark misgivings. Something did not feel right. In fact, something felt very, very wrong...

________________

Roll the bones.

Lurking mycelia would certainly spread from the ancient walls to the pale and bare bone lying on the floor with the aid of magicka. Small mushrooms would begin to sprout from the bone, quickly covering it in sanguine caps. Unfortunately, there's an unintended side effect to the hyena who offered her magicka. Giggle would likely suffer a headache and perhaps a nosebleed from the spell, leaving her vulnerable for a few minutes. The mushrooms spewed a rotten and acrid odor into the air, resembling that of carrion.

Nearby, a group of stones shifted, but they were not stones, but living flesh and blood. One of the strange creatures lifted it's head, giving a sharp screech. A feathered crest rose from its head and the being moved from the group, slitted eyes scrutinizing the hyena standing next to what was a meal to it. The other three creatures shfited and moved, giving abrupt squeaks and roars. A squad of raptor-like beasts now stood, eyes trained on the Gembound. It was as if they were daring Giggle to try and touch the bone. The few options that the hyena has is to flee, stand her ground, or fight the raptor-like creatures that now stared her down.

Giggle's head swam. The world was spinning, her head was aching--was that the rock floor twisting up to meet her?

Oof.

She struck the ground, then immediately struggled up, blinking and panting. She smelled something acrid, something coppery, and heard the soft drip like that of the thin rivulets of water that trickled down the cave wall in places like tendrils.

It's blood, she realized. And close on the heels of that, It's my blood.

Grimacing, trying to quickly gauge how badly she was hurt, she sat upright, swaying slightly.

It was then that the rocks moved, feathers flicking up, her pained head ringing with strange screeches and squawks. But birds could not come out of the stone. Could they? Not unless they were newly-born, and these had unfolded, not emerged. She eyed them, her vision swimming, focusing, twinning, focusing again. They looked fierce, she realized at once--yet they reminded her of Aza'zel, somehow.

Giggle realized three things simultaneously. First, that she was very likely hallucinating. Second, that if she was not, a single one of these creatures could kill her with ease--let alone three. Third, that there was no way--particularly in her dazed, pained state--that she could outrun them.

Instead, she tried to ready herself for a fight she could never win, while at the same time appearing non-confrontational in every way. She lowered her head slightly, puffing herself up a bit, watching the bird-lizard-things without glaring. She spoke, trying to keep the waver out of her voice--trying to sound confident--while at the same time readying herself for the only sprint she could make, should they come at her. She'd try for the pool of water, if they came for her, and she would call for help as she went--it was her only chance, but even then, she did not doubt that they could swim.

For now, though, she spoke, trying to appear perfectly reasonable.

"...Hello. I am Giggle-hyena. Are you bird?"

She was very hesitant, very cautious, and still aware that it might be hallucination--but it wouldn't do to assume as much, and then be ripped to shreds. Giggle fought back the pain and haze, trying to focus on saving her own life.

________________

Roll the bones.

Four sets of raptorial eyes would watch Giggle carefully, dinosaur-like feet scraping at the floor in anticipation. The alpha of the group would stare the hardest, giving a low growl. It seemed that the group did not like that the hyena was not backing away from what smelled like a meal and resembled it. Slitted nostrils flared, and the creatures began to close the distance. The introduction of words meant nothing to the ancient beasts, for they had forgotten language long ago. To them, it had sounded like a threat.

Without any warning, the leader of the squad began to rush forth, running on tip-toes. The other three would follow, all fanning out to the right in strategy. Their intent is to corner the hyena into turning back from the bone and allowing the hungry scavengers to get to the mushroom-covered bone.

POST ATTEMPT;;

The creature furthest right in the group and up ahead would fail to simply run. With the excitement of a hunt, the raptor-like beast tripped over it's own feet. The other two would collapse over the first, leaving a pile of very angry creatures kicking and screeching at one another. The only one left standing was the alpha, who'd shake his head and continue to approach the bone, determination lighting his eyes and a low growl rumbling through his throat.

Giggle startled as the raptors suddenly geared up to charge her--and then slowly blinked, staring bemusedly as they tumbled one upon the other in a tangled pile of limbs.

Well, then.

Still, she had no desire to confront them, and instead, she slowly backed off, lowering her head. Something primal was shimmering within her--some instinct of the hyena defending her kill. But the bone wasn't her kill, and those mushrooms only smelled like food. What were they, really?

Giggle backed away a few more paces, head low as if bowing it slightly, slightly crouched and ready to run. She wondered if they wouldn't attack her? Were they only after that bone? It did smell tantalizing, but her concern wasn't with food so much as with preserving some of that strange fungus for testing. It might come in handy, later. It might turn out to be important. It might, too, hold hidden knowledge. She could try to grow it, to get a bit of it lodged and seeded in the stone below for long enough for the strange bird-lizards to leave... but was it worth the risk? If they sensed her casting magic, they might attack her, anyway, assuming her spell was threatening. And then again, she was weary and injured from her last spell.

Giggle hesitated, and considered, head still low, still backing slowly away, turning her body obliquely to the beasts so as to make it clear she was presenting no threat, no challenge. But she wasn't a hyena for nothing, and her cunning mixed with her ravenous desire for power and knowledge trumped something so silly as a headache, or a nosebleed. Or, apparently, another pack of vicious predators.

I -really- hope I'm hallucinating. And if I'm not, please let this work....

She kept on moving backwards, careful not to get between the bird-lizards and their bone--and at the same time, subtly, cautiously, she tried her best to grow some of the red stuff down into the cracks of the stone, where--she hoped--the raptors couldn't reach it. She found herself exceedingly weak from the incident a few moments before, from the backfired spell and the residual burn of rebelling magic, but she felt that she could manage... barely.

________________

Roll the bones.

The leader of the group slowed his charge as Giggle would back away, watching with wary eyes. Sharp canines were bared and the raptor-like beast stalked forth. The surging mass of limbs and fury would spread out and the three that had fallen soon stalked toward the mushroom at first. They knew little of magic, so it did not hinder their course toward the bone--or what they thought was a meal--and to primal delight.

With sharp canines, the alpha was first to attempt tearing into the 'flesh' on this bone, but quickly spit out a mass of mushrooms with a loud hiss. The other three did not even dare to try the strange meal, instead whipping their heads toward the hyena and staring with wild eyes. If they could not find something that was already dead, they'd find something that was living to hunt.

Giggle froze, and her instincts kicked in. Again the image of water flashed powerfully through her mind, and she did three things in very quick succession, fear threatening to eclipse all rational thought.

First, she let out the most god-awful racket this side of Origin Cave, a tangled cacophony of shrieking cackles and alarmed shouts for aid. She knew, somehow, from the most primal of memories, that a bluff and loud noise might work--that they wanted food, and if she appeared dangerous, and not-food, they might not attack. If all else failed, then maybe at least the noise would hurt their ears for a moment, give them pause. But she also knew that there was little chance of this working, so she interspersed her alarm calls.

"FOOOOOOOD? AHAHA-ahaha-HAHA HA! AZA'ZEL? AHA! ANYONE?!" Second, she bared all her teeth in a fearsome grimace, lowering her head still further and starting to quickly back away. She hoped to look like she wanted no part in a fight, but would bite back if necessary--and hard. But truth be told she was worn thin, exhausted and still somewhat dazed from before. She fought back the sense of futility that struggled to grip her, and focused as best she could.

Water. Go.

Third--and she didn't see how water could possibly help her, but it was the image that lanced through her thoughts again and again--she began to back very quickly toward the water. She'd simply walk backwards, until the raptors charged--if they did--at which point she'd turn tail and run, galloping at full speed directly into the small pool a few yards back. Here she'd tuck tail and start whirling this way and that, snapping jaws at any of the creatures that might get too close... if she made it that far to begin with.

Either way, if the bird-lizards went for the attack, she'd have to think of something else--and quick.

________________

Roll the bones.