ORIGIN

"I can see you."

The hyena grinned, flopping her rump down on the dull red-brown rock. She seemed to be speaking to the bones--the piles upon piles of bones just beneath the dipped-down roof where it nearly reached the floor in Canis's center.

This was where she had come to practice her magic some days ago, and now she had returned, pushing the bones here and there with her paw and snout, grinning at them.

"I know you're showing me..."
She pushed a bone again, tilting her head--then snatched one up, and clambered over and up a nearby boulder. Turning, the spotted hyena tossed it with her jaws, carefully, watching as it clattered into the pile--scattering ribs and vertebrae all over.

Then, she watched, carefully, picking out shapes and sizes with her dark gaze, intent on the bones. Dropping down from her place on the boulder, no longer grinning, she paced slowly around the bone pile.

There, those three ribs, there. I see ice. Stone. There is no growth, here--it is solid. Unchanging.

She drew closer, sniffing down, careful not to touch the ribs that speared upward toward her. And then she moved on, circling, circling...

Fire. Those, there--the hoof, and the vertebrae. It snapped into place and she saw flames as clear as if they burned before her. Changes had to be made--destruction, disruption, if the place was to grow. Else it would remain cold and bare as stone and bones.

Giggle giggled softly as she prowled, staring down. Still circling.

Antlers. A great stag's antlers. But what does this mean?

Oh, it meant protection--that she knew. But in what form? Giggle sat, staring down at the bones, pondering quietly the meaning of a stag's branched antlers. A strong offense and defense, intertwined? Readiness for battle? Or something more?

Giggle sat, alone, blind to all but the bones before her.

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Roll the bones.

Giggle peered up at the sound of a bird approaching, and was understandably surprised to note that, instead, it was a lioness. For a brief instant some faint, instinctive disgust, even hatred, flickered through her. An instant later she'd shaken it away, and was peering curiously at this newcomer.

"I see the bones," she answered, voice hoarse and gruff--particularly for a female, and one so young. Her eyes narrowed slightly, and she peered slyly at the lioness, eyeing her over. "Who are you? Why do you sound of birds? Would you like to see...? Maybe Giggle sees--maybe I see for you, yes? The bones, they show what will be. I can see your future, cat, if you wish?"

Giggle eyed the lioness, and then leaned one paw down to kick aside a bone. She watched it carefully as it scattered a few more, watching the way they spun and caught the light, the way they landed, the way they rocked as they settled. And then she looked to Makyna, again.

"They say you follow your dreams. They show desire. What is it you want? What do you want to see? You can ask them anything, you know." This last came with a hint of almost childlike enthusiasm, the hyena trotting down a bit to stand closer to the lioness, peering at her curiously.

What else might the bones know about this strange creature?

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Roll the bones.

Oh, so she wants to know about her love life--what a young and silly thing.

Never mind that Giggle was a grand total of two or three weeks old; the spotted hyena held some deep-seated, instinctive disdain for the lioness that she was struggling to overcome. But she just smiled, toothy and broad, turning to lift a large, heavy femur in her powerful jaws--one scored and scarred already by her fangs. She carried it up the slope and set it down between her paws.

"She wishes to know of matters of the heart, yes? You, Makyna, Song-Cat and Song-Bird. Cat-cat, singer of songs, ha!"

Giggle chortled, then fired a grin at Makyna that was borderline unpleasant, before tossing the bone forward off the boulder. It crashed into the other bones, sending a couple flying clear off over the stone, the rest scattering and bouncing off of one another. Meanwhile, Giggle was murmuring--almost a chant.

"The bird of cats, the cat of birds, singing song without her words... Notes so sweet, and eyes so blue--" and Giggle glanced up almost maliciously at Makyna again--"She asks to know which love is true."

Giggle eyed the bones, and then let out a distinctly unpleasant cackle, before sitting down--still perched up on her boulder--and peering down at Makyna.

"There has been battle, they say. Scarred bones for victory. Broken, for sacrifices made." Giggle looked down at the bones, grinning. "But now it stays as it is, and is as it stays, and it grows cold, does it not? --The bones show ice again, bird-cat Makyna, do you know what is ice, what ice is? ...Ice is as it is, as it stays, as it will be. The heat leaks away. It is cold." The hyena nodded forward, down toward a few rib bones at the far end that seemed stacked over one another rather haphazardly, having tumbled that way from the bone casting. Her voice grew softer.

"Ice is stagnation--but then... comes fire. And what is fire... it destroys the old, yes, yes... it is passion. Heat. Warmth. And it chaaaaaaanges!" She broke into a peal of chittering laughter, harsh and somehow menacing, at odds with her words. "And fire has light, yes? It shows what you did not see, before. It will be cold, and still, bird-cat--and then it will change, and be warm and bright, and you will know a truth that you cannot see now. Not from the ice. Wait for the fire to come. You will see."

Giggle nodded, utterly sure of herself, and proud. She waited to see what the bird-singing cat Makyna would say to this.

And she'd better like it, too. These bones are precious to me.

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Roll the bones.

Giggle watched the lion, watched her quail back slightly, and it filled her with bloodthirsty triumph. Pride. Faint, but noticeable enough. She didn't let it show too much, didn't let it affect her actions--the bones were bones, all were equal in death. This, she knew without thought, just as she knew that it was not her place to judge those who might come to hear what the bones had to say.

"Fire? Friend? ...Perhaps. The bones will tell. Crack a bone and there is blood inside, or nothing. See? See?"

But the grinning hyena, turning to the bones, did not crack one. Instead she trotted down and lifted another in her teeth, tossing it forward. A few of them scattered and landed crossways, one over the other, like X's piled on. Giggle looked over them solemnly, contemplating, and then lifted her gaze to the Song-Cat, Makyna.

"I ask of the fire and the bones show cross-ways. Where things cross, there are paths crossing. Where things cross, there are exchanges. A gift given, received. A partnership. Your fire is your friend. Your enlightenment will come with the light itself." Giggle pondered, briefly, her tone and expression somewhat more solemn, now. She looked back to the bones, and then to Makyna. "You ask what will come after the cold and the ice and the stillness. It will take time. But his fire, the fire-friend, his will be your beacon. Song-Cat."

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Roll the bones.

Giggle nodded slightly to the lioness as she spoke, and watched as Song-Cat turned tail and fled shortly thereafter. She wasn't sure quite why the cat had made off so quickly, but she supposed it had been some uncomfortable truth or other revealed to her through the bones.

She grinned unpleasantly at the lioness's back. The creature was ill-at-ease, and she herself had done only her promised work. She was rather pleased with this. Really, one couldn't ask for more--but what was this?

She tilted her head as a lamb bounced up to her, all cheer and goodwill, introducing himself and questioning her with bright eyes and even brighter tone. She snorted softly, and smirked, both slightly softened, and slightly hungrier.

"I am telling fortunes in the bones, sharp-footed-thing, happy thing. I am Giggle. Hello." She tilted her head, eyeing the lamb over. She could use more practice with it, really, with the bonecasting. "Would you like me to tell you your future, fluffy-happy-sharp-footed-thing? ...Wynry?"

What a silly creature. But I wonder, if his future is quite so silly.

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Roll the bones.