ORIGIN - 010

Makyna had taken Quix, so now Cancer was free to travel once more. He headed for that dead cave he'd strayed from, suspicious. Krak had told him about how he lived in a cave of bones, and Azazel was the Bone King of the Bonebound. Surely that meant that Canis, which smelled of death and decay, was their homestead? He'd head there next, sure that Krak or Aza weren't likely to be there at the same time at this point. The cub made quick time following his map, and in less than a day's travel, he reached his destination. With a sigh, he'd pushed through the deathly tunnel and into Canis proper. The sight that met him, surprised him. There were bones everywhere. The adolescent nearly retched, gagging but not following through as he stepped lightly into the cave. It stank here. Dead things everywhere. He'd not stay very long.

But for now, he'd have to at least mark the cave on his map. The leopard sat in the entry, sure that Aza'zel wouldn't mind his being there after the reconnection they'd had in the carving hall. He cast out Red Sense...

...and while the image that came back to him was fuzzy and a blurr of movement, faint from so few lives in the cave, he noted a few larger life signs and while the image still lingered in his head, he got to work etching his tablet to be accurate. Map addition finished, he slipped the stone slab back into his pouch and looked up to see if anyone had noticed him yet. No? Okay, well, maybe this would help. The leopard opened his mouth and roared, calling in a much more feline cry for someone to come meet him, and give him some company- or perhaps a tour.

Giggle stirred, looking up from her bone pile and around the room. What had that horrific mewling squall been? She shuddered, shaking out her spotted shaggy coat (smeared here and there with gore and dirt), then stood and crept to her tall boulder. Scowling to herself, unsure if it'd been a cry of hostility or one for help, she cast her own senses out. Along the creeping fungus her mind crept, slipping into the local mycelial growth... and then she was lost in it, her mind tumbling and falling away. All she could see was a blur of darkness, all she could hear was the eternal whisper of the mushrooms slowly spreading and growing, at an infinitesimal rate. She gasped and shrieked, letting out a chorus of panicked and shrill cackles one after another, falling back to writhe on the floor.

She'd only used the mushrooms to 'see' once or twice, so the fact that it could backfire was new to her. The hyena thrashed and cackled, kicking bones as she flailed, unable to even get to her feet. Her own senses had been stolen away and left her with only the mushrooms to guide her--for now, at least. It was wearing off, albeit slowly, and in the meantime she was easy prey for anything that might come for her.

If, that is, it was brave enough to approach the flailing, shriek-cackling, gore-caked hyena lying in the pile of bones.

She could only hope, with the vague shred of her mind that she had left, that her senses would fully return.

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Roll the bones.

Cancer leapt nearly out of his skin as the cave suddenly broke into chaotic screeching and cackling. He'd never heard such a sound before, by he knew the tone all too well- panic. Pain. Dead center, he spotted the movement first, then cringed when he saw what the movement was. She was flailing so much, he knew what that meant, and knew all too well what had just happened. It had gotten him twice before, those blinding sensory snap-backs. He did the only thing he could think of- magical glow of candy red overtook his horns and eyes, and he focused, hard, on the thrashing dog-thing. He found that bubbling, horrible feeling again, and felt her pulse, sharp and quick- and then he'd hold it, but gently. He felt the strain of his focused use of such a spell in the back of his head, and gradually, after pinning the hyena down, he'd let her go, inch by inch returning her blood flow to normal, slowing her heart in turn. Essentially, he'd put a stopper on that panic attack, and dull her nerves in doing so. Hopefully, that would be enough, and as he released her, he fell back, almost blinded by the strain and migraine that threatened behind his ears and eyes, even as the glow of his magic vanished.

Then, sure that he'd done enough, he approached her.

"That was me, don't freak out again. It's just magic. You had a snap-back. Happens sometimes with sensory spells. You okay now?" His voice was strong, confident, but calm and reassuring. He felt real concern for the spotted creature. She wasn't doing anything wrong prior to stepping out and seizuring. He hadn't meant to startle anyone into casting magic! "I'm called Cancer, and I'm a friend of Aza'zel's. Are you okay?"

Giggle felt abruptly... slower, as if the world was slowing down around her. Was she dying? She could still feel the shivering adrenaline coursing through her. But her body sagged to the floor, her senses still gradually pulling free of the mycelial growth.

But first things first... Is this damage permanent?

She tested her senses, and found that, when she opened dark eyes, she could see again. Her hearing was returning, too, albeit slowly, and ringing--and she could hear a voice, speaking. She listened, slowly pulling herself to her feet, breathing heavily.

No, the damage wouldn't be permanent, or at least she didn't think so. She sat, again slowly, body a bit sore already from the writhing, eyeing this newcomer as he spoke. At length she nodded, suppressing the natural dislike she had for big cats. Her voice was hoarse, made moreso by her previous cries of furious alarm.

"You may... release me. I will recover. ...Thank you." She said this last only after hesitation, then flicked her eyes up and down, looking him over. "...Aza'zel? Yes. He is friend. Food-friend. Bird-friend. Bone-friend." She coughed a little, then ran a paw tiredly over her face, before abruptly approaching closer to sniff over Cancer, even circling him a little to get a full view, if he let her. He was pretty, in a sleek, deadly sort of way, even if he did bear the stink of the cat. Very well.

She circled to the front of him again and sat, regarding him solemnly. "I owe you, cat. But all Giggle can do--all that I can do is tell fortunes"

Giggle felt her strength returning, and her senses with it, and so she sat, and watched Cancer, waiting for his response.

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Roll the bones.

The spotted... dog? No, she wasn't a dog. Cancer had never met a creature like her before, but something told him she was natural- in that same sense that he knew Makyna, Amaria and Quix were natural, that Midas was natural. Familiar. Instinctively so. This spotted female wasn't giving him the easiest feeling, so close and circling him, but it was familiar and in a cave of oddity and mystery, that was a welcome feeling either way. The leopard resisted a shiver, and allowed her to satisfy her curiosity. She came to sit again, and he regarded her with a similar interest. She introduced herself as Giggle- cute name, he smiled at that- and then explained that she could tell fortunes.

Fortunes? "Like, the future and past and stuff?" Well that was a most intelligent response. He cleared his throat to try again. "I'm intrigued. What sort of fortunes do you tell? Will you read me my past and express mysterious strangers in my future?" He grinned cheekily, moon-yellow eyes gleaming in the dark light. "Whatever the case, fortune-teller, I'm all ears." Sounded like fun! A part of him was quite interested. Another part was nervous- how good was this lady? Would she be able to pry into his secrets? Those were personal.

Giggle listened, tired; it had been a long day, and a long day before that. She was drained and strained, weary, and in pain--but the cat had been brought by the bones, and so she had a duty to translate their meanings for him. When he had finished, rewording and smiling and in general seeming rather approachable and polite, Giggle nodded slightly and replied. She felt distant and aloof, taking notes impassively and paying only slightly more attention to the black cat and his request than to her own muddled mind. Half of her was still seeing from the floor, from the fungus there; half of her brain still heard from the rocks nearby, making the leopard's voice echo. It was a confusing, disorienting sensation. Her voice, when it came, was hoarse, harsh and raw--though her tone itself was friendly enough.

"Very well, cat--Cancer, thing-with-horns. I will see what the bones say, only give me a moment to rest. I am all right--I just need to gather myself again."

She lowered her head to inhale and exhale slowly a few times, feeling more like a very old and battered matriarch than a young pup. Eventually, after several long minutes of silence, she nodded up to Cancer, and turned, shuffling up and past the bone pit. Along the way she paused briefly, glancing over the remains of dozens of long-dead creatures bleached to hard bare nothing. She looked back at the cat, consideringly, then down into the pit, before leaning forward and picking up a small fraction of skull with the nub of a horn, and making her way around the pit.

"Shtay ver," she said around the bone as she went--it would probably be decipherable as "stay there," but maybe not. Up she went, climbing her boulder more slowly than normal. For awhile she simply sat there, staring down at the bones for far longer than usual, backlit by the dim and distant orbs as she exhaled slowly.

Then, abruptly, she tossed the bone forward and down. It flung, spinning wildly, then tumbled and clattered into the rest, rattling and sending them careening with clacks and thumps. They quickly came to rest, one or two rocking to and fro for a moment, and Giggle watched this all with solemn intensity.

At long last, she turned her gaze on Cancer.

"Cancer." She spoke almost gently, very solemnly, as if about to break bad news. "I see links and crosses with the bones of horse. The bones of dog, the bones of stag. Yet they are crooked--that link-rib is shattered; that leg-bone that crosses them is sliding away. It is symbol, cat--" and she said this word with the faintest hint of malice-- "of your links with others, and how they are not what they should be. There is no harmony in your thoughts of another, your speech to a second, your actions with a third." She didn't mean literally a first, a second and a third--she meant, and hopefully it would be clear, that the bones seemed to indicate that Cancer's social interactions were less than perfect. Far less.

The hyena glanced down at the bone pile again, eyeing it, trying to focus on it rather than the hiss in her ears that was actually air whispering over a bed of fungus twenty yards away. She studied the bones, they way they had fallen; she listened to what they tried to tell her, even past--or perhaps it was through?--the fungus.

"I see learning, cat. I see one bone stacked above the other, rising higher than it was--improving, enlightening. You are trying. You must continue. It leads, in the end, to your peace and a higher existence--you will stand above what you are now, better, brighter. But I warn you, cat-thing..." And here Giggle eyed him more seriously. "There will be darker times ahead. In between the peaks of light, there is a valley of shadow through which you must pass. Struggle on."

Giggle tilted her head, and some memory, abruptly, shivered through her mind. It was a stinking lioness, speaking this cat's name. A lioness whom the bones claimed would end up with another. And so--not because of any hint the dry bones had given, but from Giggle's own previous knowledge--she spoke once more.

"And do not blame others for actions of the heart."

Then she sat, staring wearily, waiting for his response.

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Roll the bones.

Cancer waited patiently, and curiously, as the hyena went about gathering bones. He was very interested in what the woman would tell him about himself. He murmured a 'take your time, sweetness' in a friendly way, and settled onto his haunches to wait. It wasn't long before she came back with a pile of bones of varying sizes and shapes. She stared long and hard at the pile, then with a flick, sent a bone to break it apart in a chaotic clatter. The cat startled, but only slightly as he watched, ears pricked and eyes wide. What sort of magic would she use for this, if any? Was it even magic, or just keen understanding?

Finally, she looked up and spoke solemnly. He cringed expectantly. Her words were cryptic, each heavier than the last, and he nodded along, even despite the malice in her voice. He thought about her words, and considered their meaning. The first she referred to might've been Leon... the second could've been Leon... and the third, Leon. In fact, the boy was so strung about the bear lately that every bad word she said reflected on the bear in his head. He cringed.

Her next words were reassuring through. Learning. Improving. Enlightening. He was trying. She urged him to continue, and he stiffened with the weight it put on him. She had a warning next, about darker times ahead, a dark valley of shadow between peaks of light and good fortune. Struggle on. He felt the weight grow heavier. Was this fortune such a good idea? finally, she looked up and with an intense sense of knowing, uttered a particular phrase that sent the cat to his feet and a pace backwards.

Do not blame others for actions of the heart.

He stared at her a moment, incredulous, then down at the bones for a very long, silent moment. As if trying to find answers in them himself. He inhaled sharply after a moment, as if he'd forgotten to breath, then sat back down. Beneath that black fur, the cat had grown pale.

"...is that all?" He asked with some level of hesitation. After a moment, he'd shake his head- not rejecting her idea, her reading, but rather in disbelief of himself. He'd known himself to not get along with others well. He'd known of his strain with Leon. He'd expected that... but the rest was unwelcome news. He couldn't blame the hyena though. No, he'd asked for this. So, instead, he offered her a weakened smile.

"Thank you, Giggle." He offered after a moment to brace himself. "It's... comforting, to think my efforts weren't all a waste after all." Then he paused and looked at her, hard and with some thought. "You could make a profit off this, y'know? Earn some free meals or trinkets." He grinned and turned to his bag. From it, he pulled his map tablet and placed it in front of her, right side up so she could read it's contents- if she could read those chicken-scratches he called words.

"This is my map of Origin Cave." He placed a careful paw beside Canis- unmarked besides a basic outline for now. "This is where we are now, the bone cave, Canis." He dragged his paw along a route through tunnels and other caves until it rested on Pisces. "This is my home, Pisces. I live with many others, a group called Maji Walezi. I'd like it a lot if you'd come visit sometime, and bring some bones with you." He paused, and placed that paw over a tunnel nearer Canis. "This is where I got the gear I wear. You could probably find some things to build a carrying case for what you'd need." Then, he'd replace his paw to the ground beneath him, and let her have a clear look at his carvings- all sorts of intricate markings labeling caves and tunnels. Only one remained unmarked now. "I'd like to see you again sometime, see if my fortune ever improves or changes based on my actions from here on out." He was a believer now, if only because of how eerily accurate she'd been in her reading. After some long moments, he'd return the map to his bag with careful jaws, and stand with a polite bow of his head.

"It was a real honor to meet you, Giggle, Reader of Bones and Fortunes."

Giggle listened to each word the black leopard said, absently observing his sleek coat, the gem horns, his cringe and his bravery as he buckled up to try and push through with this task he'd set himself.

When he pulled out the map, she grew interested--she stood, moving closer, nodding as he spoke and hungrily reading over the map. She'd never seen one, before--she couldn't read--but she could memorize the shapes, guess what they meant. They were representations of places, and at first she didn't understand the lines and marks, but after a few moments of puzzled staring, it clicked that they were inscribed as if the cave were being viewed from above.

She looked up, still listening, and then slowly nodded. This was an unexpected boon, a stroke of luck, for Giggle valued knowledge above most else. Her reply came simple, quiet, and hoarse.

"You asked if that was all. It is all, so long as you do not wish to know more. You get more questions? Come to me. Maybe I will visit; maybe not. But you aided me, and so I will answer the questions that you--or the comrades you mention--may have. You know where to find me." Giggle nodded once, a stern almost-salute of acknowledgement.

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Roll the bones.