ORIGIN

A hushed few words, then blackness, dark, dark, dark—! Nothing to grab on to, hold on to. Gravity impossibly heavy, holding him without quite doing so, rendering his wings useless with paralysis and fear. Running, running, running. Outside of the link, Eythan stumbled fearfully, wings tucking frantically to his sides. He couldn't feel it. He couldn't do anything. Nothing, eternal, infinite. Then, voices came, loud against the stark nothing from before. Images, shapes forming where there was nothing.

Feathers fluttered and Omen appeared, single crimson eye standing out against millions and millions of silver eyes, shining, unblinking, watching—

A shock of breath stole through Eythan's lungs as he managed to blink away the vision, as the visions flitted away like a distant nightmare, all too real. Bright eyes glazed over with tears from the overload and deprivation, he tucked his wings closer to himself and stumbled away softly from Giggle, whining, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry, sorry." Falling onto his stomach, the hybrid mulled rapidly, fearfully over the impossibly long void. And the Bonecaster had been trapped there for so so long.

"I'm so sorry that you had to— be there." He mourned softly for Giggle, but a hint of resentment filled him, toward his father rotting up in his cairn: he should have looked for her. Selfish basta—no, it wasn't worth getting angry about. "I'm… glad you made it back. That Omen found you."

Eythan tucked his limbs beneath himself, mutely accepting the nudge. "Would it be possible to destroy the void, maybe?" If it existed in some tangible space mortals could, then there could be something to destroy, to tear apart, so that no one else would have to suffer. Right? Another thought flitted by, wondering if the void was perhaps whatever was after death. They all had emerged from the void and, inevitably, they would all return to it, cycling through and through. The hybrid kept this thought to himself, though. He simply listened and got to his feet, plodding after the hyena.

"It was... definitely a jumble of things happening. It was so quiet, though," he said, confused. He didn't remember any semblance of life in Canis as it once held. As he fled to Polaris, Eythan only saw chrysalis after chrysalis. Everyone was sleeping or simply gone. Distantly, he nodded toward Giggle. The gryphon's head dipped low, horns arching up above his nape. "We could do both. Maybe we could spar first? To relax?"

"I'm sure there are Ancients we could ask about it," Eythan said, mind flitting to the Collector at the very least. He could already hear the damn tree's rather sultry voice as he offered some quest for knowledge. Ugh. No, thanks. "If the bones don't know, I mean," he added, not intending to discredit the knowledge they held. Just because he didn't understand them didn't mean they meant nothing. The intensity of which Giggle threw the bones and inspected them was information enough to say that she saw or heard something, at least.

The gryphon imitated Giggle's squaring off motion, expression rather relaxed compared to the unintentionally puffy appearance he was putting on. Based on muscle memory, his wings were already flaring out and prepared to flap as needed --- either for a boost or for escape. "I know to try and not fuckin' make my throat or stomach vulnerable. And to go for the eyes and important shit. Maim, don't kill. Escape if I need to and can. Distance is good when you need to think. Throats are a good way to go but legs work too. Play for defense over offense, especially." It was basic stuff, really. More complicated maneuvers would be difficult to describe, so he hoped his simplified words made enough sense.

"I don't mean for the jugular. Throat could just mean neck, I guess?" he started, but then dipped his head slightly, whispering to himself, "that sounds real fuckin' stupid, actually." Regardless, Eythan's ears remained arced forwards, raptly catching every word the bonecaster spoke. Maim, not kill. Do not fight without intent to kill. Be skillful and precise. Agility could be used to his advantage, he supposed, if he'd just step back and take a moment in a fight, playing to defense rather than offense.

But then Giggle proposed that he should use aggression for those who were more magically adept. Now, that he knew rather intimately — too intimately, even, from past experiences of fighting with his brother. Every time the two clashed, Eythan would do his best to stifle each attempt at magic and just keep going and going until neither could anymore. And, sometimes, he ended up sprawled on the floor with a broken pelvis and at Carni's mercy. Fun.

The hybrid dipped his head low, eyes furrowed in concentration, but eyes and smirk betraying a certain eagerness as he bounced on the spot. "Alright, alright. Three ear tugs sounds good." No drawing blood, no breaking bones, no nothing. Perfect. No stakes could possibly serve both of them well.

He stalked to the right side, pinning his ears against his skull and leveling his head with his spine. Ears rather safe among his fur and stone, Eythan began to edge closer to Giggle, not ambling in any direction in particular. Still keeping his distance, but keeping himself light on his toes. Waiting, watching.

"Be patient," he clarified softly, more to himself than to Giggle. It was a little bit of repetition to show that he was, indeed, listening and condensing the lesson within his mind. Eythan warily watched the hyena as she showed teeth in a grin.

Clicking his beak shut so he didn't bite hid tongue, Eythan started a little at the lunge, skittering back a pace or two before crouching low, wings at the ready. Seamlessly, he flapped his wings once or twice and springing upward. He sailed over Giggle, swiftly gliding away a short distance and alighting.