ORIGIN - What lies in wait

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"Speech"

It all felt wrong. All of it. Her big Brother was no longer in Pisces. She had no idea where Leon had gone as she had not heard word at all as to where he could be. To make it worse, Big Sister Makyna was gone also. They had both just abandoned their home. Abandoned her. Sure she still had her casual friends back at the waterfall, but they were not her beloved siblings. She hadn't spent a lot of time in Pisces really. She did meander around to make sure they knew she was still about, but other than that she had been off doing her own thing. Her ribs were finally heals, still a bit bruised and she definitely did not like when people got near her ribs, but aside from that they no longer hurt as they once had.

Amaria was also growing. She was no longer as small as she had once been after spilling out of her Chrysalis. She knew she wasn't full grown just yet, but she was getting there. With growing up, her hyper-activeness seemed to slowly be easing off, not entirely, but others could definitely see that Amaria was not as rambunctious. Of course, it also probably had something to do with not knowing where her siblings were and in turn not being able to see them. She missed them terribly and it just felt wrong that they would have left without saying a word to her. She hadn't seen either of them since that stupid game back in Eridanus. Cancer was still around in Pisces, but he was too caught up in his own things so Amaria hadn't really bothered to pry for his attention.

A soft sniffle escaped the otherwise quiet clouded leopard. It wasn't until her paw struck into something did stunning blue eyes lift up and take a look around. She froze in her spot as she looked around the place. Bones scattered everywhere, in the distance she could see bones piled ontop of each other and forming some kind of structures; almost like the buildings in Orion. Her ears pushed forward as she listened. There were plenty of scents here, which meant there were gembounds that took up home in this particular area. She lowered her head as she looked around.

The tingling of her stone came to life, only for it to fade away moments after and Amaria heaved a sigh. She could not feel anybody else's heartbeat, so maybe they were not lingering around the room at the moment. Shaking it off Amaria continued walking, keeping her eyes peeled just in case. Soon enough she came upon a particular area. One that had bones gathered into a pile in a small pit and she peered down at them. What could these bones have come from? They were so strange. Some were large, while others were rather small. She had expected the room to smell like decay, and of course she would have been right to assume so. The stench of the place nearly burned her nose, but she did not bother to react to it. She plopped back on her haunches and stared at the bone pile before her, contemplating as to what they could have belonged to.

Dark eyes tracked the cat as it crept toward the bones, the hyena silent and motionless in the shadows near the ferns. For once Giggle was not up on her ledge, looking down on the bones, but rather sitting watching them from across the path, deep in the shadow of a boulder a few yards behind the cat. Her own stink was well-cloaked by the rancid odor of her nearby den and the fetid stench of the decaying fungus all around, but that didn't do much to hide the dried gore and stringy, fleshy streaks of growth that hung in her coat.

At length she spoke, her voice low and even, her body still sitting motionless in the darkness behind Amaria.

"Looking for something? ...Cat?

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Roll the bones.

"Speech"

Amaria had been so lost in thought, ignoring the rancid smells that still assaulted her nose. She had contemplated for awhile now if she should just go out and look for either of her siblings, but there was just a nagging in the back of her head that they just did not want to be bothered. The thoughts were slowly causing her mood to worsen so in an attempt to keep her emotions from getting the best of her Amaria set her focus to the bonepit in front of her. What kind of gembound would want to live in this place anyways? She moved to lean down a bit to find a better view of the bones, but when a sudden voice pierced through the silence a strangled noise escaped the feline and she jumped back out of being startled.

Her paws landed a few paces back from where she had leaped from and almost instantly she felt the gem on her tail react. Her fur flickered suddenly, changing and darkening to mimic the area around her. It surprised Amaria and she stared at herself for a moment as she awed over the change. However, it slowly vanished and her fur turned to normal. Slowly she lifted her gaze and peered in the direction she had heard the sound come from. "I uh... I was just wandering around." She murmured as she lowered her head, still searching for the being that had called out to her. She soon spotted the silhouette of another, but couldn't quite make them out entirely. She would have used her night vision had she not subconsciously used a different thing. "Not really looking for anything," Normally she would have apologized for intruding on another gembound's domain, but at this moment she really didn't care to. She would leave if this one started being hostile however.

Giggle opened her mouth to speak and then the cat flickered, shimmered--for an instant she could swear that she was gone. She leaned forward, dark eyes widening--but then the cat was there again, and she blinked, wondering if she'd only imagined that. For a time she was silent, a bit too shocked to speak, before finally replying.

"...Well. Welcome to Canis, if you have never been here before. At least, I haven't seen you." The hyena stepped forward; her face was a mass of cuts, relatively fresh, slashed over the eyes and muzzle. Her coat hung with dried gore and fungus, but she didn't seem hostile--just hideous.

"Giggle. I live here, and read the bones, though it's dangerous here, these days. You'd best watch your back." The warning came solemn, rather than threatening, and indeed as the hyena moved to pad softly past Amaria, the smell of fresh blood from her wounds was evident.

"An interesting magic, that was, if it was magic? May I ask the nature of it?"

The hyena turned, regarding Amaria with a calm, almost subdued demeanor, as if she were generally just tired, but willing to offer what hospitality she could. Despite her faint sneer earlier at the word "cat," she seemed--for now, at least--to regard the stranger as an equal.

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Roll the bones.

"Speech"

Amaria pushed her ears forward as the creature began to speak again, greeting her to the area as she finally revealed herself. Amaria was lightly taken aback by the appearance of this creature and it was all she could do not to flinch away. She was certainly not showing any signs of hostility, but for a moment Amaria wondered just why this creature did not keep her fur clean. It really didn't matter though and Amaria wasn't going to be judgmental about it. "No, I've never been here before," She spoke carefully as she watched Giggle for a moment. She took a few steps closer before she slowly eased herself to sit down upon her rump, curling her tail around herself.

"My name is Amaria, it's nice to meet you," She offered a smile to the hyena, however it slowly dwindled when Giggle spoke of danger. She watched the Hyena move pass her, studying the wounds that graced her being. Her brows furrowed as she lifted her gaze up towards Giggle's face. "Danger? Did this danger cause those wounds to you?" She questioned gently. She didn't want to upset the hyena in asking questions that Giggle may not want to answer. With that in mind Amaria shook it away and listened to Giggle speak once again.

It took a moment for Amaria to realize what Giggle was referring to. "Oh! Yes, I think it was magic. Though I had never done it before... Was kind of neat wasn't it," She gave a grin as she looked back down towards her legs, studying her normal cream colored fur that was marked with dark browns, black, and white. "You said early that you read bones? How does one do that?" She asked with the utmost curiosity, lifting her head up to gaze upon the Hyena once again. Her tail was now moving, twitching at the tip to bounce up and down as her curiosity was slowly growing.

Giggle nodded, brush-tail briefly swaying to and fro as she turned to sniff around the edges of her bone pit.

"Mm, yes, the danger caused my injuries. There are enemies." She idly kicked at a rib with a forepaw, turning to glance at the cat. "I roll the bones, throw them, ask them a question. The answers come in the patterns they form. Thus far I've not met others who can read them--perhaps you can?" She tilted her head, eyeing Amaria over. "Would you like to try?"

She circled the edge of the pit as she spoke, making her way to the trail that led up to the boulder that jutted as a ledge to overlook it. The way she moved, glancing back, seemed to invite the cat to follow--and indeed, the hyena paused to see if Amaria was coming with her.

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Roll the bones.

Rounded ears perked up, curiously listening as the hyena spoke. The idea of her being able to read the bones was an interesting thought, but Amaria had not even the slightest of ideas on how to go about that. Her attention jumped up when Giggle inquired if she wanted to try. "I don't think I can, but I'll give it a try," She smiled and quickly padded after Giggle after the hyena had given her an invitation to.

Paws moved gracefully towards Giggle, following her to the jutting boulder. She kept behind Giggle, not really wanting to irritate the female with being too excited to see the bones down below. "So do you have to use certain bones, or can it be any bone you gather?" She turned questioning blue eyes towards the hyena eager to learn all she could from Giggle. She couldn't deny she was rather excited to see if she could learn something new even if deep down she held no hope for it. She saw nothing to a bone outside of a possible snack of marrow inside of it. Regardless, she would still try to learn if Giggle was willing to disclose to her the information she knew.

"Speech."

Tags: giggle
OoC: kinda meh.

Giggle chortled softly.

"To roll the bones, I pick one that reminds me of the one I'm going to cast for. You, for example..." Giggle paused at the very edge of the pile, just below her boulder. She looked over the bones, then swiftly and delicately stepped in, looking down at a gracile but clearly predatory skull. It could have been a greyhound, or perhaps even a strange boar with particularly sharpened teeth; either way, she glanced to Amaria, then to the bone.

"Soft. Pretty. But... sharp," she growled softly.

The hyena trotted up to the ledge, and set the bone down between her front paws, glancing at Amaria.

"I'll throw it down, and then see what patterns form. Let your mind run wild, and your imagination free. Tell me what you see."

The hyena with her lacerated face then looked forward, nudging the skull off the precipice. It fell the few feet down, clattering into vertebrae and ribs, sending leg bones and jaws scattering and spinning and clacking every which way. She watched them, for a time, and then looked back to Amaria, watching her curiously.

What will she see, I wonder? Nothing, like the rest...? Or something? What will I see for her?

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Roll the bones.

The hyena gave a soft chuckle, and looked down.

She laid down, folding one paw over the other and peering over the patterns that she could see.

"Don't worry--most see nothing. I see, though. I see the patterns. The skull has landed alone from the rest. The bones say you are lonely, or separated, or different. Whatever the case, you are not bound to a family, as others are. Solitary, and perhaps you don't want to be." The hyena passed her gaze over the outer edges of the pile.

"There are groups, other groups--but there seems to be no place for this skull. Be wary of the first, or even the second, group that you think to join. The first Gembound you consider taking on as family. It may not end well," Giggle warned, glancing up with solemn gaze. She eyed the clouded leopard, for a moment.

"But this bone is strong; it has not broken, nor even chipped. It will--you will--stand strong, and hold true. You will come out of these troubles stronger than before. You will outlast them."

Giggle looked up, eyeing the cat quietly for a long moment, letting it all sink in before again speaking.

"Do you have any questions?"

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Roll the bones.