ORIGIN - Shadows

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Hooves clacked against the ground gently as Rafael walked forward. He was half the size of an adult deer with slender, meticulously carved features – thin, lanky elk body but compensated by sturdy, oversized hawk feet and talons. The yellow displayed brightly from behind him, a sharp contrast to the brown pelt he bore. Upon his head was a 4 point antler, and behind him, a little bouncing elk tail. Bits of feather stuck out everywhere but at this stage failed to cover anything or make for great aesthetic show. The peryton’s wings were able to give him flight now but rested snugly by his sides, tucked in and inconspicuous, brown and black toned feathers blending in with his pelt colours.

He looked around the cave with doleful grey eyes, scanning the cave for any interesting feature. He liked how dark and shadowy the place felt, and screeched a little such that his vocalization bounced back at him. His own voice echoed and he flicked his ears, pleased. On and on he walked till he reached an enormous pile of bones, whereupon he snorted and pawed at the ground, curious and intending to make sense of it.

The pit of bones was ringed with a series of brown fungus, and the entire place smelled rather rancid.

A narrow path wound up to a boulder that protruded, forming a ledge, to hang partially over the lip of the pit a few yards above. It was here that a hyena had been resting, and at the sound of clicking hooves, she stirred.

She raised her head, peering down at the strange creature approaching her pile. Many visited her, and some were odd, unnatural things--the three-headed dog, Kerberos, being perhaps the strangest. But this? Odd, as well. It looked much like a deer, but in the dim light, she could pick out feathers, here and there, and the talons of a bird. Its voice had been unlike any deer, as well, hawklike and screeching.

Giggle watched, dark eyes observing as she remained silent, sitting up on the boulder. The distant light orb behind her lit her only a little, from the back, so that she was mostly a dark hyena silhouette; she wondered how visible she was, from down there.

More than that, she wondered if the thing would even notice her--or, indeed, what it was doing. It seemed to be eyeing over her bones, as if pondering them.

For the time being, she decided to simply watch, and wait, still and silent.

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Roll the bones.

The bones were…picked clean. Clean! Not a scrap of meat! The peryton chuffed and pawed the ground, then shook his head at it – letting his agitation show. Then, he snapped back the next moment, elk head shifting comfortably between his shoulders while grey eyes resumed a dove-like appearance that could only speak of naïve innocence. With a chuff, Rafael moved closer to the pile of bones, hooves click-clacking with unnerving perfection onto the ground while his talons clipped onto the ground behind him with a delightfully satisfying echo. Withers moved in slender perfection with his front half of his body, ethereal gait like that of a floating, fragile bastard. Then, the peryton stretched open his wings and flapped it twice, willing himself to fly atop the pile of bones and investigate it from above - even though he could have just stepped onto it, he didn't want to risk his fragile hooves falling between the cracks and making too much a sound.

His wings obeyed his commands and with a screech and a rearing upon his talons, the peryton took to the air, swooped twice around the bones, and landed like an owl, both hindfeet outstretched to grasp onto whatever foothold they could get. He landed then and a bunch of bones clattered to the bottom with a ringing thrill, forming into some sort of pattern which the peryton did not at that moment, even think of deciphering, nor did he spy the pattern. Rather, he brought his head down and snuffed at the top pile of bones, wanting to catch a whiff of blood.

Giggle watched as feathered wings unfurled, and the creature lifted up, taking flight. She watched as it circled, and she watched as it passed right in front of her without seeing her.

All else aside, it is not particularly observant.

She wondered vaguely, after this wry thought, if it were a sapient being, or mere prey; she assumed the former, seeing as it showed undue interest in her bones--her bones... It had landed in them and was scattering them about. She glanced over them, watching, tensing up. Dark eyes cast quickly over rattling bones, and then the hyena lifted her head, speaking out in a deep, rough voice.

"An imperfect creation, falling from grace. A being seen as its god and master, words of fallacy falling from infallible lips. A sacrifice, it will make, and all for naught. Who are you, creature, and why are you in my pit of bones?"

She lay down as she spoke, forelegs crossed one over the other and hanging over the boulder high above the peryton, dark eyes staring down at him.

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Roll the bones.

Nostrils flared, sucking in the scent of nothing other than the bonebound. He knew not that this was a pack, but registered the scent in his mind. Rafael pawed at the bones then chose to tap onto one of them to see if it were hollow or not. Was the pile made up of land creatures or beasts of the sky? Before he could proceed with this minor experiment though, a hyena’s voice rang out, coarsely feminine and amplified by the cave’s walls. "An imperfect creation, falling from grace. A being seen as its god and master, words of fallacy falling from infallible lips. A sacrifice, it will make, and all for naught. Who are you, creature, and why are you in my pit of bones?" Half of the words he could not recognise. Only three words “imperfect,” “falling from grace” and “sacrifice.” Immediately, the gembound whipped up his head and methodically swivelled his alert, slender muzzle towards a rather grotesque dog hanging casually by the ledge, looking down at him. He reared onto his legs and screeched with two beats of his wings, hind claws digging into the pile of bones, upsetting it even more. A smirk caressed the obsidian-marked lips of the beast and he chuckled. Then, falling back onto his haunches, he shifted his front right limb somewhat bashfully and shyly over his left elk limb and tilted his head of antlers. Grey eyes stared at the hyena coolly, his almost patient, patronisingly empathetic stare untainted by his twisted lips. "Blood.” He spoke simply and blinked gently through his lashes, long and innocent they fluttered beneath his movements. "Your bones are dry.” His tone shifted into a genial, dry tone like that of a rancid dessert – somewhat enthralling in its own right, abound with mysteries, yet with a hardened edge to it. Alluring, but only to creatures which abound in the night. A soft purr almost escaped the ends of his words – but the boy knew not this art as of yet. And so he waited in gentle posture, for the grotesque dog to speak.

Oh. He's completely mad. ...Wonderful.
With an internal sigh, Giggle stood, looking down to watch the creature.

"Of course they're dry. I've eaten the meat off them. They wouldn't be in the bone pile if they were still meat." She spoke very matter-of-factly, tilting her head slightly as she did so, staying in her little circle of red-orange fungus near the boulder.

"There's rats along the western wall, if you're here for hunting. Canis isn't the best cave for that. There's larger prey elsewhere--though you don't look like a predator," she added, eyeing his antlers and the hooves on his front feet. "You're certain it isn't grass you want?"

She spoke quite seriously; perhaps it was a very young creature, after all, confused as to what he was. Maybe if a deer was raised by a lion, it would think it was to hunt and eat flesh...?

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Roll the bones.

Rafael fixed his gaze upon the dog as she stood up. Her haunches curved behind her in an ominous manner while powerful, thick neck and head tilted forward to regard him. He snorted as she commented with a slight bob of his head, like a deer which might be agreeing passively that it was about to be led to a green patch of grass to graze. The peryton looked at the grotesque dog, undecided what to do with her. She didn’t look tasty though…tufts of fur of different shades sprouted off her. She wasn’t beautiful and he wanted to feast upon perfection. Lowering his muzzle, Rafael bobbed his head back towards the bones and bleated. His stomach rumbled, vibration wrecking his stomach walls. He needed to eat. She suggested grass then and he swung his head towards her in a languid manner, regarding the gembound with a bird-like expression, grey eyes tilting a couple degrees every few seconds to show his eye whites in varying crescent shapes. The peryton snorted and pawed at the bones grudgingly. He could not fend off this hunger though and bats…bats weren’t beautiful. "Grass…blood…” he muttered to her and chuffed, then flapped his wings, attempting to ascend to her level.

His wings stretched out on either side of him and he flapped upwards, talons hanging below while elk hooves clenched tightly to his chest. The dog wasn’t too high up ahead and he hovered, meeting her eyes. "Any food, I eat.” A smile crept across his features then and he tossed his head and nickered at her gently, soft gaze falling upon her features as he waited genially for her to lead him to someplace to graze.

Giggle made no motion to leave her boulder, or indeed to move at all. The last strange beast that had turned up here had gone from strangely semi-friendly to extremely hostile very quickly, and she wasn't about to leave the defenses that she'd painstakingly set up in case of a repeat of such events. She simply shook her head, then spoke, keeping her eyes on the creature and her body just tense enough to spring aside should he attack.

"There is no grass here, not much. You want Eridanus for that, I hear. Or the western wall--that is, behind you. To your right. If you want rats." This she added with a faint nod in the right direction, though she kept her eyes quite fixed on the stranger. She was careful not to betray any fear, and in truth she wasn't afraid, not exactly. Just... ready. But it was still a chore to keep her voice even and her eye contact strong, almost bored.

What the hell is wrong with this thing? He seems completely insane. Or maybe he's some poor broken cross between predator and prey, and just can't figure out which side is the stronger.

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Roll the bones.

The deer focused his large dove-like expression on the grotesque dog but she didn’t seem like she was going to move. He wagged his tail a little, fluff bouncing against his rump like a shift into cuteness. His ears pricked and he let out a huff through his nose. Eridanus? Western wall, to my right? What the heck? Rafael snorted and tilted his head, then opened his mouth and screeched at her, wings beating more furiously now. "Lead.” Having forced that word out, he calmed down and resumed a gentle flapping, hooves still clasped to his chest and hindlegs dangling out behind him. Oh this floating angel wasn’t going to stop hovering and being an eyesore to the dog unless she chose to lead him to greener pastures than this…forsaken pile of bones.

Giggle eyed the thing. She distrusted it, and moreso she didn't like that it was trying to get her away from her bone pile.

Yeah, just hover there forever, fool; be my guest.

Shaking the thought away with mild disgust, she spoke, again nodding clearly toward the western wall. "No. That way. For rats. Or--" and she nodded toward the only exit from Canis--"That way. For grass." Her voice was slightly sharper now, with an edge to it. She didn't want this thing lingering around her any longer than absolutely necessary; she didn't like it, she didn't trust it and she really wanted nothing at all to do with it.

The bones had spoken to her about the creature's meaning to her as much as they'd spoken of the creature's eventual fate. He was a broken creation, an imperfect fusion. They had warned her not to leave with him, clearly enough, and furthermore explained that there was nothing she could do for him: that he would not grow past the broken being that he was. Lastly, that she might need to draw on great strength to deal with him, in the end.

Let him try me, she thought wryly, remembering the fungal traps she had laid all around. Yet she was reluctant, on the other hand, to use them; she hoped vaguely that he would not attack. Whatever else he was, he was clearly not fully mentally developed, and she'd take no pleasure in fighting a cub. Or a calf. Or whatever he was.

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Roll the bones.

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