ORIGIN

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'I think it's a good idea for any child to learn from as many sources as they can,' Giggle said, and Kalama agreed. Especially when it was from her. "Especially me," she chirped. Her eyes glowed with childlike wonder as Giggle suggested armor. She leaned closer. A golden faceplate, spikes. Yes! Kalama wanted the whole package! "Yeah, all of that." Kalama said. She shifted on her claws, a tiny tip-toe dance. Then stopped. Her wings deflated slightly. She'd have to 'prove' herself apparently. She disagreed, and was about to say as much, before she remembered she had tried to kill Giggle not too long ago. She tucked her beak against her chest, glaring. If she had to train a kid first for some cool armor, she'd do it. Her neck dipped to the ground, and she sighed.

"Alright, alright, I'll train a grub."She waved a wing, raising her head once more. "You know, I had a pretty good package with the rot kids. I'm actually giving up a lot. But this is okay." She sniffed, then pretended to inspect a foot's claws. Noticed the blood and dried goo. She scraped it on the ground, before picking out bits of dried inky cap with her beak. She still listened to Giggle, her eyes darting between her leg and the Hyena. And then she head the words:

"The BONE KING!?" She shouted. Her head sprung up, ripping out a clump of feathers with it. She coughed, and spat them out. "The FALSE king? Him?" She shifted, suddenly entering attack mode. Wings tucked and eyes darting around. Not from fear, no, Kalama's eyes burned with rage. She really, really, want to hit something. She snorted, and went back down to picking at her feathers. More violently this time. Down flew.

"I'll...do it. For the crown." She ground out. Her face was pressed into a sneer. She wasn't an asshole. She'd just do what she always did. "I'll just hit those that deserve it, yeah? Er, especially those who deserve it." She paused, gripping her feathers hard when she heard 'guidlines', but otherwise stayed silent. She didn't care about the kids, really. Or the weird family stuff. But the title. Being better than everyone in the Bonebound, and showing it in golden armor? Now that was an achievement.

Slowly, as she continued listening to Giggle, the chicken chilled out. "Yeah, yeah. It's fine. Just don't send your tiny cat assassins after me anymore." Kalama said. She raised her head from her feet. Inclined slightly, so she could look down her nose at Giggle. Her head feathers gave a slight bounce. She just wanted to deal with the grub so she could get her armor. "So, when can we get this over with?"

think "speak"

@Giggle

It was working. Well, that was good.

"Now, if you want," Giggle answered, pushing up. There were a couple young ones in or around the Bonebound these days. She'd observe, herself; make sure Kalama wasn't abusive toward kids or something but the bones promised something useful out of all of this.

But-...

...Cat assassins?

"Cat assassins..? The Bonebouund doesn't--uh, assassinate anyone. Did someone come after you-?" she asked, confused.

She was already leading the way toward Aure--a little bloodied, limping, as she stepped past Kalama. But they may as well talk now, with him--if Kalama would follow, at least.

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@Kalama

"Now?" She echoed. She thought for a moment. Shifting feathers. Hesitant, yet impatient. She couldn't think of anything she needed right now so... she stood. Shook out her feathers. Her toe claw tapped against the ground. "Alright then. I'll go." She padded after Giggle. Head darting around, before coming to rest on Giggle. She squinted.

"What do you mean you dont know." She glared at Giggle, conspiracy theories forming in her head. But Kalama wasn't smart enough to dig for information, or to hide her suspicion. "Yeah. There was a tiny orange and brown fluffball of a cat. Said she wanted to be trained by me, then started spittin' magic on me, and pinning me with some weird, ingembound force. Was probably magic too!" She shuddered, thinking.

"Thing said it wasn't an assassin! What a lie." She paused. "Wait, if you didn't send it, who did? How do I know you're not lying? Training cats behind my back to come after me?" She glanced around. "Is this a trap!" She cawed, angry. Loud. Well, louder than normal. She stopped moving, before backpedaling. Legs stiff, and wings spread open for the world to see. "You wanted to trick me, so that cat could come back and finish the job, huh!? I bet there's ten of them! You can come out now, cat legion! I'll destroy all of you! One by one!"

think "speak"

@Giggle

Giggle listened, thoughtful in her momentary silence. Kalama couldn't have known it, but she'd hit on one of the few things Giggs felt strongly about.

"That sounds like something a cat would do. I hate cats," she added, dour, not bothering to keep her voice down as she walked.

"They're like that--they're all like that. Traitors." Kalama had gotten herself all worked up again, all fluff and fury, and Giggle paused to look back at her. "Nobody has to send cats to do that. They just... do it. I've only ever met one who was a decent creature. The rest will bite you in the back as soon as you turn away, even when they were smiling a minute before." Her tone was distantly bitter.

She paused, considering. "Here--let me show you." Magicka flickered up: an attempt to established a link to Kalama, to share memories--images, sounds. Emotions.

A young lioness--a cub, in fact--sitting before the pit of bones. She was bright, cheerful, polite; Giggle was reading the bones, albeit a bit theatrically. I read her fortune, in the bones, Giggle tried to tell Kalama--if even the chicken listened--mind-to-mind. I even gave her a name; Song-cat, a name she took with her, kept, and used. Fast-forward, now: an adult lioness, approaching coldly, offering a warm greeting to the bird beside whom Giggle walked. A curt, cold snub to Giggle herself; two words: 'and Giggle.' The cat saw herself above the hyena, now. Looked down upon her with disgust, despite what I'd done for her! Giggle showed nothing of it--Giggle taunted her, teased her for it--but she was insulted. Angered, shamed.

The image cut off, Giggle shaking her head, turning away again.

"Cats are shit," she told Kalama, and continued down the path.

rain stock: D Sharon Pruitt wiki commons; hyena Benjamin Hollis on flickr

"Really?" Kalama said. Her guard was down briefly, focused back on Giggle. She tilted her head as she listened to Giggle speak, she hadn't had many encounters with cats. Kalama hummed, before giving the closest a chicken could to a shrug."Well I'd believe it!" She said, trotting after Giggle once more. She kept her eyes on her surroundings, waiting for that ball of orange and grey fur to come back into view. That cat was a jerk.

Then, something strange seeped into her thoughts. A strange vision, that suddenly bloomed into fullness. She was in the perspective of someone taller than her. Kalama jumped in shock, a loud buckaw of alarm. But as the vision went on, she calmed. Slowly. Then, suddenly, an explosion of rage.

"Cats suck!" she agreed. Very enthusiastically. "I could've--no! I would've beaten her to a pulp! Why didn't you just beat her in one on one combat? Showed her who was superior. That's how I deal with all my problems." She glanced suspiciously at Giggle. The hyena was alright for a magic user. By the sheer fact she hated something that Kalama hated too, now. But still..."don't use your weird stuff on me again, magic user."

It wasn't long after that Giggle called for Aure, and Kalama felt her blood boiling. And, also, a strange sense of satisfaction. Aure would see Kalama strong, with her bulging muscles and cool stance and altogether lack of fear. And Aure would fear her. Respect her! Kalama tilted her head upwards. Neck up. A feral smile upturned her beak. She still stoodl behind Giggle, but she was being as close to visibly overconfident as she could.

think "speak"

@Aure

One should be able to recognize Kalama's grating voice from any distance after meeting her just once, but Aure had thought that it was just a passerby or two speaking with his mother. Gembound came from here and there seeking her fortunes, and it wasn't all that unusual for them to be those he hadn't met yet. Maybe he was just hoping for the best.

As it were, the young King had been peacefully working on a patch of toadstools. They flourished where he pressed his talons against the leftover carcass of a Lesser rat. Someone'd left it in the middle of the circuit, and while the Bonebound were acclimated to the scent of decay, it got overwhelming after a point. At least those with stones disappeared within the hour. This one had been there for at least a day, and the flies were doing an awful job. It was a nice way to clean up the mess, without experiencing whatever the creature's last moments had been.

"Cats suck!" Feels like I just heard her again—he turned his head to confirm those suspicions. An involuntary, shrill "huh?" escaped him as he shuffled to face Kalama, walking at his mother's side. Every feather on his body was puffed up. The old seer'd answer his questions soon enough, he was sure, but that didn't stop them from running a mile a minute in his head.

"What—um," woah, calm down. Aure smoothed down, if only a little bit. "What is it?"

@Giggle

Why didn't you just beat her to a pulp? PRIME lesson time, and Giggle jumped on it with the tact of someone who'd done this a dozen times before. "Because we all make mistakes, and getting hurt for them is messed up. You wouldn't want to get hurt every time you said something wrong, right? Plus, it makes enemies. People get mad at you. Fighting everyone isn't the best way to go. You're better than that, anyway; just laugh at them and move on," she added. "That's what I did. I told her I was gonna swim in her pool and when she was freaking out I told her to calm down, and laughed at her for being an idiot. Feels better that way," Giggle added, somehow both smug and matter-of-fact.

She was about to speak further, but there was Aure: gentle, quiet, practicing his mushrooms. To her surprise, he showed no anger, no annoyance, at the appearance of Kalama. He showed surprise, but no hostility. Granted, he'd always been a kindly sort, but she'd expected more of a reaction than that. Either he was missing a form of spine--and she didn't think so, given his hard response to Kalama when she'd actually attacked--or he was very, very self-controlled and softer outside that spine than she'd thought.

Funny, how she didn't know her own kid as well as she'd imagined, but that was how it worked with living, breathing adult beings, wasn't it?

"Aure. Bone King," she greeted him, coming to a halt close by. A little bit formal, just to set the tone for Kalama's sake. "Kalama came to me for a bone reading," she began, firing a glance at the chicken--she'd say nothing of the attack. Maybe it'd make the chicken a little more amenable to reason, her doing her a favor like that; or maybe she'd not see it as a favor at all. Maybe she'd correct Giggle, insisting that she was some great and savage assassin, or something.

Giggle said nothing of the shreds of black fungus still hanging from her coat, or the scent of blood that clung to her.

"We had a discussion, and between that and what the bones said, I came to ask something. Would it be possible to have her as the Bonebound's... trainer, to teach young ones how to fight? Supervised, obviously. I told her if you agreed, I'd get her some armor made, and have a title among us, but that she'd have to follow our rules about fighting strangers and so on."

A pause, as she attempted to reach her mind out to her son's. Nothing came of it, and she had to think to rephrase, aloud, what she'd been about to impart mind-to-mind. "The bones suggest it's the right thing to do, that she'll find a strong role with us like that. As Bonebound or as an ally, I don't know--that's up to both of you, if you agree, Aure. But remember how Kerberos joined us."

She'd told him the story in the past: that Kerberos had been nothing but a feral pup--capable of speech, but wildly aggressive. She'd managed to beat him (if barely) when he attacked, and then when he was cowed, raised him as her own. Maybe that's all Kalama needed: structure, a family, and an example of good behavior.

Or maybe it'd do nothing--the hyena didn't know. "I think it's worth a try, but it's your decision in the end," she offered.

rain stock: D Sharon Pruitt wiki commons; hyena Benjamin Hollis on flickr

@Kalama

Kalama wrinkled her nose. Forgiveness? Not immediately attempting murder? "That's dumb," she said. She wanted to argue that fighting everyone she disagreed with was, in fact the way to go. But then that meant she wasn't better than that, than them. Which she was! "You can get revenge...without beating people up?" Kalama said, trying to process the idea. Giggle's idea of revenge, making a fool out of her enemies was good. But it also took too much effort. Too much planning. Kalama squinted up at Giggle. "...You think too much," She followed up, finally. Aure's voice reached her head, and Kalama perked up. It was him.

"AURE," Kalama said. He was just...standing there. Doing chores. Or something, with mushrooms. The audacity! Giggle echoed his name. And then, claimed Kalama had gone to see her for a bone reading. Her head whipped to Giggle. "What!? I didn--" A glance had Kalama snap her jaw's shut. Kalama huffed and tucked her neck and wings in. Glaring at Aure. She needed to do this to get in. Get her armor. "Yeah, a bone reading." She agreed. "The bones thought i was powerful! My fate was too strong, gave Giggle a headache!" The memory made her slightly happier. At least, her interpretation of it.

She listened to Giggle speak. Occasionally grimacing or scoffing at something she disagreed with. Which was often. Especially the bit about the rules. Ugh. She especially didn't get the bone thing. It was stupid--bones didn't talk. They just sat there. But the bones had decided she was cool. So maybe there was some truth to it. "I want a--DESERVE armor. And a crown. I dunno who Kerberos is, but I bet ill be much cooler than they were when they joined. I'll prove I'm better than all the Bonebound's warriors combined! Prove I should've been leader! You'll be begging for my protection when we're through training your grubs."

think "speak"

@Aure

A... bone reading... ? Color Aure suspicious, but only as much as he could bear to be; which was to say somewhat. (On a scale of one to a hundred, he sat somewhere in the thirties.) Giggle's tossing a glance at their guest added a little bit to the wariness, but he supposed it wasn't his business to ask if she wasn't going to tell off the cuff. There was the chance that Kalama had had a grand change of heart. Even with the worse-for-wear look of his own mother—

No, listen first, then pry for answers. The wyvern rubbed at his chest, wing-claws following the curve of his breastbone.

As the Seer spoke, he shifted his weight to either foot; "Would it be possible to have her as the Bonebound's... trainer, to teach the young ones how to fight?" Uh... "Supervised, obviously." Even still—train and get a reward for good behavior in the end. Bright eyes glanced over at Kalama, clearly unconvinced until... "but remember how Kerberos came to us." Look at where the big lug was, now.

The whole time, he'd been tuning the chicken's squawking out; but, as Giggle fell quiet and Kalama decided to take the stage, every bit of being convinced petered out. Of course, the chicken was just like that and not bound-determined to consciously change a single part of herself, but... Aure couldn't help but to look at least slightly dismayed. He'd gotten his hopes up, even a little.

Not at all intending to be comedic, the hybrid shifted his gaze back to his mother and chirped, "can I... um, talk to you?" He waited for any acknowledgement before continuing through the thin link he'd established, "you said with supervision, but... I can't trust her with any children we... would or might have. She attacked me in front of half the Caves." There was... also the thing of gloating right here and now about how much better she was. "I'm willing to give her—anyone—a chance, but... I don't know... um, not like that."

After a heady pause, he subconsciously added, "maybe when they're older and... more able to defend themselves... ?"

@Giggle

Giggle glanced at Aure--the only acknowledgment her attentiveness--and then listened. There was some confusion, and she thought back at him--Why are you hiding this-? It wasn't accusatory, just a bit confused; it didn't seem like something, to Giggle, that needed to be hidden. But she took his cue, with a mental shrug, and didn't reveal what her son was laying down.

Instead, she glanced to Kalama. A clear of her throat, and she picked up, sort of, where Aure had left off.

"Sure. Meanwhile... what do you say to letting her train the kids? Older kids, obviously. I don't think the young ones could handle her. I'll watch her myself, if you want," Giggle added, then glanced back to Aure with dark, amused eyes. Older, then, sure.

"That all sound fair to both of you?"

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@Kalama

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