There were piles of bones in front of him, but that wasn't the weird part.
The weird part came when he began to crawl across the piles and carefully fumble with some of the pieces. The smaller bones, the loose ones, he grabbed at with a fist and sniffed at them as if they might be edible; maybe once they could have been food, but they smelled of dust and nothing else. He tosses these aside.
He found a femur of something large, next. It was mostly buried among the bones. The bulbous end of the femur was larger than his head. Teyouma palmed at this, feeling the contours. After a moment he hooked his talons around the shaft and nimbly pulled himself up, scrambling at the last second with his wingtips hooking in to off-centre sockets, so that he may sit and roost upon it like a gargoyle.
The beast knew this place. Not well, mind you - but he knew it. It had not changed much since his death. There was a film of dust across every surface, the bones themselves looked yellowed and tarnished by the soil, meanwhile the various faces stacked together sat there grinning behind him. It should have disturbed him. Instead, Teyouma felt more comfortable here than he had upon waking.
Wanting answers from himself, Teyouma tucked himself against the wall of bone levied against the protruding femur and closed his eyes. He curled his tail around it for stability and folded his wings around himself like some kind of shell - then, breathing a long deep breath, he began to focus his energy. The hum of magic in his heart soon filled his ears, and he began to reach out with his energy.
Teyouma II finds a Fledgling level large chunk of Villiaumite, with a rough texture and an uneven, blocky fist-like shape. It is a dark red in color, and when held up to a light, has varying shades of deep-black to translucent red inside.
@Teyouma II
Something strobes deep inside of him; it is like his magic is twisting in response to his efforts, coiling up like a hungry snake trying to hoard the warmth of its own body. He feels that warmth bleeding through to his limbs. His fingertips go numb first, then the feeling swarms around his forearms, up his legs, but among the floating sensation there was one point of solidity. The echo of his magic swept back to him as an echo. As this feeling struck him to the core, the spell ended and feeling returned to his extremities.
Teyouma turned his attention in the direction that had felt most solid and swung down from the bone roost. His wings unfurled but did not catch enough air to be of use; he sort of glided, mostly fell from his perch, caught his talons among some bones that shuddered to his presence, and then landed awkwardly in the dust. As the dust cleared and settled around him, he thought he saw something fluoresce.
He ducked and plunged towards the object. Any reservations he ought to have about his surroundings were put aside; a sense of greed flared to life instead. The hybrid's taloned fist closes around the stone; it looks red at first glance, dark, so close to dried blood that it shocks him. As Tey draws it close he holds it up to the light but it appears to suck the light away, becoming black. He sniffs at it; this spoiled apple from the garden.
Wondering if there is more among the bones he palms the dirt where he'd found this chunk, sniffs his hand, then draws across the soil and sniffs at it too; but he knows better than to use weak systems such as eyes and ears to satiate his greed. He tries to settle the impatience that flares within himself; the stone is tucked close to his chest as if it is the most dear thing he has ever encountered - and then he closes his eyes, and tries to reach out once more with his energy.
If the first was like blood, the second almost resembled meat: a rough chunk of dark, pink-red Spinel, gleaming almost wet wherever the light touches it. This one is smaller than the first, perhaps a quarter of its size, with its bottom half coated in the dust of bones. This gemstone contains Master-level magic.
@Teyouma II
If the first was like blood, the second almost resembled meat. He scooped this one up and tucked it atop the first, feeling the spell touched upon the stone and strobe there a moment, then fade. There was an ephemeral quality to the sensation; he could not say he had ever felt such power radiating from an object before and it invigorated him.
He would take his time to climb down from the bone fortress, then find somewhere quiet to study his finds; however Teyouma was fixated now upon the sense of power he had felt, and he wasn't going to stop his hunt yet.
As he reaches out with his magic again, this time something blocks him. He feels the familiar yearning of greed filling his every inch, cannot focus on the spell as it casts, and so it fizzles and dies.
He cannot stop thinking of the newest find - that spinel which had strobed with immense power - and he knows he should give up his hunt until his mind is clear again. The failed attempt curtails some of his enthusiasm; he presses the stones against his feathered belly as he draws them up to eye-level and then spends a few minutes rolling each of them from one taloned hand to the other, studying their color, their lustre, the facets - or lack thereof.
Just one more, he thinks. One more will be enough. He won't have the power to do much with the stones after this, he will need to rest and recuperate, but.. One last time he could manage. Teyouma does his best to clear his mind and channel his magic, feeling the thrum of energy building in his chest where his heart-stone sat.
The last two stones were bloody, as if made from flesh. This new one was a glimmering blue, like the vast waters of Fornax: a sapphire in a shape resembling a cow's horn. It was caked in dust and carpeting fungi, attached to a rotten piece of bone. It contains Fledgling-level magic.
@Teyouma II
With nearly too many stones to handle and a small headache brewing after all the magic casts, he knew he was done. He gathers up the last stone from its hiding place and considers - albeit briefly - stashing them somewhere only he can find; but he is covetous of these objects, palming the newest one and learning its contours with his fingers. He cannot leave them behind.
After a few furtive glances at his surroundings Teyouma raises his wings and flexes them as if to test their ability to unfold. He holds the sapphire out before himself, examining the way the stone curves and catches the light, and decides that after all this prowling and gathering he may as well go the rest of the way; the chance to summon something of the stone would make him something of a god (or such is the exposition he entertains).
Maybe this is why he woke up. He looks around for a stalwart alcove among the piles of bone, something secluded and well fortified, and in one fluid motion Teyouma tucks his wings and slinks lowly across the dirt, clawing his way over the pale faces of old gembounds and whatnot until he has found a deep-set roost. Here he places the stone, and it curves out of a large-jawed skull in the manner of a pointed tongue.
He trusts in himself and his remaining energy, focusing it, channelling it as best he can in to his stone heart where it bubbles and brews, and then redirects that same energy in to the stone as if he is making one delirious wish: live!
The horn-shaped sapphire formed a chrysalis no larger than the simian's fist. It'd once been an alien creature:
Its shape was similar to a feline's, but with a chinchilla-like head boasting three pairs of large eyes that bulged out the sides. Satellite dish ears sat on either side. Its front legs were slender and hooved, well-suited to rocky terrain; the hind legs were thick and stocky, with webbed paws like a bear's. Barely scraping four feet long from its small nose to the base of its long, spotted tail, the alien relied on speed to survive. A pair of ribbed black horns a foot and a half long jutted from the back of its head. It had patterns resembling a thorny devil's on its short-furred hide.
@Teyouma II
The magic pulsed, coalesced within the stone he grasped, and slowly knit in to a shape not dissimilar to an egg. The horn wrapped upon itself and filled the space between bone teeth, rooting itself where Teyouma had placed it. Once the magic had transmit from himself to the stone he felt a rush; it was different from his previous spells, causing no amount of attachment, no interest brewing as he looked upon what he had created. He clutched the other two stones close to himself and then he turned his back - leaping from a precipice of bonework in the search of something else. Sleep, maybe. The chrysalis would take time to brew its creature, and he would not be back.