ORIGIN

She was up in an instant--back on her feet, padding over with bright interest and encouragement in her face and in her tone. "Did you?" she asked, in that perhaps overly-emphasized way parents sometimes use with children, the way that, as they grow older, might be seen as condescension. But for now it was for learning, for enthusiasm. And she was enthusiastic for him: was he doing magic already-?

Giggle came up alongside her son, peering at the bone, and then at him, eyes bright. "Well, Bayo, don't just stand there--tell me what you saw!" It was said with amused good nature, gently, not pushy. She was excited for him, and it was clear that she couldn't wait to hear what he had seen.

She did not yet try to cast magic--to sense his own--not after the failure of moments ago. But she watched, and waited, every line in her face one of attentive praise.

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Her laugh was a delighted one, half-interrupted at the head-bump, but she didn't mind that.

"Definitely sounds like it, kiddo," she answered good-naturedly, and proceeded to snuffle for his head-fur, in an attempt to do something rather like ruffling a child's hair. "Looks like you've got our magic, at least. The Bonebound magic. We've got some Seers, for sure," she added, proudly.

She didn't often think of the family as, well, family; ever since Damask's hatching she'd kept away from the core that had become--in her own mind--Damask, Eythan and Aure. She felt like she hardly talked to her son, anymore; but her child knowing the magic, their magic, somehow seemed to tie things back together. They were related; they were in this together.

It struck her, too, that Bayo--once he was a tad older--and Aure, in particular, might get along. They were both gentle and inquisitive souls, and she felt instinctively that Bayo's push for more might bring Aure out, a little. He'd always been so measured, that one; so quiet by comparison to some of them.

"We should show the Bone King," she suggested, that warmth still in her tone, this idea fresh in her mind. "Maybe next time he passes this way, you guys can practice, together." Half-brother bonding would always be a good thing.

Well. Most of the time, anyway.

"I've seen all sorts of stuff, in the stones, and in the bones. A warning, it isn't always nice," she added, remembering a vision of pulsing blood and meat--a creation, she'd thought, and a bizarre one. And she'd seen fear, and death, in the final moments of many a bone's last moments. "But death is a part of life, and the spirits that pass live on."

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She watched, having plonked down on her own rear. At his worry, she offered a barking laugh of her own.

"Don't you worry, kiddo, I've no plans to go anywhere just yet." But a memory rose at the back of her mind, bobbing there unpleasantly: a reading that had warned her of the children left alone. Of a childhood without her guidance.

What had it meant-?

She pushed the thought away, for now.

"As for a title, you'd have to ask Aure that. But you'd better make sure you've got something to show him, yeah?" This was given with friendly mischief, as if implying that Aure were somehow some hard-to-please and formidable master, as if Bayo would need to bring him the heads of their enemies, or something. But the tone was joking enough that (she hoped) it was clearly only humor.

"Anyway, we can practice a little more if you like, if you're not tired--don't push yourself too hard with magic. Or we can go back to the others. I don't want to leave them alone too long," she added, with a little nod. "We learned something today, though, huh? And it's something you can work on."

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Giggle laughed at Bayo's promise of downing an entire deer. It wasn't that she didn't think he could, once an adult--she had no idea how big he might become, or what his other parent might have been--but he was so small right now, and fluffy and adorable: the absolute opposite of a fierce hunter. So her laugh wasn't unkind--it was indulgent, amused, and she stepped over and leaned down for another nuzzle. "Well, one day you'll take down deer without a problem, I'm sure. Just remember the lessons--don't be cruel; we only kill because we have to, and they feel pain too. And fear. Kill fast. And if you need help, just ask!" she added, this last enthusiastic.

She paced over to see what he was doing. When it turned out to be "nothing" she peered at him, but his words quickly explained his attempt. "Fungus-... is a little more tricky than other magic," she said at last, after a long and thoughtful pause. Her tone was more serious now--less playful--and she paced away to press her snout to the mucky rock.

A moment's focus, almost reverential thought, and a slow flow of violet-capped fungus began to spring up slowly along the rock. This alone gave Giggle pause--it wasn't something she'd ever seen, or grown, before; it must have been spores latent on the ground, here. She stepped back, and sat down, regarding them with interest; then she turned to Bayo to continue her little lesson.

"Fungus is alive. Like the mouse, like deer, like plants. It grows, and reproduces, but it's very special. It doesn't grow just off dirt and water--not naturally. It'll grow on other things, dead things. Wood and roots underground. Bones and bodies. It consumes what once was alive, as we do. And it takes that into itself." She paused, thinking. These weren't concepts she'd ever really had to put into words, before, and now she had to think about how best to phrase it all, particularly for a little kid whose attention span, and interest, might not be all there. "It takes those things into itself--the life force, the memory, the energy the thing it ate held. So you're not just working with fungus. You're working with... a power, you see? I always try to treat it with respect--like it has a mind of its own."

Giggle gave the mushroom carpet a nod. "It's like any living thing. It wants to live, thrive, keep living. It wants you to give it stuff to grow off of. If you do that, it'll cooperate, I find. If you just try and force it to do your bidding, without any care for its own existence, it won't work with you. Try again... and think about what it wants. Try to tap into it," she explained, slowly. "And remember, as your magic, it's a part of you."

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Giggle offered Bayo a congratulatory nudge, and her pride in him was very real as she spoke. It wasn't the sort of tone a parent forces; no, she was impressed that he was taking so easily to his magic. Maybe he'd be a real prodigy, some day; and it wasn't vain hopes that made her pray for it, but the desire of an honest parent for their child to succeed, and have an easy, good life. Magic, in these caves, seemed to be a surefire route to such a life. "Great job, Bayo! Look at that, just like that," she encouraged, leaning down to peer at these. They looked a lot like her hallucinogenic mushrooms, so she hastened to add a warning. "Now, a lot of mushrooms are either poisonous to eat, or they'll make you see and hear things that aren't there. That's real dangerous, okay, so don't ever, uh--lick, sniff or eat mushrooms unless you know they're safe."

There. Dutiful warning given.

She went on, then, with the little lesson. "Once you have mushrooms you can do all sorts of things with them. You can use 'em to see into the past--you know that bit--or put specific smells out there, like the one mushroom that smells like food but tastes awful. Or you can grow these black, gooey mushrooms on yourself for protection. That one's a little harder to get right, but it's helpful if something's trying to bite you!" Giggle stood up. A moment's focus, and her own fur suddenly burst into a proliferation of inky black fungus, dripping with disgusting goop. "It takes awhile to clean off," she told her son, amused, "but your enemies'd have a hard time getting a grip on you. This is a good early mushroom to learn."

She sat back down, thinking. "There's mushrooms whose spores can influence the minds of others. That's gotta be used responsibly. It can make them see stuff that's not there--like eating the same ones--or it can make them see you as their friend, even if they're your enemy, for awhile. And there's this white, sticky fungus out there, like mold. They call that Mother, and you have to always stay away from that," she warned.

Shit, this wasn't a lesson she'd exactly planned on, but here went nothing. "It's its own type of fungus, with its own mind, from far away. I don't know where. But it goes into Gembound and links up their minds, and makes it do its own bidding. You and I, we can control fungus with our magic--guide it, influence it. This fungus has the magic to do the same thing to Gembound, in turn: to control us. So if someone comes to you, or you find a lesser, with weird white growths--use your magic to push the fungus and all its spores away. Okay?"

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