ORIGIN

She'd made the journey twice in two days, now: once alone, and now again with a thick leather pouch clenched tightly in her jaws.

Her first venture through these shadowed, starlit halls had been a tentative one, sniffing out the craftsman she knew was here but uneasy at the unfamiliarity of Orion. Oh, she'd travelled through here often enough--attended Astraea's meeting, and so forth. But skulking alone through these dark ruins reminded her of the time Senka had been hiding away--probably still was, in fact, holed up with her thunderstorm of a sister. (Quite literally.) That had been a meeting to pose her request; to ask feasability, to ask what the payment would be.

Azure had quietly, and professionally, gone over all the details. Over what she'd need, and what Giggle had to do. In return she'd shrugged, and said she didn't want much; Giggle had offered a bone reading in absentia and Azure had consented. The leather pouch was Azure's, and Giggle had gone back to Canis to fill it up with bones.

Small bones she liked. Things that she was fairly sure were Greater, and never Lesser, despite their sizes. She'd glimpsed the past on a few of them, discarded those that were rats or mice--it was nothing on them, but she wanted to keep these bones with her for guidance. Many of the smaller ones had come directly from her pit.

She'd wanted one of Aza'zel's, in a way. To keep some small part of him--always--guiding her, with her through thick and thin. But their son, Aure, had seemed uncomfortable at the prospect despite technically agreeing to it; so she'd quietly said that splitting up the parts of Aza'zel's remains maybe wouldn't be so great after all. Yes, his keel was in the pit, but it was there for everyone and not just her. She wasn't about to start parcelling out his bones piecemeal to the Bonebound; why should she herself have the right? So she'd left his remains intact, and moved on.

The little bones for guidance, carefully chosen, nosed and held beloved--some claws, some fangs, some tiny ribs and femurs--she'd thrust into the pouch. There was, too, a random few bones from a rat she'd eaten a few days prior--this was for the dye, as Azure'd assured her would be needed.

She picked her way through the ruins, to the building with its baubled stones, her eyes travelling over the black-charred streaks the dragon had left throughout this area. Azure had mentioned barely escaping Raheerah, but they'd come back--mostly because there weren't a whole lot of hospitable caves, or at least, there hadn't been. More had opened up, but by then, Azure and Dip had settled in, she'd explained... habit. And so here was a forge, and their workshop and their 'store' front, and here was Giggle: stepping through the threshhold--past the hanging, dyed cloth--and waiting for her eyes to adjust within.

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The "order," so to speak, had been set out very carefully. Giggle knew what it was she wanted.

Something so she could carry bones with her, always, as jewelry and--in a pinch--to roll. (Azure didn't think the old hyena travelled much, but maybe she was planning to change that?) Dye, painted on so as to enhance her overall "effect." Like an old, cackling woman, Giggle had explained that it was--in part--theatricality. Yes, the readings (she'd added more solemnly) were real; but she wanted others to feel they'd gotten their worth in coming to her. But it was more than that, she'd said.

It was to be representative.

A symbol that she represented the bones. That she was one with them--Bonebound, as it were. The bone paint was to run with red at the ends, to show that she herself was yet still living, to symbolize life's blood. And the eye--that was for a Seer, and to help her (like a charm, in a sense) to see in the dark.

And lastly, to that end, she wanted a light source, among the bones around her neck.

Azure had listened closely, and was both fascinated by the symbolism and Giggle herself and slightly repulsed by it all. The hyena was a smelly thing, battered and gruff, and it all reeked a little much of charlatanism to her. But there was a sincerity at least in Giggle's beliefs, and Azure had no real reason to turn her away anyway, so she'd prepared.

Leather strips, carefully-curated. Not the best pieces, not the worst. They wouldn't hold up to the work of someone like Attikias, who really knew how to tan the stuff--they were a little ragged, with threads of old hide hanging free. But they'd do the job.

Water, readied in the mortar and pestles. These were for the dyes. She had two prepared--one for bone, one for red.

Giggle had assured her she'd come back in two days--time to rest in Canis, and gather her bones up--and so Azure was waiting, when the old hyena arrived. She had just finished carefully forming a large, glinting (but thin all the way through, by design) blood-red gemstone from the rock below. She had it in the mortar, ready to begin grinding, when Giggle pushed quietly through the cloth in the doorway, and Azure glanced up.

"Giggle-?" she asked, at first, but then saw that yes, that's who it was (and smelled it, too). "Oh, hey, cool. Come in. I'm just getting started, but I'm ready--you find your bones?" she added, politely, glancing at the pouch.

Giggle started to answer, for a moment, before realizing she still had the pouch in her jaws. WIth an amused grunt, she set it down before her.

"I do. Am I early? Late? You got everything you need?" she asked, shaking herself out. She looked around, then; the room was dim, as it had been before, lit with only baubled stones and the like.

"Oh, and-" (and she cut dark eyes back toward Azure) "-did you want your reading now, or after?"

She asked carefully. It hadn't been the best reading, but it sure wasn't the worst. But she didn't want Azure distracted too badly--or upset and left alone, either. Whatever the bird-thing preferred. With a careful movement of teeth and paws she unstrung the bag, and a moment later her collection of bones, teeth and claws was strewn across the floor before her. "Can you work with these?" she asked.

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Azure glanced over the bones, stepping close, eyeing them over. She nodded.

"I can," she said, looking over the bones in question. The claws, the teeth--she could put holes in some, or wrap leather around others. They'd do fine. "They look good! And you're uh, right on time, I guess. I don't exactly have a schedule," she added, with an amused glance up. "Which one's for the dye?"

The bird-hybrid turned, moving back to her mortar and pestle. It'd take a little grinding to make the dye, she knew: and she didn't exactly have hands. "Bring those bones over here--lay 'em on that leather sheet just there," she said, indicating (with a nod) one laid out across the floor, dusty with bone and gemstone dust but otherwise clear and empty. "I've got to grind the dyes, still, and this may take some time. As for the fortune, uh," (and blue eyes shifted toward Giggle; she didn't really care that much about this fortune, but she was curious, she supposed)--"-if it's not too bad, maybe now? Oh, hell--well now I'd be worried if it was. Just go ahead and tell me," she said, with a little laugh.

She settled down, then, mortar between her forelimbs, pestle lifted by her magic--without a touch it began to rise and fall, a pounding rhythm to rapidly shatter the blood-red gem into dark dust against the stone beneath.

Giggle took the time, with her now dark-adjusted eyes, to have a look over the curiosities that Azure and Dip kept here. Gemstones, baubled rocks, strips of leather; pieces of metal (both forged and scrap) and swathes of cloth hanging here and there, dyed with different swatches of color, as if to serve as examples. Mortars, pestles, jars--some full of water and dyes. It was fascinating, really, and she at once found a respect for someone who clearly had immersed themselves in a craft.

"Cool stuff," she noted, admiringly, and then cleared her throat as she realized how utterly uneloquent she'd been. "It looks like you've gotten really good at something you enjoy." That was better... maybe?

One mental shrug later, the hyena was obediently picking up the pieces of bone--and teeth, claws, and so on--carrying them one by one (or in smaller cases two at a time) to the leather sheet. The sudden start of loud, rhythmic clacking--the mortar and pestle--had her glance up in some surprise. And she stared, for a moment, as she realized Azure wasn't touching the thing. Mind-magic, then? Neat, she thought. "This one's for the dye," she said, bringing over the scrap of Lesser bones.

A glance over the prepared workspace, and Giggle asked--a little uncertainly--"Anything I can do to help, meanwhile?"

Ahh, but it was reading time, and Giggle settled herself in on her haunches, giving Azure a solemn stare. "As for the reading, I saw loneliness in there here-and-now. Isolation. I see you getting advice, taking it--but it's kind of shit; or maybe you'll travel, but it goes poorly. I'm not sure which it was--throwing bones isn't a perfect science," she added, dryly. "But it didn't go great, either way--it won't, I mean. In the end I saw... light. Inspiration, or truth, knowledge, whatever it is--not hope, but something more real, more uh--tangible, sort of. But not, not really. It seems like maybe you might take bad advice, but in the end good'll come of it. Or maybe you make a journey, maybe to meet new Gembounds or something--and at first it goes bad, but turns out okay in the long run." She gave a little shrug. It felt strange, to be offering the words away from the bones--the reading itself had been done at the pit, but she normally had that level of theatricality available to her, like insulation against potential mockery. Somehow, here--away from that sense of the aesthetic, and off her own turf--she feared being seen as just... silly.

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'It looks like you've gotten really good at something you enjoy.' Well, wasn't that a compliment? Azure glanced up, leaving "aloof businesslike" mood for a moment to tentatively allow herself to feel a little warm.

"Thanks," she said, unsure how she felt about this. It was a genuine compliment, a- Oh, Giggle was offering to help. Distracted from her thoughts, she glanced around. "Uh, you can use that other mortar to crush up that bone, if you want-? I'm going to have to be doing a lot of magic, and it'll get tiring pretty quick. If you have any way to," she added, with a shrug.

As she worked, she listened to Giggle speak. And her own work was absent, done without concentration: the dark red gem was soon dark red dust. The bird-moose hybrid then used beak and talons to tip a jar of water up against it, to pour in just enough that the dark red dust soon became, in turn, a thick, dark red dye.

Then it was time for the bauble. "Which one do you want to glow? -This one? Oh, is this a rock?" she asked, nudging a small, broad stone not unlike a silver dollar. She didn't think this one was a bone, at least; it was broad, flat, and small--and very smooth to the touch. Once Giggle had nodded her approval (and continued talking), Azure turned her attention to the rock.

It was soon glowing: a bright, golden-white, strong as far as her magic went. She was pleased with this, and settled it back in among the claws and bones--but now Giggle was talking about her being lonely, and her eyes shot up to regard her with suspicion.

Is this just her using some dumbass logic on me-? 'She's here alone, so she must be lonely and isolated?' Like, fucking obvious, to 'isolated,' but...

...But the rest of the reading seemed out of the blue, and not something a charlatan would've been able to just cook up. Not confidently, not with the indifferent calm with which the hyena spoke. Azure shrugged, a little. "I'll keep alert for shitty advice, then," she agreed--non-commital, really--and went about her business.

The next piece of which was, getting the leather ready for wraps, and fitting the bones to each.

"Crunch up bone, huh? You've asked the right person," Giggle answered, with amusement. Reading done, work moved on, she picked up the bones in her jaws. This was the cluster of bones from a rat, and with her powerful bite force, she'd be able to bite them into grain, at least.

She went about this with gusto, crunching and chewing (and finding that there was still some marrow, which she ate--it'd redden the dye, and in any case it still tasted great). The cracks and quiet shattering sounds as Azure worked--and spoke--were undoubtedly distracting. The grains she spat repeatedly into the little stone bowl.

When she was done--or mostly so--she tried to pick up the pestle in her jaws. It was a hefty thing, thick stone, and awkward in her teeth; the best she could do would be to pick it up, and drop it into the mortar, again and again and again.

But it proved too smooth, too slippery, to get her jaws around consistently. After a moment, she gave a grunt. "This'd be easier with hands. But I'll keep trying; you do what you're doing. That's a good light," she added, glancing in approval at the flat, white stone.

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Giggle didn't seem to care about her lack of enthusiastic response regarding the reading, which was somehow reassuring to Azure. It meant that the hyena didn't feel like pride or reputation were riding on it, so maybe--she could be trusted? Maybe it wasn't just bullshit.

One mental shrug later, the hybrid had laid down before the leather.

There were cords--woven, tattered strings that would be hung around Giggle's neck, lined with bones. Then two thicker pieces, which she planned to make into bands that'd go around the hyena's legs, or leg--whatever Giggle chose. Something that'd serve as a holster for spare bones to throw, by Giggle's request.

The little sharp needle--a metal thing that Dip had made for her--was lifted, again by magic, and pushed against the baubled stone. Luckily this stone wasn't too thick; a little grinding, her magic gradually wearing it down, and it had a neat hole through it. It wasn't easy, and by the end her head was pounding a little--and she wasn't even done, yet.

Maybe, she gauged, looking everything over--maybe halfway.

With beak and claws she carefully threaded this--the baubled stone--onto the first leather cord, and began her work.

"Glad you like it," she paused to say. "This next part's gonna take awhile. While the dye sets, I'm gonna be threading up all the bones onto the cords, like you wanted. It's gonna be a lot of holes, and a lot of tying, so it'll take awhile--and concentration. I won't talk much but you can, if you want to--just sorry in advance if I miss anything you say," she explained, and it was honest apology. She tended to get quite focused, absorbed even, in her work.

Giggs grunted her acknowledgment. "Nah, I won't interrupt you. Need my teeth for this, anyway," she explained. But she did glance over, watching with some interest, as Azure truly got to work. Her focus was admirable, Giggle thought: careful threading, her eyes eagle-sharp, of the leather through the stone. Claws held it tight, pointed beak slowly working the cord here and there.

For her own part, Giggle went back to trying to mash up the bone grains into proper dust. More carefully, this time, she lifted the end of the pestle in her teeth, clenching down around it. Then she held it over the mortar, and did her best to drop it in.

This time, it smashed down with a satisfying chunk, and the grains of shattered bone beneath were pummeled into dust. Pleased, Giggle repeated this: a slow, careful lifting of the stone, and a drop into it once again. And again, and again; until at last the grains were ground into dust.

It took quite some time--a solid ten or more minutes of work, by her estimation, or even more. By the end of it, her jaws were a little sore--her neck doubly so, from having to lift and drop the damn thing so many times. It was with a wince that she at last sat down, eyeing the dust. And then, like a schoolchild hoping they'd gotten the answer right and sneaking a peek at the test of the next pupil over, she leaned in to look at the dark red dye.

It was, unlike hers, thickly wet.

"Oh, does this need water in it?" she asked, glancing at the jar.

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Azure glanced over. She took a moment to extricate her beak from the leather in order to respond.

"Uh, it does, but I'll do that," she answered; "It's a little, like, finicky in how it turns out. A little too much and it's too thin, drips everywhere and doesn't look good. Looks half-transparent. Too little is better, then it's thick, at least, and you can add some more, you know?"

She sat back and examined her work. The stone was threaded in, and the armbands were mostly ready--she'd pushed the bones in through the gap between the layers, so they were sandwiched between two flaps of leather that tied into one band. That was good, she thought. But now it was time to start tying in the claws and teeth, and that would be much harder. She'd need magic for that, and she was already growing weary.

"I'm gonna admit, I might need to rest for awhile. I thought I could do this all in one go but it's magic, and it gets pretty draining, and I didn't realize how much it'd take. But I'll try, and see how it goes," she assured her guest.

This bit of work was both precise, and tedious; it took her a great deal of time. Most of it was done by hand, so to speak: she'd pin each piece with her claws--blunt and large as they were, she'd had a lot of practice and it worked out. Then she'd thread the leather pieces with the tip of her pointed beak. But to actually tie it all, and to thread it properly, she had to push lightly with touches of her magic.

It was certainly draining, but to her own surprise (and pleasure), after a time she'd managed, and with her beak she carefully lifted the first of the two completed cords for Giggle to see. At its center hung the baubled stone; outward from there, their arcs facing out, were threaded (tied on) each tooth and claw and bone. It had, all in all, a good and shamanistic look, and Azure thought it had come out quite good.

She transferred the hanging necklace to one lifted forelimb, and looked hopefully at her guest. "What do you think?" she asked.