Giggle winced at the horrific shrieking of the bird.

So she doesn't belong to anyone. Nobody sent her here. Hmm.

She shook her head, glancing about. They were still alone, for now; nothing was creeping over the hill or, like Tal'at, parked upon the ceiling. Not that she could see, anyway.

"Yes, Giggle--... I, sleep in bones. So... how did you get here? ...Eve? Where are you from?"

She slowly eased herself down into a sphinx-like laying-down-position, leaning her long neck out so that she could lick a bit of blood off of one paw. Her fur, as ever, was coated here and there, after all, with fungus, dirt and gore. ...It tasted good. The gore, at least. She kept dark eyes on the crow as she cleaned her paw, awaiting the little bird's response.

________________

Roll the bones.

Giggle tilted her head, peering down at the black fluffball.

"Leave...? No, I live here. And you don't have to leave. You eat from bones, I eat from bones, you don't look like you eat much, anyway. ...Would you like to see my bones?" she added, as an afterthought.

Giggle slowly pulled herself upright, and stalked on long thick hyena-cub legs over to the baby crow. She offered it a brief nudging nuzzle, then paced over to head back up the hill, glancing down behind her again. She eyed the bird, then nodded to the little pools of water all around.

"Drink first, if you're thirsty." she added, as an afterthought. Then she waited there, staring back over her shoulder at the tiny black bird.

I wonder what Aza'zel would make of this thing...? Maybe it's his baby?

________________

Roll the bones.

Giggle stared down for a moment as the little fluff flopped against her paw. It reminded her of Tal'at, the cuddly bat--only with less climbing-on-her-face.

"No. They are dry. They were here. Giggle pushes--I push--some together, but they are long-dead. Most, anyway. Come."

Then she leaned down, trying to nudge the little fluffychick--really, it looked like a strange black duckling--toward her Bone Pile back up the hill. She then started up herself.

"Do you have magic? If you do what is it? Or did you not find it yet?"

She glanced back, again, to see if the crow was following.

It's young. She's young. Probably doesn't even know what magic is, yet. Wonder if hers will be like mine? Or like Aza'zel's?

________________

Roll the bones.

"No, I told you, I just--... Well, I think all Gembounds have--what? A hyena. I am a h--three eyes?"

Giggle glanced back with some confusion as she walked. The bird was ridiculously hyper, despite its lagging gait, chirping and squawking and screeching--and now softly chattering--question after question. Giggle sighed.

Was I this bad...?

She shook her head and left the crowling to its nonsensical babbles. They were at the bone pile, now, anyway.

Here, where the roof was at its lowest in Canis--nearly touching the cave floor--Giggle had piled a scattering of bones she'd found. They seemed organized in a circle, and they were quite a large collection: ribs, skulls, leg bones, spines, the lot. They were also of a large variety of species, and there seemed to be quite a few with strange quirks. There was a skull with snapped-off nubs of antlers, a ribcage with only one rib on one side, and others that didn't quite seem to fit in. The ground beneath was slightly slanted, and on the higher side there was a tall boulder, somewhat pointed and leaning over the pile. It was to this that Giggle padded, winding her way to the top so that she stood gazing down over her bones.

"These are my bones. They are the ones I see through. They aren't good for eating and they're mine. Don't try to eat them."

Giggle wasn't sure if crows ate bones--she only knew that Aza'zel did, and these bones were hers. The scraggly hyena seemed proud of them, too; when she came back down a moment later, she stood with head held high to see the crow's reaction.

________________

Roll the bones.

Giggle nodded.

"Yes, magic." Even though it wasn't, not really--or not any Gembound magic, at least. She was some kind of oracle, to be sure, but it wasn't a spell that she cast. Perhaps just a link with what was.

"I can see futures. I could see whta happens to anyone. I can see what's in your future, if you want it, little bird? Little Eve?"
Giggle paced to the edge of the bones and laid down, curling up with one paw splayed out forward, large round ears pricked toward the baby crow. It was comfortable here, the rocky ground dry and relatively warm, the comforting scent of dry bones filling the air. This was where she slept, where she told fortunes, where others came to see her and seek their futures.

This was home.

Giggle exhaled slowly through her nose in a sort of hyena-sigh, watching the bird and waiting for her answer. She wondered, vaguely, if the screeching creature called Eve would last very long at all--and where, if she did, she'd end up. What she'd do, eat, kill. She looked from the hatchling, to the bone pile, back to the hatchling again.

Will she be great, or nothing? A long life, or dead tomorrow? ...Does she even understand what I'm saying?

________________

Roll the bones.