As Giggle disappeared, meandering off to her own den for rest, Eythan settled down. Tucking his limbs underneath him, the boy managed to position himself so that he was somewhat beak-to-beak with his father. A yawn forced its way out of his lungs, causing his jaw to crackle softly. "I h-have to s-sleep now but I will. I-I'll bring them for you." He never knew the significance of the amethyst or the glowing femur, but he'd bring them. When he was able to, strong enough. Perhaps when he awakened.

As he curled up at the cairn's side, he whispered, "sleep tight, Dad." An unspoken I'm sorry echoed through his expression, eyes softening as he closed them. His mind slid rather eagerly into sleep. It conjured up wistful childhood nostalgia for the first time in a while. The boys and their father going to Orion, pretending to name the constellations above, reveling in one another's tales about their origins. Weren't those memories so far away now?

Time goes on…

The griffin awoke rather peacefully, drowsy fog of the mind slipping away as his head lifted from the earth. Through sleep, the boy had unfurled from his fetal position and found himself sprawled onto his side, rather at peace. A quick glance around the cairn told him that Giggle hadn't waked before him. Experimentally spreading his wings, he felt — for the first time in cycles — truly well and good. Turning to his father, Eythan murmured, "I'll be back." Speaking without a perpetual knot in his throat felt pleasant, if unfamiliar. Briefly touching beaks with the bones, he limped silently out of the cairn.

Out in the open, his wings fluttered out to their full expanse, beating softly through the air as he rose. Scraping the low ceiling Eythan headed towards the Chambers first. They were closest. Most pleasant. Winding through age-old and familiar passages, the griffin swooped up towards the nest, talons prickling. The knot returned to his throat as he chanced looking down the dizzying cliffside. "N-no," he assured himself, forcing his gaze to return to the old, now-dusty nest. In it, as mysterious as ever, lay quite a few trinkets and treasures: a shimmering amethyst stone in the shape of a hooked claw; a glowing femur bone resting at the edge; two cat skulls, one cracked and one painted with red; various gemstone shards carefully set at the edges of the nest. Beneath the woven sticks and bones was a set of armor, unscathed and untouched. The wing guards were still just as shiny as when they were first forged, stamped underneath with some signature, two circles trailing one another in an endless loop.

It took a few trips, but he managed to bring down all that lay in Azazel's nest. Eythan had arranged them as delicately as he could, nestling the amethyst in the cracked skull's eye. The assorted shards — two most discernibly from his and Carni's chrysalides — found their places in the intact skull's eye. The two cat skulls lay at either side of the cairn, the femur and armor at its center. But, he wasn't done yet, however weary he was.

Straddling the ceiling once more, Eythan found his way to the Bone Fortresses. As he remembered it, the cape lay at the base of one of the collapsed towers. Scraping away suspiciously packed dirt, he began to dig away. The boy drew the cape as delicately as he could from its momentary grave. He was careful not to directly touch the dark pelt, preferring to grip it by the seams and his father's feathers. Shredding off Carcino's pelt, Eythan took the rusty-red feathers into his mouth, bound together still by leather and bone. At the center of Canis, he washed the feathers free of dirt to the best of his abilities, rubbing it gently on rocks to restore their sanguine shimmer.

The cairn seemed so much warmer with Azazel's wings returned to it, resting delicately over the wing bones. Eythan sighed softly as he plopped down next to the Bone King, looking down upon Canis itself. "Y-you'll always be here. Just as the rest of the bones have been — right?" Head swinging to face the bones, he nodded and smiled. "Yeah." Tucking his wings and shifting foot to foot, Eythan sat there for a moment. Abruptly standing, he moved to stand before his father.

"I need to go to Giggle," the griffin offered rather apologetically, walking out of the alcove once more to spread his wings. Swooping down to the hyena's den, careful to alight as quietly as he could, in case she was still asleep; Eythan wasn't entirely sure how long he had slept for, despite his rather decent state of being and the fact that life was looking up for him. He did not dare to touch the mushrooms, keeping a wide berth around them. Across the garden, he called softly, "Giggle? Are you awake yet?"

The hyena was, as it seemed, still asleep. Eythan jumped slightly, ears flicking back and unconsciously crouching so he appeared smaller to the bird. As Omen calmed down, he apologized softly, the word "sorry" becoming second nature at this point. Dipping his head, he shifted his weight foot-to-foot, trying to somehow settle down while standing. "Yeah," he breathed softly, "I-I went and found the cape and put Dad's feathers back where they belong. And stuff from his nest in the Chambers." Looking to the side and up towards the cairn, Eythan continued, "I thought he might like that."

Rocking carefully onto his haunches, the griffin settled. "I'm definitely feeling better," Eythan mused, ear flicking back again as he dipped his head once more. "Sorry for my, uh--- four hundred fuckin' breakdowns." So far, he had only chanced one emotional breakdown. Plus, the casual fucks had returned to his vocabulary. As odd as it was, that was a postive. "Sorry for waking you up so suddenly."

The griffin instinctively stepped aside for Giggle to pass. He quickly shifted back once he realized that she was, in fact, not leaving her den quite yet. Instead, she was strolling over to take care of her bird; which, as his thoughts oh-so-helpfully plugged, he had torn up the wing of. Subconsciously, he rolled his own wing forward, wincing at it. It was a minute little motion, completed in mere seconds before he tucked his wing back to his side. A nervous chuckle escaped him at the bonecaster's little deadpan joke. "T-that was a joke, right?"

Clearing his throat, shifty-eyed at his own question, he pressed on, whether he got an answer to that or not. "I can eat meat or choke down bones," Eythan said as he suddenly noted how hungry he was. "Bones take a fuckin' while, though." They just... sat there. For a bit. Digesting. Fun. Tail flicking rather curiously, he clicked his beak in thought before offering, "I could go catch something for you?" A gift of food might be a good start, a mutual thing to share and talk over.

Eythan listened intently to the offering of a plan, fully prepared to say some impulsive answer with a cracked beak. But with those dark eyes, the hybrid couldn't deny an actually thoughtful answer. Well, once he had one. Which, he didn't. "I'll think about it," he responded. There were a lot of fish swimming through the pond of his mind as of right now. He'd have to catch one himself, careful not to shred it up with his talons. His subconscious self lay in wait at the water's edge. "I need to... narrow shit down."

Well. He supposed Giggle was just as unsure about her humor as he was. Noting the dryness in her voice, he didn't ask again if she was joking. She'd let him know if she was joking, apparently. A magic that touches all things sounded rather reasonable, considering the Spire's existence and all Gembound's connections to it, borrowing energy and power from it. "When he fell," he admitted softly without realizing it. Swallowing uneasily, he averted his gaze, looking side-to-side around Giggle. "— when I knocked him off and dove down," the griffin continued, swallowing again, "I felt something buzz through the cave, like magic."

He was all too eager to change the subject, however, and gloss over the subject of someone called Senka. Eythan would ask about it later, not willing to spur any other horrific consequence. The bonecaster seemed too distressed about it still yet. A little sting of betrayal hit the griffin as she decided specifically to hunt together, but perhaps his gifting idea hadn't been communicated too clearly. He'd been awake for a little longer than her, after all. "Okay," he chirped, following the toss of her head toward the western wall. Eythan squinted toward the boulders, nodding. Talking wasn't a requirement, but he replied nonetheless, "I hunted a little." When he was younger, he preferred to break bones and choke them down because it was easier to do when rats were just as big as he was. His time in Polaris had honed his skills some, although he ate very little there. The slight indent of ribs on his sides sure showed it. "The Bone Fortresses are a good place to hunt as well."

As he began to follow Giggle down the trail, he chuckled dryly. Yeah, no pressure at all. Time was a-tickin' and its father was presently dangling him over a pit of fire with just one hand. Eythan tilted his beak into the air, trying to sniff out the rats among the musky scent of age-old bones and death.