A post-meeting Bone King was presently busying himself as many would after so much information acquisition: pacing rather aimlessly. The monotonous movement helped to process, even as his brain skipped over many details like an well-loved CD. It had ultimately reached a somewhat satisfactory conclusion, questions answered and promises made to not - upend the caves into a pure factory. Aure didn't worry much about that, but the uncertainties of the future stood tall, looming.

He'd been procrastinating on organizing a gathering of his own for some time - and for reasons unknown to himself. Giggle'd suggested that he delegate duties, work on more structure for the Bonebound, prevent misunderstandings like with Kalama... and yet, he was shying away from that. Here, Pride assembled half the waking caves in three days' time.

Need to ask him how he does it - "Aure. When you have time, can you meet me at my den?"

Bright eyes widened as he jolted at the sudden intrusion, neck popping painfully as he searched for Giggle. She was nowhere to be seen - but, there was Omen. With no immediate, pressing preoccupations that couldn't be put down, the hybrid took to wing.

Aure made quick time to his mother's den, chirping mid-swooping circle, and alighting at the edge of the den. As was strange routine, he made a quick assessment of all of the fungus growing by the wall, then the hyena herself. Trudging towards her for a brief beak-to-snout nuzzle, he initiated, "you called, Mom?"

Brief greetings, then she was getting to brass tacks.

Aure stood opposite his mother, not quite settling in yet. His mouth drew into a thin line, brows furrowing at the start of her speech, if only for the point that was being made in slow drip. A coldness? The Bonebound was just as new as it had been upon reforming, yes - and he'd failed to make an effort to bring unity to it, but... to go so far as say there was coldness -

Giggle jumped, then, to talk of Damask and to a statement that... set his teeth on edge: "There's something wrong with her, Aure." He listened a while longer, ears pricking back with each word; "met her sooner ... might've been nipped in the bud ... you're loving ... warm, supportive... as terrified and self-doubting as she is ... seen into her mind -" What? Ultimately - "... and she's a fucking mess." A mess.

He near-visibly fought that paternal protectiveness, urge to jump in and argue otherwise; to say that his darling was perfectly normal, didn't stand out in a crowd through posture alone. The hybrid swallowed it down, acquiescing and conceding that yes, she's right, that yes, there's something off-kilter compared to the rest of them, but - something's wrong?

Aure took a deep breath, interrupting with a soft, "I know, I know there's something different about her." His upset was thinly-veiled, an urgent sort of uttering coming next: "she's not... some sort of traitor or assassin to interrogate and invade the mind of, Mom..." Brows furrowed and quirked up over his eyes simultaneously, a niggling sense of guilt already surging up at the thought of what a confrontation this could become; yet, delving in? Prying? Damask was family.

He let the pause hang in the air, perhaps for far longer than he should have.

Heart jumping in his chest, he turned away slightly, stifling that sheer sense of - betrayal? - in his gut for the moment. He took a few pacing steps around the pool, but didn't approach, speaking as he went, "she... almost drowned in her chrysalis, I think. There was so much struggling and - I finally helped her out of it and she wasn't moving, breathing, anything. And... she looked into - Dad's bones, in the cairn. We haven't talked fully about his... fall, but she knows, she's seen it."

Dulled eyes fixed on Giggle, "the bones knew it would happen - that there would be... this, like with... Dad. But, they saw good, at the end - right?" Then, he waited.

Aure deflated. Knowing that she'd looked in and continued to felt like a... breach of trust, even if it was with the best of intentions. He pushed it aside, though - it wasn't something to worry about right in the moment, because... it was his daughter they both fretted over. Just in varying ways. That was all.

"I know," he acquiesced again, to his mother's statement of responsibility, "and -" He trailed off, suddenly unsure of what was to follow.

Giggle huffed and started to settle down, leveling him with questions in series, none accusatory but worried why haven't you?s. His weight shifted to either foot, and he paced a few more steps in the other direction, "I... don't want to upset her." Aure knew that he aimed to please, and that he did so to a fault. "When she - uh, found out that I'd hidden that Eythan was her life-giver, it... hurt," the young King murmured, wings shuffling and adjusted at his sides, "she had every right to be angry with me. I didn't think it'd come up, but I still never told her. It's - not your fault, I don't blame you. It wasn't meant to be a horrid secret for any of us to keep." The last part was hurriedly tacked-on.

As for why he didn't inform Giggle, "I... don't know." It was no excuse, but - "it's been... a hard few cycles. A lot's happened. Cetus, the rings in Polaris, the meeting - I'm... a bit overwhelmed." Aure stopped, turning in place, "but I know I need to just... delegate and all that. I'll call the Bonebound together soon. That's not important right now, though." His darling was. His interruption went on for long enough, and they could tackle that later.

"I don't want to push her - at least, not... far," he said with lilting pitch, hesitant, and fell silent for his mother again - and all her dark times and the struggles she had even now.

"Does she have her own den, Aure?" A safe space that'd always be there, untouched by anyone but herself. "She comes to my nest sometimes but... she's in Orion a lot - exploring and learning things. That's where she ran to when... um, the thing happened. We could... help her pick out one of the buildings there and... hide the entrance to it? Just - a secret place that's known only to her." He smiled softly, "I'll ask her about it and... suggest it."

Second on the list, then, was introduction and getting... more acquainted with death. Aure gave a soft laugh, ears pricking forwards, "mystical mumbo-jumbo..." Another ritual, then - "that would be good, if... we're careful enough about it and the bones see good from it." Bright eyes warmed again, rounding the puddle some and settling some few feet from his mother. "Thank you."

"What do you mean, when she found out that you'd hidden who her life-giver was?"

Aure tensed, head drawing back slightly and fluffing up his neck feathers.

"Why don't you want to push her? Why doesn't she want to be 'pushed?' Why is talking to your daughter 'pushing' her?"

His mind roared - and suddenly he was just so so tired, more than he found himself being lately.

"So you were hiding shit from her, and she hid shit from me, and now she's hiding shit from you, and up until right this second you were both hiding shit from me. Family's family, Aure, this isn't how it's meant to be!"

The hybrid flinched, bright eyes finally tearing away from their wide-eyed, overwhelmed staring as Giggle grew more and more distressed. He shook, voice dying in his throat, choked by the tears he was trying not to shed at seeing his mother so upset and the abrupt realization that this had already happened before, that he'd been oblivious and failed to keep others - his mother - informed and... "I'm sorry, I -" Aure turned away, "I didn't mean to hide that from her, she didn't deserve that and it was - selfish of me. I -" A breath rattled out of his chest. "I don't want to hurt her again after that, I don't want to hurt you again, I'm sorry I keep hurting you, I just -"

"It's my fault, just - things keep slipping out of mind and I don't think about them or think to tell anyone about it," he inhaled deeply, exhaling in a clipped sigh, "I'm sorry. I'm trying to do better. I'll get over it and be better."

Boundaries were good. He nodded mutely.

"Do you mean the bones?! -Aure, she ran to ORION after seeing it, and you didn't discuss it with her?!"

"No! No, when - she found out about Eythan. I didn't - think..." Aure trailed off, tucking into his wing and wiping at his beak. He came back not a second later, eyes glassy again, "I... I don't know what I'm doing."

Aure welcomed and pressed into the embrace, muttering softly, "I have, though."

His mother was soothing, reassuring - but he already knew that he could come to her for any questions he had. "It's okay, you - didn't hurt my feelings or anything. I'm just... a lot's happened in the past few cycles. I've been putting off calling us all together and delegating duties for long enough." (Caves, it's been... since before Damask was born.) "I just need to remember to communicate."

The hybrid nuzzled a little deeper into where spotted neck met dappled shoulder, stopping with a tentative idea, "I'll come by more. I'm not sure when I fell out of that..."

A long pause, the space that they both needed to think, followed.

Then: "there's... something I've been wanting to look into. Some bird-like creature in Polaris, in a dark room. He talked about... masters of magic and transcendence - though I'm not sure what either of those mean. I could bring Damask along and - talk to her on our way back from that... ?"

It wouldn't seem, then, so much like an ambush or... pushing.