Since the lights turned on in Origin Caves, nagivation and life had been so much easier. Sometimes The Bone King worried if the machine that turned the lights on would run out of water to power it. Perhaps, someday, he'd visit it and see if he could somehow help it run better and easier. Maybe removing some of the earth and gunk from the wheel would aid it. But for now. Azazel wanted to figure some things out. Number one on his list of things to figure out... how to deactivate golems. The Bone King didn't like the idea that golems were simply roaming about in Polaris' river, and he wanted to get to the bottom of it. Not the river... but like golem killing.

Something had to be giving them life... but what exactly? That was what Azazel sought out. He hadn't bothered to ask if any of his companions wished to come, nor did he want to. He couldn't risk them coming to what could be a deathtrap. The Bone King had honor and cared, and he loved his Bound members dearly.

The ave took flight, gliding over the various landmarks of Polaris... the once-dry gulley, the dam, the machine. All had golems likely stirring in their depths. Gulping and closing his eyes, the bird hovered above one, calling upon his magic. "Hey rock-face! Come and get me!" And so he'd begin his quest to vibrate and use enough magic to attract a golem. Just one would be enough. Then he could perhaps lure it to a place where it'd be alone. Perhaps.

The golem the bird hovered above was indeed roused by the sudden vibrations in the air. It could sense the magic on its stony surfaces and slowly churned, its components grinding against one another as it tried to reach up at the bird. This golem wasn't the only one attracted to the sudden use of magic, however. Azazel had flown straight into golem territory - and just as quickly, another three golems were lurching in his direction, all hungry for the stone the bird surely held.

The Bone King would circle about the crashing waters, awaiting his results as his vibrations faded. Satisfaction filled the ave's chest as one of the rocky beasts would wander away from the current, the echoes of stone on stone becoming louder and louder. They were stronger and stronger... What the bird would fail to notice was the fact that perhaps he'd attracted more than one golem. He was, in fact, in golem territory now. Four masses of rock and stone would emerge from the tides, all lured toward Azazel. "Ho' boy." That was all the bird could muster in his shock. There had been many of the enchanted rock masses at the dam, but the ave hadn't imagined that they were collected so very close together. Surely the river had swept some away further than others. No matter.

Azazel had to do what he'd come here to do, and he'd die before he left without completing his mission. But then, flying solo probably wasn't the best of ideas.

The juvenile gulped, circling high above the golems. They were stupid beasts. They'd blindly stumble over one another, Azazel knew. But then again, they could create a golem ladder. There was no way to go back now! They'd just follow him back home if he fled. Carmine eyes glanced down at the advancing stone monsters, who were lumbering toward him lazily. Some were malformed and just seemed like masses of rocks, while others resembled humanoid cryptids. Either way, they meant business and were nothing but trouble. The bird would flap his wings in powerful strokes, seeking higher altitudes in the caves. He'd done this before on another golem... when Krakarak and he had gone on a giant hunt and awakened a golem instead. When he jumped atop one with force, the rock simply slid off and the beast attempted to flee the birds. Maybe that'd work now. He could only try to see if he could knock them into piles of just rocks. Maybe that would kill them, or at least cause them to take a while to repiece themselves together. They couldn't be immortal!

He'd take a moment to reassure himself, 'Yes, they can die.' before he'd even consider his diving pattern. Which golem to go for first? All of the lumbering monsters were in a sort of a conga line toward him. If the bird would seek one in the front of the line, those in the back could grab him... but the slow beast in the back would probably be a suitable target. Hopefully, the rock-faces weren't fast enough to turn quickly before he was gone again.

Closing his eyes, Azazel could almost feel his heart kicking at his ribs; his rickety breaths and sighs, and wings flapping in the air. When he'd open them once more, the bird would have already casted himself downwards, his center of gravity plummeting closer and closer to the floor. 'I am Azazel... I CAN DO THIS.' Throwing his talons forth and readjusting his tail feathers, the bird slowed his fall to a point where he could land momentarily on the supposed head of the rocky beast. Even if he would not touch stone, the bird immediately flapped his wings harder, intending to take flight again and leaving the scene. He'd observe from above, or he'd be grabbed and torn to pieces for his stone.

{ art by almighty } ~ { table by aura . edited by banshee }

Regardless of being asked to or not, there were certain aspects of being Bonebound that implied, well, a little binding. It meant something when one was a part of a group, right? And while he enjoyed being alone and journeying at his leisure, Saudade was not a young man that would shrink his duties! Not yet anyway.

Seeing Azazel leave and wander, Saudade had thought nothing of it. But eventually he did think, and eventually he did wonder, and eventually he did follow his fearless leader far and away from Canis territory. His nose was finely crafted to the art of following a trail and all the lessons that involved hunting and slinking proved invaluable now... especially as Saudade kept to the shadows and slyly tracked the ave.

The lights were bothersome at best (Saudade was not convinced the world was better with more light) but what he found when he turned the corner baffled him. He gawked openly at the collection of oddities Azazel had flown into. While he had only seen golems in passing after he was born (and thought they were nothing but inconsequential at best) he felt... something peculiar about them, especially when Azazel began to badger them.

… Why on earth?

// after roll

He was lucky that he was a stealthy creature that invested time and effort into his guile. Saudade managed to get closer to the lumbering horde of rocky behemeoths without being detected thus far. But what on earth was Azazel trying to do? Saudade was at an utter loss - how could he get the bird's attention without blowing his own cover?

The sudden use of magic had indeed stirred the hunger within the golem. While others were moving toward the source, this one too began to lurch forward toward the epicenter of the magic use. It was in the back and moved a little slower than the others in front of it. But before it could really do much, the source of the energy began to rapidly approach the golem. It acted as quickly as it could to shift its pieces into motion and hurl and arm upward, aimed toward the presence of gemstone; but something grazed its head and the golem's arm collided with the uppermost rock of its body. Its pieces all collapsed inward, closing itself up. The golem hunkered down for a moment to collect itself and regain strength.

" I had a dream so big and loud,
I jumped so high I { t o u c h e d } the clouds;
Wo-o-o-o-o-oh, Wo-o-o-o-o-oh "
The ave grazed stone just barely as he landed atop the golem's head for a brief moment. It was the sensation of the cold and moist stone that sent the bird into a panic and caused him to take off again. Rufous head whirled back to see that the golem had hunkered down, rocks scattered about it. Perfect. Now if he could land one more hit on it. Maybe it would fall into far too many pieces to put itself back together, and that would be how to defeat them. Just how was the question.

Maybe... He could use the other three in the conga line to tear their companion to the rest of the bits to get to him. But that was far too risky. He would likely get grabbed by an intunitive golem of the threesome, or some more would appear from the river behind him. Azazel knew he was faster than the rocky beasts, but it was better to be a safe than sorry, right?

Circling around, the bird turned down to watch the golem group carefully. The seemed the other three still followed him, lumbering at a speed much slower than the bird. Excellent. He hopefully would have an opening to attack the already weakened one before it put itself back together.

He did have a small window of time to attack, and The Bone King would take the chance. Throwing his center of gravity forth, the bird dived down at a high velocity, throwing his feet forth to land somewhere near the chest of the fallen golem. At a few feet above the stony beast, he'd flap his wings to slow himself as to not snap his legs. Hollow bones weren't the best when you would break them. Once again, the bird would feel himself graze stone, and as soon as that happened... He'd take a shot at ascending out of the golem's reach once more.

He still had yet to notice Saudade watching from the shadows.

" I stretched my hands out to the sky.
We { d a n c e d } with monsters through the night;
Wo-o-o-o-o-oh, Wo-o-o-o-o-oh "

It seemed that Azazel was trying to... defeat the rocks? While he couldn't figure out the point of trying to kill something one couldn't eat, he thought what he was witnessing was combat of some sort.

And these animated rocks were very peculiar adversaries. What would stop creatures like himself and Azazel merely slowed down the lumbering giants. Watching the golem collapse Saudade observed (with cocked head and slightly ajar mouth) as it slowly began to reform itself.

Hmm...

Observing Azazel at work, and seeing the other golems obediently following the circling bird, an idea came to mind.

What if...

Slinking closer to the broken rock pile, Saudade made an attempt to sneak in and steal a piece of the rock.

The shattered golem clamored over its fallen rocks. The magic binding them together tugged and pulled, trying to secure its formation once again. It grasped at the ground, summoning all its components back into its body; however, it would have little time to respond with the bird circling around to come at it again. Upon impact, more of the golem's rocks gave away, and it collapsed on the ground in a heap. The golem lay unmoving as all its energy focused on returning it to its previous state. A distraction would soon come in the form of the long-legged canine; however, this golem wasn't out of commission quite yet. As Saudade walked closer, the golem suddenly reached out to grab his leg with one still intact arm comprised of many small rocks.

Post Roll Edit:
However, the golem missed. The intensity of its sudden movement had allowed the arm to collide with the ground and shatter further. The remaining golems had begun to direct themselves towards their fallen comrade, though their intentions remain unclear.

" I was left, to my own { d e v i - i - i c e s ; }
Many days, spent away, with nothing to show... "
The golem further collasped, much to the delight of Azazel, but there was another force working to dismantle this beast. A flash of russet fur alerted the ave to another's presence as he circled above the rock conga. "Saudade?!" He squawked, narrowing his eyes to be sure, then blinking. Had the vulpine Gembound followed him here? But he couldn't have known about his research schemes to go discover more about golems!

Either way, the vulpine seemed to have caught onto the trend of hopefully the method to dismantle golems. He attempted to snatch a rock from the broken pile, a great rocky arm rising in his wake, only to fall into many small pebbles and large boulders. Azazel found himself holding his breath for a few seconds, finding Saudade intact. Sighing with relief, he noticed that the other golems in the lineup had begun to move toward their fallen comrade. He would have tried to break the others into bits... but he was curious to see what would happen. He hoped to the gods above that the vulpine Gembound would flee far away and observe, so the golems couldn't grab him by surprise.